Fruitful Weekend

6/11/11
We took a taxi from the taxi park today, which was a huge accomplishment for me and Meagan. Look back a pictures from previous years and you’ll understand why. Moses hosted us at his home in Kygera outside of the city. It was so nice to get out of the city for a while and breathe the fresh air. He even cooked lunch for us. It was delicious.

We tested our focus group questions with a group of high school students that Moses works with. It went really well all around even though it was raining and even though people kept coming in to join the conversation. We had Moses lead the discussion while we simply observed and answered questions as necessary. I think my accent is getting better because I spent several minutes answering a question about the transmission of HIV from other primate species to humans. They said that they could understand everything that I said. Yay, for having acquired good African English.

Coming back we got super lost in the rain. I guess every day has its ups and downs. The funniest part of getting lost was that I was giving Nicole advice on how to get back to a familiar place by walking up the hill to the main road, but it turns out that we were on the wrong hill. The suggestion doesn’t help if you are on the wrong hill.

Nicole in particular had a trying day with lots of new experiences. First time to the taxi park, first time out of the city, a chicken got in her purse while we were at lunch, the boda that she and Meagan were on broke down while on the way back, lost in the rain, but she tolerated all of it well which is a good sign for the remainder of our time here. I suspect more trails are to come.

Luckily…and this was a huge relief….Gerald had fixed the water to our apartment and we had running water in the bathrooms, so we could all take hot baths and wash away the coldness of the rain and the weariness from the day. We stayed in an drank tea and reflected on the day. Tomorrow Joan is coming over with her kids, and we are throwing a small party for her for her birthday. I got excited and bought Roald Dahl books as presents for the children too. I’m looking forward to giving all the gifts, but now I’ve started to read the books and I’m hoping that I can finish them before giving them to the kids. I forgot how much I enjoyed his books as a child.

We decided to try and make tacos. I hope they go over well.

6/10/11
Today we attempted to go see our contact person at the UNCST. I say attempted because we never ended up getting in touch with that person which is to be expected. But the fact that we even made it there is an accomplishment because we got all the way downtown to the building and learned that their office had moved to another location which was within walking distance of us. The cosmic joke of our battle with the UNCST continues…We stopped at a place that I like and got a banana split at 11:00am to recharge and then try to find the new office in Ntinda.

We took the taxi back home, and walked to the office. We actually found it with minimal trouble. When we got there our contact person was gone already at noon on Friday. Not a surprise. Luckily, we did get her contact information, which is what I was after anyway.

We got home and there was no water. And we have a reservoir tank, but for some reason the connection is bad. I asked Gerald, who acts as the grounds keeper and maintenance man. We had another “Let me do some technology” moment. Gerald ran a hose up to the tank and created a siphon. I filled the Jerry cans and carried them back to the house. I really needed to bathe before we went out for the evening, so it was worth it to me even though it was a lot of work. It is amazing when you don’t have running water how much work it takes just to live and do house hold chores like bathing, washing clothes (which are already being washed by hand), cooking and washing dishes, flushing toilets, washing your hands, brushing your teeth, you get the idea. In short it gets old fast, and if all I had to do was maintain a house that wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s hard to wrangle with the UNCST all over town and then come home and tote water around.

Anyway, small vent, we met up with some of our friends for the evening and went to a birthday party. It was a lot of fun and we danced and celebrated and caught up with people that we haven’t seen since last year.

6/9/11
Big day planned for today. We sat and came up with a work plan and timeline now that we have a better idea of what is happening and how long things are going to take. On Saturday we planned to meet with a group of high school students to test out our questions for our focus groups. We picked up some scissors which I’m really excited about because it seems like no one uses them here. They are a really great tool, and something you don’t realize that you’re going to miss until you don’t have them. I spotted some sheep skin slippers at the craft store that I’m eyeing since I wore a hole through the soles of the other ones that I used to have.