As we sat and ate breakfast, we heard on the radio that there was some violence in Kampala for the mayoral elections. Apparently, someone discovered a number of pre-printed, stuffed ballot boxes at one of the polling stations. For the rest of the day, as we drove around, we had to be concerned about whether there were areas wew should avoid. Fortunately, we had Badru as our driver again and he knows what's going on and where to stay away from.
On the drive to Victoria's in the morning, we noticed an extremely high police and army presence. When we arrived at her office we met Alice to pick up the death certificates and the judge's order and ruling. Even though it was a public holiday and she had arrived in Kampala at midnight the night before, Alice made it into the office to give us the papers.
Angie wanted to do a little shopping, so Badru took us to the Africa Village shopping area for tourists. While we were there, we drove by the police station and saw their armored vehicle with water cannon. A couple of pickup trucks full of policemen in riot gear drove by a little later.
We originally had planned to have dinner with Simon and his family that night, but since there was some election violence we decided to meet earlier in the day. As we drove out to meet Simon at the restaurant, we heard on the radio that the election had been postponed due to all the voting irregularities. What a waste of a public holiday!
Kampala Mayor Election Postponed
We had an authentic dinner at the Bamboo Nest with Simon, Betty, Sandra, Esther, Collins, Mary, William, Francis, Maureen and Alex. Sandra, Esther and Collins are Simon's children. Mary is a cousin to Alex and Maureen, she is the daughter of one of their aunts on their mother's side. William went to elementary and high school with Simon in eastern Uganda and now they are both in Kampala. Francis works with Simon at InterFreight.
Counterclockwise: Alex, Maureen, Collins, Esther, Francis, Simon, William, Sandra, Mary, Betty, Angie
After dinner, we went back to Simon's house to look at some pictures. Betty had prepared some dadis, which are some kind of vegetable that gets deep fried into small chunks. They are a great, crunchy snack that goes well with beer...and the homemade beer came out! This time, I thought I would try it. You can see in the picture below, there is a special hollow stick with a "filter" on the end to sieve the beer and keep it from clogging the stick. It was unusual primarily because it was warm. It didn't have a strong taste even though I was told that it had a higher alcohol content than bottled beer. After a few sips, I returned to a cold, bottled beer that Betty was kind enough to provide me.
No, I really am drinking the beer!
Badru drove us home and we made popcorn for the kids and watched cartoons. Angie pulled out the leapsters (electronic learning games) and Alex and Maureen played with those for a while until bedtime.
New pj's for the kids??
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