Bobby's journal May 12

Today we woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel, and went to catch the Elgon flyer.  This is a bus that takes people from Kampala to Mbale.  On the way to the bus, everyone we passed stared at us because we are three white people walking along the back streets of Kampala.  We asked a man for directions, and he told us to follow him.  He took us right to the Elgon Flyer.  When we got there, we got onto the bus, sat down, and waited to leave.  As we were sitting on the bus people would walk on holding buckets filled with drinks like water and soda.  Another person would be holding a container filled with gum or some type of snack.  On the bus they played African music videos and a Dolly Parton music video which was interesting because it was a big change from the African music.  On the bus ride, we picked up a drug rep.  Mrs. Wybar calls them a “snake oil vender” because they get on the bus and shout trying to sell their drugs and everything.  At first he gave out free painkillers (which were probably expired), then sold tooth whitening cream, tooth brushes and toothpaste, and some type of aloe gel.  I didn’t want to fall asleep on the bus because I wanted to look out the window and not miss anything.  Nothing exciting was happening and the view was the same as it was when we drove into Kampala so, I decided to take a nap.  As I was sleeping we drove by an accident where a bus was flipped upside down and a matattoo was in a million pieces.  Apparently the Matattoo was driving on the wrong side of the road and collided with the bus.  The Elgon Flyer took us to Mbale.  When we got to Mbale we stopped for lunch.  After lunch Andrew and I went to the bank to withdraw some money for BVI and Mrs. Wybar.  The ATM machine was in a little room, and there were guards with guns outside.  We went in and couldn’t figure out how to work it.  When we finally figured out how to withdraw the cash there were no receipts, so we waited for it to print.  When we left the guards went in because we were in there for so long.  After the bank, we went to the Post Office and picked up the school’s mail.  Before we left, we went to a corner supermarket and bought 2 liter bottles of Coke and Fanta.  We took a private hire back to Bududa.  When we got to BVI and got out of the car, all of the kids ran to greet us, and help us carry our bags up to the house.  I was so excited to see them again and they were so excited to see us also.  For the rest of the day we didn’t do much.  We got back late afternoon so we just ate dinner and went to bed.