Some funny things: part 1

We have been keeping a list of things that strike us as being quite ridiculous. Here a few I'd like to share:

1. The Muslim call to prayer for our area is projected from a place that is about 30 feet from our bedroom window. So every morning at 6 am we are blasted into a new day with slightly out of tune arabic.

2. There is a cat who insists that it lives in our house and keeps coming in despite our yells and large hand motions. Now it runs up behind us and freaks us out every night when we come home and tries to get in our door when we open it to go inside.

3. We started a blessing wall where we are posting pictures, notes, quotes, etc that remind us of the blessing we have been receiving. We put many pictures of you all on it, then woke up in the morning to find them sadly face down on the floor... hopefully that's not a sign.

4. We have a car- which is funny in the first place because driving in Uganda is CRAZY and on the left side of the road. But even better is that the car's a stick. Russell insists that with a few driving lessons we will be totally fine. Right, that's also what my dad said the first and last time I drove a stick 6 years ago.

5. We keep seeing people we knew two years ago and the first thing they say to chelsea is, "oh my friend, what have you been doing at home to get so fat?" (They mean this as a compliment, and ironically chelsea has not actually gained weight)

6. I was reading outside around 7 o'clock the other morning and heard a marching band. Chelsea verified that I wasn't hearing things and we ran to the street to see if it's a parade. Oh no, just a full marching band and at least 50 people dressed in the fancy ugandan traditional clothes standing on both sides of our street. We ask around and find out that they are "waiting for a visitor." They were still there at 9:30 when we left for work, hopefully their guest didn't keep them waiting much longer.

7. We are diligently practicing luganda (the language here) and besides some greetings I know the words for chicken, passion fruit, slowly, sleep!, you look like a turkey, and I will beat you. Such useful things to know.

8. The matches here have a brand name of "baby" and come with a cubby white baby face on them. CREEPY.

9. This morning we found an ant hole opening in our kitchen and decided to super glue the whole shut, we'll see if it keeps them out of our sink.

10. There are slugs in Uganda. No do not plan on licking them. They are much stickier and smaller than Oregon slugs, which believe it or not kind of grosses me out.