Hot Dogs and Gutter Balls

In Peace Corps, you always have to expect the unexpected: phone calls to come to Kampala in two days, eating hot dogs off a stick bought through a bus window, legitimate Mexican restaurants with mojitos, bowling in a real bowling alley, becoming an interviewer… But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last week was a very strange week and felt very “unPeace Corps.”  On Thursday, I got a phone call from my program manager asking me to come to Kampala on Sunday night for a week-long event.  She was a little unclear about what kind of work I would be doing, but I accepted to make the 5-hour journey and started packing.  Caroline and I travelled together on Sunday afternoon.  Half way to Kampala, we had the opportunity to buy meat through a window, which is always a good opportunity.  Along major Ugandan roads, there are “pit stops,” as I like to call them, that are flooded with attendants carrying all sorts of goodies: soda, water, chapatti, meat, corn, bananas, etc.  It can be very exciting.  Once Caroline and I decided on the questionable snack of hot dogs, she yelled out the window “HOT DOG!”  Three attendants come running.  Within seconds, hot dogs on sticks are dangerously shoved through the open window nearly poking Caroline in the eye.  In response, she starts screaming, “STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!” until she can finally make a decision without meat in her face.  Of course, I couldn’t stop hysterically laughing, which won me some dirty looks from the other passengers.  The hot dog was delicious, but I’m nearly certain it made us both very sick. 

Ends up the other three people, Caroline, Mary and Alex, were just as uncertain about our program manager’s expectation.  We had a place: The Rwandan High Commission Office.  We had a time: Monday morning at 8:30 am.  We just had no idea what the heck we were about to do!

Come Monday morning, we reach the Rwandan High Commission Office, which is the Rwandan Embassy in Uganda.  Within 15 minutes, we were filled in: the Rwandan education system is in the midst of a transition from French as the medium of instruction to English; however, their teachers need more training, supervision and encouragement to implement sudden change.  Therefore, the Rwandan government is recruiting Ugandan and Kenyan teachers with expertise in the instruction of English for a two-year mentorship.  Last week, they were interviewing over 400 applicants with our help as native English speakers to help determine their eligibility for the mentorship.  The Rwandan government has over 2,400 positions available for foreign mentors; therefore, the interview was a formality.  As long as the applicants were qualified on paper and competent during the interviews, they passed.

After our brief introduction, we dove head first into the interviews because we had to complete 400 interviews in 5 days.  We each worked with a Rwandan counterpart during the interviews, which was comforting because I wasn’t sure of my interviewing skills.  By lunchtime, I had fallen into a groove.  I knew what to ask, what we were looking for, how to read their documents, etc.  By the end of the week, I learned a lot about interviewing, especially about how not to act in an interview… However, I spent so much time talking during the interviews, I ended up developing a sore throat!  I guess I usually spend more time by myself, so I’m not used to speaking for hours on end.  And it was exhausting!

During the week, we celebrated Alex’s birthday with all kinds of festivities, including party hats.  We ate a dinner of nachos, fajitas and mojitos at a hidden Mexican restaurant in Kampala.  It has been over one year since I have tasted authentic Mexican food, so I may no longer be a good judge, but it was amazing!  To our surprise, we got half off on the pitchers of mojitos.  By the time the bill came, we were all full and satified.  Unfortunately, the bill was unsettling.  One item said “Pitcher 29,500 UGX,” while another said “Pitcher 59,500 UGX” (about $10 and $20 respectively).  AH!  I usually spend 60,000 UGX on food for week, and here the bill was claiming that price for a pitcher of drinks!  Apparently, the half off deal was only a 5-7 pm business!  Mary was so exhaserbated that she started pounding on the table and saying, “That’s not fair!  You didn’t tell us!”  As unfair as it seemed, we still had to pay the bill. 

Despite our misfortunate, we frolicked down the road in good spirits with the prospects of bowling.  I was shocked to discovery that real bowling even existed in Uganda, let alone as cheap as 8,000 UGX per game (about $1.50).  When we arrived, they were closing!  Another group of Americans tried to warn me that bowling wasn’t even an option.  I said, “We’ll see.”  Apparently I’ve gotten pretty good at sweet-talking my way into things because five minutes later we were bowling!  The computers used the same systems we have at home with the funny graphics for strikes and gutter balls.  I saw the gutter ball animation way more often than the strike on, to say the least.  After 10 frames, here were the results: Caroline-52, Chelsea-55, Alex-55, Mary-123.  I swear I didn’t used to be so terrible, but at least I had company.  Mary’s mastery came out of left field and put us all to shame!

This week, I attended a Mid-Service Training in Mityana with my training class.  It marked our completion of one-year of service!  We celebrated our successes, talked about our challenges for hours and shared some of our strategies for overcoming them.  We had the opportunity to show our last one-year through silly drawings on flip chart paper.  Even though it was a goofy exercise, once I finished, I couldn’t believe how much has happened in the last year.  Moreover, I can’t believe how much more I have planned for the upcoming year.  It was oddly satisfying and overwhelming at the same time! It was the shortest Peace Corps training yet, so it felt strange yesterday saying good-bye to everyone again.

Caroline eating street hot dog.... I think it made us both very ill

Party hats!

Caroline's granny roll... this might explain our poor performances

The Ants Go Marching On

From my sitting room, I can hear children incessantly called “Wooooooo wooooooo wooooooooooo” in hope of  calling the white ants from their homes.  Children huddle over these holes dug in the ground for hours at a time collecting white ants as they come.  I’m skeptical whether singing or screaming to the ants actually makes them come, but it certainly entertains the children for the whole day.  Beyond entertainment, the children are so enthralled because white ants are a delicacy in Uganda.  They are called “white ants,” but in reality they are termites.  Some come out in the day, like the ones that the children are after, while others must be caught at night, around 4 am.  Once they are “harvested,” the white ants are fried with oil and salt, and the bodies are separated from the wings.  Yes, I have eaten white ants on multiple occasions.  If prepared well, they are pretty tasty, but you can’t look too closely at what you’re eating!

Below are some photos of my family preparing the white ants by separating the wings from their bodies.  YUM!

Cliff Dining

Following our Active April initiative, Aubrey and I decided to hike what always refer to as “the hill,” but what is actually called “Wanale Cliff.” On Saturday morning, we armed ourselves with water, a loaf of bread, peanut butter, salt and vinegar chips and two apples. One of our friends had given us the most obscure directions via text message, and off we went.


In the beginning, we managed to understand the absurd directions, but at some point, we began to wonder if we were ever going to climb this hill or just wander around it. When we asked a passerby for help, he directed us up this tiny path through someone’s matooke garden. Along the way, we continued to ask for guidance, and everyone was happy to help us. Finally, we reached the beginning of the path up.


This path could be better classified as stairs made of rocks! It was very steep, and we quickly found ourselves out of breath. Every so often, we would stop to “take pictures” and “admire the scenery,” while actually we were really trying to regain normal breathing. Meanwhile, people passed us as they went up or down. When people come down the hill, they essentially run, despite the slick rocks and precarious paths. Often, they are carrying various items on their heads and managed to maintain perfect balance without even using a hand to keep their belongings from falling! Aubrey and I continued to struggle up the hill with our frequent breaks for water and panting.


When we had nearly reached the top, it began to drizzle. It was so humid and I was so sweaty that I could no longer wear my sunglasses because they stayed permanently fogged. Needless to say, I began to worry about the descent before we had even finished the ascent! If we were having trouble keeping our traction now, what kind of disaster will occur on our way down? A few children, who were just hanging around, including one nearly asleep in a tree, found us to be a very interesting addition to their day. They began to follow behind us, playing along the way, as we slowly trudged to the top. Finally, we reached and lunch was the first business!


A little ways from the path was an awesome cliff that looked like the perfect place to have lunch. In order to reach it, we had to cross a small stream and a crevasse between the rocks. Aubrey and I were very uncertain whether or not it was a good idea to leap across because the rocks were slick with rain. As we stood there debating, one of the kids following us jumped across without any consideration. Well, we couldn’t get shown up by a bunch of kids. Laughing nervously, we both leaped across to our perfect lunch spot. Unfortunately, I’m a little anxious around heights, but once I sat down with my peanut butter sandwich, I started to feel a little more comfortable. I still kept freaking out watching this young boy stand so near a cliff that drops off into nothing for at least 200 feet. The two boys vultured around us for the entirety of our lunch, just waiting for any scraps we would share with them. Once we had finished our sandwiches, we gave them the remaining loaf of bread, which they devoured immediately.


As we opened our chips, we heard thunder. We are so high that we’re essentially in the clouds. Hearing thunder isn’t necessarily a good sign. Without too much panic, we decided to leave our cliff and move closer to the path before working on our salt and vinegar chips. We settled into a grassy spot just above the path and munched on our chips, while listening to the thunder. Eventually, we saw a streak of lightening and decided it was time to get away from the strike zone. Sadly, the chips were put away, and we made tentative lightening plans of diving into a ditch if need be! The way down was fast, but difficult from the mud and water on the path. Our soles quickly became caked with mud and grass, resulting in many slips and falls. Thankfully, we didn’t get hurt, just dirty and muddy.


When we were on the final stretch before reaching Mbale and a shower, we walked along the dilapidated road. As Americans, we always assume the side of the road to be the safe place for pedestrians. Well, that’s not always the case in Uganda. Apparently this road was so uneven with potholes, motorcycles prefer the side of the road. I have no idea how I heard the motorcycle behind us because he didn’t honk or even yell out, regardless I pushed Aubrey to the side but wasn’t quite out of the way as he passed us. He managed to run over my ankle and smack the side of my backpack, which sent me spinning. Of course, he was mad at us for being in the way! Although I usually can keep my cool in most situations, I couldn’t help yelling some very American phrases his way as he sped off. With great luck, I managed to get run over by a motorcycle, but escape unhurt! We didn’t tempt our fate again; we finished the remainder of our journey by walking in the middle of the road!


Below are some photos from our journey to Wanale Cliff.