7/7 - Thursday

Today has been a roller coaster of emotions. I didn't feel good this morning so I didn't eat much breakfast. I just popped a pill and rested until it was time to go. (I mostly packed last night because we left Jinja and came to Kampala today.) First we went to get our money exchanged. I did a $50 and a $20 and got 169,000= (shillings). Then we went to the source of the Nile. At this point I wasn't feeling well again, but went on the boat ride. It was pretty cool, and we saw a bunch of monkeys and birds and some 4-foot lizard things. Massive. There were lots of people fishing and stuff in these little tiny boats - if it were me I would have capsized in ten minutes ... no idea how they did it. (The Nile smelled and sounded like the Swamp exhibit at the Brookfield Zoo, if you want to go and experience it.)

After the Nile, we went shopping and I bought a plaque, a picture frame, and a candle holder for family. I paid a total of 44,000= for that (roughly $20). It was fun to walk around and see the different shops and all the cool stuff that was for sale. It was really sad though when a teenage-looking kid approached me and told me he was hungry and asked for food. I told him I didn't have anything for him, but it was really hard mentally. It's weird, in Chicago I just assume that everyone wants drug money and is out to get me, but I feel more like people in Uganda are legitimately hungry and in need. That's a wrong attitude to have towards the people in Chicago, because I'm sure many of them are legitimately in need, but, I don't know, it's something to wrestle with. What's the difference between beggars in Chi-town and beggars in Uganda, and why do I feel differently about them and what needs to change?

Afterwards we went out for lunch, though I was not very hungry. Then we walked through the market place, lost Joan and Dave, and reunited at the bus right when I was feeling severely dehydrated. I didn't drink a lot yesterday, which impacted me a lot. The market place is such a different experience. I don't really even know how to describe it. There's so much going on at once, so many people walking around, trying to sell things. So many goods. There's the meat section, the veggie section, and then lots of other goods. There's the chicken area. There's so much garbage and grossness all over the place. I can't imagine all the diseases in that area with the people, the bugs, the garbage, the food, the animals. It's such a different world.

random shot in Kampala .. not where we stayed

We got back to the guest house and packed up. I popped another pill and rested until we left. The ride was uncomfortable because I was in the pullout seat and had trouble sleeping. We finally got to the Ta Cottages and I'm sharing a room with Ashley. We were in one room, but there wasn't electricity or running water or something and the room wasn't fully ready so they switched us over to another room. For dinner we met with the API staff and it was good to hear about them and what they do. I started to feel bad during dinner (chills, headache, general exhaustion) so came up to the room. I talked with Jeb who is awesome and figures the traveling and being in a different society helps with the ill feeling, along with not having enough vitamins, supplements, and PROTEIN. Ugh. I didn't bring any of that stuff so I'm using Ashley's peanut butter and other stuff. So glad for her. I'm going to hit the hay now and get a good nights rest and hopefully be able to work tomorrow. We'll see. I'm kinda nervous about it because I'm not feeling well and frankly I'm not a city person so being in the city and doing hard work and not feeling well is just not a good combo. We'll see.