DO YOU HAVE A BIBLE? OR SHOULD I WRITE YOU A TICKET?

The missionaries are not allowed to eat off the street, but they sort of don't enforce rules with Senior missionaries.  This is Elder Ballstaedt, he could not resist this Kiosk selling food.  There is a white root vegetable called CASSAVA.  The African's dig it out of the ground and lay it on the ground to dry it out.  Then they grind it into flour or meal.  It is the staple of their diet along with Maize which is kind of a field corn.  Sometimes they make french fries out of the cassava by slicing it really thin and frying it, and then adding just the right amount of salt which is what Rock ate here.  

This woman will sit here all day trying to sell her food.  Her little children will run around and play while she works here.  Her children went crazy when they saw us, they had never seen white faces before and they were afraid and excited and ran around yelling at us.

Okay, Rock bought four pieces of the fried _____for about a quarter American money.  He LOVED it.  Said it tasted like fries...

These children belong to the vendors on the side of the street.  They were showing off for us.

Being sillies!!!

He kept yelling; "Monsumba, Monsumba!!!"  (Notice me!!!)

This is Cephas.  He is kind of a hero today.  He is a councilor in the Mpumedde Branch and he does a lot of things to help people.  He opens the door for me when I come to teach piano lessons, and he takes care of the building.  He also works as a guard for the home where 4 of the Elders live in Mpumedde.
The reason he is a hero is because the water and power was off for several days.  The members who were supposed to clean the building could not find water to wash the building and clean the restrooms.  Finally late Saturday night Cephas got on the back of a boda and went to buy two gerrycans of water and rode the boda back to the meeting house holding two gerrycans of water while on the back of the boda.  He stayed at the building and scrubbed the entire meeting house from top to bottom by himself until the middle of the night with no power.  He is a man of great faith who loves to give service for Heavenly Father.

 Children are always at the side of the road wondering who we are

Oh here Elder Ballstaedt is showing off his meal he bought from this woman who has a little stand at the side of  the road.  YUM!!!

It is always hard to get a good pic while looking out the window of the car as we speed down the road. But I love seeing this; look how the women carry their babies slung on their back.  Those kids are going NOWHERE without mama!

Here is the furniture shop right there at the side of the road!  Never mind if it rains or sun beats down, this is "open-to-the-air" furniture that can breathe!  What's a little water damage? You will see hundreds of these shops along the roads.

This was our best memory so far of Kampala.  This traffic cop pulled us over because the driver of our car, Elder Ballstaedt thought maybe it would be okay to turn on a red light.
NOT!
This little gal pulled us over and gave us a tounge-lashing about the rules of the Ugandan highway!  We said we are so sorry, but we are poor little missionaries here to save the souls of the Ugandans.  She told me if I had a Bible to give her she wouldn't give us a ticket.  Then all the traffic cops came over and they all wanted a Bible.  I had just bought 2 that day at the distribution as well as a triple. It cost me all three books so we could get out of the ticket!
Yes we got her name and phone number and promised to send the Elders.  She was thrilled.

Okay can you tell why we love Uganda?

Ten minutes later Elder Ballstaedt thought maybe he could make a U-turn.  Wrong again.  Another traffic cop pulled us over and gave us a 15-minute lecture on how this was against the law.
We said we are sorry, and we are missionaries so we can't have a ticket.  She said; "ok, but you must promise to pray for me."  and then she let us go....
(The first girl was born in Gulu, and the second one was born in Mballe.  We have visited both cities and we told them how much we loved their city...  Which is true.)

This is the shop of Mathius.  He is the BP of the Bugembe branch, and he has a little shop where he sells electrical parts. You can see he is fixing the plug on my slow cooker which melted right in the outlet one day.  It cost me a total of $3 for labor and parts.  He is a very good man, and a very good leader in the church. We have gotten to be very close friends with him.  He works very hard to provide for his family and to take care of his church responsibilities.