6 Months in Country

Today is the half year mark since I arrived in Uganda. Wow! Where has the time gone?

On the one hand it doesn’t feel like I’ve already been gone from home for that long. On the other, it feels like I’ve been here much longer than only 6 months. So much has happened in such a short amount of time!

I’ve met so many amazing people and made some great friends. I’ve traveled and seen some cultural differences around the country. I’ve seen life through a different perspective and gained a great appreciation for how lucky mine has been.

After being shoved 12 people into a 5 passenger car and weaving in and out of an almost nonexistent road that takes 3x as long to travel on as that same distance in America, never again will I complain about long car trips.

I don’t consider going four days to a week without washing my hair, finding bugs in my food but still eating it, and wearing the same outfit 5 days in a row gross.

It’s not weird to see police men with AK47s on the street nor do I give a second thought to10 year olds slashing grass with a machete.

These people can make anything fit anywhere no problem. They’re also like McGyver when it comes to fixing things. And carrying things on your head? Forget about it.

Don’t know if I’ll ever understand why no one bats an eye at exposed breasts, but if a woman’s knee is showing everyone loses it. Also how the traffic cops keep their uniforms so white when they’re standing on a dusty road all day when I can’t even keep mud off my ankles for more than a few hours.

A typical day of a villager might be: cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a fire in the outside kitchen, sitting in their very small duka (shop) waiting for someone to buy some small item from them, or waking up at dawn to go dig on their plantation and returning home to sleep at dusk.

The highlight of that villager’s day might be: cooking something slightly different than the usual matooke, earning more than a few thousand shillings at the duka, or it being slightly cloudy so they suffer less from the sun.

If there’s a reason to party, a Ugandan knows how to throw a big one.

I’ve learned that privacy is a privilege that you don’t really have when you’re a celebrity or a mzungu. I now know for sure that I do not want to ever be famous.

Whoever said that milk, butter, cheese, eggs, yogurt, or anything for that matter, needed to be refrigerated?

Important rule: Be sure to keep your electronics charged in case of random power outages.

Weird to think about how I’ll be able to drink from the tap without having to boil the water first when I go back. Nice to think about how I won’t have to worry about bargaining on prices when I go back.

Will I buy a washing machine/dryer back home? What about a hair dryer?

Just realized I won’t be able to use “It was raining” as an excuse for being late to work because I’ll have a car and roads are paved instead of walking in the mud.

I feel super behind with what’s happening in the pop/trendy part of the world thanks to lack of Youtube, radio, and fast internet to look up memes.

Living here really can change a person. I definitely think it’s changed me in my short time here and not only by making me look more and more like a tomato from sunburns. There are a lot of things I miss from the states. Certain foods, convinces, cultural norms, etc., but I really have enjoyed these last 6 months and I’m very glad I’ve been placed in this country. I’ve been very lucky to have had such a great first ¼ of my service. I know it won’t always be so easy and challenges will come, but I have a great support system from family and friends, both here and back home. With that I know that every day can be better than the last and I’m looking forward to see how this experience plays out :)

Can’t appreciate the good without a little bad

I arrived home late last night after spending the week at In Service Training. All the volunteers in my group meet and we had a follow up on how the 1^st three months at our sites went. Our counterpart Ugandan teachers were also invited and we had training sessions with them so we could talk about future plans. There were some pretty good sessions and it was so nice for all of us to be together again.

We spent the evenings hanging out in each other’s rooms talking, going out to the nearby club/bar establishment, playing volleyball, or other misc. The last night was so much fun because one of my favorite volunteers arranged a cooking competition set up like Iron Chef. I was on a team with another best friend PCV and we got 2^nd of 4 teams. Lost by only 1 point! I had such a great time using matooke, mangos, and Doritos to make a dish. Then later, two other PCVs arranged a trivia night. My team got last place for this, but it was still a great time :D

Yesterday was a very annoying travel day. I waited in a bus for 3 ½ hours before it left! I took the bus to one town but I still had to get another taxi car to get to my district. Half way home in this taxi, the driver pulls over and we have to get in another car because it turns out the 2 year old next to him was given to him by a man who told him to drop the boy with his mom in this other village, but the phone number for the mom wasn’t real. So the driver went to the Police. I hope he figured it out! Poor kid…

I was so tired when I got home I passed out almost instantly after unpacking and doing some small laundry.

This morning I was still super tired, but I had to hurry to the salon in town because today was the wedding day of the teacher who I agreed to be a bridesmaid for. She was an hour late…but it was fine because it gave me some reading time. They took a long time to style my hair. They weren’t sure how to fix mzungu hair so they tried a few things. Finally settled on putting mine in a bun and then pinning a braid of red and blonde fake hair around it. They put a lot of product in it though that made it feel greasy, but no matter. It was so relaxing having someone mess with my hair that long so I enjoyed it.

We all got dressed. The bride was SO beautiful! I had a bright, lime green, strapless, slightly above the knee dress. I thought I got a lot of stares before… everyone was so fascinated by the fact that a mzungu was a maid :P We then went to the parish and had mass/the wedding ceremony. So different than an American ceremony. There were two wedding parties there. We walked in, sat, listened to mass, the bride and groom stood up and repeated what the priest said (it was all in local language so I was lost), and then they signed the contract and we left.

The reception was at their home. They had tents set up and lots of people waiting, but we had to eat 1^st. They made an announcement over the loud speaker that “the mzungu doesn’t like to eat beans” and everyone laughed. The wedding party danced in and we took our seats. So began the process of speeches. Again, all in local language, but I picked some (mostly mzungu comments). We watched dancers, served cake, and received gifts.

One of my all time favorite quotes!

It was dark when it was time to dance. That’s when I got my bag and found that my camera had been stolen from it… Of course I’m frustrated by this, but honestly it’s not the fact that my camera is gone. It’s that I hadn’t uploaded pix to my comp since nearly a month ago so now all of those are gone :( And what’s worse, I even thought to do it last night when I got home, but I was sooo tired I didn’t. Gah, so mad at myself. But oh well. It could’ve been much worse! Nothing else was taken so that’s good.

Anyway, wish I could show you some pictures, but as mentioned, I can’t. Sorry! I need to do a lot of things, but I think I’m going to eat suckers and watch a movie instead. I got some new ones this past week so that’ll help take my mind off it :P