sLeEpLeSSSS.....

3 days now. Three days and no sleep and it is starting to wear on me. Sleeplessness and jet lag don't exactly mix well. The first night I understand my schedule was off from sleeping all day/night on the plane. However, last night I was slo completely exhausted I was falling asleep in the midle of conversations. . . but when I went to bed--I could NOT fall asleep! I finally did, for about 10 minutes if that, but then awoke at 2:30AM to literally every single dog in the entire village of Katabi howling at the top of their lungs. No sleep after that.

And at 3:30AM!?!? The rooster, sitting just outside my bedroom window, decided to crow/cocka-doodle-doo, in 15 second intervals, for the next THREE HOURS STRAIGHT.

Ridiculous.

I finally gave in and got out of bed, realizing sleeping was no longer an option. And while walking down Wavah Road on my way to the orphanage, ran into a herd of cattle in the middle of the road. For those of you who have been to Uganda, you know this is quite a regular occurrence. I had two options. 1).Stay behind the heard and arrive at said orphanage in about an hour due to slow travel, or 2). Walk through them.

I chose option #2, and realizing half the village was watching the Mzungu(white person) closely, courageously began to make my way through the herd. These are angola cattle, by the way. Meaning. . . they have horns.

I was almost home-free when a certain black cow decided he was not so keen on sharing the road with me--and proceeded to run at me, horns and all, making full contact with my left arm and rib cage, and throwing me in a heap into the bushes.

And the onlookers?

They laughed, and pointed, and did not offer a single hand.

I got up, dusted myself off, and continued walking, obviously quite frustrated with the entire situation, which was magnified by my lack of sleep. I contemplated going straight to the school office to use internet and avoiding all human contact, but last minute decided against it and changed my route to go through the orphanage.

I was welcomed by the kids running, arms open wide, full speed at me, shouting "AMYROSIE, AMYROSIE, AMYROSIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then I remembered. . .

This is why I am here.