Living in the Time Zone

I think we all deeply yearn for connection.

We want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. The problem is, we also want the freedom of having absolutely nobody telling us what to do with our lives. We don’t want to be on anybody else’s timetable. We don’t want anybody else to use what we’ve carefully rationed away for ourselves. We don’t want to share because we see sharing as giving something of ourselves away.

The thing is, when we are able to share we actually gain more than we lose.

Today our manager told us how his supervisor described muzungu time in comparison to African time. Muzungus, he said, run their lives according to time and Africans, in contrast, run their lives according to relationships. He continued to say that both are beneficial, and we should learn from each other.

The thing is, when you put like it’s relationships versus time, I think most of like to think that we do put relationships first. We, or at least I, get slightly offended. I think I get offended because it’s true. In some ways North American’s value relationships by valuing time. When we are on time to a meeting we show that we value the people who are at the meeting and when we’re on time to a date, we show that we value our date. However, I also think that we’re not all that good at valuing relationships. If I value people so much why do I have such a hard time with sharing? Why do I have a difficult time adjusting to Ugandan time?

I want to learn to value relationships more. The deep connection we all yearn for isn’t going to be filled if we keep walking down the path we’re headed down. I’m talking about at home in North America but also about my time here.

It’s been really hard to connect with people and to make friends and I think, partly, it’s due to the fact that I do often view time, my own comfort, and my own ideas as more important than relationships. Thankfully I’ve got five more months to work on this, to learn more about putting relationships first and to learn more about befriending Ugandans.… though skipping the friendship stage and jumping straight into marriage is apparently a fairly viable option ;).

Akatare Days

We have officially been in Uganda for over a month. In the grand scheme of things a month is not a long time, but so much has happened this month. I don’t mean so much in terms of, like, things actually happening. Honestly, I spend a significant amount of time here just sitting and waiting. Rachel wrote about waiting last week so I’m not going to do that all over again, instead I just want to write a little about what life is like for us here. This week I’ll focus on shopping, maybe next week on our living situation, transportation, or relationships.

The best thing about being in a different culture is that, at least at first, literally everything is new and exciting.

The equivalent of a trip to Safeway is a trip to the fruit/veggie market (akatare in Lukiga). I have never had such an exciting trip to Safeway or Save-on-Foods as every trip to the market is here. Kabale is a pretty small town- we’re talking one main street and a few side streets- but it happens to be the center for all the villages in a two hours radius so it can get pretty busy. The veggie/fruit market is pretty huge and, unfortunately, surrounded by butcher shops. There’s nothing quite like smelling fresh(ish) meat while you’re on your way to purchase veggies.

At the market we can purchase tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, beans, dodo (like bitter spinach), pumpkins, onions, garlic, ground nuts, watermelons, mangoes, apples, green oranges, pili-pili (hot peppers) and passion fruit (my personal fav). You never quite know what you’ll find at the akatare but these are the basics. It’s a vegetarian’s dream and if you love farmer’s markets or you’re a fan of ‘buying local’ you can be pretty sure that everything you can find was grown nearby.

 For those of you who have trouble making decisions this is probably not the place for you because there are 30+ people selling the same things. Good luck deciding which tomato is the perfect tomato. Not only that, most items are sold by the kilo so you better choose carefully because a kilo of green beans happens to be quite a few green beans. Rach and I have started making shopping lists just to avoid the fresh off the boat look of not realizing that a whole kilo of peppers is waaay too many peppers for just the two of us until they're packaged and we're trying to fit them into our bags. (Not that that has ever happened ;).

Photo: Just found this artwork at a market in Kampala. We are here for the weekend to get Rach drugs (it's a pretty unfortunate story) and I figured I might as well do a little shopping while we're here.... and eat some mexican food and take a hot shower. City life yo. Gotta love it.

Making a Home

Bushara Island is home to 80+ species of birds. One of these species is the weaver bird. I’m not a huge birder but these guys are awesome. On the occasional morning when I wake up early to catch a little extra quiet time I like to go and sit on one of the docks and watch them build their nests. They build their nests to be fully covered with a tunnel-like entry. There’s one nest I’ve been watching for almost the entire two weeks I’ve been here and they’re still working on it.

Building a house takes time, and we expect it to take time, but building a home also takes time. I’ve been working on making this house and island into a home since the day we arrived and there is still a long way to go. I’ve hung photos on the walls (most of which have fallen down), placed notes and cards from friends on my windowsills and swept the spiders out of the corners of my room but this isn’t home yet.

This island will be home when I stop second-guessing every other word that comes out of my mouth, wondering if I’ve said something culturally unacceptable. It will be home when I can speak enough Rukiga to confidently greet my co-workers who don’t speak English. It will be home when I feel comfortable enough to let loose.

The hugs I received from the kids at church yesterday, the greetings I’ve already learned, the already familiar laughs and smiles, the battery-powered Christmas lights hanging over my bug net, the constant sound of birds, and the bag of guava a co-worker gave us. These are the things that are already making this island into my home.

I’ve learned this lesson before. No matter when or where you move it’s going to be hard. Community takes time to form and every place is different. I think I’m finally starting to learn to embrace the process. It’s messy and often unpleasant but the end result is fully and completely worthwhile. It’s worth fighting through the discomfort of moving and meeting new people because it always ends with another place and group of people to call home. It always ends with a heart that has been stretched and, as a result, has grown.

Photo: This is the one of five docks on Bushara Island and by far the best for swimming. The Island you can see across the water is Bwama Island. It's owned by the Anglican church and houses two schools, a church, the agroforesty plot where Rachel works and a medical clinic that you can see on the far right of this photo. Bwama Island is one of the biggest islands on Lake Bunyonyi and used to be a leper colony. My goal is to be able to swim there and back by the time we leave... it's further than it looks.

Island Lyfe

I’ve spent one week on this island and already so much has changed. The island seems to have grown. What felt so small when we first landed and took a tour now feels much larger.

This place is filled with interesting people.

There’s Rachel. She’s my co-worker, travel buddy, support system and spider-killing extraordinaire. We finally had a chance to clean our house today. No-joke, we probably killed 70 spiders… and that’s after a week of killing spiders every single day. If you aren’t a spider-lover and ever need somebody to kill a spider for you, you can just give us a ring. There was also the cockroach I found on my toothbrush. That was a really fun moment… no, I did not brush my teeth that day.

There are our Uganda co-workers. They are excellent chefs and can whip up a large assortment of incredibly delicious crayfish (aka crawfish) dishes. After learning to love crawfish in Texas it’s pretty sweet to be in the one place in Uganda that has crawfish. Unfortunately I’ll be avoiding those for the next six months as they don’t seem to be quite as tame as the Texas variety. I would go into detail… but nobody wants that ;). The staff here are also incredible language teachers- even when I’m a terrible student. I think I’ve learned five phrases. I’ve got a long way to go till I’ll be fluent in Rukiga and a true Bakiga lady. Evas loves to tell us we’re already Bakiga ladies. I’ve got a long way to go till I’ll be able to claim that title for myself. They are also great tour guides- always willing to lend a helping hand and tell us about the history of this area, the island we’re on, and their own families and villages. Have you ever met somebody and very quickly known they were wise? Enos is the resident carpenter, maintenance man and bird expert. I can’t wait to hear more of his stories and take his bird tour. He has spotted over 80 types of birds just on this island.

There are the guests. It has only been one week and we’ve met diplomats, European tourists, and an American midwife and her family that are working only a couple hours away. We might visit them at some point as they also run a guest house and live near the mountain gorillas. It’s interesting to be in such a rural setting but to see so many people traveling through. I’m looking forward to meeting more people from all over the world!

I think all these interesting people are the reason the island seems to have grown. We aren’t as isolated here as we might have felt when we first arrived. There are so many stories to listen to and people to learn from. I should probably also mention that there’s plenty of work to do! This past week was fairly slow but we’ve already got a better idea of what we should be doing.

P.S. If you’re the letter writing type I would love to receive some love in the form of written words! You can send letters to Bushara Island Camp PO 794, Kabale, Uganda. They’ll only take about three months to reach me J

Photo Cred: Raquelle Dehaanee