So i haven't updated in a while. Not to mention that my updates on my blog are pretty much the exact same as my email updates. I'm noticing less and less time available to blog. However, this week is HIV/AIDS week so i've been learning about the crisis and participating in various events. Yesterday we went to HIV/AIDS hospital which caused me to struggle. Surprisingly, i not only struggled with just seeing the patients themselves, but also with the fact that it seemed like 40 white people were making a spectacle out of them. We went on a tour of the facility but did not really interact with them. It was good to see the facilities and the patients themselves but I had a hard time reconciling that with the way the day was structured. At the same time, there is no great way to "interact with HIV/AIDS patients" and there are definitely limits to what our program can do to show us everything. So that was the major event of yesterday. Below are my safari experiences from last weekend.


So last week was pretty stressful but it turned out to be really good by the end of it. I don’t remember specifically what I did, but it was my regular class routine. The exciting part of my week was the safari I went on. Sorry if this makes any of you jealous (it’s definitely not my intention to brag, simply to inform). So we left the university at around noon. We were doing fine for the first 7-9 hours of the bus ride but then we starting noticing that our driver was becoming less and less sure of where we were going. He just started asking people where to go until we got to the national park. However, the gates closed at dark (7 pm) and we got there around 10 pm, needing to get to our campsite. We started asking to get through a gate which in itself is a task because the driver gets drilled with questions. So we finally got through the gate, only to 25 minutes later did an elephant roadblock interfere with our travels. Keep in mind how late it is and that no one else was around besides our bus. There were two large elephants and a baby elephant in the middle of the road. We assessed that if the large elephant thought that the baby elephant was at risk it would charge. Therefore, we had to turn the bus around and re-route. Then we almost got out at a fancy campsite of random UN officials (all male group) which was really alarming. Finally we found our campsite. However, it was intimidating because we were within distance of the UN group and we were an all female group. However, we made it through the night without too many disturbances.
The next morning we went on a game drive (safari). It was pretty sweet. We were in our same bus with our same bus driver but we had a guide with us. We saw lots of elephants, buffalo, kobs, water buck, and mongooses. I tried taking pictures but they aren’t that great. I’m probably going to use other people’s pictures too. By the way, the animals that could not be seen on the safari were zebras, rhinos, and giraffes. They don’t have them in the park. However, there was a random zebra that was on the side of the road but I missed seeing it both on the way and the way back (I was sleeping). In the afternoon, we went on a boat ride where we saw tons of hippos, buffalo and some elephants. The funniest thing (in my opinion) was that birds would poop on the backs of the hippos while they were in the water. Also, just in general, warthogs, waterbucks (large antelope like animals), and hippos could be seen around our campsite and just inside the compound where we stayed. In retrospect, it was pretty incredible but at the time it could be scary, especially at night.
Sunday morning, we went out on another safari, this time in search of lions. We were headed back when we finally saw one. Ironically, the only reason was because we went out earlier in the morning and because the lion was limping. It was incredible just to see one in the wild though. So, yesterday we had a 9 hour drive back and then I went home to my homestay family. This week should be another monotonous one. Hopefully, I might visit an Invisible Children Bracelet campaign office tomorrow so that should yield some cool stories. Other than that, I’m doing really well in the African life. Sorry this is so long. Luckily, I only recap what I do on the weekends because that’s the most exciting part.

Random Facts:
1) An Elephant’s gestation period is 22 months
2) Hippos are surprisingly dangerous. Two fishermen were killed by a hippo two months ago in the fishing village that we saw on our boat ride.

The semester's flying by. It's already Spring Break at Messiah and for me, I have a month left with my host family before our trip to Rwanda. It's going to be really hard to leave but for now, i'm trying to focus on enjoying every minute.