Hello again loves! I hope all is going well with you in the
US. Via facebook I have noticed that the presidential race is well under way;
man am I cut off from politics here…I can’t really say I miss it too much
(except maybe Stewart/Colbert’s version of it) Anyway I have not been doing all
that much. I work quite a bit; slowly by
slowly figuring out what I can do here. This week we started general trainings, which
I came up with! They are short and sweet
little sessions to remind people of policies.
Sometimes people do things here that you would for sure get fired for in
America. For example, a sebo asked for 3
months off work. When I inquired as to
why, I was told that he is tired. I was
like that is not a real reason; in America you would get fired for asking
stupid questions. Apparently it is
fairly common for the men to come to the production supervisor, Vincent and
request to leave early because they are tried.
Well stop drinking all night and get enough sleep…duh. The country is only re-affirming my belief
that women are the superior gender; the women never pull shit like that. If they are late/absent it is due to planting
their farms to make extra money for their children’s school fees or something
equally admirable. There are plenty of
men that just sit in large groups around town all day. They are drunk by 9am and sit by their bodas
all day harassing passer-by. They
especially like to harass mzungu and unfortunately especially mzungu
women. Some of the disgusting things I have
had yelled at me: “My size” (my new response for this one is going to be “eh! But
sebo you are too small for me”), “I need you” to which I responded “*sigh*
ahabwenki (why?)” and “for your figure”
was the drunk response I got. Real
classy dude (do these actually work on anyone?!) Us women often get “I love yous,” “marry mes,” “I love your skin color”, “take
me back to America,” “have my children” and many more. It’s getting quite old actually, but can you
do? American men are disgusting too,
they just have had more women yell at them about it so its toned down. Get them drunk and they become just as lame
and gross. Not saying their aren’t good
men in this country and the world at large; just that in women are obviously
the better gender. Here many of them
work all day, come home to cook and clean, and take care of the children by
themselves. Many of them sit around all
day (some work) and come home to sit more, waiting for their woman to serve
them. SICK. Anyway enough of this rant…I have met some
good men in this country. All of our
trainers were great and my supervisor is wonderful. All the men I work with are super nice to me
and not at all disgusting, just lazy sometimes.
They are youths though, so that could be part of it. Most of the gross men are randos on the
street (or boda drivers), who are probably drunk anyway.
This week I did my first health talk at a secondary school
with Kendra and Tara. It went pretty
well; we discussed HIV mostly and then a bit of nutrition and hygiene. It was the first thing any of us have done
like this, so we kind of just set it up like a discussion with them. We asked them what they knew and had them ask
us questions as well. That was the best
part: the questions they asked. My
favorite of the day = “I heard that syphilis started when the US dropped the
atomic bomb on Japan; is this true?” The three of us just looked at each other
for a minute like “wtf mate?” Honestly I had no response to that; where did he
even hear that? So after a minute of complete shock, I calmly stated that as
far as I know syphilis is very old, dating back to like the middle ages. The atomic bomb did cause many
serious illnesses, but syphilis was not one of them. Another good one: “Can you tell me the
similarities between HIV and gonorrhea?” Again wtf? We just said they are both
sexually transmitted, but they are completely different diseases. OO children you are crazy crazy. At least they were interested enough to ask
questions right! It went pretty well overall; the headmaster was happy with
it. He gave me pen as a thank you; it is
actually a pretty nice pen, which is rare in this country.
This
talk was in Omungari, Kendra’s site, so Tara and I made our way back after and
we saw some interesting things on the way.
As always public transport is a treat.
Two bodas passed us with animals on them: one with 2 goats and one with
3 sheeps. These animals were alive mind
you; just strapped on tight with a sebo on the back. Then we were waiting for the taxi to fill in
Ibanda and I started being the conductor.
We have done this before as a group and it usually cracks them up. The driver drives around while you yell at
innocent pedestrians on the street your destination. I pointed at people screaming “Mbarara
Mbarara!” and “Noza nkahi? MBARARA!” out
the window. Ugandans find this
hilarious. Finally we filled up and we
were off. Filled up = five people and a
child in the backseat (intended for 3 people), Tara and I in the passenger seat
(me sitting more on the stick shift…o yes it was a manual car) and a guy
sitting with the driver in his seat. And
we are off! About halfway through this trip, the driver stops and gets
out. He is talking to some sebo in
runyankole so fast Tara and I can’t understand, but my leg is asleep so I get
out to stretch. At this point I walk to
the back of the car trying to wake up my leg and I see the sebo walking up with
like 15 chickens; alive chickens. Oo of
course that’s why we stopped to fill the trunk with chickens! Get back in and head out again; I actually forgot
about the chickens. Until we are almost
to Mbarara, then all of a sudden the chickens start getting rowdy in the trunk;
idk what they are doing back there but they scared the shit out me.
That is
about it; made it to Mbarara safely if not comfortably, bought food, checked
the post office (still no letters, for those of you that said you sent them),
and headed back to sit. Oo Uganda never
a boring travel day here.
