today, oh wow what an adventure!

Today Peter, Arora, and Fred came and picked us up and took us to the African Market. I got SOME of my shopping done, but we will definitely have to make another trip. I got some cool stuff though! i am pretty excited about giving the surprises when i get home.

After that we took public transportation to Entebbe to go to the zoo. This sounds like it would be a fun, laid back relaxing tourist day, but that was not the case. First, we got there and didn't have enough money to get in. They raised the price by a lot, and we just didn't have enough money. As the treasurer, i felt pretty bad about it, but Fred took care of us and somehow got the price from about 170,000 shillings to 30,000 shillings which was awesome. So we went into the zoo and they took us over to where they feed the employees. The cook said that she didn't have enough food for us, and that we should come back later. We went to look at about half of the zoo, which included zebras, lions, monkeys, and the very weird bird that looked like it was part dinosaur. We looked at the animals and then went back over to eat. We had some more Ugandan food including Pocho (solid cornmeal mush), Matoke (similar to mashed potatoes, but made out of mashed bananas), rice, beef soup, and yams with G nut sauce. They only had sodas to drink so i just didnt have any, which made me VERY thirsty! After lunch, Fred asked us if we would like to go on a jungle walk. everyone was pretty excited about it, so off we went, into the Ugandan jungle. We start our walk and Fred and Jake were leading the way. Hannah and Jarron were behind them, then me by myself, then Mandy, Arora, and Tasha behind me. This jungle walk became treacherous, and we were ducking under things and walking through the dense forest. I see Hannah start to get majorly freaked out ahead of me and I start to wonder whats going on. Then, behind me, i hear Mandy literally start to hyperventilate. I was still confused until i heard Tasha tell Mandy to not look at the spiders, just try to focus on where she was walking. I look over my head to see dozens of spider webs over my head, each was a home to a spider the size of my palm or bigger. They the biggest spiders i have ever seen. Once i notice the spiders, i start to laugh. uncontrollably. i am a terrible teammate. Here, my roommates Hannah and Mandy are totally flipping out and all i can do is laugh about it. Mandy started sobbing which is completely out of character for her, and Tasha tried to console her. She was afraid they would come down out of their webs on top of her. i thought about this and tried to be scared, but i just wasn't. i just continued on in the jungle trek, laughing. The girls were both a little shaken up from the spiders and so when we came to a place in our walk where we had to proceed though thick grass that was over our heads, they were not too excited. There wasn't really a path, and there was poison ivy and burrs all throughout. Fred started down the path, with me following closely behind. I was feeling adventurous today i suppose. Jarron yelled out "Fred! I don't think there is a path there!" to which Fred responded with a smile and a wave beckoning he and Hannah to follow us onward. Jarron, being the protective boyfriend he is stood there with Hannah, and then finally came along once the rest of the group arrived to the entrance of the non-trail. We walked through and i laughed more, as i watched everyone freak out as we walked though a blanket of "lake bugs" (kinda like big gnats). You literally inhaled them in your mouth and nose with every breath. Hannah wore an absolutely beautiful white lace skirt today that was basically like velcro for hundreds and hundreds or little burrs sticking all over her. i got out first and waited and captured all of these facial expressions on camera, as i laughed very hard. this was probably not a good reaction as Hannah had a mental breakdown upon exit, and my laughter and photography didn't exactly help the situation. After we regained our composure, we finished up the zoo. I climbed a HUGE tree that looks like the one at Animal Kingdom and had a blast with Arora and Tasha. 

We caught public transportation back, and ate Thai food that Jamie cooked for us tonight. it was really good, and we all sat around and laughed so hard we cried about all of our experiences today on our "fun and relaxing day off" which turned out to be one of the most traumatic. And they are all happy now that i have pictures of them coming out of the brush. and even as i type this, i am laughing so hard about everyone freaking out. 

sula bulungi! (sleep good in Lugandan! one of the like 10 phrases i know!)

For His Glory,

heidi alise