Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Feeling Better
Just to let everyone know, I'm feeling much better. Although I'm a medical anthropologist and love the traditional stuff, when it comes down to it, I'm not going to snub my nose at some good old fashioned antibiotics. Both the nose and the stomach are better. Kinda cool to be killing two infectious birds with one stone. Not something we really consider in medical anthropology.
First Observation
Monday 6/7/10
I thought that I would be feeling better today, but I don’t. I’m worried that I might have a sinus infection. I was sure that I was going to be feeling better today. Anyway, we decided that instead of going to the clinic and then the foundation we would go to the foundation and then the clinic, thus giving me another hour of sleep.
At the foundation we had a very long meeting with Rev Obed. We told him about our research registration predicament, and it made him extremely upset. I was actually a little surprise about how adamant he was about finding out why it is taking so long and helping us along in the process. I was glad that I found someone else to deal with the secretaries so that I don’t have to anymore. The meeting went well, and afterwards we went to the SAS clinic.
We happened to meet Dr. Muhumuza’s father, which was actually a little intimidating because he’s lived through so much turmoil and managed to raise so many successful children. He turned out to be really funny and charming. He would start to talk about his different children, at about the fifth one he would get distracted and loose track of what he was talking about and start another conversation. I suppose remembering five out of ten is pretty good. I was able to give him the razor blades that I brought from the U.S. I accidentally broke the dispenser in CVS trying to get them out, but I think it was worth it. He said a blessing over us as he left. It was very sweet of him. I then took a nap, wrote a little and went to sleep. My cold is still bothering me and I seem to be acquiring an intestinal issue on top of it. P.S. it was my mom’s birthday today
Tuesday 6/8/10
Woke up in the night with a killer sinus headache and nausea on top. So I’m not feeling better today. I took some cold medicine and felt better for a while. Meagan got up and we made a heavier than usual breakfast because I knew that we wouldn’t be back to the house till pretty late in the afternoon. We left in time to make it across the city in an hour and a half, and we actually made it on time. We met with the supervisor, Mary, to do our first observation at a school. Mary is really cute in a grandmother sort of way. Today in particular she was reminding me of Mary Poppins because she had on a stiff dress and a large bag, and she used an umbrella like a parasol for shade while we were walking. The only thing she was missing was the hat.
Doing the observation was a lot of fun, and has been the best part of the week so far. We caused a huge commotion when we showed up with our whitness. The children were very smart and asked a lot of good questions. Towards the end though, the cold medicine was starting to wear off, and I was glad that we didn’t go to two schools like we had originally planned. On the way home, Mary helped us bargain for a pineapple. The mentor as well, was exceptionally sweet. We asked her why she decided to be a mentor, she said because she had a “sympathetic heart”. Also because she was HIV positive it was something she wanted to join in.
I knew I was going to get fussed at when we got back by Grace for going out, and she didn’t fail me. She also wouldn’t let me have any juice because she said it wasn’t good to drink cold things when you had the flu. She also fussed at me because we spend so much time walking and breathing in dust and that is why I was sick. I decided to start taking antibiotics. Between the nose and the stomach, I’m really having a difficult time, and I’m pretty sure that I’m grossing Meagan out. Fortunately tomorrow is another public holiday, so we don’t have to go anywhere. I’m not sure I would be able to anyway. However, I’m optimistic that I will start feeling better tomorrow.
I thought that I would be feeling better today, but I don’t. I’m worried that I might have a sinus infection. I was sure that I was going to be feeling better today. Anyway, we decided that instead of going to the clinic and then the foundation we would go to the foundation and then the clinic, thus giving me another hour of sleep.
At the foundation we had a very long meeting with Rev Obed. We told him about our research registration predicament, and it made him extremely upset. I was actually a little surprise about how adamant he was about finding out why it is taking so long and helping us along in the process. I was glad that I found someone else to deal with the secretaries so that I don’t have to anymore. The meeting went well, and afterwards we went to the SAS clinic.
We happened to meet Dr. Muhumuza’s father, which was actually a little intimidating because he’s lived through so much turmoil and managed to raise so many successful children. He turned out to be really funny and charming. He would start to talk about his different children, at about the fifth one he would get distracted and loose track of what he was talking about and start another conversation. I suppose remembering five out of ten is pretty good. I was able to give him the razor blades that I brought from the U.S. I accidentally broke the dispenser in CVS trying to get them out, but I think it was worth it. He said a blessing over us as he left. It was very sweet of him. I then took a nap, wrote a little and went to sleep. My cold is still bothering me and I seem to be acquiring an intestinal issue on top of it. P.S. it was my mom’s birthday today
Tuesday 6/8/10
Woke up in the night with a killer sinus headache and nausea on top. So I’m not feeling better today. I took some cold medicine and felt better for a while. Meagan got up and we made a heavier than usual breakfast because I knew that we wouldn’t be back to the house till pretty late in the afternoon. We left in time to make it across the city in an hour and a half, and we actually made it on time. We met with the supervisor, Mary, to do our first observation at a school. Mary is really cute in a grandmother sort of way. Today in particular she was reminding me of Mary Poppins because she had on a stiff dress and a large bag, and she used an umbrella like a parasol for shade while we were walking. The only thing she was missing was the hat.
Doing the observation was a lot of fun, and has been the best part of the week so far. We caused a huge commotion when we showed up with our whitness. The children were very smart and asked a lot of good questions. Towards the end though, the cold medicine was starting to wear off, and I was glad that we didn’t go to two schools like we had originally planned. On the way home, Mary helped us bargain for a pineapple. The mentor as well, was exceptionally sweet. We asked her why she decided to be a mentor, she said because she had a “sympathetic heart”. Also because she was HIV positive it was something she wanted to join in.
I knew I was going to get fussed at when we got back by Grace for going out, and she didn’t fail me. She also wouldn’t let me have any juice because she said it wasn’t good to drink cold things when you had the flu. She also fussed at me because we spend so much time walking and breathing in dust and that is why I was sick. I decided to start taking antibiotics. Between the nose and the stomach, I’m really having a difficult time, and I’m pretty sure that I’m grossing Meagan out. Fortunately tomorrow is another public holiday, so we don’t have to go anywhere. I’m not sure I would be able to anyway. However, I’m optimistic that I will start feeling better tomorrow.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Second Weekend
Thursday 6/3/10
Today was a public holiday, Martyr’s Day. So there wasn’t much to be done because nothing was open.
Friday 6/4/10
Went to catch up with another friend. She has been managing a health club. She was the one who took me to the market last summer to buy clothes. Hopefully we will get to go again this time. Grace made her Thai chicken for us today. It was soo good, just as good as I remember it from last time. It rained again today. It seems to be raining a lot more than last summer. I took Meagan to this BBQ restaurant today. It is funny because we have been having this ongoing conversation of exactly was gristle means. I thought it was the stuff left in the pan after you fry something. She thinks of it as the occasional rubbery piece that you get when you bite into a piece of meat. Anyway, she doesn’t like it, so I wasn’t sure how this adventure was going to go. The BBQ is different from what we think of as smoked meat with sauce. The bring out piece of meat that has been roasted on skewers with salt and this hot chili paste. I love it and think that it’s great, especially because you eat with your fingers and they bring sides of tomatoes, avocados, bananas, ect. So she didn’t like it too much.
From there we went to another place that I knew about where you could get fast food, burgers, milkshakes, pizza, etc. We had better luck while we were there ordering a pizza. I’m pretty sure that pizza has been my saving grace on several occasions since I have been coming here. It is just so nice to be able to order something, and you know approximately of what it is going to taste like, but since pizza is pretty versatile, it tastes good no matter what you put on it (for the most part).
From there we went out with some of our friends for the night. Ugandans really like to stay out late, so they we pretty surprised when we wanted to go home around one or so.
Saturday 6/5/10
Feel like I’m coming down with a cold. I spent a lot of time sleeping today and hanging around the house. Meagan wanted to go to a movie, so we made plans to go see “Sex and the City” at the shopping mall here. I really like how the shopping mall is arranged. It is an open air mall, but it gives you the feeling that it is enclosed because it has several floors and ramps to get from one floor to the next. It just has several points where windows would normally be, but are just left open. There was a lot of white people there too. I still can’t find anything in my size in the stores.
We went to the food court to get some food. I had never been to a food court here before. I should have known that it wasn’t going to be like what I expected. Immediately we were bombarded by restaurants that would have people standing out front trying to get us to take a look at their menu, i.e. trying to sell their food to us. They had a lot of ethnic food, but out of curiosity we went to the Lebanese restaurant because Meagan has a Lebanese heritage. We took and ordered the hummus, and it was actually really good, with fabulous pita bread. Ugandans aren’t really particular about their bread. I think that they eat bread that to me is almost stale. They don’t think the softness is important. So it was a pleasant surprise to have pita bread that was actually soft and malleable. We bought some to take home with us =).
We went to the movie next. A friend met us to see it. The line at the ticket booth was a free frall, like all other kinds of lines. I had to push my way to the front. When we went in the theater they screened us for weapons. The guard felt my purse and told me that I had a lot of “gadgets” in there. They didn’t look it it. They might have found my pocket knife and mace, but I suppose I couldn’t only do so much with that anyway. The theater was air conditioned! Weird. By now I’m accustomed to not having it. I was cold through most of the movie, but Meagan somehow managed to fit a sweater in her bag. I didn’t care for the movie that much. People were talking through the whole thing anyway, and our friend Jude kept answering his phone in the middle of the movie. Cell phone etiquette is one of my things, and it’s hard to set it aside. We always talk in anthropology about cultural relativism, which is the idea that you can’t pass judgment on other culture’s customs because those customs are the result of different historical processes and value systems. So I can tolerate all kinds of customs in Uganda, like polygamy and traditional healers, and all of the beliefs that people have surrounding HIV and AIDS that would bother most Americans, but I just can’t set aside the cell phone etiquette.
Our friend Jude took us home. He tends to pay for us a lot, which makes me uncomfortable at times, but when I buy something for him, like the movie ticket. It clearly makes him uncomfortable. Not sure what to do, might have to come to a compromise somewhere along the way. He really looks after us though. He wanted us to go out again that night, but we were both wiped out, and my throat was getting worse along with my mood. So he took us home. I think though his friends were disappointed when we went home. They seem to think that we are a lot of fun.
Sunday 6/6/10
The cold is better today. Staying in was a good idea. I’ve just been writing and sleeping through most of the day. I know that tomorrow will be busy, so trying to relax and enjoy the down time. I realized that we can even download music on the internet =).
Today was a public holiday, Martyr’s Day. So there wasn’t much to be done because nothing was open.
Friday 6/4/10
Went to catch up with another friend. She has been managing a health club. She was the one who took me to the market last summer to buy clothes. Hopefully we will get to go again this time. Grace made her Thai chicken for us today. It was soo good, just as good as I remember it from last time. It rained again today. It seems to be raining a lot more than last summer. I took Meagan to this BBQ restaurant today. It is funny because we have been having this ongoing conversation of exactly was gristle means. I thought it was the stuff left in the pan after you fry something. She thinks of it as the occasional rubbery piece that you get when you bite into a piece of meat. Anyway, she doesn’t like it, so I wasn’t sure how this adventure was going to go. The BBQ is different from what we think of as smoked meat with sauce. The bring out piece of meat that has been roasted on skewers with salt and this hot chili paste. I love it and think that it’s great, especially because you eat with your fingers and they bring sides of tomatoes, avocados, bananas, ect. So she didn’t like it too much.
From there we went to another place that I knew about where you could get fast food, burgers, milkshakes, pizza, etc. We had better luck while we were there ordering a pizza. I’m pretty sure that pizza has been my saving grace on several occasions since I have been coming here. It is just so nice to be able to order something, and you know approximately of what it is going to taste like, but since pizza is pretty versatile, it tastes good no matter what you put on it (for the most part).
From there we went out with some of our friends for the night. Ugandans really like to stay out late, so they we pretty surprised when we wanted to go home around one or so.
Saturday 6/5/10
Feel like I’m coming down with a cold. I spent a lot of time sleeping today and hanging around the house. Meagan wanted to go to a movie, so we made plans to go see “Sex and the City” at the shopping mall here. I really like how the shopping mall is arranged. It is an open air mall, but it gives you the feeling that it is enclosed because it has several floors and ramps to get from one floor to the next. It just has several points where windows would normally be, but are just left open. There was a lot of white people there too. I still can’t find anything in my size in the stores.
We went to the food court to get some food. I had never been to a food court here before. I should have known that it wasn’t going to be like what I expected. Immediately we were bombarded by restaurants that would have people standing out front trying to get us to take a look at their menu, i.e. trying to sell their food to us. They had a lot of ethnic food, but out of curiosity we went to the Lebanese restaurant because Meagan has a Lebanese heritage. We took and ordered the hummus, and it was actually really good, with fabulous pita bread. Ugandans aren’t really particular about their bread. I think that they eat bread that to me is almost stale. They don’t think the softness is important. So it was a pleasant surprise to have pita bread that was actually soft and malleable. We bought some to take home with us =).
We went to the movie next. A friend met us to see it. The line at the ticket booth was a free frall, like all other kinds of lines. I had to push my way to the front. When we went in the theater they screened us for weapons. The guard felt my purse and told me that I had a lot of “gadgets” in there. They didn’t look it it. They might have found my pocket knife and mace, but I suppose I couldn’t only do so much with that anyway. The theater was air conditioned! Weird. By now I’m accustomed to not having it. I was cold through most of the movie, but Meagan somehow managed to fit a sweater in her bag. I didn’t care for the movie that much. People were talking through the whole thing anyway, and our friend Jude kept answering his phone in the middle of the movie. Cell phone etiquette is one of my things, and it’s hard to set it aside. We always talk in anthropology about cultural relativism, which is the idea that you can’t pass judgment on other culture’s customs because those customs are the result of different historical processes and value systems. So I can tolerate all kinds of customs in Uganda, like polygamy and traditional healers, and all of the beliefs that people have surrounding HIV and AIDS that would bother most Americans, but I just can’t set aside the cell phone etiquette.
Our friend Jude took us home. He tends to pay for us a lot, which makes me uncomfortable at times, but when I buy something for him, like the movie ticket. It clearly makes him uncomfortable. Not sure what to do, might have to come to a compromise somewhere along the way. He really looks after us though. He wanted us to go out again that night, but we were both wiped out, and my throat was getting worse along with my mood. So he took us home. I think though his friends were disappointed when we went home. They seem to think that we are a lot of fun.
Sunday 6/6/10
The cold is better today. Staying in was a good idea. I’ve just been writing and sleeping through most of the day. I know that tomorrow will be busy, so trying to relax and enjoy the down time. I realized that we can even download music on the internet =).
Pictures!
Meagan has uploaded some pictures from our first two weeks here. Here is the link, http://picasaweb.google.com/114343566893152925273/UgandaWeek12010?feat=directlink But I will also post the link on the right had side of the blog for future use.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Round Two and Three
Monday 5/31/10
I woke up tense because I knew that I would have to see the secretary at the UNCST again. First we stopped at the hospital to meet with Dr. Bagenda. Meeting him was actually very nice. He is always so helpful to us and has a good sense of humor. I think at some point we will go have dinner with him and his family. He married an American physician and have a daughter that’s 21 months. He always introduces me to interesting people. This time was the person who was the principle investigator for the Rakai project, which is a major HIV surveillance project that began because this is the area of Uganda where HIV originally emerged. He was one of the first doctors to distinguish HIV as a unique collection of symptoms, i.e. he is one of the people to first recognize HIV. How cool is that?
We talked for a long time, and Meagan was anxious to get down to the UNCST as well. It was funny because as we walked out of the building she said, “We’re taking a boda!” And I laughed because they frighten her so much, but given our time frame we really needed to get there. We did take a boda, and sat down with the secretary for round two. Some of our paperwork was wrong, so we had to fill it out again, and then I was so relieved because we had finally gotten it all together, and then I asked how long it was going to take to process the paperwork, and she said SIX WEEKS. I was so upset, I could barely speak. So I went outside and called Dr. Bagenda right away. He had the same reaction, but tried to encourage us and offering to call the different people that he knew who might could help. We found a place to have lunch. We mostly sat in silence because I was still too angry to speak. And the we proceeded to walk the rest of the way home.
Tuesday 6/1/10
This morning we went directly to purchase an internet modem. The thing is so cool. It works anywhere, and on any computer that you plug it into. You just pay by the month. It makes me wish that we had something like that in the U.S. Grace and Anette came today. Grace cooked lunch for us and it was delicious. She also made some fresh juice. While we were eating it started to rain and then hail. I was mostly impressed that the power stayed on the whole time. We got a call from Dr. Bagenda that was encouraging, he said that the paperwork at the UNCST was already processed and that it would be sent to the president’s office, which was four weeks at the most. Lastly he told us to go by the UNCST again and meet the person who was helping us (round three).
David came by in the evening. David, you might recall, was the student who had been sneaking into school because he couldn’t pay his school fees, and mom and I decided that we would give him the additional money that he needed to finish school. He sat for his exams and did very well. I think he did better than most students that passed. He said that 40% of the students didn’t even pass their exams. What a bummer. Now he is in the process of applying for college. He wants to go to the one in Kampala, Makerere is the name of it.
Wednesday 6/2/10
Meagan got an email from someone at the University of Memphis saying that they would like to do a write up on our project for the Memphis magazine. It was pretty exciting to get some good news. I assumed that they would just want Meagan in it since she is a current student, but they said that they were also interested in alumni, so I’ll get to be in it too. Generally things are starting to look on the up and up.
We went to see the lady, Leah, who had helped us. It wasn’t the one we had been talking to all this time, but their desks were adjacent. We tried to be as polite as possible, but even still she had the attitude of “why are you here again”. Turns out she needed a few things from us anyway, so it was good that we dropped by. That means four more weeks at the most, so it seems that things are becoming a little more manageable. I wish that I could come back in the middle of the year and do some more observations.
From there we had our Wednesday pizza lunch. Always relaxing. The restaurant is really nice because it is all open air, but completely shaded by all kinds of different plants. It makes it really nice and cool. It also blocks out the sound of the street, so it is quiet and relaxing. The only thing is that they play really bad soft jazz. We had another person ask us for our number so that when they got to America, we could help them get a job. I it s so interesting how we don’t even think about how easy it is for us to move to another place to visit or to work if we want to, and it is so difficult for so many people. I know it is important to control the inflow of people, so that the system isn’t overwhelmed, but it makes me appreciate my privileged position.
We had a good meeting at the Foundation. Things are starting to move in the direction. The biggest thing is that we are working with children and that requires parental consent. And they won’t let us send the forms home with the children. So we have to gather the parents together. If we pull it off it will be quite an accomplishment and make the information we gather very uncommon.
When we came home we happened so see the lady Rose, who is our neighbor. Turns out that she is Eritrean, not Ethiopian. I was so embarrassed upon the discovery. Anyway she invited us in, and it turns out that she and her family we just sitting down to dinner. I was so excited to eat with them. They eat very similar to Ethiopians with the njara (njaara?) that looks like a giant spongy crepe. They had cooked chicken that had a thick spicy sauce with it and they just dumped the whole thing in the middle of the njara. We also got served a portion of cooked vegetables on our portion of the giant plate. It was so fun to eat with our hand and pinch some of the bread and then grab some of the chicken. They kept telling us that we weren’t eating enough, but I felt like we had already eaten so much. They asked us a lot of questions about what we have been doing, and America. Rose has a daughter that speaks fantastic English and is extremely social, so we answered a lot of questions from her. They gave us lots of compliments on our hair since it was so much lighter than theirs. Rose’s husband works for the UN in Liberia, but she lives here in Uganda with her daughter, two sisters, and brother. We spoke with all of them on different topics. We were having a lot of fun. The really cute white dog belongs to them, named Dede.
After dinner we had coffee. Rose showed me how she makes it from the raw bean. She showed me how she roasts the beans in a ban over the gas stove. When they are ready you are supposed to bring them out and let people smell the beans. The guests are then supposed to waft the steam coming from the beans and remark at how delicious they smell. So we smelled the beans and they really did smell so good. Then she let them cool and ground them using a modern coffee grinder. Boiled water. Added the grinds. They put the coffee in a special pot that looked something like a gourd that was carved for pouring and sat in a round basket. In the end of the spout she put this confetti looking stuff that was supposed to filter out the remaining grounds that didn’t fall to the bottom. The coffee was super strong, but delicious. I could only have two cups. We drank out of these really small cups that look like what you drink sake out of or sometime green tea. Just a little bigger. After two cups I was already wired.
We graciously thanked them for the coffee and then went to another social engagement with some friends that we hadn’t had a chance to catch up with yet. We ended up doing so much more than we had originally planned for the day.
Thursday 6/3/10
Not much going on, just trying to catch up on the writing and start getting prepared to start doing observations in schools. I can’t wait to work with the children.
I woke up tense because I knew that I would have to see the secretary at the UNCST again. First we stopped at the hospital to meet with Dr. Bagenda. Meeting him was actually very nice. He is always so helpful to us and has a good sense of humor. I think at some point we will go have dinner with him and his family. He married an American physician and have a daughter that’s 21 months. He always introduces me to interesting people. This time was the person who was the principle investigator for the Rakai project, which is a major HIV surveillance project that began because this is the area of Uganda where HIV originally emerged. He was one of the first doctors to distinguish HIV as a unique collection of symptoms, i.e. he is one of the people to first recognize HIV. How cool is that?
We talked for a long time, and Meagan was anxious to get down to the UNCST as well. It was funny because as we walked out of the building she said, “We’re taking a boda!” And I laughed because they frighten her so much, but given our time frame we really needed to get there. We did take a boda, and sat down with the secretary for round two. Some of our paperwork was wrong, so we had to fill it out again, and then I was so relieved because we had finally gotten it all together, and then I asked how long it was going to take to process the paperwork, and she said SIX WEEKS. I was so upset, I could barely speak. So I went outside and called Dr. Bagenda right away. He had the same reaction, but tried to encourage us and offering to call the different people that he knew who might could help. We found a place to have lunch. We mostly sat in silence because I was still too angry to speak. And the we proceeded to walk the rest of the way home.
Tuesday 6/1/10
This morning we went directly to purchase an internet modem. The thing is so cool. It works anywhere, and on any computer that you plug it into. You just pay by the month. It makes me wish that we had something like that in the U.S. Grace and Anette came today. Grace cooked lunch for us and it was delicious. She also made some fresh juice. While we were eating it started to rain and then hail. I was mostly impressed that the power stayed on the whole time. We got a call from Dr. Bagenda that was encouraging, he said that the paperwork at the UNCST was already processed and that it would be sent to the president’s office, which was four weeks at the most. Lastly he told us to go by the UNCST again and meet the person who was helping us (round three).
David came by in the evening. David, you might recall, was the student who had been sneaking into school because he couldn’t pay his school fees, and mom and I decided that we would give him the additional money that he needed to finish school. He sat for his exams and did very well. I think he did better than most students that passed. He said that 40% of the students didn’t even pass their exams. What a bummer. Now he is in the process of applying for college. He wants to go to the one in Kampala, Makerere is the name of it.
Wednesday 6/2/10
Meagan got an email from someone at the University of Memphis saying that they would like to do a write up on our project for the Memphis magazine. It was pretty exciting to get some good news. I assumed that they would just want Meagan in it since she is a current student, but they said that they were also interested in alumni, so I’ll get to be in it too. Generally things are starting to look on the up and up.
We went to see the lady, Leah, who had helped us. It wasn’t the one we had been talking to all this time, but their desks were adjacent. We tried to be as polite as possible, but even still she had the attitude of “why are you here again”. Turns out she needed a few things from us anyway, so it was good that we dropped by. That means four more weeks at the most, so it seems that things are becoming a little more manageable. I wish that I could come back in the middle of the year and do some more observations.
From there we had our Wednesday pizza lunch. Always relaxing. The restaurant is really nice because it is all open air, but completely shaded by all kinds of different plants. It makes it really nice and cool. It also blocks out the sound of the street, so it is quiet and relaxing. The only thing is that they play really bad soft jazz. We had another person ask us for our number so that when they got to America, we could help them get a job. I it s so interesting how we don’t even think about how easy it is for us to move to another place to visit or to work if we want to, and it is so difficult for so many people. I know it is important to control the inflow of people, so that the system isn’t overwhelmed, but it makes me appreciate my privileged position.
We had a good meeting at the Foundation. Things are starting to move in the direction. The biggest thing is that we are working with children and that requires parental consent. And they won’t let us send the forms home with the children. So we have to gather the parents together. If we pull it off it will be quite an accomplishment and make the information we gather very uncommon.
When we came home we happened so see the lady Rose, who is our neighbor. Turns out that she is Eritrean, not Ethiopian. I was so embarrassed upon the discovery. Anyway she invited us in, and it turns out that she and her family we just sitting down to dinner. I was so excited to eat with them. They eat very similar to Ethiopians with the njara (njaara?) that looks like a giant spongy crepe. They had cooked chicken that had a thick spicy sauce with it and they just dumped the whole thing in the middle of the njara. We also got served a portion of cooked vegetables on our portion of the giant plate. It was so fun to eat with our hand and pinch some of the bread and then grab some of the chicken. They kept telling us that we weren’t eating enough, but I felt like we had already eaten so much. They asked us a lot of questions about what we have been doing, and America. Rose has a daughter that speaks fantastic English and is extremely social, so we answered a lot of questions from her. They gave us lots of compliments on our hair since it was so much lighter than theirs. Rose’s husband works for the UN in Liberia, but she lives here in Uganda with her daughter, two sisters, and brother. We spoke with all of them on different topics. We were having a lot of fun. The really cute white dog belongs to them, named Dede.
After dinner we had coffee. Rose showed me how she makes it from the raw bean. She showed me how she roasts the beans in a ban over the gas stove. When they are ready you are supposed to bring them out and let people smell the beans. The guests are then supposed to waft the steam coming from the beans and remark at how delicious they smell. So we smelled the beans and they really did smell so good. Then she let them cool and ground them using a modern coffee grinder. Boiled water. Added the grinds. They put the coffee in a special pot that looked something like a gourd that was carved for pouring and sat in a round basket. In the end of the spout she put this confetti looking stuff that was supposed to filter out the remaining grounds that didn’t fall to the bottom. The coffee was super strong, but delicious. I could only have two cups. We drank out of these really small cups that look like what you drink sake out of or sometime green tea. Just a little bigger. After two cups I was already wired.
We graciously thanked them for the coffee and then went to another social engagement with some friends that we hadn’t had a chance to catch up with yet. We ended up doing so much more than we had originally planned for the day.
Thursday 6/3/10
Not much going on, just trying to catch up on the writing and start getting prepared to start doing observations in schools. I can’t wait to work with the children.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Yay we have Internet at the house!
5/30/10
We did so many things today it is hard to know where to begin. We made a point to make coffee this morning with the coffee we bought from the coffee shop. I was excited because I ran of the coffee that I brought back in December, so I hadn’t had any since then. It was as good as I expected it to be, and really cheered me up. Meagan had two cups.
From there we left to go to town. Our friend Richard invited us to a party that was being thrown by some friends of his that run a nonprofit that sponsors children to play soccer. The party was for the team because they had a good season and won all of their tournaments. On the taxi someone starting talking to Meagan. They asked her if she voted for Obama. Lots of people have been asking us about Obama. They like him because of his Kenyan heritage. They always want to know if we voted for him.
Once we got into town we walked to a hotel that I was pretty sure would have a business center. We stopped for the bathroom. I went just fine, but Meagan got suck in the bathroom stall because the door wouldn’t unlock. She kept turning the key, but the lock wouldn’t turn. Finally just as things were starting to get panicky it unlocked. It was a good thing too. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get her out of there if she was truly stuck, and I’m sure that being in that little stall would be horrible. It is like another room, not like the kind that you can just crawl out from underneath the divider.
We walked to the place we were going to meet Richard. From there we went to the old taxi park to take a taxi. You many remember from my description last year what the taxi park looks like. If not you can look at the pictures. It is just an open space where they squeeze as many taxis as possible for people to travel in and out of town from the “suburbs”. Some how everyone has the locations memorized of where each taxi is in the park that is going to be traveling to the different locations. We also passed by a lot of vendors who are trying to sell us all kinds of trinkets and candy. At times it was sort of difficult to keep up with Richard who could weave through the crowd so easily. He often asks about what things are like in America. It is surprisingly difficult to describe. He’ll ask something like, “do you have potholes in America? Do you have dirt roads like this in America?”
And the answer is always yes and no. Yes we have dirt roads and potholes, but not in the middle of the city. Unless maybe you are in New Orleans where the roads are horrible anyway because the water table is so high. There are dirt roads but you have to get out in the rural parts a bit before you see one. I try to explain that we also get bad sink holes like the one at the end of our drive way that Mrs. Freddie drove into, and several family members have stepped in. So the answer is yes, but it is different in situation and extent. Difficult to communicate.
We took a taxi out of the city. It was nice to get out of the city for a while. Once we got to our stop we had to take a boda to the top of one of the hills close by. At the top of the hill they had leveled out part of one side into a soccer field. There the boys team that we were supporting was playing a match. Although in Uganda they call it a pitch. We met some of Richards friends. They were all very nice. One of them was a young German woman. She had to have been around Meagan and I’s age. She had come for three months originally and decided to stay. She had now been there for fourteen months. It was really interesting to meet someone who had really gone native. She lived and worked like most other Ugandans.
While we were watching we had some sugar cane. It was nice to have as a snack although it makes your hands filthy and sticky as the juice runs out of the stalk all over everything. Meagan had a big time with it. I was lucky in that I’ve had sugar cane before, although Ugandans just peel off the bark with their teeth. I definitely had trouble with that, but the men that were standing around were laughing at Meagan when she was trying to bite it. I could only get through two joints of it before I got tired of it. Richard was so efficient - it was amazing. He made short work of his and the rest of Meagan’s. I passed mine off to someone else.
The boys ended up winning the match. They didn’t seem to be surprised about their victory. One even said that he was tired of winning. At this point they were very shy and didn’t want to talk to us very much. From there we walked down the hill to the village. It was a beautiful view to be able to look out over the rolling hills. All along the hill you can see where people have been planting their crops. They were trying to tell us the different kinds of plants, but I could remember some of them. I remembered how they grew their tubers in small mounds that they had built up so that when they went to harvest them, they would be easy to recover. I always thought that was clever. We also saw all of the common garden items closer to the house.
To get to the houses we had to weave through all kinds of houses and gardens along a little dirt foot path. You would have to know exactly where you were going to know how to get there. I like that there are no fences that keep people from walking through. Nobody worries about stealing. Everyone has a garden and so it isn’t necessary to worry about stealing because everyone has the same stuff. The only thing that might cause trouble is if someone’s livestock got into another’s garden. When we got to the house it was a simple small house. The woman, Sonja, and her Ugandan boyfriend, Moses lived there together. It was a two room concrete house. They had electricity but no running water. Minimal material items. A rack for clothes, a set of shelves in the front room for cooking materials, and a bed on the floor with a mosquito net. However, they did have a few things that indicated modernity. They had a satellite TV, a DVD player, and an ipod to listen to music. Although I suppose that none of those things would be useable if the power went out, as it does on occasion.
Along the way we made a new friend named Roger. He was one of the coaches of the boy’s team. He was asking us many of the typical questions. Where were we from, what state, how long had we been in Uganda, etc. They were going to prepare a meal for the boys and he was in charge of the rice and he showed it to us. He had cooked the rice in an enormous pot with onions. He called it “pilawo”. I told him that we had something similar called rice pilaf. We agreed that I would try his cooking and he would try mine and we would decide who’s was better. After trying it, I think it would be a pretty tight race. He also started us on a vocabulary of Luganda words.
Anyway, Ugandans eat enormous meals because they tend to eat only one meal a day. Hopefully we will have some pictures up soon so that you can see. Meagan and I had to share one plate. In addition to rice we had potatoes, and cooked vegetables. Even between the two of us we couldn’t finish it.
I didn’t realize that everyone was going to eat with their hands until Richard happened to offer us a fork. Richard himself used a fork. Either way I was ok. I would have eaten with my fingers. There wasn’t anything that was too messy, although I’m not sure how people would eat matoke with peanut sauce with their fingers. It would be like trying to eat mashed potatoes and gravy with your fingers. Not even any bread to soak up the juice. Anyhow the meal was great, and everyone ate their fill. Afterwards the boys got up and stretched their stomachs because they were so full. Even some of the neighbors came by to get a plate. It was funny because they didn’t ask, they just took, and they brought their plates with them. It seemed like a common occurrence, so no one in the group thought anything about it.
The boys left for the dance party while the adult cleaned up. They wanted us to watch a documentary about Ida Amin. So we sat and watched while they cleaned. I felt sort of bad about it, but the documentary itself was very interesting. It isn’t that different from the movie The Last King of Scotland, but less graphic. The guy who plays him in the movie is just like he was in real life. We didn’t get to watch the whole thing because they wanted to join the boys at the dance party. By this time it was dark so we all walked with a flashlight as our guide.
When we got to the party we danced and danced. All of the people thought that we were so funny. The music was in Luganda, but it had a good rhythm to it. The boys themselves could dance so well. We had so much fun, and I was glad that we went. I was reminded of why I liked coming here so much in the first place. I could write a lot more about the night, but I can’t be spending all of my time blogging. You’ll have to look at the pictures when we get them up to get an idea of what it was like.
P.S. I’m not always sure what to write about so feel free to post questions. Also thanks for all of the posts and keeping me updated on what is happening in the U.S. We now have an Internet modem, so we will be able to communicate a lot more effectively now.
We did so many things today it is hard to know where to begin. We made a point to make coffee this morning with the coffee we bought from the coffee shop. I was excited because I ran of the coffee that I brought back in December, so I hadn’t had any since then. It was as good as I expected it to be, and really cheered me up. Meagan had two cups.
From there we left to go to town. Our friend Richard invited us to a party that was being thrown by some friends of his that run a nonprofit that sponsors children to play soccer. The party was for the team because they had a good season and won all of their tournaments. On the taxi someone starting talking to Meagan. They asked her if she voted for Obama. Lots of people have been asking us about Obama. They like him because of his Kenyan heritage. They always want to know if we voted for him.
Once we got into town we walked to a hotel that I was pretty sure would have a business center. We stopped for the bathroom. I went just fine, but Meagan got suck in the bathroom stall because the door wouldn’t unlock. She kept turning the key, but the lock wouldn’t turn. Finally just as things were starting to get panicky it unlocked. It was a good thing too. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get her out of there if she was truly stuck, and I’m sure that being in that little stall would be horrible. It is like another room, not like the kind that you can just crawl out from underneath the divider.
We walked to the place we were going to meet Richard. From there we went to the old taxi park to take a taxi. You many remember from my description last year what the taxi park looks like. If not you can look at the pictures. It is just an open space where they squeeze as many taxis as possible for people to travel in and out of town from the “suburbs”. Some how everyone has the locations memorized of where each taxi is in the park that is going to be traveling to the different locations. We also passed by a lot of vendors who are trying to sell us all kinds of trinkets and candy. At times it was sort of difficult to keep up with Richard who could weave through the crowd so easily. He often asks about what things are like in America. It is surprisingly difficult to describe. He’ll ask something like, “do you have potholes in America? Do you have dirt roads like this in America?”
And the answer is always yes and no. Yes we have dirt roads and potholes, but not in the middle of the city. Unless maybe you are in New Orleans where the roads are horrible anyway because the water table is so high. There are dirt roads but you have to get out in the rural parts a bit before you see one. I try to explain that we also get bad sink holes like the one at the end of our drive way that Mrs. Freddie drove into, and several family members have stepped in. So the answer is yes, but it is different in situation and extent. Difficult to communicate.
We took a taxi out of the city. It was nice to get out of the city for a while. Once we got to our stop we had to take a boda to the top of one of the hills close by. At the top of the hill they had leveled out part of one side into a soccer field. There the boys team that we were supporting was playing a match. Although in Uganda they call it a pitch. We met some of Richards friends. They were all very nice. One of them was a young German woman. She had to have been around Meagan and I’s age. She had come for three months originally and decided to stay. She had now been there for fourteen months. It was really interesting to meet someone who had really gone native. She lived and worked like most other Ugandans.
While we were watching we had some sugar cane. It was nice to have as a snack although it makes your hands filthy and sticky as the juice runs out of the stalk all over everything. Meagan had a big time with it. I was lucky in that I’ve had sugar cane before, although Ugandans just peel off the bark with their teeth. I definitely had trouble with that, but the men that were standing around were laughing at Meagan when she was trying to bite it. I could only get through two joints of it before I got tired of it. Richard was so efficient - it was amazing. He made short work of his and the rest of Meagan’s. I passed mine off to someone else.
The boys ended up winning the match. They didn’t seem to be surprised about their victory. One even said that he was tired of winning. At this point they were very shy and didn’t want to talk to us very much. From there we walked down the hill to the village. It was a beautiful view to be able to look out over the rolling hills. All along the hill you can see where people have been planting their crops. They were trying to tell us the different kinds of plants, but I could remember some of them. I remembered how they grew their tubers in small mounds that they had built up so that when they went to harvest them, they would be easy to recover. I always thought that was clever. We also saw all of the common garden items closer to the house.
To get to the houses we had to weave through all kinds of houses and gardens along a little dirt foot path. You would have to know exactly where you were going to know how to get there. I like that there are no fences that keep people from walking through. Nobody worries about stealing. Everyone has a garden and so it isn’t necessary to worry about stealing because everyone has the same stuff. The only thing that might cause trouble is if someone’s livestock got into another’s garden. When we got to the house it was a simple small house. The woman, Sonja, and her Ugandan boyfriend, Moses lived there together. It was a two room concrete house. They had electricity but no running water. Minimal material items. A rack for clothes, a set of shelves in the front room for cooking materials, and a bed on the floor with a mosquito net. However, they did have a few things that indicated modernity. They had a satellite TV, a DVD player, and an ipod to listen to music. Although I suppose that none of those things would be useable if the power went out, as it does on occasion.
Along the way we made a new friend named Roger. He was one of the coaches of the boy’s team. He was asking us many of the typical questions. Where were we from, what state, how long had we been in Uganda, etc. They were going to prepare a meal for the boys and he was in charge of the rice and he showed it to us. He had cooked the rice in an enormous pot with onions. He called it “pilawo”. I told him that we had something similar called rice pilaf. We agreed that I would try his cooking and he would try mine and we would decide who’s was better. After trying it, I think it would be a pretty tight race. He also started us on a vocabulary of Luganda words.
Anyway, Ugandans eat enormous meals because they tend to eat only one meal a day. Hopefully we will have some pictures up soon so that you can see. Meagan and I had to share one plate. In addition to rice we had potatoes, and cooked vegetables. Even between the two of us we couldn’t finish it.
I didn’t realize that everyone was going to eat with their hands until Richard happened to offer us a fork. Richard himself used a fork. Either way I was ok. I would have eaten with my fingers. There wasn’t anything that was too messy, although I’m not sure how people would eat matoke with peanut sauce with their fingers. It would be like trying to eat mashed potatoes and gravy with your fingers. Not even any bread to soak up the juice. Anyhow the meal was great, and everyone ate their fill. Afterwards the boys got up and stretched their stomachs because they were so full. Even some of the neighbors came by to get a plate. It was funny because they didn’t ask, they just took, and they brought their plates with them. It seemed like a common occurrence, so no one in the group thought anything about it.
The boys left for the dance party while the adult cleaned up. They wanted us to watch a documentary about Ida Amin. So we sat and watched while they cleaned. I felt sort of bad about it, but the documentary itself was very interesting. It isn’t that different from the movie The Last King of Scotland, but less graphic. The guy who plays him in the movie is just like he was in real life. We didn’t get to watch the whole thing because they wanted to join the boys at the dance party. By this time it was dark so we all walked with a flashlight as our guide.
When we got to the party we danced and danced. All of the people thought that we were so funny. The music was in Luganda, but it had a good rhythm to it. The boys themselves could dance so well. We had so much fun, and I was glad that we went. I was reminded of why I liked coming here so much in the first place. I could write a lot more about the night, but I can’t be spending all of my time blogging. You’ll have to look at the pictures when we get them up to get an idea of what it was like.
P.S. I’m not always sure what to write about so feel free to post questions. Also thanks for all of the posts and keeping me updated on what is happening in the U.S. We now have an Internet modem, so we will be able to communicate a lot more effectively now.
Catching up
Friday 5/28/10
I’m looking forward to having a relaxing weekend of reading and writing and drinking coffee. Today we went to the supermarket (again) and the Foundation. At the supermarket we got a blender, which Grace has been requesting for the second summer now to make juice. I’m hoping that we will be able to make smoothies too.
We went to the Foundation to use their printer, and realized that they had wireless internet as well. So that was a bonus. At the very least we can go there to use the internet until we get something at home. And all of the equipment works properly for the most part. Rev. Obed’s computer is a bit slow. I was trying to educate him about things he can do to speed up the processing, like removing files from his desk top, and it sort of reminded me of being a home. We laughed because he said that he always got his son, Michael, to be close by to help him when he had problems. Sounded familiar.
So although it is frustrating to me to get all of this paper work sorted out, things seem to be looking better and moving forward. Monday will be our next attempt to turn in paper work, and again take up the ongoing feud that I have with secretaries in Uganda.
We walked all the way back to the apartment from the foundation. When we were measuring it out on the map it only said that it was two miles, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t write. The map also says that things are at locations where they aren’t. So I’m approximating between three and four miles. What I like about walking on this particular road, is that there are many schools in the area. The children walk along the side walk to go home in the afternoon. They are very cute in their uniforms walking home. Sometimes there are siblings together and the older with hold the younger’s hand. In fact Meagan got a picture of this type of pair while we were walking behind them. Hopefully soon we will be able to post pictures so that you can see for yourself.
We were pretty hot and sweaty when we got home. It is the type of hot where you just can’t eat until you cool off after a while even though you haven’t eaten very much that whole day. Today we are attempting to make banana bread for the first time. As I’m typing I can smell it in the oven. Hopefully it will be a success…
Saturday 5/29/10
We put out some roach poison today. Hopefully the poison will work. I felt like we were trying to protect ourselves from vampires by putting out lines of this powder that they can’t cross. We picked up a taxi and went to our old haunt, 1000 Cups of Coffee to see Joan, read, and have some coffee. She was very happy to see us when we arrived, and she helped Meagan order a drink so that she wouldn’t end up with another cold curer like she did the last time. We mostly ended up talking with people while we were at the shop rather than doing any reading. First we spoke with one of Joan’s regular customers who was a landscaper. Ugandans are very much entrepreneurs. He was telling me how he wanted to start exporting hides to Italy to be made into leather and then having the leather shipped back to be manufactured into different products to sell on the Ugandan market. We also spoke with two women who were alumni of the College of Charleston. They were leading missions for medical students and nurses in a town in the north western part of the country called Mysinde. They were working for a non-profit out of Charleston, so I asked them if they knew if there were any job openings. =). It will definitely be something that I follow up with eventually. I also took the time to talk with the owner of the coffee shop. I remember him from the last time. He was asking about the book I was reading, and coffee, and the different types of customers that he gets. I think that we will try to do the coffee tour again because it was so much fun when I did it last year.
After we were all hopped up on caffeine from delicious coffee, we walked across the street to the market so that Meagan could see the different crafts and things that they had. I knew that we weren’t going to make it out there without buying something, so I bought a pair of earrings and Meagan also go some paper beads. I also found a store that had fake designer bags. They claim that they are real, but I don’t believe it because they are only selling them for like 30-45 dollars. But… they are nice leather bags, so I think that at some point I’ll get one anyway.
We walked home and stopped along the way to pick up something that we could use for chips. We choose pita bread and we ended up buying some fresh goat cheese in the process. Our plan was to make pita chips for guacamole and use whole pitas for pizza crusts. I made a simple guacamole with just lemon, onion, salt, and tomatoes, and Meagan said that it was the best guacamole that she’d ever had. The avocados were perfect.
All in all today was a really nice day. I knew that I needed a day to relax and unwind after the long week, and do something for fun.
I’m looking forward to having a relaxing weekend of reading and writing and drinking coffee. Today we went to the supermarket (again) and the Foundation. At the supermarket we got a blender, which Grace has been requesting for the second summer now to make juice. I’m hoping that we will be able to make smoothies too.
We went to the Foundation to use their printer, and realized that they had wireless internet as well. So that was a bonus. At the very least we can go there to use the internet until we get something at home. And all of the equipment works properly for the most part. Rev. Obed’s computer is a bit slow. I was trying to educate him about things he can do to speed up the processing, like removing files from his desk top, and it sort of reminded me of being a home. We laughed because he said that he always got his son, Michael, to be close by to help him when he had problems. Sounded familiar.
So although it is frustrating to me to get all of this paper work sorted out, things seem to be looking better and moving forward. Monday will be our next attempt to turn in paper work, and again take up the ongoing feud that I have with secretaries in Uganda.
We walked all the way back to the apartment from the foundation. When we were measuring it out on the map it only said that it was two miles, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t write. The map also says that things are at locations where they aren’t. So I’m approximating between three and four miles. What I like about walking on this particular road, is that there are many schools in the area. The children walk along the side walk to go home in the afternoon. They are very cute in their uniforms walking home. Sometimes there are siblings together and the older with hold the younger’s hand. In fact Meagan got a picture of this type of pair while we were walking behind them. Hopefully soon we will be able to post pictures so that you can see for yourself.
We were pretty hot and sweaty when we got home. It is the type of hot where you just can’t eat until you cool off after a while even though you haven’t eaten very much that whole day. Today we are attempting to make banana bread for the first time. As I’m typing I can smell it in the oven. Hopefully it will be a success…
Saturday 5/29/10
We put out some roach poison today. Hopefully the poison will work. I felt like we were trying to protect ourselves from vampires by putting out lines of this powder that they can’t cross. We picked up a taxi and went to our old haunt, 1000 Cups of Coffee to see Joan, read, and have some coffee. She was very happy to see us when we arrived, and she helped Meagan order a drink so that she wouldn’t end up with another cold curer like she did the last time. We mostly ended up talking with people while we were at the shop rather than doing any reading. First we spoke with one of Joan’s regular customers who was a landscaper. Ugandans are very much entrepreneurs. He was telling me how he wanted to start exporting hides to Italy to be made into leather and then having the leather shipped back to be manufactured into different products to sell on the Ugandan market. We also spoke with two women who were alumni of the College of Charleston. They were leading missions for medical students and nurses in a town in the north western part of the country called Mysinde. They were working for a non-profit out of Charleston, so I asked them if they knew if there were any job openings. =). It will definitely be something that I follow up with eventually. I also took the time to talk with the owner of the coffee shop. I remember him from the last time. He was asking about the book I was reading, and coffee, and the different types of customers that he gets. I think that we will try to do the coffee tour again because it was so much fun when I did it last year.
After we were all hopped up on caffeine from delicious coffee, we walked across the street to the market so that Meagan could see the different crafts and things that they had. I knew that we weren’t going to make it out there without buying something, so I bought a pair of earrings and Meagan also go some paper beads. I also found a store that had fake designer bags. They claim that they are real, but I don’t believe it because they are only selling them for like 30-45 dollars. But… they are nice leather bags, so I think that at some point I’ll get one anyway.
We walked home and stopped along the way to pick up something that we could use for chips. We choose pita bread and we ended up buying some fresh goat cheese in the process. Our plan was to make pita chips for guacamole and use whole pitas for pizza crusts. I made a simple guacamole with just lemon, onion, salt, and tomatoes, and Meagan said that it was the best guacamole that she’d ever had. The avocados were perfect.
All in all today was a really nice day. I knew that I needed a day to relax and unwind after the long week, and do something for fun.
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