Can't Believe It's The End Of May

Over the past month, I have been married at least 5 times, have had at least 1 kid, and am seriously considering getting a second husband. No, you haven't missed a large chunk of my life. I have developed a habit of creating an imaginary husband for myself when taxi drivers ask if I'm married or not. Sometimes I have a child, sometimes I don't. It really depends on how I feel that day. I think it kind of mixes up the whole taxi-ride experience, and it helps me avoid the marriage proposal that sometimes comes after a taxi driver discovers that I'm not married yet.

In other news, there's not too much to report. Now that Teresa's gone, the apartment is getting dustier by the day and no matter how many times I sweep and mop, it just doesn't seem to get any cleaner (or maybe I'm just really bad at cleaning). I have developed a new skill of making pretty good omelets. Other than that, I don't think my cooking skills have improved this year. 

It's crazy to think that I have around 100 days left in Nigeria, give or take a couple days. It's the end of May! Pretty sure I didn't believe it was the end of April last month and I probably sound redundant, but it's true- I can't believe it. This is the longest I have remained in country to date. In the past, I have left Abuja for one reason or another. But soon I'll hit the 4 month mark of consistent living in Abuja. Pretty crazy. It feels like time has flown, yet is moving slowly. A lot of the friends I have made here have left or are leaving. There seems to be a pretty high turnover rate when summer hits. Good-byes are sad, but it's awesome that I've gotten the opportunity to meet all these people. And hopefully I'll stay in touch with some of them, maybe even get to visit them wherever they end up in the world. 

Happy Year of the Dragon!

To recap the past month:

The strike ended after a week and things pretty much went back to normal. Fuel prices went up a little bit and has made riding taxis a little more expensive, but not anything staggering. Now I just have to haggle with the taxi drivers a little more. That's nothing too special.

One day, Teresa and I took a very fun cab ride in the morning to work. It turns out he had no idea where he was going so we drove all around the Wuse and Maitama neighborhoods. One might have guessed that we were being kidnapped, but don't worry. We weren't. He just was a little clueless. And I'm not even sure he was a taxi driver since he went down a one-way ramp to get onto the highway. Then we proceeded to drive in the wrong direction on this highway. It was both comical and terrifying. He then couldn't find a way to get onto a ramp to get us OFF the highway. To put it mildly, I did not keep his number to call him again for his services.

Chinese New Year in Nigeria was great! We went to a gathering for the Taiwan Trade Commission. (Taiwan does not have an embassy since it's not recognized as an independent country here.) They had HOT POT, nian gao and tang yuan! It was delicious. We pretty much ate ourselves into a food coma. An amazing way to ring in the Year of the Dragon. I never expected to eat so much good food in Nigeria! I wish I could have celebrated with my family (Dad, I'm still waiting for my red envelope) but it was nice to have other Chinese people and new friends to celebrate it with.

Other than that, I don't have anything extremely exciting to report. The weather is getting hotter and hotter, which means I keep the a/c on a lot more and turn it down. I'm going to miss Harmattan weather with its cool nights. For those readers who don't know, I'll be heading to Atlanta for 2 weeks of statistical analysis software training this month. Exciting! Just a little something to break up the time I have left in Nigeria.

Happy Holidays!

Tomorrow night, I'm flying back to Wisconsin to spend the holidays with my family. I'm strangely excited to wear a winter jacket and wear holiday socks. It's been hard to get into the festive holiday spirit when it's still 90 degrees outside and sunny. However it is Harmattan season, so the evenings have cooled down quite a bit. I love the weather now. I wish it would stay this way, but I have been warned that soon the weather will turn and we will hit triple digits.

I have nothing really important to report about the last week, but here are some highlights:

• Last Friday, I had an amazing dinner with some new friends at a Lebanese restaurant. We had spinach pies, stuffed grape leaves, lamb, hummus, and other delicious goodies. The food was fantastic, probably some of the best I've had in Abuja (other than the Chinese place we go to).
• The past week has been interesting in respect to taxis. People keep telling me there is a fuel crisis in Abuja and the lines of cars waiting to get gas at gas stations are extremely long. I've had to pay more for taxis recently than I ever have in the past. However yesterday I noticed the lines at the gas station were no longer as long as they were before. No matter how many taxi drivers I talk to, no one seems to be able to explain what happened.
• Washing my sheets by hand is really rather difficult, but I gave it my best attempt.
• There is a spider that hangs out above the water heater in my bathroom. He and I have come to an understanding that as long as he stays up there, I won't attempt to kill him. But the minute he comes down, he takes his life into his own hands because I will chase him down with my shoe (which is what I did with the last spider I saw in the apartment).
• I have mosquito bites everywhere. I have no idea where I got them from, but I am so itchy. I have definitely upped my chances of developing malaria in the last few days.
• Many people are on leave at work, so the office has gotten very quiet. It's kind of nice.
• My face is healing pretty nicely and didn't end up being as bad as I imagined it would be. So I'm now ready to go home and take Christmas pictures with my family!

To all my Wisconsin readers (mainly the ones located around the Milwaukee area), I'd love to see you when I'm home!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's December and I want to see snow

Life in Abuja is winding down slowly. Teresa is heading back to the States today, so I will have approximately 2 weeks by myself. Let's just hope I don't destroy the house before she comes back. The past few weekends, I've had the chance to go out and meet lots of new people in Abuja. It has helped me expand my social circle and see what else is out there. Work has been surprisingly busy. I've had a few projects thrown at me, so I've been trying to wade through a lot of new information and learn about the programs here. Abuja is growing on me. It has its days of pure frustration but I really don't mind it here. The city is pretty easy to live in. I have nothing unusually interesting to report, but for all you readers hailing from the Midwest- I'll be back in the area around Christmas! Wisconsin, you better provide me with some snow while I'm home!!!

Weeeeee BEST CHINESE FOOD

Imagine a really full, satisfied, happy four year old. Squeals, rolls around on the floor, clapping, giggling. Yes, that would be me. Pretty much had a winning weekend here in Abuja. We kicked off Friday with the best meal I've had in Abuja yet. A woman I met at yoga brought Teresa and me to an undisclosed, pseudo-restaurant. It's an impressive place, but not open to the public. You definitely have to know someone to get lunch or dinner: my friend from yoga knows the manager of the restaurant- Uncle B. Wow... pretty much got our socks blown off. Potstickers, chow mein, short ribs, fresh homegrown Chinese veggies, CHICKEN FEET, & SQUAB. It was like I died and went to heaven. This meal was probably the first time I've been totally satisfied and full since I've gotten to Abuja (not saying I don't like Nigerian food or subsisting on crackers, but there's something to be said about eating the foods that you are most familiar with and associate with home). After a faaaaaantastic meal (and not having to pay because everyone is way too nice), Teresa and I went to our first US Marine party. The US Marines have a house here where they used to throw parties every other Friday night, or so, for the US embassy people and pretty much the whole expat community. However after the UN bombing, security was heightened, curfews were enforced, and the parties were cancelled. When Teresa and I first got here, all we heard about were these parties- great place to go, relax, meet people in a secure environment, etc. This Friday, they held their first party since the bombing. It was good to meet new people. The music was a bit loud, so it was hard to actually get to know anyone as you're screaming into their ear. But it was fun. We even spotted our mentor that evening. And don't worry, the Marines were true gentlemen. After kicking everyone out (cuz the party ended at midnight due to curfew still being enforced for the Embassy employees), they drove Teresa and me home in their armored SUV to ensure that we didn't get into any trouble on our way home.

Saturday was our weekly run to Wuse Market with the guy from the Taiwanese Trade Mission (same guy as last week). He's so nice to be willing to drive us to the market and accompany us as we attempt to haggle our way around. We managed to buy a Sam's Club sized amount of toilet paper, so hopefully we'll be set for a while on the TP front. We also got some more fabric to make curtains for our bathrooms. We didn't have curtains before, and I'm pretty sure our neighbors from the penthouse could see into our bathroom... Not exactly ideal. At the market, young boys try to follow us around with empty wheelbarrows. They want to wheel your stuff around for you while you shop for money. As a true Midwesterner, I think I can do it myself and can never bring myself to actually hire someone. I know it'd be nice to help them since they want to earn some money, but the independent, I-can-carry-this-myself, I-could-use-the-workout mindset takes precedent. So imagine me, lugging my Sam's Club, almost as big as me thing of toilet paper around. Probably should have gotten someone to take a picture... I'm still trying to figure out if I can become truly African (because I saw this in Uganda also) and carry stuff on my head. I've only gotten as far as walking 5 feet with a notebook on my head. I think I have a ways to go before I can carry a giant thing of toilet paper on my head.

This morning, Uncle B invited Teresa and me to breakfast at the Hilton Hotel. Pretty upscale eating. We had pastries, fruit, and slices of salmon, duck breast, roast beef, prosciutto, and cheese. Very delicious. Afterward, Uncle B brought us back to his place at the hotel. We hung out, took a nap, and watched some TV, while Uncle B did some work. After Uncle B drove us home, we just spent the afternoon relaxing. I read a bunch of stuff for work and played on the internet. It turns out 5GB of data is actually a lot more than I thought it was, so I have quite a bit of data for internet left before the month comes to a close and I have to buy more internet. Tonight, Teresa and I went back to eat at the restaurant. Potstickers and tofu. Nom nom nom. My belly is so happy. Uncle B also gave us 40 frozen dumplings to take home and make on our own. He's been so kind and willing to help us out. My stomach is forever grateful to him.

Nigerian Language Lesson:
Oyibo (which originated from Igbo which is pronounced Ee-bo, not Ig-bo) = the Nigerian version of Mzungu = White Person

This Isn't Good-Bye, Just See You Later

Last night, the staff made me an epic "last supper." It was complete with fried chicken. Everything was delicious. It was awesome having everyone together. It has been an amazing 5 months. I cannot reiterate that enough. I'm so grateful to everyone who made my stay here so wonderful. Sembabule has become a home away from home.

And in true Sembabule style, we had no power for the last day, so I got to pack the last of my stuff by lantern light. Then as I was packing, we were visited by a grasshopper in our room. Thus my last encounter with nature involved me trying to catch a grasshopper. I'm going to miss Sembabule a lot!

Favorite memories from my trip:

• My first trip using public transportation from Sembabule to Kampala. I still feel incredibly sorry for the chicken in the trunk of the car. And I definitely lost some brain cells when I hit my head on the ceiling of the van.
• Talking to my parents while trying to get Bob out of my room
• Lake Bunyonyi… almost like paradise
• Watching a chicken get slaughtered
• 10 mzungus getting onto bodas in Kigali
• The bus trip back from Rwanda: nothing beats a blow out and then thinking the bus will tip over and kill us
• Jamming out to Top 40 tunes at work in Mubende with Claire
• Game nights in Sembabule
• Running to Haandi’s for a meal immediately after arriving in Kampala
• Learning to fry matoke
• Making awesome friends in Sembabule and Kampala
• Not getting malaria
• Being attached at the hip to Claire

No words can describe how much I cherish all the memories I’ve made on this trip. There aren't enough Thank Yous to pass around, but I'll say it again. I'm so thankful for this trip, for everyone I've met and gotten to know, for everyone who has helped remind me why I fell in love with Uganda. I hate good-byes. So I'm serious when I say this isn't good-bye. Two years ago, I told myself I'd find a way to come back, and I did. This time, I'm saying it again. I love Uganda. I will be back.

Last Days...

I only have a few days left in Sembabule... in Uganda in general, and I am incredibly sad. The things I will miss:

• Chapati and Rolexes
• My foam mattress and my pink, hole-ridden bed net
• Finding random amphibians hanging out in my room
• Getting away with not showering for a day (or two) because we don't have any water
• The music blasting from across the street (whether it's Ugandan music or a remix of Shania)
• Frying everything and anything we can get our hands on
• Wearing my head lamp
• Tea breaks at work
• My cell phone with its torch (aka flashlight)
• Pit latrines
• All the staff
• Claire
• And much, much more

Things I probably won't miss as much:

• Public transportation
• Getting woken up at 5am by a random cow, goat, or person yelling outside
• Red dust covering everything
• My hair never being actually clean
• Electricity problems
• Internet problems
• Bats hanging out around the pit latrine doors
• Finding ants in my food
• Getting called mzungu every 2 seconds
• The possibility of getting malaria with every mosquito bite I get
• The roads
• There are probably a few other things I am forgetting right now...

I am finishing up handing over my notes, documents, and just about everything related to the last 5 months to Claire and my supervisor. My supervisor is an amazing seamstress and is making the fabric the staff gave me into a dress for me in these last few days I'm in Uganda. I'm incredibly excited to wear it! I'll be heading into Kampala on Thursday and flying out of Entebbe in the middle of the night. Then over a full day later, I'll be landing in Milwaukee!

This experience has been amazing and I have loved every minute of it (even the unlovable minutes).

I love Uganda!

You're Twins?!?!?! Nope, Just Married

One of the TOTs told Claire and I that we were twins this week during the TOT training. As funny as that is, we look nothing alike. She's blonde, I'm Asian, she's a Gopher, I'm a Badger... Pretty sure it's as far from twin status as you can get. But honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better roommate here in Uganda. (Though I'll admit when I first heard I was getting a roommate, I was a bit worried that we'd hate each other and one person would smother the other in her sleep.)

Essentially we've become partners in crime, Siamese twins (attached at the hip, though not identical), and an old married couple. We live, work, cook, breathe, and function together, essentially 24/7 for 2.5 months by the time I leave. There are only the rare occasions when she or I go to do an activity for work without the other person. We have fallen into regular, predictable routines:

• We always sit in the same spots
• I shower first in the morning, then she showers
• When we cook, I usually cook and she usually washes the dishes
• We floss together before going to bed
• We pick up after each other
• We have our home theater and have the hardest time picking one movie to watch
• We hang out by reading together on weekends spent in Sembabule

We're even compatible interests:

• She likes pink and red Starburst, I like yellow and orange.
• She likes red and purple Skittles, I like yellow and green. There's no fighting over colors!
• We both share an insane addiction to Haribo, VitaSnacks, Sea Salt and Vinegar chips, and chapati
• Gilmore Girls, amongst other TV shows and movies we like

As for communication, often it only takes a few hand gestures or looks gets the message across. We have our inside jokes and late night chats about random stuff. What it comes down to is I got really lucky having Claire as my roommate and we are just like an old married couple. I can't imagine life without her!

I ate a Grasshopper

This weekend was my last trip into Kampala before I leave the country! It’s rather depressing to think about but don’t worry, the trip was very memorable. We got a matatu Friday morning to do the first leg of the trip to Masaka. I was sitting in the last row of the matatu. We’re speeding along; this matatu driver was a bit of a crazy driver. Eventually I notice the lady sitting to my left is holding the hood of a jacket. I then saw that she had vomit all down the front of her shirt. Oh boy… It looked like she was trying to vomit into the hood and somehow I didn’t think the hood would be that effective for holding her vomit. I always carry spare plastic bags with me (you never know when they’ll come in handy) and pulled one out for her. She then proceeded to vomit the rest of the trip to Masaka (she started really early on in our matatu ride). The entire time I was praying that 1) we wouldn’t get into an accident or else the bag of vomit would probably spill everywhere; 2) she wouldn’t accidentally let go of the bag and get vomit on me which I would have to live with for another several hours until we got to Kampala; 3) she would focus on getting the vomit in the bag and not on me; 4) we’d get to Masaka ASAP. TIA. We arrived in Masaka without any of the above mentioned issues. Woohoo!! Then Claire and I had to wait for 2 hours on a bus for it to fill before we started off toward Kampala. So I sat and waited forever. TIA.

After getting to Kampala, we (being very, very naughty) took one last boda boda ride to get to Haandi’s for lunch before it closed. It was worth it, but I admit, the entire time I was hoping this wasn’t the one occasion we would get into an accident. Don’t worry, we made it in one piece and no more boda boda rides for me. Lunch at Haandi’s was phenomenal as always. Afterwards, we headed to the country office for Claire to do some paperwork for her visa and to drop off something for the country director. Then we stopped at Game (a big grocery store) to pick up some snacks, including Oreos and Salt & Vinegar Pringles. We also got some red and silver tinsel for the room! We’re trying to make it very festive for Christmas. Later, we made it to our hotel and dropped all of our stuff off. Then we were off to Garden City. We went looking for a salon that our program manager told us about, Sparkles. We found it, and Claire got a haircut. While she was getting all her hair cut off, I went on a little shopping spree at Banana Boat. It was rather fun! After we met up again, we went to a small restaurant called New York Pizza Kitchen. It sells pasta, pizza, etc, but it ALSO has cupcakes, bagels, and legit malted milkshakes. Claire had a birthday cupcake, while I tried a milkshake. Yum! Since our trip into Kampala took almost 6 hours, we were both exhausted and headed back to our room. My friend came over later and we watched part of Sex and the City, the movie, and eventually went to bed.

Saturday was another long day. While Claire went to the post office, I headed to the African Craft Market to continue to do some shopping. We met up in Aristoc, the bookstore, and I restrained myself from buying any more books. It was really painful, but there’s no way I can carry any more books back to the US with me. Then we ran some errands and ended up at Café Java. Claire had lunch and headed to Sparkles for a pedicure. I stayed and waited to have lunch with a few friends. It was so nice seeing people in Kampala and enjoying a nice lunch. Later, Claire and I went to see Unstoppable at Garden City. What an intense and stressful movie! But I liked it. After the movie, we met up with some friends, had pizza for dinner, and then headed to the Sheraton Hotel to enjoy some of the lower key night life. We enjoyed the band outside again. Their songs included Toto’s Africa and Bob Marley’s One Love. Very fun. It was a long day but I got everything done that I needed to get done and was able to see some friends!

The trip back to Sembabule was a little less eventful than the trip into Kampala. BUT I did buy a grasshopper to eat while sitting on the bus, waiting for it to leave for Masaka. (I will post a picture when I can.) I tried a grasshopper the last time I was in Kampala so I thought it would be fitting to eat one this time too. The longer I stared at it in my hand, the less appetizing it got, so I tried not to think about it and popped it in my mouth. It was salty... and crunchy...

It was my last time sitting in the New Taxi Park, my last taste of the organized chaos. I'm going to miss walking through the insane maze of matatus to hunt down a mini bus to Masaka. Then the Masaka to Sembabule leg of the trip made me smile since they stuffed 5 adults into the backseat of the car per usual and the fuel gadge sat at empty the entire time. TIA!

It was a great weekend, and I’m really going to miss everything, from the ridiculous trips into the city, the crowdedness and pollution of Kampala, and so much more. Less than two weeks left in Uganda!!!

Board Games are Fun

On Monday and Tuesday, the International Director for our organization visited our Sembabule office and the program manager (and her husband) is here all week We spent some time discussing the M&E tools with the ID, explaining to her the changes, M&E data flow process, etc. The organization is so small that the ID is the only one working on the international programs at the Minnesota headquarters office (the org has domestic programs in the Twin Cities too) and when she visits Uganda, she has to have a lot of meetings to catch up with what’s happening on the ground. The ID had visited when I first got here at the beginning of my trip and now she comes at the end of my trip. So I’ve come full circle with her.

Having important visitors at the office means breakfast and dinner are made for all of us, along with the usual lunch. So Claire and I are living a life of luxury this week. Also, the PM also brought us brownies and bagels from Kampala on Sunday and they were finished by Monday night. Wow, I never knew how much I’d miss bagels! And I don’t even like chocolate, but the brownie was still delicious. In the evenings, we’ve been playing board games with the PM and her husband. They brought them from the States and it’s been really fun! I’ve learned how to play Ticket to Ride- Europe and Farkle. Last night, I dominated at both games. WOOT! (Noooo I don’t have a competitive streak at all.) Now I wish we had Bananagrams…

As for work, I am trying to work on getting the M&E tools translated into Luganda. Hopefully we can get those printed ASAP and ready to be used! I had arrived in country when the first cycle of M&E tools were printed. Now it’d be awesome for the edited tools to get printed as I leave. It’s also rather important to get these printed so we can train the new TOTs (that are being trained this week and next) on the newly edited tools during the M&E component of the training next week. We’ll also need to retrain our old TOTs on how to use the edited tools. Only a little over two weeks left for me to get everything finished before I head home!

Birthday shout-outs to JS, turning 24 today, and Claire, who turns 23 tomorrow! And yes, I do plan on providing Claire with birthday chapati and lighting a match to serve as a candle to stick in the middle of it.

Rwanda

I took the night bus to Kigali Thursday night. It was a pretty pleasant trip since we took a Kampala Coach bus, which has comfy reclining seats and only 2 seats in each row. I sat next to this Ugandan businessman who lives in Kigali and he told me that he had left Kigali at 9am Thursday morning, got to Kampala at 7, did his business, and was now returning to Kigali on the 10pm bus. That is SO much traveling! I was able to only sleep a few hours on the bus, but I remembered to bring a hoody this time so I didn’t freeze to death like I did when we rode the bus to Lake Bunyonyi. I highly recommend Kampala Coach Buses rather than Horizon Buses.

I walked across the Rwanda-Uganda border at around 6am, while it was still dark. It was extremely cold and rather eerie. After getting stamped in on the Rwanda side, I was able to watch the sun rise. As we drove the last leg of the trip to Kigali, I watched the Rwandan countryside pass by and it is breathtakingly beautiful. The sun was shining through the morning fog over the rolling hills of Eastern Rwanda. Absolutely amazing! I couldn’t help but smile.

We arrived in Kigali around 9am. This trip includes 4 Brits, 3 Swedes, and 2 Americans. Only the 2 Americans weren’t med students, but I felt rather confident that if anything happened to me, I’d have plenty of medical expertise to help me out. There are quite a lot of mzungus traveling together and we manage to attract a lot of attention. We were meeting 2 other British guys who I’d met one time in Kampala. They are working in a hospital in Kigali and we were able to all stay at their house for the weekend. We first exchanged money at the UTC and hung out in a very Western coffeehouse called Bourbon Café. It was very nice. Then we spent the afternoon at a pool by the house we were staying at. It was incredibly relaxing after being on the move for almost 12 hours. I was able to try Chinese takeout for dinner (this was the first time I had Chinese in Arica). The evening was spent hanging out with friends, exploring Kigali a little, and enjoying Kigali nightlife.

We all woke up and just hung out in the morning. The Swedes made breakfast for us Saturday morning. It was great. Then afterwards we headed for the Kigali Memorial Centre, aka the Genocide Museum. It was a somber afternoon. There were headsets that guided us around the museum, which included a section on the Rwandan Genocide, a section about different genocides that have occurred all over the world, and a particularly difficult section dedicated to the children who died in the Rwandan Genocide. Then outside there were gardens and mass graves. I think the museum is very tastefully done and is a must-see for anyone visiting Rwanda. Then to continue this experience, we had a late dinner at Hotel des Mille Collines aka Hotel Rwanda. It was almost surreal to look up to the roof as we were eating and to know that that’s where Paul Rusesabagina would have jumped from to commit suicide. I had such mixed feelings from enjoying the company of friends and amazingly delicious Western food and then knowing the reality of what happened there in the hotel and in Rwanda in general. I highly recommend the steak sandwich at the hotel though; it was incredible. The rest of the night was spent hanging out and continuing to enjoy Kigali.

I had to leave very early in the morning to make it back to Kampala to pick up Claire and then head back to Sembabule. Claire spent the weekend in Kampala and was kind enough to do a bit of grocery shopping for me so I didn’t need to do it when I arrived in Kampala. Let’s just say the trip back was… a bit difficult. I was on the road for about 17 hours. We had a blow out, well actually 2, about 45 minutes away from Mbarara (which is about 2 hours west of Masaka). The driver was going to continue driving with our blown tires if it were not for one incredibly outspoken Ugandan woman who demanded that we stop. Initially I didn’t know what had happened; I figured we had hit a big rock and since the driver was still going, there was no problem. Not so much. The driver finally pulled over and they worked on changing the tires. That took a while. Then there was about a solid hour on the drive between Masaka and Kampala when I thought we were going to get into an accident and I might die. Our driver drove like a madman. Considering that we had blown 2 tires already, I would have thought he would have driven a bit more carefully. Not the case. Since there’s a ton of road construction between Masaka and Kampala, the roads are really bad: lots of potholes, giant holes, speed humps, gravel, etc. He was flying over all the bumps and the bus honestly felt rather unstable. I finally reached Kampala around 4:30pm. I ran for the new taxi park to meet Claire. We sought out a bus and departed for Masaka. At this point, my behind was a bit flat and sore. We got to Masaka after dark and then had to undergo the process of finding a taxi to take us to Sembabule. A bit of wandering was involved, but we finally found a mini sedan (seats 7 comfortably). The driver ended up stuffing 14 people into this vehicle and off we flew toward Sembabule. Claire and I were sitting in the back row… my body hurts. Then when we tried to pay the driver, we were told the money was fake… so that was a bit of a debacle and we aren’t sure if this bank note is real or not. But finally around 10pm, we arrived in our room in Sembabule, utterly exhausted and grossly dirty.

Overall, I’m really glad I was able to go to Rwanda this weekend. Aside from the horrible trip back, I had a lot of fun! Kigali is amazing. It is so different from Kampala. The streets are clean, organized, and they drive on the right side of the road. The boda drivers all wear marked vests and marked helmets. They are required to carry an additional helmet for their passenger and only 1 passenger is allowed per boda. It is so much safer to ride bodas in Kigali than Kampala. Only flip side is the potential of getting head lice but given the alternative (my brains smashed all over the road), I’d rather get head lice. The other issue with Rwanda is the fact that I cannot speak French at all. That makes communication with people nearly impossible. I’ve heard that they are trying to move toward having everyone learn English. I hope to go back to Rwanda someday and to be able to have time to explore it more (after learning some French).

Just A Small Town Girl...

Last night, my roommate and I set up our small home entertainment system (which involves a tiny Netbook screen on a stool and the volume cranked up) and watched several episodes of Glee. LOOOOOVE!!! The title of this blog post is a shout-out to the Glee rendition of the Journey song. Now if people here would just break out into song randomly with a band playing in the background, they would make my trip THAT much more fun… Sadly, I am missing the beginning of the new seasons of all my favorite shows while I’m here… Does someone want to DVR my shows for me??????

I have reached the half-way point of my trip!! It’s so insane that it’s already the end of September. Part of me feels like I just got here yesterday, then the other part feels like I’ve been here way longer than under 100 days. In summary, thus far I’ve:

• Tried sugar cane and jack fruit for the first time
• Eaten more chapati than is probably healthy for any human being
• Learned that I am still rather inadequate at lighting matches
• Ridden my fair share of bodas and have not gotten into an accident yet
• Read about 20 books
• Watched a chicken get slaughter for the first time
• Saw a live praying mantis for the first time, only to turn around and accidentally step on it
• Dreamed about pizza at least twice
• Had one nightmare about falling into a pit latrine
• Ridden in a 5 person vehicle with 8 passengers and a driver
• Spent time in 5 different districts of Uganda
• Managed to keep up with writing in my journal
• Mastered washing my hair in a basin
• Stayed within the budget I made for myself before coming to Uganda
• Made some awesome friends
• Not gotten MALARIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wonder what adventures will be in store for me the second half of my time here in Uganda!

I think my new roommate is good luck because we haven’t had any major electricity issues all week. Pretty impressive since I have never had the electricity be this reliable since I arrived in July. For those readers in the USA, please enjoy the fall farmer’s markets for me (apples, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, banana bread, apple cider, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, everything autumnal…).

No Longer Alone

I have a new roommate! No, not an animal or reptile or insect. A real live human being!!! We have a new intern who coincidentally also hails from Wisconsin. (She’s a Minnesota grad, but I think I can forgive her for that one.) Yay for a new friend! I met Claire in Kampala on Thursday. She had arrived in the country on Tuesday, and she was going to head back to Sembabule with me on Friday. So Thursday was her second day of orientation. I tagged along to keep her company, and I definitely amended her schedule a bit. I took out what I thought was unnecessary (like going to a snake park since she's already been to the Wildlife Reserve and eating traditional Ugandan food since we get that every day out in the field). I added what I thought were necessities for survival when coming into Kampala for a weekend: places for coffee and non-African food (Café Pap, 1000 Cups of Coffee House, Café Java), Nakumatt, Garden City, and how to ride a boda boda. It was a solid day and I am impressed with her level of energy since she was still recovering from jet lag. Thursday night I visited a friend in the city who has moved out of the place I lived in 2 years ago and now has a sweet new apartment. She’s looking for a roommate… I want to move in. Too bad I’m not based in Kampala or I totally would.


On Friday, I went through the fascinating process of trying to pick up packages from the post office. It took forever but was totally worth it. THANK YOU!! (special shout-out to CP… I love you, you rock my world, getting The Improper Bostonian in Uganda is AWESOME, I’ve never loved Jolly Ranchers as much as I do right now, and your card made me LOL. xoxo)

In the afternoon, we filled up the truck with luggage, all the stuff Claire and I managed to buy between Thursday and Friday (which included bottled water from 3 different large grocery stores, candy bars, and tons of crackers), and off we went to Sembabule. The operations officer graciously made Claire and I dinner, so once we got back to the office, we had a hot meal to eat! The process of unpacking tons of bags of groceries, Claire’s luggage, and reorganizing the room was a little intense but we managed to do it!

Yay for a new roommate!

A little about my work and my weekend

We have done a survey of private practitioners who offer family planning services in hard-to-reach areas in the Sembabule District and I have been compiling all the information to write a report about it. It's been awesome to find that though most of these practitioners are not licensed by the District Drug Authority, they still make services available to people in their areas, and though many of the nursing assistants don't have formal training, they do have experience on the job and can still help women with family planning services.

I have also participated in a few supervision support visits where the Nutrition/OVC and HIV/AIDS officers go out into the community and talk with the community caregivers and their supervisors about the paperwork they are filling out to track the number of PHAs and OVCs they are offering services to. Unfortunately, my Luganda is horrible so I cannot understand any of their conversations. But the car ride brings me to remote areas of our district I have never been to. And I once again have to say, Uganda is amazingly beautiful. The countryside is so gorgeous, and now that the rainy season has arrived, everything is green and lush. While we were driving, I even saw 3 crested cranes. The crested crane is the Ugandan national bird and is even included on the Ugandan flag. Actually, the three colors of the Ugandan flag (black, yellow, and red) are colors found in the bird's plumage. It's a beautiful bird.

This past weekend, I went to Kampala. I made a few new friends and said good-bye to one (the awesome British girl who is in the picture with me and Lake Bunyonyi in the background). It was very relaxing to just hang out with non-Africans, speak real American English, and eat some delicious food. I was introduced to Cafe Pap, which is this fantastic cafe in the city center. The food is amazing. They have REAL tortillas for burritos and fajitas, which I have never seen in Uganda yet, so I was impressed. I really recommend this place if you're ever in Kampala.

PS Cafe Pap serves real Heinz Ketchup! If you've ever tried to use the other ketchup or tomato stuff the restaurants give you when they serve you chips here, you'll understand why this is so awesome. I've never been a total fan of ketchup but mmmm I do appreciate it here!

Lake Bunyonyi Weekend

I was able to spend the weekend in Southwestern Uganda, specifically at Lake Bunyonyi. Bunyonyi means "the place of many little birds" and is almost 2000 meters above sea level. No one seems to know exactly how deep it is. My favorite aspect of this lake is that it is only one of the few lakes in Eastern Africa that is schistosomiasis free! Which translates into: the water was safe to swim in. If Lake Bunyonyi is not schisto-free... too late now and hello Praziquantal!

Sunset over Lake Bunyonyi

My friends and I took the overnight bus from Kampala to Kabale (not to be mixed up with Kibale which is a completely different town). It gets pretty cold at night and none of us packed accordingly. Consequently the bus ride was rather cold as we climbed to higher altitudes, and the bus windows next to me continuously rattled open ever 10 meters or so. Needless to say, we didn't get very much sleep during our 8 hour bus ride, which included mysterious stops in the dark and strange sounds coming from our bus. We sleepily arrived in Kabale around 7am and managed to secure a driver who drove us to the dock of Lake Bunyonyi. From this dock, we then got into a dug-out canoe, hoped we didn't capsize, and rowed to the island where we would be spending the weekend. Rowing a dug-out canoe is much harder than one would assume, but we safely arrived at Itambira Island.

Our dug-out canoe

We stayed at Byoona Amagara Island Retreat this weekend, which is a not-for-profit establishment which supports education and sustainable community development at Lake Bunyonyi. They have GeoDomes you can stay in, which were beautiful. But we opted for the cheaper dorm stay. Upon arrival, we indulged in breakfast and then napped for the better part of the afternoon. We were exhausted from all the traveling. The rest of the day was just spent relaxing and enjoying the view.

The food was fantastic; if you ever go there, I recommend the Crayfish Avocado Meal for dinner. I had one friend order it for breakfast on Sunday because he insisted on having it one more time; it's that good. The rest of the weekend was spent hiking around the island, enjoying the fresh air, sun, and clean water, and in the company of friends. Over the weekend, I spent quality time with many British girls and was able to learn many new vocabulary words, including:

Jumper = Hoodie

He's fit = He's hot (the Brits never describe someone as cute, I'm told)

It was an amazing and relaxing weekend away from dust, pollution, noise, and motor vehicles. I really didn't want to leave this little paradise, but hopefully someday I'll be able to visit again.

On our hike around Itambira Island
(The island behind us is Bwama Island which was formerly a leprosy colony but now is the location of a school)

Mosquito bites from the island = 0Total bites to date = 19 (I'm losing track)I do have one very strange bite on my arm. Not from a mosquito. It makes me think of the girl from my Uganda trip 2 years ago we had a bump on her arm, which turned out to have a maggot-like thing inside of it. Sure hope that's not what mine is!

A Weekend in Kampala

The weekend started with my first official TIA (This is Africa) moment. Imagine: The back seat of a small compact car filled from left to right: me, a grandma, two very generously sized women, a mom, an 8 year old, and a baby. Then in the front: two men squeezed together in the driver's seat. The trunk was filled with at least 100 pounds of stuff and one live chicken. This was how I traveled from Sembabule to Masaka. There is no direct route from Sembabule to Kampala, so you have to go to a largest trade town in the area, Masaka, and then travel from Masaka to Kampala. I spent several hours crushed against the left door, hoping we wouldn't get into an accident, wondering why we kept stopping, pitying the chicken who was squaking away in the trunk, and making sure I kept breathing, due to a combination of feeling crushed, closed windows, and no air circulation). It was definitely an adventure and made me really realize I am now in Africa.

After reaching Masaka (which involved stopping and starting the car every 5 minutes for an hour for reasons unknown to my Luganda-deficient ears), I hopped into a special hire van and off we rolled to Kampala. About half way there, we hit a giant speed hump that I didn't see coming (since I was sitting in the back, am short, and thus visually challenged in the back). I flew up, hit my head on the ceiling/window, bounced back down, hit my tail bone on the seat belt buckle, bounced back up, and finally stopped bouncing. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the ride rubbing my head, not being able to feel my behind, and hanging on for dear life. One exciting thing about the Masaka to Kampala drive, I finally got to see the marker from the Equator.

I arrived safely in Kampala and met up with a girl from the Netherlands, who had gotten my number from one of the people I went to Entebbe with. We got dinner at an Indian restaurant: Haandi. I highly recommend it- the food was amazing.

On Saturday, some girls and I went to a pool. It ended up being 3 Americans (none of which were Caucasian), a Dutch, and a Brit. We relaxed, got some sun, and chatted. Then we were invited to play volleyball with a few American military guys. They were really friendly and nice, and we spent the afternoon narrowly missing smashing people in the face with the ball. After the sunset and we left the pool, a few of the girls made dinner at their apartment. Our night ended with a trip to an "Irish" pub, Bubbles O'Leary, where we met up with the military guys again (plus one military girl). It was an exciting evening of dodging certain persistent men, music, and lots of dancing.

This morning involved a quick trip to Garden City to pick up a new book to read, since I found out the larger bookstore I wanted to go to wasn't open on Sundays. It's called Wuhu Diary and is about an American who adopted a little Chinese girl. Then she brought her five year old daughter back to Wuhu, China, where she was adopted from. The book is about their experience in China. My trip back to Sembabule was a little smoother, but did involve a cramped bus ride on the Masaka Coaster (a bus that goes straight from Kampala to Masaka) and stuffing 5 average sized people in the back of a car for only about half an hour. I had a great time this weekend, which is in many thanks to my coworker who helped navigate me to and from Kampala and the girls I had the privilege of hanging out with.

Settling In

(Written July 22) About an hour after I posted on the blog yesterday, the power went off. So much for the electricity excitement. Actually it’s not too bad. It kind of comes and goes. Sometimes we have power. Sometimes we don’t. Hey, it’s better than no power. I just know to charge the necessary items whenever I know the power is going.

Last night, I was kindly invited to my supervisor’s home. She is staying in a house here in Sembabule, but she also has a home in Kampala. It seems like many of the people who work out here have similar living situations. My supervisor has a daughter staying with her who is only a little older than I am. She is about to enter her fifth and final year of medical school (the medical school system works differently in Uganda than in the US). She was a lot of fun to talk to. She taught me a little Ugandan geography, discussed the process of how Ugandans get engaged, and shared how Ugandans love to party and enjoy life. We flipped through pictures of her family and friends on her laptop, listened to some fantastic South African music, and watched a Tyler Perry movie. I really enjoyed getting to know her.

As for the work I am doing in Uganda, it’ll be constantly evolving. But as for right now, I will be working on a PEPFAR (President’s Emergency plan for AIDS Relief) funded grant that is meant to improve HIV/AIDS care, prevention and testing by increasing the capacity of local organizations to reach people living with HIV/AIDS (PHA) and orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). If there’s one thing I need to do while I’m here, it’s to learn many, many acronyms. My project is just starting to collect baseline data, so we have lots of paperwork that has been translated from English to Luganda. These forms will be distributed to community caregivers (CCGs) to help use collect information from the PHAs and OVCs in the community. Later I should be working with a family planning/ child spacing program that is aimed to increase information, knowledge, and access to family planning methods in rural Uganda. “Family planning” has a certain stigma attached to it when discussed in the community, so we use the phrase “child spacing,” which seems to be better accepted.

The day has started here in Uganda with no power, but I learned my lesson and charged everything last night that needed electricity. Now I never know if I should end this saying good night or good morning, but I guess it all depends on where you are reading from. So, to those on the other side of the Atlantic, sula bulungi!!!

Entebbe!

Today I had the opportunity to hang out with some mzungu friends I've made in Uganda and to go explore a city I've never been to: Entebbe. This is where the international airport for Uganda is located. Thus the only exposure I've had of it is in the dark of night when I've been driving to and from the airport on my way in or out of Uganda.

My friends and I visited the National Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful. There were many spiders and spider webs all over the gardens, and our guide warned us not to allow them to touch our skin. They produce some sort of toxin that gives humans a rash. They are definitely ugly and big enough for me never to want to touch them anyway. We roamed around the gardens, seeing Lake Victoria, monkeys, birds, trees, flowers, and much more. We even had an encounter with fire ants, which was not the most thrilling experience. They bite! After the gardens, we had lunch on the beach, looking out at Lake Victoria. It was great! Very very relaxing.

Then we journeyed on to visit the Uganda Wildlife Education Center (which had the acronym UWEC, which made my fellow UW student/friend and I think of UW-Eau Claire). It is the national zoo. There were lions, rhinos, zebras... it was a zoo. But it was still lots of fun. Our day ended with spending time at the pool of a fancy hotel and getting an excellent dinner.

It was a very fun day. I explored a new place, made new friends (even two BU students), and the pool had warm showers with excellent water pressure! I am the cleanest I have been the entire trip. I am happy to report that I am not sunburnt; unhappy to report that I have another 4 mosquito bites. Thus making the total count: 6.

Until next time. Sula bulungi (Good night)!

Lake Victoria at the Botanical Gardens