Traveling in Uganda

My first weekend at site has been interesting I have been going to nearby towns shopping for things for my house, well more like attempting to purchase items since they are trying to charge me way too much for most items and I am not paying 25,000 shillings (approx $8.92, I know it does not seem like that much when you put it into us dollars but it should only cost about 5000 shillings or $2 here) for a basket to keep bread in. Other than people trying to rip me off traveling as been my most hated experience thus far. In the past 2 days I have gone to 2 different towns on the first trip to kyotera I was lucky enough to find a matatu that was coming from Tanzania (which charged me double the price that it should have cost) but on the way back it was a different story.  It began with a Toyota corolla with 7 adults and a baby in the back seat and 3 adults and a driver in the front. This is the norm here in Uganda, if you don’t have something on your lap why not put a person there?? I will admit I have rode in cars with this many people in the states but the difference is I know those people and they do not smell like they have never showered in their entire lives. I keep hearing people saying that Ugandans are very clean and bathe in the morning and at night…I am still waiting to find out what they do in their bathing areas because most sure as hell do not wash…or at least don’t wash the right places.  Today on the way back to site from shopping in Masaka with other volunteers I was lucky enough to have to transfer cars in Kyotera once again and was stuck in a car with my bags and 6 others in the back seat (one man was also holding a computer tower) plus 3 adults and 2 children plus the driver in the front of the car making the grand total in the Toyota corolla 13 people and I had to hold my breath the entire way because smell that was coming from some of the others in the car…if I didn’t know better I would think that I was the one who would smell considering the trend in the cars but it def is not me I may be in Africa but I didn’t give up showering all together!!!

We also had the best burgers and brownies today…Dorothys supervisor is from the US and had all of us that were in Masaka over for lunch and we had a cook out…I don’t think I need to eat again for a week!!! When i got home from Masaka i found my neighbor whom i had yet to meet sitting on the steps in front of my house cleaning my shoes that i had sitting on the steps...next time i think i may leave my laundry outside maybe she will do that also!!