Getting used to living in Africa

Last night was easily my worst night since I arrived in Africa, not because of where I am, but because of my stupid illnesses. The fan in my room is broken, so I was kind of hot, but luckily it's not super humid in Tororo so the heat is slightly more tolerable than up in Murchinson where I was really dying. I got to bed at a pretty good our, but I woke myself up with the worst coughing spell I have had yet. It was awful. So uncomfortable and it wouldn't stop for quite some time. It didn't help that my nose was so congested I couldn't breathe through it at all. I'm tying so hard to not use Afrin too much, so I didn't take it last night, but I really need to get some sleep so I'm not a zombie all morning! 

I did finally get to sleep, but waking up this morning was a struggle. I got myself up early so I could order breakfast and get to the GHU office. I ordered the eggs that come with our room, but a scrambled egg took 45-50 minutes this morning for some reason and I never got my toast or banana. Oh well. After giving up I finally got my eggs and scarfed them on the way out the door. 

When we got to the office this morning we finished reading the standard operating procedures for the study and then I got to work on some data entry while Joan worked on creating a database and entering different data. We pretty much did that for the rest of the work day and I had to deal with a lot of server issues. I wanted to download the program I need since I have a Mac and every other computer is a PC, but it was going to take days, literally, so I worked on Joan's computer for a bit until I figured out how to access the server from my web browser. Using the Internet here is really a lesson in patience. We went to TASO for lunch again and this time it was less than a dollar. I'm glad I brought so many bars because I think I'm going to get sick of lunch here pretty quick. I kind of wish I had brought more, oh well. At least I can get some crackers and stuff at the super market. I have some Nutella that I can eat at breakfast and maybe I'll make a Nutella banana sandwich someday to eat for lunch. They do have amazing fresh passion fruit juice at lunch for 600 shilling (like 20 cents) which I will never tire of! Like I said earlier, after lunch we worked on the same data entry until around 4:30 when I finished getting through the top file cabinet. I learned how to use this huge GPS for making maps in rural areas for the last thirty minutes and I think I'm really going to like using that. It's a really amazing and cool gadget! 

After work we went back to the guest house and I took care of seem things like my credit card bill, which I had to call my parents to figure out. So stressful. It was really nice to talk to them though and hear about everything happening at home (well in Ann Arbor since they are all there, so my home I guess). Molly is moving into my condo as we speak, so I no longer live alone in Ann Arbor. Should be an interesting transition when I get home, but I'm excited to get to hang out with my sister more for the next three years. And now my parents only have one place to go to visit us, yay! Back to what I'm doing here, I took a nice shower that had warm water, yay, and now I'm just siting on the front porch of the guest house waiting for dinner that should hopefully be ready in the next ten minutes since we ordered an hour and a half ago and asked to eat at 7:30pm. I got tilapia and chips so I hope it's good! Here's to hoping tomorrow is a good day. Adjusting to actually living here and not being on vacation like we were last week is tougher than I thought it might be, but hopefully it will all get more comfortable soon. I really like Tororo and I'm glad I am here, but I just need to figure everything out still. It's weird that I literally can't get anything I'm used to getting, can't goto a store to go shopping, can't cook for myself since I have no kitchen, etc. I'm going to have to find my own little routine, but I'm excited to see what is to come!