Yesterday was our first time attending church in Fort Portal, it was really wonderful and encouraging. The singins was infectious and harmonious. We really enjoyed the service and meeting so many new people.

We attended a meeting with the village church leaders and got to hear all of the reports of what is going on in their areas. There were about ten of us there and I was the only lady. They were really nice to us and tried to instruct us on how to greet in their language (Rutooro). We set up a schedule for visiting the villages and we will get to go to three, one of which is to be an overnight visit.

We have each been given Empacos (which is basically nicknames that everyone has and uses when talking to one another). I am called Adyeri, Billy is called Arali and Jacob is Akiki. We have had the chance to take a walk on our own around the busy streets, but we didn't go that far because it was the first full day we were here and I was still nervous. We have also visited two elderly women, one of which is 91 years old. They were both wonderful ladies, but very different. One was soft spoken and sweet, and the other was very boisterous and expressive. We have been invited to spend the night at her house and are seriously considering the opportunity.

We went out on a farm of a friend of Derek's and we had our first fresh guava fruits. They are little hard fruits, you eat the skin and all and they have seeds a little smaller than watermelon seeds. They are bitter on the outside and sweet on the inside, but they are not my favorite fruit to eat. I will stick to the juice.

We have been having a great time, we have spent time with Derek, Ronald and David, and they are all really interesting to be around and talk with. Jacob has really enjoyed Derek, he actually cried when we dropped him off after the first day they met! Derek is really great with Jacob teaching him words and introducing him to cows.

The native cuisine is going to take a little getting used to I am doing better at it than Billy and Jacob is doing best of all! Get this, today when we were meeting with the leaders at a restaurant and we were all served the same meals including chicken stew, rice, matoki, yams and cornmeal mash and some yucky vegetable. You are supposed to dip your starches in the stew and it is actually pretty good. I liked the rice like that. As I was eating I look down and count 3 ants floating in my bowl! Anyone who knows me knows that I can't really handle that sort of a thing well. I just looked at them and continued to eat carefully making sure I was not dipping near the ants! That was a huge step for me, I hope you are all very proud! I didn't eat the chicken itself (not really ready to cross that bridge yet) but it was really tasty.