i'm famous

Today was an absolutely awesome day! It started out with Jake, Lezlie, Alexis, Ryan, and I going to Kibubu to build another stove. James was there too. I like James; he is such a cool guy. It was a really hot day and we were out in the sun building the stove. Back in the US, I don’t like being sweaty; unless I’m playing a sport, but just walking around town or driving I don’t like it. But here, I don’t mind it. I enjoy being out in the hot sun and being kind of sweaty. Well, for the most part. There are times where it is annoying. Well we built the stove and headed back into town. Today was the inauguration for the new mayor of Lugazi. As we were walking down the street this guy started talking to us and told us we should come. We told him we would. We went to Nixon’s stand for lunch. We go there everyday. I usually get these scone things that are good and these fried balls of dough that are really good too. After lunch Jake, Ryan, and I went to Silda’s, the internet café. After that we decided to check out the inauguration.
We (this is only Jake, Ryan, and me) walk up, and as soon as we do this official guy, wearing a suit and dark glasses parts the crowd and waves for us to come. We were kind of hesitant but we did. We thought he just wanted us to sit in the front. But no, he told us to keep following him. We walked across this big open area in front of the stage and he sat us down in the V.I.P. area! On this side there was a huge tent and lots of chairs for the mayor and mayors from other towns and other important people. Yeah we were sitting with them! The mayor got up and gave a big speech and after that all the V.I.P. people started to go get some food, and a Ugandan pop star (the Britney Spears of Uganda) started to dance (and lip-synch) on the stage. After a bit this guy told us to go get in the line. While in line Kizza found us. (Kizza is cool. He helps us build the stoves and mushroom houses.) Then the mayor got up on stage and started dancing with the dancer. And then this guy told me to go up there. Yeah there were seriously 15 to 20,000 people there. Ryan and I got up there and danced in front of everyone with the mayor and the dancer! (Don’t worry Jake got it on video so I’m going to get it from him.) She moved her hips like crazy, and she did it all the time. When we got up there the whole crowd went crazy and started cheering. It was awesome. After the song we got back in line. The guy came back to us and moved us right to the front of the line! The food was pretty good. It was metooke, (it’s like mashed potatoes but it has bananas in it.) (I didn’t like it in the past, but this time it was pretty good.) rice, brown rice, this peanut sauce, meat, and green stuff. It was pretty good. We ate it with our hands! After that, the guy that has been giving us all this V.I.P. treatment took us to the mayor and we met him. (He was wearing this cool robe thing over his suit.) Yeah, so I shook his hand! Then we walked back to the house.
It was such an awesome day. The guy that was helping us told me that I was a good dancer. And then he told me that I need to play in the soccer game tomorrow! Tomorrow is Martyrs day and a bunch of people from Uganda, Rwanda, and a bunch of other countries/places walk to this church in Mukono (I think). Supposedly it holds 500,000 people! And I guess they have a soccer game to celebrate or something. So I think most of us are going to walk there in the morning, and then when we come back we’ll go watch the soccer game. And I guess I’ll play! I’m super excited!
Nope, didn’t make it to soccer. It took 3 hours to walk to the Martyrs day thing and then it took 3 hours to drive back. It rained and a tour bus got stuck in the mud and caused a huge traffic jam, so by the time we got back to Lugazi the soccer game was over.

Mas

oh also yesterday (sunday) we had a big rainstorm. (like we do pretty much everyday) the power went out (which isn't uncommon) but i guess that it rained so hard that it eroded part of our wall surrounding our house. so now we have a huge gap in the wall and all the neighbors just stood around looking in at us for a long time. i got pictures but i'll put them up next time. also we have an ant infestation. there are billions of them outside our house and in the garbage. they bite too. again i'll post the pictures next time.
ok pictures are...
a group of us at dominoes in kampala. a little girl that just plays around where we eat lunch everyday. me and a little boy at a school that we built a stove at. me and wilson at the soccer game (yes he's wearing a mia hamm US soccer jersey!). me cutting a log for the mushroom house with a machete! me at the youth outreach mission office. me and nixon (he makes rolex's for us). me and david with his family (he only sees them every 3-4 months). me. and me and david.

more pictures

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After the movie I got some ice cream which was pretty good. then we went to the supermarket in the mall. I got 2 boxes of cereal (frosted flakes, and coco krispies) both of those together cost about $13. but it's worth it. i already ate my frosted flakes though. after that we waited for the taxi to pick us up. the driver that took us there told us he'd come back to pick us up at 6:30. but we needed 2 taxis so a couple of us went to go find one and after awhile we ended up getting into this big truck. it looked like one of those trucks that carries refugees. anyway it was an uncomfortable w hour drive. we kept stopping to pick up and drop off people. and when we got into the truck we agreed on paying 1000 shillings each. but when we were almost home they pulled over to get our money and they said 2000. stupid cheapskate losers. sorry but it makes me mad that they always rip us off. i wouldn't have paid except some of the guys that were from the youth outreach mission said to just pay. i really think that i could get around uganda much better by myself than to be with a ugandan. they don't barter. when i've bartered myself i can get a cheaper price then they can when they do it for me. i guess americans are just more stubborn. atleast i am. if we weren't with them i would have argued with the driver. even though it was only 50 cents more! but still it's not fair that they think they can rip us off. and actually 1000 shillings is worth something to them. oh well. that was my weekend. now here are some pictures.

Kampala

Friday wasn't productive at all. We had 1 stove to build at this HIV/AIDS center but there were a lot of people already going to that. I would've just ended up sitting around watching. So I spent the day at the house and in town. Later in the day at 3 we went down to the Youth Outreach Mission office and met up with Wilson and Robert and the some other members and then went to Mehta stadium and organized a soccer game with the street kids. it was cool we gave them enough jerseys for 2 teams and it was fun to watch them play. Saturday we went into Kampala. It wasn't all that fun. We went to the Garden City Mall and we had lunch. (hamburger and fries which wasn't all that great) Then we all split up and i went to a movie with Shaun. We saw Duplicity. (wasn't amazing but wasn't bad) sorry times running out and i gotta hurry i'll write the rest later. we did drive home in a refugee looking truck though. more on that later. bye