My first day (Sunday) in Jinja started with rain, lots of rain … pouring rain actually. It was like I was back in Oregon, weird. Apparently when it rains hard things shut down for a while because everything gets so muddy. The day pretty much consisted of hanging around the house and watching Alias and How I Met Your Mother on DVD. When I think about it it’s pretty ironic that I’m already watching more TV here than I have the whole past year, haha. Katie had to go help teach the business class for a few hours and once she got back we prepared/ate dinner then hung out some more before bed. Not too exciting but definitely a nice way to ease into things :D. This week I’m pretty much going to be taking it easy and just trying to get used to things around here, which is fine with me. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the week has in store.
Oh right, the house! I do not live in a hut (as you may have guessed from the TV watching). We have electricity and running water. AND, from what I gather, a woman who does our laundry. So I’m guessing by the end of this thing I’m going to be pretty darn spoiled. . . Katie and I share a room, each with our own bunk bed and mosquito net. We have a living room, dining room, kitchen, toilet, and wash/shower room. Oh yes, and there are nice little random paintings on the wall in various areas of the house. Our house is in a walled compound with 3 or so other homes and a big green gate. We have two guard dogs, Smokey and Charcoal, who are cute and friendly but definitely do their duty at night. [side note- pretty much everything here has a working purpose. This means that dogs are primarily used for protection, and the concept of having them as pets is quite out of the ordinary. The result of this is most people being afraid of them.]
PICTURES: 1) Kitchen 2) Bedroom 3&4) Living Room 5&6) View from Kitchen window 7) Dining Room
Now that I’m thinking about it I should probably introduce people to you so when I throw out names you’ll know who I’m talking about. I live with Lori, who is Fount of Mercy’s international director. She’s been living here for 2 years now and overseas everything over on this end. She has a dog named Muffin who is pretty cute and apparently being spayed in an hour long procedure on a table in the front yard tomorrow (Thursday). Wow, that sounds . . . awesome. Katie is the other intern. She’s originally from the mid-west and has been here for several months already. Lucky for me she pretty much has the lay of the land and can show me the ropes on most things. Tara, the Vocational Programs Director, lives next door to us with her husband, Grace, and two children Edith and Timmy.
Day 2
Today Katie didn’t have to work so she took me down to Main Street (yes, they have a main street) to see what it’s like and help me get out money, a SIM card for my phone, and a few other things. Most of the roads here are dirt and depending on where you are at there may be residential houses or little shops set up on the side of the road. Once you get to Main Street, it is easily recognizable as the center of town. There are buildings after buildings lining the street, just as you would see in the US. The main difference however, is the look of the buildings – practically all have large porches/awnings and very open doorways (though this isn’t true for all). Probably the biggest difference, aside from the dirt road, is the sidewalks. Most of the time there is one, but it’s usually cracking or in pieces, looking like chunks of ice floating on the arctic waters – except it’s all a shade of brown and not cold or wet, usually.
I had an interesting time finding an ATM that my bank card would work in after discovering that Barclay’s was out of money. But have no fear; I was able to find one on about the 3rd or 4th try. After getting out money, well before actually- but order’s not important, Katie took me to MNT (one of their cell providers) to get a SIM card and airtime for my phone. Along the way I was shown where the FOM office is and a few good cafes nearby. The office is right next to a café called Sources, where we stopped to enjoy a nice meat pie, called a Samosa. After that it was on to the supermarket to pick up some groceries.
There are two types of places to get food here, supermarkets, like what you picture in your mind when thinking of small, privately owned local grocery stores and (what I guess you would call) the market, which is like a giant farmer’s market. It is here that you will get all of your produce among an assortment of other things ranging from cooking utensils to shoes to metal work. Most of the prices here are set by bartering (which I have yet to do and am a bit nervous about), so the price they give is not necessarily what you have to pay. Katie showed me the woman she always goes to when buying produce, telling me that she always gives her a fair price. I hope I can remember what she looks like and how to find her so I can go to her too. After getting our groceries we headed home and hung out for the rest of the day.
Day 3
Day three started out with a day debriefing by Tara. I was told Julius, FOM’s newest employee and Uganda local, was going to take me into ‘town’ again today to help me get the rest of my errands taken care of and then I could watch his and Katie’s second attempt to make soap. I had met Julius very briefly the previous day at the market, just saying hello. But today we got to spend some quality time together which I enjoyed a lot. He’s really nice and easily to get along with. Also he’s my age so I thought it was pretty easy to relate to each other (but perhaps that was just on my end). He helped me to get my internet modem (just a little stick you stick in the computer) as well as a step-down, which is a wattage converter for electronics. Thank goodness he was with me to help me get a good price on things because I didn’t (and still don’t, to be completely honest) have a clue.
We also went to have keys made. This was really interesting to me because unlike key copying services in the United States where molds are used, replications here are done my hand. Basic keys are already made but the locksmith measures and then eyeballs with extreme precision where the grooves and chunks are in the key and either saws it out or files it down. It is quite a timely process, I’d say we waited a good 45 minutes to an hour for 4 keys (it could have been longer but I got distracted by a cute little boy and girl who I started a waving/smiling relationship with).
Along the way Julius ran into a few of his friends, one of whom joked ‘you need to learn basic greetings so we don’t talk about you,’ and I quite agree. I’m not sure when my language lessons will start but it will be interesting for sure. After the keys we headed to pick up some supplies from the supermarket and market for soap. Once we had gathered up all of our needed items it was time to head home and time for my first experience on a Boda-Boda.
Bodas are essentially motorcycle taxis. This isn’t really that big of a deal, except for girls are supposed to ride side saddle, which unnerved me a little bit. I mean, I don’t have that great of balance to begin with so I could only imagine the disasters that awaited me. Tara had told me earlier that morning not to ride one if I wasn’t ready. But by the end of the day I was feeling pretty bold and decided to give it a try. Not so bold however, to ride it alone, so Julius rode in with me sandwiching me in the middle. It turned out to be not so scary as I originally anticipated and was actually quite fun. I think this was a good way to go about my first Boda ride.
After we got back to the house we had lunch and I observed Katie and Julius’s soap adventure. I learned it was their second attempt as their first never hardened. Here’s hoping it works this time.
