Everyday life in
Speaking of traffic laws – some of my teammates have shown great faith and have lent me vehicles on various occasions. Not only am I getting used to everything being opposite, but I also had to used to driving a manual transmission. Put the two together and, well, there you go – would you want to lend me your only car? But – I have only stalled on the road once and only “almost” hit a bicycle once. Last evening I even drove across town for dinner. According to more than one eye witness my driving was “not bad” and even “surprisingly steady”. Perhaps with this newly refined skill my dad and my brother will let me drive their own precious trucks when I return home.
Crystal, Jennifer and I had bought some local material and today we went into town to have traditional Ugandan dresses made. The mother of one of the youth members at church is a seamstress. What I mean is – she has an old singer sewing machine (the kind with the foot pump) on the sidewalk. So there we are, three mzungu sitting on stools crowded around her machine on the sidewalk looking a pictures of dresses cut out of magazines. Of course everyone who walks by (which must have been a bazillion people) had to look over our shoulders and ask questions of Mary (our seamstress) in their native language (that we don’t speak). Once we all picked out a dress we liked, Mary took our measurements….right there on the street. It wasn’t too bad until a guy tried to sell us some bananas….as I was getting my hips measured. Talk about bad timing for him.
Check back later for a picture of the dress and a story about how I have introduced my team to “Georgia Tea” and created my own “Southern Fried Omelet”.
