A bit of ADD for today's post

I've been here over 3 months now. And I love it here. I look back and yes, it was really, really hard to adjust to being alone all the time and just living in a new place. But I am so happy I came back.

The other intern and I spend essentially 24/7 together, especially we're in Sembabule. We share a room, we work together, we eat together. The only time we really don't see each other is when we're showering or in the pit latrine. I wonder is she's sick of me yet... I'm not sick of her!! Having a fellow American to talk to is so nice. I never realized that before this experience but it is so true.

Food... yes I talk about this a lot but I miss food. Savory, delicious food... I just ate some instant oatmeal and a few crackers for breakfast. Very unsatisfying. I love food... I love being able to go to a grocery store or to a restaurant with a giant menu...

I think I'm just getting weirder the longer I stay here. I find the littlest things amusing: bugs, goats, chickens, throwing my leftover ramen into the garden as compost... Just a warning to those of you I will be seeing in December, I'm going to need a bit of help readjusting. Maybe reverse culture shock session.

My next goal for traveling is to go somewhere in South America. I think that's a pretty good goal for 2011, don't you think? There will also be at least 1 visit to DC during my spring semester, a San Francisco visit in the summer (family reunion)...

Rwanda and My Bum

Rwanda rocked. It was a bit like Spring Break in Rwanda. I would have loved to spend time exploring the city and doing more touristy stuff BUT it was so much fun to hang out with a big group of people and essentially get wasted. Friday night was awesome. We started drinking at home and played King’s Cup/Circle of Death. HILARIOUS! I made a party foul (spilled Ugandan Waragi everywhere) and had to drink Waragi out of a ladle. Oof, a touch painful. And can I say that though this was not one of our smarter moves, I learned that boda riding with a buzz is GREAT fun. I wouldn’t recommend doing it again, but it was a great experience, nonetheless. We went to this bar and had a great time dancing. The only ridiculous time was when a Rwandan came up behind me, grinding, and all I could feel was his hard-on. NOT OKAY. Saturday night was a lot better; no hard-ons. We brought the Limbo to the dance floor that night and it was hilarious to watch. (I did not participate.)


There was a really cute British guy in our group. Can you imagine anything sexier than a British accent when talking about placentas, episiotomies, and childbirth? I can’t. Unfortunately he has a girlfriend. Oh well, I just enjoyed the view while I could.

The trip back… I feel like my bus ran me over this morning. I am in so much pain. Sitting on a bus, not moving for over 12 hours, can do that. I’m surprised I didn’t get a blood clot and die of an embolism. It was brutal. My nerves are a bit shot from the blow outs and our completely insane bus driver. He was such an idiot. Something should intuitively tell you that flying over speed humps and potholes will not be kind to your wheels. So if you already had problems with your wheels today, MAYBE, just maybe, you should be a little more careful in your driving. HAHAHAHA NOPE. He drove like a complete psycho and the whole time all I could think was: please don’t kill me. You cannot begin to imagine how happy I was to get off that bus. Only to get onto another bus… I am so stiff and sore today.

Relationship Questions?

So being a bit bored, I decide to read about “questions couples should ask each other.” There’s really no reason for this except I have nothing better to do and I am always open to new conversation starters, whether or not it’s with a significant other. I’m reading… pretty standard stuff: what’s your favorite color, what’s the worst book you’ve ever read, if your life was to be a movie then what actor would play you… etc. I come across one that has me literally LOL in the office. It says: if I don’t say so, how do you know I want to make love? Uhhhhh really? Am I REALLY supposed to ask this of my significant other when we’ve been in a serious relationship. “Hey honey, when I don’t demand for sex, how do you know I want it?” Is this something you really have to ask your bf/gf?


Here’s another one: How did you learn what it meant to be a man/woman?... HUH???? As opposed to knowing what it meant to be a gorilla or a dog? Or would it be: how did you learn that a woman’s place doesn’t necessarily have to be in a kitchen with an apron, cooking her husband dinner with 3 kids running around the 2 story house with a white picket fence and a pet dog?... just saying…

Forced Friendship reminds me of Freshman Year

I have a new roommate! A real, warm body that speaks to me in American English. Do you know how freakishly cool that is?!?!?! I just hope she likes me or doesn’t think I’m completely insane. I mean, I have been slowly losing sanity (my favorite pastimes are now bug killing, bug watching, and reading). So it’s a little like freshman year of college. You don’t really know who you’ll end up living with but you have to share a small space no matter what. At least overseas, the chance that the person is semi-cool is pretty good. And it turns out, my new roommate is. We get along so far, so success! Yay for forced friendships.


Mmmmm candy. I love candy so much more here than I do in the USA. Probably because it’s just harder to come by. But now I have been snacking on Starbursts, Haribo gummies, and Jolly Ranchers. My teeth are going to rot but my tummy is happy.

My package from a friend included trashy celeb magazines and girly magazines. I’m pretty sure Cosmo is probably illegal in Africa but I now have a copy sitting on my floor. YAY for entertaining reading. Problem is: any sex tips I learn… can’t exactly use them… Oh well. I’ll just have to save them in my memory for when I’m less worried about the prevalence of HIV…

We watched Pretty Woman last night. My thoughts go something like this: “Wow that is an oldie but a goody. Julia Roberts is HOT. See, being a hooker could lead to successful things. I want a rich guy! I want a bubble bath, champagne, strawberries, and unlimited use of a credit card!!!”

Never Have I Ever

Never have I ever gone to a strip club. Why I'm thinking about this in the middle of Uganda? I have no idea. But I haven't. I'd like to... since I've been told, I'd be a good stripper... I think I should check out venues for employment if I'm ever short of change.

Never have I ever screamed so loudly as I did last night when a giant cockroach fell from the window sill. Yea, the loud screaming you could hear all the way from the Midwest, that was me. I'm just sitting, minding my own business, watching an episode of Glee. The plop, scratch, scratch. COCKROACH. After much screaming, I once again employed the use of my spatula to fling it out my door... Hate bugs.

Never did I ever realize that November birthdays essentially mean Valentine's Day conception babies until this morning. Don't ask why I was thinking about this either. But I'm just saying, I did think about that... I wonder if November has an unusually high birth rate as compared to the other months...

These were the 3 interesting things I can report from my weekend. I stayed in Sembabule... no power for a day... nothing really to do... I did manage to finish a really long book, read The Economist (which I bought at Nakumatt) and watch way too many TV shows for my own good.

Whoever reads this, can I just say... I'm hungry... hungry for real food... ramen and chapati just aren't working for me these days...

There was a gecko in my room last night

I'm happy to report that my mood has been a lot better the last few days. I really do enjoy my time here and the good does outweigh the bad. Given the opportunity, I highly recommend you to live in Kampala. Maybe not where I work, kind of out in the middle of nowhere, but Kampala rocks.

I have been eating candy for dinner. Delicious but definitely not nutritious. Haribo gummies make me happy- the European kind, the not American kind.

To all the readers of this blog that have skyped, emailed and/or IMed me, I am very very grateful for your keeping in touch. You help maintain my connection to the outside world and keep me sane. Thank you so much! Love you!

There's sun today, so SMILE!!!

It’s so easy to make a laundry list of complaints about Uganda, but in efforts to feng shui my soul and to find zen, I’m looking at the brighter sides of things (at least I am today).

My hair is growing (thank goodness). Remind me the next time I jet off to a country where running water may not be readily available, NOT to cut my hair, no matter how much easier I think it will be to manage. Remind me of depression and sorrow and the inability hairs like a dog that could be used to sew a new shirt with. I shaved my legs with deep concentration for the first time in a month. Last time I tried to shave, I did it in the dark and let’s just say I did a horrible job. This time, I actually had light and opened a new razor. I’ve been thinking about waxing. I tried getting my eyebrows waxed once. My facial skin was NOT having that one. I’ll never be doing that again. I am a big fan of the Brazilian, but I’ve never tried to get my armpits waxed. Thoughts? I think this would hurt more than the Brazilian!

Mefloquine. I wouldn’t give this drug up even if you tried to convince me to. I love the dreams, I hate the dreams. It’s like a grab bag of really bizarre and really messed up. There was the rape dream (I guess this would be a nightmare), the running a race carrying a watermelon dream, the friend hates me dream (still have no idea why K was screaming at me in my dream), the OMG there’s a giant spider crawling on me dream (didn’t wake up too happy with that one), and the ex dreams (those usually range from pretty normal to extremely messed up).

I’m pretty sure I have some crazy tropical disease or some bug keeps biting me because I keep getting these itchy bumps in random spots. Not mosquito bites, but just weird bumps that itch. I’m just waiting for the day one of these bumps gets itched open and a maggot crawls out (yes this is in reference to the maggot from 2 years ago that was dug out of someone’s shoulder). Either that or I’m getting some mutant form of the chicken pox.