The senses.

Smells:  The acrid smoke from burning rubbish

Cow dung

Rich woody scent of mango trees not yet in bloom

Sharp smell of body odor and sweat

Diesel exhaust from roaring lorries

Fish on the beach, minus the briny ocean breeze that I'm used to

Banana bread baking

Chemical smell of pesticide in enclosed spaces

Sounds: Roosters crowing

Muslim calls to prayer

"Sawa, sawa, sawa ye"

Ugandan dance beats

Children giggling + "Muzungu!! How are you!!"

The bleating and spitting of goats

"Eyyyyy, mami!  Your food is ready!"

Birds whose calls must emanate from some supernatural source because the noise is so impossibly bigger than the bodies they come from

Sights:  The bright orange of a rubbish fire pouring black smoke into the sky against a green green landscape

Bejeweled roosters struttin' their stuff

Women in Buganda dress, with poofy shoulders

The green.  Oh, the green.

Heavy jackfruit swaying, hanging ponderously

Red dust coating everything

Fort Portal after a fresh rain when everything is new and the wide banana tree leaves drip onto the reddish brown dirt

Quick flashes of brilliance when green bee-eaters fly by the kitchen window at the Lodge

Waxing nostalgic with Winston Churchill:

"My Journey is at an end, the tale has been told. The reader who has followed so faithfully and so far has a right to ask what message I bring back. It can be stated in three words: concentrate upon Uganda! 

Uganda is alive by itself. It is vital, and in my view, in spite of its insects and diseases, it ought, in the course of time, to become the most prosperous of all our East African possessions and perhaps the 'financial driving wheel' of this part of the world. 

Uganda is from end to end a 'beautiful garden' where 'staple food' of the people grows almost without labour. Does it not sound like a paradise on earth? It is the pearl of Africa."

Churchill, "My African Journey"

More later.  I just got back from Fort Portal and am simmering in nostalgia.  Such a sap.

You go your way an I go mine

Jack rocks and gave me 2 GB of Bob Dylan the other day, to supplement my already-large Dylan collection, so now I pretty much have the entire Dylan discography.  U jelly?  You should be.  (By the way, Bob's playing a concert in Michigan this weekend ON MY BIRTHDAY...I think this love affair was meant to be)  Anyway, song of the day:  'Most Likely You Go Your Way".

So, I guess I realized that for those of you who haven't been regularly gchatting with me, I probably confused all y'all with references to "Jack" and "Anneeth" and all those people...After leaving Fort Portal nearly--gasp--two months ago, I came to Entebbe and met up with four other UM students, all PhD candidates in the African History program there.  The guy that sort of spearheaded my whole project here, Derek Peterson, is one of their professors and members of (some of) their dissertation committees, so he lured them here with grant money to help out at the Uganda National Archives.  So, we've been here since June 25th working away at the mammoth task of cataloguing the country's entire archive.  Or most of it.

So, we've been here since July 25th (Ashley and I have, at least; the rest have trickled in) and chipping away at the collections.  It's taken a LOT of work to get where we are, but I'm glad to say that we've done a pretty solid job at organizing, cataloguing, cleaning (sort of...more on that later), re-housing, etc. a decent chunk of the collections.  We even, at one point, instituted a "stay till 6 p.m. three days/week, and then come in on saturdays from 9-1" policy...if that tells you how much we've been working...

...and if that tells you why I haven't updated this sucker in so long!

Random:  So Entebbe is on the coast of Lake Victoria, and about five minutes down the road are various beach restaurants.  They get pretty loud on the weekends, and particularly on game days (I think Manchester United is playing today), so right now there is a mix of crowd noise, Ugandan pop/dance music, and vuvuzelas in the background...can be kind of annoying at times, but I also think it's nice in that there is just LIFE going on!  All the time!

Anyway, I (once again) need to cut this short...today is my birthday and we're leaving in an hour and a half to go get dinner.  And, I've got a lot of writing work to do before we leave, sooo...I'll catch y'all on the flip side.

Love love love.
N

Wow. It's been a month...sorry, kids...

This'll be short, but I promise I'll write a solid blog tomorrow.  We took Eve and Roscoe out for fish tonight on Anderita Beach, but a lovely night turned into the biggest debacle EVER...and yes, I used that word to describe it when I was "having words" with the hotel manager.

Went to Anderita Beach Hotel, where you can order a nice big fried (whole) tilapia for approximately nine dollars (Omid informed me that such a fish--local, freshly caught--in Laguna Beach would be between $40-60...1 point for Uganda!).  Food took about an hour and a half to arrive, which is pretty typical of most restaurants in Uganda, and the waitress had me pay right before we got the food.  Now, it's fairly common here for waiters and waitresses, or store clerks, or whatever, to simply show you the amount that you owe on a piece of paper, and that's what our waitress did tonight...so I paid it.

She brought our food, and then an extra grilled fish to the table, at which point we told her we didn't order it--and thus ensued the chaos.  A co-worker came back to the table with her and asked if we would pay for it, as she would be the one to pay for it if we didn't (this is also a very Ugandan thing; waiter messes up an order, they're the ones paying for the food).  Now, we had JUST been having a discussion about how often myself (and other American friends) tend to get jacked over in food joints, where we are either brought the incorrect thing or the server brings out an additional food item claiming that we ordered it, when we really didn't...our friend Stella, a researcher at Makerere University and native Ugandan, said that never happens to her...she was actually rather surprised and angry about it.  (Case in point--went to Central Inn last night for dinner and Jen ordered a chicken curry...about an hour went by, we got our food, and she was served a hawaiian pizza.  What??!!)

SO:  Stella got mad and laid into the servers in Luganda, which was kind of an awesome spectacle to see, and very kind Ashley said she'd pay for the fish.  She went to go get the receipt itemized, and...surprise!!...the waitress had overcharged us by Ugx40,000.  So, we paid for a fish we didn't order, Ashley didn't get a salad she ordered, and I paid an extra fifteen bucks, approximately.  You'd think that the matter would get settled in a reasonable period of time, but no dice...the thing turned into an hour and a half long debacle (see?) in which Anneeth and I got incredibly heated, and I ended up saying "Listen, it's nine thirty, I hurt my back, and all I want to do is go home.  Can I please just have my 40,000?"  (I also said "Listen, we're not tourists, we actually live here in Uganda, work for the government, and need to be at work tomorrow at nine."  Really, Natalie??  You pulled that card?!)

Long story short, after an hour and a half of wrangling with eight different hotel employees and about five different episodes of writing down exactly what we got and showing them the math...the supervisor came up with my money.  :LKSDJF: LKJS:DLFKJ SLDKFJ:LKSDJF:LKJS:DFLKJSDLKFJ:SLKDFJLKSJDF

RAGE.

We boda boda-ed it home, admired the weird-looking moon, and arrived at the flat to the smell of delicious apple/dried cherry/banana fritters that Jen was frying in the kitchen.  And then watched an episode of Trailor Park Boys.  And Ashley gave me a bruise-inducing back massage, because I'm an old lady and hurt my back (slipped on the stairs carrying a box down to the archives yesterday and landed smack on my tailbone).

Alrighty, more tomorrow...I'll likely flood this thing in the next few days with posts to update all y'all on the happenings at UNA.  Work has been INSANELY busy the past few weeks, thus my absence on here.

Love to all of you!

N

My stomach is full to bursting with starchy root vegetables. Ndi mukkufu!

“Weebale nnyo, ssebo,” I say each morning to the boda boda driver who takes me to work.  I am slowly, slowwwwly picking up bits of Luganda, which hasn’t been too bad, given its many similarities to the Rutooro language that I was beginning to learn in Fort Portal.  I do heartily wish, though, that I knew it fluently—Lord knows I’d like to be able to understand what people here are saying about me!  Oh, well, I suppose it is the prerogative of locals to be able to gossip about foreigners in their native language.  I’ve begun responding to the eponymous “mzungu!” as if it were my given name, or at least bodily reacting each time I hear it called.  Nearly every time I hear the word spoken it’s in reference to me; although there are more white people here in Entebbe than there were in Fort Portal, that’s still not saying much, and so I continue to be an oddity in these parts.

Children are the funniest proprietors of the phrase “Hey mzungu!  How are you!”, and I got a big chuckle the other day from some young schoolboys who were heckling me—in French.  There’s a primary school down the road from my apartment complex and I usually encounter the schoolchildren in the early evening on my way to the market, when they get out of class.  “HEY!  FERMEZ-LA BOUCHE!”  Cue the giggling.  “HEY! HEY YOU!  FERMEZ-LA BOOOOOUCHE!”  More giggling.  “Are you guys speaking French to me?”  “Yeeessss!”  “Why are you telling me to shut my mouth?  It wasn’t even open before I talked to you guys!”  Then there was a general sense of ‘ohhhhhhh snap’ on their part, and the friends of the boys hollering started laughing at them and pushing them off the curb.  Big old grin on my face as I continued walking to town…not much difference between 10 year olds in the U.S. and Uganda, eh?

Ohhhh, man.  As much as I complain about certain things here in Uganda, NOTHING, absolutely nothing, can beat their fruit.  I just got served a fruit plate piled high with fresh mango, pineapple, banana, and watermelon and planning on cramming it all into my already-very full stomach!  (I’m on my lunch break right now, which is 1 ½ hours long…don’t ask me why)  Way better than watery cantaloupe and grapes in a plastic cup at Starbucks, and for only seventy nine cents.  Baller.

The place that I usually eat lunch at is a little wooden shack down the road from NARO (National Agricultural Research Organization, the building where the archives are located).  I think I’ve described it somewhat, but it bears summary again, solely because of the hilarious women who work it.  Apparently I am considered a regular there, because when I arrived today, one of the woman said “Ehhhyyy!! The usual?”  <enthusiastic nod>  Yep, the ush.  Matooke, posho, g-nut sauce with dried beef, pumpkin, and yams…and sometimes greens (in today’s case, slices of avocado).  I’m the only mzungu to frequent the place and am usually the first one there for the lunch rush (I arrive at 12:30, most others by 1), and so am duly greeted with the UTMOST gusto and excitement.  “Hey, mami, what to drink? Soda, amaizi (water)?”  “You be back tomorrow??”  Of COURSE!!

Well, this counts as the third Fourth of July that I have spent outside of the United States, and it was considerably less exciting than my past two (both spent in Dublin).  Ashley was at a conference in Kampala, so the celebrating was left up to myself.  I was determined to make a night of it, so procured ground beef and other necessary hamburger accoutrements to the best of my ability and set about cooking.  I had a hamburger, made sweet potato fries and guacamole, and heated up baked beans.  AMERICA!!!!  Of course, the power went out around 6:30, so I cooked/ate my dinner by candlelight.  Nothing like a Fourth of July spent in the dark, reading Ivanhoe on a Kindle by candlelight.

Alright, gotta tackle this fruitplate, finish my tea, and eavesdrop on the young Mormon missionaries seated in the café behind me.

Love to you all.

N

I also rode a bus with a chicken.

Yep, the ride back from Fort Portal was even more interesting than the first (which was relatively noneventful, aside from accidentally offending the conductor...more in a minute).  Someone had a chicken, which squawked the entire drive back to Kampala. And, too, 3 bus conductors had to bodily remove a crazy man before we set off from FP--he really didn't want to get off that bus, man, he was grabbing at every seat as they carried him out.  But yes.  When I boarded the bus in Kampala to go to FP, the conductor said "Ohhh, madame, I saved this seat for you!" And he patted the seat next to him, in the very front of the bus.  Now, experience in the past month and a half has taught me that this sort of attention is generally motivated by the fact that a) the man is excited about the prospect of interacting with a mzungu woman and b) he wants to flirt.  So, I tried to politely decline and took a seat about halfway to the back of the bus.  His friend then proceeded to find me and say, "Why didn't you want to sit next to Henry?"  SO. PERSISTENT.  I just told him I had things I needed to do and couldn't really converse with anyone, as the prospect of spending 4-6 hours fending off unwanted advances was wholly unappetizing.  Anyway, long story short, I told Brede about this that night and she said "Oh, getting a seat at the front of the bus is considered a privilege, one which they usually give to any mzungus...".  Oops.  Ugandan propriety 1, Natalie 0.  Sorry, Henry!!!

Despite the heat and discomfort of the bus rides, I have to say that I do love the fact that I can, at the various break stops, buy sizzling meat on a stick, hot chapatis, and roasted bananas--through the bus window.  I don't even have to get off  :)  AND, it's all REALLY, REALLY good.

We've been having loads of "new apartment'-type problems at our place, which makes me miss the Lodge and its lushness even more, despite the accumulated years of grime on everything...first it was tiny black ants, which we still haven't managed to rid the place of, in the kitchen.  Then, whilst cooking dinner one night, small, idiotic-looking bugs began gathering on the kitchen floor: white ants, which are really just termites with wings (that can't fly).  They flopped around and became more and more, till we swept them out the door...oooh, poem?

Then it was lake flies, tiny little gnat-like creatures that swarmed around our front door.  Trying to secure the padlock and lock everything up was...disgusting.  Thankfully those have gone away, as have the white ants, but the black little dudes are still populous as ever.  We're workin' on it.  And, too, the power has been out intermittently since we've moved in; a few nights ago the power AND the water cut out for about 6 hours.  Cooking dinner that night was interesting.

Anyway, there's more to come, as always, hopefully I'm not boring any of you guys with details of my mundane African life.  Back to my African milk tea and Ivanhoe.

As ever,
N

In which I get rejected by the CAO and drink half my body weight in Fanta Orange.

Bloggy blog blog!  Hello, beautiful people, oli-otya?  How are you?

Sorry I haven't written in over week (I know you guys are REALLY crushed by this), but I moved from Fort Portal to Entebbe last Friday, made a two-day trip back to FP from Wed-Fri, and then came back to Entebbe yesterday.  Sooooooooo much travelling.  It was sad to say goodbye to FP, but it's not like I'm not ever going back there; on the contrary, I plan on going back at least twice before I leave Uganda.  I came to Entebbe last Friday and met up with Ashley, UM PhD student, at the Central Inn in Entebbe.  I have to say, it was really, really nice to meet up with a fellow American/UM student and just chat.  Living and hanging out with Europeans and Africans has been really great, but home is just--home.  The following morning, a wonderful local woman named Harriet--the friend of another soon-to-arrive UM PhD student, Anneeth--picked us up and drove us around all day to get groceries, cleaning supplies, and various other apartment set-up sundries.  SUCH a luxury to have a car with which to do all these things!

We've been in the apartment for a week (which Harriet also helped us find), and it's very nice.  Sort of like a self-contained apartment in a small little complex of about five buildings, each one containing one or two apartment-like townhouses, with a large wall topped with barbed wire.  It's probably one of the best areas we could be in, as it's pretty safe (along with the barbed wire, we've also got a big old gate and around-the-clock security guards), and very quiet.  NO MORE THROBBING AFRICAN DANCE MUSIC EVERY NIGHT!!!!

Work began on Monday at the Ugandan National Archive, and it's very different from Fort Portal, of course.  There's only three employees other than Okello, who is the Director, two of whom have been trained in archives and/or records management.  I won't exhaust myself going into all of the details of what we've been working on there; suffice to say it's been a study in patience, negotiation, and wording things delicately.  There is an absolute abundance of fascinating materials there, but for now we're working on Series 'C' (yet another point of contention, as I believe the organizational structure needs to be totally revamped...), which consists of the government's Secretariat papers dating from 1893 to the late seventies.  Ashley is loving it, as her dissertation research looks at the history of refugees in Uganda (particularly Rwandan) and she is finding plenty of relevant material.

Funny thing--we invited Justine, the archivist, Eva, the newly-graduated records mgt. trainee, and Roscoe (Mbalire), the key-holder/security man/jack of all trades, out to lunch and asked where they wanted to go.  They got rather embarrassed about the place that they usually eat their lunch at, which turned out to be a small wooden hut built out of plants and bamboo which serves local fare to all the surrounding government employees.  Ashley and I couldn't be happier and told them so!  Just as in Fort Portal, they seemed surprised that mzungus would want to eat the local foodstuffs when other, more generic/international fare was available.  Hey, man--I love me some g-nut sauce and omukaro (dried beef) and matooke and posho, just like the next person!  And at Ugx2,500, you can't go wrong.  (That's $0.98...)

I travelled to FP on Wednesday for a meeting with the CAO (pronounced "cow"), the Chief Administrative Officer of the Kabarole District.  Evarist and I were too meet with him to discuss the status of the District's archives at MMU and try to convince him or the District Records Officer to go to the "Archives in Uganda" conference that UM is co-hosting at Makarere Social Research Institute in July.  As it happens (and as Brede had warned me the night before), I arrived at Kabundaire on Thursday morning ready for the meeting, only to be informed by Evarist that the CAO had cancelled and tentatively postponed till next week.  Gotta roll with the punches, man, roll with the punches...  So, needless to say, I did not have the expected meeting but I DID have a lovely trip to FP.  (Excepting my dinner on Thursday night at the Rwenzori Traveller's Inn, where I had tough pieces of steak wrapped in fatty Canadian bacon in gravy that looked/tasted like cat food, two cakes of white rice, lumpy pumpkin soup, and no vegetables--they were 'out'--all while reading Ivanhoe on my Kindle and half-listening to an old American Idol episode in the background.)

Ok, I'm splitting this blog post up into two so as not to overwhelm y'all.  Read at your own pace.  :)

African milk tea and chapati, tea and chapati

This is what I am eating and drinking right now.  U JELLY??!!

I'm at MMU's staff canteen down at Kabundaire, where all faculty members get a free mid-morning tea.  Pretty sweet deal, eh?  Why doesn't America have tea breaks?  We had one every day in Ireland when I was working at the National Museum.  Eleven o'clock sharp.  Interns and staff alike met in the museum cafe and engaged in witty, scintillating conversation while chowing down on chocolate croissants and individual pots of tea.  Lovely.  Here, though, half of the conversation is in Rutooro and I don't understand it (although I've made flashcards, so I'm learning words and phrases which Nino can understand when we meet again in Michigan).  In all seriousness, though, I think it's a great thing.  It really did provide us lowly undergraduate interns with the opportunity to ask questions and talk about our work with our supervisors, and I think it just breaks up the day nicely.  Tea at eleven, lunch at one!  Perfect.

Ah, well.  So, work is going well, and we are steadily moving through processing the documents.  Evarist just went to Kampala again (I think I mentioned this in the last post) and brought back 200 lid boxes, which are MUCH nicer than the disintegrating cardboard boxes in which the documents are currently housed.  This is a major success, people--he has been negotiating and dealing with the suppliers for a long while and they have been less than cooperative.  So, now we can begin re-housing the documents into safe homes.  It's the little things!!!!  :D


Mzungu pizza night was last night, again, and I was the only non-Irishman in a group of seven others.  HEAVEN.  As per usual, I pestered the ones I hadn't met about where they were from, what they thought about NI current events, the Queen's recent visit (and Obama's, too!), etc.  Did you guys know I love Ireland?  I got ambitious and ordered a regular-sized pizza instead of the "baby" size--first time!--big mistake.  My stomach still hurt when I woke up this morning.  More pizza tonight, though; I'm taking Moses and his little girl, Janet, to Gluepot so she can have her first taste of pizza :)  I'll get a calzone.


Can't WAIT to get to Entebbe this weekend.  As most of you know, I recently went off of my meds (for better or for worse), and my body has really been feeling the effects, both physically and mentally.  It kind of feels like having a hangover every day that just doesn't go away.  I'm trying to battle through it, though, and things have improved slightly since last Wednesday (first day of no pills at all; I tapered off over a 3 wk pd).  Still a grumpy witch a lot of the day, but I'm no longer staring at the wall for hours on end like I was the first two days.  Anyway, I'm really excited to go to a new city and meet up with a fellow UM student!  Apparently she's found a pretty decent flat for us to rent, with a kitchen and WI-FI INCLUDED (and hopefully hot water...), so I'm fairly optimistic.  New project, new people, new place!


So, like I mentioned earlier, my Picasa album will be inundated with new pictures sometime this weekend.  Keep an eye out!


As always,
N

In which Natalie realizes that g-nuts are really just Ugandan peanuts.

Fo reelz.  It's taken me so long to figure this out, and I'm not really sure, seeing as I've been eating matooke, posho, sweet potatoes, and g-nut sauce for lunch for the past two weeks.  The g-nut (ground nut) sauce is pretty delicious; they make it with the mashed nuts and eggplant.  Kind of like a blander Thai peanut sauce without the chili fire or lime juice.  Anyway, I just realized the fact that g-nuts = peanuts today and thought it was kind of funny...

Right now I'm music-battling with Felix, who has an unabiding love for U2 and plays them on repeat.  Thankfully, I have a vast music library (however unorganized it may be), and I first pulled out some R. Kelly--Ignition (Remix) to appease his co-worker, Jed, who is staying with us for the next three days.  He countered with Jefferson Airplane--Somebody to Love, which was alright, but then continued with some really, really bad, sappy, easy-listening type romance song.  My move?  Oh, just a little bit of ANDREW W.K.--PARTY HARD ON FULL VOLUME!  Shows him.  Then it was a little Aretha, with Son of a Preacherman, followed by the Beatles' White Album.  I may conclude with a little bit of Temptations--Papa Was a Rolling Stone.

SO, guess who has a chair and desk now?  With only two days left to go in Fort Portal?  That's right--ME!  (Well, as of Monday.)  Two lovely large desks and chairs appeared at the Archive on Friday, although we had to do a big of negotiating with the carpenter in the courtyard of the Kabundaire campus, as the quality was a bit...lacking.  He came on Saturday and fixed some things, so now the drawers can actually be pulled and pushed (not smoothly) and will lock properly.  I've been spending the past three days comfortably situated, then, at a desk--in a chair--cleaning documents with the other guys in the archive.  ROCK!!

This is my last week in FP, folks.  As of today, I've been in Uganda for exactly a month.  And the world didn't end when I got here!!!  (Take that, Harold Camping.)  It's off to Entebbe this Saturday, where I'll be meeting up with Ashley, a UM PhD candidate.  I spoke to Okello, the Director at the National Archive, today, and Ashley and I will begin work bright and early on Monday morning.  Can't wait!  Till then, I'm just hangin' out, eating pizza at the Gluepot, cleaning documents, getting my g-nut and posho on with Adolf at lunch, and trying to introduce Felix to the beautiful intricacies of music outside of U2.

Alright, I'll add more later.  Like, tomorrow, perhaps.  Lots to tell.  I'm just tired right now.

And expect a lot of new pictures this weekend...I'll be staying at a hotel in Entebbe that has FREE WI-FI!  I won't have to conserve my internet usage this weekend :)

Love you all,
N

Justin Bieber is on repeat...and I cannot cook goat.

Hi guys,

I'm hearing the Bieb's "Never Say Never" for the second or third time today.  I had Dave Matthews blasting a minute ago and took the earphones out cause I figured I needed to concentrate on writing this...but I can concentrate better listening to the Dave man crooning and whining than to prepubescent imitations of crooning.  SORRY, Selena Gomez, your boyfriend is *not* quite a man yet.

On the straw mat today again, but hopefully it's the last time!  The carpenter has apparently finished the worktables and chairs that we ordered, so all that remains is for Evarist to get back from lunch and pick up his colleague's truck--and then it's off we go to find Natalie some legitimate seating for her last week in Fort Portal!  Das right, people--next week is my last week of work in Fort Portal before heading off to Entebbe, and the National Archive, on June 25th.  I haven't quite been here for a month, but it feels like it's been forever!!  Other mzungus are trickling out, too; Ciaran, Jonathan, and Kate left some time ago, but Regina finished up her work last week and is honeymooning around Uganda right now with her husband.  She'll be back in FP for a night next week, so I'll be able to say goodbye.  Perhaps, then, it's good timing that I'm peacin' outta this joint in a week.  Poor Felix, though, living all by himself...he'll manage.  He's got his chickens, and is soon to have his rabbits (as soon as his hired carpenter comes out of isolation and delivers on the rabbit cage that Felix has already paid for, that is).

It's really fascinating to see the result of our mad second-hand clothing donation habits here, by the way.  I walk around and actually see the people who benefit from our actions, which is quite cool.  I feel most people here appreciate clothing for it actually being clothing, as opposed to its ability to appease the fashion bloggers of the world.

Case in point:  Saw a student here at MMU the other day wearing a McDonald's polo shirt.  A polo shirt?  Cool.  Polo shirt.  No holes.  I dig it.  Yellow "M"?  Who knows, maybe his name was Martin and it just happened to be a fortunate coincidence.  Maybe he knows what McDonald's is...maybe he doesn't.  Point is, a shirt is a shirt is a shirt.  I think it's pretty awesome.

Other interesting shirts I've seen thus far:

• Annapolis Soccer 2006
• Purple "Take Back the Night 2010" shirt (proudly worn on multiple occasions by my neighbor)
• Sorority bid night shirt  (I don't think I could find a single person who could tell you what a sorority is, let alone bid night)
• Aforementioned McDonald's polo
• Pink, puffy, puff-sleeved winter coat as worn by one of the Kagote boda boda drivers
• Damn.  I see one or three of these every day and keep meaning to write them down.  I'll think of more.

Adolf came with me the other day to the market to help me buy some meat, where I bought 1/2 kilo of goat.  Brought it home and tried, failing spectacularly, to light up the grill and barbecue.  It took me about an hour to try and get the fire going, and then it was to hot, and then not hot enough...I ended up spending about three hours preparing the goat with vegetable skewers, trying to cook those, eventually throwing everything in the oven, and nearly breaking my jaw trying to chew the goat at the end of it all.  Even the sweet potato refused to bake in the oven.  How the hell does one manage to screw up a BAKED POTATO?  Like I said, spectacular failure.  I had 3/4 banana, 1/2 sweet potato, and some banana bread for dinner, at the end of it all.

Another funny story (sorry Omid):  Adolf and Sylvester pulled up my facebook profile page at work and started flipping through my pictures.  They came across the one of Omid and I at SI prom and Sylvester, looking over Adolf's shoulder, exclaimed "JESUS' BROTHER!!!"  And thus ensued a furious debate over whether or not Omid looks like Jesus, as everyone convened around the computer and commented on the resemblance.  (They even pulled up a picture of Jesus from the internet to compare, side by side.)  Icing on the cake?  Finding out he's Iranian.  "Oh, so he must know how to make AK-47s, eh?"

Went to Boma today with Evarist, which I'll describe in my follow up post in a little bit--don't want to overwhelm y'all.

In which Natalie attends church with Moses and bakes banana bread, and remembers Pete.

Yep.  I went this morning to St. John's Cathedral with my co-worker, Moses, for a Sunday service.  All of my co-workers are very, very religious, and he invited me to prayers with him this weekend.  It surprisingly wasn't too different from services in America, although they sang every. single. verse. in every hymn. They did do a little bit of dancing and clapping, which was pretty great, and the church was completely open (all the doors were open and sunlight filtered in everywhere), so it was a really nice experience.  I did, I have to admit, fall asleep for a little bit...  No surprise there.

Went to Moses' home for tea with his five year-old daughter, Janet, who is perhaps one of the most beautiful little girls I've ever seen--think Angelina Jolie's daughter, Zahara, except with a shaved head.  It's so unfortunate that I barely speak a lick of Rutooro, though, because trying to have any sort of conversation with the children around here is near impossible.  I was quite the spectacle at Moses' compound; while he prepared tea, all of the little kids crowded into his room and started at me.  White skin!  Nose ring!  Tattoo!  Oh man!  And, of course, all of his neighbors thought it was hilarious that Moses was having a mzungu woman over for tea, so there was plenty of cackling.

I've only been in Africa for a few weeks and every day I'm overcome with a million sensations of gratitude and white-person-guilt (inevitable) and awe at the strength of people who live here.  I won't go into details of Moses' story, but suffice to say he has been through an incredible number of trials, and has yet managed to graduate from MMU, raise a daughter on his own, and pursue his career with loads of optimism and tenacity.  Most of the people, in fact, that I've met here have similar life tales.  One of my co-workers bikes to work for an hour and a half each way every day (and it's hilly).  I see old men pushing bikes loaded with bananas down the road; old women with towering baskets of produce or linens balanced on their head look at me indifferently as they shuffle down the road.  Someone asked me yesterday what a nursing home was, and was rather baffled by the concept--children take care of their elders here.

Anyway, I could go on and on about the hardships that I see being suffered every day here, but that would get boring and be pointless.  I'm just glad that I'm working on projects this summer that, although not providing food for the hungry or health education for rural villages, at least are intent on fostering local and national pride...opening the eyes of the government and citizens to the importance of their own cultural heritage...and hopefully, eventually, prod people into taking direct action within their communities to preserve their historical resources...as well as making resources available for the first time to researchers, human rights workers, aid workers, whoever, so that a clear and accurate story of Ugandan history can be told and the nation can build on said story.  Everyone has heard that it is the victors who write history, and it is that very concept that we are trying to negate.

PHEW!  I have been trying to figure out different ways to cook with bananas and thus far have made fried matooke chips and banana bread (the latter of which has been HUGELY popular with the housemates and Nino).  I think I'm going to move on to banana fritters.

Today is six months to the day since Pete died, and fittingly, it is pouring down rain here.  I can't believe that he has been gone that long.  I would have loved to tell him all about Uganda, and he would probably respond to all of my stories with "Ahhh, siiiiiiiiick!".  But, I suppose he's out there keeping an eye on me, anyway, so he knows what's going on.

Love always, man.
Peter Ruhry
December 12, 2010

In which Natalie gets sick, is chased by a camel and gets a 2nd degree burn.

Well, it’s certainly been an interesting few days…I think that I’ve pretty much experienced anything bad that could happen to me in Uganda, barring being robbed (fingers crossed that won’t ever happen…!).  I went to the hospital on Wednesday a very, very sick girl, and am better now—but it was scary.

I had gone to a local place called The Gardens to have lunch and get some work done, and started feeling pretty awful right after my food arrived.  I managed about two bites before I nearly passed out, and thankfully was able to call Jonathan to pick me up and take me to the hospital.  It was so strange, and we haven’t been able to figure out what happened—I was seeing black spots and was dizzy, my fingers, toes, and face were numb, I was sick to my stomach, and I was absolutely freezing and couldn’t stop shaking.  Jonathan said my lips were blue…  Anyway, I hobbled my way into the hospital, convulsing most of the way, and it turns out I had a fever, thus an early diagnosis of malaria.  Thankfully it wasn’t so and my blood tested negative for parasites, so they just hooked me up to an IV and gave me a few shots and let me rest.  (Shots in the buttcheek are no fun…apparently it’s standard for Ugandan hospitals, but OW)

Thank God for Jonathan!  He sat with me through the whole ordeal and took me home once they discharged me.  Doreen and Nino came to visit me, too, which was very sweet, although 3 year-old Nino was rather worried about the whole hospital/IV thing.  So, I got home several hours later and, apart from being a bit weak and exhausted for the next 24 hours, recovered splendidly.  Any informal medical diagnoses?  I was plenty hydrated…  We’re rather mystified.

Thursday I travelled out to a small village outside of Kasese with Jonathan, where he conducted two interviews with community elders who had fought through the various conflicts in the country from 1954 until the early 1990s.  The interviews were pretty fascinating—one of the men said, “Some of the things I could tell you would make you shed tears”—Uganda’s had a pretty tumultuous history, to say the least.  It’s amazing how resilient people can be.

I also peed in a pit latrine (not the first time), but it was truly the most foul-smelling thing that I have ever encountered in my life.  Thank God for American toilets and Clorox.

Friday: went to Kyuninga Lodge with Felix for a swim and some watermelon, as it was Martyr’s Day here and everyone had off of work.  Burned my leg on the tailpipe of a boda boda, and it's pretty nasty-looking; Kate declared it a second-degree burn, but says that I'll survive.  Phew.  Then yesterday went to a sort of lodge/country club/pool/farm combo with Jonathan and Kate and Maurice and co., where I got chased by a camel.  Yep.  There was a field with horses, cows, and a camel, so we went in and I began petting the camel (of course).  She was very sweet and kept nuzzling me and laying her head on my shoulder, so we went back to get my camera and returned to find the camel lying down on a dirt patch.  I sat down and started lovin’ up on it (there are pictures), and then got up to go say hello to the horses.  Camel got up—started nibbling at me—I backed away—camel kept coming with bared teeth—Kate and I started running—camel started running.  After us.  I’m sure we gave the staff quite the laugh…

And tonight: made a BOMB pizza, from scratch!  Mom, you’d be so proud.  Lots of garlic, fresh tomatoes and onions, basil from the garden, gouda cheese…mmmm.

That’s all for now—hope everyone is well.  OH, and I won’t be posting any more pictures until I get to Entebbe, as doing so eats up a lot of my internet data transfer subscription thing.  (The noob doesn’t know the technical name.  Omid, I’m looking at you.)

Love you guys!

N

In which the rains stop for a few glorious days!

Well, HELLO, everyone!

I am sitting in the archives right now on a straw mat on the stone floor, listening to the rain pour outside.  It's the end of the rainy season here in Uganda, so we usually have one big downpour each day that lasts for about an hour...and it comes down in buckets.  The racket it's making on the roof sounds like a waterfall--literally--right outside the door.  I don't mind too much, as the rain is what makes this country so wonderfully green, but it also makes the dirt roads muddy and virtually impassable by boda.

This weekend was incredible, people.  Absolutely incredible.  The rain held off for Saturday and Sunday, so Saturday I went to the Semliki National Park with Jonathan and his family.  They have hot springs there, much like those at Yellowstone, although here you're allowed to walk on them.  Quite the contrast to the throngs of tourists packing the boardwalks at the latter...we went with a friend, Maurice, and his little friend Ian (the son of his manager).  (Maurice is a local ex-pat Brit who has been here for 20 years and owns a guesthouse; if you look at the pictures you can sort of see his quintessential British-ness--socks up to the knees, shorts up to the belly button, handkerchief constantly being wiped across the sweaty forehead).

We boiled eggs and sweet potatos in the hot springs, aided by our guide, Theodoro, and had a funny lunch of those two, avacado, and biscuits.  We then set off for a trek through the jungle--and yes, it is the second largest jungle in the world!--which was hot, muggy, beautiful, mysterious, everything you'd expect.  Saw some major bugs, namely a very fat and very gross millipede, as well as a very furry caterpillar.  Also many monkeys.

Ahhh, the monkeys.  We saw several different kinds--baboons, blue monkeys, and grey-cheeked mangabeys.  The latter two were sitting and swinging around in the trees, but the baboons were just chillin'...a whole pack of them.  Their butts are pretty funny; it's like two shiny, hairless cheeks topped by a tail that rises straight in the air when they walk.  Like, "HEY!  Look at my junk!"  Anyway, I got some good pictures, and it was a really lovely day, overall.  Spent that night at Ciaran's bar (it's got a tv) with the rest of the ex-pat mzungus and many locals watching the Football World Championships (Barcelona killed Manchester U.).

Sunday:  Went to the Kyaninga Lodge, the most beautiful place that I've seen in quite a long time, for lunch and a swim in the crater lake. The lodge is built out of olivewood--took six years to build, no machines--and perches atop a hill overlooking the pristine blue crater lake (an old volcano). The view was--no words--and I forgot my camera!  No worries, however, I'm sure I'll be back.  It's the most expensive place to lunch in Fort Portal (about $15 for a rather gourmet, 3-course meal), but it was a really relaxing Sunday.  Went with Felix and two locals and a Danish guy, and saw some other FP mzungus there as well--Jonathan and co., Brede and Brandon (Irish couple).  Went swimming, and as I floated on my back in the middle of the lake surrounded by jungle greenery and hills and banana trees and shrieking monkeys, I felt like I was in the middle of a postcard.

I am so, so lucky.

Off to a staff meeting...check in with y'all later.

<3 N

In which I best Ugandan men in pool and barbecue with the best of them

Halloooooooo!  That's what virtually every stranger I chance upon on the street greets me with, so now I do the same and I sound like my German housemate, Regina.  I'm just starting to learn the local language, Rutooro; Moses, one of the workers in the archive, is giving me five words/phrases per day.  This is a good thing--not only will I feel less silly in the marketplace, but I'll be able to communicate with my 3 year-old neighbor, Nino!  He doesn't speak any English, so the only thing that he understands is tickle monster (although that's because I run after him growling and he knows what to expect!).  He is the son of Doreen, who is a historian here at the University.  She will actually be at UM next year for her PhD in history, so I get to see her and Nino!  So exciting.  You guys can meet him!

I've been a bit frustrated as of late with work.  I finally got the scanner working and showed the employees how to scan/digitize/etc., but now they're the ones doing it, and I have nothing to do!  So, I've been trying to conjure up  ideas and suggestions for the archive, perhaps drawing up some sort of collections policy, etc.  It's rather frustrating, as I'm to be here for a month and my work is essentially finished after one week.  I'll certainly act as an advisor, of course, but that mostly entails sitting in the small room that constitutes the archive and answering any questions that come up, as I make futile attempts to occupy myself.  I inevitably end up trekking over to the marketplace...I don't like feeling useless!

And now to the title of this post:  We had a barbecue at the Lodge last night, in which Ciaran grilled pork and I made my world-famous guacamole with the amazing avacados they have here.  I attempted to make corn tortillas, but to no avail; they were really just fried little pancakes.  Oh well, once you heaped enough guac on them they weren't so bad.  We then went out to one of the local hangouts, where Ciaran and Felix began playing pool with some of the locals.  I asked if I could play--wasn't sure if it was appropriate for a woman--and they let me, although the Ugandans were snickering at me behind their hands.  Ciaran and I teamed up and I SHOWED THEM!  We won two games, and, for not having played pool in a very long while (and not having been good at it in the first place), I did very well.  Rah rah rah gender equality!!!!!!!!!  One point for women.

My first weekend is coming up, and I am going to the local hot springs with Jonathan (UM PhD) and his wife and two children tomorrow.  Maybe I can get Ciaran to drive me up into the mountains on his motorcycle...we'll see.  Always an adventure, my friends!

Love you all.

N

All: photos will be in my Picasa web album.

It's too much of a pain to send them all individually to the blogspot site, especially as the internet here is kind of slow.  So, if you want the link, here it is:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/myphotos

I began work yesterday, and it went alright--not spectacular.  I arrived with the new laptop and scanner, along with sundry other office supplies, and Evarist (the head guy) and the other volunteers were MAJORLY excited.  "We were just talking about you!  Oh, welcome, welcome!  You're welcome!  Come in, come in!"  It was a very nice reception, to say the least...Evarist and I met with the Vice Chancellor of MMU (Mountains of the Moon University, the university that is assisting the archive with this project and supporting me), and they were both extremely excited and optimistic about the possibilities that the Kaberole District archives will provide.  They were kind of bummed, however, when I told them I'd only be here for a month; they really want to get workers who are properly trained in archival practices.  I told them I'd do my best to get some UM students out here next year.

I didn't get very far with the work, as I had problems linking the scanner with the laptop.  This obviously prevents me from beginning any digitization work, so I've brought the equipment home and am meeting with a Danish IT guy tomorrow morning to try and correct the problem.  Incredibly frustrating!

In other news:  I ate goat yesterday and had a bite of goat intestine, accidentally--it was very rubbery and--I can't really describe the flavor.  Needless to say, I could tell it was part of the stomach...  Then, I got drenched walking back to the archive (it's the rainy season here), and ended up being rescued by Ciaran, my house mate who thankfully has a car.  Went home and drank tea and watched it rain outside.

I'll describe Fort Portal in my next post--it's a fascinating, beautiful, wonderful, complex place, and I'm really falling in love with it every day (silly, I know, as I've only been here for a few days, but still).

Ciao, y'all!
<3
N

Uganda

Old post--in which I arrive in Uganda and get my sleep back on schedule.

**Disclaimer:  I wrote this two nights ago while sitting in bed, so it is NOT the most up-to-date.  Also, I was a bit delirious.**

May 23, 2011

It is 6:19 a.m. and I am currently sitting in my bedroom in a state of unrest, having slept for 19 hours straight yesterday.  (Went to bed at 11 p.m.; woke up at 6 p.m….)  My jetlag was never this bad when I went to Ireland!  So, I woke up this morning at 3:30 and, unable to fall back asleep, lay bored off my gourd (thanks, Mom, for that euphemism) for an hour whilst constantly tangling myself in the damn mosquito net that is draped, like a tent without poles, over my bed.

I finally got up and made some tea, and thankfully I’ve discovered that there is a substantial quantity of DVD’s in the lodge’s living room.  So, I’ve spent the past hour and a half watching The King’s Speech—quite a good movie!  I suppose you all want to hear about Africa, though, and not my sleeping problems…

I arrived at the Entebbe Airport on Saturday afternoon after 14 long hours of flying.  Oh, and for the curious—Ethiopian Airlines food is nothing outrageous—just a lot of chicken and rice.  Not too bad, actually.  When we landed in Addis Ababa for our layover, I was starving and so went to the small cafeteria and ordered a cheeseburger and fries.  How American, right?  It took forever, as is supposedly the general custom in most African countries, and the hamburger—well, the picture is below.  I’m not quite sure what they put on it, although I did discover green peppers, which I absolutely detest.  I was only able to get a few bites in, however, before the plane began boarding, so perhaps it was for the best…

Anyway.  Journey to Fort Portal.  I was delayed for an hour by customs, as I had to pay a tax on the scanner that I had brought with me.  I didn’t know the exact amount that the scanner was worth, so customs staff took their jolly time in looking it up…I finally got out of the airport with my driver, Moses, after exchanging money/buying a sim card for my phone/etc.  Oddly enough, Ugandans will not accept pre-2003 U.S. bills; apparently there was some counterfeit something-or-other that happened in 2003…thus, two of my $20 bills (both from 1999) must remain in my wallet until I return to the U.S.

It took about six hours to drive from Fort Portal to Entebbe, and it was quite the ride—upon leaving the airport we passed pockets of heavily-armed soldiers patrolling the streets, there to quash any of the Walk-to-Work protestors who apparently pose much “danger” to the populace.  A bunch of BS, but I kept my mouth shut…there were soldiers patrolling the airport, as well, and it was very strange to be around big guns.  I’m a hippie, remember?  Peace, not war?  Rather unsettling.

We made a stop after a few hours at a road-side market place, where Moses proceeded to find the best bunch of bananas that he could find by thumping each one (they’re big, probably the size of half my body), cocking his ear carefully.  I got my first taste of being the minority, as I got out of the car half asleep, wallet in hand, with a tanktop on and my tattoo out for the world to see.  Needless to say, I had lots of stares, children following me, people hectoring me to buy bananas, etc.  I’m quickly learning to a) not flash my wallet and b) COVER UP!

I finally arrived in Fort Portal after dark, and a blonde-haired, blue-eyed German girl named Regina came to my rescue once Moses and I discovered that we had no idea where the hell we were supposed to go.  She met us at the local roundabout, thankfully, and directed us back to the lodge.

I’m staying at a Mountains of the Moon University lodge (MMU) with Regina, a German man named Felix, and a Northern Irishman named Ciaran.  (I know, I know, I’m going to make him crazy jabbering on about NI politics and history, but I forewarned him, at least!)  Regina is lovely; she’s working here teaching law and doing some other lawyer-ly things.  Ciaran heads a land development project, and I’m not quite sure what Felix does—he headed off to a conference in Entebbe this morning and was occupied with an English girl last night, so I haven’t had the chance to chat much with him.

The lodge is lovely, with lots and lots of space and sun.  I’ve got a large room to myself (two beds…the luxury!!), as well as my own bathroom, so I’m pretty well set up.  I share my room with apricot-colored geckos, which I don’t mind, as they eat the mosquitoes and they’re rather funny-looking, besides.  There’s a beautiful little garden in the back that Ciaran and Felix have cultivated, along with two chickens (apparently Felix is trying to start his own little farm).  Our neighbors are Doreen (who, incidentally, works at the archives) and her two children, Mary and Nino.  Nino is the CUTEST little boy ever—if you know me, you know I love babies—he’s about two years old and just runs around laughing and laughing.  Maybe I’ll get to babysit?  Regardless, I plan on playing with him as much as I can in my time here!

Phew.  Sorry this has been so long, folks, but I wanted to fill you in on all the gory details of my arrival in and first impressions of Africa.  I’m sure I’ll go on in later posts about Ugandan politics, but as you’re probably tired of reading my rambling at this point, I’ll stop.  Plus, the chickens are waking up and chattering.

Miss and love you all!!

P.S.  My hair is in a ponytail right now, WITH NO BOBBY PINS!!!  So exciting.

Hello, friends.

I am currently sitting in Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. waiting for my flight to depart in an hour.  Ethiopian Airlines, man...I know I keep telling people this, but I'm really excited to see what kind of food they have on the plane!  I'm drinking my last Starbucks coffee, which is sort of sad, although who knows--Starbucks owns the coffee world, so perhaps there is one (or more) in Uganda.

The madre and padre dropped me off at the airport, and of course, as my sister said, I'm lucky to have the father that I have!  Props to you, Dad, for printing everything out for me/helping pack the scanner/etc.  Also a thank-you is well-deserved to Matthew for helping me out with installing Archivist's Toolkit.  Damn program is still stalled; it won't "initialize".  Hopefully I can figure it out sometime this weekend.

Plastic paper clip news:  No dice.  Stupid me didn't think to order them online and so spent the past few days running around to every single office supply store and craft store, and no one has them.  I am really hoping that Evarist (the MMU professor who will be supervising me) won't be too angry...

Alrighty.  Next time you hear from me, I'll be in FORT PORTAL, UGANDA!!  Woot woot!

t-minus 2 days

HELLO WORLD!  It's Wednesday, and I leave for Uganda on Friday.  Pretty crazy, yeah?  My bedroom and the music room are total messes at the moment; piles of clothes and other odd objects lying around.  Somehow I have to consolidate all of those into two groups: staying at home or coming with me to Africa.  Blergh.

Things are ramping up in terms of prep work for Friday--Dr. Peterson, the African Studies professor at UM who is spearheading this project, has been frantically working last-minute to have a laptop and scanner shipped to my house so that I can take them to Fort Portal.  Looks like my job for the first month will be to instruct the students/volunteers/whoever on digitization, teaching them how to use the equipment and the software (I'm pretty stoked; I convinced Dr. Peterson that we needed Adobe Acrobat X, and I'll also be downloading Archon, an open-source archival software program).  Tonight is going to be spent hanging out with Jason--brother from another mother--setting the laptop up, and hurriedly trying to get clothes washed and things in bags.  I'm a bit nervous, as the scanner hasn't arrived yet, but I'm crossing my fingers for tomorrow...not sure what I'll do if it doesn't.

In other news:  Most of you guys reading this probably already know, but I've been hired as a short-term consultant for the World Bank, and they will be paying me the nice figure of $2000!  That's a pretty bomb amount for an archivist who has had two unpaid internships and other low-paying jobs.  I'll be reporting to the Chief Archivist of the World Bank, and will be giving field reports "from the ground" via video chat to WB people in Washington.  I'm so official.

Alrighty.  Check back in a few days, yo...I'll let you know how it is down south!

Prep work...

Well, I'm finally home and staring down the home stretch of U.S. time before stepping on the plane to Uganda.  Went shopping today for Africa clothes, but didn't really find much--although I did have to replace my entire underwear collection, as I left the entire contents of my undergarments drawer back in Ann Arbor.  Thank god for mothers with endless Macy's coupons.

Also, I forgot how green Maryland is.  SO GREEN.  Ranks second only to Ireland.  Guess I haven't been here much during the spring in the past few years--I forgot how nice it is.

Sorry, people, I'll be pretty boring till I step on that Ethiopian Airlines plane.  Wonder what kind of airplane food they'll have......