So I usually don't write on this blog, especially since I have been back from traveling across Australia and that side of the world. This time it is a completely new adventure that is probably going to be a shock in more ways than one.
Today (in about 4 hours) my brother, Ross and I will be traveling with another doctor to Kampala, Uganda. We are not sure exactly what we will be doing, but we are going to use whatever we fit in our suitcases and the little resources we have to do as much good as we can for the people we meet in Uganda.
There are only a few last minute things to take care of before we leave such as updating iPods and putting books and chocolate treats in our carry on luggage. It really hasn't quite hit me yet that in about 24 hours I will be on a completely different continent surrounded by people who are very different from myself. However, I am planning on looking more for things we have in common than the things that set us apart. I think that going to Chicago for the past four years really helped to remind me that you have to learn to share life and experiences in order to see ways that you are just like the people who are most different from you. I also carry two important phrases that I am pretty sure are on the backs of a couple of my T-shirts: Edgar -"Start where you at, Use what you got, Do what you can", Brother Lawrence - "You Know I love Ya, and there ain't Nothin' You can do about it!" I hope to hold true to these as much as I can during this trip.
There will surely be much to do and see and I will try to be good about keeping this updated when we have access to the internet. I know that the two people that read it might appreciate an update here or there! Take care and God Bless!
Margaret
January 8 The Travel Experience
This blog was written on Jan 8 or something….we just haven’t had internet access to post it until now! Sorry!
We finally arrived in
The rides were all pretty pleasant. Maybe I have gotten the hang of foreign travel so it was much easier than so many flights in the past. Recalling some of the excursions with Ashley Dee and had with 3 bags weighing more than we did. We definitely were those annoying American girls not being smart. Hopefully between Ross,
I finally felt that I was away from home when we arrived in
There was a very relaxed, if not uncaring feel about getting anywhere on time. I’m pretty sure our flight left late, but I wouldn’t have known because there weren’t any clocks in the room we waited for our flight in. We entered through gate 4 and after about 40 minutes of waiting a woman came in and announced to the whole room what the flight plan would be and our time of departure. There is really no need for an intercom system in this place. Oh, by the way, a little note about
On the plane I sat near a doctor named Innocent (I don’t know if that was the exact name but when I repeated it, he seemed okay with it) He studied at
In the morning we went to breakfast. The décor was pretty sweet – meaning an attempt at a 1950’s diner – complete with a statue of a woman in very high-waisted pants at the door. The food was great. I love fresh pineapple, really small bananas, and a passion fruit juice to start the morning. It was amazing that they knew I was craving liver in the morning, because they had a whole bunch of it on the buffet (GROSS!)
January 9 This is Really Africa
January 9
The scaffolding here is not so great. All of it is made up of long poles from trees and none of it looks very straight. It reminded me of a training video we watched in Jannifer David’s class that showed us some Chinese men working on scaffolding. It is definitely not a safe working environment and you couldn’t pay me enough to do their job. Later on, when we were in
Enough about scaffolding. Once we got to our apartment near the Mulago hospital, we unpacked and headed over to the hospital. It is not even close to the same as it is in the
When I was on the wards, I had to really take a deep breath before passing through. Since I never really shadowed a doctor before (which I really should do soon!), I haven’t seen a ton of procedures or cases of patients in the hospital except for family and friends. I knew from Ross’ stories before that some of the patients here are very serious and I didn’t want to cringe or faint or worse when I saw them. I said a silent little prayer every time that I entered a ward and as we passed quickly by patients I caught quick glimpses of a couple of very large deformities caused by tumors, but they didn’t cause me to show a physical reaction. Later this week or next we will most likely be closer to these types of patients and see their cases close up.
I met two very important people today that I have been wanting to meet for the past 8 months. The first is Susan. She is the coordinator for the students that visit Mulago from outside of the country. She is a very happy woman with a big smile. She was much younger than I had pictured her (and much shorter too!) I think that from all of the stories I had heard, she was so highly respected by Ross and was capable of doing so much that I pictured her as a tall motherly woman who shared all sorts of wisdom she had gathered over many years. Maybe she really is just wise beyond her years.
The second amazing friend I met today was Angella. She is the medical student (not intern) that showed Ross the orphanage and all sorts of things about
We also made it to Garden City (an outdoor shopping mall) to buy phone cards and some groceries. The population of Mazungos (white people) jumped from the 3 of us to probably 20 in a matter of a short walking distance. Apparently this is the place where all of the non-Ugandans do their shopping. A strange observation was that most of the store owners were Indian and the workers stocking shelves and doing tasks not directly with customers were Ugandan. Ross said that it is common for people from Indian to own the shops and hire locals to work in them.
Well I think that’s enough random babbling for today. I am sorry it always ends up so long. I just don’t know what I should and shouldn’t say. Just tell me to stop typing and I’ll try to shorten up things!
January 10 - Sometimes you Just Can't Win
Right now I am blanking on the law that says anything that can go wrong will, but just because I don’t remember the name doesn’t mean that I am not subject to its wrath. Basically between
Some pluses – Paul was able to hook up his wireless router in his office so we can access internet inside his office and outside the building if we need to. We ate a really good café attached to a gas station where two American from
Now for the not so great parts of our day –
Problem 1 - Although we had meetings with people for
Problem 2 – Ross and I packed up a bunch of clothes, books, and even some lollies to bring to the orphanage with Angela. We hired a private taxi (basically a car driven by a local guy to a specific destination.) You can get one by simply answering a call of Mazungo. Even though you are charged way more because you are white, Angella got us a pretty fair price by just walking away. The driver eventually ended up pretty much stalking us down the street until he finally gave into our price. Her toughness makes me like Angella even more. We finally got the orphanage and found it totally abandoned. No kids, not house moms….nothing. Angella knew that the children had gone to other homes for Christmas, but she didn’t know they weren’t home yet. Although this was bad news for today, we have some money donated by some generous family and friends at home specifically for the orphanage that we are going to use for transportation to get the kids back within the next day or two. It was definitely a let-down to not see them today, but prayerfully we will try to get them back there soon.
Problem 3 – While I was taking pictures in the ward today, Ross was looking at patients to find out if any were going to be good cases to present to
Problem 4 – Not really much compared to the previous, but still quite a big deal. As more people saw me taking pictures and bringing them back, more of them wanted their photos taken. I came back three times and each time the number of pictures I took increased. After the third time, I had to change the ink cartridge. When I opened it, I found out it was the wrong one! Thank you Best Buy! It was the only cartridge next to the printer we bought and we had asked two salespeople if it was the proper one. They both said it was. In retrospect, we could have checked the numbers again, we could have opened the cartridges before we left, or we could have done a number of things that would have shown our error, but of course we can’t change it now. We both just felt dumb for not being more meticulous about our plans. So at 9:30 in the dark we took the computer back outside of Pauls office and emailed some people that may be coming in the next day or two. We also found a contact for Epson in
Although
January 11 - A Better Day, but not There yet!
Things are going better today, but let’s just say that we still have a long ways to go. This morning I think all three of us made a conscious decision to have a good day, no matter what. Ross and I both said that we are taking Jesus with us on all of our little “missions” of the day, and that’s just what we did.
We got up early enough to beat the heat and walk the 2 km to Garden City. We arrived at 8:00 in the morning, but most things didn’t open until 8:30 or nine. We didn’t find any stores that sold the ink cartridge for our printer, and we finally found a way to call the Uganda Epson dealer, but he said that there probably isn’t anything to fit it in the entire continent, let alone in a store in
Getting the taxi was my next big task and I was a little worried. I thought back to my course in negotiations with Professor Cummings and got a bit of confidence. Bartering is a fairly simple negotiation compared to a lot of the ones we had done. I set my self a really low starting point and quickly decided some things to say and when to walk away. I also practiced some disgusted facial expressions. I must have looked super cool making faces and talking to myself as I walked through the car park. Sure enough, when I got to where there were a couple of taxis, I didn’t even need to approach them, the drivers called out to me and waved me over. I asked how much to Mulago and they said 10.
When I got back I took Ross’s computer and went up to the hospital to try to update this blog, but as I sat outside the office building, there was not signal. A few minutes after I sat down, a man approach me by saying hello how are you? I replied and he sat down next to me. His name is Henry and he is 24. We had a really long conversation. For some reason he wanted a picture of me, but clearly I don’t carry around self portraits to sign and give away. I’m just not that famous! He was very honest about the questions he asked and the things he told me about his family and country. His mother is a vendor in the fruit market and his father was killed in the guerilla war in Gulu. The one question he asked that really stuck out was about HIV. First wanted to know if I knew what HIV was. He was mildly surprised to find that I did. Then he asked if we had it in my country. I told him of course we do and people have it in every country in the world. I’m pretty sure he didn’t believe me. He thought that in a place like
After talking to Henry I headed down to the children’s ward with my pictures. I was surprised that a bunch of people outside washing their clothes and waste basins recognized me and called out Mazungo. I went into the ward and delivered my pictures. People were very excited to see me and they ran up to get their pictures and to get pictures taken with their friends. Nobody in the ward was speaking English until an older gentleman walked up to me. I had taken pictures of his daughter and grandson the day before and today the whole family was there – mom, dad, ben, and grandpa. The grandfather is the only one that spoke English and he helped me tell other people what I was doing. A woman in the corner had twin babies. One was sick and the other looked healthy. I found that the woman’s name was Margret. She thought it was pretty special that we had the same name. I spent close to an hour taking photos and walking around talking with people while Ross and
The middle of the day was very hot, so Ross,
An update on the orphanage situation for the day starting grim, but by the end it is looking up. We affectionately call the children the Wolly Bullies. In the afternoon Angella called to tell us that the director made plans behind her back to keep the kids out of the orphanage until February first which meant no Wolly Bullies for us. We were in a pretty bad mood for the rest of the afternoon and it brought a cloud over the really great Indian dinner we had with Angella and
Some silly observations that I thought I should talk about.
I think that is about it for today. I’m sure Ross wants to use his computer now, so I should learn to share. Have a wonderful day!
January 12 - It Always Ends in a Gift Shop
I’ve noticed that on almost every trip that I’ve been on, there is a point where you realize that you are a lot more comfortable with your traveling partners and you can really let loose. It’s as though you are trying not to let people know all of your weird quirks even though you know that everybody has them. I don’t know how you get to that point of letting go, but sometimes it just happens. Maybe after so much time of being serious and concentrating on the tasks you have to complete, you just have to do something a little silly. This morning was that time for us. After going on the wards to look at some patients we decided to go to the market in Wondegeya for fresh fruit and some rolls from the Hot Loaf Bakery. All three of us walked down the hill together. I’m pretty sure Troy almost got hit by a Boda or two because he’s pretty bold about crossing the street. I should have been the one to get hit because I tended to be the straggler of the pack crossing the street. I think the middle of the pack is the way to go when crossing the street. The stragglers are the weak ones that generally do get picked off in any scenario, whether it be a pack of antelope or a group of tourists. In general, crossing the street at any point is comparable to being the frog in the good old game of Frogger. You have to weave back and forth and move up and down to dodge lanes of traffic going in tons of different directions. Now I know how my poor frog must have felt every time I was behind the controller….scared and nervous. When we got back, we had our moment of silliness – actually Ross and Troy had their moment, I was mainly the observer with random peanut-gallery quality comments. Troy and Ross were each working on their computers and I was the observer, just enjoying my juicy pineapple and samosas from the market and bakery. I don’t know how it got started, but Ross and Troy started playing their iTunes back and forth, each time trying to outdo one another with the best 80’s or country song. I think Troy won. He had some twangy country song that I recognized from a newer version, but his was classy. It was great to just sit and laugh and really not be serious for a while. Then we had to get ready to go to the equator, so the fun was cut short. I obviously needed more sunscreen because it’s the equator, and let’s be honest, the sun has to be worse. I thought about it and realized this whole trip we haven’t been far from the equator, so it really wasn’t that much different. Two pediatricians from New York that we had met at breakfast the second day invited us to share a car with them. Jason and Taz were a lot of fun. I love sharing stories and getting to know people. They were really easy to talk to and there was quite an easiness about being around them, so it made the super hot and sweaty cramped back seat a little more bearable. It’s inevitable that you will be sweating all day long here. Sometimes in the early morning I think it’s going to be a cool day because it feels like pants weather. Then I wait an hour and realize that it’s going to be another scorching day and pants are simply unacceptable. The drive to the equator brought us through beautiful scenery and even more beautiful people. As you get out of the city you slowly get to more and more remote villages with less and less technological advances. The Mtatu buses still travel all the way out on these roads and randomly stop on the side of the road to pick people up. There were a bunch of bulls, cows, and goats on the side of the road eating grass. The bulls have huge horns here. There are trucks that carry them towards the city and their horns reach from one side of the truck to the other. I am not exaggerating either. I have the pictures to prove it. The people we passed were all doing some sort of job. They obviously have to walk great distances on the road to get from one place to another because the villages and homes are at least a few miles apart from each other. Many men and boys were pushing bicycles with long poles on them up high hills. Women dressed in traditional clothing carried baskets, fruit, and other items on their head. Our driver Charles (we call him Charles in Charge) said that the act of carrying things on your head is Mgugu. I practiced with a pineapple and some bananas and I’m not very good at it…maybe I need more practice. It is so interesting to see people doing the things they do to make a living here. A simple trip to get vegetables, fruit, and meat may take all day. Back home it’s a 20 minute trip to the grocery store. It made me thankful for the conveniences that I always take for granted. I don’t think I have the right to complain about being held up in traffic for an extra 10 minutes anymore. The equator itself is basically a line on the road and two large white circles with UGANDA EQUATOR written on them. Trees and flowers were obviously planted strategically around them to make for a good photo. If I were anywhere else, I would have expected to see a “Picture Spot” sign next to it, but it’s pretty obvious that its where you should take a picture. I was disappointed by the toilets in Australia because the water does not spin down the toilets so I could never test to see if it is different in the southern hemisphere. For the price of 10,000 per group (about $6) you can see a demonstration. 10 feet to the north of the equator a man put water in a bowl with a hole in the bottom and put a flower in the middle to see which way it spun. It definitely went clockwise. 10 feet to the south of the equator, the flower spun counterclockwise. Right on the equator it went straight down. I still don’t quite understand how it really works. The bowls are super primitive – I’m pretty sure that somebody hand molded the metal with a hammer- so there wasn’t a trick to it. Ross and I decided it was a great phenomenon considering the amount of error there could be in measuring the exact middle of the earth. Apparently somebody was really good at finding the place for the line – props to them. It’s great to know that even here, people have learned that “it always ends in a gift shop”. If you haven’t observed this theory before, think of any amusement park ride or adventure you have paid to go on. The chances are, when you get off the ride, you will be surrounded by overpriced junk bearing the name of the ride and some pretty ridiculous pictures of you with a messed up face and hair flying everywhere as you plunged down the steepest part of the roller coaster. When we got done with the demonstration, we followed the equatorial line all the way to the gift shop to pay for our demonstration. That’s right folks – the Equator actually passes through the middle of the shop. In this little stretch of road there are a bunch of little stands selling similar items that are twice the asking price as those in Kampala. Even from one side of the road to the other the prices were different. It amazed me that people would actually pay the prices there if they knew what was available elsewhere. I suppose it’s not any different anywhere else in the world. The places where the people go are the places where everything costs the most. All in all the trip to the equator was a pretty great stop. We probably stayed longer than most passersby, but at least we had a good time doing it. The ride back was much cooler than the ride there, and the conversation was very enjoyable. Taz and Jason were telling stories about living in New York and shared their experiences of September 11th with us. I really appreciate learning from others with a different life experience than my own to explain how they felt about catastrophic events, especially when it hits very close to home for them. I’m glad that they felt comfortable enough to share with us. They both seem interested in checking out the orphanage some time. After we can do a little assessment tomorrow, we will hopefully find a time for them to come back with us during the week. The rest of the night was super low key. I don’t know why, but tiredness had sunk in and I could barely stay awake past 9:00. I think I finally feel asleep around 10:00, but I probably could have gone much sooner had I not been around people. In fact, I fell asleep on the couch of the apartment waiting for Ross and Troy to get done on their computers. Some times your body just tells you its time to sleep and you can’t do much to ignore the call to bed.
January 13 - He Knows My Name
God is good. Period. I know that God is always around and helping each one of us throughout the day, but I definitely have a loss of connectedness to his presence every time that I am away from home, especially in a foreign country. Then he does something to reveal himself and remind me that he is not leaving me and he’s present across the entire globe. Today, after our morning routine of walking to the market for a fresh pineapple, we headed for KPC (Kampala Pentecostal Church) in the city. Usually as we walk down the street, taxi drivers and Mtatu conductors are yelling to flag us down. For some reason, today all of the Mtatus were full and no cab drivers stopped. I think the combination of lots of people going to church and fewer people driving and working on Sundays made it difficult for us to get a ride. We walked the majority of the way, but close to the end, a Mtatu came and picked us up. We probably wouldn’t have made it in time if it hadn’t been for that driver wanting to collect 600 shillings more. The church is pretty huge. There are four services each Sunday and each one is wall to wall people. Inside the church there is floor seating and balcony seating and I think there was a tent outside with video monitors displaying what was going on in the service. The first song they played as we walked in had a great chorus. It was “You know my name, you know my every thought. You see each tear that falls, and hear me when I call” It wasn’t as significant then as it was by the end of the service (which I’ll get to later). There was a huge choir standing below a mural of an African sunset that was probably about 40 feet high. You could tell they were singing with their hearts and they kept time by little dance moves back and forth where they were standing. They also had a dance group of teenagers that came on during the offering. It was reminiscent of Chicago City Church, except on a much larger scale. Most things I do tend to bring my mind back to Chicago and the lovely people I have been blessed to meet. I also can’t seem to escape my ties to Australia and the people I met there. The pastor announced a group of Australians who were helping to build a new orphanage building. During the sermon, he also mentioned a recent trip to Mauritius and it reminded me of Shakti, Stephan, Naz, Angi, and the rest of the gang. I hope that they are all doing well.
KPC probably would have been amazing no matter what, mostly because it’s a gathering of people who love Jesus in a place that is not the same as home. It is as though we are all here for the same reason and it doesn’t matter where we are or what we do. The message, however, felt as though it was directly made for Ross and I. It was the story of the lame man at the gates who saw Peter and John walking by and asked for money. Peter told him “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk”. Then the man walked. The amazing thing about this story is that Peter and John used the only thing they did have, the power of Jesus Christ in them to help this man. So many times we look at all of the things that we don’t have such as more money, clothes, food, or medicine to fix the problems of the world. The truth is, the problems won’t be fixed by throwing more money at them, but they will start to be changed by using what little we have to make a difference. If we stop looking at what we don’t have an focus on what we do, we can start making a difference and as others do the same, we can really impact the world we live in. It goes back to Edgar’s “Start where you at, Use what you got, Do what you can”. For us, that means we don’t have to provide medicine to every child in Uganda, but we can help one or two kids with the resources we have and really make them better. We don’t have to tear down and make a new orphanage, but we can buy a few supplies and bring some clothes and books to start with. We don’t find a home for every child at the orphanage yet, but we can provide a loving environment for 15 little Wolly Bullies and give them our time to show them our love. I think it’s going to take a long time to see huge changes in the areas we want to help, but each trip we take and each person that come here can make a small change with a little bit of what they have to share the love we have for them. When they played the song during the start of church again at the end, it hit me that God really does know our names, our thoughts, sees our pain, and hears us when we need him to remind us of his love.
After church Ross and I had a renewed sense of excitement about the orphanage and some of the patients in the hospital. We had to wait just a little while for Angella to finish with work before we could go to the orphanage. We always have to take taxis because the orphanage is on the outskirts of town on the opposite side that we are at. The road basically have craters instead of potholes in them, so it’s quite bumpy, but worth the drive. I half expected it to be in an open area outside of crowded buildings, but the orphanage actually shares a driveway and garage with another family. As we pulled up, we say a bunch of little half-dressed kids running around the front yard. They truly are more adorable in person than they are in pictures. So far, only 6 have been returned to the home, but the others are expected in the next week or two. I got to meet Simon, Kenny, Henry, Peter, Irene, and Ruth. All of them have Chicken Pox right now so they aren’t feeling quite like themselves, but they were still super energetic. Kenny is the oldest of the boys so far, but he wasn’t feeling like himself and was very quiet – probably because of the chicken pox, but he still hung around Ross and I a lot and said Wolly Bully. I think he kind of remembered Ross after he said Wolly Bully. Henry is very quiet and shy. He always looks like he is about to cry or just got done crying. By the end of our visit he was starting to come around more and interact with us rather than just watch. Simon follows Kenny around a bit. He’s got this cute ears that stick out from the side of his head. Peter is amazingly adorable. He smiles and laughs and giggles all the time. He loves when you chase him and he also just loves to be held by somebody. Irene usually follows Ruth around and the two of them stick together quite a bit. Last year, Irene was afraid of almost everybody, but when we came, she didn’t run away and she eventually came over and started playing as I was sitting with Ruth. Oh, yeah, Ruth does not like pants or underwear so she walks around with nothing on from the waist down. I don’t think this could be too great for her, considering she is always sitting on the dirty cement and the ground. She really doesn’t like wearing anything, but I think the mothers need to work on that problem ASAP before she starts getting infections. There are four mothers and you can tell they absolutely love the children. They are very excited to be back at the orphanage and see all of the kids running around. We are still working on some problems that there are with one of the people that run the orphanage, but hopefully we will have a solution in the works before we leave. Plus we had a divine appointment when we arrived at the orphanage. A woman named Rosmo from Denmark was there. She apparently had been bringing things to the orphanage and helping out with some administrative things. She already runs an orphanage here so she knows how things should be run. She offered to give us some help with this orphanage and possibly will find somebody she knows that can oversee it since she doesn’t have to the time to take care of both orphanages full time.
After the orphanage, Angella took us to a cultural show on the other side of town. It was the same concept as a show we went to in Hawaii, but instead of costing $100, it ended up being about $10, including a meal. I decided that since it was a cultural show, I should finally try truly Ugandan food consisting of Cassava – a cooked root that tasted like I was eating a tree, sweet potato – which was actually pretty good, cooked banana – it was okay, but still not my favorite thing – and pretty much a quarter of a chicken on the other side of the plate. I tried to eat as much of it as I could, but the texture made it almost impossible to eat. At least I can say I tried it and just didn’t like it. I always feel worse here about not eating the food than I do at home. Usually I just take my leftovers home with me when I am through with a meal. If I have to throw something away, I think only casually about the people in the world without food. When I am here, I think about it heavily because as I am throwing some food away, I know that there are children and adults down the street who haven’t eaten anything in days. I wish sometimes that I could just bring my food to them. The show was pretty amazing, with dances from all sorts of tribes from all over the country. It was great to have Angella next to me because she explained what each dance meant and where it came from. I think that the announcers try to make the show last longer by announcing every single person of slight importance at the show. He had the ambassador of China, some guy who donated some money, a group of travelers from Wisconsin, and a woman from Canada (who made sure that we knew she was a Rotarian) come up on stage and get their pictures taken. He basically just kept finding ways to get people to come down on the stage. It got to be really annoying so we just left towards the end. I seriously didn’t need to watch as every person who came from the United States and the South United States (meaning South America – thanks for getting it right) come down to be recognized. I guess it seems like a nice gesture, but it really was unnecessary.
On the way home, we were driving through a lot of traffic. The driver two cars ahead of us stopped on a speed bump. The other cars chose to go to the cars right to get around it, but apparently our boda driver thought it was better to go on the left, so there were three cars side by side in one lane of a very narrow road. As he was going (way too fast, I might add) around the car, we all of a sudden heard a huge thud on the passenger’s side of the car. We realized that our taxi driver had hit a boy on a bike. Instead of stopping, he went faster and muttered under his breath, “boda”. We told him that no, it wasn’t a boda, but a boy on a bike. He tried to tell us that he didn’t hit anything. Ross, Angella, and I thought it was hysterical – of course not the fact that we hit a biker, but the reaction of the driver. We chalked it up to a TIA (This is Africa) moment. It looked like the biker just ran into the side of the car and fell over, but I really hope that he wasn’t seriously hurt. It made for a good story to tell, but was probably not the best way to end a day!
January 14 - Monday, Monday
Monday was a day that we pretty much had to get some work done and get back into a routine. Ross and I took our walk in the morning to Wandegeya to buy a fresh pineapple. It’s fun to be able to walk down and get your fruit fresh and then come back and eat it right away. Plus you build your exercise into your day. The mornings are much quieter than the afternoons, but it still seems that there are always people out on the streets doing something or going somewhere. Angella says that a lot of people that look like they are doing something or waiting for something are actually just passing time by not doing anything. After breakfast Ross and I went to watch After the lecture, we decided to do some things for the orphanage. We took two people that came with the endocrine team from the U of M and are in the apartment next to ours here to Garden City with us. One of them is the son of a nurse who is the same age as me and he lives in At Garden city, we got the rechargeable lamp that the orphanage mothers needed. When the power goes out – and it happens often, they only have a couple of kerosene lanterns to light the house and now it is expensive to buy kerosene and a lot of places run out of it so it becomes hard to get. When we ate lunch, I remembered how funny meals in restaurants can sometimes be. We were at a food court, but as soon as we entered the eating area, we were bombarded with menus from people at every restaurant. We decided to go with the Italian style food. We tried to order the same thing, but the waitress said that there was only one of them left, so we changed our order. Then, after sitting down and waiting for about a half hour, two of the orders came. By the time they had finished eating and sat around for another 15 minutes, Ross and I finally got our huge plates of lasagna. They just serve food whenever it is ready, regardless of when the other peoples’ orders are ready. At least we got the food at some point. On the way out, we saw a group of about 8 men in their 60’s walking behind a guide. The first guy in line had a t-shirt from the equator on. In the middle of the pack was a guy wearing a Mzungu t-shirt – that’s it – just the word Mzungu written on it. I don’t know about you, but I always find it funny when people where the really obvious tourist shirts while they are in the place they are visiting. As if we don’t stand out enough in this country, they just make it obvious that they are tourists and are waiting to have people try to scam them into buying too many overpriced things while they enjoy their vacation. For dinner we went to a really nice Chinese restaurant called Fang Fang. When we first walked in I thought there was a special even going on because there were waiters at every table. It’s just the way that they set up the restaurant. I just wanted to get fried rice. Last time at the Indian restaurant I tried to order just rice and nan, but the waiter basically laughed at me and forced me to order something else. This time I didn’t budge when the waiter tried to bully me into ordering more food than I wanted. I could barely make a dent in the mountain of rice that I ended up getting, and I was happy that they had a box for me to take it home in. We walked home in the dark. It’s always a good time to walk in the dark on a busy road with no lights back over a mile. At least Ross had a flashlight so we didn’t fall into any big holes that are in the middle of every sidewalk. It’s always a plus at the end of the day if you can say you made it home safely (and didn’t hit a biker along the way)
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