13. You can always fit one more in the van. ALWAYS

When we landed in Uganda, we took our massive amount of luggage out to the van that was supposed to be picking us up. We really did have a massive amount. I took everything I needed personally on as a carry on (very proud of that since I am not known for my packing light skills) and checked a rather large and very near the weight limit suitcase full of hospital supplies that I was in charge of keeping track of... until we dropped it off on the very last leg of our journey. That was a lot of luggage for my miniscule arms to cart around for a month... but we made it.

And all of us had that much luggage. We also had an extra body traveling with us who was meeting up with his group later.

As soon as I saw the van I thought NO WAY. No way all of us and our bags are fitting in/on that thing!

Thanks to some serious luggage piling skills from our driver and Afsheen (our travel buddy who I hope doesn't mind that I mention him in this blog, but we would all agree we would not have made it through this trip without his taking such good care of us), we fit all the bags on top of the car. Then we set to fitting in the car. To fit, you sit shoulder to shoulder with your friends, squeeze your legs together, and hope that the person sitting in front of you doesn't mind your knees as a back pillow. That first car ride, Afsheen ended up sitting in the back row, and I do believe he resorted to sticking his head out the window.

Along our travels we would inevitably end up with an extra person ... or two... or three... above the amount of seats who needed a ride... and that is when we learned you can ALWAYS fit one more in the van. You might think it impossible, but you can do it.

You get to be pretty "tight" buddies (sorry for the pun) with van rides like that each day... sometimes all day.

The best part? The 16 hour plane ride that made me feel as though I would die on the way out, had an impressive amount of leg room, was very smooth, and not all that long on the way back after getting used to the van... and airlines don't try to fit in extra bodies... although by that point we probably wouldn't have minded.