old blogs

Here are two blogs that I wrote during the past two weeks...

greetings from jinja
hello,i have arrived in jinja, uganda, my base of operations for the next three months or so. the plane trip was good: lots of food and hot towels and movies (sex and the city was good, dark knight not so much...quite the opposite of what i expected.) so i landed in entebbe at 9pm on Wednesday after a little more than 24 hours of flying. i got through customs ok and dragged my 150 lbs of stuff out of the terminal, began sweating profusely, and found a man holding a sign with my name (spelled Umberelle Reyes) We drove to the Airport Guest House Entebbe with a Swedish organic produce distributor and two Dutch on holiday where, much to my surprise and enjoyment, i discovered that both my cell phone and the oscillating fan functioned very well.(mom, can you check online to see how much that phone call cost?) I pulled back the mozzie net, turned out the light, and fell asleep. (it was very very very dark) I awoke and indeterminite number of hours later to (what I believed was) the sound of the oscillating fan being tortured. I got up and realized that the fan was fine and the noise was coming from outside. Later I learned that the screeching, squeaky wheel noise comes from what I believe is some kind of fowl, perhaps a guinea hen? (it is large, black and white speckled, maybe 20lbs, 2 feet long from beak to tail feather and has a black beak with a red nose thing) What ever it was, it was very excited that it was morning and there were bugs or it was very terrified because there was a hawk in a nearby tree...I'm not quite sure. After a lovely (warm) shower I ate breakfast with the organic swede who recommended both rafting in the nile and going to see the gorillas. he also informed me of a mexican restaurant located in a hotel in jinja that also has an outdoor pool. i informed him that both outdoor swimming and good mexican food are two things that i don't find very often, nevermind together. i vow to find it and try both, maybe at the same time. Afterward, I changed some money, (i was only cut in front of twice before i realized that i needed to stand within breathing distance of the person in front of me) and purchased a cell phone. (Conversation between me and the 2 women in the pink cell phone shack: Me: I'd like to buy a cell phone. Woman 1 & 2 together: Great! Me: How much are they? Woman 1: Where are you from! Woman 2: You are so big! Me: America, yeah they make us big. Woman 1: Where in America! Woman 2: (looking me up and down) Where did you get your hair! Me: Uh, Alaska, its next to Canada; i grew it myself. Woman 1 & 2 together: Ohhhhhhhh! the conversation continued in the same vein for about 20 minutes, but I did get a phone) Later, I drove with Abdullah 35 km to Kampala, a big, crazy, dirty city with equal numbers of big vans full of cursing commuters, tiny motor bikes (boda-bodas) with one cursing commuter, and people standing amidst selling sugar cane and newspapers. We made it through without incident and continued on 65 km more to Jinja. I was greeted by the other volunteers (i believe there average age is 20.75) and walked to "the village" to meet the women and children. We took the shortcut along paths next to the train tracks where i was happy to receive my first "Mzungu!" "whiteperson!" We entered the village, many hotel style cement shacks, with 5 or so two room "apartments" none of which have running water and share one room with electricity. We quickly gathered a following of "mzungu!" yelling children and wandered around the red-clay labyrinth to find the Suubi women. I was introduced to a few and ended up in a grassy yard in front of a block of houses with 25 kids from infants to adolescents. They all grabbed hands and started singing "Make a circle, Make a circle." We played games for the next 2 hours including: the African version of red rover (we make 2 lines, walk toward each other while singing something in luganda, pick 2 people to try to yank the other across the center line to their team); the African version of duck duck goose (some one is outside the circle and starts a call and response song and grabs one person out of the circle they run around singing, pick another person out of the circle and repeat) and i attempted the African version of the hokey pokey (we stick our arms in, we stick our arms out, we do the hokey pokey and turn around and that's what its all about) I sweated and laughed. They sang a song about my butt being good and taught me some clapping games. The highlight was the game that involved opening your eyes very wide and rolling your eyeballs, resulting in my (only) right contact falling to the ground. I bent over and started searching the grass; so did all of the kids. Afraid they would move it away, I said "stop!" They said "stop!" (this sounded like a fun game) After a few minutes I determined that it was gone when a little girl?/boy? next to me said "shiny and blue!" S/he found it. I was shocked. We did a quick lesson on eyeball anatomy and 20th century optical appliances and resumed playing. We eventually called a boda-boda and i enjoyed my first, very bumpy, ride on an African motorbike. All in all Day 1 gets a 10 out of 10. Tomorrow we go to Massesse, the poor side of town, to feed people chappati (flat bread) beans (pink and watery) and oranges (very orange) and go back for more games.





Thursday, November 13, 2008
So...last Friday we (5 volunteers) got into our rattly van, drove to central market, picked up 70 green oranges and 100 hot chappatis, and drove to Masese. As we drove down the road, I noticed many, many children running away from us. We parked, carried our tub of oranges and chappatis, and walked between two mud buildings into an open area surrounded by mud huts on all sides. This dusty yard was filled with 400 children holding plates or cups scrambling into a line-like mass. As we set down the tubs on a bench under a tree two ladies brought a giant steaming cauldron of beans and a ladle. And it began. The Candadian boy-volunteers organized the line and let 5 kids walk up to us at a time to get one chappati, one cup of beans, and one orange. My role was to distribute 1/2 a chappati and make sure each kid had 2 mokonos (hands) on their plate. Most of the kids were yelling and pushing on the line, but transformed to wide-eyed deaf-mutes as soon as they approached the food. Children who tried to cut the line were sent to the back. Older children were told they couldn't get any. The line lasted for 3 hours until everything was gone.On Saturday we had the Suubi necklace buying meeting for the "newer" ladies and on Sunday for the "experienced" ones. Both days began with the volunteers sitting at the back of the Suubi building (a roof with three walls and a cement floor) behind a coffee table. Many ladies were already sitting on large, colorful woven mats when we arrived. They asked us to lead a prayer, and then the buying began. The "new" ladies made 2 necklaces which they turned into Julie to be checked to ensure tightness, correct clasps, and for "no design." (the magazine beads are strung between seed beads randomly) If they were good, they were passed to Josh who measured them for correct length. If they did not pass, Julie (with Daisy's translation into Luganda and Acholi Luo) explained how they should be fixed. Julie then paid each woman for each necklace. I clasped the necklaces, placed them in a bag, and gave each woman new clasps for the next week. While this was going on in the back, the ladies were sitting, chatting, and beading. They gave each other feedback ("too many red ones" "no design!") and the more skilled ladies tie off the clasps tightly to ensure they are correct. After 3 hours, a lady brought us sodas. (nasty, nasty sweet and purple) I choked down 1/2 the bottle. I had to finish it a)because it was polite and b)because the lady needed the bottle back to get her deposit. I went outside and got some kids to drink it. On Monday, I walked to the giant central market. It sells any manner of fruit, vegetable, fresh and dried beans, flour, clothing, shoes, newspapers, live poultry, spices, intestines, hardware, kitchen utensils, and electronics. The other volunteers told me what the mzungu (white person) prices were: 500 for a mug of beans, 600 for a 1/2 kilo of rice, 150 for 3 tomatoes. Unfortunately, familiar mzungu prices are not the same for new mzungus. I could not bargain below 1000 for a mug of beans, 1000 for a 1/2 kilo of rice, and 100 per tomato. I was sweaty and irritated that I was arguing about less than a dollar. But I persisted, found some reasonably priced cabbages, and paid way too much for rice and tomatoes. On the way home I debated just paying high mzungu prices (1700 Ugandan shillings = $1 US) but determined that it was not good practice to allow people to rip me off with my knowledge and consent. Getting something for nothing helps no one.Right now it is dark and there is a small, naked Ugandan child spinning with his?her? towel outside of the internet cafe. I am sweating and my forearms are sticking to the wooden desk. But it is dark and breezy, so the walk home should be nice. I am enjoying each day and new experience. My plan is to return to the market each day and become a "regular" so I will get not so expensive mzungu prices.I hope your day to day is going well and you do not have sweaty forearms.