So. I went to Uganda.

Sorry for the late blog post.

Last weekend was all sorts of crazy, and this week has been busy busy busy with research. I can’t complain, though. I’ve been having fun and working hard.

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of what’s been going on:

We went to Uganda over the weekend! 11 hour bus there. 11 hour bus back. It was worth it? Emphasis on the question mark. Kampala was not my favorite city to be honest, but I still really enjoyed my trip. Highlights included:

• Visiting the 2^nd largest mosque in Africa
• Eating the street food in Kampala (including mango, rolex (omelet+crepe), chicken gizzard, goat intestine, and, of course, sugar cane (my new guilty pleasure))
• Diving off the side of the road to narrowly avoid being hit by crazy Ugandan drivers
• Staying in a great little hostel in Jinja (a little town located on the shores of Lake Victoria, 3 hours outside of Kampala) with a beautiful view and monkeys climbing in the trees
• Not getting arrested at the Rwanda-Uganada border (always a fear of mine when traveling)
• And, most of all, white water rafting on the Nile River!!!! 

Here are a few pictures (p.s. sorry for the photo quality. Most of these pictures were taken with my terrible point and shoot):

 

I shadowed in the OR this week. It’s exactly like shadowing in America. Except it isn’t. It’s hotter and smellier and bloodier and crazier. Basically, it’s more fun. Or less fun, depending on who you ask. More fun, if you ask me. Here’s a picture of me in my scrubz:

I’ve been working on my manuscript a lot this week. I should have the first draft done in the next day or two! When I was thesaurusing a word, I came across the following:

Apparently guesstimate is a word, boys and girls. I had my doubts, but I dictionary.com confirmed it. Guesstimate is, in fact, a word. Who knew?

So, Valentina (my favorite Colombian classmate) and I are working on different projects here in Rwanda but using the same data set. We work together a lot. After a long day of research yesterday, Valentina went to the store and came back with this for me:

She was so excited. She said, “Look it doesn’t have alcohol!” She knows I don’t drink alcohol, so that’s why she got it. I loved it. So thoughtful. I’m glad I have friends who support me, even when they don’t necessarily agree with me. 

Guess what the picture below is. Not sure? I’ll give you a hint. It’s my ultra-fancy, deluxe Rwandan washing machine. I’ve been here long enough that I’ve had to do laundry multiple times. I’m much better at it now than I was at first (i.e. my clothes are actually cleaner post-washing), but it’s still A LOT of work. I can’t wait to be reunited with Charlottesville washer. We are going to have so much fun together.