When I awoke this morning I prayed that God would let
something amazing happen today…
I made it to bed late. During the night I could hear people
working outside. I guess there is always something to be done here. I have
heard it said that the Ugandans that work here actually work really hard all
the time. Not like America where a lot of us that don’t have careers give
effort until it becomes uncomfortable or inconvenient. I woke up very early
after finally going to bed. I decided I would go for a walk around where we
were staying. I grabbed my camera and headed out. I could see that nobody else
from the team was up yet. I made my way passed the gate guarding our hotel and
made a right turn to head up the street. At this point I am a little nervous. I
always have this feeling that danger is always around the corner from me. I can
see that there are a couple people walking on the same street that I am on
which is small and maybe not traveled on as much. I took a couple photos and
headed back for breakfast. This place is so quiet. It’s slow. The environment
is unthreatening. How come I feel so out of place here? It’s unlike any place I
have been to.
Later in the day we were walking in to town and I was
explaining my thoughts to Risa. She basically said… “How does it feel to be the
minority? Everyone is constantly looking at you and judging you because you are
white.” Wow… that was a hammer to the head. This is the very first time I have
felt this. I have felt excluded before. I have felt unwanted before too. I have
never felt what it is like to be the minority.
After our visit to town I took a Boda Boda back to the
C.O.G. compound. A Boda Boda is a motorcycle taxi. This was amazing! The Boda
drivers are everywhere so you just have to look at one and they will stop for
you. You tell them where you want to go but then you have to negotiate a price.
It’s super easy and it’s pretty much a standard 1,500 - 2,000 Shillings. In our
case since I was riding with Lindsay we had to pay 2,000. Now there are 3
people on this motorbike zooming through the streets of Jinja. We were dodging
potholes and other vehicles and at one point we were on the sidewalk! It was so
amazingly great! We arrived back and my heart was racing with excitement.
