Mudslides, July the 4th, less cool than a flip flop

I spent today visiting a little village called Bududa.  A little over a week ago there was a mud slide in the village that covered a bunch of houses and while about 18 have been confirmed dead, there are over a hundred still unaccounted for.  We went to a meeting there this morning to see how we can help and if there's any way they could use more man power in their disaster relief efforts.  There is clearly a lot of need but they initially declined our offer of providing volunteers and more expressed need of funds.  We're still in talks about what we can do and what our options are to provide support and help the people in that area.

The taxi ride up to Bududa was a hilarious joke.  haha I don't know if I've ever talked to you about taxi rides but they're hilarious in their discomfort.  There are three spots on each row for people to sit but they ALWAYS make you sit four people to a row.  The roads are very pot holey and so there's lots of bouncing and you'll probably hit your head on the roof at least once.  Holly and I spent the majority of the ride finding our situation hilarious and practiced the few words we knew in lugesu and laughing about how bouncy and Indiana Jones ride-esque the hour jaunt was.  Hilarious.  

Tomorrow is our fourth of July celebration!  We're having some peeps over to our house in the evening and are going to have burgers, play volleyball in the front yard (if we can figure out how to set up the net), maybe make a little slip-n-slide out of a tarp, etc.  It should be a solid good time.  I'm excited to celebrate the 4th!  I've become more patriotic since I've lived in Africa.   Don't get me wrong.  I sure love it here and have fallen in love with so many people.  It's been such a growth period for me and I've learned so much.  But seeing the lack of rights of so many people it has strengthened my love for a country where we're so fortunate and have so many rights that I forget about and don't realize that not everyone has them. 

After the 4th of July, guess who's going on a safari?!?  This lady right here!  I can't believe it.  I've been super excited and am praying that we see ourselves some lions.  I can't wait and know it'll be an amazing experience.  I'm going with the lovely ladies that I share a room with--Ashley, Kelsey and Sam.  We always have so much fun together so spending a couple of days together spotting African wildlife will be so fun.  We have a lot of work to do before we go and we'll have tons to do when we get back but I'm excited to go do a fun weekend trip.

We were teaching Business and Agriculture classes in a village about 30 minutes away from Mbale.  While our guest speaker was talking, I was distracted by this little lady:

 I tried to get her to come sit on my lap and play with me but...I was obviously not cooler than a flip flop....which is what she played with and chewed on for the duration of the class.  There's always next Thursday.  We'll be friends.  I can feel it.  She's so tiny and darling.  Golly me, I don't know when I became such a sap for children.  I didn't have this problem in the states. haha I don't know what my deal is but every time I see a wee infant I just want to hold it and play with it and love it.  Not that I don't like babies at home it's just...on a whole other level here.  haha

By-the-way, when we were in Jinja last weekend, we saw a billboard for the missionaries.  It was pretty grand.  We had just left church where I had introduced our missionary friend Elder Chauya to my boda friend referral Julius.  I can't wait to hear how their first lesson with him goes.  Hoping for the best.  Elder Chauya could use the work and encouragement and obviously Julius could use the joy of the gospel.  Win-win-win!

 Love you all very berry much.  I'll post african wildlife pics upon my return.  Take care of yourselves.  Bisoux!  Baci!  Kisses!