I want to be your friend!

Hey everyone!

Finally I’ve taken some time to write you an update again.. It’s not that I don’t have the time, but having electricity and internet are pretty scarce here, and as we only have 1 internet cable at the moment, we have to fight for every second that we do have internet ánd power (both stop working frequently… soon to be continued in a special update about the never ending internet story…). Anyway, we got power, internet works and I got the cable.. I’m a happy girl

Thank you all for your nice messages, it’s really good to hear from you all and to hear that you’re enjoying my stories...

The last weeks have been great, I’m really loving it here and totally feel at home. I’m still setting up my research, which isn’t really going fast at the moment, but well, that’s Africa… Besides that, my life here is fun, met quite some people already and have been doing a lot as well. So, I’m just gonna start writing about everything that drew my attention…

Can I get your phone number?

Getting attention here in Uganda is never a problem, never… And although we have developed a very strong and convincing ‘NO, I won’t give you my number’ during these last 3 weeks, we somehow managed to get a amount of phone calls from guys, driving us insane! Although it’s really hilarious as well. Some common conversations of those phone calls were: ‘When can I see you, I already miss you... I have a proposal to make: when do you want to have dinner with me? Tonight or tomorrow?’ Eh, well, I’d rather go for option 3: never… Some Ugandan speak a different language though, cause he tried at least another 5 times… We are seriously considering making a ‘wall of fame’ with all the phone numbers and names of guys we’ve collected so far.. Just to colour up our empty white walls… haha.

Then, last week a drunk guy tried to get my attention in the matatu.. ‘Mzungu! How are you? So where do you come from?’ From the Netherlands.. ‘Oh, but where are you from?’ Eh, like I said, the Netherlands.. Or Holland, maybe that rings a bell…? ‘Where is that, sister? I don’t know where that is positioned..’ In Europe (he must know Europe, right?) Apparently not, cause I got the same set of questions for about 5 times in 10 minutes… Ignoring him didn’t work, and the alcohol smell around him didn’t really help either.. Let’s try England.. You know England? ‘Yes yes! Man U’, yes Manchester United is from there.. Okay, so we are their neighbours, there’s just a see in between.. ‘Oh, okay. Can I have your phone number now?’ Eh no, sorry. Why not, sister? You would be a very good person for me, I want to be your friend.. ‘Pfff, when you hear this about 50 times a day, you do get bitchier every day, even when that’s not in your nature J ‘Please please, give me your number..’ No, I’m not gonna give it to you, because I don’t want to! ‘But I want to be your friend, sister!’ Yeah, everyone wants to be my friend here, I have enough phone numbers already… (I sometimes feel like a celebrity here: people staring at you, smiling at you mumbling mzungu mzungu, waving at you, asking you for your phone number, telling you that they want to be your friend.. Despite my modesty, it’s sometimes hard not to start believing that you really are a superstar… )

Wanna become a Ugandan superstar?!

Speaking of which… 2 weeks ago we went to a jam session here at the National Theatre, really cool: people playing music, singing and dancing all night long, outside… I loved it, and the great thing is that it’s on every week, so I know where to spend my Monday nights  So, while dancing to the reggae music being played, suddenly a guy approaches me saying he wants me to play in his music video.. Eh, sorry? ‘Yeah, I’m shooting a video for my song this Saturday and I really would like you to play in that video. Don’t worry, you don’t have to dance, just being there is enough..’ Eh.. right, but what exactly should I do then? ‘Nothing nothing, just come to the venue and we’ll get some nice shots of you…’ Hmm, well I don’t know yet. ‘Ok ok, please let me give you my number, then I call you later this week. But please, come!’ 5 phonecalls and 10 text messages later, I decided not to go.. I didn’t really trust the whole thing. Although, I kind of regret it now, as most probably it would have produced a great story. Or at least a boost to my long lost model career...

´Traffic jamming´

The traffic here is still one of my favourite topics. Every day at least one exciting happening occurs… One night, waiting for a taxi to take us into town, Billie and I managed to get into a ‘disco matatu’… Yes, a disco matatu… You might be wondering what the hell that means.. Well trust me, we were too when we entered the matatu... It already started with blue and red flashing lights on the front, a big orange light on top of the matatu, and then the inside: a dvd screen playing those great, hilarious African music video’s, pluche cloths on the dashboard and on top of that, they turned on their black light when we were half way… Absolutely hilarious. Even for the Ugandans, some of them couldn’t stop laughing.

Besides the matatu’s, the boda boda’s still guarantee you an exciting life as well. The boda guys are usually great, so if the dangerous driving doesn’t give enough excitement, the boda guys always make sure to brighten up your day. ‘Sister, sister, sit here! Mami, I want to be your driver, not just for this ride, but all the time, every day! Can I give you my number, mami.. so you call me when you need me.. ok, mami?’ Or ‘mzungu, mzungu, come sit here! I’ll take you!’ How much? ‘5000 shillings, madam’. Haha, you wish! Normally I pay no more than 2000. ‘Ok ok, make it 3000 then’. Hmm, no, just because I’m a mzungu?! Anyway, walking away always works… ‘Ok, sister, 2000!’ Good  Though sometimes boda rides can’t really be called exciting or funny... Yesterday I had a guy who started telling me that both of his parents passed away when he was still in high school. His only option was to drop out of school and start working to take care of his younger brothers and sisters. He doesn’t enjoy his boda job, but what else could he do? He’s the oldest in the family now and feels responsible for his brothers and sisters, so he has to put up with a job that doesn’t pay much and is not enjoyable for him.. It really made me quiet… What can you say to someone like him? I just felt respect toward him. His youth, his chances for education, for a normal life, all gone..  I can’t imagine how it would be if I would have to work to make sure my brother and sisters have food and are able to go to school… At those moments you, again, realize how lucky you are to be born in a rich and wealthy country. But on the other hand it feels so unfair, just because of demographic reasons I am able to travel around the world, to study, to buy my own laptop and what more.. The young people here aren’t any different from us, but just because they didn’t get the same chances as we did, they had to drop out of university because the fees became too high or because family passed away. And getting a job here in Uganda is not quite the easiest thing. When my housemate Billie needed people for the data-entry of all her questionnaires, she had gathered like 10 people in a day, all wanting to work. And all of them could start straight away, meaning they didn’t have a job at the time. And then we sit next to them, working on our brand new laptops, our digital camera’s and ipods lying around.. Feels awkward sometimes.

‘Holland House Soap’

It’s impossible to get bored in the household that we run. There’s people walking in and out 24/7.

The first weeks our house was filled with electricity men, water men, the landlady, Kesh (our ‘housefriend’) the girl from the neighbours, other curious people passing by and then we have the people working for Billie all day long. Even though Billie is taking her job as being their ‘boss’ quite serious and being very strict about their working hours, they still manage to come in whenever they feel like, even when time arrangements were made. As the SchoolNet office is way too small for all those people working on the data-entry, our house as a work place was a good option. 2 days later our house was filled with 4 computers, some more tables and chairs and people working in shifts all day long… Poor Billie has to be there all the time, from 8.00 till 18.00, when the last one leaves.. Although this always differs.. Cause making appointments with African people is quite an interesting job. You ask them to start at 8.00, they come in at 9.00, you ask them to start at 14.00, they walk in at 12.30. Every time I make an appointment with someone, I now make sure to speak in ‘normal/real-time-terms’ instead of ‘African-time-terms’… Works so far  And the good thing about the African time is that you never need to come up with new excuses why you are late..

Besides having people around the house all the time, we also have a cat. Cause here in Uganda pet stores are totally unnecessary; you move into a new house and a pet just comes with it, no extra costs. And so it happens, we have our own cat and in not so much time we’ll have a bunch of them, as she’s pregnant right now… Other pets that enjoy our house so far are gekko's, frogs and the bloody mosquito's... And last night we even saw a huge rat running through our garden, iiehl. But well, as long as it stays outside……

Rain, rain, rain...

Well, you think you’re Dutch and know what rain is?! Pff, forget it! In Uganda it can RAIN! Right now we’re in the raining season and it rains almost everyday. And believe me, you don’t want to be outside then (although inside won’t always be safe either, it leaks sometimes…). Last week I was in going out with a friend in a club just outside the city center, when it suddenly started pouring with rain. And when it rains, there’s lightning and thunder as well… And when there’s lightning and thunder, the power usually goes off. And so it happens that you’re dancing in a club when suddenly the music stops, the lights go off and water drops find their way through the roof… Well, I must say that it was quite funny, the only thing is that when it’s dark it’s really dark, meaning you can’t see anyone, as the people here are dark… So I didn’t really dare to move as I was scared to just walk in everyone around me, haha. Then going back home was quite a mission as well. First, we had to wait for the rain to stop (which can take hours here). And then you have to put yourself onto a boda boda (matatu taxi’s don’t drive during the night) and then just hope and pray that they won’t slip… My first Lugandan word was ‘polan polan’, meaning ‘slowly’. So everytime I hop on a boda I tell him to drive polan polan please. Works. Though sitting on a boda after it had been raining isn’t really one of the most pleasant things to do. Natural lakes pop up at random places and huge ponds on the side of the roads make sure your feet and legs (including shoes and clothes) get a nice brown tan… The boda guys are really cute though, always getting out some old dirty cloth to dry clean the back of their boda before you sit down..

Trying to sleep when it rains that hard and when the lightning is right above you is also quite something. I usually lie in bed hoping that the power thing in our backyard won’t be hit by the lightning, falling on our house, setting the house on fire while we are being locked in the house (fire exit, what is that?). We would first have to open about 5 padlocks before being able to open the doors and escape… But I guess this is just me being paranoid sometimes

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this (if you’ve even made it through here…), I’ll be back soon...

Veel liefs,

Marieke