I’m finally getting around to writing my second blog post. I really love to write and share with you all about life here, so I hope you’re okay with me writing almost every two weeks!

One of my friends, Sidney, did a blog post on this as well, so I can’t really take all the credit for this idea (even though I wouldn’t have taken all the credit in general – I’m sure other people have done blogs like this)!

Throughout the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed small little things that only people who have lived here can relate to, if that makes sense. So here’s what I like to call “You Know You’re in Uganda, When…”

• You know you’re in Uganda when: The power goes out and you couldn’t really care less.

When we first moved here, we had power outages constantly. It would happen three days a week from maybe eight in the morning to nine in the evening, and when your parent’s job requires for their phone to be on and charged 24/7, people start to get agitated quickly. The same goes for us kids, too. Maybe we had planned to Skype™ a friend that we hadn’t talked to in a while, and all of our electronics are dead or weren’t charged the day night before the outage. Now, if we flick the light switch and the lights don’t come back on, we just shrug it off and play scrabble or dance with the girls. There are plenty of things to do here when you don’t have your electronics.

• You know you’re in Uganda when: your charger for your electronics doesn’t work and you immediately assume it’s a power outage.

In Uganda, outlets have a switch on them that allow you to turn the outlet off and on to save electricity. Sometimes, we forget that the outlet is turned off, and assume that the power is out again for maybe ten minutes straight.

And then we realize that the lights are in fact still on. Either that, or the outlet is on and you realize that it’s time to order a new charging cord.

• You know you’re in Uganda when: You have to have a back up order when you’re ordering food at a restaurant.

Here, restaurants usually only make a limited amount of food, and if you’re unlucky and what you want isn’t available at the restaurant anymore, you are told by the waiter that “It is over.”

If you have a bit of social anxiety like I do, you immediately begin to panic when this is said and you frantically try to come up with something else to have. And don’t even get me started when they say that your second order is “over”, too. I usually just give up by then and get a side of chips (french fries). They never run out of chips.

• You know you’re in Uganda when: You memorize the songs in Luganda (the most common vocal language) and know the lyrics but have no idea what they are saying.

Having a house full of girls means that they are constantly wanting to dance during their free time. I’ve made a playlist on my phone full of their Luganda songs, and they blast them through the blue tooth speaker. When you hear the songs over and over again, you’re able to sing a long with the song, but you have no idea what the song is actually saying.

• Here’s something different – You know you LIVE in Uganda when: You actually want to go to Kampala, Uganda’s capital.

For missionaries that come and visit Uganda, Kampala is one of the worst places to drive through. It’s very, very busy, and traffic there is nothing compared to traffic in Atlanta. It’s worse. You can be stopped in the middle of the road without moving for maybe two hours straight. When we were about to move, Mom and I were always saying “I will never go to Kampala unless absolutely needed.” At the beginning of last year, we would only go to Kampala for student visas, work visas, and driving licenses, and that made us hate it even more. It’s always so hot and crammed in the immigration office, and it just makes you feel sick.

However, about three months ago, a good friend of my mom’s here told her that she drives to Kampala for a fun day. Mom and I were perplexed! We had no idea that Kampala could be fun.

But, boy, can it be fun.

Sure we still get in traffic, but we’ve found short cuts and back ways to make the trip faster. In Kampala, we can go see movies, eat SUSHI, (Yes I said it, SUSHI), get some really nice clothes, and more. It’s a fun city to explore. Mom and I are now always seeing what days are open and if we’re free enough to go to Kampala soon.

• You know you’re in Uganda when: smooth roads in America scare you because of how bumpy the roads are here.

Roads in Uganda are more potholes than actual paved road. Speed bumps show up every few seconds and you’re constantly swerving around big, dangerous holes on the road. In America, it was weird driving on roads that had no potholes or speed bumps. It was safe. Almost too safe.

• And my last point – You know you’re in Uganda when: driving across THE NILE FREAKING RIVER makes you emotional.

It sounds kind of small, but every time my family goes into town, we get to drive across the famous Nile River. Yes, that is in fact the river that Moses turned into blood with his staff. It’s the second longest river in the world (darn you, Amazon river) , and it’s even possible to do white water rafting down it which yes, I have done. Twice. I flipped out of the boat on the second time, however, and I think that’s the last time I’ll be rafting for a while. But it’s pretty cool when you get to say that you have rafted down The Nile River.

I hope this blog helped give you a glimpse of what life here is like! It won’t be long before I update again! Thanks for reading!

 

 

I’m sorry if the pictures aren’t the best quality. You know you’re in Uganda when wifi is very, very slow.