Sunday, July 31, 2005

Yuck

I somehow ended up in the house entirely on my own tonight, because Liz and Julia left earlier in the day, and Debby doesn't return until midnight.

I had to feed the dogs, and Liz had said that Lilly would come by with dog food, as we were out. But 6 pm came, and Lilly hadn't come, and the dogs were swarming me for food.

I figured if I could just call Lilly that everything would be okay. So, I called her and interrupted her Sunday and asked her if she was coming with the dog food.
In her hurry, Liz had forgotten to tell Lilly about the dog food, so Lilly had to run over to John's and get it.

I was so relieved when she came, but also embarrassed because it had been the "policy" to cover up any puppy accidents with newspaper, and there was newspaper everywhere, and there were dishes in the sink, and it was just terrible.

I'd managed to strip the beds upstairs, but I hadn't gotten around to cleaning the downstairs yet.

She could see I was a little overwhelmed, so she helped me make tea for the night guard and to tidy a little. 

Anyway, she left as I was trying to defrost the meat for the dogs' dinner.

I've never actually seen anyone make the amalgam of meat and rice, and I knew the rice had to be boiled, but no one said if the meat had to be cooked!
And, well, the meat looked sort of rare. I wasn't sure what to do, but the dogs were so hungry that I just figured that someone would have said something.

But then I didn't know how much rice to put with how much meat, and how the bowls should be laid out outside so that one dog didn't get left out or get their food stolen. Or, for that matter, where the four bowls were.

I managed to find three, and after about 10 minutes of searching I found a bowl under the water tank that's bottom was half missing. But it was the only other bowl I could find! 

So, I brought them into the kitchen and loaded them up with food, not before having to mix it together -- the rice and the raw meat-- with my hands. BLLLAAAHHHGGGGRRR it smelled so bad and there were tendony bits pulling apart, and just the SOUND of it.

... I remembered why I don't eat red meat, and I'll admit I dry heaved a few times.

What I wasn't counting on was the puppy, who had already been fed, scrambling and stealing food from the big boys and ending up eating so much that he could barely fit through the bars of the gates on the front door. He was just furry and rotund! 

Anyway, so everyone ate, and I think I did okay. I washed all the dishes and tidied everything I saw that could be tidied, and now I'm just trying to finish packing! And then I think some Return of the Jedi is called for.

::yawn::

My fingers stink. Blech.

Useless

I promise that I'm working on the entry from last night in between watching Empire Strikes Back and sleeping. I've barely gotten to sleep today -- between "waking up early" and then going to the Lake Vic hotel to meet some Forest Walkers with Richard, it's been more interruption than sleep at this point. 

I'm supposed to meet with the Bead for Life girl today and I guess I could radio the island but I'm not really versed on radio protocol yet and know a few of the things I'm supposed to say, but by no means am I ready for a solo call. 

What I'm realizing, however, now that Julia and Liz have left and Debby isn't back yet and I'm alone in the house is that I'm useless.

Yes, I know where some things are. But I went to make pasta, because I realized around 4 pm that I'd yet to eat anything all day, and I found the matchbox to light the range. 

There was ONE match left inside it, and inside my head I thought with a chuckle "Oh, wouldn't it be funny if this match somehow failed"....

Promptly, upon the first strike, the match snapped in half. I struggled to try to light it anyway by holding it tightly altogether too close to the match head. But it seemed the striking service was somehow wet or crappy or something, so it just failed as the match continued to splinter. 

So, I decided to find another matchbox. Ha! What a joke. I rummaged through every shelf, cupboard and cabinet with no success. Starving, I tried to make toast. We have a toaster oven, so I took some bread from the fridge and put it in the toaster.

Another failure, I couldn't get the toaster to initiate. Try as I might, pushing down the lever didn't lock it or start it.

This is why for lunch/dinner, I had a cold-bread-from-the-fridge and butter sandwich, with a lime Fanta. (Wanta?)

And I'm still annoyed and upset about my dress. ::sighs more::

People all left here in sort of a chaotic hurry today. They left sort of a mess of dishes, and, well, other mess. I agreed to strip the beds, but did they leave the other mess for Betty tomorrow or is it for me to clean? I don't want Debby to come here tonight and think I've wrecked the house... 

Julia didn't have much money left, so I lent her 23,000 Ushs (about $10). Then, I was told by Richard later in the day that the only ATM I could use was at Entebbe Airport. Which is not within walking distance. I'd have to take a boda boda. Which costs money. Which I don't have, because I lent it all to Julia. 
D'oh!

Anyway, even if Liz comes back today from the airport, she can still sleep in her room but I'm gonna have moved my stuff in. I think unpacking will be really cathartic.

WELL POOP

I discovered that, while I slept this afternoon, Basil, the older puppy, ate my brown dress that I wear all the time (I wore it last to George's wedding). He literally ripped the top half to shreds. I've had that dress since about 1994. I met gmonger in that dress. To date it. 

Perhaps I'll take it to Titus to be turned into a skirt.

::sigh::

Why On Earth Am I Awake?

Because people who left the bedroom left their alarm clocks on, and then puppies were barking and no one was scolding them!

ARGGGHH!
Sunday, 6:17 am

i've just returned from a night of clubbing in kampala with liz and julia

I'm too tired to write any more than that now.

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Who is the African Equivalent of Montezuma?...

.... and can he wreak revenge?



I'm not gonna lie and say that I've had a solid bowel movement since I came here. Because I haven't. 

I'm not really eating anything "bad" or "weird" either. The fact is, I'm barely eating. Most of what I ingest is carbohydrates too. 

I've narrowed it down to one main meal during the day: lunch. It's because it's the one that is prepared for me by the house cook, Betty. And that's just Monday through Friday.

I don't eat dinner. Or breakfast. Unless it's there. 

Sometimes I'll have tea, but I should really consider writing it all down to see what's really going on.

It can't be good for my system, can it? I'm also not drinking even half as much water as I usually do. Could it account for my tiredness? The looseness, that is.

If there was gatorade here, I'd suggest that I drink some. But with the lack thereof, does anyone have any other suggestions?

And P.S. "Don't live in Africa" is not a helpful or requested suggestion
When I came downstairs this morning, the bug was dead. Totally dead. I don't think it was an eggsack it secreted, whatever it was.

Also, I spent the better part of the morning on the veranda, counting my blessings because the sun coming over the hill was SO BEAUTIFUL. And then the "squee!" I'm in Africa! 

Liz is waiting for me to work, but there's a puppy curled up, sleeping on my foot which is irresistible. Not quite cute enough to make me forget that he chewed my Birkenstock, but still cute.

THANK YOU to all of you who pandered to my neediness last night and wrote me emails.

I came upstairs and Liz and Julia were watching a movie, so, uh, I just watched a movie by MYself. Star Wars Laserdisc rip, so kindly given to me before I left by reverend_dave. I heard the little mac alert sound while I was watching, so I paused and Apple-Tabbed to discover that a) everyone is weird and demented for being so enamoured with my Bug of Mysterious Secretion™ and b) that at least a few people tolerate me enough to pop in and show some letterish love. 

So yes, thank you!

Friday, July 29, 2005

Update: the Maggot Bug

So it flapped its wings so hard that its right wing fell off. It can't flop around now anyway, apparently, because it's secreted some sort of yellow bulbous stuff that's stuck to the tablecloth. It's securing itself to the tablecloth.

What in the world is it doing? Is that an eggsack? It's still flapping with one wing.

Bugs are so weird. Give me a rock-throwing chimp any day.

Where is Everyone?

The day has just been getting better, and certainly my spirits have perked.

It helped that I really didn't get much accomplished today, but I did go over pending things with Liz and certainly getting PayPal set up here will be crucial. As it stands now, they only accept bank transfers for payment, and wow, does that limit your clientele.

There are still a few things which I need to go over with her, but tomorrow we're focusing on island crafts. Then Sunday, I'm meeting with Dani, the trainer from Beads for Life, and we're going to go over quality standards.

My one annoyance is the inability to upload pictures.. the connection here is simply just too slow. It stalls sometimes when I'm trying to send an email, let alone a group of pictures that are nearly 1 MB each. 

I'm thinking maybe tomorrow I'll walk into town and see if I can connect my machine at the internet cafe in town. Or rather, one of them, because there are MANY! 
I've also still got to stop by the local hotel and see if I can cut some sort of deal to swim everyday after work for the next year... So many things to do! 

I did finally set up my gmail POP client (thanks, bkleber!!) and it's so nice to not have to wait for it to connect to gmail and tell me half the time that gmail doesn't exist. 

I've set up Mail to just look for email on its own, so, when the network is down, it fails, and when it's up, it transfers emails by itself.

Not like anyone minus like 2 or 3 people is emailing me! [/nag] I mean, no wonder I'm feeling forgotten :P

Speaking of forgotten, there is this really gross bug dancing around on the table in front of me, which basically looks like a maggot with wings. It might be dying or something but it's flopping around like a fish out of water. Weird. Also, you might notice that that was the worst segué ever.

I'm getting especially excited about taking over now, and throwing myself into work. 

They gave me a 12" powerbook g4 that someone had donated to the sanctuary to fix up. That had been sitting in a box for a YEAR. Honestly. It was covered in DUST! It made me want to cry.

The machine isn't terrible.. it's got a 40 GB harddrive and 867mhz processor. But it's got 256mb of RAM, which sucks. It really didn't have any programs on it, so I fixed it up. It's still running OS 10.2.3 too, which Suckkkks.

It's still a nice machine, and I should be able to get it up and running for the staff here. Oh, does anyone have an Airport card they'd be willing to donate to the sanctuary?

I'd make you a Friend of the Sanctuary, and you'd get a tax deduction! :D

Anyway, tomorrow is another day of work with Liz. I also need to eventually send out an email with my contact details to non-LJ people. 

And hopefully get my blog onto my website one way or another! 

So, yea. End of today remarkably better. I think a big contribution is the ignoring of AIM. 

Onto tomorrow!

Yesterday

Liz is out running some errands, since this is her last weekday here. I'm waiting for the heater to finish heating the shower water, and have a little bit of time.

I've decided to give up on AIMing while I'm here. It just doesn't work well, and there's nothing more frustrating than trying to have a conversation and disconnecting without knowing it or realizing, or wondering whether people are idling or that your connection is off. I've removed Adium from my dock. So, if people want to get it touch with me, it'll have to be letters or emails. Or the occasional skype.

I also wanted to talk about my time on the island. Everything is so set up there to feel like you're sort of camped out in chimp territory, instead of having chimps artificially implanted in human inhabited area.

My primary function of going on Wednesday was to be there on Thursday for the Bead For Life workshop. Because the trainers for the workshop weren't due at the island til 10 or 11, and I was there overnight, I got a chance to be a chimpanzee caregiver in the morning.

It entailed getting to wake up at 6:30 am and feed the chimps, and, once they had been released from the enclosure, cleaning out their cages. They get new, fresh, hay daily, but it means the old hay, as well as all the crap and pee needs to be cleaned. So, we swept up all the dry matter, loaded it onto wheelbarrows to be composted, and washed and scrubbed the floors with soapy water. I liked being included, and helping, but I was clearly inadequately dressed. In my birkenstocks and too-big jeans, my entire lower half got wet and mucky and I've gotta say - I didn't smell great the rest of the day! I kept being reminded of the elephant pens at the zoos or that "circus smell"... Yum Yum!

I also got to man the island shop with Paolo and learn the basic routine, along with selling some Ukota baskets to some very strangely dressed Japanese tourists. Imagine if Rambo and Björk had children. 

I also ran into some people who all lived in Rockville and Silver Spring, and worked for the HIV Research project. Working in Rockville and on an HIV staff? I was like "Oh, I know a girl Tanya S-A who works in that area"... it turns out that one of them works in the same OFFICE as Tanya. So, we took pictures and laughed.

Finally, the trainers for Bead for Life came and we all settled in to learn how to make beads.

Essentially, this company teaches local women how to make beads out of recycled paper, and provides them with all the starter materials that they'll need. The women can then make necklaces and sell them to people and make money! It's a rather nice venture, and I'll admit that at first I was slightly wary because it seemed a little... peace-dove-ish. Making necklaces out of trashed magazines? ....For peace?

But the necklaces are actually rather pretty. They encourage women to use this special recycled paper that's all one color, but I really rather liked the beads I made with ripped up magazine ads that were mostly one color, but had other colors combined. Much more natural looking! 

I'll probably go into Kampala eventually and get some supplies of my own and maybe a magazine or two. EOnline is too hard to read when you can barely get gmail to load ;)

We started our workshop outside, and the trainer from Beads for Life (who was American, and very nice) had a translator who also worked for the company. There were about 5 local ladies from the islands surrounding Ngamba. Essentially, I was supposed to be there to learn about the process, and to also be able to do quality checks once the ladies had necklaces finished to sell the island shop. 

Even though, seeing how much work went into those necklaces, I'd be really ashamed to turn away the ladies' work. They were really quite naturally proficient though, so I'm hoping the issue doesn't come up. 

While we worked outside, a torrential storm came down! I honestly hadn't seen such a storm since Kenya. I won't pretend to know about weather patterns, but rainstorms in Africa, especially in forested areas, are just amazing. So, we went into the veterinary clinic (not the surgery room).

Being the craft junkie I am, I took to the bead-making quite easily. It was somehow therapeutic, but the most amusing was seeing the assistant sanctuary manager, Gerald, who took to calling me "Lola", make beads. He was actually quite good, and I made sure to take pictures so I could mention it in the end of 2005 newsletter! 

The rain went on for nearly 4 hours! By 4 pm, even though it was early for the evening boat back to Entebbe, Lawrence rushed me and Kate, who is staying at the house and is the sister of Richard Wrangham, onto the boat before it could storm again and before it got dark. I think he was afraid if we didn't go that we just wouldn't be able to!

The boat ride back seemed long, but I was grateful to get to know Kate better and it was nice to have her to talk to! She's a teacher, but really a teacher of English for specialized subjects for international schools, so that if someone were to take geography, they'd know what the terms were in English. It was really quite interesting to learn about. 

I got home, and the water was sort of out, so I remain filthy. And then the other posts :D

But overall, the last two days were splendid.

And speaking of water, I think that my hot water is ready! Yay!

I figured out why I was so especially lonely last night.

When I was on the island, everyone was chatty, and friendly, and interactive and social. I was new, so everyone was interested in conversing with me.

But at the house, I'm sort of new, and really the odd woman out. Of the four other people staying here, two of them are family members, and the other two have been friends for a while.

I don't want to come to Kampala, but it just feels strange to be akin to the invisible housemate. Plus, not having anyone to talk to, coupled with no emails to answer and poor net connection leading to bad AIMing...

Just very isolating.

I feel a little better today, with everyone being around. I need to go over things with Liz, so I'm sort of just waiting for her to be ready cause she's got phonecalls and the like.

I just sent off gads of postcards and letters today. Well, not gads. But if you're a lucky recipient, please don't throw them away. And if you don't want to keep them, just give them back. I like having my chronicles later to review when I'm old and boring.

Anyway, I'm sure people haven't even read my late-night-lonely post because they were sleeping when I wrote it, and that, most likely, they're still asleep now.

    Thursday, July 28, 2005

    For the first time since I got here, I feel lonely.

    I feel like I'm phasing out of people's consciousness. Maybe it's because I haven't had dinner. But it's only 10 pm. 

    It's a shitty, lonely, feeling. It's probably also because I'm home alone again. I have no urge to go to Kampala, but like, being here by myself isn't all peaches. I was trying to talk to this person online, I lost my connection, and they logged off in the interim.

    My internet connection sucks. I wrote so many letters on the island.

    I think there's also this romantic ideal to have a letter writing affair. Which I'm just not getting fulfilled. Or not even that... but having someone miss me intensely. Maybe I just have that stigma from Justin never writing me in Kenya. I just need to feel like I matter? 

    Also, I am a geek to the highest power.

    The toilets were far from the bedroom at the island last night, so in the middle of the night, when I had to pee and had noflashlight, I realized I had my iPod that I'd been listening to music on while I slept. And it has the LCD backlight!

    Yes, ladies and gentleman, I used my LCD backlight on my iPod to light the way to the outhouse.

    I love you, technology. *kiss*

    I love you, have a rock!


    I've returned from Ngamba Island! In one piece, even!

    What a wonderful, crazy two days. I wish I could have spent more time, but part of me is glad to be close to my computer and the toilet again.

    It was nice especially, because the accommodations were far closer to my memories of Kenya. A little more rustic, and a little less Western. Well, a lot less Western.

    It was my first time meeting most of the staff too, and I was so surprised by how friendly and warm and welcoming they all were. Even the assistant directors and other high-ups were so unassuming. It struck me as funny, because it became a standard "welcome, getting-to-know-you" question whether I was going to stay in Uganda forever. Imagine someone greeting a tourist in the US, asking them where they're from, and immediately following with "Are you going to stay in America forever".

    ::chuckles:: Anyway, I enjoyed sort of getting to know them all.

    Because Liz was with me, I also got to meet the chimps sort of unofficially, because I didn't have to be on the viewing platform and I got to just sit exactly next to the electric fence and spend time with some of the friendlier chimps - Asega, Okech, Ikuru and Pasa.

    Okech would make this funny "Pbbbbt" sound with his mouth repeatedly, meaning he wanted attention. What made it priceless, however, was that he would intersperse passing actual gas between the mouth noises.

    Ikuru is one of the dominant females but is probably one of the more "disturbed" chimps, or rather, she's more traumatized than others. You can sort of see it in her face, and she has this slightly haunted look. But being so close to the chimps, literally within 2 or 3 feet, was just incredible.

    I've spent so much of my time researching chimps, and logging into my brain their various behaviors, and miscellaneous factoids, but to actually be close to them, interacting, smelling them (Ikuru stinks, btw), seeing their liquid, amber, expressive eyes.

    Well, it was sort of hard not to be a n00b.

    Leave to Asega, upset to not be getting more attention and giving me my own little welcome, to run off, fetch a rock, and then charge at me, hurtling it in my general direction.

    I was surprised, and certainly not expecting it, so it shouldn't be surprisING that it hit me square in the left shoulder. Ow!!

    I was quicker in round two, and after that I knew what to look for. Sort of like in Mike Tyson's Punch Out when you're fighting that bald guy who's huge and does a little dance right before he does his huge punch.

    So, the second rock missed me. But what an introduction, huh?

    Apparently, Asega learned this behavior from Mawa, who is the alpha male of the juvenile group. Asega's rocks are the size of a prune. Mawa, however, throws rocks the size of oranges and mangos. So, I was glad to be welcomed by Asega and not Mawa.

    In fact, when Mawa got up and started coming over towards us, it was time to get up and leave.

    There are several things I'll be in charge of at the island (see my informational post) so Liz and I walked through most of it.

    Being on the island was really incredibly peaceful and beautiful, and wild too! The chimps are quite vocal and you can hear them calling through the forest even from camp. Jungle-icious!

    Hmm.. I'm feeling super tired, and not feeling the *energy* of this post.

    I'm just gonna comment on a few things that I thought were funny:

    • Ugandans love 80s-90s power ballads. I swear, if I heard one more Whitney Houston song or Celine Dion power love-capade, I was going to barf.
    • I woke up with a start in the night last night on the island, thinking that I was hearing a tornado. Remember that movie, Twister and how they used, like, animal sound effects, to imitate the fierceness of the storm? Well, I thought that's what I was hearing. When I realized it was chimps. The males pounded the cages so hard and loudly that I wondered how strongly they were constructed.
    • I'm an expert bead maker. Send me trashy magazines and I'll turn them into a necklace for you. A necklace that doesn't look like trashed trashy magazines. Promise.
    • I'm officially filthy. I mucked out my first chimpanzee cages this morning, in Birkenstocks and jeans (everyone else wears jumpsuits and big rubber boots). My feet are two different colors. And I'm just fine with that :P
    • Is there any way of having respect for a company with the name "Rota-Loo"?


    I'll admit I'm feeling a little lonely and cranky tonight. I'm tired, and I'm on puppy duty again, and I just wish that more people would email and validate my existence. I'm pathetic.

    Ah well.

    I'll write more tomorrow after I've had some sleep.

      Wednesday, July 27, 2005

      BLACKOUT!

      I slept much better last night, but I think it was because I put on my "Thundering Rainstorm" mp3 for Julia (to help her sleep better) and it ended up helping me too.

      The sounds in Entebbe aren't as soothing or calming or "special" as they were in Kenya... Also, the mosquitos are sneaky. They don't fly near your ear so you can hear them and swat them. They just bite you. On the butt. Dammit. ::scratches::

      So yea, we had a blackout last night. Entebbe is the source of a lot of the power for Eastern Africa, because they use a hydraulics system to pump the water from Lake Victoria to make power. Or rather, make power and then sell it to Kenya and Tanzania. 

      Assholes.

      Which means, just about every 2-3 days I'm told, we're subjected to "load sharing". Which means that our power goes out so that the load on the system is less. It comes back on at 11 pm, but by then, most people have gone to bed and subsequently turned off all their lights.

      Anyway, so Julia and her dad were away having dinner, so Liz came in to visit me in the dark (it sounds really dirty, but it's not) and we actually chatted a lot and discussed the coming year and she was really friendly and chatty and laughy and so was I! It made me feel a lot better. About a lot of things.

      It also made me realize that I really need a flashlight. Really. Really really.

      **********************

      So it turns out that I'll be going to the island today, instead of tomorrow, and that I'll just be staying til tomorrow night. 

      Ah, shit, I'll have to finish this entry later. I've gotta go to the island now!

      Entries from Tuesday Night

      Well... I was sitting on the porch doing some work, but the power just went out, so F that.

      Back to Muzungu!

      Later (7:43 pm)

      Ah well, so here I am, designing by candelight. Welcome to my first real Ugandan power outtage!

      I've got another hour on my computer. Maybe I'll just go to bed before that!

      I'm making good headway on Episode 3.

      This also seems utterly dangerous, as I put down my mosquito net to keep the buggies away and it's being put downaround my lit candle!

      Now if only I could figure out how to deconstruct my soul...

      Tuesday, July 26, 2005

      I'm feeling really good. I came out of the web café, after immersing myself in fark and eonline and perezhilton and all the other trashy sites I visit. It could be the same as any other day, but I came out of the internet café and I was in Africa. I mean, I may fritter my life away online, but look where I am! It really got me grinning and happy and cheered me up entirely. So I merrily went on my way for errands.

      I got a lot done, and I'm also now officially PO-BOXED.
      They give you the third degree to get one. I had to take passport pictures, get someone to "refer" me who had a po box themselves, show where I worked, etc, and then Richard, the project director who met me at the hospital, had to show his ID and sign a bunch of things. You'd think I was registering for a gun or something!

      Anyway,
      You can reach me at:

      Laura Brown
      PO Box 172
      Entebbe, Uganda



      That's it! :D Write me postcards! Letters! I'll be sending out a big mass email whenever my gmail comes back online... but for now, just take that and run with it. Give it to anyone who might be interested, too. I won't get my key til next week, so if you write now, it'll be excellent :D hehe. I'm such a mail whore. 

      Also, feel free to send me packages. Just write "BOOKS" or "RELIGIOUS MATERIALS" on them. 

      Things I could use: Flashlight
      CD-Rs
      CD-R slips for mailing, etc

      *******************

      Going to the hospital today was certainly interesting, and I'm not sure that the X-Ray technician wasn't trying to catch me dressing and undressing to see him some naked muzungu! 

      Grade B Entebbe Hospital was certainly... interesting. It definitely warranted an Episode. Maybe I'll work on that now.


      So I picked a good day to go and get stuff done, because I came back and Liz is totally wiped from her late night last night. We'll probably get nearly nothing done today, which is sort of annoying, considering it'll give us only one more day to get everything else done.

      But, at the same time, it means I get some free time. Yay! Lunch isn't til 1 (about 45 minutes from now) so I can work onMuzungu and try to upload pictures and stuff. Since the connection is actually decent. I haven't been logged off of AIM or Yahoo in like, TEN whole minutes. It might be a record.

      Which means that no one is online. You're all assholes :P

      *******

      Richard the project director is really nice. He's probably around 30's-ish. Very professional and well spoken. We laughed in the car on the way back because I know more Swahili than he does, but he's willing to teach me Luganda, which I'll only be able to use in Uganda but will be much more practical here if I'm gonna be here for a year...

      Swahili is the language of the military in Uganda, so the civilians are loathe to know it. Interesting factoid, huh!?

      Anyway, I feel a little more social now. 

      Now, off to work on Muzungu