Day 2

Today we had two tasks: recovering from jet lag and exploring the town a bit.  Yesterday afternoon we took a much-refreshing nap, but unfortunately I had a lot of problems sleeping through the night.  Likely due to my body being confused, but also complicated by the fact that we live about 30 yards from a speed bump on the busiest road in town.    Giant trucks slam their squeaky brakes before bouncing over the top of it, and some don’t brake at all, creating a sound like a small bomb.  There’s also apparently a very hip nightclub close by.  Lots of good sounds to keep you entertained!

Speaking of our house, I must say it’s pretty awesome!  I had imagined living in some sort of dingy studio apartment while here, so we were quite surprised when handed a skeleton key to a beautiful flat – complete with two bedrooms, a functional kitchen, and wall-to-wall windows in our common living area!  There’s concrete floors and high ceilings, but no clocks and no televisions.  Also there’s no air conditioner and the breeze blows through our many windows all day.  Of course as with all houses, this one has its quirks.  Among those are: a family of giant storks living in the tree outside (baby anyone?), a few lizards living inside that scatter when you turn on the lights, toilet paper you can’t flush and water you can’t drink (both common themes of the third world), and electricity that is also bound to go out at least daily (it’s actually out now). 

Our house is in somewhat of an apartment building of about 4 houses, which sits on the far end of a gated compound of houses for Muzungos (white people) visiting the university.  Apparently there are some Peace Corp workers in the building here now, but we haven’t met them yet.  There’s a front gate that leads across the busy street and to the hospital, and there’s a back gate guarded by the cutest little man named Deo I think with whom we’ll become fast friends. The back gate leads to a dirt road paralleling the main road. On it is a mysterious fancy gated building with a 24-hour armed (aka machine gun) guard, a soccer field/golf course, and a supermarket/restaurant/nightclub combination.  The supermarket has pretty much all we could need, and the restaurant is actually quite good and sometimes has free wireless internet. 

Further down the dirt road, you intersect the main road, and that leads into town.  That’s where we ventured today.  Unfortunately to get to town you have to cross the street, which is probably the most competitive of sports I’ve taken part in in a while.  The good news is when you have shockingly pale skin most people slow down to stare and that affords the opportunity to run across the street.  About a mile down the road the “downtown” starts.  There are so many people!  People going to work, sitting and talking, haggling in storefronts, waiting on busses.  There’s smells of fresh-fried samosas, baked chapatti, and what seems to be a very popular choice – fresh popped popcorn.  There’s other not so pleasant smells I won’t describe here.  One of our professor friends we’ve made so far drew us a rudimentary map last night which was quite helpful; however, we wound up taking a rather circuitous route to get where we wanted to go.

The first thing we found was a bakery, the name of which currently escapes me.  There were lots of pretty cakes that looked somewhat stale, and other treats.  Anem got a g-nut cookie, which tasted like a mild version of a peanut butter cookie, and I got a veggie samosa which is turning out to be my new favorite treat.  With a little help from the store-keeper, we managed to find this giant multi-level Americanized supermarket where we wondered around a while.  We found another pair of Muzungos perusing the aisles and asked for their help finding the main city market.  They were a super nice couple celebrating their retirement by living a year in Uganda – not a bad choice!  They gave us directions, and after another harry street crossing, we found the market!  This is definitely a “local” place … hidden behind store fronts with steps leading down into the main market.  First you pass stands with household tools, clothes, and THEN, over to the left is the most giant display of fruits and vegetables I’ve seen!  Rows and rows and rows of pineapples, avocados, mangos, beautiful multi-colored beans, bunches of bananas, tomatoes.  All accompanied by the people that grew them who seem to be wondering (1) what is this muzungo doing here and (2) how much can I convince her to buy?  One lady came up to me and gave me a hug in order to convince me to buy some of her bananas.  I was eyeing a pineapple and another lady said “1500 shillings!”, grabbed it, chopped off the top, and put it in a bag.  I really had no choice but to buy it at that point!  But for around 50 cents it wasn’t a bad deal!  We left with the pineapple and two giant mangos. There were so many beautiful things/people to take pictures of, but I haven’t gotten quite comfortable enough in my surroundings to snap pictures of these lovely Ugandans yet.   And of course before we left we (unfortunately?) ran into the meat stands where dozens/hundreds of animal carcasses were hanging from the ceilings in the heat being butchered to order.  I think I’ll just eat vegetables for a while now …

The walk back home was nice because we were a bit more confident in our directions.  Every few feet someone said, “Muzungo!” or “welcome to Uganda!”, so that was pretty entertaining.  We made it back safe and sound in time for a nap, and then went to dinner with one of our attendings (Professor Tony, a neurologist from Britain) at a local restaurant.  The food and company was good, and the night was brought to a perfect close by a cat walking into the restaurant with a rat in its mouth!  Better he eats it than I find it later I guess!

Tomorrow, our first day in the hospital!  Sorry no pictures today - not enough power behind the internet tonight!