Lodging and transportation

Some people have asked to see a picture of where we are living so here’s a shot of the house (to post later). It’s quite nice and at least twice as big as our last apartment in Berkeley, so no complaints here. The place is also extremely clean thanks to Sandra, a woman Ben hired to clean and cook, for the supposedly generous salary of about $2 a day. It’s a bit unnerving having someone toil away scrubbing the floors and making lunch while I yawn about how tired I am as I play stack-the-cups with Ani.

Ani and I are still trying to figure out the best way to get around town and fill up time in our day when Ben is working. I have found that my one daily errand – walking to the market to get more cleaning supplies (Sandra goes through tons of bleach and laundry detergent in her efforts to make this place hospital-worthy clean) and food for lunch – totally exhausts me. Part of the reason why it tires me out is because I’m a total wimp, but another factor is that I’m carrying Ani while we battle over whether or not she is going to wear her sunhat and it’s very dusty and hot for someone acclimated to Berkeley weather.

Yesterday I decided that for our second trip to town, I was going to take the jogging stroller. As if we didn’t stand out before, now we looked fully, fully ridiculous navigating this neon green monstrosity through town. People stare and nudge the person next to them. The kids – all decked out in their school uniforms – thought it was hilarious and we had throngs of them following us through town on our way to the bakery. Ani, already prepping for an ambassador position, sat up in the stroller smiling and waving to all the onlookers. In spite of our making a spectacle of ourselves, the stroller is probably the better way to go since I am freed of carrying Ani and whatever we buy and the canopy on the stroller provides some shade. So, let the staring begin because we are off to town…

Grandma Josie

My grandmother, Josephine Starkweather, passed away this week at age 94. Grandma Josie did not adhere to the stereotype of the average grandmother. Instead of baking cookies, she sold mutual funds. Instead of knitting scarves, she organized Republican fundraisers. Instead of moving to Florida when forced into retirement in her 60s, she moved to Louisiana to start a new job selling stocks and continued working until her mid 80s. When I was seven or eight years old, I remember a friend showing me a doll that her grandmother bought her for Christmas and I responded that my grandma gave me stock in Pepsi.

I have always loved telling stories of Grandma Jo. My favorite is probably the one when she got carjacked in her early 20s and, being the phenomenal saleswoman that she was, she talked the guy into letting her go and giving back her engagement ring. After that, she promptly contacted the police and assisted in his arrest.

There was an intriguing complexity to Grandma Jo that most people cannot recognize in their own grandmothers. She was both notoriously frugal and exceedingly generous. She had a knack for getting what she wanted from people, but was also genuinely interested in helping them improve their finances and better their lives.

I will always be grateful to Grandma Josie for her support and encouragement growing up, her financial generosity, and her example as a woman of great strength and accomplishments.

The Road to Mbarara

Friday we drove 4 hours west of Kampala to our home base for the next few months, Mbarara. The drive through the countryside was quite striking – very lush with green rolling hills. We stopped briefly at the equator for some iced coffee and a photo op. In the few days I’ve been here, I’ve become somewhat accustom to what it feels like to travel around – bouncing around the potholes and narrow misses with people, cattle, and oncoming traffic. At one point though, I alerted Ben to a huge animal perched at the side of the road – a water buck – that looked like it was ready to make a break across the street. Apparently, it’s rather unusual to see game out on the road, so I’ll count myself lucky for the glimpse and the fact that we didn’t hit it.

Today (Saturday) we got settled into our new living quarters, a very nice house with lots of space and decent breezes. The power hasn’t been on for the most part and seems to be on more at night than during the day. I got up around 11pm last night and found the lights on with the power back, having gone to bed early since it was so dark. I can’t sleep because there is some insanely loud festival blaring music and shooting off fireworks.

Mbarara does not appear to be at all affected by the floods in other parts of Uganda. Everyone seems to be going about their business as usual and for the most part, it isn’t all that different from what I’m used to – folks going about their routines of running errands, preparing and eating food, socializing, and preparing for the next day. Of course, there are also not-so-subtle differences as well and we definitely stick out. Walking through the market, people often call out “Muzungu!”, meaning white person or foreigner, and just seeing us and announcing it seems something of an amusement.

Sunday morning we walked into town with Ben carrying Ani in the sling and people just stared in disbelief that a man would carry a baby about town. The women, in particular, seemed baffled by this and I walked behind Ben and Ani and saw the women nudging their friends nearby to check out this bizarre occurrence. Who knows, maybe Ben can start a trend and give the ladies a little break. :)

In Uganda

Hello all. After talking and planning for months now, we finally made it to Uganda. The flight (San Francisco to Seattle to Amsterdam to Entebbe) was LLLOOONNNGGG but we made it without too much incident. Ani was a real trouper and spent most of the time sleeping or playing with the in-flight entertainment remote controls. We spent last night (Tuesday) at a very nice bed and breakfast in Entebbe and this morning we went to the Entebbe botanical gardens where the first Tarzan movie was made and we saw Colobus monkeys and fishermen on the shores of Lake Victoria pulling in their nets of Tilapia. Tonight we are in the substantially larger and busier capital, Kampala.

Ben asked me if the sights and sounds of Uganda were how I imagined and I realized that I have been so focused on the health aspects of this trip (vaccinations, malarial meds, insurance, etc…) that I hadn’t even gotten around to putting a good picture of what I thought Uganda would look like. So, here I am trying to soak it all in. Since watching traffic is completely terrifying to me, I sit in the back seat with one eye on Ani and one eye out the window. So far, I guess it does fill some expectation of what “Africa” looks like -- people walking into town with heavy baskets balanced on their heads, motorcycles racing by loaded up with bananas, belching diesel vehicles (including our own) clouding up the air.

Part of me wishes that we had done this a few years earlier so I could enjoy the whole saturation of the senses that comes with travel to a different culture without being on edge about what Ani is putting in her mouth and whether she is flushed because it is warm out (we are at the equator, after all) or because she has a fever. I take each mosquito as a lethal threat even though we are well protected by drugs, bed nets, and bug spray. I’m giving myself a couple of weeks to linger in this fearful nervousness but am hoping I can relax after awhile once we get settled in and survive our first and inevitable bout of travelers’ diarrhea.

In the meantime, Ani is already the absolute star attraction. Everyone wants to hold her and while she is very open with smiles and blowing kisses, she is not too keen on being held by others yet, which I am somewhat grateful for and hope it continues for awhile. Our girl loves being the center of attention, though and I already fear it will become a substantial blow to her ego when we return to Berkeley and she is just one in a sea of other babies and toddlers.

That’s all for now…. In fact, that might be a bit much considering I have only been in Uganda for just over 24 hours now. Oh well, I guess you were warned in the previous post ;)

Warning: Text-heavy emails ahead

Hi everyone,

Normally my blog postings are photos with quick descriptions so family and friends from afar can track Ani's progress. Now that we've arrived in Uganda, however, I'll probably be posting a lot of text-heavy entries as a way to communicate efficiently with everyone and to take up time in my yet-to-be-scheduled days.

Birthday girl

Ani turned 1 yesterday! In addition to cake, Ani received 7 immunizations (Yikes!). She's handling them pretty well and we are looking forward to our adventure to Uganda on Monday.

From Baby to Toddler

Ani's stay in Michigan is coming to a close. Here are a couple of quick video clips showing her transition to a bonafide toddler.

Better late than never

We've been a bit negligent in updating our blog lately but here's a few recent pictures. The first one is of Ani taking a bath with her cousin Dominick in the cooler after a particularly messy dinner. The next one is of Ani sitting with her cousin Ryan on a recent visit. And finally, Ani with her Grandma Elaine who has returned from her service in Iraq. So good to have her back!