When in Africa = the new “When in Rome”

The guesthouse where I am staying is a constant influx of new people: 7 gap year students from England; a middle aged Japanese women named Hati who goes between Jinja, Ktigun (in Northern Uganda where she is starting a library in one of the schools) and Japan; Matt, from Scotland who has been working here for the last year or two; Dan – a past gap year student from London who is back to check on a medical clinic he started at one of the schools; Tara, another Canadian girl who is at the guesthouse on the weekends and has been here since August, Johan, a missionary from South Africa and, Lindsay and Vicki who are both here with the GIVE international as well. Amazing and lots of interesting discussions slash laughs over accents and phrases that we use.

The nights here are LOUD. Between dogs howling (and really howling) at each other, roosters, armies marching and singing at 5 or so in the morning, and building shaking thunder it is enough to wake you up a couple of times even for deep sleepers. When it rains here it really rains (huge downpours) and lots of thunder and lightening – lots of fun to watch! Not as fun to watch in the day though because all the kids in the orphanage stay inside (which is quite small) and things get a little nutty. Oh, yesterday I got peed on as well. Fun! Hahaha. Otherwise things at the orphanage are going really well and I am still really enjoying it. I love talking with the women that work there – they have lots of interesting stories to tell and I am picking up bits of Luganda and Lusoga (the local languages here) – much to their amusement! I have also been to two more villages this week (one by boat) – which I really enjoyed!

I was supposed to start volunteering at an AIDS clinic on Thursday – but things have gotten delayed so hopefully by next week something will work out. I can also volunteer at a health clinic in one of the schools, or at the Joint Clinical Research Centre (which provides free ARVS and works a lot with USAID which would be interesting to learn more about).

I am still enjoying and trying lots of different foods here. A lot of them don’t necessarily have much flavor but are very filling. So far I’ve had posho (which is mais – looks like corn – paste) with beans, and also with cabbage, sweet potatoes with gnut sauce (peanut sauce), matooke (which is cooked green bananas mashed), goat meat, fried cassava and lots of amazing Indian food. Haven’t been sick of anything so far.

I have ventured into the market once which was quite the experience. It is huge area with wooden outdoor shops with tons of winding aisles selling everything you could possible ever neat or want (from plumbing, fruits and veg, to chickens and goats, to clothes). The fruits are quite cheap (avocados are about 10-30 cents) depending on the size. The food in grocery stores is quite expensive here (similar to Canada for many things) and shampoo is really expensive (about 10 dollars!).

Well I should run the internet is incredibly slow today (some days can do about 2 or 3 emails in an hour!). Tomorrow Lindsay, Vicki and I are going white water rafting on the Nile…when in Africa!