Muzungo! Muzungo!

         I've been in Jinja for five days now and I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of things like riding a boda, remembering the names of the preschoolers and babies at Amani, and figuring out what each food item is called. I've learned some very important words in Lugandan like suesue (pretty obvious when a little boy runs up to you in panic looking for the nearest bathroom), posho (a cornmeal and water mixture that looks exactly like mashed potatoes but definitely isn't) or muzungo (a white person-- there's quite a lot of stares and waving when three muzongos go into town). It's been fun getting to know this language but it adds a whole other element to understanding kids at the baby cottage. Sometimes kids are a little tough to understand but adding another language to the mix is quite difficult. Some of the kids help us out and say to the other child, the Auntie's want to understand you! Speak English! No matter what language they're speaking, they're still absolutely adorable.
         
           I had a very interesting experience on Sunday when I tried to go to a Catholic mass in town. First of all, I had never been there so I wasn't sure where it was and second of all, I had no idea what time mass was. Masstimes.org doesn't work here and I spent over an hour on Saturday night trying to figure out what time it was. Since all the church services for the rest of the Christian services were at either 9 or 10, I decided to be all ready by 8:45. Well, it turns out the only English mass was at 8. I was so disappointed but knew I had to at least go to some kind of service. So, I hopped in the van with everyone else to go to a Christian service. Half way there, Charlie, the head coordinator at Amani, stopped the car and said, hey look! There's a St. Andrew's! So I hopped out of the car, and was there in perfect timing... or so I thought. The mass was supposed to start at 10. I didn't take into account African time though. Around 10:30, the actual service started and I was thrilled to sit next to someone I had been talking to for the last half an hour (apparently his church in Kampala starts on time too). There was lots of dancing, lots of singing, a Baptism, and praying and at the end of the mass (two and a half hours later) I was really confused. Although pretty much everything was covered (minus the Eucharist), nothing seemed to be in order of a regular mass AND there was a woman priest! Say whaaat? I've been trying to keep an open mind about everything I've been experiencing so I again tried to keep an open mind... but something was just off about this mass, or what I thought was a mass. It turns out I went to an Anglican church! Whew! I'll definitely wake up early and go to the Catholic church next week.

         Finally, today I got to go on an outing with Moses, one of the five year old boys at Amani. Each child gets a turn going on an outing with an Auntie and they rotate on the list so everyone gets a turn with one on one attention. This is so all of the kids know life outside the gates of Amani and receive more attention than they usually do. We decided to go into town on a boda (joy) and get some sodas and cake at a local restaurant called Ozzie's. We had such a good time on this little adventure!

                                   Moses and Auntie Colleen with our giant piece of chocolate cake!

                                                                    He loved his soda!

                                                        And his chocolate cake. Cheeeeese!