"Only in Kenya"

Be prepared for updates! September has been a crazy month with lots of traveling and adventures to share. I will be updating these next couple days with posts from my project trip to Nakuru, Kenya. My team and I were in Nakuru from September 5th through September 13th on our project trip working with a mission organization called Miracle House. Here are some snapshots of the city/team/hotel, etc.

Our welcome party into Kenya! A very typical surrounding of people selling produce and asking if we wanted to exchange money.

A view of a street in Nakuru. We didn't take a lot of photos of the city, but here's one to give you an idea of what it was like.

A quick shot out of the van window at the craft stands!

Our hotel! It was a very nice hotel accommodations which was its own little paradise within it's walls. Here is a view of the street right outdoors, a little different.

And last is our team photo while we were on safari our last day!

(LTR) Jill, Elisa, Jason, me, Travis, Casey, Roger, Brad

More to come soon!

Welcome to Home aka EMI compound

Okay so I know that I am long overdue for some photos and updates. Here are some pictures of both EMI's office and the apartment I am staying in.

The entrance to my apartment which I share with three other girls. Two, Holly & Laura, are teachers at Heritage International School down the road, and my roommate Jen is working for a NGO nearby.

And right next door is the entrance to the office! EMI has a duplex with the girls apartment on one side and the office on the other, very convenient in case you forget anything!

Entrance to apartment- security is above all else! We literally lock ourselves into our apartment with a padlock every night!

The living area...

with interesting plaster details on the ceiling : )

This is literally my favorite thing about going to bed!

More photos to come soon!

Oli Otya!

Which means "how are you?" in Lugandan. Welcome to UGANDA! We finally made it to Kampala Wednesday morning after almost 18 hours of flying and two days of travel. Sorry for such a long delay posting, but the internet isn't exactly the best or most consistent here. I will update with photos soon.

But the past few days have been full of Kampala orientation including staff dinners (lots of different African foods including posho and matoke, both which are great!), and exploring the area.

Quick run through:

Uganda is beautiful:

* red clay dirt roads and concrete buildings

* green, green, green everywhere! so fertile

* beautiful people with wonderful smiles

* hundreds of matatus (bus taxis) driving in and around each other and you walking!

* fresh produce from roadside stalls

oh the many wonders that is Uganda...

LONDON

Welcome to LONDON! We had a 9 hour layover in London on our way to Kampala so we went out exploring for a couple of hours. Here are some photos from the day!

Orientation Time

Welcome to The Hideaway! This is where we have been for the past week. All of the EMI interns have gathered here in Colorado Springs and spent the past week going through preparation sessions to help us prepare for our respective offices. There are around 30 interns here who are making their way to either Calgary, Canada; Costa Rica; Uganda; India, or staying here in Colorado Springs. The past week has been spent going through team building activities, small group discussions, and the like. We officially are flying out tomorrow! woo-hoo!

This is a picture of interns heading out.

Team UGANDA!

(LtoR) TJ, David, Travis, Jack, Peter, me, Kyle & JangWon

Luggage Tags!

So I found at Target these self-laminating luggage tags, which I thought would be fun! : ) I don't remember where my luggage tags are, but it was $4 dollars for 4 tags, which seemed very reasonable and thus I proceeded to make some luggage tags with my Uganda address on them : )

Packing Test 1

So i decided to do a trial run of how much stuff I will be bring to Uganda : ) This is test number 1! It's hard for me to judge everything since I'm still in Virginia and some of my stuff is still at home in the MN, but here is my trial run! I think I will be able to fit everything in my suitcase plus my carry-on, it doesn't seem to be too much. Things to still consider are ah,hem clothing options (yes there is more than 7 days worth of clothing here, but to image wearing one week's worth of clothing for 17 weeks is kinda hard to think of! so i'm sure i'll bring probably two weeks worth : ), all the rendering tools (color pencils, watercolors...trying to decide if these will be useful or not), and i still haven't shown household items i will be bringing including any food and coffee (french press is a need), etc. But so far looking good!