I know it's a little late, but once again we've been without internet for quite some time now. I've decided that the electricity and internet at the convent are officially on Ugandan time!! For those of you who may not understand what this means, it means that there is absolutely no sense of time!!

Anyway, there has been so much that has happened in the past couple weeks, so I will start by going back to the weekend we left for Queen Elizabeth National Park. Dr. Byrn, one of the nursing professors from SMC, finally made it to Kyarusozi on Thursday, June 14th. She was supposed to be here on that Wednesday so that she could spend a couple days in the clinic with the nursing majors, but due to flight complications (we all know how that goes…lol) she arrived later.

Our first afternoon with Dr. Byrn was very nice we spent some time catching her up on everything that's been going on here and we were all just talking for a little bit before we were going to head outside to play with the neighborhood kids, when Becky, a peace corps volunteer living down the road from us, came running into the convent. She told us that Greg, who is a Notre Dame student living at the same place as Becky, dislocated his arm while playing volleyball across the street from us! We all ran outside to try and help him, but we honestly had no idea what to do. Luckily though, Greg himself is an EMT, so we brought him inside the convent and laid him on a bed and he talked us through what to do to pop his arm back in to place. It's was a very intense couple minutes, but we were able to do it!!! Of course after we fixed his arm, he needed to keep is immobilized, so I used my lifeguarding skills and made a sling for his arm.

The next day, Friday, was a really great day at school, and I would probably have to say that it has been my favorite day here so far. It was the all-school mass and it is only celebrated once a trimester, so we were very lucky to be able to experience it! It was such an amazing experience seeing the entire student body praying as one during mass and I just couldn't stop smiling the entire time. I tried recording a couple parts of the mass so that I could take it back with me and show all of you, but I decided to stop so that I could take it all in, in the actual moment. The P4 class (4th grade) sang in the choir and some of the older students did the readings for the mass. Something that I've observed since I've been in Africa has been how involved the entire assembly is at mass. They participate and sing their hearts out and give everything they have to God, and I think it is incredible!

After school we loaded up the good old land cruiser and headed to Fort Portal!! We were staying there until Sunday because one of the Sisters there, Sister Lillian, was the one who took us to QENP. This was my first time going to the convent in Fort Portal, and it was very nice, but very different than ours. The sisters there are so sweet and we all enjoyed getting to know them. On Saturday we woke up fairly early to go hiking. The last time we were in Sacca, which is where the novitiate's house is, we noticed that there were several hills (which actually looked more like small mountains). So all of us, including Dr. Byrn set out to climb the hills. The very first one was difficult to climb because it was so steep, but once we made it to the top it was absolutely amazing!!! I could see just about everything for miles and miles! We were even able to get a good view of the Rwenzori Mountains because it was so clear outside. We ended up hiking around I would say four or five large hills. Needless to say that after a day of hiking we were all very tired and ready for bed early, but I know I could at least barely sleep because I was so excited for the Safari the next day!!!