Uganda #5: Adjusting

Last night after a tasty beef dinner with rice, beef, matoke (green bananas) smoked in banana leaves, my mother, her sister (Auntie Annet) & I sat in the lving room & stared at each other for several minutes. The silence seemed pleasant for them, more so than for me. I'm not used to silence & was anxious to fill up the dead space with conversation. My mother brought up the topic of me as a baby. My aunt helped my mother after she had me. Everday she washed 12 of my nappies (cloth diapers). 12-a-day!!!! That's love & hence, I understand that it takes a village to raise a child. I debate internally whether I will use cloth or disposable diapers for my children... still too early to decide. My aunt brings out my baby clothes. She's saved them! My mother shows me a pillowcase; she ripped out the middle out & then re-sewed it back together in an intricate lace pattern. Wow, when I see it, I know I was & am still loved a lot! Afterwards, I charge my IPOD using a 220v to 110V converter & listen to more of Jane Fonda's story.

At 5:30am this moring, the rooster starts crowing loudly but then it starts raining hard. I quickly wake up because for a moment it sounds like Niagara Falls has been relocated to our bedroom as the rain pelts hard against the tin roof. When it stops, the rooster crows again. My mother & I fall asleep & wake up at 9am.
For breakfast. we had casava & bread wrapped in banana leaves & hot tea. I still can't get over the fact that the butter made by Unilever Uganda doesn't need refrigeration. Auntie does not have fridge but somehow I don't miss it like I do other things like the sound of the toilet flushing; there are latrine pits or the steady flow of shower water; we heat water & use it from buckets. Even so, I am loving being here. I walked outside onto the red soil & we walked amidst all the greenery to the Internet cafe, taking a taxi on the way.

By the way $1 USD = 1700 shillings (Sh). My aunt got her hair braided in cornrows for 4000Sh or $2.50! Yup, you read correctly! I wish I hadn't eaten all those restaurant dinners before I came here. A US dollar here goes a long way, as does some quarters. It take 600Sh to take a taxi bus to the Internet cafe & back. An equivalent of $$USD???

2 of Auntie's kids, my cousins Andrew, 16 & Pius, arrived today from boarding school. They laugh at my Luganda, which is Americanized & sometimes comes out sounding funny, even to me. My tongue & mouth struggle to intone the Luganda linguistics. I'm getting there. My goal is to properly speak the language at the end of my trip here. We give them CD players & CDs & shoes, which they genunely jump p in joy & thank us. It make this journey so worth it to see them smile.