What's Up

Here are some quick updates about what’s going on with me.

Home/Life

Peace Corps Volunteers gave the 4^th of July a proper celebration here in Uganda.  I went to 2 parties on different weekends.  One was big and crazy – full of barbeque, alcohol, and shenanigans.  The other was a nice potluck lunch with good friends and good conversations.  It was a great holiday.  :)

Big news:  my water has come back!  After living for 6 months without running water, it’s back!  I still prefer bucket baths (my shower is just a trickle of water), but it makes a big difference with washing dishes and flushing the toilet.  Hooray.

My electricity has been stable since May.  This has enabled me to watch countless movies and TV show marathons during my free time.  (Game of Thrones is my new favorite.)  I have a 500GB hard drive that’s full but I am quickly going through all of those movies.  I will reload it when I come home.  I’m also going to pick up a Kindle – the Peace Corps book exchange doesn’t really work for me since I’m so far from Kampala.

Last week I suffered through another bout of diarrhea.  I was miserable but it passed after a few days.  And of course, I have no idea what caused it.  But I’m pretty lucky – I still have not had any serious illnesses that require a trip to the medical office.

Spider update:  Last weekend I caught a big, fat-ass, hairy tarantula that was crawling across the floor in my sitting room.  Yeah, this one creeped me out a bit.  I couldn’t kill it (I didn’t want to clean up the mess), so I caught it and let it go outside (away from the house!).

The weather here is cooler (65-75) cloudy, windy, and rainy about half of the time.  Other days it’s sunny but not too hot.  Bike rides to town are much more pleasant now.  Unfortunately, I think the crappy weather affects my internet connection and I only have internet a couple days per week now, and it’s very slooooooow.   I’ve waited 34 minutes just to check my email.  Ugh.

Work

The grant I wrote back in June has not been reviewed yet.  (It's for database software to create a student records database, and to set up internet connection at the school's computer lab.)  The Peace Corps changed the review schedule, so I have to wait until mid-August to find out if it gets approved.

In the meantime, I’m teaching computing to the nursing students.  The lessons are very basic – how to open a document; how to save; bold/underline/italic; etc.  It’s going alright – I’m still having difficulty getting used to the non-planning way of life here.  For instance, there are not enough classrooms for the 4 classes of students (poor planning).  So on any given day, an entire class will be sent home for ‘study’ . . . and it might be the day that I was scheduled to teach.  (???)  So I’m trying to think of other things I could work on at Kuluva (since I still have a lot of down-time), but new projects will have to wait until October – I’m pretty busy until then.

Oh yeah.  And Kuluva Hospital has not paid for their PO Box in over 2 years.  The post office has locked the box and we are no longer receiving mail until it’s paid for.  I gave the notice to the hospital administration about a month ago and they still haven’t paid.  If it’s not paid when I come back in October, I’ll find another PO Box to have my mail sent to.

That's all for now. 

Ugandan Dining Experience

Going out to eat in Uganda is very different than in the US.  Let me break it down for you.

The customer service here is horrible.  In the US, there are very high customer service standards, so I guess my expectations are unrealistic in Uganda.  Imagine that every time you go out, it’s the server’s first day on the job.  They don’t know what’s on the menu; they forget to bring silverware and napkins; when you specifically ask for ketchup, it never comes; etc.  And when you ask for the bill, expect that it will take at least 15 minutes to write up and another 15 minutes to pay/figure out the change.  (Remember, no computers or credit cards.) 

Personal example: I was with some friends at a pizza place in Kampala.  We had placed our order and were waiting for the drinks.  The server went and got the bottles of Coke and placed them on the counter by the kitchen (a direct view for us).  Then he disappeared for 10 minutes or so.  When he eventually came back, he still did not bring the drinks.

PCV:  Can I have my Coke please?

Server:  It is just there (pointing to the Coke on the counter).

PCV:  Why don’t you bring it here?!?!

So let’s say you actually have a decent server at a restaurant – odds are the kitchen doesn’t have half of the food on the menu.  Most local restaurants don’t have refrigerators (or electricity), which means they can’t store food overnight.  Each morning someone has to go to the market, get the food for the day, bring it back, and start preparing it.  (Restaurants usually don’t start serving food until 10:00am or 11:00am.)  And if mangoes aren’t in season, they won’t be making the mango salsa that’s listed on the menu.

Personal example:  A group of us went out to eat at a local bar/restaurant.  We ordered drinks and a few plates of French fries to share.  (There aren’t many choices for vegetarians at local restaurants.)  It took over 1 ½ hours to get the fries.  I’m guessing the kitchen staff went out and bought the potatoes, soaked them, peeled them, heated the oil, and finally fried the potatoes.  Lesson learned – it’s better to arrive at a restaurant 1-2 hours before you’re hungry.

“It is finished” is a common phrase in Uganda when something is broken or gone, like my apples are finished because I ate the last one at lunch.  If you go to a restaurant late in the afternoon, almost all of the food is finished.  There’s just nothing left in the kitchen and they’re not going out to buy more.

Personal example: We sat down for dinner at a restaurant and the server came over and said: “The pork is finished, the fish is finished, the burgers are finished, and the chicken will take more than one hour to prepare.”  (I think the chickens were still running around out back.)  I ordered a veggie burger because its vegetables, not beef.  “Oh sorry, it is not there.”  Someone else ordered the tuna salad and the server came back with a tin of sardines.  “Is this okay?”  Um, no – that is NOT tuna.  [Everyone ended up ordering virtually the same meal and I had a vegetable sandwich, which is somehow different than the vegetable burger.]

Sometimes it’s just easier to cook at home instead of dealing with the stress of going out to eat.

Pondering Thought #4: Hoarding and A Trash Pileup

Where is the line between conserving and hoarding?  I find myself keeping empty peanut butter jars (cleaned out obviously), small pieces of twine, plastic water bottles, old toothbrushes, plastic bags (from the supermarket), etc. ‘just in case’ I need it for something.  But I’m not really finding a use for any of it.  I have actual Tupperware for food storage; I have cups and Nalgene water bottles for drinking; plastic bags I reuse occasionally but not very often.  So instead of finding a new purpose for these random items, they collect dust in a corner of my house.  I don’t think I qualify as a hoarder yet, but it would be a shame to waste a perfectly good piece of twine.

So what’s the alternative?  What else could I do with all of this junk?  Throw it away, you say?  Let me explain the trash situation in Uganda.  

Trash is everywhere.  Every street and dirt road is lined with trash, and it's scattered across the open fields.  The only way to actually dispose of something is to burn it in a trash pit or pile.  That’s not a problem for office papers, newspapers, and leaves; and Mother Nature takes care of food scraps – but how do you burn an old toothbrush?  Or a metal tomato paste can?  Or a glass olive oil bottle?  Every plastic granola bar wrapper, plastic shampoo bottle, plastic bag/packaging, etc. must be burned or it will all just float around the country until it eventually breaks down after 500 years. 

I’m okay burning paper/cardboard in my trash pit (it gives me something to do and is a little therapeutic), but I’m not comfortable burning plastic and releasing toxic fumes into the air around my house.  I’ve somehow managed to find another way to ‘take care of it’ – I bag the plastic/glass/metal stuff and take it to the trash receptacle at the hospital or in town.  Yes, there are actual garbage bins around, although very sporadically.  I don’t know who collects the trash or what they do with it – maybe burn it in an incinerator somewhere (?) or maybe there’s a landfill in Uganda (?).  I realize that this is the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ philosophy, but I don’t know what else to do.  And a lot of times people will rummage through the bins (after I leave my trash) and take it.  Hey, if someone else wants the empty bottle from my multi-vitamins, they can have it.

One more thing:  During my grant research for updating the office computers at Kuluva, I asked the technician what to do with the old computers and printers.  His response . . . nothing.  There is nothing we can do with old electronics in Uganda.  Business/schools/etc. can only store them in a backroom (somewhere) for  . . . eternity (?).  Kuluva currently has 11 monitors, 8 CPUs, 1 photo copier, 2 printers, and a huge box full of keyboards that are broken or completely out of date.  The library is cluttered with useless electronics, and there is a closet full of old printer toner cartridges.  If I purchase new computers for the school office, I am just creating more electronic garbage that will be stored in the library.  It’s a huge dilemma.  If someone wants to help Africa, set up a recycling program!!!  Plastic, glass, metal, electronics – ALL OF IT!!!  Plus that will help create jobs.

(I recommend watching The Simpsons episode “Trash of the Titans” [Season 9, Episode 22] where Homer gets elected as Sanitation Commissioner.)

This is one thing I think people take for granted in America.  All you have to do is put your trash and recycling in a bin and set it by the curb.  Then it’s gone – out of sight, out of mind.  It isn’t until you have to burn your own peanut butter jars that you become a hoarder.