May 21

I had my birthday in Africa! It was so good. After finally getting to sleep in a bed, for breakfast we had the best pineapple and fruit and toast ever. It was probably the best fruit I’ve had. They also had some orange/mango? juice and really strong and delicious coffee. After breakfast we had a sort of orientation with our group and some of the team of missionaries. We just kind of all got to know each other and learned about where we are. We had to go around and play imaginary show and tell, talking about four items that depict who we are. I normally hate things like that but I think the things I thought of showed who I am pretty well, and I really liked hearing everyone else’s. The Africa IP draws such a cool crowd. We received schedules for the next month, which is just packed, and I am really glad since we are not here for too long! There is very little down time, it seems like. However, since we don’t go out at night, we get to just kind of crash at the end of the day. The missionaries also warned us some about all the kids who live in the streets and how they beg for money. It is so hard to reconcile not giving like two dollars to them if that is all they need. Everyone just has to remember that that does not solve the problem of poverty. Also during orientation we had to all go around in the circle and play imaginary show and tell. Our whole group is just so good. We also played the “knot game” …you know how that goes. Then we ate lunch at the Source Cafe down the street. It was made by missionaries and is right next to a church. It's called the source because we are literally down the road from the source of the Nile in Lake Victoria.

After that we exchanged our money (and felt like millionaires, because 1,000 shillings is about 50 cents) and walked around in the market, which was just crazy. I didn't take many pictures because it was awkward to just whip out our cameras, but I wish I could have taken a lot more, because you can just imagine what it was like. We were all given 5,000 shillings, which is $2.50. Our assignment was to buy something (and haggle), and then to take public transportation back to the hotel. I was walking around with Michael, Nate, Hannah, and Brian (our entire group is so good), and I ended up buying some sunglasses. Nate bought a belt with an Obama belt buckle. Everyone is obsessed with Obama! They literally see white people and yell "Obama!" and we're like "yeah!..." They seriously love him (since he is one generation removed from Kenya, which is right next door...) so that was so funny. “Obama! Do you know him?” “Yeah!” “Do you like him?” “Oh yeah!” “Good, me too. He is a nice guy. No McCain!” Awesome. While walking around the market, so many Ugandans said hi to us. Our first instinct was that they were only talking to us to try to get us to buy whatever they were selling, but they really just wanted to say hi and ask us how we were doing. Also, It’s not socially unacceptable to stare here…so we get a lot of looks and have gotten called “mzungu” (white person). We saw a couple of really cute kids (African children…oh man) and Nathan had some stickers in his backpack so we stopped to say hi and give them some. One of course at first started to put it in her mouth…whoops… but we showed them to put them on and they were pretty happy about it. So was the 40 year old man who walked by and we gave one to.

For public transportation they have matatus, boda bodas, and picki pickis. A matatu is like a big van-cab (How many Ugandans can you fit in a matatu? “one more.”), a boda is a bicycle with an extra seat on the back, and a picki is a motorcycle with a seat on the back. We all took bodas back to the hotel after about 10 minutes of trying to find some that knew how to get to the Gately. At first I had a death grip on the seat and was telling the guy that there was no need to race the other guys, but eventually it was fun and really cool! The guys who drive them just drive around all day and carry big heavy people and big heavy bags etc. It cost 500 shillings or 25 cents.

Then we had rice, vegetable pasta, and fish for dinner. The food is good. Our dinners are buffets at the hotel. Then we had class from 7-9... the intercultural communication class is at night, and the Religion 301 class is in the mornings. After class I went for dessert at the restaurant in the hotel with David, Fish, Ashley, and Hannah and I got to blow out a candle etc. At night when you look out over Lake Victoria you can see so many fishing boats, and there are also awesome lightning storms. Seriously so beautiful here. The streets in town, like by the market, are very dirty. Literally dirty, there is so much red dirt everywhere. However, it is somehow still so beautiful. What I keep comparing this experience to is my trips to Belize, primarily my first one. When we first got off the plane in a lot of us noticed that it was a lot more green than we expected, and several of us who have done mission work in Central America noticed that it looked a lot like that. Jinja is a much busier city than Independence, Belize, but it vaguely reminds me of it (and makes me so sad that I’m not going back this summer!).