Uganda

Hello puppy loves!

How are you today? I've gotten about two thirds of my pictures from Uganda uploaded and organized! The rest I'll be tackling tonight or tomorrow.

My Mom and I went to Uganda with an organization called Opportunity International. OI provides small loans (starting at $25) to local business owners as well as banking services to the general public.



OI has a really interesting structure for their loans. The clients (much better sounding than lendees, right?) form a "trust group" in their neighborhoods or local business areas with other clients. These trust groups work together to support each other emotional and occasionally financially during and after their loan cycles. OI also provides business education to loan clients helping them to be financially literate before and during their loans.

While in Uganda we visited Opportunity International clients homes, businesses, and trust group meetings to learn more about micro-finance and Uganda. If you want to hear more about how exactly this loan structure works I would love to share! Let me know!

It's a great organization that works in 25 countries across the world.

Now, on to the pictures (what you really want to see)!

(A local school in the Uganda capital, Kampala. School tuition is on average $300 per child- one third of the average yearly income. These are P7 students; the American equivalent of 7th graders.)

(This is the Rise and Shine school. Can you see the tall girl on the far left? She's a refuge from Sudan who has been taken in by the school owner, Miss Dorothy. She and I talked for a while. She told me that she thought she was 17. She's currently in P3 with 11 year old classmates and she loves being in school- reading is her favorite thing about school. My few minutes with her were some of the most moving, unforgettable, and heart breaking of my entire trip.)

(This typical "road" led us to Gertrude a client who owns her own catering company.)


(Gertrude makes over 150 lunches each day for employees at The Bank of Uganda. She started by making just 6 lunches a day for her insurance agency. During busy weekends she'll make enough food for 5 weddings with at lest 500 guests EACH!)

(Popcorn! Popcorn! Popcorn!)

(How beautiful is this woman? She's a "professional tailor" as she proudly told us. She's teaching other women how to sew so that they will have a skill. And she's doing it for free.)

(This gorgeous dress is the traditional formal style of married Ugandan women. I desperately wanted one. But I just wasn't brave enough to rock one on the streets of Chicago)

More pictures to come tomorrow. I've been doing a lot of writing and thinking about the world. I'll be sharing soon my loves.

Back again!

Hello love bugs!

How is everyone? I'm back from Africa after an excruciating 27-- yes TWENTY SEVEN-- hours of travel.

I am uploading lots and lots of pictures (wooohooo! I didn't lose my camera this time!) and will have some ready for you tomorrow!

Until then I'm going to head to the grocery store to stock up on goodies because my sweet boyfriend is working from home for 2 weeks! That's right! No travel! Dinner together every night! I love it!!

Talk to you all tomorrow!

being sick makes me stupid?

please see this post

"And to add onto my whoa is me tail"

OMG WHAT THE FUUUUUUUNNNNNNK?

evidently this stomach bug had also reached the part of my brain that knows how to spell!

Thank sentence should be:

"Add to add on to my whoa is me TALE"

Please please please forgive me!

yuuuuck

Hello love bugs,

I've been a little MIA lately huh? That's because I have been sick. sick. sick. Some vicious little bug snuck it's way across the American border inside of my digestive system and has been creating havoc ever since we landed in Chicago.

I've been unable to really eat anything which has made me super weak and, honestly, a little lazy and pouty.

And to add onto my whoa is me tail: in just 3 hours I'm headed with my Mom to the airport to go to Uganda for 10 days. I'll be really MIA then. I promise not to lose my camera this time!

Send happy thoughts to my tummy!
M

I have returned!

Good afternoons little muffins!

I'm home from Honduras! Covered in bug bites and peeling from a sunburn but I'm here!

Sadly I don't have any pictures to show you... Literally the last morning my camera was lost/stolen. SIGH

When we left the hotel at 5 am I left my camera in the room. There was an amazing sunrise coming over the mountains at the airport and I wanted to take a picture BUT I had no camera. I immediately realized what happened and LITERALLY jumped in a cab. By the time I got back it was already gone.

I keep on hoping that it will magically turn up in my (still not unpacked) luggage. But it's hard to sneaky when you are a giant ass camera.

I'm sad for losing the photos and my camera was a graduation gift from my Dad and so I'm extra bummed because of that. Not to mention that it was a wicked expensive giant Nikon. I have travel insurance but I didn't have time to file a police report (required to get a reimbursement) since my flight was leaving in less than an hour.

I'M BUMMED!

But, otherwise the trip was a huge success. I absolutely loved it!

I would tell you all about it but without pictures it's a little dull for the average reader. But if you want to know more you can always email me and I can fill you in city by city!

Tonight we have big plans for all you can eat sushi! I can't wait!

Don't worry- I have another camera and will start taking pictures again asap!

Dinner favorite

Far and away the dinner that Chris requests I make the most is asparagus topped with olives, feta, tomatoes (not pictures), and a splash of balsamic oil.


This is the ultimate detox meal. When we've had a long weekend of too much adult fun, long road trips filled with fast food, or have over eaten at holidays we always come back to this meal.

I love this meal so much
1. We ate it as our last meal before leaving for Honduras and had it the day before!
2. I made a variation on this dinner constantly while I was backpacking through Europe. I definitely got some jealous looks from people who were eating frozen pizza once again.

It's meals like this that make me think I could be come a vegetarian long term... as long there was lots and lots of cheese involved!

My newest caffinated obsession

Last week I tried something new that might change my life FOREVER.

FOR-EV-ER

(Maxwell House Instant Lattes)

I signed up to get several free samples from Kraft* and three packages of Maxwell House Vanilla Caramel Latte were included with wheat thins and coupons for Kraft items.

AND OMG ARE THEY GOOD! At only 60 calories each they are the perfect afternoon pick me up. They foam up like a regular latte and are the perfect blend of sweet caramel and coffee.

Seriously, if you like flavored coffee or are a fan of deliciousness rush out and grab a pack of these!

Sadly, I was not paid to endorse this item but I would gladly accept some free yumminess!

The only way you'll regret it is if you get a little addicted like me!
xoxo,
M


* Have you checked out Hey It's Free yet? There are lots of freebees there-- usually it's something little but it's always fun to get a treat filled package in the mail!

** I'm still in Honduras! This post was scheduled by the magic that is Blogger!

Curl Up and Diet

On days when I'm feeling not so little and need an emotional pick-me-up this poem, Curl Up and Diet, by Ogden Nash always makes me chuckle and see reality (and not just my giant behind).


Curl Up and Diet

Some ladies smoke too much and some ladies drink too much and some ladies pray too much,
But all ladies think that they weigh too much.
They may be slender as a sylph or a dryad,
But just let them on the scales and they embark on a doleful jerremiad;
No matter how low the figure needle happens to touch,
They always claim it is at least five pounds too much;
No matter how underfed to you a lady's anatomy seemeth;
She describes herself as Leviathan or Behemoth;
To the world she may appear slinky and feline,
But she inspects herself in the mirror and cries Oh, I look like a sea lion;
Yes, she tells you she is growing into the shape of a sea cow or manatee,
And if you say No, my dear, she says you are just lying to make her feel better, and if you say Yes, my dear, you injure her vanity.
And in any case her eyes flow like faucets,
And she goes out and buys some new caucets.
Once upon a time there was a girl more beautiful and witty and charming than tongue can tell,
And she is now a dangerous raving maniac in a padded cell,
And the first indication her friends and relatives had that she was mentally overwrought
Was one day when she said I weigh a hundred and twenty-seven, which is exactly what I ought.
Oh, often I am haunted
By the thought that somebody might some day discover a diet that would let ladies reduce just as much as they wanted,
Because I wonder if there is a woman in the world strong-minded enough to shed ten pounds or twenty,
And say There now, That's plenty;
And I fear me one ten-pound loss would only arouse the craving for another,
So it wouldn't do any good for ladies to get their ambition and look like somebody's fourteen-year-old brother,
Because, having accomplished this with ease,
They would next want to look like somebody's fourteen-year-old brother in the final stages of some obscure disease,
And the more success you have the more you want to get of it,
So then their goal would be to look like somebody's fourteen-year-old brother's ghost, or rather not the ghost itself, which is fairly solid, but a silhouette of it,
So I think it is very nice to be lithe and lissome,
But not so much so that you cut yourself if you happen to embrace or kissome

- Ogden Nash (1935)



**I'm still in Honduras! This post made possible by the marvels of technology.