This was written last night but as I said at the end of the post, I wasn't sure if it would work. Obviously it didn't so it's hopefully being posted now!
There was no post last night because Corey and I had the pleasure of going to Denis and Alice's home for dinner. Robert drove us along the main road for about 15 minutes and then we turned onto a residential road where the potholes were bigger than the actual road: HUGE ruts that we bumped through in the van! It was quite the experience.
Denis and his wife are lovely people. Denis, our safari man, has a big belly laugh and a huge smile. Alice is very gentle and soft spoken but she works in a women's organization that lobbies the government for policy changes in regards to women's rights and marriage laws. I'm sure she is not always as gentle as she presented herself to us!
I have to say that I am really enjoying seeing the real side of Kampala. I can't say Uganda because I know that the villages are really different but it's nice to interact with local children and youth and to talk to them about school and their dreams for the future. Driving to Denis', we saw houses off the main road (and literally on the beaten track!) and I talked with a group of children who live next to Denis who don't normally interact with a "mzungu". This evening we went to a coffee shop downtown where I had an amazing coffee milkshake but to get there, we had to drive through the night market. This night market had more people and traffic than I ever saw in one place at one time in China. It was truly unbelievable but wonderful to experience. Being stuck in traffic is actually great because we see so much of the local flavour when there is nowhere we can go!
Today I was taught how to play matatu which is a Ugandan card game. It is similar to Crazy 8s but with lots more rules. Mark and Ibrah played with me for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun and very relaxed. These boys are in S4 (grade 10) and are 18 years old. One wants to do video editing and the other wants to become a pilot. I had a terrific time playing with them. Betty said that she could not believe how hard Kath and I work because we spend our mornings teaching teachers and in the afternoon we spend our time teaching children. To me the afternoon is just playing. If that could be work, then I would gladly do it every day!
So that's it for tonight. The computer keeps telling me that this page is failing to autosave so this may not get posted. If you are actually reading this, it means that I must have been very lucky!
Good night.
1 comment:
So cool, Erika!!
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