Sunday morning:
Went running- which, after spending most of the past 2 weeks with constant dizzy spells and mostly lying down, felt amazing. Thank you God for borrowed running shoes and a generous roommate :)
Had a horn bill attacking my shower window the entire time I was in there. Stupid thing just kept hurtling himself at the glass pane over and over again, banging his big beak against the window, flapping away, then winding up for another round attempted entrance.
Got to go into Kampala yesterday and successfully did business with taxi drivers completely on my own. No Ugandan friends went with me to help me along navigating business with small shop owners or drivers. I found a secret to not being heckled about the price I suggest to merchants/drivers: big sunglasses. I guess if they can't see my eyes, they can't tell that I'm not 100% confident in what I'm saying. On sheer intimidation I was able to power my way into Kampala, not get ripped off, and get home safely with three other Mzungu ladies tagging along. (and in shorts, no less!)
Yesterday I also thought it would be good to get some charcoal to draw with. You would think that in a country whose cooking rides on the back of charcoal stoves and charcoal fires a person could find some charcoal to draw with…not so. But I'm not giving up the hunt.
In thinking about the past month and all the things I've seen other USP students craving and dreaming of here in remote Uganda- I've been trying to think of "what are things that are essential to living anywhere else?"- what is that I must have in any new place I live that just…can't be replaced by local brands or local customs. It's not peanut butter, not clothing styles, not communication. It's chocolate.
My life has become that simple.
All my comfort and feeling of attachment to home boils down to one simple thing.
Chocolate.
Life in Africa feels normal. It feels the way my life should have always been. We had a movie night Friday and watched Ferris Bueler's Day Off projected onto a yellow wall of the common room of my building. Watching the cityscape on the wall shine and glimmer and rise and fall amidst a crowd of semi-homesick Americans and Ugandans who have never been to America was interesting. I just kept thinking of all the movies I saw that took place in Africa before coming here. Seeing huts and dirt trails and bright coloured dresses on women balancing mounds of laundry on their heads- these were things I'd never seen and that still took me slightly by surprise when I actually arrived here. I just kept thinking what movies like that must look like to Ugandans who have never been to an American city. Kampala and Entebbe certainly have nothing like those sky scrapers with which a Ugandan could identify. How weird it must look to see such an organized, shiny, clean cut city on a big screen and have no concept of what that looks like in real life.
In other notes: Bon Iver is the playlist dominant this week…can't get him out of my skull. And I'm learning to play guitar :) for real, this time.
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