Music Competition

So, this weekend, as mentioned before, I went to a music competition. I thought it was the national one featured in WarDance which everyone should still watch but it was actually a preliminary round. Let me start a little earlier than this though. I had invited Rachel to come with us since she had not been to Kampala before. On Friday night my mom tried to convince her to stay and help her with the baby but Rachel would not have it. At one point my mom said "Rachel, are you going to leave me here all alone with Faith?" to which Rachel replied "Of course!" So that being set we woke up early, Rachel had to mop the house before we left but we were able to make it to the meeting point by 8. Since there were about 10 of us we were able to fill an entire matatu we did not have to stop every 5 minutes. We arrived after about 30 mintues, and were dropped off at New Park, a giant taxi park, we found one to take us to our next destination, the competition! After a little confusion and our driver trying to rip us off, we arrived. I literally started crying as I realized the weight of this competition to some of these kids lives. We went right in and sat for 4 hours watching some of the most intricate dances I have ever seen. I took tons of pictures, like 50 so I will share them as soon as I get back. Afterward, we got another matatu and tried to get to the mall which turned into another fiasco in itself. But as always we had a very good time! When we got to the mall a few of us ate at a place called I love New York Kitchen!!! I got to have my first American food, a hamburger, cheesecake and some bread crisps. It was so so so good, a definate needed break from the everyday Ugandan food. Rachel went with others and had good "fancey" Ugandan food. She said it was some of the best she had ever eaten. Then we went to a big craft market where I got tons of gifts to bring home. Rachel kept thanking me for taking her to Kampala. She said she had never felt so loved or blessed. She told me she would only forget me and that day when she dies. I was just as blessed, it was so fun to be able to do something that benefited her. I absolutely adore her, I am definately going to bring her around more often because we had so much fun! When we got home she couldn't stop talking about what a great day it was! My dad even thanked me for taking her so I didn't feel too bad for offending them.

Anyway, this week has been pretty good, today (Tuesday) is a national Muslim Holiday so we went into Kampala today for sandwitches and to see if we could find any t-shirts and basketball shorts, unfortunately they do not exist :( but oh well! We will be in Bwindi this weekend meeting with an MD and maybe making a mud hut...we shall see! I miss you all very much, this week has been really really hard. I am still really homesick. I love it here, don't get me wrong, I am finally feeling more comfortable with my family but that just makes me miss my real family more. I really am missing Chris and having trouble being so far. I am missing my friends and all the fun activities they are doing there. I feel like I am missing out on a lot of things back home. I would not change the last 5 weeks but I can't wait to be back home. Please pray for me that I can be less homesick, that the things I am doing here will out weigh how hard it is to be here. I love and miss you all so so very much!