Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Mystery Date Returns
It’s back. But not wholly satisfying. See for yourself:
Christopher, 28, says:
Jackie, 20, says:
The interviewer goes on to ask both of them when the wedding will be held.
It should also be noted that Christopher chose to go out with Jackie, so it’s not like her name was a surprise to him upon meeting her.
Christopher, 28, says:
“When Jackie arrived her voice and beautiful figure calmed me down. She is an open-minded girl who loves to learn from others. She is also tolerant, bold and principled. She would hold my hand and talk while looking at me straight in the eyes. She shares a name (Jackie) with my ex and that brought back some unpleasant memories. We had a good time with my ex till she became pregnant. It turned out that I wasn’t the one responsible!”
Jackie, 20, says:
“I was anxiously looking forward to someone so special and so handsome. And yes, I wasn’t disappointed. Chris is knowledgeable, dark-skinned and handsome; just the kind of guy I was expecting to meet.
“Apart from discussing our personal lives, we spent a long time on our previous relationships. It is an interesting coincidence that I share a name with his former girlfriend, (takes a deep breath). It was quite challenging because he doesn’t have good memories of this previous relationship. I shall have to overturn those memories.
“He will appreciate that there is also a sweet Jackie and that not all girls by the name of Jackie are bad. That certainly requires more quality time spent together.”
The interviewer goes on to ask both of them when the wedding will be held.
It should also be noted that Christopher chose to go out with Jackie, so it’s not like her name was a surprise to him upon meeting her.
Friday, August 24, 2007
I Wish There Were More...
...pretty matatus, like this one. All the other ones I've seen are white, usually with black exhaust coming out the back, obscuring the view and killing me slowly.
Babies
I heard on the radio the other day that, on average, women in Uganda have seven children. Seven! The last time the fertility rate in the United States was that high was in 1800.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
How We Really Live
Tuesday evening Stephen Browning, the U.S. Ambassador to Uganda, hosted a cocktail hour for a congressional delegation led by Nita Lowey of New York. J RSVP’d but it was a last-minute decision to attend. Really, I was just in the mood to get dressed up. Also, I had missed the Fourth of July party at the ambassador’s house and I was curious to see the grounds. We drive by his house a few times each day going to and from our house, but you can see very little through the gates. Once, though, we saw a huge turtle walking along the driveway and we sort of hoped we’d see it again at the event, but no luck.
Drinks were served by the pool. The house sits very close to the road, so we had no idea a long set of stairs to the side of the house would bring you to a large back garden with pool and pool house. It was quite lovely. I’m so glad our tax dollars are put to such good use. We arrived about a half hour late to a small crowd gathered by the shallow end. 24 of the people there were associated with the congressional delegation, which included 6 congress people, their family, and aides. The only other name I remember is the Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. from Illinois, but there were also two people from California, another one from New York in addition to Ms. Lowey, and a representative from North Carolina. I didn’t talk to any of them. Everyone else I talked to, though, was on a serious mission to hunt down the congress members and demand money from them for their organization. I’d have had nothing to say to them, really. J chatted with three of them while I was discussing with someone else how to go about finding representation for a novel this person had written. I think I even offered to read his manuscript.
The delegation was in Uganda for two days, one of which was spent traveling to and from Gulu in the north. Then they returned to Kampala, had a fancy cocktail party at the ambassador’s house, and went to sleep in the poshest and most expensive hotel in the country. In her speech Nita expressed how much they enjoyed seeing how people here really live. Keep dreaming, sister, keep dreaming. I wouldn’t even make such lofty claims after five months here.
Drinks were served by the pool. The house sits very close to the road, so we had no idea a long set of stairs to the side of the house would bring you to a large back garden with pool and pool house. It was quite lovely. I’m so glad our tax dollars are put to such good use. We arrived about a half hour late to a small crowd gathered by the shallow end. 24 of the people there were associated with the congressional delegation, which included 6 congress people, their family, and aides. The only other name I remember is the Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. from Illinois, but there were also two people from California, another one from New York in addition to Ms. Lowey, and a representative from North Carolina. I didn’t talk to any of them. Everyone else I talked to, though, was on a serious mission to hunt down the congress members and demand money from them for their organization. I’d have had nothing to say to them, really. J chatted with three of them while I was discussing with someone else how to go about finding representation for a novel this person had written. I think I even offered to read his manuscript.
The delegation was in Uganda for two days, one of which was spent traveling to and from Gulu in the north. Then they returned to Kampala, had a fancy cocktail party at the ambassador’s house, and went to sleep in the poshest and most expensive hotel in the country. In her speech Nita expressed how much they enjoyed seeing how people here really live. Keep dreaming, sister, keep dreaming. I wouldn’t even make such lofty claims after five months here.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Beach Party
For the past few years the only live music I’ve seen have been shows in smaller venues in an urban setting. The last large concert I went to outside with all the vendors and space and projection screens and the works was probably in my early college years. I’m not sure I’ve ever been to what would qualify as a pop concert. But this is exactly what I went to last Sunday evening with R. and N.: a Ugandan pop concert on the beach in Entebbe.
How to describe Ugandan pop music? Go to Borders or some such place and find a Putamayo-esque CD to sample—if you have a token world music CD in your collection, kudos for you but don’t feel you need to tell me about it—and listen to all the non-percussion based African music. Does it all sound the same? That’s Ugandan pop music. Okay, I’m being unkind. It’s got a beat. I was able to bop around to it. And all the lyrics were in Luganda so I couldn’t understand a word. It seemed that more than half the performers lip-synced the entire time. The hotter the girl, the skimpier the outfit, the more likely to lip sync.
The concert began just after nightfall on the shores of Lake Victoria. An elevated stage/thatched-roof hut allowed us a good view of the long line of performers over the course of the evening, even when we were standing in the very back of the audience. There were 1 ½ hip hop performances, which were by far the most enjoyable as far as I was concerned, and the rest fell into this world music category. No one performed more than three songs, which really moved things along. All except for the headlining performance by Iryn. Iryn is gorgeous and has a strong, beautiful voice. She sang much longer than anyone else (and no lip syncing!) and had hot, gyrating, back-up dancers in silver sequined mini skirts and bras.
The bars were plentiful and the snacks…interesting. In the display case we puzzled over these large cake-like balls; when told they were egg rolls, we ordered one (despite being sorely disappointed it was not a doughnut). It was indeed an egg roll: a hardboiled egg rolled inside some sort of fried potato mixture. It weighed about five pounds.
Seriously, though, it’s not as disgusting as it sounds or looks. And we can’t say no one told us what we were getting into.
We were the only white people in attendance save one other guy we saw at what we called the VIP table, simply because it was a table, in the front, with dancing girls. But the table was plastic and perched in spongey grass and it was first come first serve and there were dancing girls all over the place.
At the end of the performances no one ever clapped.
How to describe Ugandan pop music? Go to Borders or some such place and find a Putamayo-esque CD to sample—if you have a token world music CD in your collection, kudos for you but don’t feel you need to tell me about it—and listen to all the non-percussion based African music. Does it all sound the same? That’s Ugandan pop music. Okay, I’m being unkind. It’s got a beat. I was able to bop around to it. And all the lyrics were in Luganda so I couldn’t understand a word. It seemed that more than half the performers lip-synced the entire time. The hotter the girl, the skimpier the outfit, the more likely to lip sync.
The concert began just after nightfall on the shores of Lake Victoria. An elevated stage/thatched-roof hut allowed us a good view of the long line of performers over the course of the evening, even when we were standing in the very back of the audience. There were 1 ½ hip hop performances, which were by far the most enjoyable as far as I was concerned, and the rest fell into this world music category. No one performed more than three songs, which really moved things along. All except for the headlining performance by Iryn. Iryn is gorgeous and has a strong, beautiful voice. She sang much longer than anyone else (and no lip syncing!) and had hot, gyrating, back-up dancers in silver sequined mini skirts and bras.
The bars were plentiful and the snacks…interesting. In the display case we puzzled over these large cake-like balls; when told they were egg rolls, we ordered one (despite being sorely disappointed it was not a doughnut). It was indeed an egg roll: a hardboiled egg rolled inside some sort of fried potato mixture. It weighed about five pounds.
Seriously, though, it’s not as disgusting as it sounds or looks. And we can’t say no one told us what we were getting into.
We were the only white people in attendance save one other guy we saw at what we called the VIP table, simply because it was a table, in the front, with dancing girls. But the table was plastic and perched in spongey grass and it was first come first serve and there were dancing girls all over the place.
At the end of the performances no one ever clapped.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Uganda's Got Some Work to Do
I just became aware of the most recent Failed State Index. Uganda is 15th from the bottom, six places worse than last year, when they were six places worse than the year before.
Burrito Night is the Best Night
If anyone reading this plans on visiting us here in Uganda, let me drop a small hint: pack tortillas. A can of black beans would not be unwelcome either. Salsa, if you’re feeling really ambitious. Those little seasoning packets? They weigh very little and take up practically no space. (We can provide the meat, the cheese, and the guacamole. Also we can make our own salsa and seasonings, so really the important things are tortillas and beans.)
N.’s friend R. recently visited from the States and this is exactly what she did: she brought burrito in a box. Brilliant.
How can we live in a place where you can’t get a decent burrito? Mom, this is how you know we won’t live here forever.
Tortillas and beans, people, that’s all you have to remember before you hop on that plane.
N.’s friend R. recently visited from the States and this is exactly what she did: she brought burrito in a box. Brilliant.
How can we live in a place where you can’t get a decent burrito? Mom, this is how you know we won’t live here forever.
Tortillas and beans, people, that’s all you have to remember before you hop on that plane.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Striking Gold
J and I have discovered the best place in town to get coffee. 1,000 Cups is downtown, which makes it difficult to get to during the week because of traffic, but on Sunday mornings the coast is clear and there’s always a parking space out front.
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