Anyone want to buy a cow?

This is the very last blog I will be writing in Masindi....and today is our very last day here.

The last few days have been filled with goodbyes, and lots of food. Yesterday we ate dinner twice and today we have already had breakfast twice, but its been really nice to close off the trip being able to say goodbye to everyone.

Saturday was a day for relaxing and recovering from our very busy week. Then on Sunday we went for prayers at the Baptist church in town-they have an english service there- and then we went to our mom's house for some juice and chipatees, then we got Julius- a driver we've come to know and love- to drive us to our house to pick up some items for donation and then to the fund raiser at the school. The fund raiser that was supposed to start at 2 started around 4 or 430 (after speeches, naturally) and went until 630 and was very successful. The guest of honor was a local politician with a great sense of humor and he ran the show- it was set up like an auction. We had a lot of fun and were able to also support the cause, even walking away with some baskets and jewelery...and a pineapple haha. We also bought all the sugar cane there and gave it to the children and proceeded to get some wonderful snaps with them. Someone was generous enough to donate a cow to be bought, and they were trying to convince Jessica and I to be the ones to buy it-however we managed to convince them that we can not eat an entire cow in the two days we had left here.

We got home with some confusion on the program for the evening-we were told about 2 dinners and thought we had the dates wrong, so we arrived home having told Lillian our cook that we did not need dinner, and decided to make our own. Nothing too outrageous, but french toast is a lot harder to make on a charcoal stove. However, we managed and it was wonderful. Then our phone rang and the Director from the school informed us him and headmistress were coming to have dinner with us at Amote's house- the woman who's lives across from us and also where Robin stayed when she was here. So dinner number two came, and it was wonderful. The food was good and the company was great-also many more great snaps there.

Monday we met some of our kids at the school in the morning to play football with them until lunch. As much as we both love to play, I think we need to admit that they dodge us very well. Dodging is what they call it when the can basically outplay you. However, we still have a lot of fun with them. We spent the afternoon packing and then dressed up for our dinner at the school with the teachers. At the dinner was also Reverend Mike-the man who helped organize this trip for us- and many of the influential women from UMOJA women's group, many of whom helped us a lot in our visits to the field. After speeches, goodbyes, and snaps, we left with Rev. Mike and went to the Kopling Hotel-where we came to eat our first night in Masindi- and met with mom there as well as the Treasurer of UMOJA, who's daughter's introduction we went to way back. We had a debrief meeting with them about the trip and talked about future plans and our recommendations for the school and field work. The meeting went late into the night, so we crashed when we got home.

This morning we met our friend Alex at the Masindi Hotel in town-what a beautiful place!! It's like this oasis in Masindi where you actually forget that you are even near the town. We had breakfast there, which included a yellow banana- very exciting. Now we are at Traveller's and in town for a few hours before our next football match at 3. Then we finish packing and spend our last night in Masindi.

We leave for Kampala in the morning very early and have much to do while we are there. We are going to stay at the Marantha house again, which is very exciting -the people there are wonderful- and many of our friends from Masindi have already arrived in Kampala earlier this week so we are going to visit them as well as the owner of the house where we've been staying. We are also going to spend some time visiting and infant's orphanage. So the next few days are going to be both very exciting and very sad. As our friend Vickie says- "leaving hurts, but memories heal"

I don't know if i'll get another chance to blog while in Uganda, but I'd just like to thank everyone for supporting us on this journey and for keeping in touch, too-it has really meant a lot to us. We are looking forward to coming home, changed by this experience and excited to share all of our stories.

see you soon!
Tash