So today I thought it would be fun to just give you a random list of culture stuff/stories that I have learned/experienced in the last couple of weeks but haven't really talked about yet. So here is a completely unorganized stream of consciousness:
- Yesterday we slaughtered 4 chickens in our backyard to make chicken enchiladas. That was an experience. Sam (our cook) wanted us to help with the whole process, so he put the knife in someone's hand and the chicken in the other. And then encouraged them to slice away. I decided I had to watch that little adventure, just for the experience of it all. It may or may not have been a good idea. I will avoid going into all the bloody details so that you can still enjoy your chicken enchiladas in the future. My watching my food go from squawking chicken wandering around the yard, to in a tortilla on my plate kind of killed my appetite. The enchiladas were delicious, but a little harder for me to eat than usual. I now understand why Ugandans don't eat meat very often though. Our dinner took about 4 hours to cook. That is waaaay too much work if you ask me. I get too lazy to cook up some frozen chicken from the grocery store when I'm cooking at home. That's not even an option here. If it was left up to me to handle, I would probably never eat meat while in Uganda.
- I saw a baby hedgehog today! It was adorable! Apparently hedgehogs are considered good luck and people put them in their gardens to help them grow. Who knew?
- Ugandan culture is very slow. Americans tend to have every minute of their day planned out and they are always in a rush. This is definitely not the case in Uganda. People are always late and no one really minds. Things that could be really short and efficient drag on for hours, and no one thinks twice about it. We have had several meetings with partners that by the time table in my mind should take three hours tops, and they end up taking closer to 9 or 10. And it's fine. No one apologizes. This is just what they had set aside their entire day to do, while I still had all kinds of other things on my agenda for the day. When we got stranded on the side of the road because our taxi broke down, no one seemed too stressed. In America, everyone would have been angry and frustrated and demanding that the driver find another way for us to get to our destinations quickly. However, everyone seemed content to just relax and wait. No rush. We get there when we get there. I am quickly learning to allow for a LOT more time for everything because there's really no avoiding it when things start to take a long time. I have also realized that I am definitely an American in that I fill my days with plans and I get frustrated when one thing takes longer than I plan for it to, and it cuts into my time to work on something else. I also have to learn to deal with people being late. All the time. I don't deal with that well. I get really frustrated with people who are late, and often lose a lot of respect for people who are consistently late, especially to important or formal meetings. I'm going to have to get over that. It's a hard mentality to change.
- Today we were a little squished on our boda. My driver was very literally sitting on my lap. Awkward.
- Ugandans do this funny thing when they talk where they give you a chance to finish their sentences for them. For example: If we were talking to our cook about dinner, he would say something like "So we need some chickens for the what? For the enchiladas. So, to get those chickens we need to go to the what? The market." It's really hilarious. Usually there's no way we could know what they are about to say, and I haven't actually figured out if we are supposed to finish their sentences for them or just let them do it themselves. But it's just funny.
- Marshmallows don't exist in Africa. Sad.
- The power goes out here ALL the time. So annoying. And there's just nothing that can be done about it. It's pretty exciting the nights that we are only powerless for an hour or less. It gets a little ridiculous sometimes.
- Our guard, David, is just the greatest guy. He cracks me up. I'm sure I will have lots of David stories over the course of the summer, but here is one for you. The power went out the other night and it was out for a long time. We were all pretty frustrated because we couldn't get anything done and it's just annoying in general. David came walking through and I said "David! Get the power back on!" (David is also our go-to fix it man) He said "Oh oh okay! I will just call him really quick." We were a little confused at first because there's really not a power guy that we call when the power goes out, we just wait. David then pulls out his phone and pretends to have a conversation with someone. When he hangs up, he looks at us and said "Okay, he is in Jinja right now. But I told him to come back. So he will be here in a couple hours." Um yeah. He definitely personified the power and made it sound like it had just gone out for a little vacation. It probably helps if you had been there, but it was seriously hilarious. He's great.
- G nuts. They're like peanuts. Only African. They are a little bit smaller/rounder than peanuts but they are absolutely delicious. Definitely a favorite snack of HELP volunteers. We love that people always serve bowls full of them when we go to their houses in the villages.
- Africans don't know how to give handshakes. Everyone shakes hands ALL the time, but they are the wimpiest little handshakes! They do that silly fingertip grab with noodle arms that makes me crazy. I get really excited when I find someone who knows how to give real handshakes. Like really excited.
- People mow their lawns with machetes in Uganda. It's called slashing. Our slasher's name is Julius. It's kind of a scary sounding title, "Julius the Slasher." Ha! He is definitely skilled though
Okay, I think that's all I have for you tonight. I'm sure there will be more later. Bye!
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