Shake Shake That Mango Tree

I am sitting inside an internet cafe right in the middle of the market place and there are about 300 people gathered outside listeing to this man yell and some music. Right now TI's Live Your Life is on! Yah man! Okay I have so much to tell and I finally have a second to get on and write. Okay so here are some of the things about our living conditions. I don't really remember what I said last time so forgive me if I repeat myself. Our house is two stories and as of today there are 28 of us living there. It is not very big. Maybe like my kitchen, family room, and great room....that's about it. But it is probably the second biggest house in Uganda besides the mayors. It is a doctors house. We do not have running water right now. For some reason they turned it off in the entire city for a few days and ...yeah...which means....I am very sweaty and dirty! Yuck! But it's okay. I am so happy to be here. I don't know if I have been this happy since I was playing with my six boys before they all left! It is hard making the adjustments to be here (not to mention every one has WAY bad B.O. Sick), but I am still so happy! Heavenly Father is blessing me! Oh! Backstreet Boys just came on! American Music! Yeah!
Also, we do nto have flushing toilets. Yes, I pee in a hole in the ground. It is the weirdest thing I have ever experienced. I can not tell you how blessed you boys and men are. We females have a lot harder time aiming. Yeah....But it's a talent I will eventually posses I am sure. The food is good. Just a lot of rice and beans. I love rolex's and these scone things that no one really knows what they are called. They call them "snahks" because they can't say "snacks."
We are the most popular people in town. Every where we go, people follow us and stare at us and yell "Muzungu! Bye Muzungu! How Ah You?" They cannot say their "r"s. Neither do they use any contractions. Do Not. Cannot. Should not. Etc. When you are talking to anyone...even if they have had many years of english, you have to talk like them. So I have started to think in their accent.
Everyone dresses so nice here! All of the women wear dresses or skirts and all fo the men have slacks and button up shirts. Especially at church! Oh I loved Church so much! I went to the Jinja ward yesterday and it was so beautiful! The chapel is open and warm with fans blowing and all of the windows and doors wide open, yet it was so quiet and peaceful and the spirit was so strong. A little girl named Sarah passed me a note and she said "this is for you" at the very end of the meeting. It was so cute. It just read "I want to be your friend. I think you are nice" and then her address and her brother's phone number haha. I love it. I am also teaching young womens next week. The young women's president is incredible. She teaches every single week. I can't imagine how hard that would be with everything else these people have to do. I am hoping that the branch president will give us callings so we can really help the branch grow and strengthen. There are many investigators here and I LOVE seeing the missionaries at work.
Oh, quick shout out to Jadie poo! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GF! I hope you had a good one. My mom was going to call you and tell you happy birthday so I hope she got a chance.
I have to tell about my friend Ivan. He is so funny. He follows me arund everywhere and always listens to my ipod. Then he started calling me Nakintu (said Na-sheen-tu). He said this was my African name. He and one of our bus drivers gave it to me. Then he started calling me "baby" because "you have a young voice" then he calls me things like "mulaloo" which means "handicapped/crazy" whenever I try and speak luganda. And he calls me "little punk" and...what else...there are so many. He is so mean to me. Then he gave me a ring and said we were married. So now he says "you are my honey" and he introduces me to everyone like, "this is my honey." It is a little awkward and I don't really know what to do haha...and I can't really tell if he is joking or not. But he'll go back to school soon and hopefully won't be with us as much. He is defintiely my best "african friend" and he is so helpful to us! He always shows us where to go. And there he is. He just walked in. What a sweetheart. We all love Ivan. Oh he also made me a bracelet today and now everyone else wants one haha it is way cool.
Um...okay the KIDS! This is the best part! Everywhere I go I seem to find a flock of kids. ALL DAY yesterday ...literally...like 4 hours or more...I just went out of our gate and played with the kids. It was me and a boy named Andrew in our group at first. And there were maybe 20 kids out there...then 30 more joined after about a half hour. Then it was much to complicated to try and do ring around the rosy with all of them or to play london bridge is falling down because they all were trying to touch me and my skin and my hair haha. They are so beautiful! They talught me this song that goes ...
"SHAKE SHAKE THAT MANGO TREE
MANGO YELLOW MANGO GREEN
ONE FOR YU AND ONE FOR ME
SHAKE SHAKE THAT MANGO TREE!"
And another one to the tune of frerejaka or however you spell that haha...
"BABY JESUS, BABY JESUS
I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU
YOU ARE MY SAVIOR, YOU ARE MY SAVIOR
EVERY DAY, EVERY DAY!"
They are adorable. I just can't even tell you. When I go anywhere everyone else in the group just waves at the kids as they come out and yell "MUZUNGUUUUUUUUU!!!" But I want to touch and hold and play with every single one! So I at least touch all of their hands or give them a high five or pound it...they say "bonga" when you pound it. Whatever that means.
Saturday we went to African Paradise which is the dance club here. Okay so....everyone LOVES obama here. Like seriously..LOVES obama. I asked Ivan why everyone loves him and he immediately said "BECAUSE HE IS BLACK! HE IS LIKE ME!" I asked him if that was the only reason and he said, "No. He also speaks my language." So...there you go. Everyone loves Obama because he is black and he speaks Luganda. So when we walk down the streets and adults are yelling things at us we don't understand, we just yell "OBAMA!!!!!" And they all go nuts, "OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA!!!!!" Cheering and jumping and going crazy! It is so funny! Anyways...so at African Paradise...There are like 20 of us Americans, so they play this song called "obama the hero" or something like that over and over and over and over. We even coreographed a dance to the chorus and every one just watches us on stage. Look up the song on google or something. It is sooo freakin hillariuos. "hero hero hero obama is the hero of africa..." It is stuck in my head all day every day.
Ihave about twenty minutes left and I'm trying to think of what I want to tell! I am constantly thinking oh Merrill would appreciate that or Grandma Nina would think that was hillarious....but I CAN'T REMEMBER IT ALL! Oh okay so I just love meeting the people and talking to people. I love it. I want to meet every single person in this town. And they are all incredibly beautiful. No matter if their hair is all gone and their teeth are all rotted out and they have scars all over their body and their clothes have holes and their eyes don't look straight. They are all beautiful! These people have relationships and love is the most important thing to them. Anyone who will take time to look them in the eyes and say "hello" is their hero. It is a big deal to them. And I love it! I was talking to another girl in my neighborhood ...I can't remember her name for the life of me...something like Vivi. But she is 15 and goes to Secondary School right now. She is so cute. She speaks english so well! She asked me why I play with the kids because apparently all of the other whites who come here are rude and will not talk to anyone. I told her that the kids in
America don't do things with each other. Every child has his or her own video games and movies and maybe plays a team sport but that is about it. THey don't have real relationships like they do here. They don't love like they do here. And they are SO not fun to play with! Haha. Sorry kids, but true. I have never seen real love and real happiness like I have here. And I can't imagine how I will be able to see it even more by the end of this four months.
Like...think fo this. I am walking with a group of about six of us and we're trying to find African Paradise for the first time. Of course everyone else in the group is too shy to ask anyone and I run right up to this store and ask this man where it is. He drops what is in his hands ...literally drops waht he is doing and says..."I will show you. I will escort you. Come on"....And of course we are white so I'm sure that makes a difference, but this has happened multiple times and they do this for each other. This is just how they are. These people are so kind and so caring and so generous. Everything they have, they share. There are no hesitations. If one child gets a mango, they split it into 20 different pieces and give it to the rest of the group. I saw this today multiple times and have seen it every where I go.
So today we went to an orphanage then to do Adobe Stove evaluations. Which is basically checkin out the stoves HELP did last year and making sure they still rock. Which almost everyone did. It was crazy. There were children coming out of every corner and from half a mile away to play. They all wanted to hold uor hands and tuoch us and see us. I don't know if it is weird to make this connection, but I almost feel like this is hwo it will be to see the Savior, you know? Like we will all be so grateful to Him and run up to him and want to feel His hands and just thank him so much for everything He did. Every child's face...I think of the love I feel for them and can't IMAGINE how great Christ's love is for them. Wow. Incredible. Anyways...one of the girls in the group was like, "Dani, we just need to five you a flute and you'll be the Pied Piper." Haha they are so cute. Oh and I do have my flute so I will be teh pied piper. I just want to keep every single child and take them home with me. I wnat to give them everything I have and help them to find a better life. Even with them being so happy....I want them to feel every joy in life.
I have to go, but I love you all. I love Africa! Thank you for your comments on the last post and keep commenting so I know this serves a purpose. I love you all soooooooo much. I don't really miss you to tell the truth, but I love you.
I hope you are doing well and have a good day! "MUZUNGUUUUUUUU!"
P.s. Lauren. the girls in the ward LOVE you. More later.