America?....oh, you mean OBAMA

Another phenomenon I have had a few times is having difficulty explaining where I am from.

I was asked, again at the taxi park, where I am from.

I answer, “The US, United States…of America”.

Blank look.

“Canada?”, he asked.

“No, America…”.

“Obama?!”

“Yes, Obama.”.

“Oh, Obama, yes, Obama”

Ha!!

How is there?

One of the most often-asked questions I have gotten this trip is, “How is there?”. It takes me a second every time to respond, as it is phrased so strangely. But, what is being asked is, “How is the place from where you came?”, or “How is New York?”. The best conversation starter is to say, “Very cold.”, and then to attempt to describe how cold to someone who considers a 70 degree day cold. Seriously. When we are here in July and August, the temperature averages between 70-80 degrees max. On the days when it is close to 70 rather than 80, you will see the boda men in parkas and down-coats. Peter and Andrew wear sweaters. Women have cardigans and jackets on. And we Americans are loving what we consider “perfect spring weather”.

Because I still have not learned how to convert Fahrenheit into Celsius, I cannot truly say how cold New York is except to say that it is below 0 degrees Celsius…which blows their minds. I was talking to a young guy yesterday at the taxi park and he asked what makes it snow….is it the weather? And I said yes, it is like rain, but frozen. Again, how do you truly explain?

Valentines Musings

Those of you who know me personally may be hoping I will reveal some great revelation about what love means here in Africa. But, I won’t be. It is complicated. When I wrote last week about each trip bringing me a little deeper into Ugandan culture, this is one area I was talking about…although this area has been a little side research project for me, love here still remains a mystery to me. The dynamics between men and women here are not simple. There are so many traditional beliefs colliding with modern ones…not to mention, cultural aspects that I will never understand completely. But, they do know about Valentines Day, which I was surprised by, mainly because I consider this an American "Halmark" holiday. But, anyway, happy valentines day from Uganda!

Classic African Meal

I am not sure I have ever shown you a true classic African meal.  Those of you who have traveled here with us will recognize the plate of what is essentially all starches.  Starting from my thumb (which looks double-jointed or something) you will see 2 types of potato…a sweet and an “irish”, which is a basic spud to us.  The white thing with a bite taken out of it is cassava….i am not sure how to describe it except it is starchy and not very flavorful…kind of like yucca?  Then there are 2 triangles of some of the sweetest pineapple you’ve ever eaten!  The middle is covered with brown rice, which has some of the pork broth over it.  There is a piece of pork there, along with a little pile of cabbage at the top.  Then there is matoke covered with g-nut sauce.  Matoke is a type of banana which is not sweet.  It is roasted or cooked until soft, then smashed up.  The g-nuts are actually small peanuts, ground up into a sauce and served over the matoke.  This plate was served at Peter and Andrew’s graduation.  Serving pork is  a REALLY big deal here…it is a very nice treat.

Muzungu!

Just a little blurb about the word MUZUNGU. As mentioned before, this is the term used for a white person here and you tend to hear it alot....mostly by kids, but also by people wanting to get your attention. The most common phrases are really kind of cute, in a way, since they make a rhyme...kind of sing-songy:

"Muzungu, how are you?"
"Muzungu, I love you."

Geoffrey, the leader of TAOST, where we spent the day today, explained to us this afternoon that muzungu actually means, "Wanderer". This is because of when white people first came, they didn't actually know what they were doing and were said to be wandering around. ha!!

I wanted to tell a little anecdote from Georgette last week. It was on a day we spent at MOHM, when she was teaching a class about different seam finishings. Shannon had created these amazing little cloth books that have examples of different ways to finish seams nicely if you don't have an overlock machine, which these women do not. She showed a french seam (sorry to those who don't sew and don't know what this is) and Rehema clasped her hands and said, "Muzungu, THANK YOU!!!".

I think this is my favorite way of hearing muzungu said!

New group!

Today was spent in Idoome, a village a little over an hour from Jinja. This was the first time I had ever been to work with the women there. I must admit it was a hard day. It just takes some time to become comfortable in a group, and for them to as well. And, not working with them before made us unaware of their skill level, so it requires some figuring out on how to teach things. Nonetheless, the women are lovely, and we were joined by several men who either are on the local council or have wives involved in the class. They added a great dimension, as the women giggled at their mistakes during English class, and as they taunted a man named Willy when he finished his fabric rosette and pinned it onto his shirt.

We returned to Jinja this afternoon knowing that we need to regroup for tomorrow and think carefully about how to plan for this group. In our meetings before coming to Africa, I said to my teams several times that the most important quality you need to have to come work with us in Africa is flexibility....and days like this are exactly why. Because we come for a few weeks in the summer, it is difficult to assess just what the women are learning and what level they are at....even knowing the needs of the class is difficult. So we tried a few things, had some success, but also need to change the way we do our classes a bit. I am confident that each day will get better and better. Not only because we'll get to know the women and they us, but also because Judy and Georgette are excellent teachers and will roll with whatever we face.

One surprise highlight of the day was entering Jinja's central market for the first time today. Basically, it is a labirynth of booths in the middle of Jinja, surrounded by a wall. It can be a little scary. But, assured that we could find knitting needles inside, we bravely entered like we had done it a million times. Unfortunately, the first section we came to was the butchery/meat section. I averted my eyes from the tables of guts several times until we came upon shoes...a section I was MUCH more comfortable in. After asking several times where to go and wandering a bit, we found a woman, who low-and-behold, was actually knitting!!!!!! We begged her to tell us where she got her needles and she said that we can't get them here....she had made hers out of a coat hanger! ha! She was really cool....after leaving her and deciding maybe we can find something else that will work for us, we stumbled upon the spice section....my favorite. That was such a cool place with bags and bags of great smelling curry's, all types of beans, some barks and rock salt, etc....so cool. We then went to the paper section and bought some cement papers to make more patterns for our class tomorrow, and eventually made it out the gate. So cool....it actually brought my spirits up quite a bit after such a draining day.

Being able to find the things you need in a new town and a different culture is one of the things that is most empowering to me. So, finding yarn and machine needles, combs, and pattern paper was really fun. It is a comfort.

Best-Dressed Boda Driver

So, here is a typical boda-boda...as mentioned in the previous post. They sit on corners, waiting for passengers...you jump on the back and they take you wherever you want. It is a great system...as long as you are not overly concerned with safety issues. ha!....but when in Rome....

I took a picture of this guy because basically I loved his outfit. Not sure if the picture fully captures it, but I thought it was very "smart", as they'd say here.

first village day!

Today was our first day spent in a village. We went to Wairaka to meet with the leadership of Message of Hope Ministries (MOHM). The day started with a boda (the local alternative for a taxi....jumping on the back of a moped) ride to meet Judy and Georgette. We headed into town and went to the taxi park, where we negotiated a matatu ride out to Wairaka. A matatu is the Ugandan version of a public transport system...basically a fifteen passenger volkswagen bus-type van into which they cram as many people, bags of maize, and chickens as possible. They stop all along their path, letting people off and picking people up.

When we got to Wairaka, we headed to Sarah's (MOHM's tailoring teacher) shop, where we met up with one of her older sons, Seth....for those of you following along, Seth is Peter's older brother. We followed him to his mother's home, where we spent an hour or so, catching up, laughing, and drinking a hot poshu drink...much like drinking cream of wheat, actually. I had a great time!!! They have truly become like family to me.

We then headed across the main road to Isaac and Irene's home to officially have our meeting. They welcomed us warmly, and as we waited for Isaac to run an errand (this is called "African time"...things happen when they happen...they cannot be rushed), we got a lesson from Irene and Sarah about how the traditional "gomas" is worn. A gomas is the traditional dress for respectable women...it is definitely a ceremonial dress, and expected to be worn at funeral, weddings, etc., but is also a day-dress for many women. They start wearing it when they "are grown", as Irene put it...or when they get married, really.

Judy volunteered and was a great sport as they dressed her first in the striped underskirt, seen left, then put the dress on and tied the sash. The real test came when they stepped back and said, "now it is your turn!" She was amazing and gave it a shot...only making a few mistakes, which they quickly corrected. The picture to the right is Sarah tying the sash around...the finishing touch to Judy's gomas.

We had our meeting and discussed all aspects of the tailoring program and what our team will be doing while here, as well as this coming year and the future years. The exciting thing about MOHM is that one, they have the most amazing teacher, Sarah, who is very talented and driven, and two, they are the farthest along of our organizations, as far as the women's skills go. They spoke of Tausi, [who is quoted in our press kit, which you can find at www.sewinghope.net] and how she and 2 other ladies have taken their skills and begun to make children's dresses, selling them in local villages. This has been our hope for them, and it is gratifying to see that they have already began.

We ate a local meal with them, and then headed back to Sarah's shop. On the way, Sarah stopped and introduced us to Beatrice, who was a previous student of Sarah's, who now works in a small shop where one can buy what this muzungu (word for white person) believes is a weave. ha! Anyway, she was sitting there hand-embroidering some small table linens with beautiful flowers. Her picture is below.

It has been an exhausting, but gratifying day. It is so good to reconnect with everyone here and see their progress and be reminded of their needs. We have a day off tomorrow to rest, then will begin our seminars with MOHM on Monday. Until then....

commonalities...

So last night brought a strange phenomenon. Upon returning to the hostel with Peter last night, the television was broadcasting Michael Jackson's memorial service, live. Pretty cool, I thought, to be watching it from so far away at the same time that it was happening. We are 7 hours ahead of New York, and 10 ahead of LA, FYI. Also interesting was the fact that all the muzungus (the term used for white person here) from the US and Europe were being completely disrespectful and cracking jokes, while the Ugandans were taking it all in with wrapt attention. It was kind of ironic, I thought, but also neat that this pop culture icon really is a connector of cultures. He was/is an important presence here. When Queen Latifah talked about people watching from all around the world, I can attest that it really was true! Very cool.

Peter told me that the school where he is doing teacher training is going to have a Mass for Michael Jackson, and that they still have one every year to honor the losses of 9-11. Who knew? When was the last time our country remembered an African atrocity with any sort of regularity? Maybe it happens in small places as here, or maybe we will in the future, as our world becomes smaller and smaller....closer and closer.

I know that so far this blog has not spoken much about our work, but starting tomorrow, I will be reconnecting with the organizations and preparing for next week's seminars. It has been so great to ease back into being in the country: relearning the transportation system, connecting to my friends, and adjusting to the funny quirks. I also hope that throughout this blog I can continue to show you all the things which connect us, not just the differences.

Pictures, finally

I promise I am getting the hang of this...here are the pictures from the previous post. Next time they'll be in the same post.

Pictures, taxi park, and Makere University

Pretty soon, I will be able to post without issue, but today is my first attempt at uploading pictures from the slow-net computer lab. So, they may be small....bear with me.

The first is of one of the cool displays in the Amsterdam airport, where I had a 3 hour layover before continuing into Entebbe. I have never seen so many seed packets in one place....shelf after shelf of them...which I suppose makes alot of sense in Amsterdam, but it still took me by surprise. I resisted the urge to buy them, mostly because of my desire to save money for ugandan jewelry and fabric, but also because I know my HUGE lack of a green thumb.

The next picture is of the DREADED "old taxi park" here in Kampala. This was taken last night as Judy, Georgette, and I ran errands through town with my friend Peter. I asked him to take us to see it, but was sure to add that I only wanted to look down on it from above. I only enter this heinous place when absolutely necessary!! ha!! that sounded dramatic, but really after squeezing through the vans you see there (called Matatus. They are the public transportation system here..more on that later), which are inches apart and all moving in different directions, you either are so thankful to be alive that you never want to go again, or you simply stare and marvel at the shear brilliance of how it works....to me there is no rhyme or reason, but to them, it is organized and somewhat efficient. Oh, and a side note for those of you who are judging me and saying how I am not saavy or cool for my feelings on the taxi park, I saw an old lady hit by a Matatu in the taxi park last year....not cool!

So, I did brave actually entering the park with Peter this morning. He is in the last picture you see here. We visited Makere University, where he recently finished his degree in English literature. It is a HUGE campus, and VERY fascinating! I especially liked the art department, where there were many final projects on display and tons of sculpture around the grounds. The library and bookstore were cool too. Mostly, it was just great to get a picture of where Peter has spent the past 3 years, and what his life was like there...it is a HUGE accomplishment for him to have completed his course work!