i'm coming home, but....

i'm bringing malaria with me.

that's right, folks. I HAVE MALARIA AGAIN.

FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML.FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML. FML.

i can't tell yet whether it's gonna be as bad as last time. if it does get worse, it'll be right as i'm traveling for 24 hours. yay!! another girl and i are tied for having gotten malaria the most times. an honour i wasn't really pursuing....

so i'm back in kampala. leaving TOMORROW. i can't believe it, but i'm definitely ready for it. we're leaving for the airport at 8 pm. there's a ton of other ppl on my flight, which is nice, cause they can help me lug my stuff through the airport since i'm malaria-weak. ;)

kingfisher resort was beautiful and relaxing. we did presentations from 9 am-4 pm-ish every day, which was draining but interesting. then we swam, read, lay by the pool, and for some of us, went to the clinic to find out we had malaria. nah, it was great. and the food was GREAT. though it's nice to be back in matooke-land.

okay i'm just rambling now. TOMORROW TOMORROW TOMORROW TOMORROW.

and last but certainly not least, HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY ELLEN!!!! i remember last year on your birthday, despite the fact that i was totally drugged out, i remembered it was your birthday and was so worried i wouldn't be able to tell you happy birthday. and this year i was quarantined in a beautiful resort with no internet for miles around and i couldn't tell you again! I LOVE YOU, my long-lost sister. i'll see you SO SOON. (and be sleeping in your luxurious suite even sooner)

I LOVE YOU ALL I MISS YOU LIKE IT'S MY JOB

1 year anniversary

AND STILL ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



okay, i'm a few hours early, but basically it's my 1 year anniversary.

i'm posting now cause i don't know when i'll be near internet again.

i had to say goodbye to my family last night. i didn't expect to feel this sad about it, but i keep getting pangs. my mother came home from the wedding early so she could come to the farewell party. and i got a picture with her!!! i'm not on my computer right now though so i can't post it. and uncle newton came, and andrew and zerrida and jethro and it was wonderful. i'm going to miss them alot. they keep saying jethro's going to come visit me and i think they might be serious. god i hope so.

we're leaving for jinja at 1:30 this afternoon, which probably means 2 or 3, even though they said muzungu time. i have to try to go swimsuit shopping today cause there's a pool at the resort and who would've thought to bring a swimsuit to uganda? how do you even shop for a swimsuit in uganda? i'll let you know.

i miss you all so much i don't even know how to express it. i've discovered it's like the phenomenon where the closer you get to the bathroom the more you have to go. y'know what i'm talking about? the closer i get to coming home the more i miss everyone.

SO SOON.

and carla, your comments are beautiful no matter what. i love you.

done done and done

and done. with the report part, that is. now i have to put together the presentation, which makes me wanna VOM.

bobby, i'm assuming it was you who posted chris espinoza's wedding announcement. he invited me to be his best man but unfortunately i'm in uganda DAMMIT. he's so sexy. i have such fond memories of the back of his head since farnan came after espinoza. also, good one, ali. emily's such a creep. also I GOT THAT reference, anna, and it made me proud.

ANYWAY.

last night was PARTYTIME at my house cause mommy's away. she left yesterday morning and i'm never gonna see her again. :( not only that, but it was at the last minute that i realized i'd never see her again, so i never got a picture with her. :( :( :( so last night jethro, zerrida and i got crazy by staying up til MIDNIGHT and playing scrabble!! jethro was so excited by the disruption of his routine i thought he was going to implode. he was our scrabble scorekeeper and i don't think he's ever taken any job more seriously in his life. then at one point he jumped up and yelled: "THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE! Mommy's gone, we're staying up late playing games, the sitting room's a mess, and andrew's sleeping!!" it made me love him so much my heart broke.

matooke is kind of like turkey, right?

I’m going to try really hard to pretend it is, anyway. You’re so right, Aunt Ja – it’s no big deal at home but when you’re worlds away it’s suddenly filled with meaning and nostalgia.

So a belated and insanely love-filled HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wife and my daughter!!! The internet in various places basically chooses what web sites it will and won’t allow me to visit, and yesterday apparently it was hating on blogspot. Anna, my love – I’ll never forget that fateful day so many years ago in mr. p’s stupid class when you thought I was cool because I liked the cranberries. I miss you so much and I hope you realize that I won’t be leaving your apartment once I return to Rivy. Pammy, my baby – your father and I are so proud of you. I hope you’re kicking ass in D.C. and we’re going out for a big family feast at McD’s when I get back, k?

I’m at 38 pages. Slowly but surely it’s coming together. I have to have it done by Saturday so they can get it bound.

All the taxis here have messages written on the back windows. Some are weird, some don’t make sense, and some are just plain HILARIOUS. They range from things in luganda, to “Puff Daddy”, to “God is Great” (there’s a lot of god ones), to “obama” (of course). I’ve been meaning to compile a list of them all along because they’re so great, but I never got around to it. anyway, today I saw one that said “Baby Ashley.” WTF???? I especially don’t get it because nobody’s named Ashley here and nobody can ever pronounce my name. I thought it was a boringly simple name, but apparently not to Ugandans.

Last night I was talking with my mother about negotiating with taxi conductors over fares. She said something like, “you just need to be aggressive about it,” and jethro comes up and goes, “But women aren’t supposed to be….”, then he pauses, slaps himself in the face, and yells, “SHUT UP JETHRO!” that kid is hilarious. And it looks like he’s been trained well, right?

p.s. mama -- remember that this is a public forum, so please keep the drunk-commenting to a minimum, k?

also because this post is booooooooring i'm gonna include 2 rando pictures to commemorate birthdays.

home sweet home

i'm back in kampala! it feels so overwhelmingly good to be kampala-home, i can't imagine what it's going to feel like to be home-home. my basin bath was AMAZING because the water was actually warm, and my bed felt softer than any bed i've ever experienced. zerrida and andrew are home from boarding school, so everyone's around except kenny. even jethro's hyperness and precociousness is amusing again...i think i just needed a little break from it.

the bus ride from gulu to kampala yesterday was....fun. there's a stretch of road that's about 10 km that has FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY speedbumps spaced about 10 feet apart from each other. which means that, for about a solid hour, there is never a moment that you're NOT going over a speedbump. seriously, does anybody have any theories as to WTF the point of that many speedbumps could be????? also there was an old lady in the row in front of me who had control of the window, and everytime i would try to open it a crack she would slam it closed immediately. i couldn't really argue with her because she was old and ugandan, and both of those factors trump me. so i sweated a lot on that bus ride.

i'm at a super muzungu cafe called "good african coffee" and they have free wireless and i just ordered a huge coffee. all of this = happy.

my mother told me last night that she has a wedding in her village the night of our homestay farewell party, which is kind of poopy. but some of my siblings might go....? i don't know.

okay i'm supposed to be submitting a draft of my report to my advisor today. will it happen? i don't know. not likely with all this wireless around.

also, what's the first thing i do when i get access to wireless this good?

WATCH THIS, of course: http://www.tonightshowwithconanobrien.com/video/clips/cold-open-of-the-first-show/1116061/

and this, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyzLuLI78Rc

goat roast

Yesterday I went to a goat roast with kit and crevi. I don’t know quite how kit met these people. Somewhere in the course of her research she came into contact with Powel (pronounced pao-wool) and he wanted us to go over to his family’s compound so they could roast a goat in our honor. So around 3 yesterday some rando guy named erick pulls up to our hotel and drives us to the village, to this ADORABLE, peaceful little compound. They automatically welcome us as their daughters, so we quickly acquire a new taata (father) – Sam; maama – Joy, brothers – Erick, Dick, Powel, Tom, and Mark; and sisters – Maria, Martina, and Melissa. My back is so sore today because Melissa basically spent the entire evening sitting on my shoulders. It was the only thing the two little girls were interested in about me, because all they really wanted to do all night was play with kit and crevi’s muzungu hair. (Multiple times every day I get Ugandan women coming up to me and asking, in the most mournful and confused voice imaginable, “muzungu, why did you cut your hair?” They’re so fascinated by muzungu hair I think they see it as a sin to cut it off.)

Luckily we arrived after they had already killed the goat and chopped it up into delicious little goat pieces on skewers. It roasted for about an hour and then taata proceeded to separate the bits into pieces appropriate for muzungu teeth and pieces appropriate for African teeth. (ugandans seem to think that muzungus are weak in just about every way. I’m not sure that I disagree with them, considering the things they do.) OMG THE MEAT WAS SO GOOD I think it was some of the best meat I’ve had in my life. And we ate SO MUCH, along with roasted cassava. They brought us beer and waragi (Ugandan gin – SO DISGUSTING) and marua (the local brew that they put in a pot and add hot water to and sit around in a circle drinking with really long straws – not as disgusting as I would’ve expected but had a really weird temperature and texture). Here’s me drinking it next to my new taata and trying not to vomit:


Then kit and crevi and I went into the house to go to the bathroom and the 2 little girls (Melissa and martina) followed us in and when we finished peeing they trapped us on our way out and forced us into an impromptu dance party. (Ugandans LOVE impromptu dance parties.) then all the other family members came into the house and we all danced to Ugandan music in a tiny, hot room. Pretty random and awesome.

Here’s a picture of maama wange breastfeeding mark while drinking a beer!!!!! Melissa snapped this gem with crevi’s camera. Public breastfeeding is totez acceptable in uganda; women do it anywhere and everywhere and no one looks twice. Though this is the first time I’ve encountered it alongside beer-drinking.

And here’s some pictures of me and kit and crevi at the goat roast.


(the little girl isn't actually drinking the beer she's holding, btw; i don't know why she has it)

p.s. bobby that poem is a masterpiece. i never saw you getting any of your poetry published in the st. catherine's yearbook, so lay off.

nothing to report

power has been out for basically the whole week. SO FRUSTRATING. it just comes on randomly for like an hour at a time.

which is why i missed your birthday elbow HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

i'm going back to kampala on monday. though i hear the power situation there isn't much better.

also thank you all for your outpouring of love in response to my last pathetic post. my phone number is +256.0777.896.334 but it'll cost you an arm and 3 legs to call me so don't worry about it. i'll be seeing you in like 3.5 seconds!!!!

love love love