Monday, November 14, 2011

Woah ho ho! Never thought I'd say I love my place.

Hello Everybody!

So since I have the week off, I decided to visit Tomas in Katwe, which is out in the middle of nowhere and at the entrance of Queen Elizabeth National Park (where you see lions). Here are the 4 biggest realizations that happened to me today:

1. I live in Uganda, Tomas lives in Africa (just like what you think of when you think Africa).
2. Wow, my place is actually pretty great!
3. Thank you lord that Fort Portal is where I ended up. If I think it's hot here in Katwe, what in the world would I have thought in Arua (it's one of the hottest regions).
4. Char is a great traveler! She likes the different modes of travel and she (currently) fits in my bucket, making traveling with her a breeze.
(I'll upload some cute pics of Char tomorrow x]p)

So today...I discovered how Tomas is REALLY REALLY REALLY busy. There's so many meetings and traveling around...oh! it makes me tired just thinking about it, let alone tagging along. But his office is pretty awesome! They're all super chill, love Char, there's an really cold fridge AND an amazing banda (outdoor sitting place kind of like gazebo) that is really awesome to sit around and relax on.

I won't lie. His current "temp" place sucks balls. Fortunately, they're building him a whole new house...which should be done around Christmas. And the view at his office is FANTASTIC. Today, I saw gazelles, warthogs, antelopes, elephants, and hippos. Awesome!

Okay. It is ridiculously hot here...if it wasn't because there are mosquitos here, I would totally open the doors and windows. O and I had home made (goat) fajitas and flour tortillas for dinner. =) Good stuff!

Okay, I'm off to try to somehow sleep in the hot weather.

Toodles =)

Sunday, November 13, 2011

My Very First Ugandan Funeral

Good evening everybody!

So today, I went to very first Ugandan funeral. It was the funeral of my counterpart's brother who died yesterday of HIV + malaria. Ugandan funerals are 1. long and 2. a very communal thing. Everyone from the community turned out for the funeral. I came later in the day so I missed a good part of the funeral but here's what did happen while I was there:

When I arrived, everyone turned around to stare at me (and Devon), the only two non-Ugandans present and kept staring at us. The casket is brought out and there was some singing. About 10 minutes later, everyone starts moving towards the casket. Apparently, you have to go pay your respects all at once. After everyone is done, there's more singing/praying/chanting? and the casket is moved to the burial location(?), somewhere in the backyard. It was kind of a surreal moment because all of a sudden everyone starts moving through the banana trees and you hear the wailing from the family and I definitely felt like I was in a movie, following a crowd to exodus or something like that...

After more singing and wailing, while I can't see anything except for people and trees, people started moving back to their seats. So back we went. Then came speeches, dad, siblings, best friend, motorcycle club, member of parliament, another friend, an in law?...lots of speeches. And in between speeches came people with baskets asking for offerings for the church, the family, the widow, etc. multiple times. It was weird too because all the speeches were kind of directed toward us non-Ugandans, who couldn't understand what they were talking about anyways. Then, after the speeches, Micheal (my supervisor and husband to my counterpart) pulled this aside and said it was time for dinner. Oh, by the way, all Ugandan celebrations and not so celebrations include a meal. So we had a quick meal using our hands (first local meal using my hands!) and then we headed back.

O. And I pretty much get the whole week off because Ugandan custom is that when there is a funeral, the organization/business/people stop working for 3-4 days.

So what did I learn about Ugandan funerals?

1. Unless you're with Micheal (my supervisor) funerals are all day events.
2. Show up late.
3. Never leave early.
4. Prepare to give money...a couple times.
5. Always eat some of whatever they prepare and drink if there are drinks present. It would be rude not to.
6. Bring a snack.
7. Prepare to eat with your hands = bring wet wipes or something to clean hands with after eating
8. Ugandan mourning is 3-4 days, so be prepared to either not show up to work or have the workers not show up to work...so essentially, the business shuts down.

So that was the first Ugandan funeral. Devon says watching a circumcision event is even more surreal, like seriously out of a movie. I think I may try to skip that...

But really, events seriously do take a LONG time here. And since I have the week off, I'll be headed to visit Tomas in Katwe, where I should have good internet. So hopefully, I'll have pictures and be able to chat with everyone!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Dumplings!

Today was quite an eventful day!

Starting at 8:30 this morning, I made rounds around town to meet all the officials. Some seemed nice, others not so much...

One guy asked us some appropriate questions (how to you sustain the org? what programs? etc) and then turned the table on us by asking my supervisor if he had kids. When my supervisor said that no, he did not, the official said, "that's why you are helping others? because you don't have one? why make yourself suffer or pretend under the illusion that you're happy? you need to get yourself checked out. at least that way, you can know scientifically that you can't have kids. You're making your wife suffer by not having a kid. she should have been pregnant within a couple months of marriage. that's why you marry, so you can have kids. you can't be happy unless you have your own child." My poor supervisor looked so uncomfortable! How inappropriate was that?

Then we went to see the popo and he said cool and asked me for my number, which I obviously did not give out.

After visiting officials, we went to see the vet. Apparently, there are no dogs that want to get rabies shots...so in order to vaccinate my dog, I have to buy 10 dogs worth of rabies vaccine (or 1 bottle). Lame. I'm going to have to see about maybe generously offering to vaccinate my next door neighbors dogs...Since I'm buying the whole bottle, might as well put it to good use.

After the vet, we visited the Bank of Africa which has AC but does offer any debit/credit cards (other banks in Uganda do). Interesting. Finally, we went to visit another craft association. This lady had some cool natural seed beads that I liked and made some good clutches and cute bracelets. I'll upload pics when I can. And hopefully, I will have a crude etsy shop up tomorrow so you can see the craft and (hopefully) donate!

And the awesome news of the day:

mmm... I made dumplings today! FROM SCRATCH!!

I found a recipe online for the dumpling skin so I decided to give it a go! That and there's no take out here...The easier thing to have made would be eggs or potatoes etc. but 1. im tired of potatoes 2. im out of eggs 3. i had some time and finally 4. I WANT CHINESE Food. For the inside I used spinach and the awesome shitake mushrooms my family sent me =). Meat is too disgusting to cook. That, and it's difficult. I can't exactly ground my own meat...

How do they taste? I have absolutely NO idea! I won't be cooking them until tomorrow. I'll let you know how they turn out. I'm going to hope for the best. Although I will admit, usually when I make things for the first time (usually baking), they don't generally turn out too well. BUT...I've technically made dumplings before (not quite from scratch). Those did have meat in them but somehow turned out very tough. Jon can confirm this. LOL

and the not so great news...

Char stinks! She decided her new nap spot is on top of my bag of charcoal. So now she stinks and she's dirty. I see a bath coming in the next couple of days...

I hope to learn to cook in Uganda. I've scouted a bunch of recipes and hopefully will get a chance to make all of them. On my list of things:

-brownies
-lemon sugar cookies
-mochi
-mochi cake
-man tao/buns
-tang yuan
-dessert: paste and non-paste form: red bean, green bean, taro
-cinnamon rolls
-granola
-jerky
-quesadilla

Sweet! Okay. I'm go watch more tv shows now. Or maybe do some more work.

Cheers~

Tiff

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Conclusion of 2 weeks at site =). Also, if you're interested in helping TOCI...

Hey!

So I finally met Devon, the closest volunteer to where I live (about 2 miles or 40 minutes walking) and we had a blast at her house last night! Other first of the week...I burned my first pair of undies trying to iron them.

Anyhow, for any of you interested in helping out, I will be setting up an etsy shop with some of the handmade crafts. So if any of you need Christmas presents, gifts, or just something nice for yourself, please do take a look and if you like it, support us by purchasing some of the pieces =). All the proceeds will go directly to TOCI. Custom colors can be done (within reason). I'll try to have that site up soon. In the mean time, here's a picture of an example of one of the necklaces (or in this case, 3 bracelets I connected together to make this cool necklace).

Here's the link to the pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100104288062744.2365334.6313191&type=1&l=80ee255c27

or there's also a couple on tibbyme.tumblr.com (craft pics)

the craft pics were just some I took briefly on my phone but I'll upload better pictures as soon as I take them.