Learnings

Learnt a few things this week.

First, I learnt that the plural version of Hippo is Hippos.  According to the survey it is Hippopotomi.  Unlikely…

So I was talking with Obanga, our resident security guard, buddy, chicken slaughterer (when the need arises) gardener and general source of information.  I asked him if there was poison ivy in Uganda.  After describing it, he knew what I meant.  He said that sometimes parents will spank their kid's with it if they pee the bed, and then they never do it again.  Effective, but somewhat questionable.  Imagine a class in Canada for new parents.  “now remember to always have a small supply of poison ivy for those bed wetter’s…"

This trend seems to be a Ugandan thing.  Last year when there were riots (don’t worry mom, it was last year) the president instructed the police that if they see any rioters rioting, they are to shoot “directly” with no warning shots.  Well what do you know, the riots stopped the same day.  In Kampala recently, the tombs where the tribal chiefs of the Buganda (the largest wealthiest tribe representing Kampala) were burnt.  Everyone thought this was going to start riots because people were accusing the president of burning the tombs, since he is from another tribe.  But, there were no riots.  Effective, but somewhat questionable.

Did I mention that Obanga is also our impromptu interpreter.  A kid came to our house and through Obanga we learnt that we gave him some food a few days ago.  His mom didn’t know how to cook it, so she sent him back to find out how.  We were very confused because we didn’t think we gave away any food in the last few days.  When we asked what the food was Obanga didn’t really understand the kid, but he said it sounded like butter of some sort.  We bought butter here once.  ONCE.  Things you eat should not taste like the animal smells!  Anyways, we got the kid to bring this very mysterious food.  When he came back he handed over a strange blob of softish stuff.  On closer inspection we realized what it was.

When we were in Kampala we bought some cheese.  We then brought it back to Kamwenge, put it in the freezer and then took the SP water team to Queen Elizabeth NP.  We were gone for 6 days total.  When we were gone, the power was also gone.  When we got back, our fridge had the distinct smell of cheese that has not been kept cold, because it hadn’t.  So what did we do with the cheese?  We threw it in the garbage!  Once I told this to Obanga, he started wagging his finger at the kid and suddenly the kids story started to change (no, Obanga did not run off to find some poison ivy).  I went into the kitchen and got a bag of dry beans.  I gave it to the kid and said “here is something your mom will know how to cook.”  I learnt that day that if cheese stays in the hot sun for weeks, it will surprisingly not grow mold, but not surprisingly it will smell… strong?

I also learnt that kids will answer any question with Yes.  We had a big Easter party at our place with all the local kids.  Luckily the Easter Bunny has not migrated to Uganda yet.  We did however start the tradition of eating candy on Easter.  So the night before our Easter party some kids came to our door asking for bread (here bread is a treat).  I said that I could not give them any food this time (I recognized them from before when I had given them some treats) but if they came tomorrow at 4:00PM we would be having a big party.  Here is how the conversation went:

Me: Party tomorrow

Kids: Yes

Me: Good.  4:00PM

Kids: Yes

Me: Ok, so I will see you all tomorrow at 4:00PM

Kids: Yes

Me: So, what time tomorrow?

Kids: Yes

Me: Ah, that is not the right answer

Kids: Yes

Me: No, what time

Kids: Yes

Me: Tomorrow at 4:00PM

Kids: Yes

Me: What time?

Kids: Yes

Me: No, 4:00PM

Kids: Yes

...Sarah laughs from inside the house..

Me: When?

Kids: Yes

Me: Wait here, I will get someone to translate

Kids: Yes

Yes is right, wait

Kids: Yes

Here are a few pictures from our Easter Party:

We played duck duck goose.  This is Sarah being slower than a very little girl.

I think it was the first time most of the kids had played duck duck goose

Sarah was right into it.  A+  for effort!!!

This Guy kinda missed the point of the game and stood in the middle the whole time.

I think this girl enjoyed herself.

This girl certainly did.

We also did an Easter candy hunt.  I dont have any pics from the hunt becuase i was videoing, and i will try and get that uploaded soon.  I did however get a photo of one of the casualties.  Next time I will not hid any candy close to our nice flowering plants.

Hot Potato, or hot egg I suppose.

Sarah did a little message about Easter, and how the candy was free and that they didn't do anything to deserve the free gift (although they did say that they ran around to find it).  Then she explained that Jesus's gift of forgiveness is also free, we just need to ask for it. 

The kid on the right showed up late and didn't get any candy.  I asked the kids if they would give him some candy since they got it for free and he didn't have any.  They were generally really quick to give, and he got almost as much as all the other kids.

Totally unrelated photo.  Sarah made some fresh bread - toaster oven style.  Mmmmm Mm, my hero.

I caught this quick photo right outside our house.  It is of 3 kids pushing a bike with 3 stalks of banana and a car battery.  I am just barely able to handle one banana stalk and we all know how heavy batteries are.  Obanga said they get the bananas from 15 Km away.