Our Day at Garden City

It's Saturday, so we made sure to sleep in nice and late. After a breakfast of banana bread and pineapples dipped in Nutella, I headed out with Janae, Emily, Susan, Linda and Shelby. We were on our way to Garden City which is a big shopping mall filled with fellow Mzungus :) We needed a bit of a change, so we decided to do something very American... go to the mall! We started walking and realized that today, like yesterday, was also going to be a very hot day. Shelby, Susan and I decided to break off from the group and get a matatu ride to Garden City instead of walking for 45 minutes under crazy sun. We are NOT lazy...we walked 6 miles yesterday and at least 2 miles every day of the week. We figured that we would make it to the mall before the other group... We were so wrong.

On the way to the find a matatu, a boda boda (motorcycle) driver stopped us. He tried convincing us for a very long five minutes that we should get a ride with him. We kept telling him that we aren't allowed to ride them and we would get sent home. Shelby thought we should have taped the conversation to show as proof of our commitment to following the rules! I needed to exchange a $100 bill for Ugandan Shillings so we stopped at Western Union and I got almost 200,000UGsh.. Felt rich carrying such big bills! We decided we needed a Fanta (imagine me needing a soda!!) so we stopped at a street vender for one. They made us sit and drink it there so that they could have the bottles to sell back. I woke up with a runny nose and the place didn't have a single napkin for me! We walked down farther to the place where the matatus normally congregate and felt proud for being able to safely cross the street. Then we got into a matatu heading for downtown Kampala.

We were stuck in traffic and my nose was running... I hate the sound of sniffing so I was miserable. Shelby noticed the car stopped next to us had tissues on the dashboard. She leaned out the window and asked if she could have some. The couple was confused at first but then handed her a few tissues which Shelby gave to me. A life saver, but I couldn't believe she did it! But then we were still stuck in traffic and it was really awkward that the car was still next to us. In the city we found another taxi park and asked for matatus to Garden City, a Ugandan guy grabbed my had to show me the way and lead us off. We got dropped in sight of the mall and walked the rest of the way.

At the mall we met the rest of the group that had been there at least half an hour before us. We were going to go get pizza but then we realized that what we thought was Pizza Hut was really Pizza Hot, so we kept looking. Then we found heaven on earth - Cafe Java- a wonderful restaurant with American meals and AIR CONDITIONING. Hopefully this doesn't come out wrong, but the place was full of white people eating burgers and it felt like we were in the US. I got a BBQ burger. It was amazing. Never have I been so happy for a burger. Then we went to the movie theatre but realized the movie times didn't match our schedule, so we shopped instead.

Shelby, Susan and I made the same mistake of breaking off to find a matatu instead of walking home. We got a matatu heading to the center of town which would be near the matatu park that would take us home. We then made another mistake of handing the conductor our money before we got to the destination. almost immediately we stopped and he said we were there. So then the three of us were lost in the middle of the city with no idea where we were. We asked for directions and walked for half an hour and then finally found something familiar and got to the matatu park. we got yelled at for trying to walk through a little cafe to get to the matatus. Then we sat down in the correct vehicle and waited for the thing to fill up with passengers. We were SO happy to finally get home and laugh around the dinner table about our days. The heat probably got to our heads becasue we were all so silly at dinner. (We also announced that the boys will be cooking dinner for us on Valentines day)

Me and a few people watched The Office for a few hours. made me miss Thursday nights at Messiah. Now I am chilling out and trying to cool off. I hope my runny nose goes away. also: Savannah Club where people go dancing and partying burnt down yesterday.. I never got a chance to go :( Now we will have to find a new place!

Sandy got to New Zealand okay, so now all of my school friends are at their study abroad places and we are keeping up through blogs and skype from our different corners of the world. Got to talk to my family just now for an hour. I love hearing from them. Love you guys!