Doodly doodly doo (which means I'm bored)

Tuesday, September 4^th

Here I am bored out of my mind once again. Of course I could do more homework or I could read a book for fun or I could possibly chance the weather. It has been pouring here like mad. When it rains it POURS here! The rainy season here is quite warmer than the rainy season in Oregon and it does not rain every day like it does in Oregon either. Thunder and lightning usually accompany the rain, which I have always enjoyed. Earlier today we had two classes and during one of them we had to help Howa get the sheets off of the clothes lines and into the house. It doesn’t take long to get drenched.

So I have just been sitting here surfing the net. There’s a great tool you can add to your browser if you have Mozilla Firefox and it is called Stumbleupon. You press the Stumbleupon button and it comes up with many random things that are interesting to look at. The first one I found was of a guy who draws those 3D pictures on sidewalks. It was amazing. I had never seen anything like it before. That is how bored I am.

On Saturday we went to another market, but along the way Julia fell in a hole! As I have said before, whenever I walk around town, I keep my eyes on the ground because it is not level and people leave holes uncovered all the time. I saw Julia’s foot move toward the hole and all I could do was yell “watch out, watch out, watch out!” At the same time, Christy shrieks and Julia falls in the hole, although she catches herself on the edge so that she does not fall in to the nasty, garbage infested water waiting for her at the bottom. We were all glad that she had jeans on so that she did not get hurt and did not end up, well, exposing herself. That was quite an adventure.

Later that day a daughter of one of the men that works for Food for the Hungry came and brought her volleyball. Consequently, because you all know I adore that sport, we spent at least an hour, maybe more, peppering and goofing off. Her name is Brook and she is 12. Her family moved here for us, and when I think of how hard it must be for them, but especially her, I can’t help but be so grateful that they moved here just for this program. Brook is a very intelligent and beautiful girl who is struggling with her new life in Africa, but I am sure that in time she will adjust. After we peppered (which is when you hit the volleyball around, by the way), we watched Night at the Museum with her and her brother while eating junk food.

On Sunday, we went to our Cornerstone Assistant’s church, which was very far away from where we live. We had to take maybe 3 taxis to get there, plus we had to walk quite a ways. As a result, we were a bit late, but that did not matter, since everyone here is on Africa time. People are constantly arriving during church services. To our surprise and amazement, half-way through the service, it turned into a wedding! Our jaws dropped and we wondered ‘who does that?’ Then we reminded ourselves that “We are in Africa, Baby!” People in fancy dresses and tuxes walked in and they had their ceremony. The bridesmaids and flower girl did not stand up on the stage with them, but instead, sat in the front row. The bride and groom each had a person that stuck to them like glue throughout the whole ceremony. I can only guess that they were the best man and maid of honor. Even during their vows, those two stayed practically attached to their hips. After the vows part of the ceremony, the bride and groom carried around pieces of cake for the congregation to eat. This took forever because the bride did not know how to walk in her dress. She kept kicking it instead of picking it up. It was rather humorous, but at the same time, a little bit annoying because the service ended up being 4 hours! It was from 10 am to 2 pm! They passed out soda as well. After dinner we went out to eat and had more Ugandan food. I accidentally ordered goat again. I don’t know if I mentioned before, but goat is the toughest meat I’ve ever eaten. I try to take a bite, but I end up stretching it instead. But it bounces right back into place after I give up trying to eat it. Consequently I ate mostly had rice for lunch.

For dinner we went to Bruce’s house and had amazing tacos for dinner, with guacamole and everything! Soooo good. Then we had homemade doughnuts for dessert. That is making me crave tacos now.

Monday was our first economics class. Usually, it is supposed to be a 3.5 hour class, but our bus was late picking us up, so we were more than a half house late. But it still felt like a really long class. Our professor spent the time covering the basics of economics, which are usually taught to students in a whole term of high school. Consequently, it was a lot to hear; especially for me because I have never had economics before. But it was understandable, so I think I will do all right. After that, we had lunch at the café next door, which was a Ugandan buffet. It was not too bad because we could choose what we ate. There were a few girls who decided they wanted to find a different café and got completely soaked in the downpour. They couldn’t find the place, so they had to come back. I found it rather humorous, but I don’t know if they did. =)

After lunch we had an informal business sector tour. Visited many small businesses which did things like gate-making and machine-making. The whole tour we had men staring at us and it was quite uncomfortable. At one point a group of men was gathered around and asked our tour guide if they could each have one of us. Naturally, she said no, but I found that humorous as well. We are all getting used to being stared at because we are muzungus and there is always an interesting story to tell.