ngende kati

So this is my last email from Uganda... it comes on a strange day, after a night of weird social-psychological nightmares when I awoke to discover one of our farm hands had died during the night and I had simultaneously been attacked by bed bugs. So I'm in a bizarro mood. But -- I have many things to say.

Part of me would like to reflect upon my entire experience and wrap it up, but I have also had some adventures during the past few weeks. So we'll just start with them.

1. WYCLEF JEAN. Was amazing. Ahhh! The concert... was such a spectacle... in such a Ugandan way. First of all, most of the night was dedicated to a cell phone company merger. We got to see videos about Celtel and Zain. There were fireworks. I got a free T-shirt and wore it on my head like a turban. The first headliner didn't come out until well after midnight (the concert started at 6)... and he had a mohawk. And was wearing a kilt. DJ BENNY D! He was sweet, actually. And then Wyclef came out, but honestly, me and my friends didn't know it was him until he'd gone through a few songs and got to one we recognized. He carried a blowtorch around the stage and kept yelling things. Then he got on a forklift and rode around through the crowd until he got tired and started yelling, "PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN! Stop the DAMN TRUCK! Wyclef
WANTS TO GET OFF THE DAMN TRUCK!" I was entertained.

2. I get home from Kampala and find Uncle Pi is mysteriously missing. In the morning, I am told that Uncle Pi. Is. In. JAIL. Yes. My soft-spoken, Bible-toting, intellectual engineer Uncle Pi has been locked up. Over the course of the week, I slowly found out it was for a bounced check. Then I found out that actually... Uncle Pi had run away from his family 9 months ago,UNBEKNOWNST TO ALL (Hajat included), and had been HIDING IN OUR HOUSE as a MISSING PERSON/FUGITIVE the whole time. WHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!!!!!! His wife showed up to the police station after a few days, and she had it out with Hajat until they both realized they had both been deceived by the wily Uncle Pi. So she whisked away old Uncle Pi, who was never to be seen by Lisa again. So that was random.

3. Oh yes, and last Saturday was the day I was wasted by the River Nile. Yes. I went rafting. On the rapids. And it destroyed me. I went with a few interns and we had 3 hungover British students in our raft who kept saying "let's go bloody crazy!" and "let's bloody flip the boat!". Now, my thinking was, either we don't flip the boat and look awesome -- or we do flip the boat and it's awesome: we win either way. But then we flipped the boat... and for 40 seconds, we were all tossed through the longest rapid in Uganda, occasionally being teased with the appearance of air until -- no! Just another mouthful of water! And that was when I realized yes, death by drowning might be the worst way to die. After the first fall, our boat was completely silent. It shut the British dudes up reeeal fast. We did well for most of the course, but we still flipped on the last one as well. I thought I was going to die there too. I guess I didn't. End results of the rafting experience were a massive sun burn and a sinus infection. But I'm still glad I did it.

In other news, this morning I was given a silver bracelet with a bow-struck heart and the words I LOVE YOU by a 12 year old boy I once said hi to on the street.

I also met the Jinja bishop while walking down the road one day (he drives a Hummer...).

Hajat bought me a Muslim-Swahili skirt that I've been wearing to work. One day I was trying to buy a geography book for my brothers (they thought America was next to France) and the man refused to accept my haggling. But then his boss walked over, pointed at my Muslim skirt and said, "She is a Ugandan. Give her Ugandan price!" So I've been wearing it EVERYWHERE in hopes that lightning will strike twice.

People also keep asking me if I'm Indian. I still don't understand this. Even one of my co-workers said, "But surely you are at least mixed-blood! Your mother must be from India!" Most kids have started calling me sister or teacher. I thought the sister thing was a cool African thing, because African guys used to say it to Gloria all the time in France. I felt like I really must be fitting in. But then I found out that all the kids just think I'm a nun.

So I leave tomorrow... I hate saying goodbye, it's always an awkward time for me, and
each time I have to leave somewhere, I became even more aware of this in myself. I think my emotions in leaving Uganda have been manifesting themselves in other things... mainly, the Olympics. I mean, I love the Olympics. SO MUCH. But watching CNN in the morning... seeing how America went 1-2 in the women's gymnastics all-around... I got teary-eyed. I read an article about a Ugandan Olympic runner... and got teary-eyed. I thought about the Chinese people and all the pride they have in hosting the Olympics... and I am overwhelmed with emotion. I made Hajat a photo album with captions in Luganda so she could understand them. That made me emotional too. I don't know, I just know I'm really going to miss it here, mostly because I really have made some good friends. But I'll cut the mush. Tonight we're having chapati (what else?) for my last meal, then I start my journey back to Valpo tomorrow. It will be a fun little endeavor: Entebbe to Nairobi, Nairobi to London, train from London to Paris, Paris to Boston, Boston to Chicago, bus from Chicago to Valpo. Woo! I do not have confidence in my luggage's ability to complete the journey in a timely fashion, but we'll see. Hopefully I make it in a timely fashion...

Thank you all for being spectators and accomplices during my summer in Uganda.

Sincerely,
Lisa Renee Floran