1. Teeth:
For those of you who know me really well it will come to no surprise that this is the first thing i choose to talk about/ the first thing i noticed in Uganda. And if you dont know me very well... you should know i have a slight obsession with teeth and it is often times the first thing i notice about a person.
I just have to say that the people of Uganda have BEAUTIFUL smiles. Yes of course, there is the occasional jacked up grill (like the lady from the orange store yesterday), but the majority of them have naturally straight teeth. One of the older girls who lives at Welcome Home has the most gorgeous smile i have ever seen.
But this makes me wonder... what went wrong in America that almost every child needs to get braces in order to have decent smiles? Something to ponder...
2. Riding in the Car:
The other day on the way to church we had a 12 passanger van (in Uganda a 12 passenger van is smaller than most American mini vans) that was loaded with 30 children, all under the age of 5, and 6 adults. AS you can guess most of these kids were sitting on top of each other... not in car seats mind you. On the way back from church i was sitting in the front seat with a 2 year old on my lap while not wearing a seat belt. On top of that the entire way home Mandy was talking about the aweful drivers in Uganda. Call it irresponsible... call it whatever you want, but in Uganda its normal.
But the kids LOVE riding in the car. They scream whenever we go over a bump, they comment on everything that is out the window (water water, goatie goatie, moo cow moo cow...). Whenever a farm animal is seen it prompts verses of "Mama Mandy had a farm" to be sung. Its an unforgettable experience.
3. Showers:
At home i am so pampered its retarded! Here in Uganda, in order to have hot water you have to turn on a solar powered hot water heater 45 minutes before your shower. I was blessed to have a room with a good hot water heater, the dutch girl Jenny often complains about her cold showers that give her a headache and bad hair. lol.
I should also mention that my room does not have a shower curtain. I dont know if thats typical here, but for me it is. The bathroom floor is always drenched by the time i'm done, but i guess the more water outside the tub the best because the water inside the tub takes FOREVER to drain. I'm going to be very honest with you, living in Uganda you get DIRTY. There is red dirt every where you walk and it gets all over your legs. Then when your with kids all day like i am then your twice as dirty. So the water after a shower is a sick shade of brown.
I also will never again complain about water pressure in America. That is all i will say about that.
4. Living the Life of a Celebrity:
I mentioned in my last post about people constantly calling me Muzungu. Well after i got over being self contious about people looking at me constantly i have started to embrace the celebrity status. I can now pretend that my name in fact is Muzungu and whenever im around and i hear it in hushed tones or being yelled at me i will always respond with a smile and a wave.
I think also the attention i get is greater because i am so tall. The other day we were walking down the street and this man passed us. Jenny automatically goes "you get looked at a lot because you are tall" to which i respond "we get looked at a lot because we are white." But she insisted that the guy who walked passed us looked me up and down. I dunno... maybe im just used to it. but people were are on the shorter side....
In another instance Jenny and i were walking from the guest house and we walked past a guy leaning against a tree. This man walked up behind us and said you Jenny "If i want to be your friend what can i do?" Jenny being from Holland could play dumb like she didn't speak english. He repeated himself a few times before he got frustrated and left us alone. But i can say that has never happened to me in the US.
5. Sleep:
My sleep pattern in Uganda has been so completely different than it was in the United States. Here it is unsafe to go out after dark. So we eat dinner around 6pm and from there i go to my room to devo and read. I am normally in bed by 8:30pm...so i read with a flashlight until my eyes are tired. The only reason i read with a flashlight is because otherwise i would have to untuck and retuck my mosquito net (which i am not now a pro at if i do say so myself) to turn off the light.
A few nights ago i was getting ready for bed and the power went out. Apparently this is normal, and they used to only have energy for 1 hour a day (thank god that isnt the case anymore) but it was the first time it had happened to me. I was brushing my teeth and looking at a lizard on the wall when it went black. I clamored around in the dark trying to find my flashlight so i could finish brushing my teeth. I never did see that lizard again tho.
I have to give a shout out to Halee H. for suggesting a sleeping mask. It is now my new best friend since the sun comes streaming through the curtains at 5:30am.
Anyways i normally fall asleep around 9:30 and wake up at 7:30. A solid 10 hours of sleep yet i am still tired at the end of the day.
6.Food:
Well i will just say it could be a lot worse.
For breakfast we normally have a friend egg with bread and pinapple. But this morning she made this thing called a Rolex (yes like the watch). It is an egg cooked with some veggies and rolled into a tortilla type thing, almost like a breakfast burrito.
For lunch we often eat at the orphanage. So that means either posho (sp?) which is maze flour mixed with hot water to make this rice like consistency and that is served with beans. Or there is matoki (sp?) which is banana that is cooked and mashed like a mashed potato. On mondays they have tripe (cow intestine) and i will not be eating that!
For dinner mandy has been spoiling us by taking us out to dinner. I have eaten the ugandan version of Chinese, Indian, and Dutch food, none of which compares to the real thing but what are you gonna do. Typically the hostest at the guest house cooks us dinner, which is normally talapia, rice, beans and tortilla.
7. Television:
From what i can tell they have one channel and it plays the most random stuff. I have watched spanish soap operas, the news, Americas next top model, Opera, and to my surprise the other morning i came in for breakfast and a Major League Baseball game was on! I was so excited, Jenny thought i was loosing it. The game was between the NY Mets and Washington and of course the Mets were loosing. But i was so happy to get that little bit of home!
Well i hope i have painted for you a good picture of what my life has been like here so far.
An adopting family from Holland is coming today and i am excited to meet them, but slightly jealous because Jenny is so excited to be able to speak in Dutch with someone, which will leave me in the dark (beyond the words i mentioned in the last post lol )
Well i love you and miss you all.
-H
p.s. Sometime after Sunday i will be going on a 3 day safari, from there i will stay the night in entebee and then fly to London. I will spend 3 nights in London and then fly back to the states. i still dont know dates. but in about 2 weeks i will be home!
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