Kirabo

So, 2 weeks in at Katosi and being here has made me appreciate a ton of things about life in the US…2 major things being flavorful food and diversity!
Food here is alright, but nothing I’ll be dying to fix for myself once I get home…in fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll never eat another banana…they have like 6 kinds of bananas and cook them different ways to eat them at literally every meal. We’re doing most of our cooking which is good because we can mix it up, but a traditional Ugandan meal consists of a huge plate of assorted starchy mushy foods, and either beans, a meat or fish, or g-nut sauce (I’m not really sure what that is except some ground up nuts, like a thinner peanut butter) as some protein. They eat HUGE quantities of boiled plantains, boiled potatoes, boiled yams, boiled potatos, boiled cassava, you name it…they boil it and mash it up. They also have a lot of fruit like pineapples, mango, and guava which is really good. A “rolex” is food you can get from stands on the street that are really good and a little more substantial than the other stuff. Its an omelette wrapped in a chipati (fried pita bread) so its sort of like a breakfast burrito. Being here has also made me care a whole lot less about food safety (which is probably not a good thing…but theres not really a choice) For example, the other day we went to visit the site where KWDT is building a fish pond for one of their women’s groups. We hiked down to the pond and then the ladies who were overseeing the building cooked us lunch…they had 2 giant pots over open fire (one with beans and one with maize porridge) and needed something to stir. So a man climbed into a tree, tore of a branch, and stirred the food. Then to keep it warm they pulled down some banana fronds and covered the pots to keep the steam in—then we got it in a bowl and ate with our hands. Southie would have freaked out, and I was about to, but I was so hungry it didn’t matter :)

I also really appreciate the diversity in the US. Its really difficult to walk into the street and have everyone stop what they’re doing to stare at you, and its frustrating to hear mothers teaching their kids to call me “Mzungu” because I’m white, instead of my name. Kids and everywhere chant mzungu when you walk by, and although I know that the US still has race issues, its weird that here, I’m only identified by the color of my skin. And its not like people are mean, in fact most people are friendly and want to talk to you, but I know its because I stick out. Its hard to understand also because everyone watches TV, so they’ve seen fair skinned people, but I guess its just like how we’ve seen monsters in movies, but if we saw one in real life, we’d freak out. (Which happens also, I’ve made about 3 kids run crying to their moms just by walking by) Along the same lines, there’s a lot less diversity in terms of religious beliefs and other cultural values. Everyone in Katosi is strictly Christian, and they have very conservative beliefs about homosexuality, sex education, etc. I think it would be really interesting to visit the university in Kampala and see if the students there are more open minded than the average people in Katosi. That’s probably the case, for example Dora, who works in the dairy store in front of where we live is headed to University in the fall and I’ve had some really interesting conversations with her about changing views on marriage, women’s roles, and family size. She’s one of 10, but only wants to have 2 or 3 children herself.

Other news from the week, our nurse friend Esther caught typhoid but literally didn’t let it slow her down at all… she continued being superwoman and is recovering well which is good news for Rhea and I. Big mama Gertrude is home from treatment, and also, a group of the women members came on Friday for lunch and gave us local names! Mine is “Kirabo” which means gift—they were so sweet and I like Kirabo a whole lot better than mzungu!

On Saturday some friends in Agradu who are working and living about an hour a way came to visit and we took them up to monkey hill, which overlooks Katosi. For some reason, the trees on that hill are filled with monkeys (hence the name) and if you bring bananas they’ll literally come right up and eat them out of your hands! Its wild and I got some great pictures!

Well that’s all for now, so much to say and not enough minutes on the internet! Hope everyone at home is having a good summer, I’d love to hear about it by e-mail or phone (I have a cell phone here and if you want to call, ask my parents how :) I miss you all

Until next time,
Love,
Kate