Mary, Mukisa, Mzungu

Olyotya lye Africa! Ono Mallory, nabakyala oba Nabagereka Lugazi. Welabe neabo mzungu jendi. Mutwe kibegabegas vviivis n' bugeres. Kiku Nkima's kkapa Jambo!

Roughly translated, "Greetings from Africa! This is Mallory, queen of Lugazi. It is very beautiful here. The people in the village are so friendly. The Monkey's say hello!

disclaimer: The preceding Lugandan paragraph does not actually make any coherent sense at all. You would be put in an insane asylum if you repeated it here in Lugazi. A word for word literal English translation would be - "How are you, is, Africa! This is a, Mallory, Queen, Lugazi. Goodbye, woman, white person, I am fine. Head, shoulders, knees, and, toes. (Made up word), Monkey's, cat, and Hello(in Swahili)!

But hey.. no one can say I'm not at least trying!

I am loving it in Africa so far, but the natives here can't say my name. When I introduce myself I usually have to repeat MALLORY three times before they say, "Okay, you shall be Mary." Hm.
Just a few days ago a man named Richard gave me my official Lugandan name - Mukisa. It means "lucky" or "blessed". I laughed pretty hard before I informed him of the meaning of my English name Mallory - "unlucky". Very concerned, he replied, "Your parents have named you wrong."
Oh.
Here, I usually answer to the children screaming "Bonga Mzungu!" anyway, so no big.


This last weekend I was informed by the guys in my group that I earned 50 man points. I'm still not sure if this is a good thing. I earned those points three ways...
1. RAFTING THE NILE RIVER, with 12 huge rapids, most class 5!
2. By being the only PERSON in the boat willing to do a back flip off the raft.
3. By surviving.

All in all, I'd say my experience in Africa has been not only life changing, but apparently a gender changing one as well.
Yeah... I conquered that in a raft...