shower

OMG i get to take a REAL shower today. not only is it a real shower, but it's a shower that doesn't hang over the same hole that i do my other business in. i've never been so excited in my life. 2 of the girls on my program are working at an orphanage that's about a 20 minute boda ride from my hotel. they get to live in a guest house that has (i'm going to try not to throw up with envy as a type this list): a shower, WIRELESS INTERNET, a toilet, WIRELESS INTERNET, a fridge, a microwave, WIRELESS INTERNET, a tv with a dvd player, WIRELESS INTERNET, a stove, and i'm sure lots of other little treasures that i haven't even encountered yet. today's the first day i've been here and i think i've recovered like 90% of my sanity already and i've only been here for half an hour. did i mention they have wireless internet? like, they can LAY IN THEIR BEDS WHILE SURFING THE INTERNET. that idea has become so foreign to me i can barely comprehend it.

so i'm going to take a shower. my first real shower since i've been here. at the hotel the rest of us are staying in, there's just a bunch of stalls that are dual bathrooms/bathing areas. so there's the pit latrine in the middle where you squat to do your business (i swear, i'm going to have thighs of steel by the time i come home), and then every guest is given a little basin for bathing, which you fill with water, bring into the stall, and try to be as coordinated as possible in splashing water on yourself from the basin. FUN. did i mention you're squatting over the pit latrine as you're bathing? did i mention that you're often also squatting in the stuff that has overflowed out of the pit latrine, or that never quite made it into the pit latrine to begin with?

also the other day i filled up an empty water bottle with the (unboiled) bathing water to dump on my head and then i brought that water bottle back to my room and then a few hours later i was eating a sandwich and absentmindedly reached down and picked up that water bottle and DRAINED IT. not only did i survive, but no poopies either! though there's probs a parasite lurking in there somewhere. (jk, mom)

the other day i finally got my haircut in a REAL ugandan barbershop! since i've been here i've been using my homestay family's clippers, but obvs i'm not with them anymore, and i was getting desperate. so there's places here labeled "beauty shop" and places labeled "barbershop" and some that are both. i decided to try the beauty shop first, because it scared me less. so i walk up to this group of women sitting outside of the shop and they all stare at me the entire time i'm walking up and then i'm like, "um....can you....cut my hair?" and they all burst out laughing and say no, they can't. i'm like, "don't you use....clippers?" and they're like, "they're special clippers, they won't work for you, go down to that barbershop over there and they'll do it." so off i go. i walk into the barbershop and there's about 5 men just chilling there, and i ask if they can cut my hair, and they're like, sure, sit down, like it's no big deal at all. (granted, there was a STRONG scent of alcohol filling the room....) so i sit for about 45 minutes waiting for i don't know what, and finally the guy's like, "you sit there", and i sit, and he does the most METICULOUS job cutting my hair EVER. every once in awhile i'd see the reflection in the mirror of somebody passing by outside and stopping to do a double take. but man my hair feels good now and like 3 people stopped me on my way home to tell me i looked "smart."

what else?

OH so i met with the american woman at unfpa the other morning. she was cool. (she's from baltimore, ellie!) then that night i went to a bar (it was called "da pub") with my friends and SHE WAS THERE and she was drunk and smoking and dancing and it was like "WHOA people at the UN aren't allowed to do things like that!" apparently there was a wedding reception being held at the bar for an american woman and ugandan man who'd just gotten married. it was muzungu central, and like 95% of the muzungus were invisible children interns. LAME.

what else?

i went to the field the other day with empowering hands. we went to ajulu, which is a gulu sub-county where there used to be an IDP camp. actually, the camp is still there and people are still living in it, but a while ago (i can't remember when) the government declared that all camps were officially closed, so the people there are expected to go home and they're not receiving anymore support. anyway, the empowering hands women were giving a training on gender relations, so i sat there with my translator translating VERY sporadically, and then i got to interview 5 people. it was scary as hell but cool and interesting. everywhere i go people keep asking me what exactly i plan to do with the research i'm doing (a totez appropriate question) and it's getting overwhelming. i mean, technically, this report is "for academic purposes only," and i'm getting the sense, as i realize how impossible it is to do anything like this in only 6 weeks, that the practicum is more for getting the experience of conducting research than for producing great research. i just know that these people have so many muzungus coming in asking them probing questions and writing down the answers in their little notebooks and then just disappearing. i don't want to be that person.

SO WHAT'D EVERYBODY DO FOR HALLOWEEN????!?!?!?

p.s. sarah b., paredes is intimidating. don't downplay the guts it takes to go talk to that big scary man.

p.p.s. ANNA WEATHERFORD have you moved into an apartment????????????