Day 16 – Friday July 21

Today I did not leave the house. I barely left my little apartment. It was both a day on and a day off. The rest of the group went north to see monkeys, go on a 3 hour nature walk and sleep in a tree house. I was not interested, but also I had devoted the day to my thesis. After reaching the mountaintop on Tuesday, I decided that the trip would all be downhill from here. Not in a bad sense, but I knew it was time to rock out the research. From trips on the bus to other stolen moments of down time, I had read through hundreds of pages of UN reports, conference papers, policy documents and news articles about organic farming in East Africa, and now it was time to put them together for my final undergraduate responsibility. It is a daunting task, but I feel good about doing it. I have been writing and organizing it in my head, and all that is left is put it all together one last time.

I woke up early-ish with the rest of the group for a short pow wow and tea, but quickly returned to bed for a few more hours before starting the marathon day. I finally rose about 11am and went to work. The electricity was on so I had no excuse to do anything else.

I typed and typed “all day” as my friend Monica and I like to boast, which was only about 4+ hours. In the late afternoon it started raining, and quickly turned into the biggest pour I’ve probably witnessed in any part of the world in several years. It rained so hard the water almost made its way into the living room. Betty waited for the rain to let up and went to the market to get food and supplies, and also to fetch me a Fanta orange. I was going to go with her and trek down to the Internet café, but I was too much into my research. Rachael and Whitney, who decided to stay as well, were getting restless and hungry, and they successfully made grilled cheese sandwiches without blowing up the house, and more importantly, without Betty knowing about it. She does not believe we know how to cook, and even if we offer, she will not allow it. I’ve accepted it – it’s a cultural thing – that is her job, and she gets personal pride doing it. It works out for me, especially when I’m working, so I’m sure as hell not going to argue with her.

The electricity finally went off, and I took a little nappy. When I woke up it was back on. That was lucky but probably not a coincidence. 6pm came fast, and the three of us worked on our own little things in the living room until Betty called us in for supper. “Will you please come eat, the food is ready?” she asked shyly behind the corner of the door. She is so sweet. She made beef curry at my request, and it was delicious as usual. It was also extra spicy, but the chapitas helped cool the tongue like it knows how. I missed the spice of food back home, and we talked about all the good Mexican restaurants and dishes we were going to eat when we returned.

We told Betty thank you for dinner, and she responded “thank you for eating.” If that doesn’t say something about the people of Uganda I don’t know what does. After eating I went back to being covered in papers, and she came in curious to what I was doing. I told her that after I finished this paper I would be finished with my studies and get my degree, and that I was doing it on farming in Uganda. “Oh sure,” she said – which is the Ugandan equivalent of “very good.” She asked me what I was going to do after school, and I told her I was going to work on trying to come back to Uganda. She was shocked and didn’t believe me. “To Uganda? You are coming back?” “Where are you going to come back to, Kampala?” “No way, I like Ft. Portal,” I said, “I’m coming back here.” “If you come back, you will call me?” “Of course!” I said. I asked her what she will do when we leave, and she said go and find more work so she can support her sun. The hotel she was working at before is being renovated and won’t be ready until December, and so she’s not sure what she’ll do. I asked her what she was going to do with the money she was making by working for us, and she said she didn’t know because she didn’t know how much it was. It’s only $1.75 a day, but I hope it’s a lot in her eyes, because she has done so much for us. She did tell Sara she wanted to buy a cow, so hopefully she will, but hopefully she can buy much more.

I worked and worked and got through almost all of the research, so the next step will be organizing and then the writing begins. We took a little break and watched a few episodes of South Park that I had on my computer – it was great to have a silly little connection to the awful Western world just for an hour. More tea, more writing, more music, more tea, more writing, and I am down for the count. So now here I am updating the journal and ready for another day on my own. Rachael and Whitney are doing to the park tomorrow morning, so it’s just me and Betty all day until the kids return and I get to blog it up at the Internet café and show my school that I am actually going to graduate this time.