My Lucky Day

What a day.

I walked to UNAD this morning, and I think everyone in Kampala got together and decided to acknowledge me more. It was crazy! Twice as many people as usual yelled “muzungo” and tons more cars/bodas honked at me. Two boda drivers actually pulled up next to me and stopped their bikes to try to convince me to accept a ride, offering to drive me for free. They didn’t seem to believe I liked “footing it.” But I walked all the way there.

I got to UNAD around 11:00 am. I hadn’t been there yet this week. I walked in right as everyone was going to a meeting, so I went to a couch and starting reading. Three or four hours later, the meeting ending. In the US, people would tell you to come back because the meeting would be long, but I got another lesson in Ugandan sense of time. They didn’t need to mention it because no one minds waiting. I was actually fine; thank goodness I brought a book.

Florence came back and gave me the details about next week’s conference on HIV/AIDS education for disabled populations, which I decided to attend. It is in Masaka, which is south of Kampala and about 30 miles south of the Equator! I am going south of the Equator! I am so excited; the only sad thing is that I don’t know if there will be any flushing toilets for me to see it drain in the opposite direction from the Northern Hemisphere. If you go to the Equator in Uganda, they totally show you the toilet demonstration. Anyway, I am excited to see another part of Uganda. Masaka is right on Lake Victoria, which hopefully I will be able to see.

Since I hadn’t been at UNAD in a while, one woman asked me if I had “been lost.” It is a Ugandan phrase that means someone was not around for a while, but I still haven’t quite figured out how to respond to it. I wasn’t around, but I wasn’t actually lost. So I just smiled.

Florence invited me to a meeting in the afternoon, and I decided not to attend because I had some other UNAD people I wanted to talk to. After Florence left, someone casually mentioned that the meeting was on HIV/AIDS education, so I ran to catch up with Florence. I’m super glad I went. I met the head honchos of a bunch of DPOs (Disabled Persons Organizations) who I heard speak at the conference a few weeks ago, and they all agreed to meet with me and gave me their cards. The meeting started about 1 ½ hours late…I don’t think I will ever get used to Ugandan time. In addition, the meeting was held in a small library of materials on HIV/AIDS education for the disabled!!! Needless to say, I am going back there soon. It was quite a lucky day.

Tonight we had waffles for dinner, so I will be in a good mood for the rest of the night. I am currently compiling notes and questions from today’s meeting and trying to read the news…those webpages are the hardest to get to load. So let me know is something big happens in the world because I might miss it.

Sarah

Heinz Ketchup

Hello,

The power is back on, the internet is working, and I am ready to blog.

Yesterday was a unexpectedly crazy day. Brian (he is a missionary, he is the one with 5 kids under 7, I might have messed up that age before, but Julie is 7) told me that there were some kids in their program (Hope Alive!) that were from the deaf school. So Dorothy (who is a Ugandan that works for Hope Alive!) took me to the deaf school because she has been their contact. We went via public, taking a taxi (remember that is actually van that runs like a bus) to the school…in the pouring rain. We waited about an hour to talk to the headmistress. I told her about my project and she seemed skeptical. I am not sure exactly what she is skeptical about, but she sure seemed it. Skeptical that she will be able to help me? That I can do this research project? I don’t know, but after some convincing she agreed to meet with me next week. So that is the plan.

So shortly after I got home, I got another call from Brian. He invited me to dinner with his family at a restaurant in Garden City (the mall). I’m sorry, I don’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I remember that its theme was Native Americans. No joke. It had a ton of things for kids to do – two trampolines, a kids movie playing, three videogame consoles, places to color, and probably more. So needless to say it’s a great restaurant for a family with 5 energetic kids. I had a cheeseburger and chips (French fries). But I need to tell you about the horrible realization that I had during this meal. I have forgotten what American Heinz ketchup tastes like. This is how I know: Heinz ketchup is hard to find in Uganda, but I’d had it a couple of times and noticed that it was good, but just a little bit off. But yesterday, the ketchup tasted normal. So I have forgotten the taste of ketchup! But I would take Ugandan Heinz ketchup any day over what is much more common: Top Up, the common “equivalent” is actually tomato-flavored water.

This is Abby. She is two. And she pretty much always looks like this, even when she’s not on a trampoline.

Here is a picture of Brian and the youngest two kids, Emily and Christian, who are both 1 year old. They are climbing out of the enclosed trampoline.

So today has been incredibly low key. I went to the bank and bought airtime for my cell phone. But for the rest of the day I have been working on my research and reading for pleasure.

Pineapple is so much better here; it is a lot sweeter. We had it with ice cream tonight. The ice cream was vanilla, strawberry, and lime flavored. It was actually a really good combination.

So that’s it for tonight. Tomorrow looks like it will be another eventful day. And a shout out to Grandpa – get better so I can come visit in September (I love you too Grandma)!

Sarah

Most Welcome

Here is the moment you have all been waiting for…today’s restaurant was I Love New York Kitchen! I am totally serious. It is a restaurant that serves pizza, bagels, milkshakes, burgers, and everything else American. It is on the ground floor of the parking garage at the mall, Garden City. It has outdoor seating, which means you are sitting in the parking garage. I went with a big group of people. First the family, parents: Brian and Renee, kids: Julianne, Hannah, Abby, Emily, and Christian. Then three other people approximately my age, Kate (in the middle in the photo below), Jenny (on the right), and GJ (he took the picture). Kate leaves tomorrow morning after being in Uganda for 8 months, so we took her back to her apartment to say bye and take all of her remaining American candy sent from home. I got gummy worms and a Symphony bar.

Church was also good this morning. We sang one Happening song (I will call upon the Lord) which was a nice reminder of home. A remarkable number of people there remembered my name, but since Ugandans speak softly out of respect, I never learned their names in the first place. Ugandans are incredibly welcoming though; they always, always say “You are most welcome” especially the first few times you visit. Brian preached; the sermon was an hour long. I am not joking. And we were so squished in the pews that a Ugandan girl was practically on my lap. So I only heard about half of the sermon.

Tonight consists of leftover soup and working on my research. Any company online would be greatly appreciated.

Sarah

Hope Alive!

Hello,

Today I went to the Hope Alive! Saturday club. Hope Alive! is a sponsorship program for Ugandan kids living in poor neighborhoods, which seem to be called slums here. They feed, clothe, and pay the education fees for these children. The Saturday program is breakfast, playing, Bible study, a mini class, and lunch. I spent pretty much the whole time observing and taking pictures. As I have said before, nothing makes me happier than taking pictures of children, especially when they are playing outside in the sunlight. I plan on going back to help out for the rest of my Saturdays here.

I have finally learned more about the Ugandan food I have been eating. Check out the picture I took of my plate. At the very top of the plate is shredded cabbage. Then, going clockwise, is rice covered in g-nut sauce. This is a peanut sauce (they are called ground nuts here), that actually looks much more lavender in real life. Next are beans. Then a piece of Irish potato (there is one other type of potato in Uganda but I don’t know what it’s called and Irish is definitely better), and finally posho (which kinda blends in with the cabbage). Posho is made from cassava and has absolutely no taste whatsoever. You have to mix it with the other food on your plate. All of the Ugandan children eat all of the food on the plates with their hands. My portion was actually a bit smaller than what is given to the children (I was given a “muzungo portion”) because a lot of these kids will only eat the breakfast and lunched provided on Saturdays.

Tune in tomorrow to hear about the restaurant I am going to after church. I have been hearing about this place since the day I got here…but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out what it is!

Sarah

Pizza, chocolate, and American movies

Hello,

Today was another packed day in Kampala. I always dread the days I begin without plans, but I am always pleasantly surprised. I spent the afternoon doing internet research about people I want to interview. I found an amazing website that lists all the contact information, including mobile number and e-mail, for all the Members of Parliament in Uganda. This is really amazing because 4 of them specifically represent persons with disabilities. And one of them is the first deaf member of Ugandan parliament, and I have been reading about him since this whole project started. And he is in Kampala, so hopefully I will be able to meet him.

This evening John and Cindy had three young women that work for Focus over for dinner, Joy, Gabrielle, and Audrey. I spent some time with them; they are incredibly nice. Talking to Audrey was also really helpful because she is finishing a master’s thesis on NGOs so she gave me her opinion about what she doesn’t like about the NGOs in Uganda and also the common perception of disabled individuals in Kampala.

Then, I went over the Brian and Renee’s house for dinner. They have five kids under the age of seven. Friday night is movie and pizza night. So we had homemade pizza (the crust was made from the Giordano’s recipe) and watched the movie Royal Wedding. Once the kids went to bed, it was time for the double feature; we watched Runaway Jury and ate homemade chocolate ice cream, but unfortunately the power goes out a lot in Kampala so the cream was a bit spoiled. Most Ugandans don’t like chocolate, so this meal was 100% American. And I wasn’t dropped off until almost midnight! (The latest I have been out since I got here was about 5:00 pm.) It was a really fun night.

During the past two weeks I have heard a lot about one of the projects here called Hope Alive. It focuses on helping orphaned children and fragile families. So I am going to the Saturday program tomorrow to help out. They also have two deaf children that are part of the program, but the good news is that they think one of them is over 18 years old, so I might be able to interview him. That would be too good to be true.

Goodnight.

Sarah

Yesterday and today

Hello,

Yesterday (July 23), Sam, Alice, and their nine-month-old Timothy came over to the house for dinner. Sam works for FOCUS and Alice is a textile designer. It was a really wonderful evening. Timothy and I played (surprise, surprise) with a teddy bear and blocks. Alice brought over her sketch and design books from college; she is an incredibly talented artist.

Today was a very productive day for my BA thesis. I worked on most of the internet things that I needed to do before heading out to start interviewing. Mainly, I googled the organizations that I learned about at the conference last week. Then Jenny (the very first missionary I met at Kampala Baptist Church) helped me find them all on the map and figure out how to get there via public, as it’s called.

I also walked to UNAD today, but no one was really there. So I borrowed the enormous USL dictionary they have there (different from the one that was mailed to me) and went on my way. I ended up taking a 2 hour walk, circling the entire neighborhood I live in (Kololo). It was great because I passed by NGOs that are applicable to my research that I had never heard of. There are a ridiculous number of NGOs in Kampala. I won’t have time to visit all of the NGOs specifically for disabled people; there are just too many. But I will make it to the important ones.

I am going to go to sleep early. I was woken up this morning by two girls, Hannah and Abbie, that are six(?) and two years old (there are three more kids in the family, all under the age of nine). Their mother stopped by to talk to Cindy, and she told me that her husband has a contact at a deaf school and he has already agreed to meet with me. So that will be good.

Goodnight. Thanks for all of the continued support via e-mails, facebook, blogs, etc. You can’t imagine what a difference it makes.

Sarah

Lazy Tuesday

Hello,

Today was a very, very low-key day because my stomach was acting up. It was inevitable. But I am fine, I just needed to stay where I knew there was a bathroom. Nothing unique to Africa. So I just read a novel and told myself that soon I would work on my research. So it’s 10:30 pm and I should get started any minute now.

I did take a walk today to go to an atm. In Uganda, if you can afford it, you have to hire a house lady. It is considered giving back to the community. So Deborah did my laundry; she washes the clothes, hangs them to dry outside, and then irons them thoroughly to kill the things that got on the clothes while they were drying. So I went to get money to pay Deborah. And on that walk I took some picture of where I am staying and the surrounding streets. Cindy and John (and I) live on the left side of the house (when you are facing it, like in the picture below). The large window on the second floor is my room. I just realized that it is covered by the tree in the picture. Oh well.

Goodnight.