Lyantonde here we come!

Early rise for me.

We have some things to do before the 4 hr bus ride to Lyantonde. I had to exchange my Dollars for Shillings, get a mobile phone, a power adapter/converter so I can plug in my American gadgets with out them blowing up. The exchange rate here is crazy. The value of the dollar changes everyday so 2000 Ugandan shillings = roughly 1 dollar. So 50,000 Shillings =  25 Dollars so on and so forth. A meal at a local restaurant cost 1000- 2000 Shillings. A large bottle of water cost 1000 Shillings. Mangos are 3 for 1000 shillings! I'm in Heaven. So I've come to the conclusion that Everything cost too much in US!! Text messages are the way to go here too.

So after a fascinating morning of navigating the hilled streets of Kampala, Grant & I are off to Lyantonde. On the way out Grant got a bag of "fene" from the restaurant at the hotel & it was DELICIOUS! (Wait till you see the pictures it's not what you think) This fruit is where the makers of bubblegum got the inspiration for the flavor. Now I know why Fene aka jack fruit isn't allowed to be grown in the US. It would make bubblegum extinct and the economy can't take it! It was so good I had to grab one for the road. Now loaded up with road trip snacks we headed to the bus park to hop a ride to the country side. We get to the Bus Park and the ticket price was doubled because it's Christmas time. After the conductor didn't budge an inch to our haggling, we reluctantly paid 20 Gs (20,000 shillings) for the ride and enter the bus only to find out there are no more seats available! I felt like Forest Gump on the 1st day of school. Then the conductor sent me to the front and offered me a makeshift seat. It was suitable so I accepted and soon we were off on the narrow redish brown dirt road to Lyantonde. Still sleepy from the flight, I'm trying Hard to keep my eyes open because the scenery was so Beautiful! The beautiful dark chocolate people walking by, cows and bulls with horns that are 3 feet long poking out of their heads! The hills are Majestic. Every 10-15 minutes we pass a market place with colorful shops that are so organic. Selling baskets, clothing, sugar cane, sandals, Matoke (steamed green plantains), seats, straw hats, floor coverings, MTN Cards, and all types of items in the everyday lives of all these people that look so familiar. After passing through what seemed like 20+ towns. We arrive to our destination, Lyantonde. We grab my bags for another intense work out carrying them to Grant's house. On the way we were greeted by the villagers curiously looking at the Mazungu (What Ugandans call White folks) and the Black guy with all of this hair. "Osibiotya BaSsebo" (O-see- bee-o tya Bah-Seh-bo = How's your day gentlemen?) one said speaking to Grant & I.   I already learned how to respond in  Luganda "Bulungi, Oliotya Ssebo" ( Good, How are you Sir?) I replied, the Brother responded & we continued getting swole carrying these makeshift weights full of everything I thought I might need in Africa. Soon we arrive at Grants place.

After settling in for about an hour, Grant invites me to The Rock. I'm like, "The Rock?".  "Yeah Let's go" he said. So off we go, power walking the hilled foot trails to the rock or "the big stone" as the kids call it. We arrive to a stone that looks like a smooth ridged rock washed ashore on the beach but this one is 2-3 stories tall and a quarter of a block long. We zigzag up the contours and make it to the top and Wooosh! My brain rushed with the  natural beauty like speechless in the view. It was almost overwhelming. My eyes weren't prepared to see such beauty just yet. I was so used to seeing mans attempts to create beauty in a boxy steel building and concrete streets when the earths Natural beauty was hidden away from our sight. Now I'm feeling the energy radiating from the enormous vibrant hills, lush vegetation, the fresh air overflowing through my nostrils into my lungs, the clear blue skies with light clouds reflecting the golden sunset into my eyes, with beauty in every direction as far as the eye can see. This is astonishing. Even the animals were chilling out enjoying the evening.

This is So Fresh! The people are so beautiful & pleasant, I feel at home even though I had only 6 words under my belt at the time. Oh man, it's time to study!... well, after a good night's sleep.

Everywhere I go I inform native speakers that I'm learning Luganda and I do my best to communicate in the native Language. Everyone joyfully helps me and tunes up my speaking and adds on to my vocabulary. I feel so welcome here. In Lyantonde I spend the majority of my time toting my colorful note papers writing new words and phrases, gathering keys, strenghtening the communication connection with my kin folk that speak Luganda. I can order food, let people know I'm a vegetarian, find out how much things cost, introduce myself, give compliments & most importantly ask "How do you say _______ in Luganda?"  My vocab is growing at a swift pace. Everyday I return to common places with more to say surprising them with my fresh additions & the fruits of my studies.  I'm going back to Kampala soon to Build with Break dance Uganda soon. They may wanna battle so I better be ready to jam. So Grant & I are on some Rocky training. We jogged through the rural roads hitting the turns that incline to the rock & around the humongous ant mounds on the scenic route back through town then returning to Grant's place. That jog was like no other. After that I got Grant to do a deck of cards with me and the soreness that followed felt sooo good! We're ALIVE!!!

Soon I'll be rocking with Break Dance Uganda I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and getting busy! Check back and read about it in my next blog coming soon.

Talk to you soon

Inner & Outer Peace!

Super InLight

aka Jonathan