Weerabe and webale (goodbye and thank-you) Uganda!

As usual, when I’m about to leave somewhere I have a lot of mixed feelings. This week I’ve found myself vacillating between “I really don’t want to leave and wish I could just stay in Africa and travel for months”, and “I am so excited I’ll be somewhere with hot water in a week I could die.” In reality, I think 6 weeks here was just right. I’m leaving at a time when I’m still very sad to go, and I am going to miss Uganda and my host family terribly. I will definitely be upset to leave next Wednesday, but I think if I stayed much longer it would quickly turn to extreme homesickness.

I am so grateful I had this opportunity and got to “experience Africa”. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be back, I love Uganda and I can’t wait to see the rest of Africa some day. Although I haven’t really had the “epiphany” moment hippies always claim they get when they see people living in dirt huts, my perspectives have definitely been influenced. It is going to a bit of an adjustment going back to the US, and I’m actually quite glad I was only here for 6 weeks as far as readjusting goes. A friend of a friend who lived here for three months said she started bawling uncontrollably the first time she walked into a grocery store when she came back to the US. Though hopefully there won’t be any crying involved, I think I will see a lot of things with new eyes as well.

For instance, I am actually scandalized when I see people wearing shorts. I am so used to no one wearing anything above the knees that I’m probably going to have a heart attack going to the pool when I get home.

On a more serious note, I am also starting to understand why development is so difficult. I now truly believe that you can’t understand a third world country without living in one. There is just no way to describe it, it’s not that life is “so hard” or “primitive” or bla bla bla, rather it is just incredibly different. For instance, the idea that developing countries are “filthy.”. Well yes, Kampala is pretty dirty but it’s not because of the people or laziness or bad civic morals. The real cause is that there is no infrastructure to provide for trash collection. Because the streets are mostly not real streets, there’s no semblance of city planning or residential vs. business zoning and in general there’s just no way to drive garbage trucks up to most people’s homes, trash tends to accumulate. Basically, after more than a month here I’m only beginning to grasp the difficulties of developing and managing a “modern” state.

I also know that I am going to be incredibly grateful for a lot of things when I get back, not that I suffered here- because I certainly did not, my life was awesome and completely cushy. It’s more just a general appreciation of things like “Wow I can brush my teeth with the water!”

Since you’ve heard about all the things I love about Uganda, now it’s time for a few things that I’m happy to leave behind in Africa so you know I actually am excited to be back home:

1. I am incredibly sick of being sick. I don’t know if I have a parasite or worms (or something like that I can’t shake) or if I’m just sensitive, but I can’t wait to stop getting sick. I am going to pump myself so full of antibiotics when I get home that I’ll be sneezing penicillin.
2. Doing laundry by hand- it is going to be soooo nice to have a laundry machine.
3. Matooke (steamed plantains). A good diet staple sure, but I have eaten it nearly twice a day every day for more than a month and I’m nearing the point of revulsion.

4. Being lazy. I cannot wait to exercise. There is no way to exercise here or even do much physical activity, and since all I eat is starch and carbs I’m feeling pretty disgusting at this point.
5. Spoiled dairy products. Because electricity goes out, refrigeration goes out too, sending milk and other products in a weird flip-flop between 40 and 80 degrees. It is a really unpleasant surprise in the morning to pour milk in your tea and not realize it’s curdled until you’re drinking it.
6. Pollution. While the first week back at Pomona usually makes me cough, this time I won’t mind. LA’s air may actually be cleaner then Kampala’s, probably mostly because people don’t burn their trash on the side of the road there.
7. constant Lugandan. While I will miss hearing lugandan occasionally and I really enjoy the traditional greetings and pleasantries, I am going to relish being able to understand what people are saying. It gets a little frustrating after a while to always be a third wheel during conversation

8. having it be culturally acceptable to grab your arm/elbow and try to steer you towards something. I am so fed up with this! It’s never malicious and it has nothing to do with me being a whitey, merchants do it to everyone indiscriminately here. They’ll say something like “Sister, sister, come over here! This is very nice, you are so in a hurry, rushing rushing come and take a look sister, you are welcome!” while attempting to pull you over to their stall. a) Americans have a much larger personal space bubble than Ugandans b) I’m a germophobe and c)It’s just super annoying

Phew, it feels good to rant a bit. In reality, these things haven’t bothered me much until now, I think it’s just my countdown mentality setting it. Despite a few complaints, Uganda has been amazing, and it is truly a great country. I would recommend coming here to anyone (young or old, woman or man) in a heartbeat. I have never once felt unsafe, disliked, or even too stressed. Every Ugandan I’ve met has been friendly, helpful and hospitable and I can’t say enough good things about them.

To sum it all up: I love Africa! There is some indescribable quality to it that I really enjoy and I hope a few of you get to experience it at some point. I know that me bawling when I say my goodbyes here is unavoidable, but I am also really excited to get back home and have three relaxing weeks before school!

And just because writing that last bit made me sentimental here’s a list of things I’ll miss, and that you should look forward to if you ever visit:

1. the pineapple. It is seriously the best fruit I have ever had in my life. It doesn’t even taste like the pineapple we have in the US- it is in a completely different league. I actually think im going to be depressed the first time I have US pineapples again
2. fresh food. Everyone goes to market here on a daily, if not twice daily basis. Everything has just come in to the little markets on trucks and is so delicious and fresh.
3. politeness. There are at least 3 pleasantries before even superficial conversation can be attempted. Generally something along the lines of, “How are you? How was your sleep? Would you like some tea?” and an additional random inquiry about your day. There’s also a tradition of kneeling with downcast eyes in front of respected people you’re meeting. An old woman I was walking by the other day in Kampala actually stopped on the side of the road, knelt down and asked me how I was doing. Completely randomly. I nearly died of embarrassment and I still feel awful because I was walking along, not realizing what was going on and I failed to give her the appropriate response.
4. being called mzungu. I actually will miss it, it’s sort of fun knowing that your very presence amuses children to no end. It’s even better when I get to speak a little Lugandan to them and take them by surprise. They usually end up cracking up and then running away and hiding behind their mothers, who then mistakenly think I actually speak Luganda and try to talk to me. Fail.
5. cheapness. Today I bought a thank-you card, a coke and a 1.5 liter bottled water at pretty much the most upscale grocery in Kampala and it cost me less than $1.50. I am extremely cheap most of the time so I’m a big fan of Ugandan prices- it is going to kill me to pay more than $3 for an entire meal again.

6. to infinity: just ask me sometime

I get back August 05, and besides possibly spending a few days at Lake Okoboji, I don’t have any concrete plans so hopefully I get to see you all! (I don’t leave for Pomona until August 28th, so I have plenty of time)

Can’t wait to be state side again!
Kaitlyn

PS I actually need to come up with a Fulbright project proposal in those three relaxing weeks, so if anyone has any suggestions…

Weerabe and webale (goodbye and thank-you) Uganda!

As usual, when I’m about to leave somewhere I have a lot of mixed feelings. This week I’ve found myself vacillating between “I really don’t want to leave and wish I could just stay in Africa and travel for months”, and “I am so excited I’ll be somewhere with hot water in a week I could die.” In reality, I think 6 weeks here was just right. I’m leaving at a time when I’m still very sad to go, and I am going to miss Uganda and my host family terribly. I will definitely be upset to leave next Wednesday, but I think if I stayed much longer it would quickly turn to extreme homesickness.

I am so grateful I had this opportunity and got to “experience Africa”. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be back, I love Uganda and I can’t wait to see the rest of Africa some day. Although I haven’t really had the “epiphany” moment hippies always claim they get when they see people living in dirt huts, my perspectives have definitely been influenced. It is going to a bit of an adjustment going back to the US, and I’m actually quite glad I was only here for 6 weeks as far as readjusting goes. A friend of a friend who lived here for three months said she started bawling uncontrollably the first time she walked into a grocery store when she came back to the US. Though hopefully there won’t be any crying involved, I think I will see a lot of things with new eyes as well.

For instance, I am actually scandalized when I see people wearing shorts. I am so used to no one wearing anything above the knees that I’m probably going to have a heart attack going to the pool when I get home.

On a more serious note, I am also starting to understand why development is so difficult. I now truly believe that you can’t understand a third world country without living in one. There is just no way to describe it, it’s not that life is “so hard” or “primitive” or bla bla bla, rather it is just incredibly different. For instance, the idea that developing countries are “filthy.”. Well yes, Kampala is pretty dirty but it’s not because of the people or laziness or bad civic morals. The real cause is that there is no infrastructure to provide for trash collection. Because the streets are mostly not real streets, there’s no semblance of city planning or residential vs. business zoning and in general there’s just no way to drive garbage trucks up to most people’s homes, trash tends to accumulate. Basically, after more than a month here I’m only beginning to grasp the difficulties of developing and managing a “modern” state.

I also know that I am going to be incredibly grateful for a lot of things when I get back, not that I suffered here- because I certainly did not, my life was awesome and completely cushy. It’s more just a general appreciation of things like “Wow I can brush my teeth with the water!”

Since you’ve heard about all the things I love about Uganda, now it’s time for a few things that I’m happy to leave behind in Africa so you know I actually am excited to be back home:

1. I am incredibly sick of being sick. I don’t know if I have a parasite or worms (or something like that I can’t shake) or if I’m just sensitive, but I can’t wait to stop getting sick. I am going to pump myself so full of antibiotics when I get home that I’ll be sneezing penicillin.
2. Doing laundry by hand- it is going to be soooo nice to have a laundry machine.
3. Matooke (steamed plantains). A good diet staple sure, but I have eaten it nearly twice a day every day for more than a month and I’m nearing the point of revulsion.

4. Being lazy. I cannot wait to exercise. There is no way to exercise here or even do much physical activity, and since all I eat is starch and carbs I’m feeling pretty disgusting at this point.
5. Spoiled dairy products. Because electricity goes out, refrigeration goes out too, sending milk and other products in a weird flip-flop between 40 and 80 degrees. It is a really unpleasant surprise in the morning to pour milk in your tea and not realize it’s curdled until you’re drinking it.
6. Pollution. While the first week back at Pomona usually makes me cough, this time I won’t mind. LA’s air may actually be cleaner then Kampala’s, probably mostly because people don’t burn their trash on the side of the road there.
7. constant Lugandan. While I will miss hearing lugandan occasionally and I really enjoy the traditional greetings and pleasantries, I am going to relish being able to understand what people are saying. It gets a little frustrating after a while to always be a third wheel during conversation

8. having it be culturally acceptable to grab your arm/elbow and try to steer you towards something. I am so fed up with this! It’s never malicious and it has nothing to do with me being a whitey, merchants do it to everyone indiscriminately here. They’ll say something like “Sister, sister, come over here! This is very nice, you are so in a hurry, rushing rushing come and take a look sister, you are welcome!” while attempting to pull you over to their stall. a) Americans have a much larger personal space bubble than Ugandans b) I’m a germophobe and c)It’s just super annoying

Phew, it feels good to rant a bit. In reality, these things haven’t bothered me much until now, I think it’s just my countdown mentality setting it. Despite a few complaints, Uganda has been amazing, and it is truly a great country. I would recommend coming here to anyone (young or old, woman or man) in a heartbeat. I have never once felt unsafe, disliked, or even too stressed. Every Ugandan I’ve met has been friendly, helpful and hospitable and I can’t say enough good things about them.

To sum it all up: I love Africa! There is some indescribable quality to it that I really enjoy and I hope a few of you get to experience it at some point. I know that me bawling when I say my goodbyes here is unavoidable, but I am also really excited to get back home and have three relaxing weeks before school!

And just because writing that last bit made me sentimental here’s a list of things I’ll miss, and that you should look forward to if you ever visit:

1. the pineapple. It is seriously the best fruit I have ever had in my life. It doesn’t even taste like the pineapple we have in the US- it is in a completely different league. I actually think im going to be depressed the first time I have US pineapples again
2. fresh food. Everyone goes to market here on a daily, if not twice daily basis. Everything has just come in to the little markets on trucks and is so delicious and fresh.
3. politeness. There are at least 3 pleasantries before even superficial conversation can be attempted. Generally something along the lines of, “How are you? How was your sleep? Would you like some tea?” and an additional random inquiry about your day. There’s also a tradition of kneeling with downcast eyes in front of respected people you’re meeting. An old woman I was walking by the other day in Kampala actually stopped on the side of the road, knelt down and asked me how I was doing. Completely randomly. I nearly died of embarrassment and I still feel awful because I was walking along, not realizing what was going on and I failed to give her the appropriate response.
4. being called mzungu. I actually will miss it, it’s sort of fun knowing that your very presence amuses children to no end. It’s even better when I get to speak a little Lugandan to them and take them by surprise. They usually end up cracking up and then running away and hiding behind their mothers, who then mistakenly think I actually speak Luganda and try to talk to me. Fail.
5. cheapness. Today I bought a thank-you card, a coke and a 1.5 liter bottled water at pretty much the most upscale grocery in Kampala and it cost me less than $1.50. I am extremely cheap most of the time so I’m a big fan of Ugandan prices- it is going to kill me to pay more than $3 for an entire meal again.

6. to infinity: just ask me sometime

I get back August 05, and besides possibly spending a few days at Lake Okoboji, I don’t have any concrete plans so hopefully I get to see you all! (I don’t leave for Pomona until August 28th, so I have plenty of time)

Can’t wait to be state side again!
Kaitlyn

PS I actually need to come up with a Fulbright project proposal in those three relaxing weeks, so if anyone has any suggestions…

Weerabe and webale (goodbye and thank-you) Uganda!

As usual, when I’m about to leave somewhere I have a lot of mixed feelings. This week I’ve found myself vacillating between “I really don’t want to leave and wish I could just stay in Africa and travel for months”, and “I am so excited I’ll be somewhere with hot water in a week I could die.” In reality, I think 6 weeks here was just right. I’m leaving at a time when I’m still very sad to go, and I am going to miss Uganda and my host family terribly. I will definitely be upset to leave next Wednesday, but I think if I stayed much longer it would quickly turn to extreme homesickness.

I am so grateful I had this opportunity and got to “experience Africa”. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be back, I love Uganda and I can’t wait to see the rest of Africa some day. Although I haven’t really had the “epiphany” moment hippies always claim they get when they see people living in dirt huts, my perspectives have definitely been influenced. It is going to a bit of an adjustment going back to the US, and I’m actually quite glad I was only here for 6 weeks as far as readjusting goes. A friend of a friend who lived here for three months said she started bawling uncontrollably the first time she walked into a grocery store when she came back to the US. Though hopefully there won’t be any crying involved, I think I will see a lot of things with new eyes as well.

For instance, I am actually scandalized when I see people wearing shorts. I am so used to no one wearing anything above the knees that I’m probably going to have a heart attack going to the pool when I get home.

On a more serious note, I am also starting to understand why development is so difficult. I now truly believe that you can’t understand a third world country without living in one. There is just no way to describe it, it’s not that life is “so hard” or “primitive” or bla bla bla, rather it is just incredibly different. For instance, the idea that developing countries are “filthy.”. Well yes, Kampala is pretty dirty but it’s not because of the people or laziness or bad civic morals. The real cause is that there is no infrastructure to provide for trash collection. Because the streets are mostly not real streets, there’s no semblance of city planning or residential vs. business zoning and in general there’s just no way to drive garbage trucks up to most people’s homes, trash tends to accumulate. Basically, after more than a month here I’m only beginning to grasp the difficulties of developing and managing a “modern” state.

I also know that I am going to be incredibly grateful for a lot of things when I get back, not that I suffered here- because I certainly did not, my life was awesome and completely cushy. It’s more just a general appreciation of things like “Wow I can brush my teeth with the water!”

Since you’ve heard about all the things I love about Uganda, now it’s time for a few things that I’m happy to leave behind in Africa so you know I actually am excited to be back home:

1. I am incredibly sick of being sick. I don’t know if I have a parasite or worms (or something like that I can’t shake) or if I’m just sensitive, but I can’t wait to stop getting sick. I am going to pump myself so full of antibiotics when I get home that I’ll be sneezing penicillin.
2. Doing laundry by hand- it is going to be soooo nice to have a laundry machine.
3. Matooke (steamed plantains). A good diet staple sure, but I have eaten it nearly twice a day every day for more than a month and I’m nearing the point of revulsion.

4. Being lazy. I cannot wait to exercise. There is no way to exercise here or even do much physical activity, and since all I eat is starch and carbs I’m feeling pretty disgusting at this point.
5. Spoiled dairy products. Because electricity goes out, refrigeration goes out too, sending milk and other products in a weird flip-flop between 40 and 80 degrees. It is a really unpleasant surprise in the morning to pour milk in your tea and not realize it’s curdled until you’re drinking it.
6. Pollution. While the first week back at Pomona usually makes me cough, this time I won’t mind. LA’s air may actually be cleaner then Kampala’s, probably mostly because people don’t burn their trash on the side of the road there.
7. constant Lugandan. While I will miss hearing lugandan occasionally and I really enjoy the traditional greetings and pleasantries, I am going to relish being able to understand what people are saying. It gets a little frustrating after a while to always be a third wheel during conversation

8. having it be culturally acceptable to grab your arm/elbow and try to steer you towards something. I am so fed up with this! It’s never malicious and it has nothing to do with me being a whitey, merchants do it to everyone indiscriminately here. They’ll say something like “Sister, sister, come over here! This is very nice, you are so in a hurry, rushing rushing come and take a look sister, you are welcome!” while attempting to pull you over to their stall. a) Americans have a much larger personal space bubble than Ugandans b) I’m a germophobe and c)It’s just super annoying

Phew, it feels good to rant a bit. In reality, these things haven’t bothered me much until now, I think it’s just my countdown mentality setting it. Despite a few complaints, Uganda has been amazing, and it is truly a great country. I would recommend coming here to anyone (young or old, woman or man) in a heartbeat. I have never once felt unsafe, disliked, or even too stressed. Every Ugandan I’ve met has been friendly, helpful and hospitable and I can’t say enough good things about them.

To sum it all up: I love Africa! There is some indescribable quality to it that I really enjoy and I hope a few of you get to experience it at some point. I know that me bawling when I say my goodbyes here is unavoidable, but I am also really excited to get back home and have three relaxing weeks before school!

And just because writing that last bit made me sentimental here’s a list of things I’ll miss, and that you should look forward to if you ever visit:

1. the pineapple. It is seriously the best fruit I have ever had in my life. It doesn’t even taste like the pineapple we have in the US- it is in a completely different league. I actually think im going to be depressed the first time I have US pineapples again
2. fresh food. Everyone goes to market here on a daily, if not twice daily basis. Everything has just come in to the little markets on trucks and is so delicious and fresh.
3. politeness. There are at least 3 pleasantries before even superficial conversation can be attempted. Generally something along the lines of, “How are you? How was your sleep? Would you like some tea?” and an additional random inquiry about your day. There’s also a tradition of kneeling with downcast eyes in front of respected people you’re meeting. An old woman I was walking by the other day in Kampala actually stopped on the side of the road, knelt down and asked me how I was doing. Completely randomly. I nearly died of embarrassment and I still feel awful because I was walking along, not realizing what was going on and I failed to give her the appropriate response.
4. being called mzungu. I actually will miss it, it’s sort of fun knowing that your very presence amuses children to no end. It’s even better when I get to speak a little Lugandan to them and take them by surprise. They usually end up cracking up and then running away and hiding behind their mothers, who then mistakenly think I actually speak Luganda and try to talk to me. Fail.
5. cheapness. Today I bought a thank-you card, a coke and a 1.5 liter bottled water at pretty much the most upscale grocery in Kampala and it cost me less than $1.50. I am extremely cheap most of the time so I’m a big fan of Ugandan prices- it is going to kill me to pay more than $3 for an entire meal again.

6. to infinity: just ask me sometime

I get back August 05, and besides possibly spending a few days at Lake Okoboji, I don’t have any concrete plans so hopefully I get to see you all! (I don’t leave for Pomona until August 28th, so I have plenty of time)

Can’t wait to be state side again!
Kaitlyn

PS I actually need to come up with a Fulbright project proposal in those three relaxing weeks, so if anyone has any suggestions…

Elephants, instant best friends, food poisoning twice in one week, Jinja, and my future career

I loved this week. Amazing. This was my vacation, the only break I've taken while I'm here, and it was spectacular. I went on a three day safari and then to Jinja (super touristy/fun/safe city famous for being the “source of the Nile”) and then white water rafting. It was too much fun to even describe fully here, so I'll save most of it for when I'm back home and can tell you in person. (oh, and my food poisoning wore off before I left which was a God send!) The main lesson I learned this week is that 75% of "western" people travelling in third world countries are the best and most friendly people you will ever meet. I made a lot of friends in just 5 days and felt a genuine comradare with most of them.

As I said last time, I was headed to gorgeous Murchison Falls national park for safari, but I was a little nervous to start because I was going alone. Obviously I had checked out the company before hand and it was totally safe, in reality I was more scared of being a total loner and eating by myself in the corner for 3 days straight. But it turned out I had a great group of people! I travelled with an American family with a son and daughter both around my age who pretty much adopted me and a British/Bulgarian couple (along with the husband's dad) who were very smarmy and British and hilarious.

The first day we drove up to Murchison (7 hour drive) and then went on a hike up to the Nile and the Murchison waterfalls when we arrived. It was beautiful and so intimidating; I cannot believe that that much water even exists. It is hard to describe, when I get back and have decent Internet connection I'll post some video I took so you can really get an idea what it was like. Supposedly it is the densest waterfall in Africa (most liters of water per sq. m) so it was very loud and awe-inspiring. Because it gets dark at about 7pm here that was pretty much the first day; we went to back to "base camp" and had dinner and crashed because we were going on safari at 6:30am the next morning!

The second day was busy and even more amazing. We crossed the Nile on a ferry and started our game drive bright and early. We got to see so many amazing animals- hippos, baboons, monkeys, so many beautiful and rare birds, a million types of deer/antelope, herds of giraffe, elephants, water buffalo, a glimpse of a lion, and about a thousand warthogs. The only thing I was disappointed with is that the car in front of us got to see a lioness and her two cubs (very briefly) before they ran away and hid. My car was like 2 yards behind and we JUST missed them, so that was a bummer :( . Everything else was brochure-level perfect, we even got to get out and "stretch our legs" about 30 yards from a group of giraffe. After lots of pictures and about 6 hours driving around the preserve we headed back to camp for lunch and then went out again for a cruise down the Nile to Murchison Falls.

Think relaxing boat cruise but... on the Nile! with hundreds of hippos! and crocodiles! and baby elephants! and the densest waterfall in Africa! In summation, it was great. Half the time I was just kicking back relaxing looking at the beautiful scenery and the other half I was super excited clicking a million photos and freaking out over elephants. Probably the best way to spend a summer afternoon that I can think of. Again, with the sun setting at 7pm and after a long day we were all ready to head back to camp and eat. Which we did, around a campfire, which was really fun. Because the third day we didn't have to get up until 8:00 am (yipee!) everyone wanted to stay up and party for a while. The safari camps in Africa tend to be really fun hang-out spots with very easy-going staff and visitors, and in addition to my group there were about 4 other groups of 7 or 8 people. So everyone was just hanging out, telling great stories and drinking $1 beers around the campfire. I made really good friends with the Bulgarian woman on the trip and learned so much about Bulgaria and the EU (which she works for). It is so amazing how close you can feel with someone after only 2 days! Another bonus of this- her husband is a professional photographer, and he is going to post all of his far superior photos on his website! I wrote down his info somewhere and will definitely post it later so you can check out some really beautiful safari pics if you're bored. Because he's a professional he sells his photos rather than sharing them on Flicker or something :( , but I'm hoping because we hit it off so well maybe he'll give me a discount if there are some really good ones!

And so began the third and final day. We left Murchison at around 9am and drove until noon to get to Ziwa rhino sanctuary where we were going to track rhinos. We didn't get to end up tracking the whole herd because there were some uh romantic interludes going on, instead we went after a mama rhino and her baby. It was sooo cool (about the 50th time I’ve said that I know, I’m sorry). The baby rhino was named Obama (they LOVE him here, there is even a cologne named after him) and I'm blanking on the mom's name, they were like awkwardly adorable tanks. It was surreal seeing these animals in their natural habitat and thinking- holy crap this is an actual animal that nature came up with. They just do not seem real. We got within about 20 yards (that's really really close by the way) and then had a brief charging false alarm and the guides made us run away for a bit. But we got to come back and watch the rhinos for another half hour. It was an amazing experience and I am so grateful that I got to see these animals in their natural setting instead of just at the Henry Doorly Zoo.

After getting rained on as we walked back, we all got back in our car very sad that the safari was over and headed back to Kampala. Unfortunately, the nice mzungu restaurant that we were supposed to eat lunch at was closed and we had to stop by a roadside place for food, which was later to haunt me. After getting back to Kampala the American family I met took me and a British girl they also semi-adopted out to an amazing Indian restaurant. We all ate a full Indian dinner and it was delicious. This was by far the nicest restaurant I've been to in Kampala and it was a really pleasant way to end the week and say goodbye to new friends. (Oh by the way even though this place was CLASSY- my whole dinner cost $8 USD). Little did I know I was going to regret overindulging very very soon. Because I was taking the company's free shuttle to Jinja the next morning and I had just come back from safari, I cashed in on a free night at the hotel so I wouldn't have to make my host family pick me up and then drop me off again 9hrs later. After saying my goodbyes to my safari group I headed to bed only to wake up at 2am with a very unpleasant sensation. A lot of vomiting up a lot of Indian food later I went back to bed and vowed to never eat anything from this godforsaken country ever again.

Surprisingly, I was almost fully recovered by 8am the next morning in time to catch the free shuttle to Jinja in order to meet up with a friend from Pomona. All I ate that day was toast and banana bread, but still a pretty impressive turn around for food poisoning.

I would highly recommend Jinja to anyone who ever goes to Uganda. Which will be approximately 1 or maybe 2 people who read this blog. But still. It was very laid back, basically the opposite of Kampala. Think going from Harlem during rush hour to a farmer’s market in Portland. I am attempting this analogy because I want to convey Jinja’s, abundance of: white people, rich white people, NGOs, craft stalls, grad school students (aka rich white people), and overall pointless money wasting diversions. In summation, it was great. I got to hang out with Claire (my Pomona friend) and people from the NGO she’s been working with and we relaxed, went out to eat and did our souvenir shopping. I was fully prepared to repeat that schedule the next day, but Claire and about 200 other people kept telling me that I HAD to raft down the Nile if I was in Jinja (they had just done it). Of course, this was always prefaced by how terrifying it was and how many times the enthusiast’s raft had flipped, so I was getting some mixed signals. After some nervous debate and flip-flopping I decided to sign up for all-day Class 5 white water rafting on the Nile. Yikes!

I could not have had more fun rafting. I met a great group of 3 people on the bus ride to the launch site and we instantly became friends, they actually knew people who had just graduated from the Claremont Colleges! Also joining our group was a random Belgium guy and a Dutch couple, and to top it off our instructor Rich. To put it lightly, I was pretty much obsessed with the Nile and within an hour I was basically bff (that’s best friends forever for you old people) with our guide, who is an Oberlin grad that teaches English in Bulgaria during the school year and is a rafting instructor in the summer. At one point he told me I should consider coming to work there next summer and then let me navigate the raft. I completely sucked and had no idea what I was doing- but it was awesome and I learned four basic navigation strokes. Not going to lie, the possibility of rafting on the Nile every day for a summer and getting paid for it doesn't sound too shabby. Not to worry mom and dad I won't actually do this...probably (they also need horseback safari leaders…)

I was “pace setter” for a good chunk of the trip which means I was in the front left seat and everyone paddles on my cue/keeps pace with me. It was really cool, but is also a pretty vulnerable position. I fell out of the raft in Class 5 rapids twice and it was SICK (which is a good thing for those not familiar with California lingo). The nice thing about rafting in the Nile is that unlike the rivers in the US (think Colorado) the river is really really deep. As in 50 feet deep throughout most of the river, it’s also a half mile wide in a lot of places. This translates into no scary rocks that you’re worried about smashing your head against. So when you fall out in the rapids there is A LOT of water, I’m talking 10-foot waves, but they’re created by rocks 40 feet under you, so there’s absolutely no danger of hitting them. So if you keep calm you’ll be thrown around by waves for a bit, but you’ll always pop right back up! On the last rapids I went flying and was probably under for a good 6 seconds. Which doesn't sound like long- but you try holding your breath through rapids.

I loved every minute of it even though today my body is screaming out in pain. I cannot remember the last time I was this sore, they really make you paddle for about 4/7 hours. Rafting was seriously as fun as the safari though, and if anyone reading gets the chance- do it!!

Sidenote: The only thing I disliked about this week, I am COVERED in mosquito (Luganda= insidii) bites. They are driving me insane, I think I have 50 on my legs alone. Good thing I’m taking anti-malarial meds!

Much love and I’ll see you in a week (already!!! I can’t believe it!!!)

Beethoven is a great film in any language!

So it’s been a few days since Ive updated: chalk it up to only having power a few hours a day and very bad internet at home! I don’t’ have much to say in this post- nothing too exciting has happened in the past couple days. But expect a good post next week because I’m going on safari!

Yay! I’m really excited, my trip will consist of Murchison Falls, the Nile Delta, a game preserve, a boat trip on the Nile and rhino tracking! I’ll be sure to take a ton of pictures- hopefully there’s somewhere I can recharge a camera as I’m sure ill use up my whole battery the first day…

This week I’ve done a few interviews, went to Lake Victoria on Saturday and ate a whole deep fried tilapia with “chips”, and visited Maureen’s family. I also misguidedly ate some chicken that is not being so kind to me…

My host family is generally really good about remembering that I’m white and have a very weak constitution compared to them, but occasionally they forget. Sunday we went to visit Maureen’s sister who owns a small general store type thing and we sat out on the porch and drank beer and watched Beethoven in Luganda (surreal). As usual no one could say my name and even Kate wasn’t going over so well. After repeating it about 10 times they gave up and gave me a name in Lugandan. I can’t remember it right now, but I’ll have to ask Ivan and post it later. Basically they picked a Buganda tribe for me and then a common name from that tribe, it means “something precious” in Lugandan. Lol. Anyway, I was having a really good time and after we had been sitting there for a while everyone was insisting that I eat something. I refused at first, but in Uganda people seriously do not let it go, you basically have to let them give you food or they say that you have an ‘unhealthy appetite’ or that you’re sick or whatever. It’s especially rude to refuse food the first time you go to someone’s house. So they sent an errand boy to go buy roast chicken for everyone up the street. I should have realized then that I was screwed. But unfortunately just at that moment Beethoven was causing some hilarious mayhem and I was distracted from the white person in Africa cardinal rule “never ever eat anything you haven’t seen prepared with your own eyes.”

In summation I am not feeling so well today, but keep your fingers crossed that I’m better in time to chase down some zebras!

More about Lake Victoria (which is beautiful) and my safari for next post!

Adios,
Kaitlyn

On a lighter note...

I am in awe of Ugandan media, and not for its flawless sophistication. Inaccurate news broadcasts, dubbed telenovelas, low low low budget music videos, commercials and TV shows, terribly produced and edited educational DVDs- they have it all!

I decided this issue needed to be addressed while watching an educational video with Jeremiah. It was supposed to be a DVD of traditional American sing-a-longs. Out of 20, I think I had maybe heard of two. When the screen announced “The song of the bc s” I was particularly confused. After a few seconds it became apparent that they had meant “the alphabet”. Well, sort of. They had the ABCDEF part right, but after that it was just a mess. Missing J’s, Us Vs and Ws out of order, and completely the wrong tune had me laughing hysterically throughout the whole thing.

Mary had a little lamb, old mcdonald had a farm and I think something that was supposed to be a Christmas carol were also redonkulous. Not only are the sung-out-loud lyrics to each song wrong, but they didn’t even match up to the inaccuracy of the sing-along words appearing on screen. Thank God Jeremiah can’t read or understand much English or he would be a complete idiot by now. Besides the ‘song of the bc s’ there are many many other equally disturbing gems on that DVD that I hope to bring back and introduce to American children.

In other news, my favorite commercial here is for a local physician. It is about 2 minutes long and features graphic pictures of skin diseases, parasites and infections as well as “candid” moments with the doctor examining patients in an office. But the real reason it’s the best is because throughout, the “Lord of the Rings” theme plays. For those of you who aren’t nerds, trust me you would still recognize it from a mile away, I guess copyright laws don’t apply if you’re pretty sure Howard Shore and Peter Jackson will never see your ad.

As far as soaps, there are the telenovelas and the Ugandan low-budget soaps. Personally, Bukkede TV’s self-produced Luganda soaps are just a little too high-brow for my taste. I can’t be positive but I think they lost me when one character spent 90 seconds on screen peeling and eating 2 bananas. I am not using hyperbole here people- the camera really focused on him for a solid minute and a half while he ate the bananas. Nothing else happened at all. I think I just don’t appreciate true art. I much prefer my Spanish/English/Luganda dubbed telenovelas- because one they have some English instead of just luganda and two they are completely narrated. Instead of just translating the Spanish dialogue to Luganda, these shows are also submitted to a constant stream of narration (always the same male voice) just in case you can’t comprehend the twisting plots turns (or maybe it’s for visually impaired fans, who knows). So you get dialogue in English and Luganda but also narration that says insightful things like “she angrily looked in the telephone book.” So far I’m undecided if my favorite telenovela is Mi Pecado or The Long Wait. On the one hand, Mi Pecado's male lead looks like a Mexican Bradley Cooper… but the Long Wait has a villainess with the most plucked eyebrows I have ever scene AND a secret assassin! I suppose I’ll just have to keep watching and let you know which I decide on.

On a positive note I genuinely do enjoy Lugandan music, I understand about 1 out of every 20 words, but the tune is generally pretty catchy. My favorite is “Ameria” by Dr. Linderman, although something called “Oli Oli” (sp?) may overtake it soon.

In summation: I will do my best to buy some bootleg DVD’s of Ugandan TV shows and music videos so you can all enjoy!

Also, a call for souvenir requests! Seriously, I mean it. I would much rather get you that painting or carved wooden giraffe or whatever cute African thing you’ve always wanted instead of just buying random stuff! Side note: things are like 0.50 here. More than 5 USD is a ridiculously jacked up price, so it’s not going to break the bank if you request something special! Let me know if you like any of the following ideas: scarves, hand woven baskets, wood carvings, woven purses and wallets, key chains, little pots, beaded jewelry, hand-made sandals, paintings, drums… and no Diana I don’t think they sell dog accessories here, so Bentley will have to make do with a human necklace you turn into a collar yourself.

I'm totally safe!

Hey everyone,

I wanted to put a quick post out there letting you all know that I'm safe and completely unaffected by last night's bombings. I was actually asleep when they happened (around 11pm my time) and didn't find out about them until I woke up this morning! I hope no one worried about me too much. And don't be stressed, I'm taking every precaution for the rest of my time here, staying away from large gatherings etc. Also, I live a while away from where the bombings happened, they were in the "going out" district rather than somewhere residential, so don't let that worry you either.

I'll post something more soon, but my internet is not working very well right now (great timing, huh?) so I wanted to get something short up while I still have a semblance of a connection!

Random thoughts...

Well it's 11:30pm here and I can't sleep so I figured I'd use the time to throw out some random Uganda facts of life. You know- the kind of things that you acclimate to right away and forget that they're actually kind of interesting.

Sooo I've learned:
1. You can't brush your teeth with the water. Whoops, I mean I knew that, but it's such a natural instinct first thing in the morning that I forgot a couple times the first week. Which may have contributed to me getting sick...

2. if you have electricity USE IT. Don't think to yourself, "oh that's nice, I can check my email in a half an hour" NO. do it right then because power is completely unpredictable here and so far we usually have it for about 4 hours a day (not necessarily in a row)

3. Don't yell "thief". Kampalans take a special joy in beating the daylights out of accused criminals. Apparently if you yell thief and point at someone and they look guilty/start running a crowd will chase them down and commence beating until the police get there. Ivan told me about a recent incident: two guys used counterfeit money to buy about 200,000 UGX worth (less than 100 USD) of groceries etc. They had just put the goods in their car when the store owner came out and starting yelling. One guy managed to get away from the crowd, but the other was severely beaten and his car was set on fire. Over like 85 bucks.

4. Kampala is really really confusing. No logic, no street signs, no street crossings, no traffic lights or lanes and a lot of people and cars and mini-buses and motorbikes (boda bodas) everywhere. I wish I could explain the lack of structure, but its difficult to describe the extent of the madness.

5. I will never complain about the nit-picky rules in the US again. We don't have the problems described in 4. because of our blessed, beautiful rules. I love love love infrastructure, I want to hug every city planner in America and thank the city council members who made keeping goats, cows and chickens in the city limits illegal. (my host dad would not believe me that we aren't allowed to keep "farm animals" in our neighborhoods. He kept saying, "so there are NO local chickens?")

6. US neighborhoods do not equal African neighborhoods. When I think neighborhood I picture a 10 by 10 city block section with houses in lines- not random structures everywhere with winding dirt paths that sort of intersect them. If I were to give directions to my house it would go something like this: "Okay so there's this dirt path by the Express supermarket. but not the small path, the bigger one with more potholes a little past that. So go down that, but don't keep going all the way to the water pump, curve at that one house with the three goats tied to the tree, yea by the ditch with chickens in it..." You get the idea.
Apparently because of the lack of street signs, assigned addresses or house numbers, actual/planned streets or any semblance of linear organization even the police have a difficult time finding your house. Ivan says if you need the police, you often have to spend several minutes giving them explicit directions, and they will probably still get lost.

7. If you want to recieve mail get a PO Box and pray.

8. If you want to get rid of your trash, burn it.

9. Kampala has crazy creative and brazen scam artists. It would take too long to type out all the ridiculous stories I've heard, but remind me to tell you somewhen I'm home. A sample: one current scam involves a stranger acting like he knows you, he runs up and says something like "Oh! so and so! We met at Lisa's wedding last June! It's so nice to see you again. are you still in banking? No- you work at a clothes shop? Oh that's right, how could I have forgotten, how rude of me! I remember now, you told me a funny story about your boss!" Basically, they keep chatting you up until you think "Oh crap I'm supposed to know this person" and you feel incredibly rude so you keep the conversation going. After you chat for a while and get comfortable they generally either lure you over to a group of their friends who rob you, or they pretend their phone is out of batteries and ask to borrow yours and then run.

10. a SIM card costs 1 USD and a phone costs 30. insanity

11. Potatoes are called "Irish potatoes" here, and are kind of a treat. lol

12. If you ever get the chance ask a Ugandan to imitate "white person" English. It is hilarious.
...on this note I actually cannot understand 1/4 of what is said to me in English here. Everyone speaks so much more quietly, the syntax and phrasing are really different, and to be brutally honest the accent is often impossible to decipher. I've taken to pretending I'm a little hard of hearing so that people will repeat what they've just said and actually enunciate the words.

Hmm... I know there are a million more oddities but I can't think of anything else sufficiently entertaining so that's all for now!

Peace out,
Kaitlyn

A Bugandan weekend

It was a very busy weekend for me here in Kampala! On Saturday I went to a traditional Buganda introduction ceremony with my host parents Ivan and Maureen and on Sunday we went to the Buganda expo and then I went to the Fourth of July party at the American Recreation Association (basically a country club for Americans/Europeans in Uganda). Sorry in advance for the terrible flow and grammar and in general bad writing to follow, im really tired but want to write this down before I forget!

So a little bit about the introduction ceremony before I tell you about my experience there: its basically the “cultural” wedding that takes place before the church ceremony- and it is extravagant! Sometimes the families spend so much money on it they have to wait another year or two before they can afford the church wedding. The ceremony is the official “introduction” of the groom and his family to the bride’s parents and her family. Generally, there are at least 150 people, but it can get up to 500 at the really big ones- so obviously more than just the families attend. The groom and his family offer a sort of dowry type thing as part of the ceremony, but its not monetary just a ton of actual gifts that they bring.
And now with a little background, my day:

We started early on Saturday in order to be all dressed and ready and over at the neighbors (whose son is the groom) by noon, and I learned a few more things about the average Ugandan before breakfast: nudity and weight sensitivity aren’t issues, and neither is white hair care. My host mom walked into my room out of the shower carrying our traditional outfits, and then said “I hope this one will fit you since your fatter than me.” Haha, interesting start to the day.

After that we got dressed, a tricky 20 minute process that is basically impossible to get 100% right- you have to do this complicated tying thing with a sash that’s really difficult. After we were dressed Maureen wanted to know how I was going to do my hair; since I don’t have a flat iron, curler or blow dryer here I said I figured I’d just wear it down. Maureen agreed that that was fine, but still thought we should have Phoena do a final touch-up to make sure our hair was perfect. After watching Phoena apply what looked like a large quantity of beeswax to Maureen’s hair with a pick, it was my turn. An awkward 5 minutes later I had sort of explained that muzungu hair “just doesn’t do that” and was on my way to the neighbors.

The groom’s friends and family were assembling next door, and we joined the fray of ladies in a room primping themselves. An “old lady” (Maureen said it, not me) who was better with the traditional dress than Maureen redid my sash for me so I felt like part of the gang. It was in this crowded, hot and obviously un airconditioned room (everything is un AC ed here) that I almost passed out for the first time that day. I have no idea why an equatorial African country would make their traditional dress so hot- but let me tell you I must have sweated off 5 lbs Saturday. And the men don’t have it much better, they wear a long white dress-like thing (think priest’s robe) with suit pants under and a suit jacket over!

After about an hour at the groom’s all the guests were assembled and the gifts were loaded into trucks, and off we went to the venue. Once we got there all the groom’s guests lined up outside according to gender and we processed in, sat down (outside) and listened to a three hour ceremony in Luganda. Presiding were two MC type guys, one representing each family, who went back and forth with a sort of stylized dialogue. Intermittently groups of important people from the families processed up to the front of the audience in a conga-line and danced a little (the old ladies were really funny) and then knelt and were introduced by the MCs. Since there were about 70 such people to introduce, this took a while. At about 4pm the introductions were finally over and the groom’s side stood up and processed out. BUT it wasn’t over yet, we were simply walking back to the trucks to carry in all the gifts.

The first things to go in were the traditional baskets (really pretty) filled with perishables (sugar etc.). These were carried in by the women…on our heads. Yes, I made several trips up and down a hill, wearing a traditional Ugandan dress, with a woven basket on my head. Oh yea, I forgot to mention that we had to dance back into the venue in a line and then kneel in front of all the guests until the MC took the baskets off our heads and added them to the gift pile. I was relatively sure that I was going to trip in front of 300 people and pass out from embarrassment and heat stroke, but I made it through alive, with a one-handed death grip on my basket the whole time.

Of course, there were more gifts than just the baskets, but luckily the men did most of the heavy lifting. A few of the notable gifts: around 200 kgs of rice and sugar, at least 10 crates of beer and soda, a live goat on a rope, five live chickens in a basket, the hindquarters of a cow (hoof still attached), a car battery, and some luggage. Um, generous? I guess that must have fulfilled the bride’s registry though, because her family kept doing that undulating yell thing everytime we added a gift to the pile.

Phew, after all that gift delivering we got to sit back down and listen to another hour of Luganda. Yay! This part was pretty cute though, the bride and groom were supposed to “meet each other,” but in order to do that the mother of the bride has to find the groom (who is hiding in the crowd). After some funny hide-and-seek antics, the bride and groom had a nice little “aww” moment and then more Luganda. But then we got to eat!! Hallelujah!

It was a delicious meal, I wish I could have taken a picture, but I thought it might have been a bit odd to be snap a close-up of my chicken and bananas at a wedding banquet. Oh, and did I mention that they cut the wedding cake before the meal?

The bride and groom cut the first piece, and then the bride’s sister’s were in charge of doling it out. Instead of full pieces for everyone, they cut the cake up into inch sections and put them on big plates to be carried around and offered to the crowd. It’s funny how even the most familiar traditions are completely changes in other cultures.

After everyone was finished eating there was one more hour to stay awake through and then we got to process out, thank the receiving line and leave! Pysch! Actually our car and several others had to wait another half hour because the truck we were parked behind stalled. But we finally made it home at about 8:30 and were very very tired.

The next day Ivan and Maureen got up to go to 8am mass, which I got out of because I’m Catholic and they’re Anglican. Actually, I think they thought it would be rude to ask if I wanted to go (as in they didn’t want me to feel like they were trying to convert me) but I’ll probably ask to go along one weekend just for the experience!

When they got back we headed to the Buganda Cultural Exhibition on Buganda kingdom land up on a pretty hill in Kampala. It was really a million dollar view, I’ll post some pictures soon! This was basically like a big craft fair/BBQ/festival with lots of booths and lots of people. The only thing I didn’t like were the dozens of herbal remedy booths that were doing pretty steady business. The proprietors promised cures for ailments ranging from malaria to dry skin, and everything in between. Now there’s nothing wrong with a nice herbal tea when you have a cold- but selling crushed up seeds to cure diabetes, and what looks like sugar water for cavities? That part of the Exhibition made me want to scream; all these people living on very little income were essentially throwing their money in the trash, and in addition would now probably put off seeking real treatment for their ailments. This was one of those experiences that will make me answer the question “So how was it?!” with “Well… it was Africa.”

Really though, in a country where insulin is almost impossible to get, brushing your teeth with the water makes you sick, and the main diet is starch, I guess I’d try herbal remedies too. Moral of the story: it’s easy to get frustrated with the “ignorance” here, but you have to stop and think about the reality of life in a third world country before you go on a Westerner freak out.

So that’s my sermon for today, hope it wasn’t too boring and/or grammatically appalling!

Much love,
a very dehydrated Kaitlyn

PS here's the link to a few pictures of Uganda so far.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048612&id=1322040101&l=fe61832567
I promise there will be more at some point, but my internet isn't very good so it's hit or miss whether I can upload them or not any given day!

PPS I think my next post will be on the wonders of Ugandan entertainment media- get excited!

I have a really long, detailed post in the works but I’m really tired and I have to get up early tomorrow, so you’ll have to wait a day or two until I finish it! In the meantime, here are a few other random notes on Uganda:

-I’ve only been sick once! It wasn’t fun, but it also wasn’t the end of the world and I think I’m almost back to 100% again.

-I might as well change my name to muzungu, which is slang for “white person”. I hear this word a minimum of 100 times a day, and probably half of that is just passerby commenting to their kids or friends, oh look a muzungu, they aren’t even addressing me! But the other half tends to be adorable children yelling “oli otya muzungu!!” (how are you white lady) and then giggling and hiding, so I guess it’s not so bad.

-the endearing red dirt is now just red dirt to me. It is everywhere all the time. Seriously, it even changes the color of your sneezes, I swear. When I rinsed my legs off in the shower today it was like I had been in a mud fight…

-…however the cleanliness of the shower water might also be contributing to this. We do have running water, but it’s certainly not for drinking. Sometimes I’m a little unsure if taking a shower is making me much cleaner in the long run, add in its freezingness, and for the first time in my life I understand why some people don’t bathe.

-people don’t say “bothering” or “inconveniencing” here, instead they say “disturbing”. So people ask me all the time “How do you find the ______ in Uganda, is it disturbing you?”

-Ugandans also have a proclivity to overuse demonstrative pronouns. I have no idea why, but it’s never “Bob and I went to the store to buy a gift for the neighbors” its “This person and I went to the store to buy a gift for these people.” Generally I have no idea who anyone is referring to in these situations, and have to ask. I can’t figure out how everyone else catches on to who were talking about…

-I can now say: leg, arm, window, door, fork, knife, axe, goat, dog, flower, leaf, tree, plate, jump, sit, dance, come, pineapple, banana, grass, mat, sofa, tea, coffee, cup, book, paper, im sorry, how are you, whats up, good night, welcome back, thank-you, goodbye, its okay, sugar, car, wall, eye, mouth, tongue, shoe, tooth, jackfruit, chest and fingernail in Lugandan.
Which now that ive listed it all seems pretty pathetic for the amount of work it’s taken!

-one of the main phrases I hear in English from our "housegirls" is "Baya, beatta-you!" which is supposed to be "baby boy, im going to beat you!" They say this to Jeremiah everytime he misbehaves, and obviously they never actually beat him because he is incredibly adorable and therefore spoiled. I'm starting to find it pretty hilarious at this point

Expected/Unexpected in Uganda

Things I did not expect about Uganda:
1. TO GET MY LUGGAGE BACK! Yay! After three days I was pretty much resigned that it was lost forever and getting it back today was awesome!
2. To be called aunt/auntie. Everyone younger than me calls me aunt or auntie here which is sort of disconcerting as I hadn’t planned on hearing that for like 20 or 30 years.
3. To shorten my name to Kate. Ugandans literally cannot say Kaitlyn- the closest they come is a very tentative Kat-ee-leen, and they don’t seem to enjoy saying it. So I just tell everyone it’s Kate now which is easier. (also when written, Ugandans do not know if Kaitlyn is a boy or girls name)
4. To feel kind of like my maids’ puppy. My family’s housegirls do not speak English…well Phoena knows about 50 words and Sharon knows like 8 plus some song lyrics. So basically they try to teach me tricks (speaking, eating etc) and then laugh at my cute (hopefully) failures. Then they talk a lot in Lugandan and I smile. Then Phoena says “Auntie, what is this?” about something she taught me like 30 seconds earlier. Then I smile and say “oh I forgot” or completely butcher it and they laugh. At least I entertain them I guess. But really I’m like a rare, purebred, glass puppy that they treat way too well. I have to try to keep my $3 flip-flops immaculately clean now because I actually caught Phoena scrubbing them for me after I walked outside.
5. To watch telenovelas over lunch hour. Yes, that’s right Mexican soap operas dubbed over in English, then dubbed over in Lugandan. It’s pretty amusing for me- I see a character mouth “Como esta?” but hear “how are you?” quickly followed/partially overlapped by Lugandan “Oli otya?”
6. To have people think I am a doctor because I’m white. My maid brought me to a neighbor and said in very bad English (see above) something like, “so you can cure.” This obviously scared the crap out of me because I was relatively sure I was going to be asked to fix TB or something. But in fact, the lady just “sneezes all the time”. So I tried to translate “allergies” and “you shouldn’t dust your house or be by the goats, it is what makes you sneeze” in Lugandan but that was a fail. Soooo I gave up and played like I was very confused by this strange and rare ailment and tapped my head and said “I will think. Nsonyiwa (I’m sorry)!” So basically my neighbors think I am an idiot.
7. To learn 30 new Lugandan words a day and forget all of them promptly. (again see above)
8. To enjoy the food. While some is still a little weird for me and I’m not sure how to eat it, I do like it. I eat matoke (sp?) with every meal because it’s a staple of the diet. This is mashed up plantains, but they aren’t sweet like ours are, they taste more like normal potatoes. With this is always a sauce, which those of you who have ever eaten with me know, I would usually find appalling. Shockingly, I actually like the sauce here, I think it is usually a peanut or yogurt sauce- and it’s delicious. In addition, we sometimes have goat meat or beef or fish and a sort of sweet potato thing, rice and some sort of root tuber that is really good. Sidenote: they serve fish here whole. Like actually completely untouched. Eyes and everything. They just fry it and give it to you. Very disconcerting .
9. To be peed on. A little explicit I know, let me explain. Here most kids are either half or fully naked. Not wearing diapers or pants lends itself quite handily to going to the bathroom wherever and whenever they want. So here grown-ups don’t ask “want to take a potty break” instead the kid just walks outside. Add to this fact that Jeremiah (my host brother) likes to fall asleep on me and the proclivity young children have for wetting the bed (read me in this scenario) and you get an obvious result.
10. To find out that I really don’t have all that much research to do…While I’m not at all upset about this, it does change my plans a bit. Once I have the actual “field knowledge” from Uganda, which should only take a few weeks, it will actually be easier to write the paper and finish the academic library research back in the US. Soooo… I’m sort of debating what to do. I think I can kill a week going on safari or visiting a friend here, but I may change my ticket and be seeing you all sooner than expected. Like 3 weeks earlier… I’ll keep you posted.

Things I did expect:
1. To think is was beautiful. It really is gorgeous here, I mean I’m essentially living in a partially developed rainforest so you can’t beat that.
2. To be obsessed with my baby host brother. Love him love him love him. Minus the bathroom incident he is an adorable almost 2 year old who jabbers at me in Luganda which I obviously don’t understand. Then I either reply with one of my 4 phrases or make a face at him and he laughs. He also dances whenever you put a music video on, I’m going to try to non-creepily take a video of him one of these days.
3. To really love my host family. They are amazing and so kind. Probably the most generous people I’ve ever met. I don’t know how they are sacrificing to do so much for me- but it is ridiculously nice. I really want to tell them to stop it, because I can’t keep eating before everyone else for an entire month, but it’s hard to not be offensive here as I mentioned in my earlier post.
4. To have disillusioned multiple people about America. Well I expected it to take longer than three days, but whatever. It feels pretty brutal when you’re telling people the truth about what has essentially been billed to them as heaven for their entire lives, but it would feel worse to lie. I just can’t bring myself to confirm that everyone in America has a job, everyone has money, there is no violence or crime and everyone is happy with their situation and shops at huge malls all day long. ie) It took me about a half hour to explain what gangs were, and I still don’t think my host dad really believes me- he had never heard of the word in his life.

Along this note, a funny anecdote: my host dad was asking me about people coming over illegally and who does it etc. I told him mostly Mexicans and Central Americans and he said “Oh but I’m sure Americans don’t really mind because they can’t tell eh? Mexicans are white like Americans so no knows they are illegal.” Ummmmm. That one took a while to straighten out. Oh and his final question on the subject of Mexican immigrants was- “Ah, so they get along very well with the Blacks in America then?” at which I laughed and then had even more trouble explaining.

So all in all I’m really enjoying Uganda, it’s not exactly what I expected (obvious from above list) but it’s definitely a learning experience. I was a little homesick the first couple days, mostly just in the mornings because waking up I forget where I am and then have to take an ice cold shower, which is not at all comforting. This sounds kind of weird, but it’s also really hard being the only person from your culture all the time. But I’m sure it will pass and I will have even more fun than I already am! This weekend I’m going to a traditional event where two families are meeting each other before their kids marry each other. I’m borrowing a traditional outfit because everyone else will be decked out- so expect some cool pictures and an interesting post!

First 24 hours in Uganda

Hey everyone!

I've made it to Kampala! There's a lot of good and a tiny bit of bad: My host family is incredible and very nice, it's beautiful here and it looks like I won't start working until next week so I have some time to acclimate...but my luggage is lost. Yikes. Luckily I packed a change of clothes and toiletries in my carry-on bag so I'm surviving, but I'm a bit worried about never getting my luggage back. I barely made my flight from Dubai to Kampala, which is probably when it got lost, which is totally normal. The only thing I'm freaking out about is that now if/when it finally does get here it it will be sitting in the airport for a while just asking to get stolen.
buuuutt let's think positively! hopefully all will go well and i'll get everything by tomorrow. And other than that Uganda is great!

We already drove through Kampala, Makarere University and by Lake Victoria. Kampala was very busy and crowded and really interesting and Lake Victoria was absolutely beautiful, Makerere had a really big and sprawling campus up on a hill which was also gorgeous.

Uganda is obviously completely different from the US- basically organized chaos! The roads are ridiculous- everyone weaving in and out all the time (and driving on the left hand side which still freaks me out) and basically no official crossings so everyone is just darting through traffic, but no one goes very fast and it's pretty entertaining. It's also a lot of fun just driving around because there is so much to see. Lots of different people, cute kids running around, bunches of chickens and goats and occasionally a cow or two. Another random detail that is very different- the dirt is red here, which to me is pretty cool.

Right now, I'm really wishing I spoke Lugandan. Everyone does speak English, but the language at home and in casual conversation to other Kampalans tends to be Luganda, which means I miss out on a good amount of what everyone is saying to each other. This is especially weird with my family's two maids who don't speak much English (or at least they won't to me). While it is pretty awesome having two "girls" to help out, I also have no idea how to deal with it.

That's probably the biggest challenge so far- cultural custom- Because the culture is so different here, I don't know when people are being rude/polite/normal/extremely generous here and it makes it difficult to know how to respond. For instance, my host family is obviously being so generous, but I have no idea when it is okay to offer to help, or to pay etc. Same with the maids- I have no idea what im supposed to do myself and what im supposed to let them do for me! But I'm sure with time I'll figure everything out and hopefully until then I won't be too unintentionally rude or make a complete fool of myself.

There's a ton more to say about Africa, but I'll wait until the next post, I just wanted to get out my initial impressions!

PS You'll have to wait a bit for my post about Ireland, since I'm using an office computer right now and I have it saved on my laptop.

PPS I haven't had a chance to take any Africa pictures yet, sorry! but here's the link to some Ireland photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047898&id=1322040101&l=5afd7b0a4e

-Kaitlyn

Hey family!

I'M STILL ALIVE!

Really though- were you worried yet-I'm still only in Dublin.
I'm really loving it and having a great time here- I'll post more later about what I'm up to and upload some of the many pictures I have already taken.

I'm Baaaaack!

Ki kati everyone!

More entertainment for procrastinating family members will be available starting in late June! As many of you know from the family grapevine I'm heading to Kampala, Uganda this summer. (http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/maps/uganda.kampala.jpg) Right now I'm busy preparing--buying stuff, doing research, learning a little Lugandan...

While most people speak English, Luganda is a "native" language that pretty much everyone I'll be working with speaks. (Most Africans speak 2-5 languages...makes me feel pretty dumb) So currently I'm trying to learn some very important phrases like:

Ki kati- Hi/whats up?
Weeraba- Goodbye
Oyogera oluzungu- Do you speak English?
Nsonyiwa nniga abuze- Excuse me I'm lost.
Nedda, simanyi oluganda- No, I don't speak Lugandan.

Have fun practicing those ones at home kids!

Feel free to facebook me and email me while I'm gone, I will have internet access! I'm not sure how great it is though so I'll have to get back to you about Skyping since that uses up a lot of bandwidth. (an additional impediment to talking is that Uganda is 6 hours ahead) I'll try to make it to an internet cafe every couple of weeks since those have the best internet; that will probably be my only available Skyping time!

My travel plans: I'll be leaving Omaha June 20th and heading to Dublin where I will have a one-week layover to do a mini-Euro trip with one of my best friends from high school who is living there. I'll be crashing on her couch, so I'll have plenty of Euros left for sightseeing!

Then I leave Dublin on the 28th and head to Kampala from then until August 20th!

I'm staying with the very generous friends of a professor in Kampala, Maureen and Ivan, who seem really amazing, friendly and basically like nice people. They both work in the international NGO scene and have a young son about two who seems adorable.

And as far as the boring stuff--I'll be working on political science research that will mostly center on the coming presidential elections (in early 2011) and the youth voting movement in Uganda. I may try to do a little volunteering in my free time to assuage my inevitable culture-shock guilt and also give me something to do besides reading books!

If anyone wants souvenirs from Dublin/Kampala let me know what, or else you're getting some cheesy wooden bead bracelets or a dashiki.

Weeraba readers!