Advantages

The advantage of playing soccer in a developing area in Africa? you don't have to worry about breaking any windows in a mud hut! :)

Today, we traveled from Gulu, Uganda (a town) where we'd been staying for the past three days to an area called "the land" by the Village of Hope. It's an area they are developing and building homes and schools with the intent of then transporting some of the 450 orphans here when it's all completed. The children will then have a safe place to live, food, shelter and will receive an education. It's a BEAUTIFUL place! I literally will be sleeping in a mud hut with a thatched roof tonight! And actually, they are much nicer than I had thought. The couple that lives here and works here have their own hut with a large bed partitioned off for their "bedroom", a "living room" area with a bamboo rug and bamboo chairs (if only i could fit one in my suitcase!), a clock on the wall, pictures, etc. It's really quite homey, actually.

The people here are fantastic as well! Sooooooooooo welcoming and friendly! We took a very bumpy 1/2 hr truck ride to a place where the workers get loads of sand to make cement and all along the way, the people we passed would smile and wave and the kids in the little villages would run to the road when they heard the truck just to wave and say "bye" as we passed.

Tomorrow morning, we'll drive back to Kampala to stay in the little cottage guest house we stayed in when we first arrived in Africa. and then on Thursday we'll fly to Sudan.

thank you all for your continued prayers. i'm going to try and write a few posts from excerpts from my journal the past few days, just to try and get you up to date on the days i couldn't blog.

love you all!
tanya