Mukisa

Mukisa means blessing in Lugandan…and that means Mukisa is the perfect name for the place I get to work while I’m here!

I’ve mentioned Mukisa a few times but I’d like to talk about it more…considering I spend four days a week there! I work at Mukisa Tuesday through Friday from 9 to 4. It’s only a ten minute walk from home but Florence leaves at the same time as me so I usually ride with her. We get there just in time for breakfast. Each day there’s bread and butter, porridge, bananas, and tea or coffee. At first I stayed away from the porridge because it looks pretty gross but Marie convinced me to try it and now I have it every day! I only like it if I add sugar though, and recently I discovered that if you put some instant coffee mix in it you get coffee flavored porridge…delicious!! =]

The living room

I can eat breakfast anywhere but I like to have it in the living room. There are always some mothers having breakfast with their kids in the living room and sometimes I’m also joined by the German volunteers. 

I love that each day starts off in such a calm way…everyone is relaxed and greeting each other; “Good morning, how are you? I’m fine thank you, how are you? I’m fine!” I hear that about a hundred times every morning! Breakfast usually lasts until about 9:45, but that means some days 9:30, some days 10! After breakfast is music therapy…one of my favorite parts of the day!

Most of the caretakers (not all of them because some of them have a tailoring class they go to) and all of the children go to the music room. There are three or four drums that the moms, caretakers, or therapists play and then we sing songs! Most of the songs are in Lugandan and the rest are in English. Though I like when they sing English ones so I can join in, I have to admit the Lugandan ones sound so much better!! Music lasts anywhere from twenty to forty five minutes. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays after music I work with the therapists. Tuesdays I’m with either Idah or Farieda, the physiotherapists, and on Wednesdays I’m with either Sulaiti or James, the occupational therapists. I’ve loved the time I’ve spent with the therapists and I feel like I’m learning a lot. I’ve been able to help with lots of passive stretching on the kids who have cp and then different sitting exercises for some others. They use an exercise ball quite a bit to help the kids who aren’t able to hold their head up or sit on their own and I’ve helped with that a few times. I’ve also learned how to use the standing frame. Time in the standing frame allows the child to weight bear which is good for them in a lot of different ways. It can be really difficult to get the kids into the frame since it’s usually pretty uncomfortable for them. It can really break my heart when they scream and cry but I have to know that we’re doing what’s best for them in the long run. One of the most exciting things I’ve been able to do with the therapists is help one of the little boys to walk. He has hydrocephalus and has a lot of trouble walking but he’s definitely learning and getting better!

Therapy lasts until lunch time which is around one. After lunch on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I help with the autism class. Brita, Marie, and Sophie also help with the class most afternoons and sometimes we’re joined by the teachers; Anne and Grace. Anne and Grace are really fun to work with…they’re those people who complement each other perfectly. Anne is quite sarcastic with a dry sense of humor and Grace is just a sweetheart who loves to laugh! There are four boys in the class; Hamzah, Cedric, Dalton, and Moses. They’re all around the same age and even though there are only four of them they can be quite a handful sometimes!! Something I love is how unique they each are; they all have such different personalities.

Hamzah is a stinker but he is so loveable! He’s very affectionate and is usually pretty easy to please.

Cedric is the quiet one…one of his favorite things to do is just sit and stare at my watch!! I guess he likes to see the numbers changing or something? He also follows directions pretty well which is so helpful!









Dalton also follows directions well but he’s not quiet like Cedric. I think that of all four of them Dalton has the longest attention span...he’s great during story time and he can sit and watch a movie really well (unless it’s raining really hard outside, then he just wants to look out the window!)











Then finally there’s Moses. Ah, what to say about Moses… 

Moses's smile...drool and all!!

Moses is the crazy one! He’s loud and hyper and rarely follows directions. I always tell him he’s lucky he’s cute…and he really is cute!! He’s got an adorable smile and he usually smiles really big right before he tries to run away or throw something or whatever else he does!! Even though he’s hard to work with he really is a great kid and the more time he spends at Mukisa the happier and better behaved he gets.

The rest of my time at Mukisa (Wednesday’s after lunch and Thursday and Friday mornings) are spent in the vocational classroom. There are about six or seven kids who go to vocational class but they aren’t all in there at once. Some go four days a week, others only one. There are three that are there every day and I’ve gotten to know them pretty well. Peter, Jackie, and Sarah.

They’re all around 20 years old and they’re a lot of fun! Peter and Jackie will sit there are talk to each other in Lugandan the whole time. One time I asked Sulaiti what they were saying because he happened to be in the room and he said they were arguing about who was older and more mature. Peter was telling Jackie that he was older and she was saying that he was wrong. How cute is that?! All the volunteers talk about how Jackie and Peter are in love, I don’t know if they really are but they are definitely great friends.

Sarah is really quiet and she’s great at making necklaces. That’s one of the activities for the vocational class. There are quite a few different activities that they can learn to do; making necklaces, bracelets, earrings, table mats, rugs, envelopes, and folders. The things they make are sold to Mukisa so they can earn some money.

While I’m in the class I help in whatever way the kids need. Sometimes they need constant supervision and other times they don’t really need help at all. If I’m not helping them directly there are a few different things I do. So far there’s been a lot of organizing to do in the classroom with all the supplies they have; I’m good at organizing so that’s been fun! Also, when they make necklaces or bracelets I finish them for the kids. They get all the beads on then I’ll tie it if they aren’t able to. After that the ends have to be melted so they don’t come undone. It’s pretty simple work but I really enjoy it and I think the kids do too.

I mentioned lunch briefly…like I said, it’s around one. Lunch consists of a few different things; there’s always rice…always! There are also always beans, they’re quite good! Sometimes there is g-nut sauce; sometimes not…we always get excited when they have it though because it makes everything taste even better! Then there will be one of the following; matoke, sweet potatoes (yellow ones, not orange), Irish potatoes (which I guess are just normal potatoes), or posho. I don’t know how to describe posho, it looks like mashed potatoes but it’s just maize flour and water so there’s not a whole lot of taste to it. It’s not good by itself but with the beans it’s not so bad. Then for a vegetable there will either be cabbage (so good!!), eggplant, or “greens” (still not sure what exactly the greens are). Basically, lunch is simple but always filling and tasty! The volunteers; Marie, Brita, Ellen, Sophie, and I, all eat together. We fill up our plates then go outside to eat. There’s a big sandbox at Mukisa with walls that are just the right height for sitting. I quite enjoy having lunch in the sandbox every day!! It’s been fun getting to know the girls and it’s nice to have a little break. Even though lunch is filling we sometimes get lucky and get other snacks during the day. One of the moms, Mama Marie, will bring little bags of g-nuts and roasted maize (which tastes just like corn nuts back home!!) that she sells for 500 schillings.

This is Marie, her mom is the one who brings in the snacks!

Then once in a while we are able to have mangoes from the tree that’s in the yard, that’s always SUCH a good treat! And if there aren’t g-nuts or mangoes Annette, the cook, always has muffins you can buy for 500 schillings. I will never go hungry at Mukisa!

I feel so blessed to have been placed at Mukisa; it’s a foundation that’s really making a difference in a lot of lives. Please pray for Mukisa…that it continues to grow and reach more and more children. Pray for the staff who give and give and give to make everything run smoothly.

And please pray for me. =] I have been blessed more than I even realize since I’ve been here and I want to be a good steward of those blessings.

All my love,

Molly

Running in Uganda...

RUNNING IN UGANDA MEANS…

Alarm clock: seven a.m.

Getting used to the feeling of a bottle of pepper spray in my hand (it’s really not necessary but it makes me feel safe!)

Lots and lots of children shouting “MIZUNGO” and waving at me like I’m in a parade

Nearly running over the chickens that seem to come from nowhere

Nearly getting run over by the bodas which also seem to come from nowhere

Breathing in more dust and exhaust fumes than I ever could have imagined

hills. hills. hills.

Experiencing an assortment of smells. Some good, some…not so much

Thinking about my teammates and praying that they’re having as much fun training as I am!!

I wouldn’t change a thing…because while I’m running in Uganda, I’m loving every dusty, smelly,

crazy minute of it!

=]

Safari Photos

The boat we used for the Nile Cruise

This is the leopard we saw, it's on a lower branch on the left side (it looked much cooler through the binoculars!!!)

No leopards in this tree, I just thought it was pretty!

On the boat cruise!

These are the warthogs that were all over the place! I think it looks like they have mullets..

Aren't the baby hippos adorable?!

We were able to get out and take pictures on the rocks to the right of these trees!

Our tent! =]

This was the main hang out area of the rest camp, all the meals were served here 

We had a great view of the upper and lower falls during the hike!

The constant rainbow! <3

Creation Praises Him!!

Uganda is quite a “tourist friendly” place; there are all sorts of amazing things to do not only in Kampala but all over the country.  As soon as I got here I started hearing about some of the different things there are to do. Two in particular kept coming up over and over; going on an African safari and white water rafting on the Nile. For a variety of reasons I decided to go on the safari but not the rafting trip. I wanted to only do one or the other and the safari seemed like the right choice…

It was!

Cat booked a safari through Red Chili from Thursday to Saturday for Cat, Carolyn, and me. Since we knew the vans would be heading out at 8:30 Thursday morning we decided to spend Wednesday night at the Red Chili hostel. We left home around seven thirty (or half seven, as Cat says!), it was a little later than we had planned but Florence had made us an amazing Ugandan dinner so it was definitely worth being a little behind schedule!

We decided to take bodas to the taxi park since it was later than we had meant to leave. I didn’t bring a backpack to Uganda with me so I was pulling around my little carry-on suitcase...not the easiest thing to get on a boda (though, I figured if they can manage to get a family of five on one boda then my suitcase shouldn’t be too big of a problem!!) The driver took it for me a laid it across the handlebars, I was just glad I didn’t have to try to hold it! We were about halfway to the park when he pointed at it and said “this is disturbing”. I assumed he meant it was disturbing his ability to steer and got a little nervous, I offered to take it but he just kept driving and we ended up making it there safe and sound!

When we got to the hostel we were all pretty exhausted so we showered and went to bed.

Breakfast was at 7:30 the next morning and I had an interesting experience…when I look at a menu I typically look at the prices first, to find something within my price range, then I see if anything sounds good. They had a well priced option of “Muesli with milk or natural yogurt”. Carolyn had told me that muesli was a type of granola so of course I chose that with the yogurt.

The natural yogurt.

Yep, that means it tasted terrible!!! Thankfully there was a big bottle of pancake syrup sitting out so I kind of just covered the whole thing with syrup and it became quite delicious!! =]

I know how to improvise!

We were assigned our vans after breakfast and then we hit the road. We got really lucky with our van; it was full of people our age!

There were the three of us, a group of three from Germany (two girls and a guy), another guy from Germany and then halfway there we picked up another girl from, you guessed it, Germany!

I was so thankful for the group we were in, since we were with our group so often during the three days it really made a difference. We enjoyed conversations about a whole range of things from German politics to Pinky and the Brain. (Globalization at its finest: eight twenty-something’s from three different countries having a lovely conversation about how we all watched the same cartoons when we were little. Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner were particular favorites and even came with sound effects!)

We had a few stops along the way so we could use the bathroom and get snacks. Something I love about Uganda; almost anywhere you go you can find little 500 schilling bags of g-nuts. They are the perfect snack and since 500 schillings is less than fifty cents you don’t even have to feel bad about buying them!! Another good snack (not as cheap though...) are Nice Biscuits. They’re coconut flavored cookies and I love them! (Mom, you would love them too, I’ll bring some home for you!!!)

We got to the Red Chili Rest Camp about an hour before dinner was being served. Since we had some time to spare we got settled into our tents then took a walk down to the river. We were super excited when we spotted a hippo out in the water. Little did we know that the next day we would see more hippos than we could imagine!!

After dinner we played cards with some of the people from our bus then pretty much went to bed. It’s amazing how riding in a car all day can make you feel exhausted! We were told to watch out for hippos, buffalo, and warthogs if we were up during the night; thankfully I slept through the night and didn’t have to take any chances!

We were pulling out of camp for our game drive by 7 Friday morning. We had packed breakfasts that we got to eat on our way out; chipatti, pineapple slices, and a banana…very delicious!

The game drive turned out to be amazing!! We saw everything there was to see except for hyenas! That means that up close and in REAL LIFE I got to see all the different deer/gazelle looking things, buffalo, monkeys, hippos, elephants, giraffe, lions, and even a leopard! They told us before we even started that it was rare to see leopards and not every drive was lucky enough to see lions…thankfully we were the lucky ones!

It was pretty interesting trying to find a lion out in the “savannah grasslands”. I put that in quotes because our safari guide told us that was where we were about a hundred times, it got to be pretty funny! Anyways, to find a lion we would be driving along the road and all of a sudden our guide would tell the driver to go one way or the other and we’d be off the road driving through tall grass looking for lions! Crazy!!

When we did eventually find one I was in awe. The first one we saw was a male and he was hiding in some bushes. We were stopped next to the bushes and our guide goes.."there!” and points. It took me a second to find the lion, it was like looking at one of those mirage things where out of nowhere the image jumps out at you (though thankfully the lion didn’t literally jump out at me!)  Once I saw it I just kept staring; I couldn’t believe that I was less than fifteen feet away from it! I’ve seen lions before, in the zoo or in movies or what not, but this wasn’t the same. Seeing it in such a natural state was just different, and that goes for all the animals I saw. Looking at the elephants I just couldn’t get over how diverse creation is. I’ve always heard that “creation praises Him” and it always feels natural to pray and thank God when surrounded by creation. This was true especially on the safari. When you see something you’ve never seen before, like mountains, or the ocean, or real live lions, I think it must be impossible not to immediately tell God how amazing he is!

There was one other thing I realized during the safari, and I don’t mean this as a complaint in any way, but no matter how amazing an experience is, it kind of feels like something’s missing when the people you love don’t get to experience it with you. Maybe next time..=]

At one point we were driving along and there were all these giraffes way out to the left of us; combined with all the trees and the sun in the background it made for a gorgeous skyline.

After the drive we had lunch then had a little down time before we had to leave for our boat cruise to Murchison Falls. I bet you’ll never guess what I did for my down time…took a nap! Surprise surprise, even with plenty of sleep the night before I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to take a nap! (Emily, I know you’ll appreciate that!)

The boat cruise was great; we had perfect weather! It was warm but just a little overcast so we weren’t uncomfortable. Right away we were able to see lots of hippos. I was taking lots of pictures then I realized they all looked exactly the same; like a river with rocks sticking up all over! Then we got lucky and found a group of hippos that were out of the water. They are massive! There were even some baby ones which as strange as it sounds to say are just adorable!

We were really hoping to see some crocodiles but that didn’t happen until about two hours into the cruise, still though, incredible. Despite being on a huge boat and being over twenty feet away from them, seeing huge Nile Crocodiles kind of made me shiver.

When we made it to the falls we were able to get out and take some pictures for a bit then we headed back. The falls were gorgeous, but were much prettier up close the next day when we got to hike next to them!

Friday night was just like Thursday night; dinner, cards, bed! Thursday I learned a great new card game though…Sara and Lys, if you’re reading this, we’re playing it when I get home!! =]

Thankfully Friday we had a little later start so it was actually light out when we left! We drove to a little park near the top of the falls then went on about an hour long hike. We had some really beautiful views of the falls and lots of great picture opportunities! We were even so close at one point that we were all getting hit by the mist!  My favorite part was that over the falls there was this constant rainbow. The way the sun was hitting the mist it just made an arc over the whole thing and it was marvelous! As long as there’s a bit of sun there’s always a rainbow, it may be cheesy but the little girl in me found it to be quite magical!

That was pretty much the end of the safari but the events for the day were far from over!

On our way back to Kampala our driver decided to make a pit stop at his friend’s house. We all ended up going on this little trail through the woods out into this mango farm. It was so cool! We got to pick mangoes right off the trees and got to talk to the farmer for a little bit too. He was asking us how long we’d been in Kampala and was pretty impressed when one of the German girls said nine months. Then we asked him how long he’d been in Kampala and he said 65 years, needless to say nine months no longer sounded like a long time!

After the mango farm it rained the rest of the way home…that made for lots of fun in the taxi park! Cat and I decided that no matter what happened as long as we didn’t fall in the mud everything would be ok! I managed to carry my purse, my suitcase, and a pineapple I had bought all the way home and I didn’t fall; success!

We scrubbed our feet when we got home from the fresh mud that was covering them then we watched a movie and ate reeses cups!

Sunday we went out to coffee with Julie and Beth. I ordered a Mixed Berry latte and ended up with quite an interesting looking drink! It came layered in a clear glass; grenadine, espresso, milk, white chocolate. Thankfully it tasted as good as it looked!

We went to Watoto Central after our coffee and it was awesome!! The worship was amazing and I thought the message was great too; I’d love to go back. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what to do about church here though. I’m only here for two more months which really isn’t a long time…yet I don’t want to miss an opportunity to get involved in some way in a church here.

When church was over Cat, Carolyn, and I met up with Josephine and headed out of town to her sister’s house. We hung out there all afternoon and had a delicious lunch with them. They made us tilapia, rice, potatoes, matoke, and the most delicious juice I’ve ever had! It was such a good time and they were so generous, not only with giving us lunch but they also gave each of us gifts of homemade jewelry.

  

From beginning (which in this case was Wednesday night!) to end…my weekend was fantastic! I will certainly join with creation (lions and all!) to praise God and thank him for his many many blessings!

MATOKE!

Today “going with the flow” lead me to an afternoon better than I could have imagined!

Cat had planned earlier in the week to go to church with Josephine, our Ugandan friend. I was of course along for the ride but as of Saturday afternoon we were still pretty unsure of what exactly our plans were. It can be pretty difficult to make plans over the phone…language barriers (or maybe I should say accent barriers...) become an even bigger problem when you can’t see the person you’re talking to!  Josephine had told Cat we would be going to Watoto East.

     In Kampala there are four Watoto churches; East, West, South, and Central. There’s also a Watoto North up in Gulu. They have a really great ministry and a lot of the AIM people go to one of them; typically the one they live closest to. You can check out what they do a little more at www.watotochurch.org.

            Anyways, Cat and I are really close to Watoto West, which means Watoto East is completely across town therefore really far away, especially when you take a taxi there! We were confused about why she wanted to go to the East church but decided it would be fine and we’d go anyways. We met down the road at eight and began the commute. Josephine had told Cat we’d be taking taxis so we both wore long skirts thinking we wouldn’t be riding any bodas….wrong. Well, I suppose I was bound to ride side saddle at some point! It wasn’t as difficult as I thought though, a pleasant surprise! We got to church at about 9:20 and waited for the ten o’clock service to start.
The worship was great…if anyone reading this was in church in Hastings the Sunday before I left, Steve was right, they know how to worship in Africa!! =]

Josephine wanted us to meet her mom so after church we walked to her village. Cat fell in a ditch on the way..no big deal, now her knees just match her shins. It was a long (and super dusty!) walk but it was so worth it! After we met her mom Josephine gave us each a soda and some bread and we just chilled at her house for a while. I was really grateful for the opportunity to see life in the village as opposed to the city. One of my favorite things about it was that all the neighbors were out behind the house just kind of hanging out together. The kids were climbing the trees and a few of the women were working on some chores but they were talking too and seemed to be enjoying each other! It was a great atmosphere. =]

We were headed back into town after that when all of a sudden Josephine had the taxi stop and we all piled out again. She told us she really wanted us to meet her cousin’s sister, Pamela. Cat and I were a little confused because we really hadn’t expected any home visits, let alone two, but we weren’t about to turn down another opportunity to get to know Josephine and her family better! Another walk ensued, this one much less dusty! Soon enough we were sitting on a bed in a cute little room of a hostel that Pamela and her roommate Lydia share. They’re both near my age and they go to University in Kampala. They were friendly and the conversation was nice..but also pretty typical. You know, the usual questions and pleasantries and what not. That didn’t last long though…they said something about us visiting Josephine’s house and I was like, “Yeah! She gave us soda and everything, it was super nice!” and both Pamela and Lydia seemed completely surprised and started talking to Josephine really fast in Lugandan. Before Cat or I knew what was going on they had decided they were making us lunch! Apparently they couldn’t believe Josephine hadn’t served us matoke (I’ll explain what that is a bit later) and took it upon themselves to do just that. The truth is, Josephine had tried to serve us lunch but Cat was supposed to be home by three so we had told her it wasn’t necessary and she gave us the soda instead.

Lydia was out the door and back just a few minutes later with some grocery bags from the little stand down the road. I had a blast watching her pull stuff from the bag. It was like Mary Poppins, there was no end to the fresh fruits and vegetables she had bought!

They told us they were making us matoke with g-nut sauce. The dish is called Katogo. She had this strange looking lump that she put in a bowl with hot water and handed to Josephine. That was the g-nut; its ground up peanuts that they turn into a sauce. Then she pulled out this huge bunch of matoke. It looks exactly like bananas except its green and its everywhere here! She started peeling them faster than I’ll ever be able to peel anything! Cat joined her and while they were working on that Pamela peeled some mangoes for all of us to share. Once the matoke was all peeled and was in a pot Lydia added water and put it on their little heater thing to boil. She started chopping tomatoes and onions next and Pamela started making juice. She had a strainer over a pitcher and put two passion fruits and four oranges in it. Then she added some water and sugar. The juice was amazing! Next she sliced up an avocado and “set the table”. I put it in quotes because we all sat on the floor while we ate! We still all had placemats and everything else though, it was so fun! By the time that was done the matoke was ready so they drained it and added the tomatoes, onions, and sauce.

Lydia dished up two plates and set them in front of Cat and I…and we just stared. The portion was HUGE! I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish it but I didn’t know what to say. Apparently I didn’t need to say anything; the look on our faces said it all. The three of them just burst into laughter and started talking about how Ugandans eat huge portions and how mizungos would never be able to eat all that they had given us! They cut the portion down then said flat out, “you don’t know what to do now, do you?” They were right! They said that you peel a section of the avocado into the bowl then eat it with the matoke. We did, and we loved it!! It was easily the best Ugandan food I’ve had so far!

We had great conversation the whole time we ate; they told us all the different things we should try while we’re here and all the different places we should try to visit. They continually laughed at all my questions though I didn’t mind because once they stopped laughing they always answered me anyways.

We made plans to meet again next Sunday for lunch then hang out afterwards since we didn’t have time today (as it turned out we didn’t get home until after four!).

The entire time we were there I felt SO blessed by the three of them. They provided an entire meal for us and didn’t seem bothered by it in the least!  I feel so lucky to have met them and I really hope I’ll get to spend a lot more time with them while I’m here!!

I told Josephine that since they’re making us lunch twice I have to make them all lunch at least once (so if you have any good ideas of some “American” food I can make them, let me know!!).

Besides the awesome company, there are some perks to having a Ugandan friend; on the way home Josephine showed me the best place to get nail polish along with a whole handful of other little “tricks” I would have never learned otherwise!

I really just can’t get over how amazing my day turned out to be. As we headed out in the morning I was thinking; trip across town, church, trip back home, nap. I never did get to take a nap, but I would gladly trade a nap for what I got to experience any day!!

Pictures from Week One! (the full album is on my facebook)

The view from just outside my gate. This little road leads down to a bigger one where we can find a boda or taxi.

Cat and I outside the gate!

This is one of the girls from Dawn. She's the happiest child I've ever met (though I suppose this picture doesn't show that very well...this might be the calmest I've seen her!)

In a taxi

Ice Cream!!! The green was pistachio (so good!) and the orange was mango (not good..this and the yogurt I talked about are what finally convinced me that only real mangos are good!)

Me on a boda!! This guy was Jospehine's friend and he got such a kick out of me wanting a picture on the boda!

Pamela and I with some delicious mango

Matoke!

Fresh fruit juice (passion and orange), avacado, and matoke with g nut sauce

Cat, Pamela, Lydia, Jospehine, Me!

a little friend Cat and I found in the hallway =]

My first (real) weekend in Uganda!!

Good news, I now have internet at home!!

That means you'll hear from me much more often, excited?! ;]

Friday was a public holiday, Martyr's Day, so we didn't have to go in to Mukisa. Instead we had a "tourist" day!
It started at twenty after seven when I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep! The dogs weren't barking, the annoying bird wasn't making noise; I just couldn't fall back asleep. I ended up being quite pleased though because I took it to mean I was finally over jet-lag!

I was excited to try some mango flavored yogurt I bought at Nakuumat (a big grocery store downtown) but I soon discovered the only mango flavored things I like are REAL mangoes! It was really quite terrible! I'll have to see if Cat or Florence wants it because I don't think I'll be able to bear it!

Once we were up and ready to go we got a boda into town where we had planned to meet Rachel and Carolyn (other AIM short-termers). We had a few errands to run at Garden City (buying internet!!!) then we headed to "Friday Market". There are markets all over town all week long but on Friday there's a really big one downtown. There are all sorts of crafts and souvenirs that you can buy and tons of mizungos roaming around. I felt like I was going crazy because there are SO many beautiful things to buy, I couldn't decide! Something I really like about the market is that things really are handmade; you can see them making it! It’s cool to see the drums and baskets being made.

Once we were done with the market we got two bodas and were supposed to go to the old taxi park. I don't know if I've explained this already in a previous post but there are two taxi parks in Kampala, the old and the new. The taxi park is a really big area with a million taxis jammed into it; the perfect place to get your toes ran over! I mean it though; it's absolutely insane how many vans there are in one place! There’s sort of a system to it all but it sure doesn't seem like it...there are no lines on the ground to follow or anything like that! I feel like I’m making it sound so terrible but it’s actually quite handy, you can get a taxi to nearly anywhere in Kampala and the surrounding area at the taxi park. You just walk in and ask around about the place you’re looking to go then they point in a general direction so you walk that way and eventually ask someone else until you get to the right place! (If you really know what you’re doing you don’t have to ask around but that hasn’t happened for me yet!) Anyways, our bodas got separated so Rachel and I ended up at the new taxi park while Carolyn and Cat were at the old one. Soon enough we found each other though (thank goodness for cell phones!) and found a taxi to Masaka which was the direction of the equator.

The taxis won’t leave the park until they’re full so we ended up sitting for quite a while. I consider time spent sitting in the taxi park “window shopping time”. Normal window shopping involves walking to different stores and looking at all the things you can buy through the windows, but taxi park window shopping is much easier…you just sit back and relax in the taxi and an endless stream of things to purchase just flows right by the window. People sell everything in the Taxi Park; watches, sunglasses, ice cream, grasshoppers, blankets, even French to English dictionaries! We all bought an ice cream while we waited. Once the van was full we headed out, the trip took about an hour and a half.

We took our pictures at the monuments (you’ll see that in some of them we were joined by some of the children from a nearby shop, so cute!) and walked through some of the shops then had lunch. The tables that were used for lunch were big African drums, very cool looking!

We had been invited for pizza back in Kampala but by the time we were home we were too tired to go out again so Cat and I bought a pineapple from the market and had that while we watched a movie with Florence and her sisters.
 
Saturday morning I got up early to run. It was my second run since I’ve been here and it went much better than the first. (The first was terrible, I tried to go in the evening and it was hot and dusty, not a good idea!) I ran up on the roads behind where we live...I mentioned before that Kampala is really hilly though I didn’t fully realize it until I was running! I had been running about six minutes when it occurred to me that I had been steadily going downhill. There’s hardly a way to avoid the long uphills though so I just kept going. During part of my run a little girl joined me, she was adorable! Later I was joined by a guy that looked just a little older than me. We ran together just a little bit and he talked to me the whole time! He was training for some upcoming competitions in Jinja and was a 400 meter runner.

I had orientation at ten over at the guesthouse that I originally stayed in. It was my first time traveling alone!! Everything went smoothly and the orientation was really helpful. One of the biggest things I took away from it was the importance of setting goals for my time here. I don’t want to get to August 15^th and think back on my time here and realize I never allowed myself to grow. I’ve really got to take some time to think about and pray about what goals to set. I want to avoid setting up expectations of myself and others though, that’s not the point of goals.

After orientation I took a taxi into town (again, by myself…yay!) and met up with Cat, Beth, and Julie at an art festival. It was my first time meeting Beth and Julie and I realized right away how great they are! A while before I left I was given Julie and Beth’s blogs so when I met them I kind of felt like I knew them already!
 
Something else exciting happened on Saturday…I think I finally found “my” boda driver! You can get a boda pretty much anywhere but it’s recommended that you find one you trust that you can use regularly. A lot of the other AIM girls have at least one or two that they’ll call to take them home after dinner or to church or other things like that. I’ve been on the lookout but I’ve had pretty high expectations so hadn’t found anyone until now. My criteria (in order of importance!!): drives carefully, knows the city (or doesn’t mind stopping and asking for directions!!), charges a fair price, understands and speaks English well enough that if I call and ask for a ride he’ll understand where to pick me up!

For church today we went to Watoto East. It’s all the way across town but we went with Josephine, a Ugandan friend we’ve made. Basically, this was the best afternoon I could have imagined. I’ll post about it another day though because Cat and I are going to watch a movie!

Until next time…

All my love,

Molly