#2
Ahhhhhhh I'm in Uganda!
Oh and my mom is sending this because it is honestly ridiculous trying
to email things here. I couldn't get the page to reload after I'd type
out all the names. Ohhhh Uganda.
So I sent an email last week... apparently, I think it only went to Ally and
Courtney. I mean, I love you guys a lot, but that email was actually supposed
to be a mass email. Maybe everyone got it. It wasn't that good though... it
was mostly me talking about how the internet is slow. It's taken me a good 30
minutes to get to this point at hotmail. But life has picked up since last
time I was at a computer!
Why you ask?
Two words, my children: HAJITI. SARAH.
Last Thursday, the four interns had a dinner to meet our host families. I was
told I'd be living with a woman politician, so when this smartly dressed woman
in a business suit entered, I assumed that was my new mother. After her was a
cute lady in a flowery, Western dress, then a little man in a suit. They were
all reserved, polite, shy, and quiet.
Then this lady comes in, wearing a huge, African shiny dress with pointy
shoulders, she is humoungous, she is laughing hysterically, eating all of the
food with her hands, and occasionally making high pitched yelps and screams.
I think we all know which one was my mother.... HAJITI SARAH!!!
But she is awesome. Even though... she speaks like no English. At that first
dinner, I asked her how many children she had. She responded, "Farmer!
Vegetables! Spinach! Matooke!" One of her favorite phrases is, "Lise!! COME!"
Though she is also fond of "LISE! Sit here" and then frantically motions next
to her. She's a big fan of the Marcus and Kristen host mom trick... but
instead of throwing a dictionary at me, she calls in her 17 year old adopted
son, Ambrose, who is pretty good at English. I try to talk to her in Luganda,
because I've learned a little (she finds it hilarious), and she always goes
"Yes! Yes!" and then "AMBROSE!!!!!" to make him come translate. Poor kid.
Actually I think it makes him feel cool.
All this makes it sound like the barrier is annoying. I actually find it pretty
hilarious.
So my family here... is a motley crew. Sarah has a whole bunch of kids who are
older, and she's adopted a whole bunch more, and then there are random adults
floating around. There are 5 kids, Jacqueline ("JACKIEEEEE!"), Sam
(SAMUUUUUel!!), Baaku (BaaaKUUUUU!), Hassad (HAS-had!), and Ambrose. Then
there is her 72 year old aunt, who is adorable, and the two... well, I mean, I
guess resident crazies. One woman, whose name I have yet to deduce, but she
always addresses me as "Motherfathersisterbrother" and names off random foods,
and then this guy named Jeffrey David Mbasa. Right now Hajiti's brother is
visiting, and he went to Edinburgh college, so he's been my conversational
company, for the most part. He really enjoys reading the Bible. And talking
to me about it.
One of the best parts of Uganda is the children. Because children are the
future!!! No not really. Because they chase me through the streets yelling,
"Mzungu mzungu!" which is their (non-racist) word for white person. It's,
also, hilarious and simultaneously adorable. I usually respond in Luganda,
which freaks them out. I've also taken to responding by saying, in Luganda, "I
am not mzungu... you are all mzungu!" This freaks them out even more, but they
think it's funny. A lot of really little kids cry when they see me. They are
so confused by white people.
I went to a wedding welcoming ceremony the other night... which is wear the
fiancee meets the family. People kept taking my picture and videotaping me,
which was a little bizarre. To be a white person in a small village outside of
Jinja... this is what it is like to be Amy Winehouse in London. They are always
watching me. Especially when I started dancing. But it's cool. So far. I've
also started teaching the kids some of the Soulja Boy dance.
Did I mention I live on a farm?
Hahahhahah
Because I do. Complete with the hole-in-the ground bathroom, live chickens
running around (I helped catch one the other day... and in my naive mind didn't
realize why until we had chicken for dinner...), goats, cows. I helped the
family make food the other day too, which was sweet. I also take baths in the
backyard by pouring water over myself out of a bucket. BUCKET BATH WHAT! I
can't necessarily say Ugandan food is completely agreeing with me, but there's
always chapati (aka cha-PARTY in my mouth!)... delicious naan-like bread. My
host mom keeps giving me peanut butter. She thinks Americans are obsessed with
it. But it's comforting and digestable, so I've been having it at basically
every meal. She feeds me so much I'm going to be fat when I leave. I'm not
joking. My fears of losing weight... completely unwarranted.
It's fun though. Seriously.
Ummm what else! Oh I started my job today. Luckily my work lady speaks
impeccable English, so I have the best of both worlds. I think I'll be helping
with some sexual health lesson plans for kids and helping a community of woman
start their own poultry farm.
THE LOST EMAIL #1
So here I am, in the fastest internet cafe in all of Jinja, Uganda. This email
will not be clever, it won't be proofread, and it will probably be short,
because this keyboard is hard to use. But you are all worthy of an email. And
since it's summer, everyone's email boxes are probably sadly empty, so I'll try
to brighten up your summer jobs with LISA'S INITIAL IMPRESSIONS OF UGANDA.
I was wrong about a lot of things. This country is so surprising! Right now
I'm staying in this, from what I can see, cushy Ugandan hotel... I mean, we've
got a shower, a toilet, a nice bed, a sweet mosquito bed that makes me feel
like I have an African princess bed... it's pretty sweet. Mostly we've been
touring the town and learning the local language, things like that. I move in
with my host family on Friday... I'm actually living with a Muslim woman, a
little outside the city, and she's a politician, so that should be pretty
interesting. They told me she has 5 orphan kids that live with her, which is
awesome... but then someone else told me that a lot of times the orphan kids
are just kind of servants? So I'll have to wait and see what happens with
that. It's bizarre because my initial impression was that women are pretty
well-off here. I mean, Muslim woman politician, in a Christian country? I
feel like that's pretty good. But then another intern told me that he and his
host dad eat at the table every night, and the mom and daughters eat on the
floor. Soo I'll have to wait and figure out for myself what the deal is. I'm
working with a woman's rights organization, and my boss seems super feisty. It
should be good.
When I flew into Entebbe, my bags didn't make it, but I wasn't really surprised,
because I'd had really good luck throughout my entire life with that kind of
stuff. I was due. And I have them now, so no big. I was just the dirty girl
for a couple of days, wearing the same clothes, not showering... it happens.
We went to a zoo and there were monkeys running around like squirrels. I guess
not all of Uganda is actually like that... I was pretty excited when I thought I
would wake up to monkeys on my windowsill. But no. And then I apparently
"harassed" a monkey... I thought we were just playing, but he got a little
angry and started chasing me. It's important to remember what the signs say:
If you tease the monkeys, they'll fight back and react just as you would!
Driving through Uganda was nuts mainly because I had no idea it was so... I
don't know, CARS EVERYWHERE! It was polluted! Just lots and lots of smog,
which blew my mind, in Kampala. And then we hit the rainforest. So COMPLETE
OPPOSITE. Such is the way of the world. DICHOTIMIZED.
Each day I will ride to work on a boda-boda... aka the back of a bicycle. It's
basically what we did in Angers all the time, only the seat has a cushion, and
there is a footrest to set your legs on. No pain in the IT band. HOLLA. We
took a boat ride down the Nile the other day. This mainly involved me making
lots of jokes about how we were all in "De-Nile" and everyone else asking what
we were in denial about. We're going to go rafting sometime. Jinja is the
source of the Nile river and has mad rapids. People die and break their legs.
But I'll wear a helmet.
They have a ridiculous amount of food here. Remember how I worried about losing
weight? HA! Not going to happen. I'm going to gain it, if anything. They
have these things called Chapati... more like... CHA-PARTY for my mouth! Ha...
but seriously. It's like naan. And I love naan. Sometimes I feel like it's
Indiana, because there is a ton of corn, cows roaming the streets, and
chickens. But it's not. This is Africa.
Hmm what else? The people are all just really nice. I've been trying to speak
Luganda, the local language, with them. Mostly it just ends up coming out with
a French accent. And lots of French words to fill in what I don't know. They
think it's really hilarious though, when white people try to speak the
language. They're all just very good natured and supportive of having people
from the West come in. And they are soo sharp yo! Like sharply dressed. I'm a
bum. I don't really own any shirts with collars which has immediately put me at
a disadvantage.
The people I'm here with are pretty cool... one girl was in the peace corps, and
one studied in Angers last year. Which was super random. And I'm pretty sure
she stayed with Brian's host dad... hahahhaha more on that later.
Okay so I promise to make these more exciting, but I figured I should just tell
you guys I'm alive/give you some basic background.
love love love!
-- Lisa
Cambodia
13 years ago
