Honey, I'm home!

As my time in Uganda was coming to an end, a dear friend of mine asked when I was returning home. I took a few hours to respond to the question, not because I was in denial about leaving Uganda, but more because Uganda had merely been added to the long list of places I already call home. At the time, I truly didn't know which home she was referring to, but let me FINALLY give you a little glimse of most of the places I could call home this summer :)

So first up, the land of my birth. That's where this awesome summer started.
Within it, I also have many homes, but for simplicity, I'll highlight only the one where I permanently park my suitcases...and do the most cooking and baking :D

Needless to say, one of my favourite places of every home is usually the kitchen!

My next stop from Jamaica, was actually Grinnell. A place, that by force, I have adopted as home. Yet every time I travel here immigration officers (usually in Miami airport) want to play 21 questions with me! Honestly though, that was only a quick stop over that would serve to replenish my bank account and buy me a little extra time to prepare for my next set of homes:

You already met London in the beginning of my blogging, but I never quite showed you Uganda and trust me there,s quite a bit so see!

So going back to the "this is home where I permanently park my suitcase" definition, that would make this place home, and the people you see are some of the people that made it!

Christine was right, home was not an easy place to find! There was one evening I went for a walk and it was just by the mercy of God that I found my way back. That was towards the beginning of the trip, but by week 10 I was perfectly sure of the directions from town to home! Yay Me!!!

Town reminded me too much of Roehampton traffic in Kingston ....times 10! And if I remember correctly, Roehampton traffic was one of the deciding factors which led me to pursue my studies at a place where I could get to class by means of my 10-toe turbo!

Kawempe Traffic (this is a more or less 24/7 situation)

Road heading back home

In thr true spirit of tourism though, I couldn't let this summer go by without my own #London2012 experience...well round 2! So I neatly snuck in another visit to London on my way back to Grinnell!
I had a great timw visiting two of my Aunts and my sister...a trip to the Olympic Village was certainly in order, a little bit of shopping, lots of chatting and a fantastic Jamaican and some good KFC Chicken!

The view from the Emirates Air Lift @ Olympic Village

Jerked Chicken, Jerked Pork, Ribs, Rice &Peas and fried Plantain all on one plate
Washed down with one of my favourite beverages ever...coconut water
...A meal sent from heaven!

Aunty Marcia and I at Olympic Village, just off the Emirates thingy 

Aunty Cecille and I just before I left for Grinnell

Man all of this made me wonder how on earth am I going to tough it our in Grinnell without all of these stuff to do! Then I came back to Grinnell....and tell you the truth, I'm not 100% sure how I feel about that as yet. When I just got back I realized that SOOOO much has changed and so much will be different, yet, I entered my room and found peace among the chaos that was the result of rushed packing for departure 11 weeks ago!

It took me a few days to realize that the people who matter the most, hadn't changed one bit. I knew I was home after all the hugs, cheerful smiles and really sincere, "how was your summer?" questions. I knew I was home when someone (not going to call any names) introduced me to the new Rabbi on campus and told him that I live on the couch right outside of his office at the CRSSJ, I knew I was home when I started complaining about the same things I left here complaining about in the Spring...but hey I never said Grinnell was perfect....but it home [not to be confused with home - Jamaica]

Jamaica...I'll see you in a few weeks, but until then, I;m gonna enjoy home...

[NOT] Saying goodbye

So I haven't been as bad at this blogging thing as it seemed...here's what happened: I DID create a post filled with quite a few pictures, using my ipod and some free WiFi I picked up in Entebbe last week, but then I had a connection in dubai and, once again, the whole page turned in arabic. I made a guess and pressed something and that turned out to be the *delete post* button. I was, well, pretty discouraged, and decided not to post until things settled down again...I can't say they have BUT I had a beautiful period of calm as I was essentially without a phone. I'm not sure if anyone was looking for me but believe me I was TIRED and shamelessly took the opportunity to get away from every responsibility that was calling my name.

Anyway, I have jumped the gun a bit -- let me fill you in in what happened over the past two weeks...

So I finally made it to AYMU offices and did A LOT of paperwork. How much?

Well, actually, A LOT more than this...I had to accounty for EVERY expediture made over the past 7 weeks. As in from 500/= worth of airtime, to our grocery shopping at the market, to petrol and office rent. I've only shown SOME of the airtime! After working on that for a couple of days, I just have to say THANK YOU GRINNELL COLLEGE FOR changing your policy about submitting receipts! I'm glad my accounting paperwork was limited to those 3 days at the office!

I LOVED Entebbe! A lot!

There was one evening, I walked from work to Aero beach. Well, of course it was really a lake and not a beach, but dat neva stop if from having some great sand. While I was there I hung out with the Zebras and the Camel:

Okay! Okay! The zebra isn't real but the camel sure is! But I mostly spent time along the shoreline just watching the sun set and making my journal entries and thinking about the amazing fried fish I had for dinner the previous night (which came from that very lake)

Now let me tell you, that tilapia was (h)amazing... and it kept me thru to lunch the next day!

My last day of work was pretty short; my supervisor insisted that we take a trip to the zoo as my final day treat. Indeed it was a treat. I met 5 chimps who had the most incredible personalities! They were all sleeping/resting when we arrived but er begged the keeper to help us their attention and she did. She threw them some bananas and they woke up right there and then. But one of them didn't get any #slowpoke...an mi tell u seh him vex! how mi know? boss man sat down, folding his shoulders, tun him back to us, and every five or so seconds, clapping his hand to get the keeper's attention!

Sorry -- no zoom on this device :(

Then it was back to Kawempe. I must admit, journeying home in the friday evening traffic made me miss Grinnell for a split second, but what was to come was all worth it! My surprise going away party! Most of the family was out for the day, but they came home with 3 live chicken that met their doom that night! A feast was served, followed by everyone wishing me well and farewell...

 Dinner in the making...whomever said too many cooks spoil the stew had obviously never journeyed to a Ugandan kitchen! I'd just say too many cooks make A LOT of food, because when I was half way through my plate I had to lay flat on the ground!

Sorry, I lost the pic that had me in it --- but I there's mum (purple) with Elaine, one of her granddaughters, next to her is her sister, holding little Bianca. Bianca is Grace's daughter, which makes her my niece :)

So, a great friend once told me that once you visit a friend's home and get along well with their mother, that's just it, the friendship will last for eternity. Translation: Christine, thanks for setting yourself up to put up with me as your sister for the rest of our lives! I had a great time in Uganda, but I know I will be back, after all.... I have a bed there!

Time winding down

So international youth day finally came and left – and took pretty much all the red ribbons I made with it!

Now I want to tell you that the president was meant to be the guest of honour and every exhibitor at the event was keeping the booths impeccable until he arrived. There were also numerous supporters decked out in T-shirts that would support his re-election. After all of this hullabaloo….the man dis the programme! All now him cah reach.

Anyway, the weekend was great without him:

• I passed some zebras along the road side travelling to and from kabala
• We planted plenty of trees at Kabale University
• I went to Rwanda (well just to the border of Rwanda)
• I saw some amazing dance performances
• I ironed probably 60 shirts. Wait! What? Kaydi-Ann R Newsome ironed more clothes than she needed to wear in one day! Yup – all a part of the job! The power outage the night I should have done the ironing didn't make my life any easier though – so I also woke up at a ungodly 5:30am to iron the shirts for the whole team of us!

I promise there are pictures of us all wearing the shirts and of me ironing and I will definitely upload this and everything else in due course.

Now there are many indications that my time is winding down here in Uganda:

• I should finally start some office work - I say should, but that would be a story I have to tell you face to face so you can hear me get real Jamaican!
• Half of my hair is braided (don’t worry, you wouldn't know it’s only half)
• The first draft of my research paper is 80-90% written
• I woke up this morning and realized that I only have about 37MB of internet remaining (that actually cannot hold me for even one day, but I used quite a tidy sum streaming the Jamaica50 grand gala and watching a few of the races for the Olympics), but fret not, Entebbe seems to be the perfect place to solve my problems – I have been blessed with free wireless internet for now 2 days in a row J in case the blessing runs out, I will try my best to squeeze in one last update tomorrow night.

Speaking of Jamaica50....as promised, I did recover some pics of the outfit:

I know I always fight against people adding red to J'can coulour but  is really the Uganada added

I am excited for the weekend ahead – I finally get to go back home (to Kawempe) and do one of my favourite activities for the summer: hang out with the fam in the back yard. Its sad to think that Saturday may be our last opportunity to hang out for a while but I definitely be savouring the moment

Not as exciting as di 1,2,3 but...

Mi are sooooooo excite mi can hardly write #London2012 -- Jamaican men sweep off all o di medal for di 200m race!

I tell u it very rough being here and not getting to see these thing live but I thank the Lord for my facebook friends: always keeping me up-to-date...so let me fill you in on what ive bn up to on these ends:

• We had a media launch for the straw project -- it was not the kinda media launch I was accustomed to: took place right under the tree outside of the Jinja Town Hall! We first sent all our trainees into town to gather straws and show right there on the street side the transformation that could take place. for the life of me, I never realized that these people were official media crew: their audio recorders were really cell phones wrapped in paper (to prevent interference I suppose) and very there was one guy with a point and shoot camera and another with a camcorder. I thought to myself, someone, somewhere must be very happy with my camera that went missing the day before....God will deal with them stillz!
• The International Youth Day will be held in Kabale - not to be confused with Kibale where Ebola has broke out. Yesterday, a advert on the radio actually made this error and mum was about to keep me quite locked up in this house for the weekend.
• Since I hate packing so much, and usually am guilty of doing a last minute spritz, I decided to change to a better life! I started packing today. Definitely not because I am ready to leave but more because by the time I'm done with my last two assignments it will be time to do my hair (could be a whole day process) and the time to leave -- and chus me I cah afford to miss the flight! Grinnell College money has already been spent and by the time I leave here I land in London, I will go back to my life as a "poor college student"
• I can't even believe that the time had gotten away like this. It must be in some race with Bolt, Blake and Weir! As for me, I have put my pedal to the metal with my research and this paper - that's what I am taking a study break from at the mo...
• I'm actually trying to see how late I can stay up tonight. I know, that does not sound like me at all unless the day is called New Years' Eve -- but hear di ting now, Kabale is VERY far and we should have left today BUT the gov't had not yet released our funds for travel -- and its their youth day! So like thieves in the night we shall depart at 1:00am for Kabale. You know I'm already in my sweats and ready to take to sleep as I sit in that car. Pray for the driver that he will be able to stay alert!

Walk, or should I say, run good!

Not sure what to call this but I love typing #Jamaica50

" On August 6, 1962, the British Flag was lowered and the Jamaican flag was raised (in Jamaica) and a new anthem sung in celebration of Independence from Britain. 
August 6, 2012 The Jamaican Flag was raised in Britain and the anthem played to recognize that our tiny island produced the fastest man on earth and the beast! #Jamaica50 #TeamJamaica #London2012"

-That's one of my fb status for the day :D

I woke up this morning feeling a little annoyed that I would have to work today. Back where I'm from its a public holiday (aka federal holiday)! You know how I complained about having to go to class on Good Friday, man I was coming close to that, especially since I was also meant to work yesterday (Sunday). Anyway, you know what, I decided to take life easy...things are always running on African time here so what would make today different?!

The answer is actually, "nothing". We had one main task for the day, but it required money being sent from Kampala. So we waited and waited and waited. Me, I walked the streets of Jinja comparing prices one last time, and actually purchasing nothing except breakfast and lunch items. Eventually the money came and my brideprice fell in the same hour: my outfit for today was a long dress (Black, Green, Yellow...and red) and I had to ride on a motorbike with 4 sacks of straws tied on the back and a basin hovering over my head! Then we managed to switch things up so I was only moving with the basin while the straws rode alone - we hired another boda at our first opportunity!

Then I went with Rachel to visit her mother.

Then I thought - I may not be able to get fish and bammy and festival on hellshire beach today but I sure can get some fried fish, roasted casava (Casava is used to make bammy), and definitely some festival-like food item (festival is fried dough, slightly sweet; one freind likened it to hush puppies when i made them on campus). Anyway it was all good - washed down with some lovely sugarcane.

I must say that eating that sugarcane somehow felt like a more momentous occasion, quite like today's facebook status. Imagine how British colonization turned my entire country, and so many others including Uganda, into sugarcane plantations. Today, I sat pretty as my national anthem was being played in Britain and chews on my sugarcane. I couldn't watch the ceremony first hand - but that TWO whole other stories! To summarize them:

1. I lost my camera and spent a good amount of time trying to relocate it, so I wasnt able to get my bearings right in time to catch the ceremony

2. I found somewhere much more convenient to watch the games today - right next door - certainly safer at this hour of the night to go there, right? No! Went there today at noon to catch the hurdles and mi nuh undastan why di owna/manager/man pretending to be eithe tink i care one bit to talk to him, especially as the races were going on! Di man was looking me and him wasnt even being tactful bout it --- yu kno how i feel bout dese folks...

so now yu probably saying, Kaydi, yu sound so calm about losing ure camera, truth be told, if I wasn't being calm, I'd be being a hyporite. I'm always first to remind the world that "God allows everything to happen for a reason". Yes, I had almost 2 weeks worth of pictures on my camera, and that is what is more important to me - they were mostly pictures I had taken for work with the exception of those I had taken today. I still have life, I still have health, I am still very happy...so y stress over God's will?

The last picture I took on my camera, I thought about you all in light of my previous post. It was a A4 sized paper pasted on a school wall, landscape bearing the words, "We don't shake hands", in the first line, then a big bold, "EBOLA" in the second! If I pass it again, I'll be sure to take another picture (though it will be of much lower quality) and you'll definitely see me around in my outfit -- I already captured the Independence meal and the sugarcane - technology is just being a bit stubborn now that it has crossed the Greenwich Meridian!

Love, Peace & Joy

Is it Ebola?

During the malaria outbreak sometime back in Jamaica, I recall the popular question posed after every sneeze was, "Is it Malaria?" As I come to the end of my 8th week here, I realize that I am realizing that we talk about malaria far more in the Western World than we do here. Likewise, this thing of Ebola...No I don't have it... I first came to hear about it through a concerned relative in Jamaica. (I won't loud yu up).

I know, I haven't posted in a while! It's been very busy and even sometimes stressful here! Stressful summer is not what I expected, but in a nutshell, here are the highlights of the past few weeks:

1. Jamaica mash up the track in the 100m final -- yes I may not be in London but the effects of technology and globalization has been able to allow me to keep up with #teamJamaica 
2. The British West Indies celebrated 178 years of Emancipation - this kick off some of the key events in the Jamaica50 celebration (again see note above) - tomorrow, August 6, join me in wearing your black, green and gold and/or your pin of pride to celebrate the golden Jubilee of my country's independence!
3. I made A LOT of red ribbons - not sure how many!
4. We had two training sessions managing in Jinja (hence the stress)
5. I learnt that one man's trash can really be another's treasure - one of our training sessions was making straw hand crafts. As in from used plastic drinking straws - collected, washed, soaked overnight in detergent, rinsed, then pressed flat to make these craft items and be good to the environment!
6. I started my final paper, then realized that if I write one page per day, I'd be finished by the time I board the plane out of where. Then I got sad that I have to leave already...
7. So I went shopping again cuz no matter where you are in the world, retail therapy is always good! This time I picked up a couple things from my second tailor and 2 jars of locally produced jam - one is Mango and the other is Passion fruit. I'm keeping on the lookout for the pineapple, had it the other day and it was amazing :)
8. Then I saw an add that American Airlines is having a sale - so like any good Grinnellian I started looking up plane tickets -- my fellow Grinnellians, you may have more difficulty finding me in Grinnell than you already do! Rest of the world, look out - I may be coming to an airport near you!

So let me just reconfirm - I neither have Ebola nor Malaria, matter of fact, I have exhibited symptoms of neither.

Until next time,

Stay safe!

Watch the Olympics

Wear your [Jamaican] Colours on August 6 - even if you're not Jamaican please understand that this is BIG

and of course....Walk Good!

So who's the boss?

You know, I thought it was Albert until some of our doners from Germany landed in Uganda. What should have been my first day physically in the office, ended up being a day trip to Rakai and back! Why? The donors wanted to see where there money was going and were on a tight schedule -- they also need to see all the Big 5 and source of the Nile.....AGAIN!

Anyway it was a great lil trip to Rakai, though my poor body didn't do very well after what must have been 10 hours of driving in 1 day --- well 10 hours of being driven! I've got to say, I actually miss driving myself around, but since that's not an option here, I just sit still and take naps every now and then. I had forgotten that the road between Kampala and Rakai was being worked on, after being awoken from my first nap, half-scared-to-death, I needed no additional reminder!

The children in Rakai had put on a grand welcoming show for us all, even throwing flowers at us as they danced, sang and beat their drums. I was so happy to be among them :) One of the most amazing truths was that these children were actually on school holiday but have no family to go home to so they stay at school and the teachers care for them. One would never be able to guess that from our visit yesterday.

We also stopped by Fred, the football coach, as he would accompany us on the visit to the school/orphanage. These days, it seems that one can't go far without being offered maize/corn - roasted or boiled. I think each of us had 3 for our lunch that day. I think this week alone I consumed more corn than I ever did in the two years I've lived in Iowa. #IowaCornFields == FAIL!

Anyway, some of you may or may not know that one of my favourite pastimes is filing customer complaints. From Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd in Ja to Kellogs in the USA and now, despite the fun time I had at the Safari, the driver we had just did not pass the cut at all! Result of that complaint: The balance oweing on my trip was written off ($30) and the safari company is also a spa so I was offered deeply discounted spa services! Praise Jesus, my foot-bottom can no longer be used as a nailfile (if you hang around me long enough, you would have heard my complaint) and the full mani & pedi cost me only $4...I tell you the truth, this was the best pedicure I had ever gotten in my life too - and this place was no joke when it came to atmosphere and ting!

Anyway, back to making dem red-ribbons and eating up the maize,

Before I leave tho I just gotta loud up #TeamJamaica @ #London2012...mi kno uno a go boss up di ting and mek we even prouda :D

Busy Busy Me :)

Week 7 --- can you believe?!
That means I have 3 weeks left to get a crazy amount of things done --- how crazy?

• Another training session in line for Jinja [just popped on the schedule]
• Youth day coming up in northern region of Uganda
• Assembling 10,000 red ribbons - at least picking up from where everyone else left off
• Office work - remember that child sponsorship project I was talking about?
• Then there's also those nitty-gritty stuff (shopping for fabric and getting it sewn, general shopping and mentally packing, getting my hair done and let's not forget writing this paper I came here to do research on)

Within all of this, I still managed to find time to do quite a few cool stuff over the past couple of days:

Sunday evening, I took in a play called Silent Voices - it was an amazing recount on the various sides of the story that people of all different ages had surrounding the Northern Ugandan war. It premiered on Saturday, but Sunday's viewing was to be followed by a Q&A segment. Unfortunately the Q&A segment had that one guy whose question was more like him telling a story. I don't need to tell you that said guy was clearly not from the African continent and was clearly plagued with a particular complex we often shun in the development world. I didn't care for his story one bit and promptly departed!

Scene from Silent Voices

Monday I began assembling those Red Ribbons I was talking about. The beauty of this project was that I could do it virtually anywhere! My choice workplace: Uganda's House of Parliament in Mum's office :D It was actually quite a day at The House - a Member of Parliament had suddenly passed away on the weekend. In Uganda, there's no waiting before burial or funeral proceedings so there was a Mass held for him at 9am in Kampala, then the body was taken to parliament for viewing, then a special parliament was called so that MPs could voice their words of condolences and remembrances. These events were closed to the public, but the parliament hearing was, and is always, broadcast on national television. Mum has a TV in her office so I could watch the proceedings as she sat in parliament. The MP seemed to be one of noble character and was well loved - may his soul rest in peace.

Me occupying Lilian's desk in Mum's office

My supervisor booked a safari tour for me as well. The tour was only for one day (that's about as much time as we could spare) and the place, Murchison Falls National Park, was quite faaaaaar from home. Best believe that the park is bigger than the entire island of Jamaica, so I obviously didn't see it all but I did come up close and personal with the elephants, giraffes, water barks - a few actually slept right outside my door that night,  crocodiles, hippos, bambi's cousins and plenty of monkeys. 

Me overlooking the falls...

You probably don't want to go in search of the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow!

A few of the ANIMALS + me and one of the park rangers

About those monkeys... we took a boat cruise to the top of the falls. When we returned to the base, there were a family of them hanging out. Some of them were paired off scratching each other's backs and so on. I was particular amused by this scene and went right up to them to take pics n vids. The one that was by himself/herself was obviously not pleased by this and pranced straight off the ground and into our vehicle. He took the driver's seat and held the steering wheel as if he was ready to go! I was too frightened to take pictures of this event, but the memory will live on forever!

I had actually finished all my pins for the red ribbon project so I had to go back to Kampala to get some more. Of course parliament would once again be my docking port. Being in Kampala also gave me one more shot at hitting the shopping plaza and you know I did sort myself out. I think I will officially have more clothes than I have occasions to wear them at by the time I am leaving and purchasing extra luggage allowance seems to be less of an option and more of a requirement for my departure.

Tomorrow I should be FINALLY going tot the office (I think) then it's back to Jinja like I said...I'll try to be on top of my game with keeping you posted, but rest assured that the lions haven't eaten me -- in fact, I haven't seen any wild lions yet!

Empty Bottles and Gone Back to Basics :)

The past couple days have been ABSOLUTELY busy, but I'm finally home again for at least a day or two! Training summed up nicely but it was a task to get to the end...from the grocery shopping point of view.


We wanted to purchase sodas and snacks as a treat for those who had completes the training. Sodas here are readily available in glass bottles, and I would argue that they taste better that way! The shop keeper demanded 100,000/= for the sodas, upon return of the "empties" she would give us 60,000/= back. Science teaches us that empty bottles make the most noise, but my gosh, the books never said anything about them making the most money!


That's not the only pricing mechanism I can't fathom. Back where I'm from, and probably every where in the world, things like chicken liver and gizzard are usually considered an inferior good. Ha not here, the literal laws of demand ans supply apply to pricing these goods: since their supply is limited compared to the other parts of the chicken - they attract a higher price tag! 


Ground beef, too, is more expensive that chunks of beef: like 1.5X more expensive. The rationale here is slightly different though: ground beef has to stay frozen - freezing takes electricity, electricity costs enough money to tack on an extra 50%. At least this is what my supervisor and I rationalized :)


Speaking of electricity -- the braids are out. What does that have to do with electricity you may ask? Well, I went to the salon to have my the hair taken out, washed and dried. In the middle of the drying, the light went! Now forget what you hears about Africa - power rarely goes in Jinja, which is where I went to the salon, but di devil 'trang [is strong in J'can Patois]. Anyway, that never stop my hair from drying - coal stove (courtesy of our faithful Rolex maker) and hot comb lick!

With only candle light though, I opted to not comb my hair right there and then. I was able to go to a hairdresser in Kampala now that I'm home -- so for those who missed it, here's my natural hair back :)

Til next time,


Walk Good :)

Holy Ghost Gym

So as if the overnight service on friday night wasn't enough... I never in my lifetime could imagine what would come next!

SUNDAY: Arrived at chuch at 10am and usually I don't eat breakfast before church - I like to go for a nice lunch and a well deserved afternoon nap afterwards. But when I walked through the church gates,  I suddenly thought to myself - I better get some food before I take my seat. Best decision I could have made for myself - It was the church's 3rd anniversary celebration!

The first part of the day ran til about 3 - Lunch was included though. As a special guest I was served Pilau, Matooke, Chicken, Groundnut sauce and steamed cabbage with sweet pepper. However, my guest status only lasted during the meal hour as I was clad in the CCM's praise team uniform AND our time on stage was at least 2 hours. Forget about all the aerobics classes I hadn't been taking since the summer started - this was a power packed workout in itself!

Our "I am under the rock" friends also gave us a treat and plenty-whole-heap of other people (explaining why I was there until 8:30, at which time everything switched to Luganda and my brain switched off). There was a dance group present as well and they came up to Jinja from Kampala for the celebration. The dancers and I took a brief intermission so we could all chill together at the source of the might River Nile. 

See us walking to the source...

Now see us on the bank of the source...

Now who said you can't walk on water...with a lil help you can @ The Source!
I was actually quite very nervous cau if I did ever ever drop in there...I feel like the current would pull me away so fast or better yet a Nile Perch would swallow me up in an instant! Those fish are HUGE ah tell you!




Anyway, sleep wake and today was a new day...gladly with little work to do because I felt like I hadn't seen the weekend as yet! Since the training is still going on, we had to head to the market again to stock up for lunch. Little did I know that we would also be cooking the lunch as well. The chef had disappeared on us and the name of the game is slow cook over coal stove! No way to control the heat except by transferring coal across the fires! Anyway I did learn how a new technique for cooking rice and I finally learned how to make my own posho.

To market to market...and beyond!

My Hands My Future Project training has commenced in Jinja and at first I thought I would have nothing to do and would go and learn the fine art of making paper beads BUT over the past few days have been quite interesting!

Ever been to Night and Day Hotel or Mama Bob's Restaurant? Well that's where we took our trainers! Dare I say the food di well nice and was very plenty...I worry that they may be making a loss because the two plates of food (one for meat/sauce and the other for all the sides) cost 2,500/= (~$1). McDonalds officially not trying hard enough wid dem dollar menu + all the food I ate here was organic and what not...beat that!

Anyway, my supervisor came up with the idea that we should hire a chef to cook food for us all at the guest house. That meant Rachel and I would have to go to the market. Shopping list:

Tomatoes, Sweet Pepper, Matooke, Rice, Beans, Posho, Meat, Onions, Garlic, fresh G-nut paste (peanut butter -- bt it was still warm), tea bags, sugar and charcoal. Coal stove is wah run di place over here...so you even know seh everything weh cook is a labour of love! Anyway Jinja market not nearly as intimidating as Corroboration in Jamaica. There's no han' cyaat bway ready to run over you with him big pot of porridge or any such nuances!

That night, I also went to my first overnight service. I could barely make it through the second sermon that started at 11pm. The preacher was so enthused about what she was saying that she forgot to allow her interpreter to translate to English and drowned her out in on many other occasions. We ended up leaving at 3am there were still 2 more pastors to go! And I talking these people don't breech for less than 1-1/2 hours! The highlight of the service was the choir that did "I am under the Rock", yu neva see praise and worship til u see them sing and dance. You will be able to see them sing and dance -- I had to make a video :D

This is for another local song they did - just suh u get a likkle taste...The Under the Rock Video is quite long but much better than this song

Today I decided to test out another tourist spot - 2Friends Restaurant. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Food definitely not priced for the dollar menu but still within budget if you're a foreigner. I had their Tandoori Chicken [they have BBQ, Indian, Pizza, Subs and Burgers and Salads] and loved it straight through the BONE -yes emphasis on the bone! Free WiFi was good to have - someone got a hold of me on Skype today. And as you can see the ambiance is just great.

I decided to go with a Banana Split for desert. My first every! You see Uganda is the Banana Republic of Africa, and I literally eat banana in all way shape and form daily and I since ice-cream come from milk, and milk come from cow and nuff cow deh bout...and mi a talk real serious cow wid big horn like this one:

I thought, man where would I get a better Banana Split than right here in Uganda?! It was (h)amazing!

When it Rains it POURS!!!

So, daily posts have not at all been possible over the last couple days but believe me you all have been in my thoughts.

So the other day as I was working, I thought intently about what on earth I was doing. I sat at my desk and compared my current work environment to all my previous ones:

1. usually my desk has a computer on it fully connected to the internet and a telephone good for making local calls and calls within the office. Today my cell phone lay on my desk as I was working remotely and needed to be in contact with my supervisor occasionally. My laptop is tucked away in my bag as I travel with it everywhere I go to avoid theft [moving from guesthouse to guesthouse, you never know why can be trusted].
2. Usually, a tea cup and/or water bottle lay on my desk so I could take a beverage break during the day. Today I avoid drinking beverages out of fear of what may be presented to me as a toilet!
3. Usually, the sounds of the radio fill the office space. Today it was the chirping of the yard fowls and their chicks and the passing boda-boda.
4. I am normally supplied with enough stationery of all different varieties. Today I had a box of pens on my desk to give to each of my interviewees as a little "thank you" for participating - you ought to see the smiles on their faces!
5. Usually, I waste no time in installing some personal memorabilia on my desk to remind me of some great experience past. Today I knew that greater experiences are yet to come :)
6. Usually, I sit in an air conditioned office. Today I had my sun shades to protect me from the sun and my scarf-that-works-wonders to protect me from falling bugs and what was to come...that heavy downpour of rain that graced Jinja on Monday evening!

You see, the volunTourist is subject to ALL environmental constraints and when Rachel (local volunteer) and I saw those thick dark clouds ahead of us, we knew the work day was over. We walked out to the road to catch a Boda, but none were going into town. We were not to be spared.

We took refuge in someone's shop - among all the other school children who were caught in the downpour. Eventually I realized that the theme song of this downpour was "We ain't going nowhere" but Rachel and I needed to be at church for choir practice!

We stepped from under the shop just in time to catch the one boda who would take us to town. So many that had passed us before claimed they weren't going in that direction:

After we drove for a while, we had gotten from under the rain cloud - but that wasn't the end of the rain. We made it to church just before the rain hit there and the next thing I knew I was caught under a church that only had a roof + tarp in a serious storm. We all shifted to the centre of the church and sat patiently as our voices would never be able to rise above the sound of the rainfall.

I came home wanting to update my fieldnotes and this blog and reply to my emails. Ha there was no power, no generator and where is my supervisor? In Kampala. 

My laptop was also not spared by the rain - it received its first Water Baptism! Unfortunately Baptizing a laptop does NOT in any way, shape or form guarantee it eternal life - so, folks, never try this at home!

Symptoms exhibited by a newly baptized laptop: malfunctioning keyboard!

Cure: pull apart, loosening screws with nail file (now dubbed most important tool known to man), leave in front of fan when power is back, say a special prayer hoping that God recognizes that you are really not idolizing the laptop but you would really love to not have it die before you graduate with a degree and at least have a job!

That being said, you can probably see that the laptop is now back on track! I was already behind with fieldnotes as I had been extra tired these past few days - my sinuses had been giving me a run for my money. So I wanted to get to updating that while things were fresh in my head and if I haven't gotten back to an email you have sent me -- you're up next.

News from Jinja

So this morning, as I was leaving for church, it occurred to me that I never did get around to giving you some follow up on where I actually am staying. You probably realize by now that the answer to that changes every week, but I thought it would have been a really cool feature to show what my various accommodations have been like so far...

THEN Something more News worth happened, but first a brief run-down of today's headlines...okay, maybe they're not quite headlines:

Had a great day at church, my supervisor walked there and back (it's around the corner) and then we went to the pastor's place for lunch. I didn't know the day would come where I would miss having matooke but believe me it did yesterday, and I was all too glad to have some for lunch today :)

You see, Jinja [current location] is tourist central, so EVERYTHING you get with chips (a.k.a. fries), they even bright and feisty enough to de-bone my fish and serve me only half of it (==Fish Fillet). So literally, rolex and other street food have been my best friend. You already know how much I love street food but I love "cook food" too, especially when the meat still have the bone in!!! See below for an example of bad food!

Me at the very uptown Source Cafe in Jinja - with my fish filet,  guacamole, chips AND SALAD *smh*

Anyway, this church was more like my kind of flex, after lunch, we came back to the guest house, then we slept. [still at the guest house for a couple more days]. THEN there was the evening service: 5-8pm. It was less formal and ended with an auction to raise funds to feed next weeks guests (there will be many) and also some transportation money.

Now pity that transportation money couldn't be transformed to gas right there and then. When service was over, we drive out to get dinner. Drove for about 500m when my supervisor exclaimed, "Kaydi, we are out of gas!"

My first reaction was, "Are you serious?!"

Albert: These people have been driving the car all day and I guess the didn't put in any gas!"

Me: Oh, I guess we have to get a bottle and head to the gas station, this has happened to me many times in Jamaica before! I think we were even in worse situations when it happened in Jamaica, being much further away from gas stations!

Fortunately, I had just finished drinking some water, which meant we could put 600ml of gas in the car. It certainly did the trick and we were able to hit up the gas station, a 24 hour restaurant that serves local food (but actually has very limited late night offerings like one serving each of goat's meat, beef and fish), the lady selling the roasted maize on the street and then here I am back at the guest house.

Searched all over...

So Wednesday nights at Grinnell are usually marked by Young Gifted Black (YGB) Gospel Choir rehearsals - which comes only after Jamaican Table in the d/hall. Tonight, instead of rehearsing the usual songs such as Nobody Greater, which is always remembered by the line "Searched All Over", my boss and I searched all over Jinja, Uganda to find housing for the next 14 days for me, and 4 days for him.

His usual spot is under new management. And new management must be the cousin of Inflation! To be honest, the place wasn't expensive enuh BUT it just didn't feel worth it to me. The next spot was nice and for the same price BUT location never to righteous.

Then someone carried us way up into high society land saying they would give us rooms at half price. HA...not a ting go suh...his business partner did not agree with that deal and ah mean the place was lavish and well worth the price tag but we come to work --- and we on a budget!

By this time, we had spent 2 hours searching, and personally I gave up! The next thing the one guys who I have yet to figure out his role in the org made another phone call, this time to a local pastor asking him where we can stay. What do you know the pastor nuh seh we can stay with him for free!

Of course though, tonight is Wednesday night, so we first had to go to the church for the mid-week service. We barely caught the tail end but apparently these people had been praying for Christian visitors to come fellowship with them. If you appreciate the wonders of God, then you understand that this is a testimony! The man had actually just purchased a house, he is refurbishing it and it will be completed in 3-4 days. About 8 more people will arrive in 4 days and also need place to stay. The house will be ready for us all to stay in - Free of Charge! Until then he found a comfortable, super affordable guest house --- right across the road from his new house that we will be moving into.

This song is really true...There's NOBODY GREATER!

The Introduction (Traditional UG Marriage)

I finally decided to stop being lazy so I could tell you about my most recent adventure --> A Traditional Ugandan Marriage! Well its actually called an Introduction because essentially, the groom must bring his entourage to the bride's home to formally propose to her in front of her family.

If I were to tell you the name of either the bride or the groom, I would be lying to you! All I know is that the groom is a member of my supervisor's church AND here it seems like there is nothing called "invitation only".

Now for all my life, the hand full of weddings I've been to and the many I've seen on TV the bride has always been late and this is usually acceptable. Here the tables turned and this man somehow decided to keep his bride and her family waiting! In fact, even the group of us escorting him were kept waiting. I'm not sure if he was nervous or what, but certainly this didn't seem acceptable at all!

The ceremony lasted for a few hours well and was a real drama exhibit with dancing and singing and all sorts! It was all in Luganda (except the prayer, which was translated to Luganda), so luckily my supervisor's wife sat right beside me to fill me on on all the laughter!

In a nutshell, the aunties of the bride must first walk through the groom's party and pick out the groom. Then he is presented to the girl's father but the girl is not there. He must pay for transport to fetch her. However with every money he spends, different girls show up but they are not the one. Eventually, his bride is presented to him, he presents her with the engagement ring and they race to eat a slice of their cake, drink some fanta soda and finally promise to love each other forever and ever <3

Then, as the grooms entourage, we all exit to the vehicle which carried the groom, where we are handed gifts that should be presented to the family. Items ranging from cooking oil to pineapples and God knows what else... every single one of us brought in 2 baskets or boxes each!

Then we were fed! Chicken cooked in banana leaf with matooke, rice and ground nut sauce. This is the official meal of traditional weddings here. Interestingly, chicken is more expensive than beef so you can imagine getting married is not cheap! Plus like I said, this was only the introduction, the church wedding and reception are still to follow and remember the term "invitation-only" does not exist here!

Apparently some couple thousand people get married here every weekend -- wonder how many more weddings I can pop into?!

Journeying Across the N + S Hemispheres

So I should have mentioned in the last post that there was absolutely no reason to be #veryConcerned as we not only made it out of the people dem yard but we made it out of Rakai district. However, the journey out would come at a cost!

Ah tell u if Jamaican people never cut off of this continent, pigs would be flying! Listen, these people  decided to build a by-pass to the flooded road in the swamp area... 5,000 /= per car to pass through. (5,000 /= is about USD$2).

Anyway, we had to do what we had to do...negotiate the prices first, pay second, drive 3rd!

You see, 5,000 /= can do a lot here...take this plate of food for example, or should I say these two plates: Beef stew to the left, and Porsho ( made from maize flour), pilaw (fried rice), sweet potato, avocado, pumpkin and fries, cast 3,500 /= (I could barely finish it)

 while we're on the matter of food, let me just say that street food makes the world go round!
Back in Jamaica - jerk' chicken, jerk' pork, roas' yam + saltfish,
Mexico - those burgers *mhmm* [another confession - a group of us may or may not have snuck out of our hotel during our high school trip to make these nightly purchases]
And Now UGANDA - rolex (chapati with eggs, onions, tomatoes, cabbage fried onto it, see pic below), roast banana, roast corn, roast meat

Oh and I did find some of those animals I always see on Disney movies! 5th Annual Buganda Tourism Expo was well worth my 3,000 /= :) Don't mind the fact that the rain came tumbling down and I was reminded of the Denbeigh Show Grounds in Jamaica. I happened to be at the right place when the rain started - by the Ministry of tourism tent! They took me right in and gave me a seat so they could tell me about all I needed to do while in Uganda and hear about what we're up to in Jamaica. 

And my computer was so nice as to build you a collage of the day's photos! The expo was still a work though as my org had a booth there selling crafts that they train people to make - so they can generate an income for themselves. But every voluntourist MUST take time to tour, no?

Well that's why on the way back to K'la from Rakai, we had to stop at the Equator to take this picture:

Take care!

Nobody canna cross it...the 256 edition!

The number of times that song played in my mind today is insane! If you have no idea which song I am talking about you are a year behind on Jamaican life and NEED to youtube Cliff-Twang right away (as in don't read any further until you watch Cliff-Twang's Nobody Canna Cross It)

Ok, now back to today:

1. We here driving along this road. Now I tell you the road been there for ages enuh and what do you know? There was a lake on one side of the road, and it overflowed, now the road is like a river. Our vehicle couldn't cross it and sometimes not even the Boda-Boda can cross it! We had to turn back, but not before taking a picture!

2. Today was really a travelling day, problem is that as we were travelling, we had to dig our own road to get out! Friends, the car did get very stuck [yes I recognize that this is not great English, but are telling you a story, ok?!] in one of the people dem yard and chus me...if St Thomas pan was near, is there we were heading!

Initially the car could neither move forward, nor either reverse [quote adopted from Jamaican police officer] and for a while I really thought we were going to be there til about Saturday/Sunday but we got a couple of hoes and started to dig to get to some dry soil.


Then I saw that while the car can't swim, it really could fly! Unfortunately, it couldn't fly out of the people dem yard so we were still very stuck. And oh yeah, the rain was falling as we here digging a new road.

Then the car decide to veer off our new road and almost into a tree! We had to get a machette and chop the tree down...then we had to call in for some man power. Since the car thing it bad, we had to push it up the new road that we dug.

After like an hour of digging, pushing, chopping trees, we finally got out of the people dem yard!

On a more serious note though --> you can sponsor a child for $24/month (Click to Sponsor A Child, or at least learn more) that will get them an education, food, uniforms, healthcare and for those who board at school, accommodation (Yes! They can survive on less than a dollar per day!). Many these children have been orphaned and I went around today collecting their data and I will be updating the website closer to the end of my internship. 

And they say people starve here?!

The past couple of days I had been wrapping up my visit to the Bukunda Church and preparing my parting sermon. Yes! I actually did preach a thing or two :)

The women in the church decided it would be a fun idea to dress me in traditional wear, show me how the prepare a full meal, teach me their hand crafting skills and wrap up with a dance. We had so much fun walking throught the town - everyone we passed was in absolute disbelief when they were told I was a foreigner. Look at us in their tomato garden -->

After church on Sunday, Sis Ida declared to me "Today you shall eat and eat and eat until the sunsets". Honestly after the sun set I was still eating!

Now, the pastor first took me to our local spot for lunch, then the women started cooking: matooke, pumpkin, roast corn and groundnut stew.

As we sat at the fireside the pastor came out and asked me, "Shall I bring you chapati?" As in, my stomach had barely began digesting my lunch! But he insisted.

The roasted corn was first out of the fire. Two were presented to me.

I braved through it. It was delicious. My stomach was about to burst open.

As I sat by the fire, more food appeared on my plate.

Now, I recall growing up, seated around the family table, particular during Holidays with the extended family when you turn your eyes away from your pate and food would disappear. [Ok, maybe that's a confession to my dearly beloved family that I did take that last piece of festival or chicken from your plate when you weren't looking because I was too lazy to go back to the kitchen and I wanted more :D] However, as I say by the fireside, the exact opposite happened!

Next up the Chapati Arrived

Then a bottle of Mirinda Fruiti

Then another roasted corn on the cob [I tell you though ACT II has nothing on fresh roasted corn]

Then the meal was served....I had to refuse it

But they insisted I have just the pumpkin

Then that I try the ground nut sauce as well

I looked to the sun and said, "whenever will you set!"

But even as the sun set, someone thought, bring her the sugarcane!

Honest to goodness truth, I don't know how I survived last night, but I don't have to tell you that I legitimately sunk into a food coma! 

Dear Africa, this is the diaspora speaking...

Today we journeyed through hills and valleys, visiting church members, chatting with them about how they and their families have been doing and praying with them.

At one particular juncture, one of my coworkers said to me, "I see you have your walking shoes, you will need them as we will be going into the jungle!"

Jungle?! What Jungle?! The one that Tarzan swings through on TV or the one my innocent father, fresh off the ship from England, saw in my grandparents banana plantation when he first arrived in Jamaica? [sorry to loud you up daddy ...a jus love :D ]

When we arrived at "the jungle" I realized that there was no rope hanging from high trees on which I could swing! My coworker turned to me and said, "so what do you call this?"

Let me teach you some vocab:

Banana Walk: where you grow bananas
Cane Fields: Where you grow sugar cane
Cassava Piece: A place in St. Andrew, Jamaica. Also referred to as "Gully" in the Jamaican dancehall.
Jungle: An idea that made Disney rich, and made me disappointed when I learnt that Africa did not have lions and tigers roaming free all over, nor tiny boys swinging across trees and beating their chest!
Concrete Jungle: now let's not go there.....really, you don't want to go there!!!

Needless to say, I took a trip down the Banana Walk this afternoon and I thought about the coconut tree down in grandma's banana walk by which my navel string was buried. I am actually in serious need of someone to remind me why on earth we buried our navel strings under trees and if this practice is still being carried out?!

A weh di God Man dem deh?

[translation: Where are the Men of God?]

*title stolen from another dj nic fav*

You know, that's a popular question in so many youth groups. Today, I found the answer, they are down here in Bukunda!

I met with the youth group of the church today and I was surprised to see that guys outnumbered the ladies. Twas a great experience rapping with all the youth and they did put down some dancing, singing and musicianship in the church this afternoon. Then I had to give them a lil pep talk - just one of my 10 minute speeches I've been pulling up out of my pocket, but when I was done the pastor announced that I will be preaching during first service on Sunday morning!

We prep'd our rice for cooking together - but I didn't even eat with them. Yet, the day only got sweeter!
LUNCH: Stew fish, sweet potato, yam and pumpkin - YES! Pumpkin eaten with your main meal and not as a dessert. I was silent throughout the meal and very energized for our afternoon session. And you know, my silence as I eat can only mean one thing :D

We journeyed up to the pig-rearing sight. It was a real journey indeed. Kudos to those youth who have been making that great trek daily to feed the pigs for the past 7 months. They will surely make some good roasted pork in the future! (I don't mean to offend any non-pork eaters)

Then came my plantain crisps and Mirinda Soda - mhmm! I am just speechless. Allow me to take in my NTV news for the rest of the evening, a lot is going on in this country =)

Good News + Bad News

So, the good news: healthcare in Uganda is ridiculously cheap.
The bad news: I got sick and had to use it!


It all started in the Nswanga Village. I was fed way too much if you ask me,
I didn't even finish it all.
By the time I got back to Masaka I knew the day was pretty much over.
A few rounds of dancing and singing and I ended the day early.

When things turned for the worse, I got really nervous. I have to admit:
I get sick in Jamaica - there's a cupboard full of all the medication I need or at least a pharmacy within good distance and someone who can pick up some medication for me
I get sick in Grinnell - I am the walking pharmacy.
I get sick in Masaka - I suddenly realize that I only brought medication for Malaria and my usual back pain, and at this point I'm only praying that I don't have Malaria anyway!

Needless to say, I made it through the night (thanks to all who prayed for me) and only had to walk down the road and around the corner to the doctor this morning. Felt like a big girl after "passing my blood test" - I didn't cry and I didn't have anyone with me! And these super efficient doctors, results instantly and prescription available right in the office. I was in and out in under and hour!

If I have one other thing to say, Uganda is very beautiful. I looooooove looking over the hills into the valleys laden with Banana trees - absolutely breathtaking! I know, I'm just a country girl at heart :)