NYC, Dubai, Uganda

hello everyone! You should all know I'm currently in Uganda and all the traveling went very smoothly. While I was in New York, we went to Time Square, ate a local pasta place, and then went back to watch the Hawks game. Speaking of which, WE WON! GO HAWKS! As usual NYC was crazy busy, traffic was horrible, but all in all it was great to the city!

The next day we flew on Emirates into Dubai. It was a 13 hour plabne ride, yet it seemed to be a lot shorter. Once I actually arrived in Dubai it was not what I was expecting at all. The city is built from nothing and looks like a barbie doll land. Everything seems to be fake since all the buldings range from a blue, green, gold, silver, or metallic shiny color. Therefore, when the sun hits each building it lets off a glitterly shine. Each building has its own unique style, you wont be able to find two identical buildings. It almost looks like a child built a massive creatrive city out of toy blocks or legos, it's incredible! The city is also fairly new and has bloomed into a tacky but original place. In addition there's a big split in the land. On one side you see palace like structures and on the other side it looks like little shacks. Dubai contains the world's largest and second largest mall in the world. To be honest, walking through the malls I had no idea where to go because it's like a maze. Plus a good majority of the shops are typical stores that we have in the U.S. Not only do these malls have a vast number of stores, it contains an indoor skiing slope. The temperature in there was -3 degrees celsius. Which is a huge leap compared to the 103 degrees outside, not including the humidity. Besides the indoor skiing, theres also an aquarium. Truthfully, I don't know how one could possibly be bored in Dubai, the country offers almost anything a citizen could want! Personally for me Dubai was one of the only places where I felt completely safe and -prtoected. I think that was because I was well taken care of, the city itself is very welcoming, and the conflict there is at a minimum.

Today I finally arrived in Uganda and it's not the typical Africa site I imagined it to be. There aren't stranded trees in a desert and no random animals running around. Uganda and Ethopia are very green, almost everywhere you look there is either a large tree, grass, or some type of plant in the view. The roads have improved a great amount in the last two years especially. A couple years back there were deep pot holes and dricing took twice as long. Now it's like a typical highway, clean, smooth roads. However, there's still a lot ofd progress needed in the side roads. As we driving today it looked like an earthquake hit and split the road into two, cracks everywhere and giant holes. When I observed what the outside scenery there's a ton of small shacks, made out of wood or tin. All the buildings are fairly small, people wander the streets, the common vehicle here is either a moped/bike/motorcycle. For the average person, he/she walks where he/she needs to go, carry heavy loads on their backs. There were a ton of children dancing, playing, and laughing on the sidewalks or in the schools. I can tell there's a need for more schools here since it was surprising when one would pop up. I think Uganda has a a lot of potential to grow, but I'll be more aware of that in the next few weeks as i discover their culture, government, and people.

Well that's all for now :)