Happy Birthday America - She Has Come!

July 4th.            The 4th of July.           Independence Day.          America's Birthday.

All good reasons to celebrate no matter where you are, even in Uganda. Since we had a lot of work to do we couldn't take the day off, but that doesn't mean we didn't do anything to celebrate. In fact we got pretty wild.

What did we do, you ask? Ate hamburgers and milkshakes, of course! Well, we WANTED to eat milkshakes, but the restaurant we were at didn't have all the ingredients for them so we had to settle for smoothies.

While sitting at the table waiting to get our patriotism on we are spotted by Ali, the man who teaches language lessons to most of the Mzungus in Jinja. Katie and I hadn't seen him yet this trip (though we'd often heard him downstairs in the mornings for Lori's lessons) so Lori asks if he remembers us.
"Do you remember Katie and Sarah?"
"Of course!" he replies as he shakes Katie's hand, not quite convincing anyone of complete recognition. Then he reaches over to shake my hand, a perplexed look on his face.
"Do you remember me?" I ask. His face falls into even deeper furrowed thinking and then -
"Ah! She has come!!!!" Click. Ali has now locked into who I am and, apparently, how much he likes me, rushing over to my side of the table to shake my hand again. This time with GREAT enthusiasm.

"How are you?! How is America?" he peppers me with questions. By this point everyone else at the table is just watching, dumbfounded by what just happened.

After Ali left, we fell into a fit of laughter.
"Whoa, I had no idea Ali liked you so much!"
"What'd you do, pay him extra?!"
"Geeze Katie, what does that make you? Chopped liver?"
And many more similar comments flew back and forth across the table. A short time later our food arrived and we tucked right in, finally leaving with full bellies and satisfied airs.

Happy birthday America, it was one to remember.

I knew it!

Last Sunday, I decided it was a lovely late morning to sit out on our deck and read for a bit. So I did just that. Just look at that view...

Here is the deck

Here is some of what you can see from the deck - Lubogo Road

So I'm sitting in the shade, reading and enjoying the occasional gentle breeze when I notice an overturned bucket sitting to my right. The only reason I noticed it was because it moved, or at least I thought it did.

I didn't pay much mind to this until about 15 minutes later it moved again . . . twice . . . by itself.  Instantly my mind jumped to my last trip when I heard horror stories about rats appearing in Lori's house. "There's got to be a rat in there!" I thought to myself. Then quickly decided to vacate the deck. As soon as I saw Katie I told her my thought - "I think there is a rat under there! Or i guess it COULD have been the wind but it wasn't really blowing hard enough to move a bucket . . . "

"I'm sure it was the wind," was her reply. But I could tell that's only what she WANTED to think, especially after the rat experience she dealt with last time.

After Sunday I'd forgotten all about the bucket and possible rat. That is until Eva, who helps out with house work a few times a week, came into the dinning room this morning asking, "who put a bucket over a rat?!!"

"I knew it!!!!" I wanted to cry out. But instead I just whispered it to Katie.

In the end, Jesse, the groundskeeper took care of the rat, but I still felt some satisfaction having been right that there was a rat under the bucket . . . even if it would have saved a big scare and disgust had I not forgotten about it and remembered to tell someone. Whoops. Oh well. No harm, no foul - right?

Happy Birthday to Me

Today, July 2, 2013, is my 24th birthday. How did I spend it? 8 hours of batiking and then waiting 2 hours for dinner of course! Actually the batiking was pretty entertaining, especially when wowing Katie with my useless ability to name each member of S Club 7 as well as confessing I can name, and describe, every person from the game Guess Who.  And at dinner - at the newly finished (as of a year ago, i think) Jinja Nile Village - we just so happened to be able to participate in some special marketing promotion/feedback gimmick which allowed us to get free food! The only downside was the service was very slow, even for Uganda - but hey, it was free . . . and tasty! :D

As a special my-birthday treat for you, here is a random picture of what you'd see if you were to sit on our toilet. Enjoy!

Painting on the bathroom door

Meow!!! . . . Please, Make It Stop

Apparently the idea of not not living with annoying cats for the next few months was a false one (no offense Leana). The apartment above Lori's, which we are temporarily living in, also houses the cat of the former resident. I forgot this.

Meet Meow. 

(She's more terrifying in this picture than real life. And yes, that is a cat-aract in her right eye - pun intended)

And believe me, the name could not be more appropriate . . . unfortunately for us. I made the mistake of petting her one evening and now she's taken to following me around the house and meowing loudly. The other night I forgot to close my bedroom door, remembering during dinner. That's strike one. 'She'll probably be in our room when we get back,' I'd jokingly thought to myself. Strike 2 for Sarah. Later that night Katie and I walk into our room, turn on the light and barely see Meow as she runs lightning quick off of my bed and out of the room.
"She was laying on my bed!!!!" I cried (only realizing after it came out I'd totally channeled Buster from Arrested Development 'it walked on my pillow!!!').

The next day before I'd gotten out of bed, I heard Tara through the door. "The cat pooped on my dress!!! I was going to wear this today!" Apparently Meow was mad that Tara didn't let her into her room the previous night and decided to let her have it. So it seems that not only is Meow super annoying, but vindictive too.

As a safe guard for myself, I've decided to threaten never to pet her again should she do something like that to my things. We'll see how well that works out . . .

Looks relatively innocent in this picture, huh?

Town Pics

As promised here are a small number of pictures from around town - mostly side streets (as opposed to main street) because it was less embarrassing to take pictures that way. ;)

The birthday girl, Katie, sitting at Flavours - a popular coffee shop

View from the tapas restaurant we went for Katie's birthday dinner, overlooking the Nile River

More pictures to come - some of which will hopefully show the differences in run-down-ness, if you will (meaning not all of Jinja looks like the photos above).

Out and About

Well the first trip out and about in town proved to be quite successful. We got our sim cards for our phones and some airtime as well as stopped by The Source Cafe. This was the best part of the day for me because I got to see my friend Maxi - who is now expecting a baby!!! Also, Irene from the gift shop definitely remembered me and I wasn't sure that she would, so naturally that put me on cloud nine. :)

We did pass by Eva at her craft shop on the walk to and from town, but I don't think she remembered me. But that's ok, and to be quite honest, somewhat expected. Many people here think that most Mzungus look the same and if you're working at a craft shop you're guaranteed to see A LOT of them.

Today is Katie's birthday and so far has been a pretty lazy day. Mostly because we haven't started working on our projects yet. Since we don't really have anything planned today (other than a possible meeting with Tara and a woman named Tina) we thought we might embarrassingly play tourist and take pictures around town for you kids to enjoy. ;)

Ugandan Adventures – Take 2

Monday, June 24, 2013

Well, I haven’t even reached Jinja yet, and I’ve already got bug bites – thank you hot and humid last night in Chicago. Fingers crossed I’ll be mostly spared the remainder of my trip. :D On a more serious note, leaving for Uganda was much harder this time than I anticipated. The most obvious reason being the amazing friends and loved ones I’m leaving behind. But as with all things, time will pass and I’ll forget all about them – just kidding! Time will pass and we’ll all be back together again. But until that time comes, I am extremely happy to be going back to my African home to see and work with my surrogate family!!!

The stories for this great adventure started early, at O’Hare Int’l Airport and the baggage check. Hopping into a relatively short line Joshua and I thought, ‘this won’t take long at all.’ Eh, not so much. Despite having to wait for what seemed like quite a while we were given some good entertainment; entertainment in the form of a small, mischievous boy. Forget running around, not listening to your parents. This kid was running around between various attempts (most successful) of climbing on top of the luggage scale and peering around the corner at the Lufthansa employees working behind the desk.

Finally the mom managed to block his way to the scale but it wasn’t without GREAT effort on his part.

Fast forward to the middle of my first plane ride (destination – Frankfurt, Germany)

The flight attendants are pushing a cart down the aisle collecting dinner trays and who should come strolling up behind them? The little hell raiser from the baggage check back in Chicago! Being a kid and not knowing better, he tries to squeeze past.

Attendant #1 – “Just a minute”

He tries to squeeze by.

Attendant #1 – “Wait just a minute please.”

Still not listening, he makes another attempt to pass through.

Clearly asking him to wait is out of the question. After a quick conversation with Attendant #2 on the opposite side of the cart, Attendant #1 bends down, picks up the boy, and passes him over the cart to her coworker who then sets him down on the other side. Unfazed, the kid takes off only to be seen running around the plane multiple times later, a family member chasing behind.

Airport – Frankfurt, Germany

Not too much excitement here, other than 30 minutes of free internet and a few hours of waiting for the second leg of my trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The flight there was barely noteworthy (shocker). I slept most of the way which was nice and was elbowed intermittently throughout the whole flight by the lady sitting next to me.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Airport

Very. Confusing. Perhaps I was just thrown off from sleep, lack thereof, or the time change, but figuring out where I needed to be in this place was not easy, or obvious . . . at all. Eventually I was able to find someone to help me, learning that I was in the wrong terminal and needed to catch the bus to the correct location. However, multiple busses came and went only allowing passengers off and on rare occasion a select few on. Eventually though, I got on a bus and made it to my gate to wait for my final flight of the trip.

I knew I was definitely in Africa when I got sandwiched by two men heading to Entebbe as well, and one of them eventually asked for my contact information.

Him - “Do you have a card?”

Me – “No”

Him – “Do you have a phone?”

Me – “no” (well technically yes, but I didn’t know the number and certainly wasn’t going to give it to this random person)

Him – “ok, well why don’t I give you my number so you can call me?”

Me – “ok, sure” (‘that will never happen’)   - and time to get on the plane.

The last flight was short and other than everyone’s baggage taking ridiculously long to appear, everything went smoothly. Customs were a breeze and my ride was waiting for me when I came out. I finally reached the house around 3:30am on the 26^th.

Now we wait and see what new adventures unfold…