Seeing that I wrote close to 100 pages of journal while in Uganda, it would be hard to even try to scratch the surface with my experience here. So, I thought that a nice, quick recap could be in the format of a Top ten things I'll miss and the top ten things I won't miss... Here it goes...
Top Ten Things I will miss about Uganda (in no apparent order)
1. Sugar Cane Fields
Sugar can fields can not be found throughout all of Uganda, but I was lucky enough to live in Lugazi, which is surrounded on all sides by huge, green, beautiful sugarcane. I got to take boda boda (motorcycle) rides through them and go running in the early morning. I loved the sugarcane fields. The tea fields weren't so bad either...
2. Ugandan Rainstorms
I love the rainstorms for three major reasons. First off, the storms in Uganda are not just a little drizzle like they are in Utah. When it rains, boy does it rain. It comes down so hard. I loved that. Secondly, it cleared the air of the smoke from cooking and garbage fires (see the things I won't miss list), leaving everything fresh for a little while at least. Lastly, I loved the rainstorms because all of the town shut down. If it rained, then everything got put on hold, even if it rained for hours. So great!! Why don't we do that in America? No, whether it is a major thunderstorm or snowstorm, everyone in the US still makes their way out in the crazy weather and is miserable doing it...
3. Religious themes
Everyone is religious in one way or another. Everywhere we went, the store names or signs on the wall talked about Jesus and I barely met a new person without them saying "God bless you," and other such things... While very few were actually of my faith, it was nice to see the religious themes woven throughout their lifestyle.
4. Boda Boda rides
A Boda Boda is a motorcycle. All in one exhilarating ride, you do just about everything that your mother always told you not to do... ride a bike without a helmet, talk and go places with strangers... man were they exhilarating though. My favorite was to go on rides through the sugarcane.
5. Ladies carrying things on their heads / Men carrying things on bicycles
Wow. The things Ugandan woman can support with their necks is astonishing. My favorite was when I saw a woman carrying an extremely large bundle (large enough you could barely fit your arms around it) of bamboo sticks (approximately 6 feet long), while having a baby strapped to her back and carrying a machete in her hand. Wow, now that's a women!
Men on the other hand, never carried things on their heads, but used their bicycles as a mode of transport for large items. The things I saw men carrying on a bicycle... Wow. Sometimes a mattress, sometimes a bed frame or a goat. Crazy.
6. 5 cent bananas
I've never been a huge banana eater. I like them and all, but they were never the first fruit of choice. However, you can't beat a piece of fruit for only 100 shillings (approximately 5 cents). Plus, I bought them from the ladies that were carrying them on their heads. Once again. Cool.
7. Fruity Mirindas
I am not a big soda drinker, but seeing you couldn't drink the water from the tap, I became one for the 6 weeks I was in Uganda. Fanta and Coke were both big, but there was this specific drink called a Fruity Mirinda that became my favorite. I will miss them dearly.
8. Ugandan Handshake
All Ugandans have a way cool handshake. It is more personable, almost like a secret handshake you might have with your buddy from third grade. It is so much fun and I think I might try it on folks here totally out of habit. Then again, people here don't even really shake hands very much at all...
9. Ugandan dress
All the woman always wear skirts and the men all wear dress pants and collared shirts. They always look nice, even if they are pushing a bed frame on a bicycle up the road. They are just classy people. I thought it was really cool they take pride in trying to look nice at all times regardless of the fact that they have so little.
10. Men holding hands
If we were to see two random men holding hands here in the US, one would consider them to be gay. Not in Uganda. You don't see men and woman holding hands in public. It is just not a part of their culture. You do however see men holding hands with men and woman holding hands with women. You may think that is an odd thing to miss, but I just love what it symbolizes. To see two men holding hands in Uganda, just meant "Hey, this is my comrade, my homie, my bud." I like that they demonstrate their friendships in this way and I will miss having it mean a positive thing rather than a negative.
Top Ten Things I Won't Miss (in no apparent order)
1. Burning Garbage / Garbage in the street
This was one of the hardest things for me to get used to and one that I still couldn't stand by the time I left. I noticed my first week there that you couldn't find a garbage can anywhere. This is because the world is their garbage. Garbage is just thrown in garbage piles throughout the town or just thrown on the ground at any location. Our house garbage had to just be dumped in the corner trash pile. No one has garbage bags, so it is dumped with every little piece of trash flying free. The kids would often be found sorting through our trash. The trash was often burned to get rid of it which left an awful stench.
2. Cold Bucket Showers
We only had water about 50% of the time. When the water was on, it was extremely cold. When we didn't have water, we used the small reserve tanks we had filled and we showered with buckets.
3. Smoke
I struggle with the smoke that comes from campfires when I'm camping... take that smell and multiply it by 10 and have it be constant day and night. I won't miss that. Seeing that everyone cooks most of their meals on open fires outside, the smoke smell really never abated.
4. Public floggings / Child Abuse
Story #1: Our second guard named David was like a Ninja. He was amazing. He caught two teenage boys who had been throwing bricks into our yard almost daily. Since there is no solid legal system in Uganda, punishments are carried out by the community mob. The two boys received 15 public lashings in the streets for their crime.
Story #2: A few of our volunteers and our friend Wilson were at a school. Ashely heard a horrible whipping sound and crying and asked Wilson what it was. He said one of the students had misbehaved in one way or another and he was being beaten as his punishment. Due to the horrified look on Ashley's face, Wilson asked her if she had ever beaten in school. She gave a resounding "No" and he asked if she had ever been beaten by her parents. Once again she gave a resounding "No" to which he responded... "Really? Oh, how sweet.." It is a part of the culture to beat children.
5. Muzungu Price
Muzungu is the phrase that Ugandans use to describe white people. This term can also be associated with being wealthy since they see all white people as being rich. ALL the children called us this and it was an endearing term coming from them. They would often chant it as we passed... "A Muzungu, a muzngu...". However, every time we tried to buy anything (unless we were accompanied by a local) we would be charged muzungu price, which was generally double of the normal price. Let's just say I learned to barter well...
6. Ugandan Diet
Our dinner cooks Eve and Rose
Seeing we didn't have a fridge, microwave or stove and had to make all food on an open fire IF we wanted to cook, our meals were very limited. I ate a lot of sugar (cookies, soda, ice cream and chocolate) since it was available and didn't need to be cooked. Aside from that, the typical Ugandan meal consists of starches and fried foods. Often our dinner would consist of five different options that were all either a starch or something fried. Don't get me wrong, it all tasted great, but it just wasn't a very healthy, balanced diet. I craved lettuce and fresh fruits and vegetables and I don't really even like vegetables. That says something...
7. "No eating on the street" rule
Two of our favorite street vendors
I guess it is just a sign of disrespect to eat on the street, or in public at all, since so many don't have enough food to eat as it is. All I can say is that it was SO much harder than you'd think. Especially when something was purchased on the street. I never realized how much I typically eat on the go.
8. Dim Lights
Once it was dark outside, you just had to get used to living off of a very little amount of light. Any light bulb seemed to be about 15 watt or so. No joke. I often walked around in the evening with my headlamp on all night just so I could see the simpilest things. Plus, I lived in the garage with 7 others (4 sets of bunk beds). Since we were in the garage (as seen in the photo above), we didn't have any windows meaning no natural light and no air ventilation. The flash makes our room look much brighter in the picture than it really was...
9. Mice
Many families of mice made nests in various suitcases throughout our house. We would fondly mention seeing the mouse as he ran by our legs during dinner. We only had about 8 seats around the dinner table and there were 24 volunteers living in our house, so many ate on the floor. This made it easy to spot the mouse as it ran by periodically. The funny part is that as we would make random comments like "Oh, the mouse just ran into your room..." I would laugh. As if there was just ONE mouse. That's a good one.
10. Bomb Scares and Lockdowns
I won't miss having nearby locations being bombed and being put on lockdown in our house with words like "Al Quida" and the "Lord's Resistance Army" being thrown around as the force behind the bombs. Nope, won't miss that...
My favorite quote came from my best friend Kim as we were sitting in our house during lockdown. She said... "Remember how our biggest concern a few days ago was mice?" Good one Kim. It's all relative. On the day of lockdown, all of a sudden the mice didn't seem so bad.
Hopefully this post gives you a little insight into life in Uganda and my experience there. While it was hard in many ways, I'm not going to lie, it was so wonderful and an experience I wouldn't give up for the world. I think the thing that I am going to miss the most however are the people. The wonderful, wonderful people. I made so many fantastic friends and acquaintances that I will never forget.
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