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