Me--the Adventurist?

Hey hey!

I have so much to tell you guys! Its been such a great past couple days.

Friday night we went to our friend Rasta's house and he made us dinner--fish, matoke, bananas and avacado! Yum. Saturday we visited Mugeza, which is a village outside of Bukoba. In the morning we went to the Mugeza Deaf orphanage. It was really interesting to watch the kids interact with each other. The teacher introduced us and explained that we were there to visit and that we had six soccer balls to donate. It was really impressive to see the teacher translate from English to Swahili to sign language. We spent the morning warming up with the kids and just playing around with the ball. Some of the younger boys showed us all their gymnast tricks (stunting Brandon!) and it was amazing! They did so many backflips and back handsprings in a row. We got a soccer game organized and didn't do too terribly (with the help of some of the kids, Zaharan and a few other guides)! I couldn't say no & it was definitely worth the re-swollen ankle. (Dont worry guys, I'm resting up for soccer again this Friday) My first soccer game reffed in sign language! I loved hearing all the kids laughing and seeing them have so much fun with the new balls.

After the deaf orphanage we went to the Albino and Disabled orphanage where we cleaned all the dorms. I have to admit, its hard to see any progress cleaning cracked and broken concrete floors, but knowing the cleaning solution was at least doing something was promising. We spent a lot of time with the kids as well, and I was reunited with Edwin!! I think he recognized me right away from my necklace, and he even asked me how I was, a huge change from last weekend when he said nothing to me. He also told me he was "fine, thank you" and then said a lot more in Swahili that I didn't catch. We also gave the albino and disabled orphanage 6 soccer balls and they loved playing with them also. It was definitely a full day worth of happy kids!

Sunday we relaxed on the beach and met a German intern here,  who invited us to watch a soccer game at a restaurant with us last night. It was fun pretending (yes, pretending) to be a soccer fan (proud of me, Peter?). Sunday night we also played a pictionary-like game that was really fun-I can't remember the last time I cried so hard from laughing.

Monday was definitely a favorite day for me! Carly--the non-adventurist, climbed through the jungle to a waterfall and crawled through a batcave. I'll specify. By "climbing through the jungle" I literally mean I walked on rocks across a river and held onto tree vines (and anything else that would hold me up) to get to this waterfall--barefoot. The whole time convincing myself that spiders and snakes did not exist in that small stretch of wilderness (which, after seeing the aftermath of two snake bites during rounds at the hospital this morning I'm glad I did this yesterday). It was so great! Right after that we went to this bat cave and crawled through it. Yes, I do mean a bat cave, as in there were multiple bats flying around in the 3 vertical feet I had to maneuver through (my one Ace Ventura moment Dad & Tommy!). Big day for me, considering I'm generally afraid to even take public transportation when I'm at home. Later in the day we went to the baby orphanage. Whats cuter that 15 1 year old little babies around a big plate of rice eating with their hands? Nothing--Grandma, I don't think you could have walked away empty handed. We got to give them all baths and play with them outside after they had lunch.


Also--I found ice cream AND yogurt! HUGE SUCCESS PEOPLE! Not the best of either, but they were delicious considering my lack of dairy here.

I can't believe I leave Bukoba in almost a week. I don't want to leave!! I am really looking forward to the Bandas Friday night and Safari next week! Give me some updates on MN when y'all get a chance!

Miss you all!
Carly