Monday, April 22, 2013

I Live in Africa

Saturday, we went into Kampala. I hadn't been in Kampala since December and hadn't been farther than 10 km away from home since February. Here are some signs that I live in rural Uganda.
  • I don't think of putting a seatbelt on when I get into a car.
  • Bumpy roads are normal; paved roads feel unnatural (but very nice)
  • Skyscrapers scare me (actually buildings taller than two-stories are quite nerve-wracking)
  • In restaurants, I'm prepared to be told that something on the menu isn't available. Sometimes only about half of what's on the menu is an option.
  • I have trouble remembering what a shopping cart is called. (I was thinking shopping stroller at one point.)
I guess I'm going to be in trouble travelling downtown in cities in North America.

An Ironic Week

We had a few ironic incidents over the past week/week and a half.

A week ago last Friday, Aziza, in David Family, had asked about Zipporah. And we said we hadn't seen her for a while. Little did we know that she was at Jonathan Family. The next day, she showed up at our house. A little ironic, but wait until you hear the next one.

Two weeks ago, Dad was at a training conference in Kampala. The leaders of the conference came to Kasana with him to set up some new wireless things. They were here for three days setting things up. On Wednesday afternoon they left. As they were leaving it started to rain.
Fast forward an hour or two. I'm sitting inside our house with John, three of his friends and one of my friends. All of a sudden, the room lights up and there is a huge BANG! It sounded like a gunshot and my ears hurt after it. The roof was rattling and it had sounded like something had hit the roof. The boys, crazy as always, dived under chairs. I said to my friend, "I think that hit the roof." Needless to say, our hearts are pounding pretty fast.
Anyway, when we checked the solar inverter, it was, well, not working. The next day Uncle Gabe, the construction guy and Dad opened up our box. All the fuses were burnt. Our neighbour's power supply box exploded and our other neighbours' were burnt as well. And the internet wasn't working. So my dad is now trying to fix the internet and will need some more parts. The internet guys hadn't even made it to Kampala and our internet went down.

We have definitely had a pretty crazy week.