It was such a fun weekend and now I'm here, at the house in Mbale! I am still loving Uganda so much. On Saturday, Rachel and I woke up, got ready and boda-bodad to the busy part of the city. We went to the Muslim mosque in Kampala. Being catholic and LDS, this was the first experience wearing hijabs for both of us! They are actually super comfy and breezy (in case you were wondering). First we climbed to the top to see the city view. It was gorgeous and Kampala is a HUGE city. Then we went to see the inside of the mosque. It is the largest mosque in Uganda and the second largest in all of Africa! Our tour guide was really cool and it was fun learning about the Muslim religion. It was so cool because the Ramadhan holiday was going on this weekend so there was a lot happening and everyone was dressed up.
After, we headed over to the central market to walk around and visit the shops. It was honestly the busiest city I have ever been in. I think Kampala is where they got the expression “Crazy Town.” I wanted to take a lot of pictures, but Rachel got pick-pocketed just a few days before so we wore our backpacks over our chests instead. Everyone was staring at us because out of the million people there, we were the only white people in sight. Africans call white people Mazungus which just means.. white people.. haha. You will be walking down the street and little kids will run up to you yelling “Muzungu! Muzungu! How are you!?” It made me realize just how diverse America is, and how many different races live in the U.S. A lot of people in Mbale have never even seen a white girl before, how crazy is that!? Cat calling is also at little out of control here because of that. On the bus ride home today a man offered to forever be our slave AND give us black children if we took him to the states… quite the clever offer, eh?
Anyway, after being in Kampala all morning we took a taxi back to Entebbe. Taxis are 12 passenger vans, but they squish 20 people inside instead.. totally legal too! Even though there are no traffic rules here, I will admit that people here are very good and alert drivers. We got to Entebbe and met up with the rest of the group. Half of them have already finished their internship/volunteer work so they were heading home that weekend. It was good to finally meet everyone. We are from all around the world and of all different ages, but we all have so many similarities. I genuinely already love these people. I am so sad that some of them are leaving, and wish that I could have come earlier this summer. That night was fun because we went to KFC (the only western food chain in the city) and everyone was in heaven haha. We also played a lot of games and all stayed together in the Entebbe hostel.
In the morning I went to church with Presley, Kennady, J.J., and Sylvia. It was amazing to be able to feel the same spirit that I feel in America. I also loved when we sang. The people here have beautiful voices! They were all SO nice and at least 75% of the ward shook my hand and made an effort to talk to me. I also ran into Elder Mair, who I graduated high school with! What are the chances that my first week in Uganda I run into someone from Las Vegas?! I didn’t even know he was in this mission. What a small world!
It was so sad saying goodbye to everyone last night! Our group only has 8 people now (6 interns and 2 country coordinators), but I’m excited to see how much work we get done, and to become even better friends. Most of the boys left so it is basically all girls! The next 5 weeks will be full of braiding each other’s hair and watching A Walk to Remember. (We may or may not have done both of those things last night LOL).
After traveling all around the last week, it feels good to be in my new home in Mbale. This city is extremely poor and very different from Kampala or Entebbe. There isn’t any tourism so I am getting the true African experience. It rains a lot here and is extremely green and pretty where our house is. Our house is actually a lot larger than I thought it would be. We have a nice house-guard named David, and an obnoxious chicken that lives outside the front door.. not sure of his name yet.. I’ll let you know!