Volume

Maria Flo, the hotel we stayed at for our first two weeks in Uganda, exposed us nicely to the culture of Masaka.  Each morning, we were provided a delicious breakfast by the hotel staff.  This is where we were first exposed to matooke, and we can all agree that the hotel prepares matooke the best.  Pale omelets were also a part of the breakfast line at Maria Flo, the eggs here do not render such yellow finished results as eggs back home.  Breakfast at the hotel also included French toasted (I’m pretty sure that is deep fried French toast…oh yeahh) as well as fresh fruit, mostly pineapple, watermelon, and small bananas.  Usually a nice glass of passion fruit juice (with four spoonsful of sugar) would accompany our meal, and even, on occasion, a steaming mug of drinking chocolate. 

Another way Maria Flo eased us into Ugandan life was the hospitality of the staff.  Sylvia and her sister, the front desk girls, were always very friendly and welcoming, and always had smiles on their faces.  There were always many girls around, cleaning and preparing food.  They would always greet us in Luganda (the language of Uganda), and try to teach us words. 

Our favorite hotel staff was the director.  We’re not sure of his name, but he always called us his sons and daughters.  He liked to take us to town, especially when we needed to go to the bank to get money to pay him.  He would always come and join us, and ask us “Are you okay?”  His voice and laugh were booming, and you could hear him throughout the day.

Our friends Ivan and Deos, managers at the Maria Flo, took us to Masaka’s finest—Ambiance.  Club Ambiance is a night club located very near the hotel.  When we arrived, all of us were stunned.  In the middle of Africa is this nightclub.  Now, I’m no judge of nightclubs by any means, but this place was nice, way nicer than anything else we had seen here.  There were huge TVs with music videos playing, loud music (even American music), pool tables, flashing lights, and more security than the Egypt airport.  It was intense.  The only part that looks slightly…ghetto was the bowling alley carpet.  You know the type, black with neon prints of bowling balls, pins, and rockets.  But hey, even that is nice, because it’s literally the only carpet I have seen on this continent. 

But perhaps the best way Maria Flo introduced us to Uganda was the volume of the place.  Many things here are extremely loud.  There are large vehicles that drive through the street with the loudest music blaring out the huge speakers they carry.  When Club Ambiance is going (every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night from 10:00 p.m. until I’m not exactly sure when, but it was going strong until at least 4:00 a.m.) you can hear music loud and clear.  Our own hotel, Maria Flo, frequently hosts all sorts of events, from weddings, to concerts, to conferences.  And even though things are going late into the night, for some reason, everyone is back up again at 7:00 a.m., being loud.  It is always loud.

Our last night at Maria Flo was the night of the big concert, the one we’d been seeing and hearing advertisements about this concert since we arrived.  There were so many people, and so much security, they almost didn’t let us back onto the hotel grounds.  There were cops everywhere, with sticks and guns, but that’s not too unusual for here.  We actually attended the concert for a while, it was fun.  They set up lawn chairs and even though we couldn’t understand the music, it was quite nice.  Some people were getting drunk and out of hand, so we went in around 11:00.  It was the best way to end our stay at Maria Flo—a very late, and very loud, evening.  

On the Road

While traveling through the jungle, we encounter many things.  Some of my favorite things are the various treats Deo finds for us.  The jungle is where we get to experience the freshest fruits of the field.  We always are excited when Deo gets into the bush to grab us our newest snack. 

Deo has picked us some fresh guava a few times.  Apparently there are many different varieties of guavas.  I think we’ve only tried the sweet variety.  The best ones were the ripest ones that we ate and they were actually pink and soft on the inside.  The other ones were not so soft and sweet, but they were still fun to eat. 

Deo’s favorite fruit is jackfruit.  A nice lady we visited cut us some pieces of it.  Jackfruit is a really bizarre fruit.  It is larger than a football, greenish, and has spiny things on it.  It only gets weirder from there.  The inside has yellow fruit segments, filled with these gigantic, bean-looking seeds.  You pull on the yellow fruit part, and it slowly disconnects itself from the rest of the fruit.  It tastes vaguely reminds me of a banana, a real slimy banana.  The general consensus was not favorable for the jackfruit.  I think it has potential, and Deo said that the one we tried was a bit overripe. 

A familiar fruit we got to try fresh was a pomegranate.  It was definitely not fully ripe, the seeds were somewhere between pink and white.  They were a nice treat to snack on while we walked around to different businesses.

I also got to try passion fruit.  One of the people who have a loan has a passion fruit business, and luckily for us, there was one that was semi-ripe.  It is green and purple-ish if it is ripe.  You crack it open, and there are some orange-yellow seed things, like of like a pomegranate, but more gooey.  They are a bit tart, but very delicious. 

Many times on the road, we have seen small children gnawing on sugar cane.  The other day, Deo snagged us some.  He expertly peeled and chopped the sugar cane into edible pieces.  I ate so much.  It’s real nice, because you don’t really eat it, you just bite it and suck all of the sugary juice out, then spit out the rind.  I love it.

The best thing we ever tried on the road were these delicious little pancakes that one of our loan recipients makes for her business.  They are made out of the sweet bananas, which are littler than normal bananas.  They are sweet little cakes that are absolutely delicious.  I always ask Deo if we are near her shop, because I want to buy more and eat them. 

I look forward to trying more food on the road.  

Ugandan Businesses

Before coming here, I was really curious as to what types of businesses the people here would be running, and how they would be using the loan money.  During our first week, I have been able to see a few of the businesses here, as well as learn a little bit about them. 

A very common business is a piggery.  Typical piggeries we have visited have four to eight pigs.  Deo will always tell us about the quality of the pig house.  The worst one we have seen was akin to a shelter you would see on Survivor—a lean-to with a palm leaf roof.  The nicest one was cemented and had both an indoor and outdoor section for each pig.  Most have been moderate, strong looking wooden fences (pigs are pretty sturdy animals) with a decent roof.  With such a loose definitely of “pig house,” the quality of these structures is one of the things we will be checking out when people are applying for loans to purchase pigs.  One of the major problems in the pig industry is disease, which can sometimes be avoided by vaccinating the pigs.  People looking to get new loans have also considered different strategies such as purchasing a different (and more expensive) pig breed which produce more piglets. 

Chickens are also a common business.  It has gotten to be trickier, because of the price of feed.  Feed prices have been fluctuating a lot.  It has become more profitable to export the feed, which has raised the price here.  While many people have abandoned raising chickens, we have seen two very full chicken houses.  They are not my favorite, because the chickens are very loud and very crowded in there. 

We have also seen quite a few people who are involved in the growing or trading crops such as coffee and corn.  An issue that faces the people growing these crops is weather, as it is unpredictable.  Traders purchase in small quantities from many different sellers, and then sell in large quantities. 

We’ve seen other various businesses, such as hair salons (they actually spell in saloon here), breweries, and retail stores.  One store sells drinks, and was interested in getting a new loan for a refrigerator, to differentiate from her competitors.  Another lady sells alcohol, and her store of it looked quite interesting…she keeps it in a backroom in these yellow “jerrycans,” which are used to carry water here.  Our favorite business is of this lady, who makes and sells pancakes.  They are made out of sweet bananas, and are very delicious.  We want to go back and visit her again.  

A New System

The purpose of this program is to teach business, and potentially give out loans. Unemployment is very high here, and because there are so many people looking for work, the pay situations for those employed are not very good.   

Everyone is looking for ways to make more money, so a more profitable business means a lot to the people here.  However, the loan repayment rate for the program here in Uganda is around 75%, while the rates of the programs in Ghana and Peru are around 95%.  Because the program cannot really be sustainable at such a low rate, our first duty is to go out in the field and figure out what we can do to help. 

Deo is the programs greatest asset.  He is the loan collector, and he is the only one who knows what is going on here.  He knows the tricky routes of the jungle.  He’s knows the people who have the loans, and he knows which people are causing the program “headache,” as he says.  He speaks English so well, we’re all very impressed with him.  I don’t really know how this program would be managing without him. 

For the past week, we have been joining Deo in visiting some of the many people who have been granted loans.  Last week we visited a lot of people who had actually already paid back their loans in full, and are looking to receive second loans.  People like these are the best kind of people for our program, because they have already had success in their businesses, and have proved responsible in repaying their loans. 

It was very interesting as we rode around the jungle, stopping at various houses.  In a day, we would visit a loan pod (we give out loans to a group of people, so there is shared responsibility in repayment) or two.  Because we were visiting people who wanted second loans, we would usually first ask them some questions. 

What is your business?  What was your first loan used for?  Has your business been successful?  What problems have you faced?  What are you looking to do with the next loan?  What materials do you already have? 

The new system we are looking to implement involves verifying the answers they put on paper.  In the past, loans could be granted if the paperwork and records showed a good enough plan.  We are now adding to the process.  After we asked the questions, we would go and look at their various businesses to see what things they really have. 

The groups and businesses we’ve seen so far have been nice to visit, because they have all been pretty faithful in repaying the loans.  This week, we’re going to start going out to some of the delinquent pods.  I think that is where things will start getting really interesting.  It’s kind of an overwhelming task.  We don’t know much of what is going on out here.  There are a lot of outstanding loans, so there are a lot of people and businesses to visit and help.  Hopefully we figure out a way to get things turned around out here.    

Let's Eat!

May 16, 2012

Alright, anyone who knows me has probably been shocked that this post hasn’t come even sooner.  I hope you’re all ready for a brief overview of Ugandan cuisine.  A typical menu includes a list of what I would probably call sauces.  Things on this list include meat, fish, chicken, beans, g-nuts (pronounced guh-ee-nuts, kind of…), etc.  From this list, you choose one thing.  Then there are sides, which include things like matooke, rice, posho, kalo, sweet potatoes, yams, and pumpkins.  I’m not quite sure of how many of these things you order.  At one restaurant, Divine Mercy’s, we’ve stuck to two.  However, at the new restaurant we tried tonight, Chris’ Guest House and Restaurant; you can just pick a sauce thing, and say “with everything.”  I’ll go over some of the unfamiliar food. 

Matooke is definitely a Ugandan favorite.  Matooke is a banana-like plant which occupies approximately half of each plate of food.  It is mashed up to varying degrees; some servings of matooke have large chunks, identifiable as banana like parts, while some are more fully pureed.  While it looks like a banana, it does not taste like a banana.  I’m not actually sure what it tastes like pure, but it is somewhat tasty, salty mush.  It is a quite heavy dish, and I can never finish mine.  For breakfast, I like to spread the matooke on my buttered bread when the hotel runs out of jam, because I don’t really like to eat it plain, even though the taste is fine.  It’s not really my favorite. 

Posho is something that I do like…however, I am completely unsure of what it is.  It is pure white, and served in the shape of a slab on your plate.  It is relatively firm, but cuts about as easily as cold butter.  In your mouth, its’ texture is slightly grainy, but not significantly so.  I wouldn’t say it has much of a flavor, but it is an excellent vehicle for the sauces. 

Kalo.  Kalo is not good.  First of all, it is quite unsightly.  It is blob shaped, would be considered brown, but with a greyish hue.  It is soft-ish, but to eat, you must penetrate its slightly congealed exterior.  Once in your mouth, you have something that is the texture of overcooked oatmeal.  You can stick a fork in it, and pick up the entire portion.  Its appearance does not lead you to believe that would happen.  I will not be ordering that again.

G-nuts, in my opinion, are peanuts, they make some sauce out of them that is actually quite tasty, not to mention purple.  We assume that the purple comes from cassava root, although I’m not quite sure what that is. 

The rest of the items should at least be somewhat familiar sounding. 

Alright, so they bring all your sides on a single plate, with a bowl full of sauce.  I like to dump my bowl of sauce over my entire plate (except I don’t like it on matooke). 

Accompanied by clean bottle of water, it makes for a pretty good meal. 

Boda Bodas and Kittens

May 14, 2012

We’ve made it to Uganda, we’re settled into our super loud hotel, and we’ve explored the town.  So far it has been a lot of sleeping, as well as a lot of fun.  Today, we got down to the reason we are really here in Uganda, the SEED program. 

Deo (our loan collector and only contact in Uganda), and Ronald (a boda boda driver who can be trusted) picked us up so we could go around for this week’s collections.  Amy and Dallin rode with Ronald, Kennie and I rode with Deo. 

It turns out that I absolutely love boda boda rides. 

All I have to do is sit and not fall off.  The wind rushes through my hair, I can observe the beautiful sites of the Ugandan jungle, and wave at the kids on the side of the road who wave at me.  It is definitely my new favorite activity.  While I am sitting on the boda boda, I wonder if life even gets any better. 

It turns out that Kennie does not.

Kennie explained to me that he only likes motorbikes if he is driving, and that it scares him to be the passenger.  Personally, it would scare me lots more to be driving.  Luckily for him,

It turns out that Deo is not so good at driving the boda boda. 

After stalling the bike a few times, on our first boda boda ride ever, Deo hands the keys over to Kennie, and lets him drive us around the Ugandan countryside.  I’m not sure that is approved by our travel insurance, but I do have to say, Kennie did an excellent job.  Kennie is now our team’s boda boda driver of choice, except I told him I will not ride with him in the town or in the rain, because that scares me. 

At one of the stops for a loan collection, I found this kitten sitting in a small hole.  Since I can’t resist any cat that doesn’t look completely diseased or mangy, I just had to go look at it, pet it, pick it up, play with it, and take pictures with it. 

As Amy would say, it was the best day ever.  

Online

It’s kind of crazy how important the internet is to some people, people like me.  One of the first things the hotel management said to us is that they would have the wireless internet up and running real soon for us, without us even asking.  They just know that we, Americans, would require internet.  It was interesting to me that until we arrived, having working internet was of no concern to the hotel.

And it’s true.  Much of our first 24 hours in Uganda was spent in search of internet.  The hotel wi-fi was not cooperating.  We tried to use the data stick the previous interns gave us, but it had expired.  We went and sat in the hotel community room where the wi-fi modem is, but it didn’t work in there.  So we all went to bed, while no one else in the world knew whether or not we had arrived safely. 

Our first item of business in the morning, after eating breakfast, was to head into town.  To do what?  Find internet, of course.  On our way out of the hotel, the owner asked us where we were going, then offered to take us into town.  He first took us to the bank, probably so we could finally pay him.  As he continued to drive around town, pointing out places, and shouting about how all of the boda boda drivers cannot drive, I could feel mine and Amy’s anxiety about accessing the internet rise.  It was like an obsession. I couldn’t possibly relax until I had checked my email.  It was all I wanted to do. 

Finally, we got to an internet café.  I was so excited as I logged onto my email.  Twenty-three minutes have never passed so quickly. 

We wandered around town for a while longer—our only purchase was a data stick so we could have easier access to the internet, of course.  We ate lunch at this fabulous café, Café Frikadellen.  A little expensive by Ugandan standards, but they provide a nice little perk:  free internet. 

So why do I have such a dependence on internet?  I think I just like to be connected, not just to the world, but my world.  So far, I absolutely love Uganda.  It is beautiful, the weather is absolutely perfect (so far), the people are so nice, and the interns I’m with are great.  But that doesn’t replace my friends and family back home.  I still want to be a part of that world.  I don’t like to feel disconnected.  I’m more than 8000 miles away from home, but through the internet, I can still be a part of it.  

When Things Don't Go as Planned

May 11, 2012

Last Flight

What we planned:  Sit by each other and hopefully get a little sleep before arriving in Uganda. 

What actually happened:  We sat in four different rows, laid across three seats each, and slept quite happily for most of the flight. 

Journey to Masaka

What we planned:  Ride with Dave’s contact Idd, who was supposed to pick us up.

What actually happened:  Idd called us while we were driving to Masaka with someone who was not Idd.  Apparently Idd is sick, so he had someone else pick us up. 

Housing

What we planned:  Quickly find the compound; carry our suitcases into our furnished house, shower, and fall asleep in our beds.

What actually happened:  We couldn’t figure out where the compound was, so we drove around asking random people for directions.  We finally arrived, and a lady greeted us dramatically, and said “Welcome to Uganda” while opening the gate.  We got out of the car, and she informed us that our house would be ready for us in about a week.  We got a brief tour of our empty house, then had to find our way to the Maria Flo Hotel, where we are now staying.

First Day in Masaka

What we planned:  Sleep, explore a little, eat, email Dave and our families so they would know we arrived safely. 

What actually happened:  We did get some sleep, we all crashed.  Then we had to move rooms, because initially we got a room for all four of us to share.  I’m pretty sure the hotel staff was appalled, so they came into our room during our nap and told us that they had two rooms for us for after we were done resting.  We moved rooms, ate a dinner of sweet potatoes, rice, beans, and g-nut sauce.  We tried to connect to the internet, which was unsuccessful. 

Regardless of things not always going according to plan, life is good.  I’m in Uganda, and it is so amazing.  We were driving as the sun rose on our first morning in the country.  I’ve heard many people talk about African sunrises, and now I know why.  It was dark, and all of a sudden, it was light.  As I turned around and looked out the back of the van, the sky was red.  I’m pretty sure I was more than half asleep, but even in that state, it was beautiful.

Best layover ever.

Top 5 Reasons to Fly Egyptair

Reason #1
Sometimes the flights aren't full, and you get an empty seat next to you.  This results in the most heavenly flight in the history of my flying.  

Reason #2
Their version of airplane food is actually quite delicious.

Reason #3
They provide a pillow and blanket...perfect for sleeping on a ten hour flight.

Reason #4
Personal TVs for each seat.  Yes, there was a little remote, with video game controllers on the back.  I was actually so comfortable on the flight that I did not take full advantage of the numerous movies available for my viewing pleasure, because I was sleeping for the majority of the flight.

Reason #5
The layover pyramid tour.  Yes, I was very skeptical of this tour, and actually refused to do it at first.  Partially because I was afraid to hand over my passport.  And also because I thought going on a tour wouldn't be adventurous enough.  Dallin and I set out on our own, while Kennie and Amy researched things and ended up probably saving our lives.  Good job to Kati and Dave setting up the pairs, I think we'll balance each other out.

Airports and Talent

I can’t think of many things that I have such mixed feelings about.  I love going to the airport.  It means that I’m about to embark on a fabulous adventure.  It’s such an exciting place to be.  You send off your luggage, you get to walk through all sorts of security, and planes are coming and going from everywhere.  It’s just great!  I feel like I could just happily be at the airport forever! 

Until I get to be at the airport forever.  I feel like most people’s airport horror stories involve running across gigantic airports and almost missing their flights.  Most of mine actually involve very long stays in the airport.  We’ve been sitting at JFK for six hours now.  We rode a shuttle, which was really fun, especially because we got to go around the whole airport.  We found a nice place to lie down and sleep, until this real nice lady came and woke us up and told us we couldn’t sleep there.  

We’re anxiously waiting for the Egpytair counter to open.  Speaking of Egyptair...it could be an interesting flight.  

I've come to the conclusion that we are just talented at buying plane tickets.  Take a look at our itinerary and you'll agree.  Obviously, the best way to get to Uganda is to make it a three day trip and take flights that leave in the middle of the night.  

May 8/9

SLC to JFK

11:30 p.m. arriving at around 6:30 a.m.

May 9/10

JFK to Cairo

6:30 p.m. arriving at 11:15 a.m.

May 10/11

Cairo to Uganda

9:45 p.m. to 3:25 a.m.

Okay, so you might not agree that this is the best way to travel.  But if there is one thing we are skilled at, it is buying the absolute cheapest tickets.  The price of our three day bout in the airports, less than $1500.  Oh, but it does leave us stranded in New York on the way home...but it's fine.  Clearly we feel right at home here.