Living as a diaspora 1

 Here is the promised personal post…. I am enjoying Uganda a great deal but it is too HOT! So hot that I managed to get sun stroked on Sunday after sitting out for lunch for less than 30 minutes, I am pretty sure I am no longer vitamin D deficient as I am officially a different shade of black despite my regular application of Factor 50.  I take 3 showers a day, yep 3 cold showers and getting pretty good at dancing/ jumping up and down in the cold shower.  Imagine having to wear a white coat on your outfit in 33 degrees centigrade, unfortunately all doctors here have to wear one for identification. There is a light at the end of my scorching tunnel though; the rainy season is around the corner.

My bedroom with the essential Mossy net

I seem to be posing a bit of a dilemma for the Ugandan, I often find people staring at me on the streets.  They know something is different but are unsure exactly what it is, I have been told by Sarah’s house-keeper that it might be the speed at which I walk. Apparently I walk fast like a Mzungu (this is what all white people are called in Uganda) but obviously not a Mzungu.  It also doesn’t help that I am spotting an Afro these days, which is ironically unusual in Uganda! I have been asked if I’m mixed race (I had to show pictures of both my parents to prove I was not mixed race), Mudagof (African American) or Ugandan, anything but Nigerian. Most patients lunch into a whole speech in Lugandan with me staring at them blankly. My task this week is to learn how to say, “sorry I do not speak Lugandan” “So gera Lugandan”.

Loudest Rooster in the world

The nurses on the neonatal unit have taken it upon themselves to teach me how to speak Lugandan so I am sure in 5 months time I might be able to make out what people are saying to me.  After a bit of negotiation and drama, I have finally settled into my accommodation, it is a self-contained room in a family house behind where Sarah lives. There is an adjoining door between the 2 houses, so I spend most of my time at Sarah’s place. There are 2 medical students staying at Sarah’s, one from America and the other from Manchester too.  The boys arrived before us and are practically locals already; they have being good at showing us around. Taking us to all the “Mzungu” cafes for wi-fi, restaurants and supermarket etc. Oh I almost forgot to mention our other housemates, 2 Alsatian dogs and a very loud rooster (which might be the main course at Easter if it doesn’t stop soon) that insists on waking us all up at 5 am everyday without fail.

One of the Mzungu cafes

Luckily for us most of our meals are made by Sarah’s housekeeper at a reasonable cost, she is a great cook and like most African women  (self included) she is trying to fatten us all up. I am getting use to the food, which consists mainly of carbohydrates, the odd protein but lots of yummy fruits. The mangoes and pineapples are incredible delicious and are less than 25 pence per fruit. The only dish I struggle with is called Matooke (mashed green plantains!!), I am not sure I will ever like it to be honest, in general food is relatively cheap and tasty, there are lots of vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes available in most places (foreign or local).  Amidst all the pleasantries, there are the usual frustrations of random power cuts, occasional lack of tap water, scary public transports and extortionate prices for foreign sounding people but it is no where near as bad as I expected. I also had my first experience of the long drop toilets with cisterns; I did debate how desperate I was for over an hour much to Sarah’s amusement

The Golf Course

Source of the Nile

We haven’t done much touristy activities yet, but we spent an evening at the source of the Nile this week (see pictures) and I also found the said golf course as well as a comedy club. There are lots of foreign people here mostly from Europe and people seem generally friendly everywhere we go, I am sure in the next few weeks I can update you about our touristy adventures.  In the main time I will continue my quest for sustainability! See It can’t be that bad, I’ve still got my sense of humour….. Ciao/ Mwebara

Source of the Nile