Mercy

This is Mercy. She's our cook. And when I say our cook, I mean she's our saving grace. I know that no matter what kind of weird thing I've eaten that day, I will have a fantastic dinner that night. She made us French toast once. French toast! Oh, and did I mention that she makes dinner for 16 people every night? On a charcoal stove? She went to culinary school and is therefore legit. She even killed a chicken that we all watched. I have video. She's also made us some traditional African stuff, like rice and beans and greens, but even that was delicious. She's from Kenya, she has two daughters and a husband (all in Kenya) and she dreams of having her own restaurant one day. Bascially she's a magician and we're all so glad that she's with us.

P.S. more about David: apparently last year the other Uganda team was having troubles with kids launching rocks over the wall and breaking up the tiles on the roof. One of the directors called David and had him switch places with that house's guard. Within two days the problem was solved. Apparently he spent a day scouting out all of the possible ways to exit the house and then when the kids came he cut through the jungle and tied up some twine or rope between some trees and close-lined the kids when they came running. Then he took them to their mothers. Their mothers put them in the public square to be publicly humiliated. David gets the job done.

David

This is David. He’s our guard. He’s super funny, he likes to tease, he’s fun to tease, he puts banana on his face to take care of his scars or something, and he’s afraid of dogs. We got him a bow and arrow so that he can shoot people who trespass onto our property without giving away his position (in his words, "the fire from the gun will give away my position, and I can kill only one man). I don't really think that he has killed anyone. However, when he was talking to one of our country directors, he said that there was a kind of bow and arrow that is laced with witchcraft so that you cannot miss if you shoot it. "But we will not get that one. It is too expensive." TIA (This Is Africa)

Just now he walked by singing “it’s too late to apologize. It’s too late.” I would say that we are a bad influence on him, but western music is everywhere here, and I actually think that we're a good influence for him. He’s already really nice to everyone but we also have the missionaries coming over to teach him once a week. Pretty much, he’s awesome and we are extremely lucky to have him.

I'm leavin' on a jet plane

I have some time here in the airport (read: I have been here for almost two hours and have one more hour), so I thought I would update all of my voracious readers. "Wait," you say, "the airport? Why? Where are you going?" Okay, so you're probably not asking yourself that, because chances are if you have had any contact with me in the last four months I have told you that I am going to MBALE, UGANDA! For those of you who don't know where what that is, here's a little map:

Yes, that would be Africa you are looking at. I will be spending 3 and a half months in this small country's (it is about the size of Oregon) third-largest city:

I'm going with HELP International and will be doing cool things like making square-foot gardens, building adobe stoves, teaching business classes, community health, etc. Basically, it's going to be an awesome summer. I'm going with a team of people who are pretty awesome and I am super excited to start making friends and getting to know about the culture of Uganda!

P.S. Thanks T-rev for this blog's picture header.