The above term means "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" in Lugandan. It is my 20th birthday today and I don't think I would have wanted to spend it anywhere else. I had an amazing day that started off with the most amazing contemporary African church. It is called Watoto and it was better than any American church I've been to. There were alot of other mzungos(white people) there so we didn't stand out TOO much. Everyone was so nice and loved Jesus. They sang all songs I am familiar with which I was really surprised. This was my first time actually out of the house since I arrived in Kampala, so to actually see the city and the traffic, it was kindof overwhelming but really cool. Traffic is beyond scary here, constantly people on boda boda's (motorcycles) and people walking in the road who DO NOT get out of the way. The city is also ALL brown, you have to drive out of the way to see greenery. After church, me and another team member went to help me exchange money at a local bank. We had to go through a shortcut which is a steep hill which I slipped on the loose gravel a few times and ran in to a few baby goats and wanted to pet them so bad! Jennifer said we are not aloud to touch the animals here because they could have diseases. So that was dissapointing for me. But we got to the bank and exchanged my money and now I am rich with 800,00 shillings. Which is actually about $400 USD. Then me and Jennifer went to a local grocery store where I got a huge thing of water for $2500 shillings which is about $1.25. The grocery store was packed and security had to scan us to make sure we didn't have any weapons and then they had to check our purses. We then crossed the extremely busy road while Ugandans asked if we had any chocolate, which we didn't and went back down the now extremely steep dirt road that led to the house. And I slipped again, while a Ugandan woman who was hanging up clothes watched and probably thought it was hilarious. "Noes before toes!". We got back to the house and just hung out for awhile. Played a game, had a "family meeting" and then decided after dinner to celebrate my birthday, we were going to go to their favorite coffee shop(which is nicer than any I've ever seen) and they all paid for me to have this amazing chocolate cake and an iced mocha. I don't know if I mentioned this in earlier blogs, but the police here just walk around with huge rifles. It's a little intimidating but I ran in to one today and he asked where I was from and said I was very welcome here. These people are so nice. Here is the website for the church I went to this morning
http://www.watotochurch.com/
The back of the church
Their money
The view from our backyard
There is no rule on how many people to sit in a car nor to wear seatbelts
"pretending" to blow out my candle
Also, someone came back today from going on a safari that the organization does. It is very costly and I would really like to do it. If anyone would like to donate please feel free :)
Lauren
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