Today we took our first Boda Boda ride (Luganda for motorcycle- you sit behind the driver and hang on!) into Jinja and from there we took a taxi into Lugazi. The taxis are old vans that seat 14 people, but here they seat more like 30! They remind me a lot of the chicken buses in Guatemala. The goal: squeeze as many people in as you can and get from place A to place B as fast as you can. It's all about the money. The more people and the faster the service, the more money goes into their pockets at the end of the day. It's crazy, but it's one of the only modes of transportation for longer distances of about a half hour, which is how long it takes to get from Jinja to Lugazi. There are no fixed costs, they charge what they feel like and what was one price one way could be a lot more or less going back the same way. If you are white, the price automatically doubles.

This morning we met with the director of one of our Partner Organizations. Wilson is only about 22 years old and he runs an organization in Lugazi called the Youth Outreach Mission. He is fantastic and has done so much good in this community! We are excited to work with him and his team of dedicated volunteers. They use creative methods and projects to reach the youth and public through sensitization on HIV/AIDS.

The house situation is going, slowly, but going. We have some leads, but so far nothing has worked out. Lauren wrote up an experience that we had while house hunting yesterday...

...Back in Lugazi (about 40 km away) we met with Dr. Nyombi to procure housing. Dr. Nyombi studied medicine in Russia and now runs a medical clinic in Lugazi where we met him. He took us to his property where which we were surprised to see was a former night club and hostel…surprise #1. After walking through the gates into the large commons area, we initially thought this place might actually work out. There was a pool table and many small café tables and the room was absolutely huge. The property then wound through a series of open air halls with individual rooms that each had a shower. I immediately thought of how nice it would be for our team of volunteers to have their own rooms and SHOWERS, until the distinct odor of mold wafted into our noses. Nicole, who is a public health major and I looked at each other with the exact same thought in our heads. 25 HELP volunteers, brain dead from toxic mold exposure. NOT ON OUR WATCH! However, we didn’t want to be abrupt or rude so we continued to follow Dr. Nyombi around this bizarre set up of a “home.” Finally, Nicole said to Dr. Nyombi, “My only fear is that the rooms are not properly ventilated since there is running water in each space.” I sincerely wish you could hear her carefully annunciated Ugandan accent. As she said this, we both looked up to a big patch of 1970’s-couch-mustard colored mold literally crawling out of the ceiling…surprise #2. Dr. Nyombi quickly countered, “There is no mold here! This place is just fine, clean! It’s no problem! No worry!” Uhhhhhhh. Sure. We then ventured around to the back of the property to see the storage place. When Dr. Nyombi opened the door of the closet intended for a generator, an emaciated cat literally exploded from the room and leaped across our feet. Nicole reached back and grabbed my arm as I recovered from my heart attack…surprise #3. “The place needs a little cleaning, it has been unoccupied for a while,” Dr. Nyombi responded. You think?! Needless to say, in spite of the attractive price tag of $2 million Ugandan shillings a month (I still haven’t adjusted to the exchange rate!) we will not be making our volunteers sleep at "Club Moldy Cat" as I have dubbed it. Hopefully Dr. Nyombi doesn’t read our blog. We haven’t had the heart to break the news to him yet...

We're really starting to feel like we should secure something soon so that we can focus on accomplishing more things before our volunteers arrive next week. It's tough being foreign and trying to find a good price on a large house that will accomodate all of our needs, but we have some good local people willing to help us and we're confident that all will work out.

To end the day, all of the children that live here with Kimi were gathered into the sitting room. Auntie Kristine (all of the children refer to their superiors in this house as auntie and uncle) shared an inspirational thought and we ended the night together with a prayer. One of the children said it in Luganda and it was very touching to think that our Father in Heaven speaks all languages and understands each of His children and the desires of their hearts. I felt humbled and excited that one day I will have the opportunity to teach children of my own.