Dr.'s Corner, Korean Food, and Dr. Seuss

June 29^th-July 1^st: Monday-Wednesday 

Woke up at 4:45 and left Mbale. I slept all the way to Namalu. I felt bad because Jim was all on his own. He couldn’t believe that I slept on the really bumpy roads but I was tired. He said I was bouncing all over the car. 

Monday poured concrete for the footing. Incredibly hard work. Then painted the metal roofs of the bandas Tuesday and Wednesday. The metal structure for the bandas is made by welding8, 12 foot metal tubes together with a 30 degree slope. Then welding rebar spiraling down from the top. The roofs are then covered in grass, which is bought from the locals. Craig has to hire local women to do the work because the men refuse to do it because it’s women’s’ work. Had to knockoff early Tuesday and Wednesday because we had really heavy rains around 3 both days and you can’t weld, paint or pour concrete in the rain. 

After pouring concrete all day went on a really long run with Jim and Johan Monday. About 8 or 9 miles. The first part it was raining heavily but it slacked off towards the end. The longest run I’ve every been on. Ran again Wednesday. Did the Doctor’s corner run, which means we run through the back country tell we intersect the main road at Doctor’s corner, a bend in the road and then follow the road back to the mission, a short half-hour run. Apparently it’s called Doctor’s corner because a doctor rolled a vehicle there 4 0r 5 years ago and killed some locals that were riding with him. Bob Wright had to give the doctor a lift to Mblae that night because the families if the died men would have killed him in revenge. On the way back Jim had us do 4 sets of 20 lunges. I’m going to feel those tomorrow.

Tuesday night we ate at the Tricarico’s. Johan’s mom sent about half the gross annual food export for Korea with him in his suitcase. So Tim used all this stuff to make some crazy Korean meal consisting of really good meat stuff, rice, and cabbage. I think it was called boshagi? You take an ear of cabbage and put the rice and meat inside and then eat. Also had this hot paste. Really good spicy stuff that came out of a tooth paste tube looking deal!? After dinner I just wanted to be on my own, or at least around less people. So James and I collected a half dozen Dr. Seuss books and I read them aloud. We read Hop on Pop, Sneetches and other stories, The Great Butter Battle, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and also Go, Dogs Go! Everyone ended up listening. 

Sometimes I get overwhelmed with constantly being around people here. I enjoy large get togethers but not often. Here a lot of the time I am with a lot of people and I can’t get away from them. I need time alone or at least only with one or two people. I love being able to go out and run or spending time alone in room 4. Also being able to leave the compound and go on runs with Jim keeps me from going insane. 

Since Jim and I bought passion fruit in Mbale I have eaten at least three every morning since then. Wednesday afternoon Emily and I made bread. Actually all I did was knead it. The dough made three loaves and it was delicious. I have been really craving bread here because you can’t really buy the sliced bread. Well you can find it in Mbale but its disgusting and dried out. That night we watched Hoodwinked and ate bread and jam. Hoodwinked is a really good movie. The plot and storytelling are very clever as is the script. The animation is pretty poor quality. It was obviously done on a budget but everything else makes up for it.