A Whole New World...

I said I wasn't going to blog, but since I took the most pictures today, it's my duty to fill you all in... We started today out singing the Theme song to Aladdin (It came on the radio, right after the Spice Girls) while driving to Jengo Preschool. Chuck REALLY enjoyed the playground! The students are on break right now, but in a couple weeks, the classrooms will be up in full swing. We are going to be visiting the school again for a teacher workday, and then on the 3 Feburary for the children's first day back for the new tri-mester! More details about the school to follow then.
We stopped off at the Royal Tombs. Our guide there gave us a 30 minute tour, telling us all about the history of the Kingdom of Buganda. All of the wooden beams in the huts are wrapped in the bark from a Fig tree. Why you ask? Fig tree bark is inpenetrable to termites... We need to start using that on homes in the states! Afterward, we went back to the main hut, and our guide showed us batiks that he did and sheets of fig bark that his brother painted in vibrant colors. They were all so beautiful! Chuck and I are planning to go back and grab one (or two) for sure!
We continued on to Garden City and met some more of the family for lunch at a rooftop Indian restaurant. The food was great, however, I was a little nervous when they served my cooked vegetables on top of fresh cabbage... YIKES! So far, so good, however!
We needed to pick up a variety of cheeses for some upcoming meals, so we went into the supermarket at Garden City, talk about SUPER, this place was enormous! And to my surprise and delight, they had an entire section called "Italian Cheeses", Brilliant!
We continued to drive around Kampala city from there on our way back to the house. The streets are crazy here! Boda Boda's are the moped taxis that drive around, and while they are definitely evil kinevils on a mission, the bicyclists are probably the most terrifying of all. Death defiance is the name of the game for tw0-wheeled vehicles on the virtually stop-lightless streets of Uganda's capital city.
Back at the house, members of the family were waiting for our arrival. We player futbal and catch with the children, and they tought us a very entertaining version of rock paper scissors (don't worry, we'll teach you all when we get home). Afterwards, Mike and I had a race, to see if I could finish my book, before he got to page 50 of his... I WON! (Anna, I hope you are proud of me, it's only Sunday and I've already finished my first book!). The evening is winding down, we are going to eat some delicious quiche that Mama Conche is preparing now, and then take a nap before the NFL Playoff games tonight (start at 11:30pm Uganda time).
I've been learning more and more Luganda each day, including discovering (luckily before using it in public) that the word I thought meant 'please', actually meant 'dog'... Oops!
Dinner's ready, got to go! Love you all and have a great day!
Kristen