Greetings from Gulu. I know it's been awhile, but we're here and all is well. After a few days of orientation in Kampala -- which by the way, I'm not even sure I can describe for you. My first night, Dan took me to the Indian restaurant on the roof of the three story shopping mall... and we spent the weekend shopping at places that reminded us of Target, Costco, etc. You can get anything here. One afternoon over the weekend, we relaxed by the swimming pool at the American Club in Kampala with some colleagues of Dans, but it was too chilly to get in the water. And, after a seven hour drive, we arrived in Gulu as it was getting dark and starting to pour. By the time I got inside our house, I was drenched.

Our guard at the gate couldn't hear our horn because of the rain, so I got out of the car (passengers sit on the left side!) opened the gate myself to let our car inside, and waded through the flood that was our driveway. Feels like home... we have a bed and some stuff in the kitchen. We are borrowing a table and chairs for now. we'll have time to settle in, most of our things haven't arrived yet.

Tuesday, my second night here in Gulu, I went for a driving test... practicing driving on the right side of the car and the left side of the road was harder than I thought. Plus the roads have turned to a muddy mess with all the rain. For now, I have access to an automatic, so that's one less thing to worry about, but I still managed to get stuck in the mud, at quite an interesting angle, twice -- and when I did get home I realized my cell phone was missing. Somehow we think it fell out into the mud when we switched drivers (there was no way i was going to be able to get us unstuck!) so now i am in the process of obtaining a new phone number

work is good. the town is quiet. i just wanted to say hi and let you know we're ok. more later. much love --