Have U ganda Uganda?

It’s barely past eight pm Uganda time, and I am utterly exhausted. Landon, Stephanie, Lauren and I took an overnight flight from London Heathrow to Nairobi. We spent five hours in the Nairobi airport before our flight to Uganda, where I met George William who was very interested in why I was coming to his home country of Uganda. He was on his was back from India where he’s finishing his second year at university. I shared a few Lugandan phrases with him that I had been practicing, to verify that I was pronouncing them correctly. He was surprised and said I was picking up the language quickly! I asked him to teach me how to count from 1-10, and he did:

1 emu
2 bili
3 Satu
4 inya
5 tano
6 mukaga
7 musavu
8 munana
9 muinda
10 kumi

We arrived in Entebbe about noon, in desperate need of a meal and sleep. It would be a while before we got either—We loaded up our luggage into a typical rickety African van with our professor Steve Hite at the wheel. As we started barreling down the “highway”, squeaking, clanging, lurching all along the way, I realized that driving on the “wrong” side of the road was the least of our worries. Ocassionally we screeched to a halt for deadly potholes, and we constantly had other vehicles, bota botas, and humans to dodge. In fact, our side mirror clipped the handlebars of a man on a bicycle after he suddenly swerved to avoid a pothole, and the loud thump against our van startled us all. Busy city.

This is interesting: we passed a billboard in Kampala which had the following written at the top: “Would you let this man sleep with your teenage daughter?” Underneath the writing was a picture of a middle aged Ugandan man, and below that was “Then why are you sleeping with his?” Our professor Steve explained that Uganda is facing the challenge of quelling the myths surrounding AIDS, one of which is that sleeping with a virgin will cure you. Amazing that such myths are still widely believed. However, Uganda is apparently the top nation in Africa for having done as much as they have in the fight against AIDS.

When we made it to Mukono (after an hour or two?), we walked around to get ourselves oriented and acquainted with the area. I love this neighborhood!!! There are so many people out and the little children run up to greet us, laughing, waving and shouting “Muzungu! Bye Muzungu!” (White person) Apparently, we are quite the novelty here because the children treat us like celebrities. I try my best to respond in broken luganda: “”Mujebale! Oliotya? Welaba!” (Hello to all of you! How are you? Bye!) but I feel terribly inadequate in my use of the language, despite Geroge William’s former praises.

We met our host family and moved into our rooms. After my first experience with a squatter toilet, I was relieved to see that we have a flushing toilet here in the house. Hallelujah!

I’m still trying to meet everyone in the house, and so far there’s:
Sara (the mama)
Steve
Bam
Fatuma
Gemela
Hajara
Hasifa
Hamsa
Baby Nessa

I’m not sure who all are siblings or cousins, or even what their ages are, but add to that me, Lauren and Stephanie (two other research assistants from BYU), and Patrick (another American PhD candidate from BYU) all under the same roof. There might even be more. And I plan on finding out in the daylight. I’m so excited to talk with them! To roam around the neighborhood, to get comfortable with my surroundings—if at all possible; that may be an ambitious goal. But for tonight, let’s hope I can just get some sleep with Hamsa, a 4-yr-old(?) boy with an asthmatic snore in the bed next to me (he’s such a cutie).