Finally ballin' in Mbale

What did you do for 4th of July? Well, I'll tell you what I did.... not to brag or anything. So we had a night to rest in our new home in the Indian Quarters of Mbale, Mbale Uganda, then it was a short bus ride up to the top of Mt.Elgon where we stayed at the cutest little resort, and by resort I mean that from rustic African standards; aka pit toliets, occasional electricity and no running water. But it was incredible. From basically any viewpoint we could see Sipi Falls and the vast vally below where we sat on a cliff. And who was there to greet us right when we got in? An adorable monkey! Which I expected to see a lot more of, but we didn't so I'm glad I got lots of snapshots while I had the chance. Our first night the boys went to a locale's home to pick out a chicken to kill for dinner. Lovely, right?
Then for our first full day our guide, Juma, took us on a four hour hike up the mountain to three different waterfalls, it was fascinating to walk on these small winding steep paths where workers would pass you with unimaginable loads of goods in their hands and on their heads. We got to see beans being harvested and walk through maize fields, and coffee trees, there was so much beauty to see everywhere. I have also been trying to pick up on some of the language, and our African friends Eddie and JB have been more than happy to take me on as a student. I love the look of surprise on Ugandan's faces when the musungo (white person) responds to "hello" with "Ogambachi Nebow/Sebow" (hello madam/sir). I didn't really consider learning any of the language before I got here, but if I am going to be here for five months I might as well try! Besides, there is already a dialect barrier with the English spoken here. I'm trying to catch on, but sometimes I can't tell if someone is speaking English or Luganda.
So moving on to the rest of our fourth of July celebration, the evening after our hike we celebrated the 4th along with Luke's birthday with a chocolate cake, all the way from Kampala (which they put in the freezer instead of the fridge....) and "Tin Can Tony," a goat. I hate to admit it but I made it a point not to look at Tony and I made a trip to get some oil while he met his last few minutes...I may have gotten a little misty eyed and vowed to be a vegetarian. But, I obviously wasn't too serious about that, considering I may have tasted a little bit of meat just a few hours later. But the roasting was a success, we ate, drank beer and local brew (kinda nasty), and we sat around the fire chit chatting away. Then the next morning it was a hike out to one more waterfall and home we went.
I thought it would be nice to be home, and it would have been, had I not brought back some form of a souvenir from our weekend. At first I thought maybe my stomach was upset, then it set in. Lets just say I thought I was possibly going to die, I was so sick! But now that I'm on antibiotics (thank god for the travel clinic, stocking me up!) I feel a lot better, and today I just might have my energy back.