Sep 7

Hello again-
I am sure that you are all getting sick of me!! But I thought I might be able to better point out some issues of Kampala life.

What I said the other day about my host family doesn't mean that we are poor or rich. Pit latrines don't "mean" anything. We have a flat screen TV in our sitting room. Classes are a lot harder to define here. No one has electricity 24 hours per day. Some people have back up generators, but most do not. Many internet cafes do ( I got to witness them putting in a new one yesterday at this internet café).

I am not worried about the culture shock; it is something people go through no matter what country they study or live in. I prepared myself for this prior to coming as best I could. One thing that is very annoying here is the DUST. I think I might as well just pick up smoking…I think my luings are already black after just one week. When I go to the country it won't be so bad though. Also, I get to go to Rwanda in a few weeks YAY!. One other thing that adds to the smog is that they burn their garbage. There is no trash pick up. Yesterday at the University campus it must have been trash burning day cause I had to walk through several billowing clouds of filth. Haha, ooh Uganda. Another annoying habit here, that I am trying my best to get used to is that in Luganda (the language of this AREA, not Uganda as a whole) they have a word which means white person, "Muzungu." Many people speak English here, but on the street taxi drivers and small children call out to us/me MUZUNGU!! And is typically accompanied by a lot of staring. By the end of the day I am frustrated, and just want to yell YES I AM A WHITEY!! But I still find it amusing.

Also, everyone is interested in the food. It is different, and slightly unexplainable. We eat something called mitoki (spelling is off, my LUGANDA IS NOT SO GOOD YET), which is a mashed something (its yellow…so banana??) then you pour a stew over it, with stuff like meat carrots and peas. I ate put peas on it Tuesday and it was delicious. Last night we had what Ugandans call an "Irish." For dinner we had stewed potatoes and some greens. It was very delicious, as I had been going through potato withdrawal! There is an Indian naan type bread called chipati which is delicious in and of itself, but is used to sop up leftover stew.

The power; we are on a rotating system. I have power for one night and day, then it is followed by about 24 hours of no electricity. I am not sure how much of the stuff in the fridge stays cool, but then again there isn't much in there to begin with. It is a mini fridge, slightly larger than what kids today bring to college.

As for my home stay, I leave the city proper at around 6 or 6:30 in the evening. I do not go into the city again until the next morning. Ugandans do things differently in the evening than in America. In the US you typically go home, eat, hang out, then go to bed. Here we go home, hang out, eat (as late as 11pm) then go to bed. It is a lot on your stomach (rice, breads, starch etc) to have to climb into bed with, so I try and keep my mum up and talking to me. Then I wake up at 6 am…ooh how I long for the American University schedule!!"

Also, as I was telling my parents yesterday, everyone here is obsessed with being clean. I MUST take two showers a day. One when I wake up in the morning, and one when I get back from school at about 7 pm. These are my host mother's rules. Everyone here dresses very nicely, collared shirts and all. Perhaps that is the same in Benin Kelly?

The next big question is how do I get home? My family owns a car (a Toyota), but the point is for me to assimilate, so I take a taxi. The word taxi is used loosely here. It means that I wait around for a mini-van style public transportation vehicle to show up. Then I have to haggle with the driver, and climb aboard. In the mornings it is easy. In the afternoons I have to go to what is called a taxi park. This is an overwhelming experience, as there are hundreds of "matatus" (taxis's) in a small dusty people filled area, with no signs and no discernible system. Also, all of them look EXACTLY THE SAME. So it's a slightly stressful situation, but I am getting used to it.

People asked me if I have a curfew and such…well not really. But you dont want to take the taxi's at night, especially as a girl. Also, they have what we think of as "American" taxis, which are more expensive, but even those can be unsafe. So if I want to spend the night with my friends in the city, I must ask my mum, the academic director, and then rent a hotel room. It seems to be a slightly obnoxious process (yes yes I know its for my safety), so I have yet to do it.

Tonight I am going to a bachelors or bachelorette party with my mum. Here they are both called the same thing, and sometimes both the bride and groom attend the same one. I am really excited, but also quite scared, because when I asked what to wear, the mum and maid laughed and said they would dress me! So those pictures should be highly amusing. Sorry I haven't uploaded any pics yet…computers and power are a major issue here haha, sooo I am just trying to figure out how I should go about doing that. I am sure that I will have even more news for all of you tomorrow after my party, but you probably won't hear from me for a bit (I have flooded everyone's e-mails enough!