"I think Cecilly has given up on clothes"

The days have still been dying hot, and so I have adapted to wearing a swimsuit around the house. The team didn’t think I was serious, but oh buddy I am serious! I sleep in it, cook in it (yes, I am learning chef-like qualities slowly by slowly!), and hang out from 7 p.m. – 9 a.m. in it. On day two of fashioning my swimsuit wardrobe, Kyle remarked, “I think Cecilly has given up on clothes.” True dat!

After three entries of almost no pictures, I have decided to repent and post pictures of my daily life here.... in theory. The ones that look touristy are, in fact, touristy~! Our team went to a soccer game at the Nelson Mandela Stadium. I’ve never been a huge fan of soccer, but tell you what-I’m warming up to it. We also went out to Domino's--first time I've had cheese since I arrived here! I got the kind of pizza that was "Uganda Pizza"--bacon (don't know why that is considered Uganda--haven't had it once since I got here), pineapple (understandable), and bananas (ha ha). Not going to lie, I am going to take this tradition home with me!! I bought me some powdered milk to get some dairy going into me--I MISS my skim milk from home!! The Corn Flakes were too cute to resist. That li'l bunny on front just stole my heart!

Cooking endeavors: Here they cook their maize in a really sweet way—they de-husk it or whatever, and then stick it over the fire and it gets really crunchy—like popcorn! So I bought me some maize in the market, and last night decided to strut my skills of cheffery. I even lit the charcoal on fire (with a little help of Mr. Kerosene), and set in on top. Well… at first it wasn’t really cooking. Someone told me to let the kerosene die out of the fire so it wasn’t going directly onto my maize, but I was tired of waiting (plus it died when I waited), so I just left it on. For a while. Half my maize was black, black, black. The other side I did right and worked out fine.

Eggs this morning. Lit the gas stove thingie I don’t know what it is, and then felt so good that I tried pancakes. Ummm flour and water, right? Tad of peanut butter for taste? Nope. Burned my finger, too. Failure.

Some of us went to the source of the Nile and took us a li’l boat out on Lake Victoria/Nile River. Oh my goodness, wonderful! The boat guy took us out to this li’l island that had a hut on it, and I felt like I was starring in “Gilligan’s Island”. We saw some rocks a bit out from the island, so I trekked my merry way over to them to become "King of the Rock!" (Mulan, baby!!). It was a wee bit exciting to feel the current around us on our way out.

This week I am leaning into business training, as well as business and loans! I get so excited as we work on it! Oh, so embarrassing story: I was doing a presentation/pitch for starting a savings and loans group at the hospital in a staff meeting sort of thing. Yeah, I talked for about 3 minutes, maybe 5, then asked if anybody had any questions. Josephine (this HILARIOUS lady who always sings, “Cecillia, you’re breaking my heart” whenever she says my name), said only: “Cecilly, I think you talk too fast. Nobody understands.” Oh the shame!!

A second testament to my speedy chatting: Working with Pastor Francis, he was telling Molly and I that he is going to find us African husbands. Sign me UP!! Slowly by slowly I am infected with Jungle Fever, baby!! He said, though, that he would have a problem finding me someone because (1) I am young and (2) I talk quickly. In Ugandan culture, women are supposed to talk slowly and respectfully. Yeah right. So looks like I will have to cross off “marry an African in Uganda in the Ssanya School schoolyard” off my list.

Some time over the week, our group split in two and went on two different outreaches to rural villages--we teamed with the hospital and did HIV/AIDS teaching, as well as screened for HIV (p.s. I am doing that tomorrow!! SO excited!!) In the downtime, I sat with the childers and played their form of tic tac toe. I like theirs better. :)

Today is pretty mellow till about 3 hours from now, when I am then going to a school to help with teacher training, then go to an orphanage and figure out the logistics for renovating their current chicken coop and hooking them up with more chickens. On days like today, I almost feel like I'm wasting my time because I'm not going, going, going, but then I realize I have a whole summer to accomplih things and that yes, I should have planned today out better so I was constantly busy, but the busy-ness will happen soon enough. Tomorrow I have a presentation on business, Wednesday and Friday we are doing business training, Thursday I have a presentation on savings and loans. Sure, today is mellow for more hours, but that doesn't mean I am not doing anything.

I'm already thinking ahead to fall and all that entails. I'm just throwing this out there, prolly to mom, but to whoever cares: I want to plan a Missouri trip for Thanksgiving! More on that later...