jawlines, goats, obama, etc.

I wish I could find you all a picture of ronnie, too. He’s not bad looking, and he’s not aggressive in person at all (unlike in his emails).

So as of last night, it looks like I am, indeed, going to Gulu for my practicum. I’m excited but kind of sad….i was looking forward to hangin with my fam for awhile longer. But it will be good to experience a different part of the country. I’m still not sure what organization I’m going to be working with, but I should find out Monday. “Should” being the operative word here, because, as everybody says, T.I.A. [this is Africa] and nothing ever happens the way you expect it to. Alas.

Because I don’t have any particularly big story to tell, and because I don’t have the energy to put my random anecdotes together into one coherent story, I’m just going to write a bunch of random blurbs/comments/observations/experiences. Yay!

-people here have THE MOST impeccable bone structure. I swear to god, I don’t think I’ve come across a single person who didn’t have a jawline that could cut metal. Totez jealz.

-it’s HILARIOUS to watch people negotiate here. If two people are arguing over the price of something, they’ll just kind of stand there and not look at each other for longer than you could think possible, and somehow by doing that things get worked out. It’s SO confusing to watch. I will never, ever be good at negotiating. It’s just not in my blood. Not only because I’ve been conditioned to accept that everything has a fixed price, but also because, when I’m arguing over the price of a pineapple that costs 3000 shillings (about $1.50), I can’t help but think, “um, idiot, that’s $1.50. they obviously need that more than you do.” Also, there’s the muzungu price for everything, which means that even if I negotiate to get the price down, it’s still likely a helluva lot higher than a Ugandan would pay. Oh well.

-every once in awhile, I’ll pass by someone and make eye contact, and all they’ll say is, “obama.” That’s it. No facial expression, so comments, no expectation of a response. Just, “obama.”

-people here have this habit (which I’ve adopted wholeheartedly, so don’t hate me when I come home) of doing this half grunt half “hmm” sound when they’re listening to you. I do it ALL the time now. It’s so great, because you know they’re listening to you but they’re not actually interrupting you like so many muzungus love to do (myself included).

-hand-holding here is SO different than in the u.s., and it really threw me off when I first got here. People of the same sex hold hands all the time (like, ALL the time) and it has NO sexual connotations whatsoever. It’s just a friend thing. (btw, the gayz can get LIFE in prison here). Also people have such different attitudes toward personal space. Sometimes you’ll see 4 people crammed onto one boda-boda (motorbike taxi thing), and I’ve been in taxi buses with 20 people shoved in (they’re only meant to carry 14, and even that’s pushing it).
-when we were in the rural homestay, our father took us all around his village to see schools, orphanages, microfinance meetings, village chairpersons, etc. one day we visited a primary school, and our father left to do other stuff while we were talking to the headmistress. When we finished we decided to head home cause we didn’t know where he was. It was lunchtime when we were leaving, so there were like 500 kids playing on the front lawn. As we left, they ALL started following us home, like literally, down the street and into our family’s compound. We didn’t speak the language and we had NO idea what to do, so it was just 2 muzungus with a herd of 500 kids streaming along behind us. SO AWK. Finally when we got home our little brother came out with a stick and chased them all away.

-we did indeed end up buying goats for our rural homestay families. Some people got chickens. We had to tie them up ourselves and then some got tied to the tops of the vans and some got shoved under the seats inside the vans. So during the drive to our homestays I kept feeling a goat licking my ankle. EW. Apparently one of the goats fell off the roof of the other van. I know it’s not funny, but LOLOLOLOL. Also, I convinced my partner to let us name our goat Leonard. Even though it was a girl. And she agreed. And Leonard is not going to be killed and eaten, but rather is going to be bred to make a bunch of baby Leonards. Yay!

-today I did laundry again and it took me 3 hours and I have sores all over my hands and jethro sat there the whole time with a running commentary about how I was doing everything wrong and wasn’t squatting properly for a girl, etc. etc. he’s going to his auntie’s house until tomorrow, and I’m not gonna lie, it’ll be nice to have a break from the kid.

-also EMILY the other day I showed jethro a picture of miley (don’t ask me why I have a picture of that roundhead on my computer) and the FIRST question he asked about her was what color her poop is. LOL.