The Chronicles of Giardia

So my gut has not taken so well to the Ugandan food/water/environment. Something about it is rather upsetting to my system. However, there is a bit of humor in it all thanks to the brand of toilet paper sold in the market. It is none other than JOY...! Coincidence? Perhaps. But I found it very ominous the moment I read the label. All the symptoms I am having fit with a mild case of giardia. Butt (yes, pun and typo intended...ha!), it comes and goes and is not as severe as the horror stories I have heard from survivors of that vicious parasite. So realistically, it's not giardia but gah, is it unpleasant. I feel, though, that I am on the road to recovery and my pseudo-giardia is passing through.

Well, I don't want to completely gross you out. So sorry for the unpleasantries. I will shift gears now and show how great some of the food is. Check out this fabulous meal Kara made us one night:


Pan-fried tilapia with caramelized onions and garlic, mashed potatoes, toast, and coleslaw with cucumbers, carrots, and bell peppers. Mmm mm!

And one day we stumbled across the most fabulous avocados. They were HUGE! Perfectly ripe, sweeter than normal, and $0.40 a piece! An unbelievable bargain.


Something that I have discovered since being here is that I love curry. I used to think it was just 'ok' but now it is my stable spice. There is a big Indian population in Mbarara and along with that, tons of curry options. Vegetable curry, goat curry, you name it, put the spice on it, and I want it. Curry seems to liven things up a bit. Our staple foods have been eggs, bread, and...yep, that's about it. I have eggs and bread almost everyday (sometimes they are found at every meal) and feel spoiled if my taste buds get much variety apart from these. I have only had one frustrating day where I just wanted delicious food and felt trapped in a country that didn't have any. I took the frustration to the extreme, found some curry, and got over it :) But, I don't want to be misleading. There are a lot of really tasty restaurants and we have made some good dinners here at home.

I think this will be a good end to what started as a bad chronicle, so I will leave with the 'cado, curry, and commodities.

Cheers!

Two Weeks Into It

Good news! I made it!! And things in Uganda are going really well. The team and I have been able to get a lot of work done while having a little fun while we are at it.

I flew into the city of Entebbe after two successful 8hr flights. The first flight I think ranks as the most uncomfortable flight I have ever been on, but the second one made up for it. I was finally able to sleep and I sat next to a really friendly Ugandan from Atlanta. He had been living in ATL for 15 or so years and was taking his family back to see his parents and friends still in Uganda. He was a great introduction to the country and gave me some ideas on places to go for a mini-vacation on a weekend we don’t have much going on. And immigration was a breeze. I had a bit of a scare because I didn’t bring my immunization card with me, an item that didn’t even cross my mind to bring. Unbeknownst to me, some countries require proof of the yellow fever vaccine before they let you in…luckily, Uganda didn’t care so much. However, it does make it inconvenient for me to try to go to Tanzania. The group and I were flirting with the idea of spending our week off in Tanzania-a country that so happens to require this infamous immunization card. But you live and you learn. Maybe we will take the gamble and see if I can get away with not having it at the border. We’ll see.

We had a taxi take us the 45min to the capital city, Kampala. I was in pure awe. The city was really, really nice, especially on the main drag where we stayed. Our hotel was pretty neat and equipped with a hot water shower (score!). It was right downtown and we were able to walk around most places. However, with it being downtown it was really noisy. One side of the hotel, our side, neighbored the street and the other side was the ally side and dubbed Hooker Highway. So strange noises were coming from all directions…Now, I have never been to New York City to give a fair comparison, but I imagine the horn honking is ten times worse in Kampala than in the Big Apple. Driving here seems quite the challenge but the locals seem to have a good system figured out: do what you want and just honk so everyone moves out of the way. And if I were ever to give up on America and move to Uganda, I would definitely become a boda-boda driver. Wouldn’t a dirt-bike/motorcycle taxi driver be the sweetest gig? There is no set rate and the rules of the road don’t apply. You can drive on the wrong side of the street, on the sidewalks, over the median, not sit in traffic, work when you feel like it, break when you please, and meet tons of people a day…where’s the downside?

We stayed in Kampala for five days. While we were there we visited the mall, coffee shops, and tons of restaurants with any ethnicity available: Lebanese, Indian, Thai, African, American, and more! One night the other American girls and I were feeling a little adventurous and went to a local club that was nearby…and boy was that a good time! Pretty standard Saturday night minus the bumpin’ and grindin’ dancing folks do back home. PDA is something not commonly done here, which I appreciate. There were some familiar songs being played, some 50 Cent, Soldja Boy, etc. There was a mix of local songs and also good American oldies that people seemed to get into, too. The only bad thing that has happened all trip occurred during this outing. My camera, well my parent’s camera, got lost/stolen here. I decided not to bring my purse and let my friend hang on to it for me and it wasn’t in her purse when we got home. I was able to buy another one the next day, but it doesn’t compare to my other one…and I am a few hundred bucks short now…and I lost all my pics…and I don’t have a memory card that fits. I have to keep the pictures on the lowest setting and just use the camera’s memory. Not ideal, but doable.

After getting some essential tasks done in Kampala, we left for our final destination to Mbarara. The other team left a day before we did and had some transportation problems. They hired a tour company to drive them the 5hrs to Gulu and their vehicle’s transmission died :\ We, however, had a friend drive us our 6.5hr trip and didn’t have any difficulties. His name was Andy and he was passing through Kampala, heading to Mbarara, and offered us spots in his backseat. And the ride there was absolutely hilarious! Andy enlightened us on many things Ugandan, told us a lot of stories about his family and work, and made the ride seem a lot shorter. The ride was about 1.5 hours longer than usually because there is construction for a good 40km on the only road to Mbarara. But we made it, had a good time, and ended up at a really nice guest house at Mbarara University.

The research is going well and we are about to venture into the field this weekend. For the past week we have been coming up with a questionnaire and figuring out the logistics of everything. I have really been able to learn a lot about designing a study and various things that I never would have considered. Changing one word in a question can change the entire meaning so everything has to be thought about with such detail. I have been able to offer up a few suggestions, but I mainly take the backseat and just watch the pros work it out. So it’s nice to be this involved while also just being able to watch and learn.

I have to admit, it does get a little lonely at times. But the girls I am with are pretty great, and I love that I have them here with me. I feel like we already have several inside jokes and it is great to have other people to share Ugandan peculiars with. However, I do miss the people back home. So things are great, and I am loving my time here.

Many things have happened while we have been in Mbarara; I suppose it has been a little of a week now. I will give an update on the fun things, along with our first field days, the next time I can blog.

Love, Peace, and Pork Muchomo

JOY

A little background

Well, there are less than 5 days left before my adventure begins! Whoa. I can't seem to grasp that I am really going back. Although my prior experience in Tanzania was incredibly challenging and left me questioning my fondness of Africa, I have had two years to appreciate the amount of personal growth that accompanied the struggles. I can better prepare myself for the stares, language barriers, isolation, starch, trash, noise, loneliness, etc. But what makes the trip even more exciting are the pleasantries I cannot yet predict: the friendships, the animals, the culture, nature, knowledge, humbleness, etc. that I have missed the past two years. I also look forward to actually working with -researching- the population I hope to work with in future.

I thought it would be a good idea to give a description of what I am getting myself into and describe for those that don't already know a little about my summer internship.

I will be heading to Mbarara, Uganda for 2.5 months (May 21 - Aug 3) to work on research funded by the National Institute of Health. One of the biggest perks, aside from the experience of course, is that the majority of the trip is paid for by the NIH: my plane ticket, malaria pills, lodging, etc. I also get a hefty stipend for my 'work'. On top of that, I get a room-and-board check to cover food, water, and in-country transportation that should last me the entire summer. Pretty sweet deal! The city is located in the southern part of Uganda (see red dot). I hear it is more rural than the capital, Kampala, and Gulu-one of the more famous cities in Uganda and also home to another group of researchers doing the internship. Mbarara has things like hotels, restaurants, and 'laundry mats'-quite an upgrade from village life in Tengeru, Tanzania.
I will be doing qualitative research looking at community members' opinions of traditional healers (dare I say witch doctors?) and modern practitioners and also seeing what the different kinds of doctors think about each other. So we will be conducting interviews and focus groups with the healers, doctors, and community members. Translators will be used during the interviews, which I think will add an interesting element to the whole process. I will be part of a team of four: two supervisors that are going at separate times, an anthropology graduate student, and myself. I have meet the other people twice that are going to my site and feel like we will get along and be able to work well together. There are two other students and supervisors going to Gulu. Their project involves work with art therapy on former child soldiers. They will primarily be working in refugee camps and neighboring areas. I might get lucky enough to finish my project in Mbarara and work at the Gulu site towards the end of the summer.

A lot of the other details will be worked out in country. I will be getting a cell phone and a Ugandan phone number while I am over there. My mother will gladly give anyone the number that wants it I'm sure. And thanks to my wonderful aunt, I have several calling cards that can be used to call me. The more familiar voices I get to hear, the easier my time away from everyone will be. I will post some calling card numbers up here...please, don't hesitate :)

With only five days left there is still a lot that has to be done. I still don't have a place in Boston to live when I get back (I have gotten a few craigslist hits, though!), I must pay a recent and unjust (at least in my opinion) speeding ticket :/, sign up for classes next semester, hopefully contact my advisor to let them know what's up, write thank yous, man the list just goes on. Mom and I have been out and about shopping for the many things I will be taking with me. A perk this time is that I have a better idea of what to bring-the proper attire, products, and amount. It's hard thinking about what I will need over the span of 2.5 months and trying to balance that out with what a developing country can provide instead. My goal is one bag, granted it is the biggest backpack one can buy, but the less I have the better.

Having these few days between graduation and departure has been great. I love coming home to Memphis where I live with the efficency queen and things get done. I've been able to catch up on some much needed relaxation. The folks took me to the movies a few nights ago and I was proud to be their third wheel. I got a good laugh in watching all the teenagers get dropped off by their parents and make rucus the first breath of freedom they got. Ahh, those were the days...

Well, I suppose that's all for blog number one. I will post some calling card digits sometime before I leave.

Hope life is going well! Thanks for reading :)

-JOY-