Back to Normal- Whatever That Is

So, schools started back here in Uganda this past Monday. It's the third and last term of the year so students are ready to get it over with and ready for the Christmas/summer holidays to begin. I delivered the young ladies who have been with me for the past month back to their homes on Sunday evening. I returned home to a quiet house actually felt quite empty.
Early Monday morning I caught a bus heading to the western part of the country to meet 4 other students, who are being sponsored by some very gracious friends, and to deliver them back to their schools. It was a hectic trip. I have discovered that no matter how many times they travel to and from school it is somehow impossible for children to be organized. At the boys' school, we discovered they had forgot to pack toothbrushes and towels for bathing. This meant a trip back into the main town to search for these items. Instead of back to school sales we found that shopkeepers take advantage of this time and hike the prices. After finally getting the boys settled in, it was time to do the same at the girls' school. Luckily they had me get what they had forgotten while we were shopping for the boys so we didn't have to make a repeat trip back into town. Finally around 8 in the evening I was ready for dinner and then ready for bed. It was another long ride back to the city the next morning and I wanted to try to get as much rest as I could. This didn't exactly happen. My friend's aunt decided that she wanted to go back to Kampala with me so I met her in town for dinner. We decided to share the room that I had already booked so that the price would be a little cheaper for both of us. She was bringing two chickens for my friend, both of which were still live and ready to make lost of noise for us during the night. She was fun to room with though. She doesn't speak English and I don't speak any of the western languages so our only way of communicating was through our made up version of sign. It was really comical so we spent a lot of time laughing.
The next morning we got to the taxi park early to get a bus back to Kampala. No buses. No mini vans. Due to the number of students traveling back to school, transportation was scarce. We were doomed to enter a small car meant for the driver and three passengers. We traveled back to Kampala with the driver, twelve passengers plus our two live chickens..... a very interesting trip indeed. Luckily everyone was in good moods and we shared a lot of laughs and stories along the way. Plus I made a couple of new friends: one nun from Kenya working at a school in Tanzania traveling through Uganda, a refugee from Rwanda that is currently "home" in Uganda from working as a security guard in Iraq, and a young mother on her way to take her first child to school.
I made it back to Kampala in one piece and should be back to my "normal" hectic schedule next week.