Operation: Expectation Destruction

I finally took off my spoon ring today that I usually wear on my ring finger. It was getting to be too long of a pointless, confusing conversation had with all Ugandan men around here as to why I wore a ring if I was unmarried- it was seriously confusing them since men here as a general rule do not even converse with married women beyond "Wasuze otyanno, nnyabo" (good morning, madam) or "Osiibye otyanno, nnyabo?" (good afternoon/good evening madam). So now I'm sporting the even more hilarious tan line from my ring, but the conversation flows much easier now- and one, Michael, calls me "free agent" now to mock me.
Today was the first laundry day for all of us USP ladies, since we FINALLY got into town yesterday to actually buy laundry detergent. It's slimy feeling and leaves a cool, shimmery effect on your clothes when you hang them out to dry (yes mom, I even hung my underwear out here- you thought it was bad enough I did it at home!) in the sun. So our tiny washroom is littered with basins (aka baths) of dirty laundry hand swirled in powdered laundry detergent, soaking until we convince ourselves it's clean enough to rinse & dry. It's a long stretch from my faulty spin-cycle washing machine and ink spotted dryer at home. But my arms are getting a workout with all the scrubbing and wringing and swirling. I AM the spin cycle. Spin cycle…free agent… I wonder which nickname will stick. Any votes?
We were talking about expectations in Day 2 of our Orientation here-- and it was interesting as we were all talking about how we really expected to be able to get away with wearing the same clothes repeatedly, not needing to shower all the time- because hey! We're in Africa!
Big fat dumb muzungo lie.
Ugandans are very attentive to detail and prideful of their appearance. At least on the campus. It's typical for a Ugandan to shower two or three times a day, iron all their clothes, very meticulously dress themselves. So it's nice to keep up with them and not feel excessive for wanting to bathe every day. although for us, our shower is still completely out of commission and we are still reverting back to toddler practice of washing our hair in the sink and sponge-bathing with basins in our prison-cell size cement shower (which the geckos find very nice to hang out in at night). Some of the girls here are completely distraught over this- but others of us have been through worse. There are girls here who grew up in Morocco, Thailand, have been to Venezuela for a summer… and I have built showers out of sheep stalls in a Navajo desert (Dr. Zapps I thought you'd appreciate my referring back to that LOVELY experience!). So this - compared to lean-mud pits for showers and compared to the various places I've lived in around the China Lake campus- is livin' large :)
We head to Rwanda tomorrow about 5am (10pm your time) on a 13-15 hour bus drive plus God only knows how much time they'll hold us at the border. Be praying for safe travel, no car sickness, and that we're all somehow able to emotionally survive the next few days visiting memorials and hearing first hand accounts from the '94 genocide.
Lots of Ugandan love

alli