Getting Ready to Go

Ok, we are now only 5 and a half weeks away from leaving. Group 1 will be leaving three weeks from Saturday. I am almost totally ready to leave. I got all of my shots (with the exception of 1) last Thursday. It was not any fun, and I was being a huge baby before, during, and after getting them. I also felt as horrible as I could possibly feel on Friday because I had a small case of Yellow Fever because they gave me the live virus. I was nervous that the airport would not let me on the plane to the Kentucky Derby on Saturday because they thought that I had the Swine Flu, but they didn't really seem to care.

I met many awesome people in Kentucky during and after the Derby. I actually had many conversations about Uganda and people were very interested to hear about what I am doing this summer. As a side note, for anyone that had never been to the Kentucky Derby, I HIGHLY recommend going. It is worth any amount of money that you will spend, and the experience it unforgettable..... well I already forgot about some of it, but that is another story.

In preparing for Uganda we are also asked to do some requird reading. I am just about finished with the first book, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" and it is really good. It basically is about how the United States has persuaded countries to hire them to modernize their country. The country would then take out "loans" from the U.S. to pay our construction companies, and never be able to pay us back. Therefore the countries will be forced to "owe" us and we would use that for whatever we needed (or wanted) and basically own the country. I still have one more book to go, and seeing as I am a very slow reader, I will probably need to start right away.

Last weekend was Invisible Children's "The Rescue" event, and I attended the Boston Rescue. After 6 or so days Chicago was finally rescued by Oprah, meaning over 100 cities across the world were successful in getting rescued by either the media, a local or national celebrity or someone from the government.

Hopefully these last 5 weeks of school fly by and dont drag. It is very difficult coming back to school after a weekend at the Kentucky Derby and only having 5 weeks to go before going to Uganda, but I am sure they will go quickly. Also, The Killers concert is Saturday and the Third Eye Blind concert is Sunday, so this might be the best weekend of my life.

Finally, if you have not yet been to the Invisible Children web site please check it out and look around. Thats all for now. - Ryan

www.invisiblechildren.com