DAY 2 - Friday July 7th
I woke up bright and early and ready for the world. As I had my tea I played with Sara’s shortwave/FM radio to see if I could find BBC News. I found a few English stations, and low and behold, Madonna was the first to greet me. I swear that bitch is with me every step of the way. And then it was 50 Cent, but I’d rather have Madonna’s music and values exported here than 50’s “Candy Shop shit” as Devin says.
I went up on the terrace and did yoga at 7:30am. It was surreal. I think there was a turkey next door who laughed at me. I wondered what the neighbors thought of me. You could clearly see us up there, and I bet I looked crazy. Oh well, I thought.
Since we really didn’t have anything to do or anywhere to be, I decided this was a good opportunity to start my thesis. I poured through the Modern Agricultural Policy for Uganda – a 100+ page document full of repetitive paragraphs and endless acronyms. Why had we exported complication to this side of the world? Seriously. I could probably summarize that thing into 20 pages or less. It was still interesting though, and so was my research. Many news articles lambasted the government for not having a national organic farming policy, but now I understood why – everything was being privatized. The Ministry of Agriculture was being downsized from 1400 employees to 300 in an effort to help shrink the bureaucracy and give local control back to the people. Apparently government branches and companies were really corrupt, so maybe it is a good thing. The others are interested in my paper, and tried to explain it to them. Ian made a good point – it’s hard to think about a national policy for something so new and complex as agricultural trade with strict standards when you don’t even have paved roads in 99% of the country. That goes for running water and consistent electricity as well. It just goes to show my father and I and everyone else who gets it are way ahead of our time.
We had a short meeting after lunch and I decided that I didn’t want to leave the house all day. I read from our Uganda guide about the history and people, and it was very interesting. It is said that life began in this Rift Valley some 500,000 years ago. The Nile River was just hours away. I had definitely been called to this place for a reason.
Sister Eddie Ann and Father Tom came to give us an official orientation, which was good but tiring because we went through the entire month’s calendar and all the activities we would be doing. I got excited but a little overwhelmed. But after orientation I got really excited about all the activities we’re going to do, so I shouldn’t worry about a few lazy days. It’s going to be even better than I expected because we definitely will be “going into the field” as Jetta says. We will meet lots of people, help out as much as we can, see beautiful places and I think get a really great understanding of Africa. I am very thankful for this Holy Cross connection, it has made the trip possible and everything so much easier.
Sister Eddie Ann had brought a large bundle of charcoal, and I sprung up to help get it out of the truck. I was dying to do something with my hands. I didn’t care that I was in a white shirt, I just wanted to get dirty. It was a simple job, but I felt good doing it.
After that I decided it was time to clean the bathroom. Since we don’t have a showercurtain, the floor is a nightmare. I went to the kitchen and asked Betty for the mop. She had her hands deep in the dishes and said “sorry I am busy right now.” I said I just wanted the mop, but she paused, not wanting to give it to me. She finally gave in and dried it off herself in the dirty water. I got what I asked for. I thought I could mop it all up in one swoop, but it needed to be dried so I could do it again. I took a deep breath and rung it out by hand. It was disgusting. I finished though, and washed my hands like a madman.
We had dinner by candlelight because the electricity was still off. Noodles and some sort of eggplant stew. It was really good. I couldn’t take it anymore so after dinner I told Sara I wanted to call my parents. At $5 a minute, I told her I would keep it down to 3. It was so great to hear my mom and dad’s voice. The connection was a bit delayed and just a bit fuzzy, but it worked pretty well. I couldn’t talk long so I told them I made it safely. It’s so weird going from talking to someone everyday to not being able to call them at all. Cell phones were all the rage in Uganda, there were 3 companies and shops everywhere. “Make that call 4 Sure,” it said. Betty had one, and she told us that instead of text messaging, which was too expensive, people will just call and hang up – caller ID works, so it is like a pager. But rather than answer the phone and pay for the call, they just see that you called – and that is just a simple way of saying that you are thinking of the person you are calling. Sweet.
Had this really been our first full day here? It feels like I’ve already been here a month.
I went up on the terrace and did yoga at 7:30am. It was surreal. I think there was a turkey next door who laughed at me. I wondered what the neighbors thought of me. You could clearly see us up there, and I bet I looked crazy. Oh well, I thought.
Since we really didn’t have anything to do or anywhere to be, I decided this was a good opportunity to start my thesis. I poured through the Modern Agricultural Policy for Uganda – a 100+ page document full of repetitive paragraphs and endless acronyms. Why had we exported complication to this side of the world? Seriously. I could probably summarize that thing into 20 pages or less. It was still interesting though, and so was my research. Many news articles lambasted the government for not having a national organic farming policy, but now I understood why – everything was being privatized. The Ministry of Agriculture was being downsized from 1400 employees to 300 in an effort to help shrink the bureaucracy and give local control back to the people. Apparently government branches and companies were really corrupt, so maybe it is a good thing. The others are interested in my paper, and tried to explain it to them. Ian made a good point – it’s hard to think about a national policy for something so new and complex as agricultural trade with strict standards when you don’t even have paved roads in 99% of the country. That goes for running water and consistent electricity as well. It just goes to show my father and I and everyone else who gets it are way ahead of our time.
We had a short meeting after lunch and I decided that I didn’t want to leave the house all day. I read from our Uganda guide about the history and people, and it was very interesting. It is said that life began in this Rift Valley some 500,000 years ago. The Nile River was just hours away. I had definitely been called to this place for a reason.
Sister Eddie Ann and Father Tom came to give us an official orientation, which was good but tiring because we went through the entire month’s calendar and all the activities we would be doing. I got excited but a little overwhelmed. But after orientation I got really excited about all the activities we’re going to do, so I shouldn’t worry about a few lazy days. It’s going to be even better than I expected because we definitely will be “going into the field” as Jetta says. We will meet lots of people, help out as much as we can, see beautiful places and I think get a really great understanding of Africa. I am very thankful for this Holy Cross connection, it has made the trip possible and everything so much easier.
Sister Eddie Ann had brought a large bundle of charcoal, and I sprung up to help get it out of the truck. I was dying to do something with my hands. I didn’t care that I was in a white shirt, I just wanted to get dirty. It was a simple job, but I felt good doing it.
After that I decided it was time to clean the bathroom. Since we don’t have a showercurtain, the floor is a nightmare. I went to the kitchen and asked Betty for the mop. She had her hands deep in the dishes and said “sorry I am busy right now.” I said I just wanted the mop, but she paused, not wanting to give it to me. She finally gave in and dried it off herself in the dirty water. I got what I asked for. I thought I could mop it all up in one swoop, but it needed to be dried so I could do it again. I took a deep breath and rung it out by hand. It was disgusting. I finished though, and washed my hands like a madman.
We had dinner by candlelight because the electricity was still off. Noodles and some sort of eggplant stew. It was really good. I couldn’t take it anymore so after dinner I told Sara I wanted to call my parents. At $5 a minute, I told her I would keep it down to 3. It was so great to hear my mom and dad’s voice. The connection was a bit delayed and just a bit fuzzy, but it worked pretty well. I couldn’t talk long so I told them I made it safely. It’s so weird going from talking to someone everyday to not being able to call them at all. Cell phones were all the rage in Uganda, there were 3 companies and shops everywhere. “Make that call 4 Sure,” it said. Betty had one, and she told us that instead of text messaging, which was too expensive, people will just call and hang up – caller ID works, so it is like a pager. But rather than answer the phone and pay for the call, they just see that you called – and that is just a simple way of saying that you are thinking of the person you are calling. Sweet.
Had this really been our first full day here? It feels like I’ve already been here a month.
posted by Jake McCook @ 6:41 PM
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