We left this morning to head into town to apply for our passport! Once in town, things weren't quite ready so we stopped in a few sports stores looking for an authentic Ugandan soccer jersey for Jude Daniel. Eric and Misty and their kids rode into town with us to meet a lady to make them some clothes, so next we headed to find her shop in a 'mall'. It was the most confusing 'mall' with halls and stairs going in different directions. No one knew which way shop #153 was....it was like we were on an episode of 'The Amazing Race'! Once we found her, she lead us downtown Kampala to a fabric store. This walk was INTENSE! Very crowed...4 white adults with 6 kids all trying to follow 1 person down narrow sidewalks and crossing streets. Let me remind you there are no stop lights or stop signs or any rules when it comes to driving, so you basically step out in front of boda bodas and van taxis and just hope they see you and then decide to stop! We had to walk in between van taxis that were so close together I couldn't hold Jude on my hip...I had to turn side ways, holding him out to the side. To make it more interesting, Andrew had a backpack on with our passports and money in it, so I was the caboose...trying to stay close and keep an eye on his bag. Sure enough a guy slipped in between me and Andrew and unzipped a pocket of his bag! I was shoulder to shoulder with this other guy, not far and yelled, "HEY!" He casually walked away while Andrew gave him the evil eye! No one did anything..the boda boda drivers just watched and laughed. The fabric store was just as interesting...narrow halls with small rooms of fabric.
Chapel picked out a fabric and we are going to have an authentic African dress made, called a gomesi. After our downtown adventure we headed to the passport office. 'Office' is used lightly. It is a parking lot with several tents and sections of benches. We moved from one section of benches to the next, then finally to a desk where our file was looked at. We were told we were missing a document, but we were still able to apply today! Thankfully, this morning felt like a fall day in Kentucky and we were only there about 45 minutes. The next stop was lunch and then to a play area in a mall. The play area was 2000 shillings, which is less than $1. It included a 'carousel' ride...they plugged it in and let them go and go and go. Eventually Misty just pulled the plug and they headed to play on the less than safe and sanitary McDonald's like play area. The seat belt type net tubes (not sure if that makes sense) had clearly been broke and tied back, but with larger holes...so large that when Jude was scooting on his bottom, he ended up falling through and was holding on my his feet and hands. Chapel was not far away and lifted him out...just adds to the adventure!
Now we just wait to receive our passport...then we will be able to take our next step.
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