June 3rd

June 3

I am finding myself having a much harder time sleeping. There are many sounds that occur during the early hours of the morning that I am still not used to. I didn’t make it to bed until late last night since I stayed up late in attempt to type up all of my notes. I didn’t finish, of course, but crawled into bed around 2 am. At 2:30 I heard someone banging on our door, and since no one had called and we were not expecting anyone, I didn’t answer. This even did cause me to toss and turn for the next hour in attempt to fall asleep. I was startled awake by the loud speaker guy again around 5:30 and around 6:30 the kids woke up and started playing. With the many interruptions I turned off my alarm clock and slept in. Which was 8:45 since the kids get so loud at that point that no once would be able to sleep. I got up and started working on our proposal right away accompanied with my cup of instant coffee and a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Ginger and I have gone through a dozen bananas in 3 days with me eating the majority of them. I continued working for the next couple of hours until Andrew showed up. He sat down and visited with us for a while. We discussed his knowledge of the education program, gained some insight into the foundation and clinic. Come to find out the presidents that are elected to represent each school involved in the program must go through an interview process with the school and foundation to be elected. This is going to add a new category of informants for us to interview. We also found out the differences between the foundation and the clinic. The clinic is in the city center (on Bombo Road), stays open 24 hours a day, includes dental services, the administration offices, and the offices of those specialists that work with SAS. The foundation, on the other hand, is to the east of the city (in Bugalobi on Jinja Road), is open from 8 am to 10 pm, and contains the mentorship offices. Both contain triage, exam room, and laboratory services. We continued talking for the next couple of hours. We explained anthropology, how we are able to look at the multiple issues that contribute to HIV/AIDS, and really peaked his interest with discussion of the role of political economy and marginalization and HIV. We decided to head out into the city at that point. We found a downhill route to the “low road” to catch a taxi, a much easier trip. We passed by some of the noisy kids playing in the street next to our compound. They were dressed in over-sized t-shirts, ranging in age from about 2 to 5 years old. Andrew took on the task of negotiating the taxi for us back to the “square,” our first destination we had visited with Grace. I am getting much better at not making eye contact with people. The sunglasses do help a lot. I have also had to abandon my smiling at people as well because that really fosters some funny looks. Andrew decided that we should go to the foundation first because it was the furthest out of the way. We continued down Kampala Road, passing the post office and the Uganda Mall complex from the first day, until we reached the next set of taxis which would take us out to Bugalobi. While we walked, some enormous birds flew into the trees overhead and our touristiness came out. The bird resembled a crane, but had shorter legs and was heavier. It sat about 2.5 feet tall and had a wing span of between 3-4 ft. I can not imagine getting shit on by one of those. We then got in yet another taxi and headed out to the foundation. Taxis here take you to the gas station with them, so we made that stop and then were on our way. The area was pretty industrious and as we passed plants the smell caused serious nose burning which concerns me greatly. We stopped at a newly paved gravel road with people putting in stoned lined drainage ditches on each side. This is actually pretty common here. Local stone with an adobe/concrete mixture that lines the roads being about two feet deep and providing a scary alternative to being hit by the traffic. There were stores that were lining the road here as well. The clothing was really nice, however, resembling sundress and “hippie’ dresses in the U.S. I will have to pick up one for the wife.

Side note: People in the city here don’t pester or beg, and especially don’t follow you. Andrew got quite put off when people even spoke to us suggesting that that wasn’t even normal behavior.

Ok, the foundation was amazing. It looked just like a house (behind a gate and razor wire of course) complete with a back/guest house. The house had been renovated to include a reception desk, waiting area, triage, exam rooms, and personnel lounge. Much more open and inviting than the typical Western clinic though. After walking across a small covered court yard (often used as a class room) were the lab and Reverend Obed’s office. The lab tech showed us around talking through the technology, screenings, HIV and CD4 testing, hematology, and immunology procedures. We then had a little small talk and realized that he had been to Memphis airport in his travels to the U.S. for lab training. It is a small world.

We then headed back to town with Andrew’s assistance. He taught us the term “Messauw” (spelled phonetically) meaning “right here” in order to tell the cab when we wanted to stop. We took the cab back to Kampala Road and began looking for a Feux Bureau so we could exchange some of our larger bills for smaller bills since the banks were closed. Today was a national holiday in remembrance of a pilgrimage and assassination of Christian martyrs. That was the only explanation that I got. We found a Foreux at the Kampala Casino and were able to exchange our money. We then headed to the clinic. The clinic is in a three story building that lines Bombo Road and is flanked by stores. It is very small and extremely busy. We took a quick look around and were introduced to some people and headed on our way. We hopped on yet another taxi and it was my turn to take the lead. I told him Bukoto and he said yes. We got in and had to wait for the taxi to fill, I mean overfill, before we left. We stopped by the gas station, yet again, and were asked to go ahead and pay. I was paying for all three of us, so I handed over 5,000 Ug.Shs. The conductor then gathers change as new people get on and gives you your change once he has enough. A little unnerving, I have to admit. Our trip ran 1,500 Ug.Shs. for the three of us, so I was prepared to have to demand more change. He handed me my money and asked me a question in Lugandon. After providing a plethora of answers, the guy sitting next to him translated for me. I felt like an idiot. He was asking where we were going and that was not one of the answers that I had come up with. I told him and we continued on. After counting my change 3 times I realized that I had gotten the correct change. It was then time for me to yell out my first “Massauw” to stop the cab and did so effectively. Andrew walked back to the compound with us as we quizzed him on various phrases that we had picked up on and some pronunciation.

We returned home and expected Andrew to be ready to get rid of us. To our surprise he stuck around for another two hours. We introduced him to pasta salad for the first time and had some really good conversation. We discussed some sampling methods for our proposal, ran through how a focus group was conducted, and hypothesized on possible variables that exacerbated the HIV epidemic. We talked through the role of prostitution and how political economy plays a role. We then had a lively discussion on college/University culture only to realize that we share many similarities. Themed parties are popular here including lingerie. One theme he mentioned was a shorts party, alluding to wearing shorts as being an anomaly. We discussed the lack of restrictions around buying alcohol and entry into bars. Kegs here are really cheap with a full keg being only 100,000 Ug.Shs. We ran through some U.S. cultural things and explained how many different climates that we have in our country. It feels really weird referring to my home as “the States.” Andrew left when we began cooking dinner with plans of spending all day with us tomorrow as well.

I worked on doing some cleaning as Ginger cooked dinner. She made baked chicken with garlic, carrots, onion, and egg plant that we put over rice. It smelled and looked really good. We soon found that chicken may be something that we cross off our list of foods. After cooking it, the chicken had a strange smell and tasted even more odd. We both kept it to ourselves for a while but I eventually admitted that I couldn’t eat it. Ginger eventually fessed up and we threw it all out. It didn’t smell bad when she was prepping it, yet once cooked it tasted fowl (haha) in a bad way. We finished the veggies, the rice, and some cheese, deciding that we might end up being vegetarians for much of this trip due to the poor quality of meat and excellent fruits and vegetables. We decided to unwind while watching a movie, Rocky Horror Picture Show, where I devowered the last banana with some peanut butter. After which it was time to start writing both journal and proposal. It is now 2 am and I still have a ton to do including shower.

More next time.

Oh, our dragon fly monster died today. It was sad and warranted at the same time.