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!