So I think the most important thing we brought from home is a sense of humor. Patrick and I think this country is just hilarious sometimes. About once a day we stop and think about how living here is so random and unpredictable. I will say though that some experiences are definitely funnier than others. Here are some of the things that make us laugh:
· We often find ourselves sitting on our compound’s ”porch” laughing from people/animal watching. Pigs might as well run this town. The pigs like to get their exercise by sprinting back and forth between huts chasing children around the village, which is always funny to see. Also, if it sounds like a person dying outside, don’t fear, its probably just a goat…and if its really loud, its probably getting strapped to the back of a motorcycle or being slaughtered. The other day we were watching this group of 5-6 year old boys chase after this cow while all of them were yelling and smacking it with a stick. The cow was probably walking as slow as it could and was not phased in the slightest. It was pretty entertaining.
· The kids are amazing here because they can entertain themselves with anything. A popular game here is rolling an old bicycle tire with a stick. And by popular, I mean that every kid does it. Also, another toy that is hot on the streets is a milk carton tied to a string. Hours of entertainment. I am a good source of entertainment for them also. When I stick my tongue out at them they go wild. They act like it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever seen.
· So I work with village health team members and one of them decided to get me a chicken, which was very nice of him. He said, ”A white chicken for a white person…its good luck”. We kept it in our compound for about a week and it would occasionally disappear then reappear in the morning. One day we walked outside and found it strutting around with a male chicken being scandalous. There was no way we were going to chase a chicken down the street because we already seem crazy as it is and that would not help the cause. So after its evening strolls it would walk right into the compound like nothing happened. After a week we decided it was time for a chicken dinner and I killed it! I was a bit nervous as im sure you can imagine so our coworkers made me pray for it before I killed it. They insisted that I learn how to kill a chicken for when I go home. You know, since we have to kill so many chickens back in the states. It was quite the experience that hopefully won’t happen again. Anyway, they were so proud of me. I told my counterpart I killed a chicken and he ran up to Patrick and told him to add more cows to my dowry that he has to send back to the states since I know how to kill a chicken now. Also that same counterpart just came back from paternity leave. I said to him ”Oh you have a daughter now? What is her name?” He said ”Well it’s kind of like Aubrey! I named her Audrey.” A couple weeks later he was talking to me and kept accidently calling me Audrey. I thought that was pretty funny. I thought the Aubrey/Audrey confusion would stop here but I guess I thought wrong.
· Speaking of names…the names of children here are quite interesting. Here are some examples;
o Immaculate
o Nighty
o Innocent
o Obama
o Beyonce
o Amato Sunday (literally translating to…I drink on Sunday)
o …and my personal favorite: Helen Kella…not even a joke
· The t-shirts they wear here are even funnier. For some reason it’s just hilarious to see someone wear a shirt when they probably have no idea what it means or it makes absolutely no sense. Just like im sure when people wear shirts with Chinese writing its probably says something totally random. We saw a drunk guy stumbling around our town the other day wearing an IU shirt. He must know what happens during Little 5! These ones have been my favorite:
o “Party till your homeless”…whhhat does that even mean?!
o ”Put on your big girl panties and deal with it” –worn by a man
o ”0 to bitch in 0.2 seconds” –also worn by a man
o ”Save Indiana jobs”
o …and others that are not appropriate to put on here :)
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I guess it’s appropriate here to wear a shirt with the four-letter word beginning with f on it but its inappropriate to show your knees in a skirt. A popular shirt I have also seen in the village is mesh and see through. I might be missing something but who knows.
· Another thing we have to laugh about (or we would go crazy) are the meetings. Patrick was recently at a meeting where they spent 4 hours going over the minutes from the last meeting leaving 1 hour for the real meeting. Im sure you could imagine how his tolerance for anything the rest of the day was nonexistent. The meetings are also very predictable. No matter how small the meeting, it begins with a prayer and there has to be a clear agenda with someone appointed as the chairperson, spiritual leader, welfare, timekeeper, and minutes secretary. Then about an hour is spent on rules, expectations, and fears for the meeting. You know that book “If you give a mouse a cookie”? Well, if you give a Ugandan a microphone…they will talk for hours. Patrick had the pleasure of attending our organization’s Christmas party (that I conveniently was away at a training for) and he called me at 11 and said they still hadn’t eaten dinner yet because all 80 employees had to open their secret Santa gift one at a time and thank the person who gave it to them…on the microphone.
· Each month we have a market day, also called auction day. It essentially operates like a traveling circus. What can often be purchased at market day includes used clothes (probably ones you may have donated that weren’t bought at Goodwill) and shoes made out of tires, plastic dishes, vegetables, and homemade booze. Whenever we walk through the market I tell Patrick just to imagine it as a farmer’s market…never really works. After market day is a huge party. HUGE. They bring in the generator from out of town to blast music until 8 in the morning. When we wake up music is always still blaring. Also, Mercy Corps can’t plan anything for the day after market day because people are so hungover they wont show up.
· The US military here calls Peace Corps volunteers “dirty feet”. Why? Because it’s true. I sometimes wonder if our feet will ever be clean.
· People in the village tell us “If you stay here long enough you will have black skin like us!” I smile and tell them that I don’t think it works that way.
· Ugandans are OBSESSED with Obama yet when we introduce our African American friend Mikael to Ugandans they say, “A black American? Are you sure?”….yup…we’re sure.
· At first seeing children riding on the front of motorcycles was quite a shock now it is pretty hilarious watching them as they drive by. Patrick always points out kids on motorcycles because their faces are just great. They are absolutely ecstatic.
· When I came here I hated cassava…now I have cassava cravings. I know in my heart cassava is tasteless and has a weird texture. What is happening to me?
· We have gotten chocolate in our care packages (thank you!) and it refuses to solidify in our house during the dry season…mmmm but messy.
· We underestimated how sad of a day it would be when we ran out of Taco Bell sauce. We were pretty distraught.
o We also will have no shame in making some stops when we come home in May at each and every Taco Bell/Chik-fil-a and asking for sauces.
· Several people have called Peace Corps medical with sprains and strains (fortunately not us) and they tell them to put some ice on it....excuse me?! Ice does not exist here.
· When we lived with a Ugandan family during training I asked the kids if I could ride my bike in pants (since skirts are mostly worn and more appropriate). Little did I know in Uganda underwear is called “pants“ and pants are called “trousers“…woops. That caused a good 30 minute laugh.
· We recently went to a movie in Kampala, which was amazing. It was almost like an American theater. It is the only public place in this country that ive seen with air conditioning. I have no idea what happened during the first 15 minutes of the movie because I was so excited. There were probably 10 of us that went and we tried to stay until the credits were over but they kicked us out.
· We met a lady the other day at the post office in Kampala who said she studied in Pennsylvania during college. She said the three things she misses most from America are dollar stores, Walmart, and ranch dressing…awesome.
· Patrick’s causal conversation with the shop keeper across the street when buying a small flask-sized bottle of Waragi (Ugandan gin) for a wild Friday night in Namokora:
Shopkeeper: How many of these can you take?
Patrick: I’m not sure. I usually just take one.
Shopkeeper: Oh. I can take 6 or 7 if I start in the morning.
Patrick: Well...that’s just impressive.
Next blog post will include not so funny experiences…
...i'll leave you with an adorable picture of baby Aubrey and Gabby. Gabby is our compound roommate. She my counterpart's daughter who lives with us in our compound and she never stops smiling!
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| baby Aubrey on the left and Gabby on the right |
