I'm BAAAAAAAAACK!

I'm back, I'm back, I'm baaaaaack!!!

Did you miss me as much as I missed all of you? I have so much to tell you and so many pictures to show you and....

Huh?

What do you mean you didn't know I was gone?

Didn't I tell you that I would be out of town for 9 days? That actually I would be out of the country, WAY out of the country?

I could have sworn I said something. Hmmmm, let me think.....thinking......thinking.......thinking....well, I guess I forgot to mention it.

The posts that just kept appearing fooled you eh. The beauty of the internet.

So, let me tell you where I have been.

I have been..........

TO. AFRICA. Specifically to Uganda and Rwanda.

Can't you just hear Merle Streep's voice in your head. "I had a farm in Aaaaafrica"

OK, maybe not. I don't own a farm in Aaaaaaafrica. But none the less that is where we have been for the last 9 days. That is really sort of misleading because it takes a honkin' long time to get there. We were actually IN Africa for 7 days with a day of travel at either end because, HEAVEN FORBID, you could actually go directly there. Oh no, it was:

Cleveland - Newark - Brussels - Kigali, Rwanda - Entebbe, Uganda
AND
Kigali, Rwanda - Entebbe, Uganda - Brussels - Newark - Cleveland

And there were also two plane rides in country, one on a little, tiny Mission Aviation Fellowship plane and one on a regular old plane from Entebbe to Kigali. Good thing that I don't get airsick let me tell you.

Oh my word I am just bursting with things to tell you, just bursting! So be prepared to be bombarded with post after post full of pictures and adventures. I wished that I could have taken all of you with me but you will just have to sit through all the posts.

I have to say that this was not really a sightseeing trip, although we did have a couple of days at the end where we did some "touristy" kinds of things but for the most part we were visiting several missionary/NGO groups that we are involved in. AND, we were also visiting The Engaged One, who is studying for a semester at Uganda Christian University. But just so that you will have the flavor of the trip I will give you some highlights. I will say that I took approximately 1000 pictures but don't worry you won't have to sit through ALL of them....but maybe a few will show up once I have edited, whittled down, looked at them all. At any rate here are some of the highlights:

Over the course of the last 9 days:

• 40 hours just spent flying in airplanes, that doesn't count layovers and time getting through what seemed like 10,000 different security checkpoints.
  
• stayed overnight in 5 different hotels - some WAAAAAAAAAY better than others
• way too many hours to count traveling by 4wheel drive vehicle over some incredibly bad roads
• trekking to see the Golden Monkeys (seeing gorillas is WAY too expensive)
• eating rice and potatoes for just about every meal. Because those are the two staple foods in Uganda and Rwanda and that is what we were served. I will eat just about anything and did.
• meeting some of the most amazing people. I will introduce you in the weeks to come.
• shaking hands with and getting hugs from people who have never even heard of deodorant and wouldn't understand why you would use it and loving every minute of every hug.
• being attacked by various bugs including every mosquito in Kigali who realized that I had forgotten to use the mosquito netting and a really, really, REALLY large beetle.
  
• using every imaginable form of bathroom, and yes I took pictures of a lot of them.
• not sleeping very well because it is hard to sleep on airplanes and it is really hard to sleep well in beds that are not your own.
• being REALLY thankful for my own country where I understand how things work and for all the things that we take for granted here in the good old US of A.
  

That is just a few of the highlights. I need to get some more sleep, look at pictures, think about what I want to say. So hang on followers, readers and lurkers (who SHOULD be followers) cuz there is a lot to come.