F Is for Friendship

No surprises here, I hope. I've thought occasionally about why I felt connected so quickly in Karamoja, in spite of just as quickly finding out that life there was not all a piece of cake. And the best answer that I can come up with is that I was blessed with friends there right away. The Wrights were so welcoming; it wasn't many days before I was hanging out at their house all the time, picking books off their shelves to read, drinking up their peptobismal, borrowing one of Martha's Penn State sweatshirts (I was underprepared for fevers), walking out to the village with them, doing "mathletics" with Bobby, having sleepovers (there's a great pic of of the four girls and I, Rachel and I on beds on the floor, all reading books). They were so gracious to me; thanks, guys!

There are several other friends I made on that first trip who I've gotten to know better on subsequent trips and would very much love to see again. Rose, who washes dishes more cheerfully than anyone I've ever met, shared with me how many children she'd lost over the years, either as infants of because of miscarriages. She was pregnant at the time, but that baby died, too. I can only imagine how hard that must have been; in Billings, I grieved over it. But the next year was she pregnant again, and in 2006 baby Bob (Loduk Robert?) was born. And is now a healthy two-year-old, I think.... Anyway, I love Rose, with her usual greeting of "Hi, guys!" She patiently told me the typical Karamojong greetings again and again and again until finally I sort of got it - and then she and Joyce and the others were always encouraging when I tried out my lame Karamojong on them. :)

There are others I've mentioned before or should have mentioned - Lokwii and Emmy and Joyce Margaret and Elizabeth and, in a different way, Mamachipa. Also many other friends from later trips - Amy and the Tricaricos, and, which is very fun, Chrissie and the Eldeens from my own hometown. I'm so thankful for how kind and friendly they've all been to me!

Here's a picture of another friend. Unfortunately, I have no idea what his name is. But I met him in 2004, where we both sat in a hut waiting for Rose to come, and drew pictures in the dirt for each other. He was there the next two summers and once came down to the schoolhouse with some other village kids and gave me flowers. (I think they were originally meant for Amy, but when she wasn't there, he said my name. I was too flattered, completely. :)



Good times.

E Is for Eating

I just got a good internet connection at home last week, thus the sudden flood of blog posts...

I never tried the tasty flies which are a Karamojong delicacy, never eaten grasshoppers. But Karamoja has expanded my taste in other ways. In 2004, I ate at an Indian restaurant for the first time (in Mbale). I love Indian food now. (Unfortunately, no Indian restaurants here. It's up to me to cook.) I almost got to try Ethopian food in Kampala, too. I drank Italian beer for the first time in Kampala, though. And at the Tricaricos' house, I tried veal for the first time. It was very good; I'm almost over my horror at eating baby calf now. And at Martha's house, I learned to make bread...and discover it was pretty fun.

I did try more traditional foods, though. The clinic staff and construction guys get rice and beans (and usually cabbage and occasionally matoke) every day for lunch. This has led to some quarreling because where formerly all they would have expected for lunch is perhaps some posho, now they would like a bit extra oil in their beans, please, and more salt, and... But such is human nature. Anyway, except when I was sick, I always really liked the rice and beans and especially the cabbage. Joyce once showed me how to cook the cabbage, but my attempt to cook it at home failed to duplicate it. Anyway, I've been assured that if I ate rice and beans every day for longer than a month or two, I would get tired of them. (But I'm naturaly inclined to like them; red beans and rice used to be a treat when I lived in Louisiana.)

I also tried posho, at this restaurant in Nakapiripirit. And it was good. It was legendary in my family because my dad had told me about it - a kind of porridge without much flavor. But cooked this way, it's somehow tasty. Basically smooth polenta with a lot of salt, good for dipping in beans.

All this is inspiring me to cook rice and beans, but it probably just won't taste the same....

D is for...

so many things: dancing, danger, diahreating (as they call it in Uganda), dowry...

I'm going with Darkness, though. In connection with Karamoja, a U2 line just came to mind, and I'm always glad for an excuse to quote them:

Run from the darkness in the night...

The sun sets early in Uganda, year round. (I suppose because of its nearness to the Equator.) Thus, you get used to it being pitch-dark after dinner, even in the middle of summer. On a clear night if you go out and look up, you can see more stars than I thought possible to see. On a night of full moon, you might get to go to a dance. Or go on a cattle raid...I've never figured out if dark nights are preferred for raiding or not. Unfortunately, far too many nights are good for raiding.

If going to Karamoja, I recommend a good flashlight. I had a pitiful one the last time i went, with a beam so feeble that I had to point it no more than a foot ahead of me, and stare very hard at the ground, hoping I wouldn't step on a snake. Once I was keeping my eyes so fixed at the ground that I headed off in the wrong direction, and looked up to find myself about twenty feet to the right of where i was headed. The night watchmen were quite entertained by that. Karamojong don't lose their way easily.

Sausage Trees

While reading Blue Shoes & Happiness on my lunch break, I discovered that sausage trees (see this previous post exist in Bostwana, too! They're known as Moporoto, which sounds a bit Karamojongish. You can find out more about the Botswana variety here, if you feel botanically inclined.

Mary and Kipsy used to draw faces on the sausage fruit and make them into dolls; I'm not sure what their Karamojong friends do with them.