Kampala walking

The last few days have been so amazing. It is so good to have our kids here- I can’t even put into words how great it is.
In the weeks prior to our children’s arrival, we had been telling our friends and co-workers that they were coming so many people were eagerly awaiting their arrival. Ugandans are very warm and welcoming people who love to have others visit and want to make them feel at home here. Occasionally you will just get a handshake (Ugandan handshake is a skill that must be learned), but most often it is accompanied by a hug. Sometimes the hugs are very long and lingering as Courtney and Charissa found out when one of Greg’s co-workers hugged them and then turned to Greg and said, “Why did you give both of your daughters away? Why didn’t you save one for me?”
All of you who know Carlen can only imagine how much he is loving all the hugging and touching. He has coped so far, but no one (since Joe at the airport) has held his hand while walking beside him. We’ll see how he does when that happens.
Carlen came to the babies’ home with us girls today. He wasn’t too thrilled when he spent a little while in the youngest group- holding and feeding a baby that weighs 4 or 5 kilos was a little outside his comfort zone. He spent more time with the older boys (around 12-18 months) playing outside. The boys absolutely loved Carlen and he had a lot of fun with them. Courtney and Charissa went back to the same room they were in yesterday and cuddled gorgeous babies- they already have their favourites.
The walk from babies home to Central was very eventful today. Part of the journey includes a long, gradual uphill walk. As we were going up, a truck decided to make a u-turn in the middle of the street and cut off a boda boda (motorcycle cab).  Rather than brake, the boda driver attempts to take evasive action and gets as close to the curb as possible- sparks were flying, boda driver and passenger were panicking and four Mzungu (us) had to dive against the fence to get out of the way because we thought they were coming up and over the sidewalk! Fortunately, everyone, the boda driver, boda passenger and the four of us all came out unscathed!
As we get closer to Central, the traffic gets heavier and heavier and so begins the Frogger game. You take a step out onto the street and jump back, then you get to the middle of the street where traffic is going by on either side of you. Eventually, you get across the street and walk down the block until you get to cross another street. This was not really part of the eventful day- it is just everyday walking.
However, as we neared the church we had another interesting experience. We had just survived another Frogger intersection and were feeling pretty proud of ourselves when we heard this crash sound. We looked over to see that a car and boda had collided- they were at 90 degree angles to each other and the boda collided with the front of the car and ripped the bumper off. We looked over just in time to see the boda speed off down the street. Did I mention that this all took place right in front of the police station with four police officers standing watching?
Oh the adventures of walking in Kampala.