1.0

So I am sitting here in an internet cafe in Uganda...wow.

I really wish I could spend a long while writing and posting pictures of this first week, but honestly I didn't even know I would be able to get on the internet here, so I do not have the necessary time or equipment. I don't even know how I can briefly summarize the time thus far. This is how I will try:

I went running this morning. I woke up at 6:30 and went running around 6:45. The sun consistently rises by 7 and sets by 7, so I got up as the dawn was breaking over African soil. I stepped out of the compound we're currently staying at (until tomorrow when I go to live with a host African family for a bit. However, that will require a completely different email) to see the mist as it rose deafeningly from the Ugandan hillside. I stepped on to the red, fine, dirt Ugandan road and headed out to the nearby village. It took me a bit, but I learned to run on the right, as the traffic is reversed from ours and the motorcycle drivers like to sneak up on you. The road looks like a back dirt driveway that will eventually end, but just at the moment you think it time to turn around, the road will dip over a hill and open up into a community of houses and bustling people. I ran this morning, and a school of children ran too. I passed them on my way and what I received where bright waves and the occasional "muzungu," which is the local word for white person(which I have been called by about a million people). Again, I wish I could write in more detail, but my time is drawing to a close, and there is so much to tell. I do not know when I'll be able to post again as we are leaving this area tomorrow, but I cannot wait to tell of the flowers, the animals (the vervet monkeys are right outside our rooms), and perhaps the best part to far, the people.

0.5

I am sitting here in the New York airport, using a computer that I bought from a little girl when her parents were away. She sold it to me straight-up for a banana milkshake and 500 stickers of Hanna Montana (which of course I had on me).

Okay, that last part (everything after the word computer ) may not be entirely accurate. I am actually using a computer that a very nice woman in our Uganda group let me use. I would like to write extensively about the service registration but I don't really feel that I have enough time here. Lets just say that I was the only one who started bleeding during registration.

It went quite well though, but I did find out that internet use will be very limited for the first three or four months of training so I don't know when I will really get to sit down and do some serious typing (I wonder if olden-day authors and writers will be offended if I called this typing, "writing"?) There are people of all ages and all educations in the group, and they all seem very nice and unique. I did find out though that I need to write on here that my views are not necessarily the views of the U.S. Peace Corps and that my writings (I decided that olden-day authors would not be offended if I used the word writing) do not reflect the views or thoughts of this agency. So boom-shaka-laka-laka.

I wanted to say though that I feel so strong and am so grateful to God for the courage and resolve that He has without a doubt given me. This doesn't mean that this has been easy by any means, just that I know I am not alone. I am so grateful for all the prayers and encouragement also. Without you guys I would definitely not be in the airport right now drinking a delicious sweet tea that I bought from McDonald's after I discovered that the vitamin water was a bit more than I desired to pay.

Well, I don't know when the next time I'll be able to post is, but it's on to Africa, so lock up your children.

0.4

It is about 5 hours now until I board a plane and head off to...well, just off for now. I wish I could write in length about how I am feeling, but I am very tired, and still have much to do and think about and pray about.

Whitman wrote a poem entitled "I Sing The Body Electric," in which he writes, "I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough,/ To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,/ To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,/ To pass among them or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment, what is this then?/ I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as in a sea./ There is something in staying close to men and women and looking on them, and in the contact and odor of them, that pleases the soul well,/ All things please the soul, but these please the soul well."

I feel there is deep truth in this, and yet I feel like I am departing from this very truth. I feel as though I am immersed within this connectedness and closeness, and yet I am now fleeing it. Indeed, I already miss it.