"Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel's immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad [of] new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way."
Ralph Crawshaw
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I cooked over a charcoal fire. Yep. Me, the girl who absolutely hates camping and never really paid attention whenever anyone tried to teach me how to start a fire. I was hopelessly delusional at that point in my life and never expected to live somewhere where I didn't have an oven, a stove top, and a microwave at my immediate disposal.
My roommates and I have been desperate for comfort food from home, so we decided to have a pancake feast on Sunday night. I could not figure out how to start the charcoal fire; I swallowed my pride, pushed aside my embarrassment, and asked our neighbor if he could help us out. The first thing he said when he saw my pathetic attempt at starting the fire by myself was "I have to post this on Facebook and Twitter." Great.
It was all worth it though. Best feast ever. Maybe it's because I'm craving American food hardcore, or because I put so much time into this one meal (about an hour), or because it was cooked over a fire. I don't really know the reason, I just know that those pancakes tasted heavenly.
Manning my battle station
So excited for a pancake feast!
Well, that's pretty much all I've got for you all this week. (I have some exciting weekend plans though, so stay posted for that! Also cross your fingers that these plans don't fall through...) Just for fun, here are a couple more pictures from Mehta.
"After all, I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string."
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea
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I don't have anything huge to report this week. (I did plan a couple of cool trips though, so stay posted for those!)
Tuesday, we got caught in a pretty crazy rainstorm on our way to the workshop. I totally understand now why everything pretty much stops here when it rains - the dirt roads turn into raging rivers of mud. We got stuck waiting out the storm just a few yards away from Musana. Eventually we just ran for it and got soaking wet. C'est la vie.
Tessa recently started exercise class at Musana. It's still a new concept for most of the women there - it's incredibly entertaining to watch.
Eve is great at running in place.
After exercise class on Wednesday, we went on a walk up in Mehta. It's this huge area of town owned by the Mehta family (obviously). It's beautiful up there. Pictures just don't do it justice.
We always have fun at work, especially with Tina as our manager.
The highlight of the week though was boda riding! The original plan was to ride bodas to the Griffin Falls campground and then hike to the falls. Unfortunately it was too dark to hike once we got there. We'll just have to go back another day. But the boda ride was so fun. We got to drive them for a little bit! Full disclosure - I'm a pretty bad motorcycle driver at this moment in my life. For whatever reason, I just didn't get the whole concept of balance... no worries though. I'll be a pro at motorcycle driving by the time I buy my own!
We found this cute baby goat at the Griffin Falls campground. (I was clearly excited.) It was just born that morning!
A kitten last week, a baby goat this week... hopefully next week I'll be posting about cuddling with a lion cub.
"If we have to die for Jesus, we shall die together hand in hand."
Charles Lwanga
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This week started out with dance lessons from the Musana women. Remember those dancing videos I posted in my first blog post from Uganda? That dance is called the maganda. After work on Monday, we bribed Eve to teach us the maganda. I quickly realized that these women don't need to be bribed to dance, especially Eve. They all were dancing, singing, clapping, and mostly laughing once Kathryn started dancing.
Tuesday was a national holiday - Martyrs Day - so everyone was off work. Here's a brief rundown of Martyrs Day as it was explained to me. In 1875, the king of Buganda (a kingdom within Uganda) wrote a letter asking missionaries to come to Uganda to teach his people. His wishes were granted, and the missionaries were successful in converting many people. Now the population worshiped God as their Creator; before their conversion, the people believed that their king was the creator. Therefore the king had ultimate power. Fast-forward about ten years - there is a new king in power. He's upset that he no longer has omnipotence and that his people are no longer blindly obeying him. So he retaliates by killing them. The martyrs were tortured for a week before they were forced to collect the very firewood that was used to burn them alive.
The tree where the martyrs were tied and tortured for a week.
My favorite part of a mural depicting the story of the martyrs.
The shrine for the martyrs is in Namugongo so we went for the festival. I don't think I have ever in my life been in a crowd as massive as the one at the festival. I later read that over 10,000 people from across the world showed up in Namugongo. And some of them even walked! We heard reports on the radio saying the people had walked from Kenya, Sudan, Nigeria, and a few other countries... walked! The whole way!
The crowd waiting to get inside the shrine grounds... and this isn't
even the front of the line! Source
Apparently the festival had a bad turnout this year, but I thought the crowd was overwhelming. It didn't help that Tessa, Kathryn, and I stuck out like a sore thumb. All eyes were on us, which made it really great when I rode this angry camel and got scared because I thought it was going to whip its head around and bite me. I've never had that many people laughing at me. First time for everything!
Linden arrived in Lugazi the next day and she must have brought good luck with her. The next day at the workshop we found a kitten!
We adopted her for a few hours... until we found out that she actually already belonged to the family who lives next door to Musana. Oops.
I guess we'll just have to keep searching for our summer pet.
What a busy week! Luta took Tessa, Kathryn, and me to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, on Thursday; saying that that trip was hectic is an understatement. And that's coming from the girl who wants to move to NYC! I don't think there is a single square inch of unused space in that city.
After surviving a sudden downpour of rain, a couple of boda-boda (motorcycle) rides, a pick-pocketing attempt, and being constantly singled-out by the local vendors on Thursday, we returned to Kampala on Saturday to go to the football game. (Uganda is rubbing off on me. I now think of it as football, not soccer.) That was a wild ride from start to finish - and I mean that quite literally. We took a taxi up to Kampala, and the first thing you have to know about taxis is that they're not the small yellow sedans most Americans picture when they head the word "taxi." No, taxis here are 15-seater vans... but that doesn't mean they'll stop letting people in once you get 15 passengers. There are also no seat belts, and I'm convinced that there are no traffic laws. We ran into some road construction on the way to the game, but did that stop our driver? Absolutely not. We just wove in and out of impossibly tight spaces between cars, and we even went off-roading for a little while. Our driver ran over some guy's wheelbarrow. A big metal wheelbarrow! We drove right over it!
Seriously, no traffic laws! This guy is just hanging out in the back of a
dump truck while speeding down the highway.
I'm pretty sure I narrowly avoided several near-death experiences on that taxi ride. But we all made it to Kampala in one piece and headed to the stadium. It was my first time going to a professional football game, and I loved every second of it.
Supporting the Cranes!
Uganda in red, Madagascar in green
Everybody makes fun of football - I've heard several people say it's a really boring game where you're lucky to see just one goal made. I politely disagree. Uganda made their only goal of the game in the first half, but I was totally invested throughout the entire match. It probably didn't hurt that we were standing near the front with all the hardcore fans... most of whom were incredibly drunk and therefore incredibly entertaining. My fellow wazungu and I made so many new friends without even trying.
This is Hakuna. Unfortunately his last name isn't Matata.
Long story short, we won! The Cranes have never lost a single match on their own field, and this was no exception. The fans went crazy. I had the terrifyingly shocking experience of being lifted into the air by the stranger standing next to me for a good 30 seconds when the game ended.
Ugandans don't wear their favorite player's name on their jerseys.
They put on their own names. That's me, Kwagala :)
I've never been a sporty person, but I just may have to make an exception for this. I've been converted into a Cranes fan for life.
"The Nile, forever new and old,/ Among the living and the dead,/ Its mighty, mystic stream has rolled."
Harry Wadsworth Longfellow, Christus, The Golden Legend (1872), Part I
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Is there a better way to start a blog post than with a picture of a newborn baby? This is Harriet's brand new grandson and the newest member of the Musana family.
Not even a week old
This week has been pretty busy. We still haven't settled into a regular schedule yet, but we've had plenty to do! There's never a dull moment here in Lugazi.
Kathryn, our English/literacy intern, arrived around 2am Wednesday morning. That morning (at a much more manageable hour than 2am), Tessa and I showed her the essential locations in town - Musana, the bank, the supermarket - and then we just explored a little bit. We ended up walking through a market set up all along a one of the streets off the highway, and we noticed after a few minutes that we had a couple of unexpected shadows:
Shayla and Steven
It's still a bit of shock when kids follow us around for several minutes. Parents in America would never let their kids trail after strangers!
We have graduated from performing quality control at Musana to actually helping make beads! It's definitely giving me a new appreciation for just how much work goes into one piece of jewelry produced by these women.
Making paper beads with Florence, Fina, Monica, Tessa, and Kathryn.
Prospa helps me make beads... Well, she colors while I make beads...
The coolest thing we did this week was go to Jinja to visit the Nile! We met another mzungu in the taxi on the way to Jinja and he became our Nile travel buddy. We took a boat tour which took us along the shore to see some wildlife, to the islands in the middle of the river, to the source of the Nile, and then out to Lake Victoria.
Fishmonger's market on the banks of the Nile
I spy a monitor lizard
Tessa, me, Kathryn, and Alaster standing in the Nile!
Tessa, Kathryn, Gracie, Luta, and me at Gandhi's memorial
My first time seeing monkeys in the wild!
I'm loving this African adventure. I'm constantly in a state of wonder. There's always something new to see, to experience, and to learn.
"In life, a person will come and go from many homes. We may leave a house, a town, a room, but that does not mean those places leave us. Once entered, we never entirely depart the homes we make for ourselves in the world. They follow us, like shadows, until we come upon them again, waiting for us in the mist."
Ari Berk, Death Watch
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Uganda is incredible.
Overlooking the town of Lugazi.
I'm already in love with this place. It has been an exhausting and exciting first few days of getting to know the town of Lugazi. I arrived with Tessa (another Musana intern) late Thursday night. Here's my home sweet home for the next 3 months!
We live in the back half of this house.
Our new friend and member of the Musana team, Luta, has been showing us around.
Women wearing traditional Ugandan dress - the gomesi.
I don't know how they manage to balance so much on one bike!
Our tour of Lugazi started with Musana. We met most of the women who work there - we're up to 15 full-time workers and 6 who will be promoted to full-time soon! Musana is growing! A few of the women bring their kids to Musana and they were so happy to meet us.
Musana is that white building at the end of the road. I'll get a better
picture of it later.
Musana kids
The cutest little babies at Musana!
Luta took us out to lunch to try traditional Ugandan food on our first day here... I still don't know exactly what I ate, but I am already obsessed with the fruit/fruit juice here. It's infinitely better than the fruit we have in the States.
My favorite thing about Uganda is the people - these are the nicest people I've ever met. All day, I hear people yelling out "hi mzungu!" Several people call out "welcome to Uganda!" as they pass by, and I've even had a man call me over to the other side of the street just to shake hands and say hi. The kids especially are so excited to see wazungu (wazungu is the plural of mzungu) and they absolutely love getting their pictures taken.
Even though the kids are really excited to see wazungu, most keep their distance until you get to know each other pretty well. This little man was one of the brave ones. He ran right up to us, introduced himself, and brought us back to his house to meet all of his friends.
These little guys were so excited to see us, they ran outside before they put their clothes on! Their mom was laughing hysterically and trying to get them to come back and get dressed, but they decided watching the wazungu was more important than being clothed.
Once they get over their initial fear of coming too close, they just want to touch the mzungu's white skin. And let's be honest, mine is probably the whitest skin they'll ever see. Tanned skin in the U.S. is desirable, but my pale skin makes me a rock star here!
Here's a traveler's tip: if you ever come to Uganda and want the kids to fall in love with you instantly, bring bubbles. I have about 15 new best friends because I brought bubbles for them.
I'm already so in love with these munchkins. They are the sweetest. That little gentleman I'm holding in the back gave me a red flower as we were leaving.
Football is huge here. Everyone plays it or watches it or coaches it or follows the national team. It seemed like the whole town came out to watch this game.
One of the guys sitting on this wall stopped watching the game long enough to propose to me. So, you know, that was pretty cool.
Weddings here are a big deal. Actually, a lot of couples don't ever get officially married because they can't afford it. The culture here requires that weddings are huge and expensive. There's no such thing as a "budget wedding." We were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when these newlyweds drove down the street in a procession of about 10 cars. Congrats to the happy couple!
Luta invited Tessa and me to watch him perform at a local music event Saturday night. As we were walking over, Luta decided to give us Ugandan names. Mine is Kwagala (I'm not sure if that's how to spell it... it's pronounced "kwah-gah-la") which means "one who is very loved."
The event had already started by the time we got there; it was very busy and exciting. Tons of people from the community came to socialize, eat dinner together, and watch the singing, dancing, and instrumentalist acts. Between each act, the MCs would point to us and say "welcome, we are so excited to have our friends here." I know I still have a lot of time left in Uganda to experience different things, but I bet this will be in my Top 10 favorite memories of this place.
I was so impressed with these girls. How do they move so fast?! This mzungu definitely cannot move like that.
Even the boys can shake it! (You can see Luta in the back left corner of the tent - he's the tall man in the white shirt.)
Well, this has been the Sparknotes version of my last three days. I've never experienced a more exhausting three days, but I've also never experienced a more exciting three days. I'm beyond happy that I was lucky enough to be offered this opportunity. I can't wait to get to know these people and become close friends with them, and I can't wait to truly get started on my work with Musana.
