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