Boda Boda

Today after lunch, as part of our orientation, we ventured out to take our first boda rides. What an adventure! We walked down the hill from Matoke Inn to a spot where the boda drivers hang out waiting for customers, called a boda stage. Karen Lewis, our orientation leader, was a great help as she went with us, negotiated prices with the drivers, and told them where we needed to go.

Kelsea and I hoped on a boda outside Matoke, and took it down to the bottom of the hill where we were going to catch a taxi to a different part of town. We arrived at the bottom before the other two girls and Karen did, so we got off to wait. Instantly, a new driver was there asking where we wanted to go. We explained that we were waiting for some others, and he was adamant that he would wait with us and be our driver. Before we knew it, we were literally surrounded by other drivers all trying to get us to ride with them. The first driver literally grabbed the handlebars of another driver's bike and pushed him away. Another driver came up saying, "Hello! These are my friends! I will take you where ever you want to go!" The first driver took one look at him, reached over, took the key out of his ignition, and threw it across a ditch into the grass!

Finally the others showed up, and we actually wound up taking a public taxi (van) to another boda stage a little ways down the road before we found some new boda drivers to take us to visit Dwelling Places, a ministry where AIM missionaries are serving by saving, caring for, and rehabilitating orphan street children. Phenominal work.

After that we visited Reformed Theological Seminary, where an AIM missionary, Rachel, works as a librarian. She has taken on the enormous, yet incredibly important, task of cataloguing the school's library! When she came, the books were only kind of sorted by topic on the shelves, and now she has a large section of the books catalogued! She has been a real answer to prayer for this school, and is a great example of how anyone can use their skills and knowledge to serve on the mission field!

Kelsea and I wound up sharing a boda every time we rode which allowed for lots of laughter and gripping on tight to each other as we flew over speed bumps and dodged giant pot holes.

Tomorrow we will go into Kampala again with a couple girls from Kenya to explore the craft markets and see some other things with the purpose of gaining more experience using public transportation.

We've been given lots of advice already about how to pick a good boda driver: get close enough to see if he smells like alcohol, one who wears a helmet might suggest that he takes safety more seriously, some of the older bikes have lower, wider seats that are more comfortable, and once you find a local driver that seems safe and good you should get his number and call him when you need a ride somewhere. We didn't have to put much of this into practice today as we just kind of did whatever we were told to do, but we will have plenty of opportunities when we get to Mbarara.

And don't worry! When we're in Mbarara we will have helmets to wear whenever we ride bodas :)
Thanks Joel and Jill!