June 2nd

June 2, 2009

OMG, today was an amazing day. I am sitting out on our patio over looking the city. We can hear the concert that is being held near by and the sounds of children playing soccer on the other side of our wall. The air is cool yet comfortable with a light breeze and the sunset is amazing.

We were on our own today which was a very rewarding experience. We started out making our own breakfast of local bread topped with local honey, instant coffee (not the best, or even close for that matter), fresh papaya, and another amazing banana of course. I have eaten at least half a dozen in the two days I have been here. We took our time getting ready in hopes that someone may stop by to contact us, but around 11 we decided to trek out on our own. We walked out the washed out road that leads out of our compound, passing the banana farm and metal working to find the main road. The road we live off of here, in the neighborhood of Bukoto, runs northeast away from the city. We followed it in that direction knowing that there was at least one grocer near by that we wanted to check out for future use. There aren’t exactly side walks here as there are the far edge of the road and sometimes a dirt path in the adjoining yards that line the street. This makes for walking around to be quite a challenge and adventure at the same time. There isn’t a certain side of the road people walk on (unless there is a sidewalk, which everyone chooses) yet we decided to walk against traffic so we could see the cars we needed to dodge. We got used to it though. Our first stop was a grocer right up the street. About the 1/4th or 1/8th of the size of your typical Kroger and incorporating your groceries, liquor store, and electronics. It is quite cramped. We picked up a newspaper to get some knowledge about current events and a couple of more candles just in case the electricity goes out again. We continued about a mile up the road, moving rather slowly since there was so much to see. We passed many places selling many things. Some that resembled what one would imagine as a store and some that would be considered a shed in western society. There were even a number of steel railcars that were used as stores due to the ability for them to be pad-locked and secured when left alone. We noted a couple of restaurants with patios and those that had local food for take-out that we plan to visit in the future. Every store seems to advertise cold drinks and cell phone minutes, at least. Every store had some kind of specialty but usually sold both of those things. We came across mechanics, dry cleaners, and those you would expect (including a pet store) but were really wanting to find an internet café. We finally came to a five story, open-air mall where we walked around because they advertised an internet café. Of course the café was closed. Few places seem to have regular hours but is left up to the owners discretion. The coffee shop was closed as well. There were a number of clothing shops, a reflexology and massage parlor, and a book store (to name a few). We looked around the book store (naturally) but it only kept British, American, Italian, and Jewish titles and little to no local literature. Hopefully I can make it to the library soon.

We decided to head back the other way at that point. We were noticed by the same people on our trek back. Two white people really stick out here, especially since they don’t understand when they are spoken to. We stopped off at a bakery on our way back to where we started. They had a large selection of fresh backed goods including seven different types of bread, pastries, and English tea biscuits. Since we had yet to have lunch at 2:00 in the afternoon so decided to grab something to eat. I decided on a small (personal) veggie pizza and Ginger decided on a meat pie. We both also got cups of fresh, black coffee. The pizza was about 4 inches in diameter with a thick bread crust, fresh mushrooms, onion, and green bell pepper, topped with cheddar cheese. The coffee was locally grown and roasted, served in a personal tea-pot with whole-natural sugar. This provided for 2.5 of the best cups of coffee I have ever had in my life. Coffee was 2,000 Ug.Shs. and the pizza about 2,700 Ug.Shs. So, two cups of coffee were less than $1 U.S. dollar. We are still unsure about tipping and really need to figure that out. The coffee made me feel so much more normal and we were ready to set back out.

We headed back to where we started, passing a store of local crafts (including drums) which I will have to return to in the future. We passed a couple of middle school aged children that were very eager to ask us how we were doing. We exchanged “hi’s” and “how are you’s” and continued on our way. We got back to our road and followed the road back in the south-western direction. There are two roads that follow the same path (run parallel) to our road. One is on the mountain side (the high road) and one along the valley (the low road). We decided to take the low road until it met with the high road (about a mile up) and then head back. We started to get an idea of what compounds back up to ours. Come to find out there is a nursery that backs up to our compound, explaining the crying and kids screaming for 12 hours of every day. After which, stores began to pop up with housing communities behind them as far as the eye could see. This explains the soccer field that is right on the other side of our patio garden. We continued to walk and get used to the inquiring eyes. It really made our day when we passed the first primary school and the children gathered on their chicken-wire fence to tell us “Hi,” “how are you?”, and “goodbye,” as we passed by. Their excitement really made me feel good to be here helping. We passed by more stores, car washes, mechanics, street vendors selling grilled meats (which smelled like BBQ and reminded me of home), before coming to our next detour. About a block (by my standards) before we reached the intersection of the upper and lower roads, we found another road lined with stores. There was little traffic and resembled a market so we decided to attempt it. As we walked we saw more vendors of random goods, people sleeping on their store steps, and noticed make-shift roads winding between stores into clusters of houses. Clothes hung from lines between houses, trash piles were in fire barrels (burning your nose with their smell), and food scrapes lay in piles. Houses were circular and made with log structures covered with tin for the walls and roof. Our presence was being noticed by everyone and quickly we began questioning our decision. As we walked, few people did call out “hello” or “hi children” as we walked. Children raced up to us to say hi. It was intense. We continued through. We passed one store that was a video rental where people had gathered in the street to watch videos of public announcements and Youtube type video clips while the sound came out of loud speakers. After some reflection I realized that this is the same loud voice I hear every morning around 5:30 a.m. proclaiming a prayer for that day for the city. I suspect it is coming from this place. We continued on for a bit, but after children began to gather around us, walking with us, and touching us it became a little overwhelming. My money was in my front pocket of my shorts, my hand in my pocket, yet I was still uncomfortable with the fact that we were potential pick-pocket victims. We realized that we were definitely in a part of town where we shouldn’t be at this point and began heading back. We trekked back up the large hill we had just made it down and people called out to use once again. As we made it back to the low road, we decided to still continue on. We passed a large open space where a stage was being set up with band equipment and speakers. It was a plaza type space in front of an old hotel and boarded by concrete shops, all of which boasted large billboards of their “Nile special” beer sponsors We later read in the paper of the large concert being played there tonight, which we can hear from our condo. We then came to another multi-story, open-air shopping complex. Cell phones for sale on the first floors, and an internet café and restaurant on the second floor. It is always comforting to go into the internet cafes because everyone is usually around our age, dressed well, and very friendly. Here we were able to get 30 minutes of time online for 1,000 Ug.Shs. The connection was the speed of dial-up and after my caffeine (for the first time in days) and our over-whelming recent adventure, I was very impatient. I was able to write my lovely wife though and post my transcribed notes to my blog. This took up my 15 minutes. While Ginger finished up I took some videos from the balcony of the upper road/lower road intersection. It was time to pay and finally I realized that people don’t have change. Every time we have paid so far I have just handed them money, knowing that it was a little too much in hopes of getting change back in some smaller increments than I have. Well, they always hand me back my money and ask for exact change. So, the guy at the internet chuckled at us and we re-exchanged money. Oh, people in the café were using yahoo, google mail, and writing in Italian, French, Lugandian, and English all of which I thought was very interesting. We left and crossed the gas station parking lot to reach the upper road. We followed this back all the way home. We saw a dirt soccer field, unfortunately void of players. I still don’t recognize when people speak to me, often times because of their strong accents. I often say hi, but when asked a question, I often don’t realize it until Ginger responds with a “we don’t understand.” I believe the time I am thinking of, we were being offered sugar cane to chew, but I am not sure. We continued on to pass the police station. Constables here are dressed in all khaki colored uniforms and carry automatic weapons. An image that most of us have probably seen. We then had the task of climbing back up the hill to our house. On the way we passed pineapple, papaya, ginger, and watermelon vendors. We had had enough adventure for one day, but will definitely be buying some fruit in the near future. We trekked up the mountain and back to the compound with blistered feet and slightly sunburned. We were tired to say the least. We cooled off on the front porch, reading the paper, until time to take a nap. It was really noisy and very difficult to sleep, so even though we only slept for about 15 minutes, it was a nice rest.

Ginger woke me up to tell me we had a visitor. Dr. Muhumuza’s younger brother, Andrew, stopped by to check on us. He is 24, and is on leave from his college which is about a 2 hour drive north of here. He is very nice and comfortable to be around. He is majoring in statistics and economics. He told us that he is planning to help us with our stats for the summer and will be here to work with us and help us for our time here. He is hoping to learn a lot from us as well. We have a new key informant and partner that is an amazing resource. He will be back tomorrow so we can get started. He also informed us that Reverend Obed is ill and that is why he hasn’t been able to get in touch with us.

We have been snaking on leftovers, but I decided to cook tonight. I thought it was going to be difficult to operate the propane tank and stove, but they proved to be little of a challenge. I decided to stir fry our fresh carrots, egg plant, onion, garlic, and green pepper. We had it over rice and I drowned it in soy sauce. It hit the spot. As we sat down for dinner Faith stopped by. Faith is a friend of the Muhumuza’s and Grace, and kind of a coordinator for us. She brought by our cell phone, finally, which instantly made me feel better just knowing that we were not so isolated now. After dinner I sat down to watch a movie and write up notes. Out time is split between food, sleep, adventuring, and writing. At least it is more exciting than school usually is.

I have been spending a good amount of time on the patio. It feels so amazing outside that until the bugs come out, it is the best place to be. I had a glass of wine and circled and marked places on my map, it was so relaxing. After dinner Ginger and I went to sit on the patio where we were joined by the compound cat and then a giant dragon fly. It landed on her leg and sent her into a major freak-out. It then landed on the door and we inadvertently let it in the house. While the mosquitoes here are about half the size of home, dragon flies are huge. This one had about a four inch wing span and three inch long body. It is now loose in the house some where and making periodic dive to find it’s way out.

Housing
With such a great climate as this city is in, it is no wonder that people put little of their resources into housing. If one is limited in resources, thinking like nutrition or (hopefully) education are going to have precedent over housing. There is no need for extensive housing in the climate. Little rain falls, 68-78 degrees year round, close to no humidity, no nightly dew, and a light breeze. It is perfect.

Trash
There are no dumps, trash cans, trash pick-up, and few trash piles to be seen. While walking along the road one would see burned ash with remnants still left unburned, leading to the conclusion that most people burn their garbage. This combined with the obvious burning smell evident at night and the early morning making burning being the probable cause. Since we have yet to have to dispose of our trash, I am not positive, but relatively of this fact.

Allergies
I have yet to have one allergy problem since I have been here. Given the amount I spent on Claritin for this trip, I really wish I could have known this prior to getting here. I have the occasional sneeze, cough, or itchy eyes but it is often after being exposed to smoke, exhaust, or large amounts of dust. I am so happy about that.

Bug bites
I have been bitten by mosquitoes already, and yes I am taking my medicine. The interesting thing is, you know when you get bit, but don’t have a “bug bite” or itchy bump afterward. I was really surprised but am relieved at the same time.

Pace of Life
The pace of life is something that is taking some getting used to. People are much slower going in their walking, the internet is slow, service is slow. People just aren’t in that big of a hurry, and in a good way. Also, things start much later and go much later. Things don’t get started till 9 or 10 (breakfast wise) and go late into the evening. Dinner around 8 seems pretty common and we can hear people up listening to music way past midnight. This suits my usual schedule, but is a little hard for Ginger, a “morning person”, to get used to.

Novel
Children find us as very novel and interesting. They are eager to speak English to us and make sure they say hi. Somewhere between high school age and adult is where much of this novel persona begins to wear off. There has to be some compounding reason, but I am interested in trying to get to the root of the problem.

Newspaper
The newspaper is proving a great amount of insight and is proving to be rather useful in understanding government issues, health concerns, and community concerns. I am also pulling health issues to hopefully help paint a clearer picture of the reality of the region.

Ok, to bed……More tomorrow.