Uganda is my journey- Not my destination

Morning, evening, salutation to all when you have taken the time to have a gander what ever the time may be. As per present we 10 interns have just passed the one-month mark here in amazing Africa. Rest assured that I am having the up-most time of my life I’ve had the 19 years my presence has been here on Earth. There is so much that I can tell, explain, and show that a blog is a simple way that I can release everything. Here and there in my spare time I like to jot down some notes, personal feelings, what I can see, feel, hear, smell and is often a great tool I use when it comes down to writing a little article for all to read. When I first arrived in Uganda I had the pleasure meeting our Ugandan resource person. Of coarse at first, thinking that this man named Yasin was just simply going to be a supervisor of ours. Fast forward a month, Yasin has become much more then a simple resource person, he has become my friend, my mentor a brother I never had (I have 4 sisters leaving me the only guy aside from my father in my house back in Canada). Few times a week he likes to pop by our guest-house, check up on us, how’s work, anything troubling you these days? Little stuff like that is enough to comfort me and make me forget about how far and how much I miss my home halfway across the world.

As for other things among my new temporary life here in Uganda, I absolutely love it! Now why a lot of people like to ask me? Jinja the last few weeks has felt like home to me. I’ve been to Kampala and Mosaka when I first rolled into Africa. Kampala is the capital of Uganda, and you might guess that it is a busy city? Well quite simply yes, thousands of people everywhere at all times, traffic is absolute anarchy. Mosaka on the other hand is quite the opposite, small little town, not to much there other then a few restaurants and many, many little corner stores. Jinja is quite literally the best of both worlds (No I just didn’t quote Hannah Montana’s theme song). Jinja is the second largest city center next to Kampala, and largest tourist destination in Uganda. I imagine everyone is eager to hear about the local people, and I will get to that soon. But because Jinja is the largest tourist destination, and because of that there are a lot of Mazuunga’s here. Hold on, “Mazuunga”? A Mazuunga is a term that ALL Ugandans use to refer to a foreigner and at first I thought it had meant white man and believe me I didn’t like it until I found out its true meaning. As I was saying that Jinja is the largest tourist destination there is so much to do here for everyone. All the restaurants, activities and local destinations, there is a lot to explore here.

The people here are never as I imagined it back home. When I’m engaged in conversation with a random local, I get asked 3 questions. “How are you?” “How is life?” and “Do you like Uganda?”. I will tend to give the same 3 answers most of the time. All the time I would definitely say that I always see a local smiling, and if they’re not smiling, they’re sleeping. I’ve come to be-friend a local guy named Peter, maybe in his early 20’s who makes “Rolex’s” for a living. Now before the thought pops in your minds that why would a third world country man be selling Rolex’s on the street? Because it’s not the cheap watch you buy at Wal Mart. A Rolex is a chipat’e (kind of like a tortilla wrap made from simple dough) and some eggs mixed with a variety of veggies. I like my rolex to have carrots, green peppers, onion, cabbage and tomatoes with a pinch of salt. The vendor then cracks the eggs in a cup, mix the veggies, beat with a fork and pour the contents on a iron cast plate with a convex shape. Sounds easy, but I remember my first omelette I made some years ago and eventually turned into scrambled eggs. But after pouring the egg mix, they flip it, cook it some more and then take it off putting it on top of the chipat’e then rolling it up hence the name “Rolex”. Quite delicious satisfying and cheap, around 1500 to 2000 schillings(which is roughly 80 to 90 cents Canadian).

Lately I’ve felt a sense of comfort here, and I have thought about it many times that I would later return here to Jinja in the not too distant future. There is so much to do and explore here that it gives me lots of opportunities to do in my spare time. My favorite activity to do is to go to a café, sip on a cola and read the paper catch up on current events. Normally back home I’d be sipping on a relaxing cup of the finest coffee. I refuse to drink the coffee here because the first cup I tried, I was given a cup of hot water, and fast dissolving coffee powder. Thanks to my father’s fine grind he likes to buy back home, my coffee standards are rather high, so I will pass on a cup of Joe until my return home. Due to the number amount of tourist restaurants here, I have a wealth of choice of where I would like to get some fine chow. So far my favorite place for breakfast/lunch is either the café “Flavors” or “Ozzies”, excellent burgers and sandwiches. As for dinner, slam dunk I like the Chinese restaurant “Ling Lings”. Some of the finest food I have tried here. Funny because it isn’t local food, that doesn’t go for say that I do like local food, it just rather gets repetitive at times.

First few weeks I was here there were a couple of demonstrations put on by the local people here, both violent ones. Don’t worry folks I’m safe and my guest house is more of a fortress then anything. As much as I would love to witness such an event I do half to put my personal safety first and the last thing I want is to be is locked up. Always I’m avoiding such activities that might get me, and to quote my hero Che Guevara in any “bureaucratic nightmares”. I guess some would say I am a little adventuress to some extent. I’m definitely missing a lot here but no concern, explaining everything is more of a process then anything. Lots more to come on my journey in Uganda.

Living at home is pretty basic. I have a bed, kitchen, bathroom. House also has a dining room and living room. I’m more happy then anything that the guest house I’m staying in does not have a TV, I can watch all the t.v. I want when ever I want back home, but I can’t explore Jinja when ever I want. The only real program I watch on tv here is if there’s a English soccer game, or “Football” on. Since soccer is in my blood, I take the time here and there to watch a game at a café or restaurant if I am there during the time it is on. But soccer here is very big, not many people I run into who don’t watch the sport. Speaking of the subject, when I was in Isalo village, a rural village in eastern Uganda, I had the opportunity to watch the local boys play a game of soccer, and let me tell you that these guys were the most phenomenal players I have ever seen play in my 12 years I played the sport. They were playing on nothing more then a field that was mostly dead grass, rocks and holes while playing barefoot, but they looked like they were having the time of their lives. These rural kids, had the greatest ball handling skills, shooting capabilities, and their defense was nothing short of solid. This goes to show that even something as small and fun as soccer, can make a persons day really happy and joyful to them.

Everyone knows that they’ve found a place for them when that place makes them feel at home, and I’m so grateful that I have been given this opportunity to do work here. Hats off to everyone who gave me support that I needed to get to where I am today, couldn’t have done it without all of you! But what I have found the funniest to myself is how I blow peoples minds away when they find out I’m only 19, people always have a laugh, then ask me again, which I give the same reply. I don’t get it, do I look older? Act older? What ever the reason is it might be a good thing. Time for lunch, not to sure what I can get my hands on at the moment, I got a feeling it might be more coconut cookies and water, yumm, no shortage of those around here. So, carry on with your day, thanks for reading!

PS- Any questions, feel free to leave a comment or question, I’d love to do a question and answer for anybody that is curious about Uganda. See you till next time.

Peace