Some firsts...

Last night I spent my first night in my new home. As with any new place, there were all of strange sounds that you’re not used to yet. For me, it was a mixture of dogs barking, roosters crowing, and a series of mysterious noises that, I’ve gotta admit, were slightly freaking me out. However, the house itself is very nice, even in American standards. I live with an American family with two young boys and two other Ugandan women. The pictures are of my new room (at least it’s my room for the first month or so before I move to another one). If you look carefully you can see the chicken coops right outside my window…
I also experienced my first mutotu (taxi) ride into the city. Mutotus are small vans that, somehow, fit up to 17 people in. There always seems to be room for one more in Uganda. It takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes to make it downtown and only costs about 50 cents. Then, to get back home you catch a taxi from the taxi park- literally hundreds of taxis all packed into one little area. You have to find the ones going to Gaba, marked by a sign. Then, as soon as the taxi is completely full, they will leave. It is organized chaos! I’ll have to get a picture of it next time I go, because it looks absolutely insane.