Aida's Adoption - Pre-Aida

My Sunday, pre-Aida

It's amazing how quickly one goes from “Oh! Look! She’s carrying bananas around on her head!” to “That woman is only carrying a little bit."

Yesterday morning I woke up to my alarm at 9AM. One hour until my driver would come and I would be off for a visit with Aida! For the time being, I am in a tiny room with no bathroom, but when a family leaves this week for home, my mom and I will be moved to a new room to share together, with a bathroom (I think). So, I went around the corner to the shower room and turned on the water, started a shower, and began to wash my hair. Suddenly, the shower turned off and I was left standing under a dripping shower head with soap running into my eyes. I stood for a minute, debating what to do, and suddenly the shower spurted to life again. Very relieved, I (stupidly) took the time to lather, rinse and repeat. And again, the shower died, with my hair full of soap. I was so confident that the shower would come back on again (yes, how silly am I?!?) that I lathered up the bar of soap and started washing my face while waiting for the water to come back on. I’m not completely sure *how* long I waited, but let’s just say the soap on my face started to dry and form a hard crackly layer that became quite difficult to remove later. I heard a gentle knock at the door and it was Ellen, the owner of the guesthouse. She said, “Do you see the bucket of water behind the door?” “No - my eyes are soaped shut!” I replied. I stumbled over to the cold bucket of water and used it to rinse my hair and attempt to wash the soap off my face. I somewhat succeeded and slipped into my clothes, wrapped a towel around my hair and went back to my room. Later, another guest told me that they never take a shower in the morning. The electricity always goes off and usually stays off for 2 or 3 hours. Maybe more. Lesson learned!! I went to the breakfast table looking a little rough (understatement) and just cracking up. It was the funniest introduction to Uganda that I could imagine, and some other guests shared their intro stories. I will say, I am grateful I’m not the one that had to streak from the bath to the room. :D

I heard a honking outside the gate of the guesthouse around 10AM and the guard shouted up to me that my driver was here. I went outside and met Frank, the brother in law of Godfrey. We headed off, armed with a debit card, to find an ATM, an internet store, and a cell phone store. First, the ATM. After a 30 minute drive through Kampala, we arrived at a Muzungu Mall - a mall resembling the ones we have here (but more like our mini-mall) and almost every other store there is a bank. I tried ATM after ATM and no money. I kept getting messages like, “Your card is about to expire, please try another one.” After trying several (around 10) ATM’s, we gave up and went to a Forex Bureau to exchange the money I had brought with me. But oops...I forgot to bring money. Big Mistake of the Morning #2! We drove back to the guesthouse, grabbed some money and then went back to the exchange bureau. This all sounds so quick and boring, but the several things make it more interesting when actually here. First, the rainy season just started and the streets are caked with thick orange mud. And secondly, there is no directly straight road back to anywhere. Every trip back and forth takes at least 1/2 hour and is filled with activity. On the trip back for money, a large woman in a white uniform waved us over to the side of the road, and started to yell at Frank in Luganda (the local language). He grumbled back and she yelled some more and then he pointed at me and said something to her. After about 10 minutes of this, she finally pointed her finger at me and said, “I am only letting you go because of THIS LADY!” And we were off again. The issue was that Frank was not wearing a safety belt. And the fine would have been 10,000 UGX (Ugandan Shillings), which is about $4 USD. On the trip back to the Muzungu Mall, we got stuck in the roundabout because the police closed the exit. So, around and around we went, maybe 10 times, and I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “Look kids! Big Ben! Parliament!”

I exchanged some money, finally found an ATM that worked, and then shopped for some water and a cell phone. I got the least expensive phone they had, which was 70,000UGX (about $28) for the phone, SIM card, and several hours of talk time.