I've been enjoying the peace and quiet here, but I'm ready to have my friends back again :) It's boring being the only one on this compound all day! Of course I have plenty of work to do, but it would be nice to have a few distractions :) 

This morning Priya showed up and she's skinny now, which means she had her kittens and they're around here somewhere... I haven't found them yet. I hope they all survive :/

Last night there was quite a party going on out in the street - shouting, singing, drums, general craziness. To be honest, I was a little scared. The conga line seemed to have stopped right outside our gates and it was very loud, and my untrained ears couldn't really tell if they were just having a good time, or doing some scary witchcraft ritual or something... but Laurie assured me this morning that the villagers were just out drinking and enjoying the moonlight. 

This morning Faith (my brilliant multilingual Kenyan friend) came over, we finished her schoolwork for this week and then spent an hour playing Life. She kept asking difficult questions like, "what is stock?" or "I got the mobile home! Is this a nice home in America?"

Last night Heather and I went to the Okken's house for pizza and a movie with their kids (Caleb is 8, Megan is 5 and Jacob is 3, I think? Or am I totally off?). Sunshine is a great cook (she's very humble about it but the truth is... she can cook) and we watched How To Train Your Dragon which was such a fun movie. Little Jacob was afraid at some points and didn't totally understand that the big dragon died... but he still liked it. On Thursday night Laurie and Josh had me over to eat Indian food (something with paneer, the unmeltable cheese) and watch a super cheesy Bollywood flick, Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai. That was super fun.

I can't wait till everyone gets back this afternoon and I have my roommate back :) Several people were down in Jinja rafting the Nile on Thursday so I can't wait to hear their stories. Every Saturday night the whole mission gets together for a meal and we play bocce, chat and relax, which is a great tradition. 

And on Monday I start teaching! We're still ironing out my schedule (flexibility is key!) but in the meantime I am prepping for seven classes. 

I was feeling a little sick this morning so I'm going to take it easy, try to sleep it off and hope it's not malaria. But don't worry, if it is, I won't die! I'll get medicine and be on the mend in just a couple days. Erika and Johnny both had malaria last week and were improved enough after taking the medicine for just a couple days that they were still able to go on the Nile rafting trip. I think maybe I'm just dehydrated though. It's hot, dry and windy here so I've just got to remind myself to drink lots of water. Funny thing is, it feels hot here to me, but this is only the beginning! Give it a couple more months and we'll really be in the dry season with temps well above 100 degrees. I'm glad I've got time to acclimate :)