This week has been crammed with goodbyes and packing, along with a fair number of sentimental thoughts and attempts to take last-minute photos of the places and people I see every day. Now that I am preparing to leave, I like to think back to my thoughts at my arrival and how apprehensive I was in the beginning while figuring out the best bucket bathing techniques and adjusting to life at home with no power. Yesterday Maama asked me what I thought of Namaseenene when I first arrived, and I tried to explain how utterly different it is from home in the US while simultaneously assuring her that I have been so comfortable and happy here. That first weekend with my host family I remember thinking it was so strange that nobody was acknowledging the fact that my life had just changed so drastically – suddenly I was without those amenities that are taken for granted in the US (electricity, plumbing), as well undergoing a complete diet change.
There’s the language difference too; English is official language of Uganda, but that’s probably because there are 80-some languages in the country (my guidebook says “more that 33 local languages” but a newspaper article said over 80). Ugandans don’t speak English to each other unless people from different areas are involved. I always enjoy learning languages but one thing that trips me up here is telling time. In my previous experiences learning a new language, asking “what time is it?” has been an easy phrase to add to daily life. Here in Uganda, however, it’s a little more complicated than usual. If I ask “Essawa meka?” at 9 in the morning, the response I get would be “Saawa 3.” This is because time is counted beginning at dawn here in Uganda – saawa 1 is 7 AM, saawa 2 is 8 AM… etc. Since Uganda straddles the equator, the sun rises and sets close to 7:00 all year, so “ssawa 1 kumakya” is 7 AM and “ssawa 1 ekiro” is 7 PM. I have seen people with their watches set this way. “Luganda time” also spills over into English when people forget to convert the time. Someone might say “Let’s meet at 10 this afternoon” when in fact they mean 4.
As I sit here I am bombarded with thoughts of all the differences – cooking methods, transportation, even clothes. Last Monday I went to Kampala with my host sister Agnes so she could take me to her tailor and have a skirt and blouse made. Getting such an outfit cost just a little over $9 for the fabric and another $9 for the tailor to make it. It was amazing!
The attached photo is a fabric shop here in Masaka, with those towering shelves of folded fabric. The main road through Masaka Town is lined by these small textile shops. Some specialize is fabric for gomesi, while others have more of the kitengi type, made in Tanzania or DR Congo. Tailors themselves line the streets as well, using their pedal-powered sewing machines. Since the Ugandan power supply is not enough to meet demand, “load shedding” (periodic power outages) are a regular occurrence – regular but unscheduled. Agnes’ tailor in Kampala uses an electric sewing machine; luckily the power stayed on all of Monday for Grace to sew my skirt and blouse.
Fabric Shop
Last Tuesday I went to Bukunda, a trading center at the border of Masaka and Rakai districts. I stayed with my coworker Norah until Saturday. We held training sessions with two groups she is working with there, covering banana management, vegetable nursery bed preparation, and energy-saving stoves. At her home we roasted gonja (remember those?) and made banana pancakes (with cassava flour) and chapattis. Here in Uganda, most houses I have seen have the kitchen in a building or shelter separate from the house. To cook, Norah uses a charcoal stove, which is the most common fuel source in a town. Some people may have an electric stove but reserve it for special occasions due to high electricity costs and the load-shedding problem.
In rural kitchens, firewood is used. When friends ask me how I cook at home, I am embarrassed that I can’t exactly explain how our gas stoves work. I just say that we use gas and that it is piped into the house – but where does that gas come from, where is it stored? It reminds me again about the scale difference of my energy footprint in the US compared to here in Uganda. Here you go to “the bush” (what Maama calls any scrubby area, including her banana plantation) and pick up dead sticks and branches for firewood. It’s a local source, though not necessarily sustainable if no one is planting more trees to cut down.
I saw a great example of using local materials in Kanoni village near Bukunda. Here in Uganda bricks are made from the soil – you can see people making them along every road and path. It’s a fairly common side-business for farmers. As we were walking back to Bukunda after a training session in Kanoni, Norah was telling me about the people who lived in the houses we passed. When we came upon the one in the attached photo, Norah said the family was about to build a new house; they had dug up their front yard in order to make bricks to build their new house. It is certainly an effective way to keep transportation and material costs low.
Locally sourced
Throughout all of these observed differences, I always keep in mind that AFS mantra “It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s just different.” I am constantly observing differences while at the same time realizing that we’re all just people here on earth living, but going about it in different ways based on the context in which we live. This includes the climate, history, culture, economics… but here I must stop myself and wonder, is it possible to simply say “it’s just different” when observing the poverty so many people live in here? I wish that we were properly taught African history in school so that we would all have a better understanding of this vast continent. It’s as if the US and Europe are still too embarrassed about their (our) past actions here and how we have affected this continent and the 900 million people who live here (according to Lonely Planet). My 15 weeks here has given me only the briefest peak into one area of one small country in Africa.
So this is the last email I will send from Uganda! I am eagerly awaiting my oreo blizzard on the way home from the airport Monday afternoon! Oh yeah, and seeing friends and family of course… with love,
Stephanie
