Excitement In The Air

Last week, the Education Group had their COS (Close of Service) Conference.  It’s the time when everyone receives their departure date to go home.  I was in Kampala for a Girl Tech Director’s meeting and met up with a lot of the Education PCVs.  Everyone was so excited to be in their final months – many were already booking their flights home!  While I’m happy for people to finish their service, many of my friends are in the education group and are leaving.  The West Nile region is going to clear out, leaving only 6 of us in Arua.  It’s a little depressing to say good-bye – but then the realization hit me that my group will be the next to go!!!  Woo-hoo!!  :)

Anyway, as I mentioned, I had a Girl Tech Director’s meeting last week.  There was a bit a scheduling snafu because of Peace Corps trainings and potentially 4 other camps happening at the same time.  *Camps can only be held during school term breaks, so camps tend to overlap.  But 5 camps and 2 Peace Corps trainings in 3 weeks is ridiculous.  After several discussions with camp directors and Peace Corps program managers, the decision was made to move Girl Tech to August (instead of having it in May).  This might work out for the best, but right now I have to redo my entire calendar/timeline for the camp, the nursing school, and my traveling plans.  There’s also an issue with grant now that the camp will be so close to my Close of Service date.  But at least Aditi and I have a few extra months to figure things out.

In the meantime, an opportunity has presented itself, and I’m going back to Zanzibar!!!  Ha ha, yes!!!  My friend Ashley and I will be going for 5 days to relax, lay on the beach, and snorkel.  There were a few other tourist-y things I wanted to do that I missed out on last time.  I’ll be gone February 25-March 3.  I made a promise to go back . . . and here I go!

Grocery Shopping

This blog post is for my mom, who always wants to see more pictures.  :)

There is no way to describe the outdoor Arua food market.  You really just have to see it, and even the pictures don't capture the massive size of the market and the chaos of trying to walk through and purchase something.

 

This is the 'mundu' (white person) table.  It's always my first stop because they sell cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, green peppers, radishes (occasionally), and other foods that Ugandans don't eat.  I even found Swiss chard once!

 

This is the beans and rice section.  I don't buy anything here.  My wonderful family has sent numerous packets of brown rice and I only eat beans at school (I don't cook them at home).

 

This is tomato row.  There is also a cabbage row, sweet potato row, onion row, etc.  I walk through and look for the best bunches of tomatoes (that aren't bruised or moldy).  I like to go to different vendors every time - spread the wealth a little.

 

I tried to capture the crowd of vendors and buyers, but it's still hard to see.  And mind you, that this only one part of one level of the market.  The Arua market has three levels that are enormous.

 

There's even a section for housewares.  All of the housewares vendors are grouped together and they all sell the same things. 

 

Here is a fruit vendor with passion fruit, papayas, pineapples, lemons, oranges, and tomatoes.  Avocados and mangoes are seasonal.

The outdoor market is only for fresh produce (and meat).  *I did not take any pictures of the butchers.  I didn't want pictures of dead animals on my blog.  Just imagine a cow/pig carcass hanging from a hook attached to the roof of the butcher stall, completely skinned and organs removed.  Just meat and bones hanging, while the flies swarm around it.  I won't even begin to describe the smell as I walk past.

For things like soda, coffee, cookies, ketchup, milk, chocolate, etc. I go to the supermarket. And you can only buy apples at supermarkets, not the outdoor market.  Maybe because apples are imported and not grown locally.  So think of a gas station convenient store - Ugandan supermarkets are just slightly bigger.  Arua has 4 good supermarkets:  the West Nile Supermarket is the cheapest; the Arua Supermarket has the best apples; the Chinese Supermarket is the most expensive; and the Ugandan Supermarket has Laughing Cow cheese (most of the time).

Do you have a better picture of my grocery shopping errands now?  I ride to town twice a week to do this.

Oh Yes, I Remember

Dry season.  Here we go.  After six months of running water, it finally stopped yesterday.  Last year was a particularly hot/dry year and I had no water from January until June.  Hopefully this year won’t be that bad.  Dry season also mean dust and sweat.  The time of year when I desperately want daily bucket baths, I have to ration my water and wait to bathe until my appearance (and odor) is intolerable.  Of course, once I’m clean, I immediately start sweating again.

My electricity has been stable, but I expect that to end soon as well.  At least the power will come on for a few hours a day (during the dry season), but the water may be gone for a long time.

Now that the holidays are over, I’m getting back into my routine at school and home. There's not a whole lot to write about, just a couple a random things from my weekend: 

I was walking around Arua doing my errands and I found a caterpillar on my shirt.  Unfortunately, African caterpillars are sort of poisonous.  They look fat and fuzzy, but the “fuzz” is really sharp little pin-like points that stick into your skin and cause a rash.  So I got a rash on two fingers and my left forearm.  (I got pricked by the caterpillar before I actually saw it.  I finally flicked it off my shirt with a pen.)  I’m really tired of dealing with African bugs.

My bike got a flat tire on Saturday, so I asked the school driver to give me a ride to town.  A few other people were going – Monica, one of the nursing school teachers, was going and it had been a while since I’d seen her (she only teaches during the first semester).  So she sees me and says, “Laura!  You look so different!  Ahhhh . . . you are used to living in Uganda.”  . . . . . . What the hell does that mean??  Do I look good?  Happy?  Comfortable living here?  Or do I look like shit from frequent bus rides and constant battles with spiders? Or do I look like someone who’s been stung by a caterpillar and whose bike has a flat tire?  It was one of those moments that kept me thinking for the rest of day.

Today has been better.  I started the morning with banana coffee (that I bought in Zanzibar) and pumpkin spice granola bars (from home).  I finished the rough draft of the grant for Girl Tech, got my bike tire repaired, washed two days worth of dishes, and cooked Indian food for lunch.  And now that I’ve blogged, I think I’ll watch a movie.