Ugandan Profundities

I spent the better part of this last week highly overwhelmed in Kampala.  I was there for a couple reasons; one, to buy supplies for the women to make their next order of jewelry, and two, to get one of our beaders a visa from the US embassy.

The visa is needed because in April, I will be taking beader Sarah Akot to.....

Are you ready??!!

The Galapagos Islands!  That's right folks, Sarah and I will take the murderously long flight to South America, where she will then teach elementary school children to make the beads from recycled paper.  It's all being done through the Linblad Organization which is under National Geographic, who is one of Paper to Pearls' longest standing customers.  I haven't said anything up till now because I wasn't positive it was going to happen, but now, well, it is definitely happening.  We will fly from here to DC, spend a few days (and yes, DC friends, I would LOVE to see you all!)  fly to Ecuador for ten or so days, back to DC, and then back here to Uganda.  Crazy, I know.  Totally crazy.  But I'm excited!  I find it rather ironic that I had to come to Uganda to make it South America....But whatever, I'll take it!  So anyway, because of the extended layover in DC, we had to get Sarah a visa.

The embassy was a complete nightmare.  Take all the bureaucracy of America, mix it with all the inefficiency of Uganda, and you have waiting for your interview for seven hours (without any books or iPods or anything - they make you leave it all at the front) only to be turned down by a British woman (I'm sorry, but who the heck is she to decide who gets to go to America or not?!) for Sarah's visa, only to return the next morning and be accepted by the same British woman!  Think of your worst experience at the DMV and multiply it by about a thousand and you have my Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.  It was AWFUL, but, Sarah got her visa, so I will be coming home for a couple days, and then on to the Islands!!  Woohoo!!!

As I mentioned, I was also there to get supplies.  Sarah had done it many times before, so she was showing me where to get everything, and we gallivanted all over that crazy city.  I had many good intentions to take all kinds of pictures, but suffice it to say, I was highly overwhelmed by the experience and forgot to take even a single picture.  Also, it was so crazy that at this point, I'm not sure I could properly blog about it, so we will wait for a future order for such a thing.  It will come, and you will be entertained, I promise.

And now, The Measure of My Creation presents; UGANDAN PROFUNDITIES!  There are so many random things that make up this crazy place and culture, and I've been trying to catch them on camera.  In thinking about which ones I should post, I realized there are LOADS, many of which I haven't yet got on film.  So, there will be further Ugandan Profundities episodes to come.

First:  The carrying on the head business.  They carry everything on their head.  Literally.  Those neck muscles have got to be enormous, because some of those loads are seriously heavy.  

Second:  The cast-off food.  Most of the candy you can buy here is expired.  And most of it is awful.  Most everything processed is shipped in and most of it is the old junk that didn't sell in it's original market.  (This actually happens in a lot of industries - my phone here being one of them.)  Anyway, Uganda is terrible in the processed food category.  Which isn't a bad thing, really, so I think they should just stick to what their good at, and stop trying to sell English Christmas Pringles in March.  Though, I am the sucker who had a serious salt craving one day and bought them.  But don't worry, I checked the expiration date, they are good until next Christmas. 

Third:  This was on the TV in Jojo's Palace, my hotel my first week in Gulu.  I had just left Utah and it's snow and was sweating during breakfast one morning when I looked up and saw the sticker.  I started laughing out loud and everyone thought I was nuts for taking a picture of a TV that was turned off.  Amazing what giving your stuff to Good Will can do. 

Fourth:  The bugs.  Oh, they are everywhere.  And I am an avid bug hater.  Just ask my brother and sister-in-law, when I was living with them I was haunted by the jumping crickets that would sneak into my room at night.  I've surprised myself with being uncharacteristically calm when it comes to bugs here, but there are two things I still can't handle: weird things that fly at my face and cockroaches.  One would think I'd be used to the suckers after being invaded by our nasty neighbors roaches in Alexandria, but they were, at biggest, the size of my pinky nails.  These guys though, oy.  

Fifth: Naked babies.  They're everywhere.  And they don't use diapers.  I'm not sure what happens when "it" happens, but no one seems to worry about it.  They even carry the babies naked.  All the time.  Or have them in the bus that way.  Always makes me nervous when I see one on someone's lap, but you know, if they're not worried, why should I be?  And really, their little butts are pretty adorable. 

Sixth:  You can't see it very well, but this is what the ATM tells me every time I go to pull money out; "Please wait for a while."  Oh, that is so beautifully typical of Uganda.  "A While."  Could be 30 seconds, could be thirty minutes.  But please, be patient and just....wait. 

Seventh: Animals in all the wrong places.  Now, this lizard was not in my toilet, and I didn't even get to see it, but it was in my friend Ali's toilet in Kidepo.  The lizards are everywhere and are crazy-fast.  There really are no set boundaries here.  Chickens walk into my room, goats meander down the streets of town, lizards hang out in the toilet.  It's, you know, Uganda.  

 

Eighth:  Misspellings.  They are ALL over.  These just happen to be the two I have pictures of.  One is intentional, and one is not.  Obviously, they just left the 'S' out of RESPOND.  The other, "FUNITURES," is supposed to be "furniture."  They don't pronounce many of their 'R' sounds here (something I blame on the British) so why, when you say "fuh-ni-chuh" would you put an 'R' anywhere in there?  You wouldn't.  Clearly.

OK, that's all for now.  I hope you enjoyed.  Like I said, there will be many more to come.  

Food is a short one this time; I craved sugar like a mad woman this week.  Which is very odd for me, I usually crave salt if I'm craving (remember the Pringles?)  But not this week.  And Gulu is, as I mentioned before, really really awful at candy and sweets.  And I'm not much of a chocolate person (unless it comes from the Austria/Germany/Switzerland region of the world.  And maybe Belgium.)  So when I stumbled across these goodies - caramel!! - I was thrilled, to say the least.  I went through three packets in no time flat and just purchased these two babies to get me through the rest of the weekend. They're hard candy and, contrary to their mountain love name, they are made in Taiwan.  But I close my eyes and pretend I'm back in Austria and that I can walk into any number of pastry shops and order any number of amazing sugary goodness-es.  Pretty sure I won't be partaking of any other Guluian candy after having found these.  Thank you, Prince Supermarket!