Good News and Bad News

Hello Three Followers (I have the best sisters!)

      I was trying to decide how often I should be writing, but when the power keeps going out, that kind decides for you.We have had limited power for the past three nights and it will be interesting to see what happens next.  Funnily enough, I am using electricity to also decide when to shower… but I don’t know if that is going to work out as well, namely for my roommates and those who have to sit next to me at work.

     Speaking of which- good news! I have survived two days at work and it has been pretty darn great! Maybe that’s because I have enough free time to check who won the emmy’s and play a little spider solitaire, but also because the people are pretty much amazing! I was picked up by a man who works for my NGO and they were very welcoming right when I got there and showed me around the space and introduced me to everyone. We then had my very first staff meeting. When I say first, I don’t just mean in Uganda, this was a first for me. I have never really worked in an office, so all my office etiquette will be learned here. Everyone went around and said what they did last week and what their plane were for this week and it was then asked if anyone had any reactions. I think I was the most excited person there. It is rather small NGO- there are around 7 people who work here full time- and I loved hearing about all that they do while they were itching to get out of there and asked people to keep their speaking points to around 5 minutes so it wouldn’t take two hours like last time. My personal favorite part was the prayer before the meeting. We all bowed our heads to thank the lord and ask for guidance of where we should go in our meeting. Impressive if you ask me and we did get it just under an hour so looks like it worked.

After the meeting everyone in the office (all 5 who made it to the end of the meeting) had to sign up for a time between 5 and 20 minutes to meet with me and tell me what they did. I got to talk to almost everyone, some were a little busy, and even had my first meeting with the executive director where we chatted about the organization and what my role would be in the months ahead. Around 5 minutes after meeting a man we will call Paul* (everyone’s name has been changed for security purposes, and because AJWS told me to.) he gave me a strange look and asked if he could tell me something. I said sure and he said  “when I look at you, I think you are Indian.” I guess it doesn’t matter what part of the world I am in, that Indian look will follow me through life. Of course, some agreed, while some said they thought I was more Pakistani. By the time Judaism came up, no one had any idea what I was talking about.

                The topic of Judaism was one that held people’s attention for around an hour. One man was more knowledgeable than me explain to everyone else that Judaism could be a religion, or a culture, or an ethnicity.  I tried to bring up The Abuyudaya tribe, but no one had heard of them except to tell me that that means “the Jews.”  We then got on the topic of, what else, circumcision.  There was talk there is a tribe up north that does circumcision on their men as a sort of right of passage “just like your bars” one man said. Paul again made one of the best comments of the day: “I would get a circumcision now because I have heard it is healthier, but I have heard it will put you out of commission for a while, and I really cannot afford to do that.” Oh Paul, way to get the day started out right. Besides that, people kept coming in and out of my office (yup, that’s right, I have an office like place… it is right next to the door so not too private, but at least I can say I had an office at some point in my life. And no one can see my play spider solitaire unless I want them to.) They wanted to chat about who-knows-what, including my choice of earrings and how to get here and there. Pretty nice first day!

                The only bad news so far is my roommate’s wallet got stolen. It was so sad and we should have known something was up. We were taking a taxi, which is like a shared taxi in a huge white van. It wasn’t too crowded but they asked Daniela to sit up front. We just thought they thought she was pretty, but we really should have known better! They asked her to hold the door shut- clue #2- and she says she say one trying to open her bag. They then forced us to get out of the van early –clue #3- even though we lived around 5 minutes away. Right when she got out of the van, she knew her wallet was gone.

                I was super impressed by how she handled herself. She called Bank of America and Visa right away while I was sure I would have been balling on the phone to my mom before I even got home.  She figured out how to get her bank card to Uganda and was only mad that they had made her (and really all of us) feel uncomfortable in the only form of public transportation we can take. (we are not allowed to go on boda boda’s, the motorcycles that literally litter the streets) Her NGO counterpart was livid, not only that she had gotten her wallet stolen but that these men had given her such a bad impression of Uganda and what Ugandan people are like. She assured her “this is not what we are life. Don’t let these men ruin Uganda for you.” She is going to try not to, but I was definitely nervous when I was put in the front of my matatu (taxi) yesterday and hung on to my backpack for dear life.

                Again, if you have reached the end of this, congrats! That was a lot- probably because I have had much down time at work today. I had an article and a meeting and lunch and 9 hours to do it! Hopefully my next post will be from my home where there is power and where I have taken a nice (if not long) hot shower!

I miss you all and though slightly embarrassed to admit it, I miss America and it’s electricity as well!

Shira ZK