First couple days

I arrived here in Soroti on Friday night after two days of travel. As soon as we started the six hour drive from the airport to Soroti I began noticing how different Uganda was from what I was used to.  First off the driving is unlike anything i've ever seen. They drive on opposite sides of the road and they dont really have any traffic signals. If there is an opening on the road, no matter what side of the road its on, it belongs to the first person that can get there.  I was told that there was no such thing as defensive driving, only offensive driving. Not only do you have to watch out for other cars on the road, but hundreds of motorcyles and bicycles and people walking.  There are so many things that are hard to explain without people being able to see them for themselves so i will work on posting some pictures.  The weather is very hot, around 90 most of the time and around 70-75 at night, this will take some getting used to. 
The first couple days were spent getting me settled in and introducing me to the team and some of the locals that they have been working with and developing relationships with.  It was and still is a lot to take in but im slowly getting adjusted.  I went to Zion Baptist Church on Sunday morning.  We met in a school house about the size of a normal classroom in the US.  The people here speak english as well as a tribal language so they switched between those for the songs.  There were about 20 adults there and close to 40 kids and at the end i had to stand and introduce myself to everyone and they were very happy i was there and excited that i was staying for awhile. After the service they invited me to come play futbol (we dont say soccer here) and volleyball with them later in the evening for a competition between 4 other churches.  I was dropped off there later that day and very nervous at first. This was the first time i wasnt around any of the people i was staying with, but there were 4 guys from the church that took me around with them.  It was very busy there and i was the only white person out of probably the 200 people there so i got a lot of people starring at me but as soon as we started playing, i felt fine.  We played 6 vs 6 futbol on a half grass/weed and half dirt/stone feild about 30 yards long and 15 yards wide. They were all veey impressed that i played barefoot but it wasnt bad.  We ended up winning the tournament and afterwards everyone gathered around for a pop. 
Tim and Angie (who im staying with) took me to the market as well as the grocery store on Monday.  Again it is something that is completely different than anything in the US. It was very busy and it is very easy to get lost if you havent been there before.  Later in the day i went to a place called Elim ministry where they take in street kids while they try to locate their families in order to return them. Right now there are 18 kids living there and its tough because many of the families will not take the children back for various reasons. The children can only stay in the house for 3 months so if their families will not take them back or cannot be located, then they have to go back to the streets. 

Some interesting things I've noticed: One thing i noticed about Uganda is how much they love Obama. I've seen more things here with Obama's name or picture on it than in the US. People are naming buisness after him, wearing shirts with his face on it, i even saw an a Obama flashlight at the market. I have been asked several times if i know him and they are disappointed when i tell them no.
Also, about 90% of all pop or juice is in glass bottles. Its hard to find cans of anything and they are way more expensive than glass.
Even though they speak english, its still difficult to understand all of what they are saying, and i might say a word and know what it means, but they have a completely different meaning for that word. Here, pants means underwear and trousers means pants. Stubborn for them means someone is being funny. Annoyed is the only word they use for negative feelings, I have never heard someone say they were mad or sad or frustrated, only annoyed. If you are eating with Ugandans, you have to be careful not to say "help yourself", because that what they say when having to go to the bathroom.