Kabula

I'm safe and happy. Updates may be sporadic. I have a bit of a hike from the sugar cane farm that I'm staying on to the main road and then have to catch a "matatu" into town in order to find internet. A matatu is essentially an 8 person van that accommodates 19 here. I arrived to the farm on Saturday. There are 6 other volunteers here - all from Canada, the UK and Australia. And they're completely awesome. Life without electricity and running water is so much better than I imagined it would be. The reverend who owns the farm that Im staying on (Reuben) brought us all to his parish on Sunday morning so that the town could greet us. They all danced and sang a "welcome and thank you" song in Swahili. Then the church cooked us a huge meal of ugali (maize), chicken and eggs. Everyone here is so kind. And I feel very safe. Everyone knows that I'm staying with Reuben and he is very much respected here. And I imagine he would be a force to be reckoned with if anything happened to one of his volunteers. I went for a hike yesterday with the other volunteers. We somehow accumulated children as we hiked up what used to be an active volcano. It started out 7 of us and we ended up with about 20. It was so great. I get constant greetings of "Jambo mazungu!" which translates to Hey! White person! Which I find a bit humorous. I sat down with Joyce who runs the health clinic here and came up with a plan for the next 2 months. I will be helping to run mobile clinics in remote villages that have no access to healthcare, teaching women's health and teaching HIV awareness to elementary school children. Life is really great here. I miss you all.