Counterfeit money, winter coats, soccer, Ugandan music videos and dominos

On Friday, we didn't have much planned, but we needed to go and pick up some HIV/AIDS information from Emanuel. Our country directors were busy and so they told us to just go by ourselves. We were a little bit nervous because we had never did the whole boda thing alone. So we show up where all the boda drivers and we were too scared to just go up to them. It's funny now to think back on it, but eventually we hopped on and headed up to the Lugazi Univeristy. Once we got there however, we realized that we needed a jump drive to save all the information on. . . so we had to turn around and go back and get it. Needless to say we are now experienced boda boda travelers! Once we finally had everything we needed, Emanuel showed us all the info he had gathered for us (which was a ton) and now we have all the info we would ever need to know about HIV/AIDS! ha ha it was funny, after we got the info he started to show us all these Ugandan music videos!
On Saturday, we heard that there was a Kenya vs. Uganda soccer game at Mendela Stadium in Kampala! We were all super excited about it and so we decided to make a day out of it. Just like many other areas around the world, Ugandans LOVE soccer! The game didn't start until 4 and so we were able to stop in Kampala (which is the capital and so it's more like the western world) and we went to Dominos! ha ha it was a little (alot) different than it is in the US but it was a nice change from our usual matoke, bread, bananas and our newest invention banana sandwiches! However, after we had eaten and were heading back to the taxi, I started feeling kind of guilty. I was thinking about where we live in Lugazi where people are barely able to feed their families much more than one meal a day and here we were endulging ourselves in everything that we had missed while completely gorging ourself and it only ended up costing a little more than five dollars a person. It just helped to remind me of why I am here! Although it is an exciting adventure being in a completely new environment I am here to gain a better understanding of development and the role that I can take to help them change their lives for the better. It was just a little eye opening experience for me.
Once we got to the game, I immediately was able to take in all the enthusiasm the people have for the game! It was sooo loud and instead of cheerleaders, they had a group of people playing African drums and dancing. They came in at one point with the huge drums balanced on their heads while kicking their feet up to play them! It was awesome!! It was funny, before the game we were jokingly just wondering what the concessions would be like and we had to laugh when we got there are realized it was exactly like the "drive through"!
On Sunday, we went to church as usual in Jinja! During sacrament meeting, they had a few of the youth give talks. I was so impressed with them. They are so strong in their testimonies and their faith! Although they didn't have their talks written out on paper, they were completely confident and organized in their thoughts. They said exactly what they thought and felt and even though they were young, you could tell that they shared exactly what their branch needed to hear. After church, we were invited to stay for the baptism of two girls. We had to go and make sure that our driver was ok to wait and when we went out to talk to him, we ended up inviting him to come and watch it as well. It was awesome to come to a baptism because eventhough I live in Utah where people are baptized all the time, it had been awhile since I had been to one! It was amazing because almost the whole branch stayed after to show their support to the newly baptized members of the church. After the baptisms, we asked Godfrey (our driver) what he thought about it and if it was different than his church and he said that it was very different than his church but that it was just like it is written in the Bible, baptism by immersion. It made us so excited to hear him say that and he ended up giving his number to the missionaries!
Well that is the update of the weekend! O and about my title, the ATM randomly gives out fake money, if it gets below 70 degrees all the boda drivers put on ski coats and say that it is freezing outside, and people love taking pictures of us. . . it is kind of weird sometimes, especially since they aren't subtle about it. ha ha they just go stand by you and take your picture! But we take so many pictures of our surrounding here so I guess it is even!:)