Melissa Graham April 1st 2012

Getting used to some differences

Hey guys, I have had an awesome 2 weeks in Uganda so far and especially since travelling up to Karamoja. It is such a different place here, it is hard on a person phyically and sometimes emotionally but it also has so many things about it that have made me feel at home here too. For example the sky here is massive and tells you exactly what you need to know and the unrelenting sun here makes me feel at home too.

There are also creepy crawlies here to watch out for! There are scorpians the size of your foot (see photos), Flying ants (you can eat these), bull ants, little ants with pincers on them, spiders (the flat ones are ok, but if it is not flat and it's coming at you, you better make it flat quick smart), ticks, ticks, and more ticks, water wasps that are big and black, bees bigger than we get at home, snakes and bats. But on the plus side, fireflies! At first I thought the stars were falling out of the sky, much to the amusement of Miriam (one of the missionaries here from Germany). I am such a nube here :) 

I have been asked by one of my most favourite persons in the world to describe some of the more every day things and I would love to oblige :)

Food: Obviously a number one priority in my case (I love food!).

Typically, Ugandans will only have two meals a day; lunch and supper, but when we do have breakfast it's good! There is an edible substance called poscho here and it is like wheat in that you can make many different things from it but it is a really starchy carbohydrate and it can be refined down into a soupy porridge that takes a while to get used to but put bananas with it for breaky and it goes doen a treat. Or a muslie bar or banana suffices. Another thing they have here that we have with dinner (supper) is called japarti and is like a pancake crossed with naan bread= delicious and can be made savoury or sweet. For lunch it is always the same thing, poscho and beans but this time the poscho is more like potato than porridge but with a much more cornflour taste to it. Another thing we have for dinner is called a rollex and it is a japarti with an egg inside and it's rolled up. They use a lot of oil in their food preparation which makes the meal heavier than I'm used to, that and the lack of fresh vegetables available to make a salad. They have three types of bananas here; sweet bananas (our regular ones), plantain (not as sweet but still with a banana-ish taste to it) and matoke a savoury starchy banana that they put peanut sauce with.

I have been surprised that I have not had anything here that I don't like, with the exception of a plant called tamourin that makes a sweet and sour juice drink. Can't stand that one haha but it is good to give to chickens to improve laying production so I can just say that I don't want to have all of it in case the chickens don't get any! I'm very conscientious towards chickens in that way ;)

Housing: tenting it at the moment, sharing with Summer (an American missionary who joined the team a bit before I did but had been here before, she will be continuing for 3 yrs here). In August, we move up north and I will get my own mud hut built for me. I think next week though Summer and I will move into one of the stone huts because the couple who were in it are flying home to raise funds to return as full timers.

Bathroom: hole in the ground, very simple and i'm sure you can use your imagination ;) Bonus is that I don't have to trouble myself with the laborious nature of flushing the toilet like back home, that can be a real drag.

Water: from a borehole, that you have to manually pump up. My biceps have never looked better. Don't worry, it's clean! Running water non-existant in these parts.

Alarm clock: my choice of a choir of roosters that never seem to be able to switch off no matter what time of day it is, or the local (across the road) mosque that megaphones 5 times daily prayers in arabic song, starting at dawn. This is something that we would never get at home with Australian's fear of religion but here whether they are muslims or Christians they literally shout their faith from the rooftops! Or there's the pumping of the borehole for water, or the night guard, James, who sweeps the dirt around the tent in the morning :) TIA = This Is Africa haha

Internet connection: patchy at best, inconsistent and again often non-existant

Telephone connections: non-existant for now, hoping to improve the situation next week.

In conclusion, it's a good thing I get along well with everyone here!

Language learning: going well, it helps that I am immersed in it, I like to spend some time away from the missionaries here actually so that I can learn more and not be tempted to talk English all the time! But at the same time it's nice to be around people who aren't watching your every move because you look normal to them.

Vet work: fun! A new case each day usually, often are tick related or respiratory/pneumonia cases but one cool (unfortunate and sad for the cow of course) disease is called heart water caused by the Amblioma tick (see photo) which results in the heart literally wasting/dissolving away.

Today we went to church and it happened to be palm Sunday! So one of the photos below are of that and at times it was a little hard to focus because the people in front of us were not looking ahead at the ceremony but at us! We tried to tell them to look forward but they didn't and I felt like that awkward situation in an elevator if everyone is facing the doors and then one person in front turns around and looks at the people behind them.

I have not yet met anyone here who cannot sing beautifully and passionately. I don't know how that is but the voices here just take me away to another planet or something. They sometimes sing in english but mostly in Karamojong and so i just make la la noises until I can follow a word I know haha but when we returned from lunch we walked back (bout a half hour walk) and there were people who had radio with some worship songs and everyone was just singing as we walked. So cool. Yesu Christo = Jesus Christ in Karamajong.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, please keep them coming!

Love Mel

xoxox 

Melissa