I Hope They Call Me On A Mission

Friday night. Ryan and I ride a boda all the way to Mukono. BAD IDEA. I rode it to Jinja and back once...and Mukono is closer so I figured I would be fine...but it was deathly. It should be a 45-60 minute ride and it took us about25 minutes. And I quote Ryan, "This is scarier than bungee jumping."
So we finally get there and we meet up with some ofthe elders! We went to some appointments with them, then went out to dinner. It was SO FUN! And I have officially decided I will be turning in my papers in May of2010. So everyone be ready! I'm going on splits with the sisters all day saturday so I can really see what mission life is like. It's so weird cause I never really thought about going on a full-time mission. But the last couple weeks it has been constantly on my mind. After praying about it, I've decided I am going. I could leave as early as August 23, 2010!!!!!! Yay!
So, I forgot to tell a story about last sunday and I told my sisters and they were peeing their pants (by the way jess and gab, I just barely bought you THE most awesome souvenier ever. Like you guys are gonna pee your pants. You'd better love me forever and buy me good american food when I come home). So I'm walking home from church last sunday (well from the bus) and I get up my street and see about 50 of the neighborhood children standing outside my gate with a pile 30 feet long of bricks on the road. What the heck, right? Yeah. So I get closer and notice that OUR GATE ...OUR BRICK AND CEMENT GATE...IS BROKEN.....30 FREAKIN FEET OF IT. Yeah. So I move through the red sea...black sea...of children and climb up the pile of bricks ot see Shaun and Brian just chillin reading a book. My eyes are as big as they ever have been and my mouth is dropped open..."Uhhhh????" "Oh, yeah our wall fell down," Shaun says. NO???!! DID IT??!!! "Uh....?????Yeah???" "Erosion. It fell because of erosion." EROSION? I think it is safe to say that is one of the weirdest things ever. It took about 6 days to build the wall back up but it is up now.
So TODAY I went to do immunizations in Jinja. It has been a crazy day. I am still here in Jinja. Oh! And we saw Jackie and the Timpview soccer team! Wahoo! But Anyways...so we walk into town in Lugazi to try and find a bus to Jinja right? And we get on this bus but it's taking for4ever so we decided to just try and find one on the road. So we're out there for about 5 minutes when these TWO taxi's show up. These guys are crazy. All of the sudden...
"MZUNGU WHA AW YOU GOING?"
"MZUNGU, HERE"
"MZUNGU, MZUNGU, MZUNGU."
They start grabbing and pulling and shoving. I start pushing back. Now these african men are pretty skinny and short, so I just push with all my strengh and about three fall over. I was getting so angry. They started pushing around Hilary and Leslie and by this time I am screaming.
"GET OFF ME! STOP TOUCHING ME!"
This goes on for about three minutes. Also during this time we are discussing a price. We are yelling, "ONE FIVE." Which means 1500 shillings, which is what the africans pay. The mzungu price is 2500. So one guy is saying "NO, YOU PAY TWO." And I am screaming "WE WILL ONLY PAY ONE FIVE WHEN YOU ARE SO RUDE!" And another guy tells us we will pay one-five, so we get in. As we start driving, the conductor and I are still arguing and I am so angry...Like...I have never cared so much about a quarter in my entire life. Finally he gives up and I am just fuming. I try listening to Taylor Swift and it does NOT help. Anyways, we worked out that we would pay 2 if they would take us to the church building where we needed to go. But that is like every day here. I was so mad haha.
Then at immunizations, we all got separated and I got lost in the middle of Jinja for a while, but finally found Andrew L. Then we watched a bunch of kids get their lives saved and helped give kids polio vaccines. It was actually really cool! And we listened to kids scream and parents say, "LOOK AT THAT BABY. THAT BABY IS NOT CRYING. WHY ARE YOU CRYING? ARE YOU A BABY?" "IT IS NOT GOING TO KILL YOU. STOP SCREAMING!" Hahaha. But their lives were saved. So I'm happy. I wish we could go throughout africa and do immunizations. So awesome that two little drops and one shot can save a child's life. Apparently Uganda was a polio-free country until very recently when they discovered a few cases on the border of sudan.
I am becoming SO awesome at bargaining. Like...my friends say they're really proud of me. I have bought basically all of my souveniers so that I can spend the rest on vacations and I did so well. I argue with every store owner and get the best prices. I rock. Haha. I just get super mad when they try and charge me the "mzungu price" and then I tell them what he african price is and they give it to me...after a little arguing. I hate shopping in the US. But shopping here ...is AWESOME.
ANd I'm really really so FREAKING excited to go on a mission.