A Ugandan American Back in America?

As of today, I successfully navigated a 24-hour journey across the world back home to America! Stepping out into the airport at Washington, I have to admit that I got a bit of a culture shock. Everything in America is so shiny, expensive, and new looking. It's strange to see shops with clean floors and neatly organized shelving. Everyone is in a hurry and the customer service is a bit lacking here. And no one stopped to chat with me when I was sitting down for lunch! Also, I forgot that I didn't have to use bottled water to brush my teeth after I got off the plane...

When I was getting ready to leave, it occurred to me that I don't know how to be an American anymore. I DO know how to be an American in Uganda - I know how much a coaster to Jinja costs, I know how to get to Kampala and Iganga, I know how to hail a taxi and barter with a market woman. But right now, I can't really think about all the things I have to do now that I'm back home. Is my routine the same or has it changed? What are my friends and family going to be like? What will food taste like compared to what it tasted like before?

I guess I became a Ugandan-American when I was living in Jinja: and now I have to learn how to be a Ugandan-American back home in America.

Riding Through The Streets of Jinja

I took this video on the back of a motorcycle boda boda taxi while driving down the main street of Jinja. Hopefully it's a good look into what we see everyday when we ride from place to place!

Top 20 Best Things About Uganda

Like Laura was saying earlier, it's shocking how the weeks have gone by - next week we will be going on our midterm retreat, and my program will be halfway done! I wanted to chronicle all the best things about Uganda (so far...).

1. Friendly people
2. Awesome weather and amazing, lush scenery
3. Boda boda rides!
4. Tea time + dubbed over Spanish soap operas = supreme happiness
5. Coming home to your host family and being tackled by your host brothers/sisters
6. Fresh fruit and vegetables - avocados, mangos, bananas, pineapples, passionfruits...
7. Organic/nonprocessed food in general
8. Street food! Chapati, rolex, samosas, pancakes...
9. Sodas. A Stoney (spicy ginger ale) a day makes a happy Mallory.
10. Awesome FSD interns
11. Being so close to the Nile makes for great scenery and tourism opportunities!
12. Our favorite hostel, Backpackers, has an awesome crowd of 20-somethings from the U.S. or the U.K. on weekends.
13. Beer. Big beers. Good beers. My favorite is the Nile Special.
14. Blue Band. It's this margarine spread from Unilever and it's sooooo good.
15. Ugandan friends calling you to update them on where they are and what they're doing.
16. Obama-fever. There are Obama tote bags, hair salons, belt buckles...
17. National football matches! Vuvuzelas, anyone?
18. Copies of your favorite movies and TV shows before they're even in the stores in the US....
19. The Ugandan ice cream truck
20. Chickens, goats, and cows running all over the place. I think I just really like farm animals...
21. The markets in Bugembe and Jinja. So lively and so much good food.
22. The touristy shops selling traditional crafts. It's all I can do to keep from buying them all!
23. Ugandan fabrics. I bought a purse in Kampala that's made out of traditional Ugandan fabric, and it's my favorite thing.

I lied and went over my list! Definitely more good things to come, so I'll just keep this running for now.

Energy Woes

While I've been in Uganda, I've been trying to chisel my way through Tom Friedman's latest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. I've always been following his concepts, but even more interestingly, I see a lot of what he's talking about here in Uganda.

One of his main ideas is that world population is rising, and so is the world's middle class. Along with the rising middle class is a rising demand for electricity - that fossil fuels just can't provide. He calls it energy poverty, or energy haves and have-nots. Here in Uganda, one of the main challenges in doing business is lack of energy infrastructure. In my town of Jinja, the main electricity generator for the country is the Owen Falls Dam, but even here we experience blackouts. Yesterday, we had a rolling blackout that lasted from 10 in the morning until late at night, and the electricity is still out at my work!

There is even electricity rationing due to high levels of demand. While something like this would be unthinkable in the United States, this the norm here. When Laura and I arrived in Entebbe Airport our first day here, we sat down in a cafe area to wait for our site team to pick us up. As we were sitting, the lights flickered and the power went out twice - in the national airport.

People, Pleasantries, and a Little Trash Talk

“How do you find this place?” “It’s good. Bulunji.”My friend Lillian, a University student from Central Uganda, has been the only one to follow up with, "Why do you only have positive things to say?" Lillian, Mallory and I met at the source of the Nile, she is in Jinja completing her student teaching for her education degree. It is a very reasonable question, and Jinja is not exactly paradise, but her question made me laugh all the same. The experiences of being in a new place seem to have had more positives than negatives, we will see if this changes with the more time I spend here.

(Mallory, Lillian, and I in the middle of the Nile River)

A positive experience has been how nice people are. Ugandans rave that they are the nicest in Eastern Africa, and my colleagues assure me that they, the Busoga who live in this Jinja district, are the kindest tribe, the others are stubborn. And generally, people have always been very pleasant and friendly to me. It may have something to do with the customary greeting of "You are most welcome." That just makes a person feel good!

To be fair to Lillian’s question - I dislike the trash removal system here. Of the Ugandans I have interacted with, I have realized that I generate more trash than they do. Our family trash can is a small bucket emptied just a couple times a week. Much of what is thrown out is paper product or compost waste and so burning seems to be the removal method of choice. Dumpsters are found with smoke pouring out and trash spilling over. Once or twice I have seen a man with a shovel gather the trash back into the dumpster, but never have I seen it emptied. Through some curiosity and investigation, I learned that there is a city garbage removal, which takes the dumpsters away, empties them and then returns them. Those near the marketplace are emptied maybe every other day. You can see in the image to the right some mid day trash burning outside my office in Mafubira.

Now I don't want to leave you on such a negative note, so getting back to the discussion of the Busoga and tribes, those cultural ties are very strong. Heading to Mafubira I always pass the hill the tribe king is building a house on. One of my favorite questions to be asked is, do different tribes in America speak different languages? It reminds me of the differences between ourselves, where people do not always know their heritage, and this youthful country which became independent in the 60s. Could you imagine if each US state spoke at least one local language?

Noted Moments

Following is a collection of random moments from my week I though to be of interest:

The right of way hierarchy:

-cars, trucks and taxi buses,

-boda bodas

-bike boda bodas

-goats

-people

Furthermore people drive on the left side of the road, which means you walk past people on the left side. This really throws me off when someone tries to pass on the right.

I saw a monkey! They were all around when Mallory and I were exploring the source of the Nile, like squirrels at IU only sightly less populous and incredibly less fat.

Hospitals:

My host baby brother had an infection, leading me to my first Ugandan hospital experience.

My family chose to take him to a children's hospital which is frequently overcrowded and not the cleanest place around. It is government run, so their services were free and it offered pediatric specialists. Well worth the compromise. You can either stay in the large common area - often with 3 babies to a bed, or pay extra for a bare room to be shared with one other patient. My family brought their own blankets, food, and baby Solomon's mosquito net tent.

The kids are the most likely to call me a muzungu to my face.

Otherwise I am called Raula, rather than Laura.

Muzungu food is good, expensive, and the pizza comes with no sauce.

I should eat more mangoes (they are incredibly fresh and delicious!) but I do eat many avocados ...and Irish potatoes.

Muzungu prices will probably haunt me throughout the summer, what they don't know is I am siri muzungu! (Not muzugu) I will not pay so much!

I can frequently hear thunder in the near distance, with hardly a cloud in the sky

Well, until this weekend, when it finally poured. Hello rainy season.

The family TV is always on, Marimar and other old dubbed soaps,English and Lugandan news, and the Hostel (a Ugandan Real World). Then on occasion we will buy movies and TV series for UGS 1500/= (Ugandan Shillings) which is roughly USD $.75 Its the BEST!

Wedding crashing is absolutely acceptable (and thus, also the BEST). When one invites 200, they will budget for 400! And that is what I plan to do this weekend, in full traditional dress!

(Well technically I was invited, but I have not yet met the bride or groom)

The Sweet Sound of 50,000 Vuvuzelas

For my first free weekend here in Uganda, I decided to make it memorable by traveling with another intern to Kampala for an overnight stay. On Saturday, the Uganda Cranes were playing Guinea-Bissau in a football (and by football here I mean soccer) match that was a qualifier for the African Cup. Seeing as how I had never been to a REAL football game, this would be the only chance I would get to put on an Uganda Cranes jersey, break out my vuvuzela, and attend the real deal.

After loading into a crowded mutatu taxi in Jinja, we stumbled out a couple hours later into the crowded, hectic streets of Kampala. The roads twist and turn, and the sidewalks are uneven. Pubs, stores, and restaurants are clustered next to each other, and when the buildings end, small shacks and buildings made of plywood with tin roofs crowd together with vendors selling tomatoes, bananas, or mangos. Even on the sidewalk, vendors sell shoes, books, mints - anything you could possibly imagine. When the sun goes down, even more street vendors come out, selling irons, bras, argyle socks, even grasshoppers. Fried grasshoppers, by the way, are absolutely excellent: a little crunchy, but very buttery and flavorful!

Thankfully, my host uncle lives in Kampala and he kindly rescued us and showed us around the town. Among other things, we toured Makere University, which is the largest and oldest university in Uganda, and ate typical food from the north of the country. Wyclef also helped us bargain with shopkeepers, which saved us a lot of money than if we paid the muzungu price.

On Saturday, we woke up to the sounds of vuvuzelas down on the street. Sam and I had bought Uganda Cranes jerseys, and we couldn't walk down the street without people thanking us for supporting the Cranes. Making it into Nelson Mandela station in Nangoole was a challenge. The stadium holds 40,000 - however someone thought it would be necessary to print 50,000 tickets; so I can't even describe the crush of people trying to get in. Even though we got there an hour early, all the seats in the stadium were filled. So we fought our way to the top and stood to watch the entire game. The sounds of the vuvuzelas and the cheering absolutely unbelievable. We even had a streaker whip off his shirt and run onto the pitch before being tackled by a pile of policemen.

The Cranes clinched their match 2-0 to Guinea-Bissau, and we went home with lots of stories and pictures for our host families. Overall, I think I prefer Jinja and Bugembe to Kampala - in the capital, you constantly have to worry about being pickpocketed, and the street children follow you everywhere asking for money. In Bugembe, life is slower and people greet you on the street, and in Jinja, there are plenty of muzungu cafes where I can feel right at home!

This week, I'm working on developing and implementing my savings mobilization project with the SACCO. More on that later! Now it's time to head back to my host family, sit down for tea, and enjoy a soap opera.

Siri Bulungi!

Musibye motyamo Bannyabo ne Bassebo!

Good afternoon Ladies and gentlemen!

In addition to Luganda language lessons, our first two days in Uganda have been very busy and eye opening.

I think our language lessons have been the most culturally enlightening so far. The phrase in the title above is more than an afternoon greeting, it asks, "How have you spent your day?" A typical greeting consists of a response to that question, reciprocation, and appropriate small talk follow up such as "Weebele emirimu" or "Thank you for the work you have done today." Our questions of how to say hello to people we see in passing were always answered with the basic conversation we had just learned. Until our pronunciation improves, that conversation could easily stop more than minute. The Ugandan social network and personal relationships are very important, and I see that reflected in this small piece of language. I hope to understand more of this as I begin my work with Organisation for Rural Development and move in with my host family on Tuesday.

For now, orientation continues at our hotel on the Nile. It is beautiful, and very green! Mallory and I have enjoyed travel luxury from free eye masks and socks from the floating palace which is Ethiopian Air, to the free wifi at airports and our hotel! It feels like a vacation. The other interns, we number eight total, seem great and have come from all over the USA. We make quite a scene walking around town, but I am proud to say none of us fell off the boda boda bike taxis today, fingers crossed we can make it through the summer!

Edit: view of the Nile from the garden behind our hotel

Four Days To Go!

Between getting all the papers I need, stockpiling the necessities such as medicine, and buying appropriate clothes, the fact that I would be leaving for the other side of the world in four days has snuck up on me.

My name is Mallory, and I will be a junior at the Kelley School of Business. I can't believe it was just three months ago that I received my offer from the Kelley Institute for Social Impact (KISI) to intern with the Foundation for Sustainable Development. Along with Laura, I will be in Jinja, Uganda - the second largest town in the country and gorgeously situated at the source of the Nile river on Lake Victoria.

I'll be working at a microfinance institution called Nakanyoni Good Shepherd Cooperative Saving and Credit Society, which lends small amounts of money to people in the community and provides training and support for them to start their own businesses. This amazing organization also provides child support, HIV/AIDS counseling to their members, and savings services to their clients. Nakanyoni's small loans and business training will create business in the local community, and alleviate poverty by generating income for the family and employing community members. As an International Business major, I'm especially excited for this opportunity to gain business experience working in Africa.

Since school has been out, it's been really

interesting to try and make the transition to living in Africa. All of my clothes have to be below the knee, which means lots of trips to Goodwill to find appropriate dresses for work. Before we left IU for the summer, Laura and I also bought fashionable headbands, since weather is hot and humid. A fair trade find too - very appropriate! (Mallory, left. Laura, right.)

As we get closer to leaving for Africa, I wanted to thank KISI for the opportunity to go overseas, and the Trockman Microfinance Initiative for providing me with a travel grant to help with my internship expenses.

The next blog post will be from Uganda!