Green Garden

This morning we were on the road by 8AM on our way to Mbale for the quarterly Mission Meeting. Erika and I rode with Al & Laurie Tricarico. The roads were bumpy, but dry. We got chapatti (think homemade tortillas, cooked in oil... delicious) at a stand along the way, enjoyed the scenery, and tried to have good conversations although it's tricky with the noise of the car bouncing through potholes!

We arrived in Mbale around lunchtime, Erika and I checked into our room at the Green Garden Hotel, and then we went with Laurie and Josh to BAM, a grocery store. Erika and I went crazy buying everything we'll need (hopefully) to live comfortably between now and the next time we're down country (I probably won't be down again till Jan. or Feb. at the earliest... whenever we have our next mission meeting). Afterwards we went to Chat N Chino's, an American-style coffee shop. The service was slow but the food and drinks were good and there was wi-fi and... so wierd... WAZUNGU (white people) everywhere. Most of us were there for a while - all the teens, Martha, Laurie and Sunshine... then the teens scattered in a couple different groups across the city (they've grown up here so they're completely confident and know where they're going... which is kinda cool). Erika and I decided to stick around and enjoy the wireless and Coke floats for a while (Carolyne Scott would be proud!). We also met a pastor who is going to be coming to our mission Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, who is doing church planting work up north in the Kitgum, literally 2 hours away from any other Westerners.

Then Erika and I each nabbed a piki (public transport motorcycle) for the short ride from the cafe back to our hotel. I was a bit nervous about the piki but it wasn't too scary, although sitting sideways on a motorcycle in a skirt with a heavy backpack on is kinda tricky, as far as balancing goes. But we both had careful drivers who went nice and slow for us mzungus. We'll be taking lots of them tomorrow, I'm guessing.

We came back and got cleaned up for dinner. Our shower is literally a shower head hanging from the ceiling, a bucket on the floor in the middle of the bathroom, and a drain in the corner where you can dump out the bucket. No curtains or anything -- so the whole bathroom gets completely soaked. Poor Erika didn't see the water heater button you have to press for hot water (although I pressed it and the water still didn't get hot... oh well). Hot showers and fast internet are the two main things to get excited about when going down country!

We had dinner at Delicious Dishes, an Indian restaurant. Erika and I tried to get pikis in but neither of the drivers we hailed had ever heard of the restaurant so we let them leave. We ended up just walking down. The food was great and almost the whole mission came. The Wrights gave us a lift back to the hotel, which was nice, cuz Erika and I don't really want to travel alone at night unless we have to. I'm sure it would be fine, but it's good to be cautious.

Now we're just chilling in our hotel room under our mosquito nets. There's mold on the wall and the TV only has one channel (loud African beats, all the time!); our windows don't close and have no screens so who knows how many bugs and geckos could climb in tonight (Erika has already bravely squashed a massive moth)... but overall it's a pretty good room. The best part is we're splitting the cost and it comes out to $10 or $15/night each. Not bad :)