Welcome Back to Uganda

After a wonderful trip home I was quickly welcomed back to Uganda with the sweet smells of burning trash and body odor.

On the plane yelling and demanding to be served Bond 7 (a nasty Ugandan whiskey that they obviously would never serve anywhere other than Uganda) and my flight not coming in until 5am when it was supposed to arrive at 3am. Then my ride who was supposed to arrive at 7:30am did not arrive until just after 9am and had to be the slowest driver in Uganda.

One good thing about coming back was that I had to go directly to the All Volunteer Conference, so I was able to ease back in and see many pale faces while doing so. I had spent the past few months planning this conference with some other volunteers and it turned into a great time to see everyone and catch up. We had a trivia night one night, and I am not the best at trivia since I obviously hate knowledge, but I was obviously able to help with at least one question and we may have been the only team to answer 2 jersey shore cast members real full names correctly.

Upon returning to site and reality I had a taxi driver that started going “you give me sex sex” this was my first experience with this since coming to Uganda and I couldn’t help but laugh at him and tell him he had bad manners. Ugandans do not like to be told they have bad manners and he quickly stopped and said “oh you don’t do that?” Oh Uganda.

I was however very excited to see all the kids at school they were very excited that I was back and to ask me about my trip. I relieved many comments about how I have been lost and returned fat, which was odd because all the pale faces at all vol kept telling me I looked as if I had lost weight in America. 

AMUUURICA...The greatest country in the world

I recently went home to Ohio for a few weeks. After being in Uganda for a year I am now Americas #1 fan. The little things are the things you miss most about our great country, things like driving (or at least not sitting on others laps to get places), toilets, elevators, food, washing machines, hot water, sinks, microwaves, refrigerators, grocery stores, and so many more, I could go on for pages.

American food is one thing that I miss the most while in Uganda, and boy did I make up for it while I was home (14.4lbs worth). I had a list of places and things I wanted to eat while in America, it was a very long list and all were not accomplished. One thing that often becomes taken for granted is the wide accessibility to so many different foods in America and the easiness of preparation.  How many people do you know in America that have to go to the market, buy green peppers, tomatoes, and onions (good luck finding much else), wash them with bleach so you don’t die, cook (by cook I dont mean microwave I mean charcoal stove) everything from scratch and then wash the dishes by hand after going to fetch water? The answer is not many (esp with the fetching water part) and if they do do this, they don’t do it everyday let alone every meal.  Walking into the grocery store was one of the most amazing experiences of being back, I think I just stood and stared the the isles and variety of food (where else other than America can you find 6 different carrot choices)

Surprisingly enough I did do things other than eat. I drank a lot of good American booze and was able to see most of my friends and family, many of whom took me out for breakfast/lunch/dinner/4^th meal (taco bell might be one of the best places ever after 230am).  I was able to attend my yearly Red Sox/Indians game with some fantastic people as well as the beautiful wedding of Mr And Mrs Brian Lindsay J.

Everyone says everything at home has changed people are growing up, not doing as much or hanging out with one another as much as they used to. I didn’t notice that much change and it could have been because more people were more willing to go out because I was home. One thing I do know is EVERYONE seems to be getting married and/or having babies and im not going to have any friends left when I go home for good!

Overall, I had a wonderful trip home and it was very difficult to come back to Uganda.