Hangin' on the Corner Slangin' Cane...

[Luke, Monday afternoon]

We have now arrived in Lira, just got some lunch. This is like first-first impression, seriously we've been here for less than an hour. We're waiting for a driver to take us to where we will be staying. Could be five minutes, more likely to be five hours. We have no way to know. It was a long hard drive, but we made it. So far nothing too shocking, very rural. Lots of jungle, lots of mudhuts, lots of monkeys. The landscape on the way here was very beautiful. We crossed the Nile, which was pretty cool. We would post pictures, but the word is if the soldiers on the bridge see a camera they stop you and you have to pay your way out. I guess, cameras must be pretty dangerous. After we crossed the Nile, things started getting progressively less and less beautiful. Now we're in Lira, and it hasn't bucked the trend. So anyway we go to our temporary home for the next couple days in the house of this NGO here in Lira. Hopefully we make a good enough impression that they want to hang out sometime in the next five months. Word is there's not a lot of other options for ex-pat company. Not a lot of options for much of anything from what I can tell. If you're looking to purchase a live chicken however, this is the place to come. Just wander down the street, and chances are you'll run into somebody with one (a LIVE chicken, if you're still following) thrown over his shoulder. Just, you-know looking for a buyer. The thing I don't get, is why aren't these chickens putting up more of a fight. They're hanging upside down by a string around their feet. They have to know that something real bad's about to go down. They're cool with it though.

Kampala was really great, MUBS was really great. We met some great people and made some forreal friends. Yesterday our buddy who's been keeping us above water this whole week, Rodney, took us to Sunday Lunch at his family's house. It was really fun, we met his Mom and his sister and her friend. It was just all around really an awesome day. Thanks Rodney.

We learned how to cut and peel sugarcane with our teeth. The major form of candy here = raw sugar cane. You just gnar it up and spit it out. It's certainly more of an activity than candy is back home. Speaking of which. Vicki gave me a bunch of candy before I left Eugene, including Jelly Beans. Of all the random stuff I brought, these are the item which has garnered the most interest from my new Ugandan friends. They love them. I guess they are pretty awesome as far as candy is concerned. So by the way, rather than buy candy in the candy shop, you buy it from the kid on the corner who's hustle is serving cane.



We spent some time at the nicest resort in the land, it was a nice resort. Unfortunately we were so busy running around that I didn't get the chance see, much less swim in, the "biggest swimming pool in East Africa." Same thing for monkey's island. Kind of a bummer. Oh, and of course my bank card/ only credit card apparently just doesn't work in Africa. Which has been a pleasant surprise. Good thing Pat's still works. In the land of gypsies, Bank of America is king.

(Lake Victoria, Speke Resort)

Anyhoo, different landscape. Hopefully the people are as great here as they were down in Kampala. I've been in Lira for all of like an hour and I'm already plotting what to do when we leave. The chance exists that we haven't actually gotten into town yet, cause I heard once upon a time in Eugene that the office of these people (where we currently are) is outside of town. Maybe town will be a little more town-like than what we've seen. I don't have much hope though.

What did we get ourselves into?