Stuff

Today I was chased on foot for several blocks by what I can no better describe than a zombie. He was a tall male dressed in a blue jumpsuit who first tried to grab me from around a corner. Every time I turned to see his progress it seemed as if his knees were buckled and arms spread straight forward. He was drooling and muttering some nonsense as he somehow managed to keep up with us. Today has been an unusually cool and overcast day, not the kind of weather you might expect the dead to be wondering the streets. Luckily the cool day brought out a lot of the locals who have been more than hospitable and protective of us during our stay. A nearby grocery store owner gave us refuge until the spectacle was over. 

It's the small things we take for granted. For me these are a few of those small things I've noticed this month...

10. Taco Bell

9.  only 8 people to a van

8.  personal space (homosexuality is taboo here so friends expect you to hold hands for extended periods of time)

7.  Taco Bell

6.  instant rice (here you have to sort out the stones first)

5.  internet that works faster than a page every 10 minutes

4.  basketball goals (everyone plays but no one scores)

3.  functional musical equipment

2.  a deodorant wearing nation

1.  punctuality ("African time" means they could show up anytime within a 3 hour window of the time agreed on)

It's also interesting to note that muslim culture has overtaken much of Africa. We decided it would be good to visit the largest mosque in Uganda yesterday. This was great for my fear of being beheaded on the internet. They were more than happy to give a friend and I a complete tour followed by an attempted conversion to Islam. 

Village People

I'm very happy to be back in town. A few days ago I left Katie in the confines of our safe compound in the city of Jinja to explore some rural Africa and get some pictures. I hopped on a bus with some Young Life workers (also African) and set out several hours east into the villages of Kamuli.

Far off the beaten path I learned quickly that people actually exist who have never seen a white person. And by never I mean in no exaggerated way that they have no idea we exist. The deeper we traveled down the dirt roads of these sparsely dwelt towns the more of a spectacle I became. At one point hundreds of children swarmed around me in a perfect circle just to stare. The feeling was a bit overwhelming so I tried to make some faces and crack some jokes. Nothing was breaking the tension until one of the kids showed me a basketball.

This is where my spinning the ball on a finger trick finally paid off (I knew it would eventually come in handy one day). That somehow led to a 3 hour game of soccer where I was the only goalie and the whole field tried to score. I also had the privilege of sleeping without a shower for 3 days in something slightly nicer than a hut, eating with my hands and being packed into a 9 passenger van with 24 other Africans for hours on end.

We're really hoping the pictures turn out. It was difficult to get a lot of shots since I was being paraded around town like a tacky Mardi Gras float. It was a rather tough experience but one I wouldn't trade for anything. The way those people live on so very little is amazing. Some of them asked me if I know Obama and Chris Tomlin (apparently a free concert happened at some point).

Today was relaxing. We swam in the Nile river and spent the rest of the day next to the pool at a local resort. Although a third world resort it was a drastic change from the poverty we have been experiencing for the last few days.

Dogs are bad.

Yesterday we walked about 3 miles to the source of the Nile river. It looks like any other river only its the one where baby Moses was put in a basket. There were thousands of huge bats flying overhead. It was creepy, it reminded me of batman. Bats aren't as scary as large numbers of ants and we have seen several 8 foot tall ant hills. And everyone is scared of dogs here. Any time they see you petting one they yell "I fear, I fear" and run away. They have never viewed them as domesticated pets.

Over the past few days we have made lots of new friends. We've had the opportunity to go to a boys home in the mornings to help teach english. They are always happy to see us. Most of the kids know several languages. They are all extremely intelligent and happy. After each lesson they climb a barbed wire fence barefoot and jump to a tree where they can climb to the top and grab fruit. It's impressive. Everyone wears sandals except for when they play soccer. My once tender white feet have already turned red from the clay.

I thought I was prepared to come here. I felt like I had thought through every scenario of how overprivileged we are in the states. Today I sat in a chair next to a broken window in an unconditioned hospital room. A teenaged boy we have made friends with sat on the corner of his sisters bed who is infected with HIV.  He sat there with a huge smile on his face even after loosing both parents. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the people here is in fact their happiness through these circumstances. They don't have a problem that we can just throw money at. They don't have a problem at all. We just have too much.

Airline Adventures

Well we're alive and in our new home for the month. I am pleased that the house is packed with musicians. Our flight over the equator was interrupted by a bizarre aviation ritual. Some person with a black hood wearing a diaper as a beard and holding a trident came running down the aisle followed by the captain being pushed on a food cart by the cabin staff.

While this parade was going on all I could think about was who is flying the plane. Kenya's international airport resembled something between a semi-functional establishment and the violent overthrow of a third world government. Flight calls were all yelled out by someone at the desk who didn't check to make sure your ticket matched the flight. We made it anyway and were picked up this morning by our new friends Joe and Melissa who were pretty excited about my melted crunch bar.

This afternoon I got to play barefoot soccer for a couple hours. Lucky for me most of the opposing team were between the ages of 6-14. They stomped us. We will post some pictures when we find internet that loads faster than a page every 10 minutes.

p.s.- The word mzumgu means explorer but here it means "the white man".