Mulembe Mno!

Well it's been an extremely busy free weeks, which would explain my lack of updates.

At ICA, we've been busy getting ready for our director, Tonny, to go to the States. He's giving some talks at AU, and I've been helping set up some presentations for him along with the other guys at the office. Even though we're busy, I am absolutely LOVING every minute at my internship. Those are the days I look forward to most during the week. I'm so happy we're interning full-time now.

Right before we started interning three plus days a week, we had rural week! We went to Luhya country near Kisumu on Lake Victoria. The village I stayed in was called Ebusubi, and is right by Luanda. I stayed with a mother, Pamela and her six children. I've had so many more firsts since that week!

I saw a chicken get killed - we all g

ave live chickens to our families as a present on the first day, and we ate it that night!

I ate my second fish head... it's still weird after two times.

I ate termites...

I pruned a maize field! (Be proud, Uncle Wayne!)

I carried a banana tree branch on top of my head from Luanda to my village! Talk about something for the locals to point at.

I witnessed a shooting! Well, kind of. My mama was getting her hair done in town, and all of a sudden, there was a huge commotion. Apparently, there was a guy in who was selling illegal Ugandan alcohol. The police tried to arrest him, and he was resisting. It almost reminded me of the old Wester movies that we see. People were standing on the side of the road watching. That's when the alcohol salesman called his friends, and the police called their friends. The friends started to throw rocks at the police, and the police weren't going to take it. I was sitting in the back of the store, and all of a sudden I heard gun shots and screaming. That's when about twenty people ran into the store and they slid the doors closed. And there I am, a lone white girl, hiding in the back corner with all of the potato sacks. More gun shots fired, and people ran to the back of the store. I was so scared the entire time, I didn't know what was going on because I really don't speak Luhya, and people were running around, freaking out. Shortly after, the shots stopped. Unfortunately, a little boy was hit by a bullet as he was watching on the side of the road. He was shot in the leg and taken to the hospital.

I was so shaken up after this, that my mama decided she should get me home as soon as possible. So she called her friend, the pikipiki driver. A pikipiki is a motorcycle taxi that people take short distances for the most part. So we hop on this motorcycle and fly through the hilly roads of Ebusubi.

What a day that was!

Other than that, I had a fairly tame rural week. No more guns fired, and no super strange foods eaten. I had a super great time and I'm so glad that it was a part of this trip.

Up next: I'm going on safari tomorrow!! Cross your fingers that I see some elephants up-close and personal!