Settling in…. Slowly – the African Way

03 Nov 2010 2 Comments

by danrennt98 in Uncategorized

So as the title states, I’m settling in slowly. With the small daily setbacks that only Uganda and Africa can bring.

But before I get to that just some funny things of life here.

Yesterday, I had a some really funny encounters with the neighbors. The first went like this with Neighbor A, and Neighbor B.

Me: Hello (I’m arriving home)

Neighbor A: I’m fine.

Me: Well, that’s good (in my mind, I’m like this happens way to often and is hilarious) and I smile.

Neighbor B in Lusoga starts laughing because he is older and speaks better english — [the older they are, the better the english because school is only taught in english] and he tells Neighbor A in Lusoga that I just said hello I didn’t ask how he was, while laughing. I laughed and went inside. Later…

Neighbor B (same neighbor), C, and D were outside roasting corn on a charcoal grill when I came home the next time.

I was chatting with the for a minute while opening my door and then I said, “Are you roasting maize?” to Neighbor C.

Neighbor C: Yes, we are roasting meals.

Then neighbor B and D erupted in laughter. So I started laughing and then Neighbor B again corrected this other one. I started telling them how I would get the muzungu price (overcharged on everything cuz they think I’m rich) of 1000 shillings per ear of maize instead of 200.. and Neighbor B comments that it’s a “language problem.” I said yes, and went inside.. but it really isn’t a problem of language because even if I asked for the maize in Lusoga they would just tell me “Lukumi” which is 1000 in Lusoga. Then, a few minutes later.. Neighbor A, D, E, F, G came home and were all talking about the various hysterical miscommunications in Lusoga. I didn’t realize it until I went outside to use the latrine in which I could hear only Lusoga being spoken but randomly I would here “Hello” “I’m fine” or “Roasting Meals” or “Language Problem” and fits of laughter. I came out of the latrine trying not to laugh but then I saw neighbor A laughing and I lost it on my way in. They all thought it was even more hilarious that I knew what they were talking about. And I proceeded to hear “Language Problem” and “Roasting meals” “Hello, I’m fine” for about 40 minutes after that while I was inside reading. It was a hilarious hour.

(“The Happy Isles of Oceania” is a book I really want… Just saying..

People here raise their eyebrows quickly instead of saying “Yes” and it’s very frustrating sometimes because you don’t think they’re answering you. But I started doing it too.

People here say “yes” when they have no idea what you’re saying or talking about, which can also be frustrating but funny.

I waited in line for the ATM for about an hour the other day with 20 other people. The atm broke for about 15 of those minutes. The rest was because some people don’t know how to use the ATM well and have other people do it for them. Apparently, everyone gets paid on the first here too.. and there’s only one atm within an hour drive. I made a mental note of taking my money out on the 31st.

I have a creepy neighbor that wrote me a letter telling me how much he loved me. He’s nice, but creepy nice. In that letter he also asked for 20,000 shillings for school fees and a birthday gift. Needless to say, I did not give him either. But then he proceeded to beg me to come visit him at school. I said maybe and he took that as a promise, because a few minutes ago I got yelled at by his friend for not visiting him.

A very nice young man washed my clothes for me (my supervisor’s grandson) and he only wanted me to pay him the equivalent of 75 cents. I felt bad and gave him 1.50. It was really great because I hate washing clothes more than anything.

I found a hotel that makes really good fried chicken and chips in my town. I’m going to be there a lot. One thing my mom is going to have to get used to here when she visits is that eating is a relaxed experience and takes about 1 and a half hours where ever you go. Even the “fast food” restaurant in Kampala takes about a half hour to get your food. I just bring a book when I go out to eat. It takes about 45 minutes to get food, and also for someone to come over to the table. And getting your bill is a whole ‘nother story, I haven’t given anyone the time to come over and give it to me I just go pay it and leave. Generally this is for non-Ugandan food, Ugandan food is usually ready right away because everyone orders the same thing — rice, beans, matooke, posho, meat. I had goat meat, greens, beans and rice for lunch. It wasn’t bad. There were some rocks in the rice and the 2 pieces of goat had very little meat on them. The waitress saw me struggling and asked if I wanted a knife, during which we both were chuckling.

I met a German guy, Thomas, who is staying near town and we have a common friend named Tinka (more on him later). He’s pretty cool and it’s nice to have another muzungu friend here to talk about common muzungu topics. There’s also a canadian, and two danish people living in town nearby. Thomas brought the Canadian to visit me, but I wasn’t at work at that time. Oh well, I will meet her soon. I’m going to be staying here a year longer than any of them.

Kamuli is pretty damn hot. It feels like I’m roasting when I’m in the sun at around 3 pm. But I still generally enjoy it over being cold all the time.

The kids here are funny. Some yell muzungu at me, some don’t. The same with adults.. only very rarely does an adult yell muzungu at me.. it’s generally “MUZUNGU! How are you?!” or “MUZUNGU! How are you? I need money for _____” With adults its kind of rude and they know it. With kids it’s funny. Some are adorable and say “MUZUNGU, you are welcome!” which is very nice of them. Others say “MUZUNGU, how are you?!” and they always reply “I am fine”. Others, say “MUZUNGU!”  me – “yes, hello” [pause] “Give me money!” and then I mess with them speaking english and lusoga telling them “Mpa sente” – you give me money! or Give me your backpack! or That’s not nice, give me your food.

The top right part of my right foot has been numb for two days. I’m going to give it another two to go away before I start getting worried.

Indians own all the supermarkets, which are just like convenience stores, which makes me feel at home. I go there like 3 times a day for random things.

Last thing.. Chinese appliance story. I bought this Chinese power strip on the first day that I got here. Now it’s been pretty good except for the fact that none of the plugs go all the way into it, without some pushing and almost breaking my American and British style plugs (it’s supposed to fit US, Australian, UK, and European plugs). I brought it to work the other day because the power was out at my house to charge the computer. And it was fine. I brought it home an plugged it in when the power was on.. and apparently the metal prong that plugs in to the wall fell of in my bag. I found it and tried to put it back on with no luck. Another 10,000 shillings down the drain on a Chinese product that lasted a little more than a week. Now its back to using the European adapter from Target that electrocutes  me (lol) when I touch my computer.

—————– Now on with how I am doing adjusting to life alone in this random country of Africa ———————–

Well, I’m settling in here slowly but well. You can’t do anything here very quickly, I just take it day by day. Trying to do the best I can. I was wanting to write a blog this weekend.. but the power was out from Saturday morning until Tuesday night.. so that didn’t really work with my blog writing schedule. Luckily, the peace corps gave us this wonderful solar lamp which I always keep charged. So I was able to [re-]start reading a book.. “Dark Star Safari” by Paul Thoreux where he goes on an overland journey from Cape Town to Cairo. This would be awesome, and he goes through Uganda and he’s in Kenya in the part I’m reading now and a lot of words are taken from Swahili here so I’m already noticing a lot of familiar things. Anyways..

I’m learning how to properly interact with people in this region which includes a lot of “How is there?”s. But I really like the organization that I’m working with and the people that work there are fantastic and very accomodating. I’m really taking it slow.. not going in and “working” too much. Basically, for right now going to work includes meeting people, chatting with members, meeting members of the SACCO, and doing a lot of brainstorming. I’ve come up with a few projects that I want to work on in the next 6 months. They want to introduce new products which I want to help them on and I have an idea or two of new products (accounts). We also have to start looking at the budget for next year and giving out dividends to all the members within the next month. One of the new products I’m thinking about would help them improve their repayment rate for loans taken out.. and I’ve been doing some research on SACCOs and FINCA (wikipedia it, it’s like a formal VSLA). So I want to start a kind of hybrid VSLA/SACCO account.. They have group accounts available now.. But if we go out into the villages and get groups of people to start saving and get a group account with us… have individuals of the group take out loans with our SACCO’s money and pay back interest plus principal.. Then we can split the interest with between the group members and the SACCO, all the while teaching them how to save and why it’s important to re-pay loans… so at the end of a year when they share out their interest and year’s worth of saving, they will then each have significant amounts of money to open individual accounts with us.. bringing in more members who know the importance of saving and paying back loans. And with these accounts if anyone in the group doesn’t pay the loan back and runs away; then the rest of the group is responsible.. so social pressure and village embarrassment generally keeps people from running. This is just in its beginnings of my mental thought process FYI. Also, Eventually I would like to work with the other microfinance groups in town on some projects — other SACCOs, FINCA – Kamuli branch, BRAC, Financial Trust.

But for now.. I met a guy named Tinka who lives in my town.. who works with an international organization called Junior Achievement and we’re working with him right now on teaching at schools to create a savings culture among the youth. So tomorrow my counterpart, Isaac, and me are going to be going to a high school/college and teaching them about savings and also about entrepreneurship. The schools have entrepreneurship classes we will be talking to and they can ask us questions about entrepreneurial activities. We’re also developing a student price for membership accounts which is slightly lower than the regular price.. to attract students to start saving and get new accounts for when they graduate. I also have my first Lusoga lesson tomorrow, should be interesting.

Anyways, I’d say the hardest part of living alone is the kitchen situation. There’s no counters, running water, limited utensils for now and my stove is on the floor. So, tonight I made a cabbage/onion/garlic stir fry with this delicious curry powder and usually I put green beans and tomatoes in it, but the atm was broken this afternoon, and i didn’t have enough money on me to purchase that stuff. I also had potatoes so I made homemade french fries! Which were pretty damn good for my first time! But it took me about 2 and a half hours, because I had to clean the dishes from the last time I cooked.. yep still lazy.. and then I had to cut all of that stuff which took about an hour especially cuz the potatoes were dirty! And then sizzle it up while sitting on the floor. But it was totally worth it. In the middle of that somewhere I spent about 15 mins taking my clothes off the hangers because of “the people that move at night” they might steal them, and my landlord came and chatted with me as well as the creepy one and his friend. Also, the bugs are fairly annoying.. There’s no screen in my windows and so if I turn the light on the windows have to be closed.. or else all these small bugs.. nothing too disgusting.. they come in and chill with the light. But if I close the windows it gets super humid and hot in my house.. especially if I’m cooking.

I’m slowly learning how to deal with the neighbors as well. They are nice.. but I was just interrupted for about 15 mins. by the creepy one trying to get me to go watch a soccer match with him and his friend at 10:15 at night. And they were relentless.. the were telling me that napolean says that men should only sleep 2 hours a night.. that I am forgetful because I left a pair of shoes outside… that I don’t know how to lock doors, even though I was locking my door correctly.. etc. But otherwise the other neighbors are nice and respectful and we are slowly learning from each other.

So I’d say that things are moving along well and I’m getting into a routine, enjoying the learning curve of doing things here, starting to find things to do at work, making friends, learning the language slowly, dealing with the hardships of life away from home in another country (many ups and downs on a daily basis), and learning to enjoy the simplicities and complications of life in Africa.

Love you all,

Dan