What a night! I just got back from a graduation party for who I think is a good family friend of my host dad's cousin. The party itself was really nice- almost like a small wdding reception. Apparently graduating from college here is a bigger deal than in the US, which makes sense since scholarships here are virtually non-existant, even primary school is not compulsory, and public pre-college schooling is pretty bad (think 70 or 80 students per teacher and bribes to get teachers to pay extra attention to particular students).
We were told that the party started at 5, but taking "ugandan time" into account, we left the house a little after 6. We still, however, were the first ones there and the actual program didn't start til around 8. The program lasted about 3.5 hours and included congratulatory speeches from about 15 different people (including a really awkward one from his uninvolved father who thanked the people who raised his son), a half hour speech by the graduate thanking everyone who was there (including me because I was his new friend and people kept asking him why there was a white person at his party), and dinner (all delicious except all of a sudden there seems to be an abundance of millet in my life, which, if I get an abundance of some food would probably not rank very highly on the list). Also, they had a giving of gifts, where the main ones announced were a bible in their tribal language, a large goat (I asked what they do with it and was told that basically all they raise goats for is meat. I guess that makes sense but it seems like an awful lot of patience and work for just a few meals), and 2 friesian cows.
The best part of the night though was that I finally met a real live Ugandan who is roughly my age and who I connected with. And it turns out she is the daughter of my host dad's cousin and lives just a few houses down the street from me. I'll be out of Kampala all next week (more on that later) but we agreed to go out when I get back. It'll be nice to have someone to show me around and to hang out with. Plus, I can ask her awkward cultural questions that I'm not sure it's appropriate to ask adults about.
Today in Luganda class (which will not even help me get around IN uganda because only this small part of the country speaks it and I will probably be somewhere else for the majority of the semester) we had to go to the market and bargain in Luganda for some food. I overpaid (osela) but ended up with the single (emu) greatest avocado (ova) in the world.
I also saw all the meat stands, which made me feel better about being vegetarian. That's right. After a brief stint as an omnivore, I'm back to the veggies. Lemme tell ya, there is nothing quite like market meat stands, cages stuffed with lives chickens, and cows and goats just kinda wandering around to make you swear off meat forever.
I tried to upload pictures again today and failed again (also in the process lost my usb drive which had the only copy of this really good blog post that I was waiting to post and will never accurately be able to recreate). The internet here may just be too slow for that, but I haven't given up yet so let me know if you have any ideas. We'll be in rwanda for a few days next week and apparently the whole city we'll be in has free wireless internet (crazy how Rwanda has that before basically anywhere in the US) so maybe that will work? Fingers crossed!
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I love reading these posts. I keep thinking I should reciprocate and write you a nice long chatty e-mail back, but I swear there is nothing going on in NC that is anything like as interesting as this. It did snow, again, tonight--you definitely picked the winter to miss. Making Valentine's cookies tomorrow--so much wish you were here. Would send you some but somehow I don't think they will be worth $175 or taste that good 10 days later. Will try to call you Sunday morning.
ReplyDeleteLove you more
Mom