Honeymoon Stage in Retrospect

Just came back from a weekend trip to a village in Western Uganda where I studied the oldest still-existing industry in Africa, stumbled upon an organic agriculture festival, and made friends with a former child-soldier who fought to overthrow Milton Obote in the 1980s.

I've had such limited internet access since I've been here. I wish I'd had more opportunities to post (not to mention do research for my job), but being cut off from the outside world for my first few weeks here has been marvelous at fast-tracking discovering and integrating in Ugandan life. A couple of times per week, I get myself to walk up to the second-highest hill in Kampala to use the wireless at a charming hotel and appreciate the view:


For AIESECers -- check out the AIESEC Yale blog, where I just posted some stories of times with AIESEC Makerere University (Kampala).

So rather than trying to recreate the good, bad, & bizarre from the first two weeks, let's go for some bullet points of random memories and lessons learned:

Food

• Boiled & mashed green bananas have become my staple food, along with sweet potato, "irish" potato, rice, cassava, and posho (aka ugali in Kenya, a corn-based, dense porridge)
• Tilapia from Lake Victoria are delicious, but don't be surprised if they bring you the head! See the bowl at the bottom of the picture. Eating the fish brains gives extra intelligence!
  
  
• There's nothing more refreshing than fresh-squeezed passion fruit juice. Except maybe a Ugandan-brewed Bell (light), Club (light), or Nile Special (strong) beer in the evening.
• Eating cow-hoof (which is all tendon), cooked as a stew inside banana leaves, gives you strong bones.
  
  
• Grasshoppers are a delicacy you enjoy just after it rains in the countryside. Pick off their legs and wings, and they fry wonderfully in their natural oil.
  
  

News

• With the CEO was out of the country during my first week here, I spent a large part of my time casually reading the daily newspaper with two coworkers. This included the government-owned New Vision and the independent Daily Monitor. This is an amazing springboard for discussions on local culture and current events.
• The Red Pepper is a ridiculous tabloid that has even greater circulation than the two "real" newspapers, and it's amazing how this seemingly trash paper appeals to broad audiences. Just glance at http://www.redpepper.ug/ for a spicy taste. But despite the raunchy sex gossip, the paper has demonstrated breakthrough investigative journalism during past scandals (albeit masked by conspiracy-theory overtones), and has won a readership across intellectual circles.
• Al Jazeera news is routinely broadcast on the Ugandan National Television channel, and I'll be damned if it's not at least as respectable as CNN or BBC. My AIESEC friends swear by Al Jazeera's reporting, citing how it is the only news network to intelligently analyze the causes and implications of events. The only thing -- after watching it for a while, you become convinced that the US is at the root of all the world's problems.
• Obama is hugely popular among East Africans, since his father is from Kenya. After Obama secured the nomination, his grandmother was on TV from her village, exuberantly speaking in her native language.

Relationships

• Seems like one of the hottest topics of conversation is cheating on your wife/husband. Articles on "how to spot a cheater" or "can you trust him?" seem like daily occurrences in all newspaper, radio, and tv broadcasts. This is often "inter-generational sex" with young girls.
• It's really hard for a guy to date a girl unless he has a lot of money to spend. Girls expect to be taken out every weekend, as well as receiving expensive hair treatments and other gifts. My AIESEC friend who is quite ambitious says she wants to find a good job and good man, so he can spoil her and she can spoil herself. For this reason, girls almost always date older men who have a stable job (not easy when unemployment is high).
• So bizarre -- as I'm writing this bit about relationships, a girl (about my age) walks over and asks if she can give me her phone number. She was just having lunch in this cafe with her family, and she lives in Kampala. This is definitely a first ... is it the fact that my laptop and iPod are indications of wealth? Curious about foreigners? My prior impressions were that guys were the assertive ones in Ugandan relationships. What is happening?!

My time here is running short, so I'll leave with a brief thought about my traineeship so far -- basically a strong sense of humbling.

As I was preparing for my summer research, I understood my job description to be "providing scientific expertise in green chemistry and green engineering to the company," so I was doing a lot of preparation to see what knowledge and skills I could impart. As the only non-East African working with the company right now, I thought I would have a valuable pool of expertise to contribute. But the endeavor here truly embodies Africa's ability to provide all necessary aspects to sustainable develop its natural resources and pull itself up economically, socially, and environmentally. Whereas previous development efforts were managed by a small team of Europeans, who gave orders to Ugandan staff, the tables have turned. I am reporting to my boss and experts who are all stridently proud Africans. All I can say is that I'm happy that I'm a good listener, since that's mostly what I've been doing so far ... and with ample amazement to go along. I think I'm appreciated more for my humility and receptiveness than for any expertise I'm bringing. And I find myself exceedingly lucky.