Independence Day

Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone had a memorable celebration.

Danielle's home stay is the house were we held our celebration. They had the cutest baby goats! 

I had a very memorable day. The volunteers here in Kyenjojo and I got together for an American meal. Of course we were limited by what we were able to find at the market, so our American meal consisted of guacamole, potato salad, and beef stew. It was all very delicious even if it was not hotdogs and apple pie. There are no chips here either, so we ate our guacamole with carrot sticks. I have two years to figure out how to turn yellow corn meal into tortilla chips. Send recipes!

After our meal, we went for a walk through the countryside and found a herd of cows. As we walked closer, I realized that the cows were not in a fenced pasture, they were free to roam anywhere they pleased. I asked the others, "is anyone concerned that there is no fence separating us from the cows?" They all said "na" and we kept walking.  Well, sure enough, not five minutes later one of the cows thought we had gone far enough and commenced loudly mooing... a very angry mooing. A few more steps and we pushed too far, the cow came after us. We promptly turned around and briskly walked back the way we came. The cow followed us, angrily mooing, at a slow trot. There was a tree line and a tea field beside the trail we were following, so our escape plan, if the cow got too close, was to run into the bushes or climb a tree. The guys farthest behind kept saying "don't run, he's still coming, don't run". It was terrifying and hilarious all at the same time. Eventually the cow stopped, we had walked beyond his territory, and he went back to the others in the herd. Hahaha, how many Americans can say they got chased by an African cow on Independence Day?!

Enjoy the pictures. I miss you all. 

An African cow - check out those horns! This is not the cow that chased us, but it's the same type. This one was wondering through the field near my home stay house. I asked one of the girls if the owner worried about losing him and she said no, he would find him. Weird, this thing was just tromping through everyone's property. 

Here I am at the market. Very primitive; no fancy tents or advertisements, no delicacies or homemade treats, and no ready-made, prepackaged food, just piles of produce set up on make-shift stands. 

These are shops that line the main road in Kyenjojo. They have everything you could need, maybe not everything you want, but I'm doing just fine. Running water and a refrigerator would be nice, but that's not going to happen in this town.