Parties and Laundry and Goats, Oh my!

Sunday

Masaka Town and TASO

On Sunday we went to Masaka, which is to Kitengeesa as Vancouver is to North Van on a MUCH MUCH MUCH smaller scale. Anyways, to go there we got on a boda-boda. At first Heather was squealing and screaming, because she had never been on a boda-boda before and her mother had always told her it was a death trap, but she calmed down quickly, and within a couple of minutes she was saying how fun it was, and that she thought it was relaxing, too. Then she was taking photos and videos. So, in case you were wondering, yes, it is safe, and it costs less than a dollar a trip (2,000 Sh). 

Halfway there we decided that we ought to visit Lydia and Julie at their TASO (The Aids Support Organization) placement. However, when we arrived and let our boda-boda guy leave we soon realized that it wasn’t the greatest idea. It was Sunday, after all. Despite this, we walked all of the way into the hospital (which is wide and flat and huge, a couple of acres) to the TASO building at the end, took some pictures, saw that it was totally closed, and walked back. 

When we got out they saw some mzungus and the boda-bodas swarmed us. For some reason we decided to walk, so we tried to do that. Fail. 3/4 of the way there we changed our minds and got a boda-boda. (P.S. On the road some random guy just decided to show us that he could put his leg behind his head while standing… uh… what??)

In case you were wondering, it is very squishy to fit 3 people and a driver on a motorcycle.

When we did get into town we spent our time wandering looking for birthday presents for the girls. Eventually, after ages and ferrying between stores, we landed up, all of us feeling a bit hot and grumpy, buying two very pretty fancy dresses (one of which eventually had to be exchanged because it was too small…) We also bought ourselves some groceries and water.

We had some problems getting a reasonably priced taxi back to town, so it took us two drivers to get home, and we ended up paying how much the first guy asked for… It was tiring and by the time we got back everyone was ready to relax/sleep.

The Slaughter of the Goat

On Sunday a goat was killed for Elizabeth and Monica’s joint birthday party. Elizabeth is turning 10 on February 2nd, and Monica turned 8 on January 7th, and because they’re going back to school on the 29th and all of Dan’s children board but for Flora, they decided to have a joint party. Anyhow, we meant to watch it get killed for educational purposes (although Leila grew up on a farm which raised animals for meat and so doesn’t need to be educated on this), but we were in Masaka getting things. Later on in the day, though, Roman grilled the meat on the barbeque during Amelia’s cooking lesson. 

We ate it for dinner that night at the party - it was fantastic. They skinned the goat, too. Its skin was lying in a heap next to the kitchen (which is a separate building).

Amelia’s Cooking Lessons

BUT Amelia was hosting a cooking lesson for some of the women in the community. What would she be teaching, you may wonder. Well, she taught the women how to make her miracle cure for coughs and colds (garlic, ginger, honey, onion, + ______)  as well as about making salads and the nutritional benefits of raw vegetables etc. 

Anyways, we watched the lesson and it was a lot of fun. Also, Dan drew some really cute pictures.

The Party

Before the party the three of us made the girls a Happy Birthday sign.

This took a while, so we were a bit late for the actual party. Everyone was already sitting in chairs on the grass eating grilled goat and matoke (cooked unripened plantain) while having a beer. The kids were half running around and half helping with the chores and serving people. 

Everything was beautiful, and it looked naturally how people at home will pay money to make a party look like, with ‘tiki’ lamps lit by candles against the backdrop of the sheet of stars, bright stars. 

To protect ourselves against mosquitos, everyone used Citronella. BAD idea for me… I am extremely allergic, as it turns out… More on this later. 

Something cut that happened was that Dan began suddenly to dance and he didn’t stop for hours. He was all alone, just dancing madly. Leila figured it was the pop. Later, he just completely passed out on someone’s leg. It was adorable. 

Among the attendants was a priest - apparently it takes 12 years to become ordained! - a young priest, and some more friends. It was a good night.

Monday

Sickies

All three of us are sick. It’s kind of pathetic. Leila has been having an upset stomach. Heather was having trouble swallowing food because her throat hurt. It turned out she had an infection. Then, I thought I had malaria (although I was actually just dehydrated -- I bought an 18.8 L jug in Masaka, so that won’t be a problem any longer) because I felt really hot and my eyesight was weird, and then after the party I woke up with hives/an intense rash and puffy eyelids. At the party everyone used Citronella to ward off the mosquitos. It turns out that I’m allergic. Yay. I look like an alien. 

Drawing

On Monday morning Dan and Amelia and then later Elizabeth came into our kitchen-esque area (although we have nothing which which to cook, simply an eating table and a cupboard and a sink) and drew pictures with crayons and paper. After, we put their pictures on the wall. Dan especially seemed to pleased to have his work displayed. Elizabeth drew a lovely photo of her and Monica underneath the HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign we cut out onto a chain hanging by the window of their house.

TV/Movie Watching

We’ve been watching movies some nights. The first few nights I tried to show Leila and Heather Being Human, the UK version. Although they really enjoyed the first episode, it has since become, apparently, too scary, and although they like it, they’d rather watch it in the day.

We also watched Bridesmaids together. Instead of watching it in the living room on the couch, which is slightly uncomfortable for everyone, we have made a nest in the room Tiffany and Kara stayed in on the first few nights before they left for Busolwe. To do so we moved a mattress from one bed and put it against the wall on top of the other mattress so that there is a mattress on the bedframe for one’s bum and one on the wall for one’s back. Then we piled blankets and cushions on the bed, and put a chair in front of the bed on which to place our laptops. When we watch movies we even put the mosquito net over the chair so that we can be safe from mosquitos and still be able to see the screen. 

Anyhow, I fell asleep a quarter of the way through because I have already seen the movie. Leila has about 7 movies on her computer, Heather brought two, and I have a bunch of TV (because I prefer them to movies). 

By myself I’ve been watching Downton Abbey, a British show which is actually REALLY addictive and good, and I’ve even been able to download some episodes of Once Upon a Time and Pretty Little Liars on iTunes with the internet. Other than that, we may get some movies in Masaka next time we go at the book store which also apparently has movies.

Tuesday

My Picture Wall

Tuesday morning I put up a bunch of photos I’d printed in Canada of friends and family.

Fair Trade and Coffee

We were talking about something interesting at the library on Tuesday. Apparently something a lot of people do here is sell coffee beans to earn a living. 1 tree usually makes about 20-30 kilos, and each kilo currently sells for about 4,000 shillings. That’s CAD $1.71 per kilo. 

Starbucks sells the coffee for between CAD $10-15+. While there are production and shipping costs involved, the profit on those beens is actually sick, and it makes me never want to drink coffee again. However, if I ever do I plan to just drink fair trade…

But… Even Fair Trade isn’t really that fair. All Fair Trade means is a fair price in that person’s market, versus cheating people. Which is good, but for me, that’s not good enough. The profit margin should be less, and the people producing the goods should be getting more money for their work, especially when said work is being sold for so much. This is magnified when you consider the cost of 1 cup of coffee at Starbucks. 

Basically, it’s sick, but it’s better than nothing, and for many people here it is the difference between paying school fees and not.***

***For many families, sending their children to school is the absolute top priority. However, school is not free like it is in Canada, so many families sacrifice everything to send their children to school. Dan said that many parents would sacrifice food even to send their kids to school. ~*~

~*~ Which is a prime example of why foreigners shouldn’t be directing aid. We, as foreigners, don’t know what locals want. A foreigner may assume that hungry people need food, where instead said hungry people may really want an education so that they can learn to feed themselves. 

The Computer Theft

So, something just happened that shocked everyone. At about 4 PM we got back from visiting AfriPads, and when we came into the library we found that someone stole one of the computers. I am just so horrified - those computers are expensive, and they are new. Anyone who would steal one, much less from a library, is horrible beyond words. I am just so furious. We don’t know when it happened, but we have some suspects and are investigating. It’s just so frustrating… And it was one of the good computers, too.

This may have somewhat destroyed my faith in humanity.

The Women’s Group - Computer Lessons

This was our first meeting with the women’s group. There are two groups of about 15 women, and these women are truly remarkable. They work together and have a microfinancing organization together. Together they work to support each other in their business and agricultural goals as well as in learning English (for business purposes) and learning to type and use computers.

I mostly worked with a 15 year old girl and a young woman, and showed them both how to use the computer. Having grown up with the computer it was strange to see things like clicking and opening folders and stuff being strange and difficult. But it was. 

In the future we will be meeting this group at 4 PM on Tuesdays to teach an hour of English and an hour of computers.

Wednesday

The Other Women’s Group

This group was small; only four women arrived even though there are usually 14. They had largely been working on their typing and mostly used their AlphaSmarts keyboards. Bernadette, one of the women, finished very quickly, though, so I showed her some basic computer stuff. There’s a lot to learn, but she learned fast. Apparently she’s a teacher at a Primary school a way’s away. She has a garden, some pigs, chickens, and a cow, as well as three children at home! So busy. None of the other women went to the computers, however. They stayed on the AlphaSmarts for today.

*! (Alphasmart Keyboard)

In the future we will be meeting this group at around 4 PM on Mondays and Fridays to teach English on one day and computers on the other, focusing each on practical activities that will incorporate computers and English.

The Destruction of My Picture Wall, and Picture Wall #2

On Tuesday there were a couple of strange occurrences which creeped us out. First Heather’s shoes had been moved. Next, the door to the spare room was closed and locked. Neither of us had done those things. Then, I noticed that my blue dry erase board was no longer on the floor, but in my suitcase. Weird, I thought, but oh well. Maybe I put it there, maybe we did that, we thought. But then when I woke up and there was light in my room I saw that someone had scribbled all over my pictures. They had also scribbled on a water bottle and on the wall and left the cap off of my whiteboard/dry erase board marker. It was all low however, so we suspected that it was one of the kids. Dan figured it was Amelia when we told him later. Luckily we were able to get the ink off of the walls because it was a whiteboard marker, but the ink wouldn’t come off of my photos. :( 

So, I refitted my picture wall and I now have a new one… :( Oh well. 

Thursday, Jan.26

We did laundry... FINALLY!! We all felt really gimpy at doing it by hand, but Flora showed us the way!

Fun Days

Thursday

Cataloguing the Books

On Thursday I finally had the opportunity to do something I had been eagerly anticipating for a little while - I was able to rid the top of my dresser drawer of the books I had brought from Canada. At first I was a little worried, because when I asked Dan about them he told me that their policy on books is they prefer monetary donations so that they can buy culturally relevant books, as this is a priority of the library. I wasn’t sure whether my books were culturally relevant, so I worried that Dan would tell me that I would have to give away my books or take them back to Canada or something (I hoped not… there were a lot, and most of them were kids books.) However, luckily, all of them were fine. In order to catalogue the books are numbered by when they were received. Then, they are sorted into genres like Modern Stories, Traditional Stories, Historical Stories, History, Art, Nature, Environment, Science, Mathematics, etc. Dan used to try and keep them organized within the sections by the numerical order, but it became too hectic. Now it is just by genre. 

Friday

Kickboxing with Moses

Moses, I think I mentioned him before, is Julius’s brother and often volunteers at the library. Unfortunately he is going to school next week with Elizabeth, Dan, Flora, Monica, Innocent, Julius (although he will, I think, still be working here part-time) and Roman. Anyways, on Friday I mentioned to Moses that I do kickboxing at home, so he asked if I could show him some moves, and so I did. It was fun! 

Some of the men were giving me funny looks as I was showing him some of the stuff, probably because it’s a bit weird to see a woman fighting - especially when it’s socially inappropriate to straddle a boda-boda, which is a scooter/motorcycle, as a woman while riding on it (they’re like taxis). It was probably even weirder to see me teaching him. Anyway, he’s eager to learn more whenever I have the time. I keep meaning to teach him some kicks, but I keep wearing skirts so, for obvious reasons, I can’t. 

The Computer Lab

We have been spending a lot of time in the computer lab. We have had a couple of days where we’ve been here from morning until night, often using facebook and chatting to Moses and Julius as well as the other patrons. It’s a medium sized room with a table in the middle, on top of which is a small stool which holds the modem up high. Around the edge of the room is a table for more people to use the computers. The library has 10 computers in total, all netbooks in order to conserve the power generated by the solar panels on the roof. 

This is the only place in Kitengesa, which is a very small community, to access the internet. Masaka, which is only 10, 20 minutes away by boda-boda, has internet, but it’s a bit far for many people. Anyhow, the internet is at an extremely reasonable price for US, at 500 shillings for 20 minutes (CAD $0.21) and 1,500 Sh for an hour (CAD $0.64), but when you think that you can get a chick for 300 or 400 shillings, and 1 kilo of coffee beans is sold for 4,000-5,000 shillings and a pop is 2,000 shillings (!!!) it’s not that cheap, although it’s not exorbitantly expensive. However, the internet must be paid for in order for the library to continue to provide it. 

Another issue is that people need to learn how to use the computers (while there are quite a few people who come in to use the computers regularly, there are many others who don’t know how) so we will be teaching computer lessons. Once more people know how to use the computers and the internet, there will be a higher demand for the internet, which will help to support the library and will be beneficial to the community members who can access the internet’s resources. 

Saturday

Singing with Ssentume Julius

On Friday Julius and I discussed me perhaps coming to a function where he was performing and doing a number with him, and then one alone. We had scheduled to leave at two, but there were some complications, and Julius only got here at about 3:15 PM and then we only left at about 3:45 PM. 

The function turned out to be a Graduation Party, which is apparently a way bigger deal than it is at home, where people just don graduation hats and uniforms, listen to a bunch of speeches, walk up to a stage, get a certificate, and then sit down to watch everyone else do the same thing. In Uganda, it is an actual PARTY. People gather and sit in chairs to watch some speeches from the family members and the graduates and the whole community comes out to watch. In between there are fun performances, music, dancing and all sorts of good stuff. People eat and everyone is dressed in their best. It was really awesome to get to see.

When I arrived a woman offered me something to drink (“Soda or Water?” she asked, and I immediately went for the water-- I had run out at home) and seated me behind some of the graduates and their best friends. I was to wait there until Julius started coming toward me in one of the performances. 

Because of the amount of water I drank I got to experience a real latrine/squat toilet twice, which was interesting. I admit I held my breath, but it wasn’t that bad at all. And it was organized in a curl/swirl/maze so that you had privacy, too, which was good. 

Anyways, after a couple of hours of listening to songs and speeches in Luganda (and reading A Storm of Swords-- it’s hard to listen for too long in a language you don’t know) Julius finally came up to me. This was our act: He walks up to where I’m sitting in the audience, sits on my lap, I stand up with him and he does a twirl under my arm. Whenever he looks sad, I comfort him. The rest of the time, I dance. I think he was singing about how women are pillars and comfort their men or something, but I really don’t know.

After I sang “On My Own” from Les Miserables. I worried that there would be a cultural disconnect, but apparently people knew the song and would like it. Julius said people liked my performance, so that’s good. Ivan, a man he performs with, videotaped the whole thing on my camera, so I can show it to you if you want. However, you can’t really hear me sing because the girl on the video-recording is singing in the background.

It was actually kind of freeing, because when I sing I usually get so anxious about the sound quality that I tense up and my performance worsens. Julius also gave me some advice the night before which was really useful, although most people would say it’s really basic. He just said “Relax. When the audience laughs it’s because they’re into your performance,” or something along those lines. Somehow, maybe because someone else was telling me and I was able to trust their advice, it was a lot easier to just go for it. 

Anyways, after we went back on the boda-boda. Leila and Heather hadn’t come because they wanted to stay at the library and Heather I think wasn’t feeling very well.

Song-Writing with Ssekayiba Moses

Moses and I are writing a song. He has actually been on the radio here, which seems crazy because at home one doesn’t just know people who have been on the radio. They are far away and untouchable, but he knows some of the radio people. Anyhow, we’re collaborating. He had to get a few teeth pulled today, so we weren’t able to work on it, but we need to get together again to review the changes he’s made and the translation etc.

I’m finally in Kitengesa! Right now Heather, Leila, Kara, Tiffany and I are all charging our computers in the community library. There are so many things to talk about, though, so I’ll give you all of the information in chunks.

Flight

My flight went from Vancouver to Montreal to Brussels to Entebbe. On each of the flights I had really wanted a window seat, so when we checked in on the internet a few days before I accidentally ended up putting myself in window seats far from all of the other girls. Luckily I had nice companions on the flights. From Vancouver to Montreal I think I slept the whole time because my flight was at 8:50 AM which meant I had to get there at about 7 which meant I had to leave my house at 6 which, as you all know, means I had to wake up at 4. Erm. Yes. 

Anyways, the flights were good. The Brussels airport was a bit disappointing; I had figured that because it was in Europe it would be very nice. It wasn’t horrible, but interestingly we went to the T section, which was where all the flights to Africa went. It was downstairs (we accidentally had to go through security again because we took a wrong turn) and then we were ushered into a waiting room. A blonde woman was at the entrance for us, holding a sheet of paper with a list of different destinations. It was typed and there were notes in ink on it. She asked us if we were going to Africa, we said yes, and she let us into the room. It was big, with a high ceiling and many seats. There was even a heat lamp over a few, which made me wonder if they were trying to recreate the heat that was obviously absent in Brussels’ winter. 

We had to take a shuttle to get to the T terminal. It too, was sparse and not as shiny as the rest of the airport. Because we only had about an hour or two between flights, we went to the T terminal immediately. Also, it was, as indicated by the shuttle, very far from the rest of the airport terminals. Anyhow, the flight was good, but there weren’t personal TVs, and the big TVs in the middle only played nature shows, which made the flight drag a bit. Luckily, I was sitting next to a nice man who worked for Kissito International so I had a good flight anyway. 

When we got off the plane in Entebbe I thought that it was warm on the plane, and that it would be the same temperature outside. Needless to say, it wasn’t. We walked off the plane and down a set of stairs covered by a canopy. The five of us met on the cement, Heather said good-bye to a missionary going to Mbale, and we went into the Immigration center. There were several lines we were ushered into a random line-up by the woman directing these things. Going through immigration was surprisingly easy, although we did have to give them our fingerprints. To do it there was a small box with a pad like a scanner has. I put first my four fingers and then my thumb on it, and a green light went along the pad to scan my fingerprints. It kind of blew my mind that I had to do that. 

When we got out of customs I thankfully didn’t have to carry my bags. We got them out on carts. Mine came out late so I almost thought it wouldn’t come at all, but it did. When we left we were hid by this smell. It smelled like warm, wet grass. It was just past 11 PM, so we couldn’t see much but what we could see was lush and tropical and fantastic. 

Because it was so late it didn’t take us long to get to Kampala; only about 45 minutes. We got out of the van driven by two men we haven’t seen since and some people helped us with our bags. Josephine, a woman who registered people (I admit I don’t know much more about what she did) took my wrist and led me up the stairs to the floor where our rooms were and took our information before showing us into our rooms. My room was with Heather and Julie, and Kara and Tiffany took another room together. Tiffany and Kara are going to Busolwe together. Heather, Leila (who had arrived earlier in the day and was staying in a room around the corner) and I are all placed in Kitengesa, and Julie and Lydia (who arrived and was staying with Leila) are going to Masaka in order to work with TASO and HIV/AIDS.

Anyways, the room was nice. We had water bottles waiting for us (and we needed them -- by now we were incredibly thirsty) and a little set of pink plastic chairs and three twin beds crammed together. With each of us having 2 suitcases and 2 carry-on pieces, there was absolutely no room to walk. We ended up putting the chairs against the door, and Heather and Julie worked some clean-up magic and we had a bit of walking room. 

Before we went to sleep most of us showered. We were all feeling so dirty and disgusting from 2 straight days of travel and the heat and the sweat, so it basically felt like the best thing ever.

First Day (Friday) - Kampala

Friday was a long day. We started off in the morning with breakfast with Dan and Juliette, our two UBC contact/supervisors. We also met Ivan, who is Juliette’s nephew. I’m currently living in Dan’s compound with his wife Amelia, his three daughters, Elizabeth, Monica, and baby Amelia, his son, Dan, and his foster daughter Florence. Also living there is Roman, who is Dan’s nephew, Innocence, and a couple other people whose names I don’t know yet. 

Anyways, on Friday we were still in Kampala, which is the capital city of Uganda. Breakfast was beef and vegetable samosas, fresh fruit, eggs (spanish, fried, and scrambled), toast, passionfruit juice and tea. During breakfast we talked about some more things that we would be needing to know when we went to Kitengesa. 

After breakfast we went and had a meeting in room 118 - I don’t know why that number is so imprinted in my mind. The room was just big enough for the 9 of us. We all sat on white chairs facing Dan, Juliette, and a woman that came to talk to us from TASO. She was actually one of the founders. TASO is actually a very cool sounding organization that highly values the integrity of its clients. 

After she left we talked a bit more about cultural things, had lunch downstairs and had our first taste of Ugandan food. There was boiled chicken, ground nut sauce (WHICH IS AMAZING!!!), greens (we’re not sure which greens), maize, and a lot of other things which I will show pictures of because I can’t remember all of the names. Perhaps I need to put labels on the food?? 

After lunch we wandered around with Ivan for a bit. He took us through the center of Kampala to the mall and around. Kara and Tiffany got their cell phones from AirTel at the mall. The mall was very nice and very western, although there weren’t any Starbucks. I also for some reason didn’t pack body wash, so I got some of that there, too. The inner part of Kampala is a lot shorter than Vancouver. By that I mean most of the buildings are not as tall. There are quite a few giant office buildings though, like for UNICEF and for the government and things. It is also full of greenery and of trees. We saw some cranes nesting on top of one. 

We were walking for quite a bit, and when we finally decided to make our way back we were going to take a boda-boda, which is a motorcycle that is used as a small taxi and which can sometimes seat three extra people not including the driver, but one of the girls felt uncomfortable so we took a taxi instead. Interesting about taking taxis in Kampala is that you are charged by the passenger instead of the distance, so sometimes taxis will wait for ages, until it is full, before it will actually leave. 

When we got back some girls went to the craft fair with Ivan while Kara, Tiffany and I went back to our rooms. We tried to follow the others to the craft fair, but we got lost. Instead we went to room 118 where we met Dan. Soon the others joined us, and then Juliette did. We walked down to an Indian restaurant where we would be having dinner.

We had to pass through a metal detector and check our bags before entering the building for the Indian Restaurant. It did say it was exclusive… Anyways, dinner was very good. We had naan and goat, chicken, fish, and vegetarian sauces. After, we had ice cream. After our long first day in Kitengesa it was hard to stay awake much longer. The moment I got back into my room I climbed under my mosquito net and fell asleep. I did not even wake up to the crazy partiers outside our room.

Second Day (Saturday) - On our way to Kitengesa

We had breakfast again first thing. I was running late, but when Julie and I did get down we found everyone waiting for us. For some unknown reason I decided to be different and get some porridge. When it finally came, finally because I got it only once everyone else was halfway through their eggs, my bowl of porridge was huge and full and steaming. I was still stirring when everyone else was finished so Juliette suggested we bring it up to room 118 and eat there. I didn’t want to waste the food, so I agreed and brought it up. Fortunately for me (hahaha) when I was attempting to eat the hot and full steaming bowl of porridge, a slip of paper was passed around for us to sign. Of course, as I tried to sign the paper and balance the porridge on my knees the porridge unbalances and fell all over me. I had to go into Juliette’s room and clean myself up. My black pants were a lost cause after that. I had my first day of wearing a maxi skirt. I am not a fan. 

Anyways, we packed a bit after breakfast, then got our luggage out to head to Kitengesa. 

Out of Kampala there was a huge amount of traffic. Cars don’t stall here in order to save gas, so I would say that for about half of our time out of the city, we were parked. The reason for the traffic was that there was some construction going on. To go anywhere, you have to pass through this huge city, which is a bit of a pain, so they’re currently constructing a circular road around Kampala. As soon as we got to the other side of the traffic, which took an hour or two, we went to a gas station to use the bathroom and experienced our first squat toilets. Not so bad, actually. 

Something interesting about Kampala is that the inside of the city is nice, despite the surprisingly regular open potholes, but once you start heading to the outskirts it suddenly becomes a lot dirtier and louder and harsher. I don’t think I could live in Kampala, it’s far too busy for me, and that’s not something I thought I would ever say.

Close to Masaka is the Equator (!!). So, I stood on the equator, which was very exciting. We had chabatti and guacamole for lunch and then finished our way to Kitengesa. 

Dan’s house in Kitengesa is like paradise. I’m not joking. It’s so beautiful. There are several small houses, one of which is the kitchen and some storage sheds, and then there is the house where Dan and his family sleep. On the other side of the path is where we sleep. There is a ‘kitchen,’ and while it has a cupboard and a sink, it does not have an oven or anything. The next room over is a living room with a couch and two armchairs over an dark orange/red rug. The building is made of cement. Out of the living room is a hallway with several rooms attached. I believe there are two rooms with two twin beds, and two with a single bed. Heather and I have rooms with 1 bed, and Leila’s room has two. My room is about the size of Jessica’s old room or Antonia’s sewing room but a bit thinner. The bed is pulled fairly close to the door and my suitcases are behind it so you can’t see from the door. I have a large chest of drawers where I’ve organized all of my clothes and things. Above the chest are my forty-odd books. We have a busy couple of days so I haven’t managed to give them to Dan to catalogue yet. At the end of the hallway we have a bathroom with running water, a normal toilet, and a shower head. The showers are so cold here because the water isn’t heated. Also, the water doesn’t magically come from a plumbing system, as I originally thought. The water tank with the water used for everything by everyone is filled by the children from a well. Elizabeth, Dan’s oldest daughter, told me that there were ghosts in the well that hung around it during the day. I’m really excited to see it now, because you never hear stories about ghosts during the day.

Note: I live on the left with Heather and Leila, Dan's house in on the right, and that building in the distance (100 m away or so) is the library!!!

We spent the rest of the day unpacking and then having a late lunch/dinner with Amelia. We also got a tour of the library. It’s a new building with fresh cream paint. In front of the building is a large lawn that they hope to use to host events that will help to support the library as libraries in Uganda are not backed by the government. By the lawn there is a very big room that will also be for hosting, and which we are going to be using a lot for programs and things. The library’s books are stored in one room in blue painted cabinets. In the centre of the room are several tables and chairs for studying, and on one side there is a couch and a desk. The next room over is the new computer lab. I thought for some reason that they would be desktop computers, but they are actually all notebooks. But the library has wireless, which is pretty sweet. Unfortunately, however, there is something weird with my computer and it actually takes forever for a page to load. I don’t know what that’s about. 

I went to bed at 9, which I never do… crazy but awesome day.

Day to Explore (Sunday) - KITENGESA!!

We didn’t do much today, mostly just eating with Dan and his wife, Amelia and playing with baby Amelia and little Dan and Elizabeth and Monica. In the morning we spent a while charging our stuff in the computer lab and talking with Julius, a man who is a singer and also a librarian and IT person, and Moses, his nephew, who happens to be 20 as well and turning 21 in February. This is pretty exciting for Heather and I, because this means he was born in the same year as us. 

Before lunch we walked into town. Everyone was calling us Muzungu as we passed. Not just everyone, but everyone. It seemed like every child was waving to us and wanted to say hi and then bye to us. Some of the kids were incredibly cute. Elizabeth was our tour guide, and she took photos for Heather on her camera. She was able to get some great shots of people that we wouldn’t have been able to because it’s considered quite rude to take photos of people here without their permission. There’s a place that has refrigeration, so we headed there. There wasn’t any refrigerated water, only pop, but we were so thirsty so we got some water anyway. I haven’t had the chance to try out the water purification stuff because it says 1/2 of a teaspoon per 10 LITRES… WHERE WOULD I PUT 10 LITRES OF WATER?? WHAT DO I DO FOR 1 LITRE?? I DON’T HAVE A MEASURING SPOON!!!

Anyways soon after we came back we hung around some more at the library and little Dan played on my computer a bit, and some of the other kids watched. Inside we took some funny photos on Leila’s Photo Booth. 

We got to make ciabatti!! It was so exciting!! Roman was rolling the dough, and Amelia was frying it in the pan while Elizabeth and Florence helped her. Their stove is over an open flame and made of clay or something of the sort with holes just large enough to rest a pan. It took me three tries before I was rolling the ciabatti right, but I got it eventually. And then I fried the ciabbatti. It was so exciting to eat it for dinner, and gorsh it was delicious. All of the food I’ve had so far has been amazing. 

We’re going to a Ugandan Library Association Conference in Masaka tomorrow whose theme is the environment, so we also went through the shelves to pick out some books with that theme to show to other libraries tomorrow. 

Monday and Tuesday (because there wasn’t internet on these days because we came back when the library had already closed)

We attended the Ugandan Community Library Association (UgCLA) Annual Conference in Masaka each of these days. It was a fabulous opportunity to learn more about the challenges local libraries are facing, as well as to meet librarians from across the country. Also, there was so much food. Every couple of hours we would stop to eat or drink tea. 

Wednesday

Today was Kitengesa Library’s official opening!! It was so exciting to have the opportunity to attend such a historic occasion. The new computer lab was officially revealed, and even the VICE PRESIDENT OF UGANDA WAS THERE!!!!! Yeah, I was in a picture with him/saw him/took photos of him. No big deal. Afterward we had lunch at the house of Professor Kosozi and Professor Kate Parry. Their house is quite big, too.

While we were eating lunch on their lawn a man came up to us from the Red Pepper Paper. They’re a tabloid newspaper. When we told Dan that we wanted to take pictures of the Vice President earlier, he directed us to speak with his heads of security, who told us we were allowed to take nice photos, but we weren’t allowed to take weird photos, like of him eating or anything, and we also weren’t allowed to sell pictures or information to the press because tabloids like to make stuff up, and oh my did we get a taste of this. Earlier, Leila had taken a photo with a man in the army. Apparently this isn’t allowed in Uganda, and even one of his colleagues had made a no motion with his had. 

Anyhow, this man comes up to us and tells us that he’s going to put a story into his newspaper about an army man who leaves the army because he’s fallen in love with a Canadian girl. Of course it’s all lies because all it was was a photo, but he told us to check the Red Pepper next week. I will laugh so hard if he actually puts that story in his newspaper.  

Also, just to let everyone know, my phone number is +256-079-302-2553. You can use google or skype to call me if you want to chat!! 

Thursday

… just begun, but Kara and Tiffany left this morning to go to their placement in Busolwe, and I miss them already! I hope you guys have fun and I wish you the best of luck!!!

Montreal Layover

I am now in the Montreal airport with the other girls. I am exhausted, having woken up at 4 AM to get to my 8:50 AM flight 2 hours early, but not as exhausted as I could have been because I slept through the ENTIRE flight. My neck pillow came in handy, but I found myself using it in an unconventional way (aka as a pillow against the plane vs. around my neck-- apparently I am a leaner when I sleep in vehicle type things).

We are now in Montreal. Tiffany and I shared a vegetarian pesto baguette and a little pizza. There are some nice French places here, so we took advantage. It seemed like the right thing to do. We found our gate pretty easily, and we're just waiting for our plane to come now. We have an hour left. We fly at 7:10 PM for Brussels. Woot! Getting ready for some hardcore jet lag.

EDIT: Also, another note: In Kampala apparently people are striking against banks because of high interest rates. This may make getting money difficult/impossible for a little while, but I'm sure we'll find a way around it. Don't worry! We're all going to be super careful and not get caught up in protests or anything.

3 Days to Go

I'm leaving on Wednesday morning, and it's beginning to get real. Months ago I was mostly just excited about going, although even then it felt like a fantasy. It was too far in the future to really feel too much one way or another, but sometime in the last week or two it finally hit me that this is real and this is happening. I'm going to go to Uganda, and life is going to be so different. People ask me what I will be doing there, and I give them the shpiel, but none of us really know what we'll be doing yet. I've begun packing madly, throwing everything I might ever need into my suitcase. I even have Moroccan oil for my un-straightened hair, tomorrow I'll be getting garlic tablets (apparently they don't make you smell but keep the mosquitos away--who knew??). It's terrifying. There. I said it. I'm terrified. I've never done anything this scary before. Over the summer, I went to Europe, but I kind of knew what to expect. There is a whole set of schema about what will happen on a trip backpacking to Europe. European nations are relatively similar to Canada, but we have been told so many times that everything will be so different and to just completely leave all expectations at the door so I have no clue what will happen. Anything could happen, anything could go wrong, and I will be so incredibly far. 

Perhaps it's wrong to admit fear over the internet. I suppose this is a channel for communication, and perhaps people shouldn't know that I'm scared because maybe that will make them more scared. However, I would argue that fear is important. The fact that I was feeling scared means that I am considering the negative possibilities. Because I am aware of what could go wrong, I will take the proper precautions in order to ensure that things don't. It could even be reckless to enter a situation fearlessly. Not to mention, one of the reasons that this appealed to me was I wanted to put myself in a situation that would challenge me and face me with a set of experiences in which I wouldn't know what to do or how to react. 

One of the best parts about new experiences and challenges is learning to deal with those scary or difficult things. If I weren't scared, it wouldn't be much of a challenge at all. But anyway, I expect this to be a very rewarding experience, and no matter what happens I expect to learn more than I ever could imagine I would. Or, I hope I do. There is so much that I can gain from this experience. That's another thing I love about travelling, or more specifically, life: you never know what you will gain, you never know what will happen or where you will go. It's all an unknown adventure, and what could possibly be more exciting than that?

Another interesting thing that I've been thinking about today is differences in thinking. Specifically, the difference between Academic (University) thinking and other types of thinking. For example, just normal thinking/real world thinking. Going to university trains you to think on an entirely different level; a level that is at once pedantic, detail orientated, and highly analytic. No truth is left unquestioned, nothing is considered final, and no reality is considered to exist. Our fundamental truths are constantly being questioned on a highly theoretical level. Even just talking about university makes me start to use larger words and more cat-chasing-tail language. "Real world" (for a lack of a better term) thinking tends to be more practical, and also occupies another realm that is hardly touched on in academics: Morality (or if you're going to be academic about it: socially acceptable norms). 

Much of academia does not often breech whether something should or should not be a certain way. Instead I find it tends to be more about whether it is or isn't, or how something is or isn't beneficial. Note: note right, but beneficial. Why do academics (not, I imagine, however philosophy or maybe international relations? I'm mostly speaking about Humanities and Social Sciences) not touch on morality? Likely, this is because morality is far to grey to even begin to analyze and understand, and people's ideas on morality vary so greatly. However, morality is so extremely important, and I think it's quite possible that focusing so entirely on an academic way of thinking can alienate that other way of thinking which, although focusing less on logic, can simultaneously make more sense. 

But related questions are: 

Why learn an academic way of thinking? (I would say to have the option of understanding things in multiple different ways; understanding things from different angles. Being able to look at the big/small picture and alternate between the two.)

Is one way of thinking 'better' than the other, or are they both just different?

What is morality? Or is it all just made up?

Other things that I can't think of because it's late and I'm really tired...

Anyways, I haven't given this a huge amount of thought, this is just something I was thinking about briefly today. Sorry for the longness (yeah, that's for you H.)