Zachary’s Ugandan Adventure Part 2

Damn. It must have been a least a lifetime or two since I last wrote! And I miss each and everyone of you about a hundred times more than when I last wrote! Except for the America/friend/family sickness that set in pretty heavily about a week and a half ago, I’ve had a pretty damn awesome time! My host family just gets cooler and cooler, work is ironing out and I’ve started my project, and I’ve gotten to do a fair amount of traveling. Maybe to keep this email to a bearable length, I will try to just tell you an anecdote or two about each.

Family!: I’m starting to become more of a family member and less of an honored guest with my family, and it’s incredibly relieving. I eat dinner with my family out in the kitchen. (The house is actually a set of four buildings that surround a dirt courtyard). My little sisters Anesha and Shela run and hug my legs when I get home from work, and my 1 and a half year old little brother isn’t afraid of me any more! My mom has taken to calling me ” my handsome son” in Luganda and my host dad has warmed up to me a lot.

My favorite times though are when Al hajj (my host dad) goes to Kampala for work. He’s muslim so the rest of the family has to abide by his rules, but oh man! When the cat’s away the mice play. The first time he left for work last week, my cousins Ddo and Ddo (Richard and Ronald) grabbed me and we ran out to the closest grill to buy a huge steaming plate full of pork. Sneaking handfulls of pork on the way back home, we stopped off and bought a bunch of Nile Specials (the beer of choice here) and traipsed giddily home. That night we had a powwow on the floor of my room. Ddo, ddo, my host mom and I gorged ourselves on decadent amounts of pork and kicked back beer after beer, all the while laughing with the guilty glee of children who know they’re getting away with something. The whole time, Ddo (Richard) was telling me about Africans and their peculiarities, a habit he falls into whenever he’s had a bit of alcohol. It always begins with “Africans, they are funny guys. I tell you!”.

Well, I guess Africans (or at least Ugandans) really are funny guys. I can’t help but laugh sometimes! Boda (motorcycle taxi) drivers usually turn off their engines when they’re going down hill, and they often don’t turn on their lights at night. Liquor here comes in bags. 95% of everyone’s diet is starch (matooke, yams, another type of yams, sweet potatoes, posho, cassava etc…). They call these items “food”. Beef isn’t food. At a restaurant you can order food (a plate full of starch) and beef or beens or goat etc for 1500 USh (75 cents). In typical conversations, about half of people’s sentences are punctuated with a rhetorical question right in the middle. E.g. “I am going where? Kampala”. I haven’t figured out if I’m supposed to answer yet. People with absolutely no money are dressed much nicer than I ever dress, everyone loves the poorly dubbed Mexican soap opera Second Chance, and old men have Faith Hill ringtones in Kampala. I could go on!

Work is about equally funny. My boss, Buwembo, is entirely useless. He is typically about three of four hours late for every appointment we make, and has yet to give me an assignment. No matters, I’ve been working closely with my project supervisor Norah to develop my project and I don’t really need Buwembo for that. Last week I turned in my project workplan and budget and got my seed grant! 400,000 USh baby! I’m working on a integrated sustainable agriculture project with one community group near Ssaza. Our fist training was last week, but no one showed up because there was a burial in the village. Dicouraging, but not all that surprising. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m also going to work with a partner of our organization, Mulindwa Matia, to help build a vocational school for graduates of a primary school for deaf students in the area. I’m probably going to do fundraising for that project, but I’ll send along more details soon!

Traveling! Last weekend I had the best weekend I’ve had in Uganda to date! I took off work on Friday and decided to travel to Sipi Falls in the northeast corner of the state. I had met some folks in Kampala the weekend before and they told me they were headed there. I couldn’t find anyone to go with me, but I didn’t really mind because I’ve decided that I really don’t like the group that is here in Masaka with me. I supposes I like them individually, just not as a group. They make me feel so much lonelier than when I’m by myself. Anyways! I already complained to Bilal about that!

My epic journey began on Friday at 8:30 or so in the morning. I was delayed a little because as I was leaving, I found my one and a half year old brother Doctor locked outside of the gate and climbing onto a boda. Despite the slight delay, I managed to find a nearly full bus headed towards Kampala and we were off. Just as we started I got a drunk dial from Will, David, and Gleb and I turned many Ugandan’s heads as I tried to yell to be heard. It was the least eventful leg of the journey. The bus had no shocks so I had to keep my teeth clenched to keep from biting my tongue on the pothole ridden road, luggage kept falling on our heads, and the bus broke down once. Three hours later, we arrived in Kampala and I scoured the Taxi park for a bus bound for Mbale (2 hours south of Sipi). I only found a Mutatu (minibus) and here the journey got hairy.

The first Mutatu got run off the road by a semi truck, and got stopped in a several hour traffic jam. Then they stopped and put me on another mutatu which was fine except the seat I was on wasn’t bolted down. Then they put me on another mutatu which had a bunch of chickens. (Africans are funny guys!) I lucked out and got the front seat, where I realized that nothing on the dashboard worked! No speedometer, no odometer, no gas guage, no radio. Only the low oil light worked! Then they drove me into a village, dragged me out, gave me the rest of the money and told me to find my own way! I hitchhiked for a while and ended up on a giant bus that stopped every 5 minutes so that people could get out to pee on the side of the road! What an adventure! When I arrived in Mbale it was 8:30 and pitch dark. I looked for a cool sounding hostel that was mentioned in my guidebook to no avail. Turned out it had burnt down the year before. I ended up staying in a skeezy hotel in Mbale and leaving for Sipi the next morning.

The next day was pure bliss! I found my friends just as they were about to head out for a five hour guided tour of the three giant falls that cut through the mountains in the area. It was one of the most incredibly breathtaking hikes I’ve done! The valleys and mountains were the most brilliant shimmering shade of green! They rolled down into african savannah that seemed to go on for an eternity. We hiked through caves where people lived 1500 years ago, climbed to waterfalls that they used as showers and on! On to the topmost waterfall! Two hundred and 40 feet of unimaginable beauty and power. I couldn’t help it! I crept up to the awesome base of the falls, already drenched by the spray shattering off the rocks and started stripping. Hahaha! Skinny dipping under a 240 waterfall in Africa! Take that Allie! One of my friends had climbed to a nearby cliff and took a picture! 100 feet down, my white posterior was still visibly glowing!

But that wasn’t even the best part! At the last and biggest waterfall they offer absailing (repelling). Four of my friends and I psyched eachother into doing it. I was so scarred I couldn’t even scream. 330 or so feet of utterly terrified ecstacy! Oh sweet jesus! It was among the most beautiful things I’ve seen. I’m pretty sure I could see all of Uganda from there. And the wind was blowing the water spray from the nearby waterfall towards me so I ended up repelling straight into a rainbow.

That night one of the hotel workers took us to a local club where we all got super crunk listening to hours and hours of reggaeton. The milky way cut a shimmering cloak across the sky and reggaeton drifted through my dreams all night. I met so many cool folks and now have invitations to crash at folks’ places all over Europe.

The way back was excting. I called my dad to wish him happy father’s day. He asked me if I was safe. At that point I was in a mutatu hurtling at 110 kph on the wrong side of the pothole ridden pitch black road, passing boda drivers who had no lights on, and weaving to avoid the semi truck that was cresting the hill. Of course I answered yes!

Anyways, as expected, I talked too much. So much to say though. I can’t wait when we can swap stories in person. Send me emails back! I’d love to know how everyone is!

Smooches and cranberry-apple pie,

Zachary

Zachary’s Ugandan Adventure Part 1

Hey all you crazy cats! You world travelers! You stay at home bamfs! You lovers and friends, and family members. Whichever applies to you, I miss you! I miss you loads and loads. I hope all is excellent. I’m writing you all this ass long email/ note because getting internet is a big dumb bitch here, so I’m trying to lump it all into one big go!

Oli otya mukwano gwange!…Which means, good day to you my friends. As hopefully all of you know, I am spending the summer in Uganda working on a development project with the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD). The FSD has paired me and 10 other interns with local NGO’s and CBO’s in Masaka district, where we will be living and working for the next 2 months. In addition to working with our host organization, we will also be conducting our own needs assessment and development projects as part of the FSD program.
Anyways, formalities aside, let me tell you what I’ve been up to! Tonight will be the seventh night that I have spent in Uganda, and the fifth night in Masaka District. I arrived in Entebbe on the night of Friday the 29th and spent the night in a local hotel on the shores of Lake Victoria. By the next day, most of the interns had arrived and we spent the night in Kampala (the nation’s capital) where we all bought cell phones and tried new and exciting foods like matooke. Kampala is a busting city where the traffic is truly harrowing and the smells are equally intense (both good and bad).
On Sunday we visited the tombs where the Ugandan kings are buried and then took a roller coaster ride on a mutaatu, a small often overcrowded bus, to Masaka town. On the way, we stopped at the equator to eat lunch and I discovered that water does indeed spin in different directions in either hemisphere. It doesn’t spin at all on the equator! I bet that’s how they figure out where the equator is. Then on to Masaka Town where we have spent the past five plus days receiving training from FSD in the ins and outs of development, getting a crash course in Luganda from a really nice woman named Patricia, and diving head first into Uganda culture. There have been times where I think I’m close to drowning in the tumult of it all, but then something little happens – a friendly smile, a several hour afternoon break, or a fascinating conversation – and I realize that I’m having (as clichéd as it may be) the time of my life. True, I’m in way over my head, but I’m drinking in everything so quickly I couldn’t possibly drown! I’ve learned so much already, I cannot even imagine what it will be like in two months.
Masaka is a dusty, spicy, and little but vibrant town. The downtown area is centered around one several kilometer road that splits halfway through. The traffic is mostly boda bodas (motorcycle taxis), small Toyota like cars, insane mutaatus, and trucks loaded to the brim with matooke (a starchy banana that is a staple here) or some other product. Many of the buildings are three or four stories tall. Some are tidy and whitewashed, while others are completely dilapidated. Garbage is burning in heaps all over town which accounts for the town’s spice, and the horn honks begin to take on a language of their own. There’s a great big market where I tried to haggle in Luganda, a mosque that projects prayers five times a day, and an evangelical tent whose leaders have been screaming about the glory of Christ and the dangers of sin for two days straight. And there’s a night club called Ambience that seems to be the talk of the whole town! Very exciting!
Today was a very big day for me. We had our last Luganda lesson at the FSD office and then returned to the hotel to get ready to pack out and go stay with our host families! I got all packed, ate lunch, and bid the hotel staff and my new comrades a loving farewell and struck out for Kimanya Eh, the little community right next to Masaka town where I will be living. When my host mother saw me, she began speaking in Luganda so fast that my head started to spin. I think she delights in it, because she speaks English quite well. Anyways, my room is beautiful and the house has running water and electricity. I’m so spoiled! She even calls me Katarega which is their surname. I’m also now Kaato which means the younger male twin.
We immediately went to visit her mother where I learned that Ugandans definition of family is significantly more flexible than my own. I call my host mother Maami (Mommy), but I was also introduced to several other Maami’s and a slew of brothers and sisters! One of my brothers, Ddo (doe), who isn’t a direct brother then took around Kimanya and grilled me about the way things are in America, while I quizzed him about Uganda and Luganda. He took me to hear an afterschool group of drummers and dancers playing traditional Baganda music. (Baganda is the main tribe/ kingdom / ethnic group in the south and west. I was blown away!
Then I took tea, rescued my friend who lives close to me but was lost, and sat down to watch Second Chance with my host Maaami. Second Chance is a Mexican soap opera dubbed into English. I have honestly never seen a more ridiculous show! Everyone around here thinks I look like Antonio. I’m not convinced, but I guess I don’t mind! Then my Mom called me in for dinner, and I sat down to eat and realized I was eating alone. It’s a form of respect to serve a guest in the dining room or even his own room and let him eat alone. I knew this so I wasn’t surprised, but it was still awfully depressing. After dinner, I gave everyone the gifts that I had brought and they were greatly appreciated. Then my maami sent me to bed and here I am now.
Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the way things are going and more excited about how they will go. There are challenges for sure. I need to figure out the best way to use the latrine. I tried washing my clothes in a basin and kind of failed. I haven’t even attempted washing myself with a basin. The language is a bitch. 10 different noun classes! I’m called Muzungu (foreigner) by every one I see on the street. I’m given Muzungu prices. Everything gets dirty instantly. The list goes on…. But to be honest, I’m barely phased. I guess I’m still in the honey moon phase and I’m sure some things will test me. I know that the matooke will get old pretty quickly. We shall see.
Anyways, if you’ve made it to this point, congratulations! I’ve been long and rambly, but I suppose it’s my style. I love and miss you all in ways you can’t imagine and I can’t describe! Send me an email back. I’d love to know how each and everyone is doing. Shoot me a facebook. Call me if at all possible. Though I can’t remember the country code, my number is 0783719844.
P.S. New Updates! I love my new host family! We hoed a banana farm yesterday, I learned how to peel matooke, we went to church, I learned how to wash my own clothes, and I’ve been eating non-stop! More updates to come.