Storks and mouthwash

Okay so the most exciting news is thaaaaat…. My computer is fixed! I am sosososo happy. And I would never wish for my computer to be broken, but the fact that it did was a really interesting experience and I got to meet a bunch of interesting people because of it. It think I had told you about up until taking my computer to the store and working on it there…. From there, it was still not working. So this women Barbara, who had been working with me, whispered to me that she knew who could fix my computer, but that I could not tell anyone I was leaving it with her or at the store because they would try to steal it. So, I pay the store, leave and go around back, at which point Barbara sneaks out, takes my computer, and then hands it off to a man selling pirated DVDs out of a shack on the side of the road, and he pays her. And then she peaces. And I was like….what just happened. So I called my academic director and she was like “yeah, you should get the computer back.” So I go to her car to drive back there, and she off course gets a flat tire promptly after I get in the car. So then this other guy that works for the program walks me there and to check it out, but Barbara was already gone and no one else knew that she had my computer because it was a secret, so I knew that nothing would come of us going there. So for the next night I am freaking out thinking that my computer is being sold for parts on the black market. So the next day I go back to the store—Barbara still not there. Then, she calls me and it like “Jamie, why are you going back to the store?? I told you not to! You are freaking out, do not freak out, I will take you to your computer.” So she instructs me to go to this mall (and she is calling me every 30 seconds as I am running there because I am not there yet) and then I meet her and she takes my hand and leads me on this whirlwind chase through about 17 stores and down alleys and through a hair salon etc, until we get to this teeny tiny office in the back of the building where this guy, Tinka, is working on my computer! And he really knew his stuff. It was not ready for another day because things kept going wrong, but I picked it up the next day and it was all fixed and it was not expensive at all. And we had a really good chat because Tinka is the man.

So what else…. This past weekend was really good. A bunch of us decided to stay in town so we could go out, so we checked into a guest house, and then took a taxi to the nice/expensive/white people part of town, and went to sushi, which was amazing and just really nice to eat outside in the evening and talk and such. And then we went to a bar and later a club, which were fun and…interesting. It was International Women’s Day so obviously there was a special performance with these two girls in skin tight velour jumpsuits, clearly representing freedom of oppression. Then, we went back the guest house where I shared a double bed with 3 other people…actually not that bad, though it was tough to make the mosquito net fit. Oh well. The bathroom was the typical shower with toilet inside of it, but there was no drain so that was also…interesting.

On Sunday, my friend Ariela was making latkes for her host family (I have not yet made a meal for my host family because I do not want to burn their house down). But, I had hung out with her host borthers before so I went over to join them, and it was actually really cool to figure out how to get somewhere on my own. A few weeks ago I would have been terrified to try taking new taxis to another parish, not know exactly where I was going, but now I am more confident that even if I don’t know where I’m going, I can just always ask. So I got there, and got to eat latkes and see someone else’s homestay, which was really interesting.

Had to do another assignment lately, which was drawing a writing about a family tree of my host family. So I actually got my host mom to talk to me and she ended up telling me about her life story which was really interesting… her father died when she was really young, so all of the kids had to work on the mom’s coffee plantation. And she had 7 siblings, 4 of which were brothers and they all have died, whether from AIDS or drowning or throat cancer, and all of their kids have been distributed among the sisters, which is why my host mom has several other children that she raises and sends to school other than her 2 biological sons. She also separated from her husband a long time ago, so she has been financing everything by herself for a long time. The thing is, people die here so young and so frequently that most people are raising many kids that are not theirs, which is just so different than in the US, and here its an obligation to do so, people would never dream of not taking in their deceased siblings children etc. And also, men RARELY have one partner, even when they are married. Divorce isn’t legal, but couples will just “separate” and the husband will often go live with another family. Or he’ll just keep it all going at the same time.

In other news, I have been feeling like my oral hygiene is not up to snuff, even though I floss and brush but I miss my electric toothbrush. So I found this mouthwash which is British, and when I used it, it was so strong I think it burned off my entire cheek lining. No wonder Brits have such bad teeth.

Yesterday in public health class we went to a slum to look at the different options to get water…pretty dismal. None of it is really safe to drink without boiling, but people drink it anyway. We also went to the Kampala City dump which smelled sooooo bad, and the Maribu storks, which are all over the city, were super concentrated there. They just eat trash, and apparently their bodies are so toxic form it all that when they die, flies don’t even want to eat them. And if they poop on you, really bad things happened. But, no stork poop yet, thankfully.