When Attempts at being Nice and Polite Backfire . . .

On numerous occasions I have been told how important greetings are in Ugandan culture. Even if you’re in a hurry and don’t really have time to talk you should still stop to respond to a greeting then state you’re in a hurry rather than just rush past without. I’ve been trying to keep this tidbit in the front of my mind, attempting to figure out when to follow the protocol and when to ignore it as some people see Westerners as just a means to ask for things they want (of course this isn’t true of all people here, but it definitely isn’t an uncommon practice).

What started out as just a normal Tuesday walk into town quickly turned into a series of ‘interesting’ encounters, marking the start of what I’m sure will prove to be a very interesting next 5 months. In true Sarah style I was ready to give everyone the benefit of the doubt on my way to the office when I hear “Hello, sister. Come talk with me.” I decide to take the polite road and detour towards the voice. I walk up to the front of what I later find out is a car/house rental business to find a mustached man, Fred, sitting on a chair outside. We exchange greetings and then he quickly starts peppering me with questions about how long I’ve been in Uganda, how long I’m staying, and how I like it, casually easing in that if I was looking for a car to rent he could help me out. “Come, come inside, I’ll give you my card.”

“Um, ok,” was my response and I follow him into his office where my eyes immediately fall on what appears to be a giant framed modeling picture of himself. Wow. This random meeting just got really good; I wonder what the rest of the day will be like . . . ? Too bad it started getting creepy from there, Fred asking for my email and phone number so we can stay in touch because ‘we’re now friends.’ Hmm, yeah, not so much . . . so I try ‘sorry, I can only use my cell phone for work’ . . . ‘I was actually on my way to the office so I should really get going,’ and hightail it back to the road where it has now started to sprinkle.

As a light rain begins to fall I approach Main Street, ready to continue the second half of my journey to the office. Cue next encounter. “Hey, come over! Come in, I ask you every day and you never do.” It’s a guy sitting next to a restaurant and little store I pass every time I go into town. For whatever reason I think to myself, ‘sure why not? Maybe if I humor him this one time it will be over with and he won’t call out to me everyday anymore,’ and cross to his side of the street. It didn’t take long before I realized that this probably wasn’t the best idea. Not only did he continue to ask me to see him in the evening but I had to keep thinking up and lying about reasons I couldn’t. Now in the US dodging a slightly creepy person wouldn’t be much of a problem, but being in a foreign country it’s a bit trickier, especially when you don’t want to offend.

After a few minutes I was able to get away, thinking (well more like hoping) that this would be the end of things. Too bad it wasn’t. The next day as Katie and I were walking to town what should I hear as we approached Main Street? Someone calling my name. And who was it? The guy from the other day. Hmm, it’s going to be interesting to see how this whole ordeal plays out . . .

Randoms

- Twice now I’ve seen women walking around balancing giant knives on their heads as they walk along. Now it’s not uncommon to see women carrying an array of different items on their heads, but machete-like knives was a bit of a shock to me. . . I wish I could have snapped a picture without being obvious; it really was a sight to see . . .

- I had my first language lesson on Monday. I was surprised to notice that my teacher, Ali, had blue eyes. Not that I was staring deeply into them or anything (b/c that would be creepy) but I was looking him in the eye as he was explaining something. I just assumed his eyes were brown but when I really ‘looked’ at them they looked funny. Then I realized it was because they were blue!

- On Sunday Katie, Annette, and I were walking down to Main Street and I saw a lady holding a plastic bag with a live chicken in it, its head popped out of the opening. I thought it was funny.

- Last week I met two of the tailors I will be working with to help create items to sell at an upcoming craft fair on November 19 in Kampala. Florence was the first. She, I found out, had been through the last sewing class and was now making little dresses/women’s tops to sell in one of the café gift shops. The other tailor’s name was Sarah. I was excited to meet her because she plays a huge role in execution of the sewing classes and I had read a lot about her before I ever came over. I found out that she has been sewing for over 30 years, learning the trade in 1978. Then a year later she started up her own business and has been going ever since. Not only does she teach others and have her own business, but she is also the pastor at her church. Talk about a busy woman! Lucky for me we share the same name – totally got me bonus points in her book when we met. That same day I also met Irene, the gift shop manager (or owner, I can’t remember which) at The Source Café (our office is right behind it).

- And lastly we have a new addition to our home: TWO LITTLE PUPPIES!!! They are super cute and look a lot like Muffin. Their names are Fergus (short for Ferguson, which I love) and Liam. Lori is going to keep Liam but Fergus is just hanging out with us for a few weeks. Though they are little sprinklers they’re so gosh darn cute it’s hard to stay mad at them!

Another Initiation

Apparently you haven’t really experienced Jinja, Uganda until you’ve had the pleasure of a power outage. When these occur it’s hard to say how long it will last. I’ve heard the usual duration is a day or two but you never can tell. My first time finally came Thursday night. To prove that this was a big deal in my small steps towards becoming familiar in the country I was given a hi-five just for experiencing it.

The power stayed off until the next morning and then went off again an hour later until mid- afternoon. During this time I observed how clever Katie and Lori can be when coursed with providing their own entertainment. Katie started off by playing with the candles and decorating the holders with the melted wax. Lori on the other hand showed off her artistic abilities by dominating a Baby Animals Coloring Book. These activities combined with a brief conversation about whether each of us would choose to have an extremely large chin or a barely existent chin made for a very entertaining evening (at least to me).

Oh! AND I’ve decided Smokey and Charcoal (our ‘guard’ dogs) have decided to put me through the test as well. Smokey keeps sneaking in the house, hiding under the dining room table, and refusing to come out when I tell him to (of course Lori and Katie can get him out no problem). Then, late last week I had moved a chair outside to work in the fresh air and Charcoal comes up and starts peeing on it!! I tried to get him to stop as fast as I could, unfortunately it didn’t do much good. I still had to clean up a chair covered with urine. Wow, thanks boys, I’m enjoying our time together too . . . (aside from these instances I really am though, those punks).

Business Class

Right now it is the business class that is taking priority in terms of the vocational programs we’re working on. When I arrived Katie and Julius were about half way through the business course they were teaching in a nearby village, so for the rest of the class I am just observing.

Because of the focus on teaching the women basic business skills, the Sewing Hope classes have been put on hold for the time being. I quickly realized after going to the business class (and reading various pieces of literature and case studies) how vital it is to make sure the students know to manage and track their money once they have vocational skills they want to exploit. I will be helping with the next round of business classes later this year and also be creating a foundational sewing curriculum to be used in future Sewing Hope classes (apparently they didn’t have one before).

The pictures you see were taken during some of the business classes. We all cram into a small room of someone’s house (I’m not sure who) and run class from there. I heard that originally they were holding class outside but fleas soon became an issue. Given the alternative, I’m totally down with cozying up in a tiny room.

A Walk into Town . . .

This is a picture guide of what you would see walking from our house into town . . .

. . . after taking a right to go the "alternate" way . . .
. . . One of the houses we pass along our way . . .
. . . After a left turn. Look closely and you can see Lake Victoria in the background . . .
. . . still walking . . .. . . broken down water truck. We're pretty sure it's been sitting there a LONG time . . .

. . . coming into town . . .
. . . boda-bodas (motorcycle taxis) and businesses, keep walking and you'll be right in the heart of Main Street!

Craziest Week Ever

This has been one of the craziest weeks ever, at least so far. After starting off on a low note (which was added to by the death of Tara’s grandfather) a light of joy shined upon us on Friday. As the saying goes new life makes losing life easier, Team Africa is happily expecting a new addition. Tara is pregnant!

The whole family went out to dinner to celebrate and I was happy to be able to watch Grace (Tara's husband) tell Edith and Timmy the news. It was quite the show and very entertaining. Here's a picture of the two of them making silly faces in their school uniforms.

And now for happy pictures. The following documents Katie and my Wednesday-night-Chicken-Pot-Pie-Culinary-Adventure.

Oh and tonight we made our own rendition of yellow curry. And it actually turned out really well! Wow, way to go us. If that wasn't enough excitement for the night, I spotted a mouse as it crawled out from under the couch while we were watching past episodes of Chuck. That started up a whole-house search for the little guy after we couldn't find it in the living room. I'm pretty sure it went back outside through the hole in the door, but Katie took a bit more convincing. And she wasn't pleased to see me walk back into the dining room brushing my teeth when I was supposed to be checking the bathroom either. I guess it wasn't the most appropriate moment to be multi-tasking, who knew?

Bad things happen in 3’s . . . right?

This week has been a bit of a downer to say the least. First off, I got sick Sunday night and I honestly do not know what it was from. Katie thinks it was the malaria meds but I think it was just one of those quick little bugs that knock you flat on the ground but is over in a day or two. And on the ground I was, literally. You know, you really don’t realize how annoying passing out is until you have to race through any task in 30 seconds or less to prevent waking up on the floor seconds later. . . But don’t worry gang, I’m all mended and back to normal now.

Tragedy struck again mid-week with Muffin. Wednesday she was set to get her stitches taken out from her surgery the week previous. However, things appeared to be a bit off Tuesday night. After a day of moping around in what just seemed like a desperate plea for attention, Muffin was clearly in pain. We discovered her stitches were now bulging and as the night went on they started leaking. What started out as small little puddles, progressed into larger wet spots all over the house- in the living room, in the bathroom, and in the hallway. At one point Tuesday evening we couldn’t find Muffin, so Katie joked “I wonder which of our beds she picked.” Yeah, it wasn’t really a joke. Muffin had picked my bed to leak all over, wonderful. By this time Tara and Katie had McGuyvered their own cone to put on Muffin so she’d stop licking her stitches, which she continued to wear for the rest of the night.

The vet came early the next morning, but good news didn’t accompany him. I guess they discovered that the inside stitches hadn’t held and that was why Muffin’s sutures were bulging. Apparently she had lost a lot of fluid during the night and even more once the stitches were removed the next morning. It was just too much and she died right on the table. Katie, Tara, and I were in shock. Lori was in agony. Needless to say it was a very rough day.

Bad thing number 3 took place the same day as Muffin and was much more of a community hit than personal. Annette, a pregnant woman who is friends with everyone here at Fount of Mercy (Sewing Hope) was in a car crash with her husband and one of her small sons. Thankfully they were all ok, Annette coming out the worst- with stitches on her forehead and a pained leg. The vehicle that hit them was comparable to a school bus. And there were children onboard. Fortunately everyone was ok and only 5 had minor injuries. Driving here is really dangerous. Death from car collisions is not uncommon – that’s not to say it happens all the time, because it doesn’t. But the prevalence is pretty high. I think it goes without saying that we are all very thankful that everyone is safe and ready for the week to move on and get better.