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.