The B word

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

I mean Bureaucracy of course. People, people… let’s try to keep it clean. So we got a letter of support from the Director of Education at the Ministry of Education and Sports, but they have some friendly suggestions. They are: The Ministry of Health, The Kampala Clerk’s office, and advance notice to the schools. Makes sense, right? No. Because if we wait for both of those offices, we will not have time to give advance notice to schools. Hmmmm. I think we opened Pandora’s Box. On that note, one of my favorite websites is Pandora.com on which you can listen to all types of music without commercials.

This morning Lauren made me banana pancakes. AMAZING! I was hovering around her like a hawk, I felt like the Kosher Police…which I was. So the pancakes were amazing, then we made baked ziti for lunch (not baked), and tonight we are making stir fry. Now I am sitting at a café drinking freshly squeezed juice and eating fresh cut watermelon; oh the good life. Did I mention that we now have running water? I forgot the best part!!! So, travelling Jewish in a foreign land is complicated as many of you know. But it’s especially complicated when people want to give you stuff for your birthday… we were going to bake a cake from scratch and double wrap it to bake in the Luboga’s oven…if you don’t understand that, find someone wearing a yarmulke and ask them. BUT, instead we found ICE CREAM! Gd bless Shoprite of South Africa. So for my birthday cake, which is a real luxury, I am having cookies and cream ice cream with a Shabbat candle on top (thanks Mom).

I hope to write about progress in our research soon… but for now, suffice it to say we are working hard on getting things together so that we can work harder. We’re even hiring research assistants at the Makerere medical and dental schools. Hahahahaha (evil laugh)! I love the perks of being a PI (principle investigator)!

So. Now I would like to respond to some of the comments I’ve been getting. A caller from Hillside, New Jersey asker me to describe the people and culture here. I was also asked constantly to post photos. Thanks for asking. Pictures are a little hard to manage. You see, internet is really slow here and my SD drive in my computer is not working with the card that I have... I will try to fix it and will try to post pictures, but for now I can't post a thing. People in Kampala are really friendly and helpful. Everyone greets you with an "Olyotya", "Hi, How are you?" so if you just say hello to someone they will answer "fine, and you?". Everyone hear recognizes that you are a mesungo and probably have a lot more money than they have, but very few try to rip you off (except some cab drivers), there is a sense of what is fair and they keep to it. Otherwise, when walking around Kamapala, especially at night, there are tens and possible hundreds of little children begging for money. We were told by Faith, our host sister, that their parents teach them to beg and check if you have money. If you show any money you are cased and might be pickpocketed later. The best way to deal with it is to walk away. Which hurts. Here are obviously poor children who aren't going to school and only being taught how to beg and I , a "rich mesungo" walks away. I feel like handing out food. On that note, there is not much to report about the food here except that the fruit is AMAZING. I feel like anywhere but the US the fruit tastes like it should. More culture... I am going to a drum factory soon... should be great.