Most important news first: Haleigh, Amber, and Kyrillos each got more than 8 hours of sleep last night!

We proceeded to have a lazy morning: Haleigh attempted to start being productive (as Haleigh does), but twenty minutes later the wifi cut out. She eventually decided to change her definition of productivity to include removing the gecko trap (yes, Isaac is still chilling on the ceiling), doing a preliminary dish wash, and trying to make microwave Velveeta.

Fortunately, she was successful in all three of her endeavors. We were particularly grateful that the microwave decided to work today, since nothing says comfort like Mac and cheese with chia seeds.

Since our TOT meeting got postponed to tomorrow— long story, don’t ask, apparently everyone goes to Kampala on Saturdays— Haleigh and Amber had some more time to run data analytics and create a new and improved presentation for tomorrow’s meeting. While this was going on, Kyrillos decided to do his laundry for the first time here….

Having now completed his first session of hand washing, let’s listen to what Kyrillos has to say about his experience.

Article: How to hand wash your clothes, according to the experts.

Modern-day laundry-doers have it pretty easy: Soiled clothes, towels and sheets into the washing machine and come out clean, job done. But knowing how to launder by hand is more useful than you might think. For all the readers that have never hand washed their clothes, please refer to this guide for step by step instructions on how to do laundry here in Uganda.

Step 1: fill three baskets with water and to the first one, add detergent.

Step 2: beginning with the light colored clothes, submerge each clothing item into the first basket and wash.

Step 3: Once you have washed the clothes well, remove them from the water. Then, carefully place them in the other tub of clean water. Rinse the clothes by pulling them in and out of the water for two to three minutes. This will help to remove any soap still on them.

Step 4: Once again, remove the clothes from the second tub and wring the water out.

Step 5: At this point, I’d like to take a minute and share this moment with you. This is who you are learning from… *insert video here*

Kyrillos did successfully complete his laundry and its hanging outside in the rain to dry. Thank you for tuning into our Ted Talk.

Other household duties today: Haleigh attempted to cook some beans for dinner. The package said two hours cooking time so she was very on top of things starting at 4 pm. An hour later she asked if anyone smelled something weird, but nobody did, so she ignored it. 30 minutes later she went to check on the beans and discovered that the smell was burning beans… except the beans still weren’t cooked. She’s very confused as to what happened, but it probably has something to do with the fact that our stove has no simmer option.

After this fiasco, we ordered pizza for dinner from —you guessed it— Eunie’s Kitchen. Everyone seems to put ketchup on their pizza here, which we all refused to try, but Amber was fascinated by the chili sauce. As we mentioned on our first day, packages aren’t perforated here. However, Amber found a way to pull off the top of the packet (very exciting!) only to discover it did absolutely nothing and the packet was still completely sealed. She then found a way to pull off the side of the packet (even more promising!)… yet still to no avail. She now had a smaller packet with less surface area to help grip it. As a final attempt, she requested scissors, but Haleigh didn’t feel like getting up to find where they were buried in her suitcase, so she took it upon herself to open the packet.

Haleigh wondered aloud, “What would happen if I bent the packet and squeezed it? I feel like the pressure would open it?” While ideal gas laws (PV= nRT anyone?) did seem to work in this case as the increase in pressure without a decrease in volume popped the container, Haleigh forgot about kinematic principles. In other words, the chili sauce went flying onto the nearby wall and curtain. And, as Amber would like everyone to know, a speck flew onto Amber’s white shirt. However, Amber dropped the last piece of their shared pizza on the floor so they’re even now. This reminded Haleigh of when she spilled m&ms in the same spot, so she forgave Amber while eating the rest of her floor m&ms (yes they are at least 2 weeks old, no comment).

“It was more than a speck, and she got some on my pants too” -Amber

In other news, Amber has started randomly saying “Where’s my supersuit?” whenever she can’t find something, much to Haleigh’s enjoyment. Additionally, while she’s successfully avoided mosquito bites during her time here so far, we think Amber got her first-ever spider bite today! The three of us are still working on the differential diagnosis, but don’t worry, she’s fine (for now).