June 16

June 16, 2009

Today was the day. We had already decided that we were going to get up early and walk to the foundation. We found that a 4.5 mile walk would take us the same amount of time as taking the taxi. Plus, this way we didn’t have to be cramped with 18 other people into the cab of the minibus.
The walk was very enjoyable. We took on of the “by-passes” as our route which turned out to be a very light traffic path through the hills with very adequate sidewalks. Granted it took us a little over an hour, the walk was enjoyable and we were able to take in a lot more of the sites. The dash across the six lane road was an adventure, but easy enough, and we found ourselves safely on the road to the foundation. From that point forward, we were at ease.
After making it to the foundation we made our introductions for the day and settled in with our heaps of paperwork to go through. After a couple of hours of taking notes it was time to break for lunch. We decided on an Italian restaurant. We had spotted and set out. The restaurant was about a mile away and while a chore on the way there, it was a nice walk after a big lunch. The Italian restaurant sported an outdoor bar, mostly outdoor seating, and two patios with covered seating. We had sat in one of the gardens when it began to rain so move to one of the patios. This is when we realized that all the white people in Uganda must like Italian food cause the place was full of them. There were two Italians that owned the place and everything from the soups to the pizzas were all traditional. Ginger ordered vegetable ravioli and I ordered a hand-made, wood fire oven Hawaiian pizza (cured “Canadian” ham and pineapple). It was one of the best pizzas I have ever had in my entire life. The ingredients were so fresh and the dough so delicious that I can’t wait to go back. The rain made a nice addition to the tropical plant and vice covered gardens and after that much food I began to get sleepy. I decided ot go ahead an indulge in some coffee gelato, which was also out of this world. It was comforting to find food that was so familiar.
We returned to the foundation and worked till a little after 5:30 before setting out for home. I insisted that we walk back, and about ¾ of the way home I realized it was a mistake. Crossing the 6 lane road was a little more tricky this time around and there were a lot more people on the sidewalks home this time. Kids here go to school from 8-5 or 8-6, so we were walking home with most of the high school crowds. It was cool to see so many kids in their uniforms, specific to the school they attended. We sparked a lot of curiosity and a couple of hellos. As mentioned before, people here walk really slow so we passed many of them, especially when walking up hill. The last incline up to our road was especially challenging with only the realization that we were walking at twice the speed of traffic to confirm our decision to walk. We stopped at the final street vendor we passed and picked up a watermelon.
Once home, Grace had finished for the day and headed out but had left dinner for us. An amazing cucumber and tomato salad, baked chicken and carrots, steamed potatoes, and a really good creamy type sauce. Amazing. It was around 7 at this point and we had to meet our informants back at the bar that we had met people at the night before. We grabbed showers and headed out at 8:20 to be on time for our 8:30 appointment. We walked again but it hadn’t gotten extremely dark yet. Once we got there, and after the bartender chuckled, we grabbed a couple of beers and sat to watch pool again. After waiting for an hour, we decided to head back home. After the day of walking, great food, and a couple of beers…. I was out.

Other things of note
Becky called today and the service again awful. I guess calling internationally during peak times just isn’t going to work.
On the other hand, we got a wireless modem today that allows us to have internet everywhere. While it also gets slow and jams at different times, it is comforting to have access again.
After making a lot of fun of Ginger for tripping and etc. many times since we have been here, I finally did…and it was a doosy. I was holding the watermelon and Ginger was in front of me and a car was trying to pass us on our left. I slid in the loose dirt on the incline that we were walking on, almost ran into Ginger, almost dropped the watermelon, almost fell into the car, almost fell in front of the car, made a little hop and then tried to gain my composure. I didn’t fall, but man did I make a fool of myself and turned so many shades of red as many locals watched in amazement.