long time no post

and Heyyyyy! It’s been a long time, I know, and now I feel like I’ve forgotten a bunch of little things that’ve happened along the way. I’ll try to remember as much as I can for this post.

So it finally happened. I thought I was homefree, but I guess I jinxed myself. I got sick the other night. It sucked. I didn’t go to class yesterday, which especially sucked because it was the “gender” day and we were going to visit some women’s NGOs working in Kampala slums. But instead I slept all day and recovered from my horrific night. But all’s well now (I hope).

I suppose I’ll write about my weekend, since that’s been pretty much the only thing out of the ordinary lately. We had class all day Saturday, so that didn’t really count, but Sunday we had all day with our families. Just as I was starting to get desperate about my hair, my brother pulls out a pair of clippers to cut his and Jethro’s hair! And they were GOOD clippers, too. So he cut my hair and it was SO GOOD. The picture I posted is actually immediately post-cut for all of us, so we’re all freshly bald. Sunday was also the day that Kenneth and Zerrida went back to school, so I drove with them, Jethro, Aunt Becky, their father, and 2 mysterious other kids (maybe from the father’s other marriage….?) to drop them off. Their schools were like 3 hours away, so it was quite a drive, but it was nice to be able to see the countryside. Also, since their father works in Parliament, he has a really nice car and a special government license plate that tends to make other cars yield to him, or keeps random people from demanding a bribe when passing through certain areas.

Apparently the schools here are SUPER strict. They’re pretty much literally locked into the school premises for the duration of the semester, allowed approx. 5 phone calls a semester, allowed 1-2 visits, not allowed phones, ipods, sweets, etc. They get up at 4:30 am to start studying until classes begin at 8 or 9, then have another study period from the end of class until about 10 pm. And they study like 15 subjects….even the elementary school kids. It’s really impressive, and it seems like it makes them value their education much more than a lot of U.S. kids.

I can’t think of anything else to write right now. :-( We’re leaving for Western Uganda and Rwanda this Sunday and we’ll be there an entire week, so hopefully I’ll have loads to write about once I return. I probably won’t be bringing my computer with me, and likely not my cell phone either, but we’ll see.

Also, I think today might be something for Smithies...move-in day? first day of classes? I can't remember and I can't get on the Smith website. So if you're a Smithie and you're reading this and today is of Smith-related significance, good luck and I'm thinking of you!!

I love you all so, so much.