Well, it's 10 am on Saturday where you are, but it's 7 pm here this lovely Saturday evening. And the weather is absolutely beautiful. Everything is green and lush, and the trees are beautiful. We're spending our second evening in the Mt. Eglon Hotel in Mbale. It took us a long time to get here yesterday by van, but there were a few unexpected stops, like the grocery store for Diet Coke (not just or me!), a fantastic lunch at a Chinese restaurant in the middle of nowhere, and a few traffic incidents that we drove past. From what I can tell, traffic laws are regarded more like suggestions that no one follows; it's a bit terrifying at times.
But we spent all day today at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Mbale painting the classrooms at their primary school. They picked pretty cream and green colors, and we went to town! We ended up finishing 7 rooms, and the guys will go back Monday morning to finish room 8 while the women begin at the orphanage. Needless to say, we are all exhausted. But it's a good tired; some of the teachers came out to help us and by the end of the day, the place was swarming with kids! Several of them wanted paint in their classrooms, and we were more than happy to share the brushes for a few minutes! The kids are absolutely beautiful with these gleaming smiles that will melt your heart. By he time we left there at 6 pm, the playground was full of kids playing soccer together with the new ball we picked up at the store. It was wonderful.
Tomorrow we are going to worship at Covenant Presbyterian which I am very excited about. I and another lady in our group am going to teach the womens Sunday School class, but they really want to hear about us and our faith. I hope there's time to hear from them, too.
I will say that the poverty is absolutely astounding. There are some absolutely beautiful homes that we have driven past, but there's not really a middle class. It's starting to emerge, but it's not really there yet. So the options are basically huge mansions or shacks with dirt floors. It's hard to look at; Americans for the most part don't really know what poor is. We are so blessed.
My roommate here is Cassie who is an operating room nurse from Austin. She is great fun, and we get along swimmingly; after all, we both love Jane Austen.
Okay. I need to get ready for dinner now.
Miss you all and talk to you soon.
Love, elizabeth
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