June 10th, 2011

June 10, 2011

So yesterday Bryan and I made an excellent trip to Ginga, pronounced like ginger so it can be assumed that it is full of white albino people, but no it’s like opposite of that. This place is where a majority of volunteers go if they come to Uganda. There were many more white people walking the streets and there are tons of markets there to buy pretty awesome things unique to Africa. We stopped at a place called The Keep which provided some decent internet access and food that reminded me of America. I had a smoothie called The Island and it was fantastic.

Ginga is a cool place hustlin and bustlin with many people on the grind pretty much like anywhere else here in Uganda. It can be considered and escape away from Iganga when you want a little taste of home. The reason we were there was to search for soccer cleats for the Musana soccer team. Turns out they were pricy and so were team jerseys so we decided to wait for Hareal who could probably get us better deals on everything.

Now today both of us went to the farm to do some bean pickin. It was an experience to see some actual mud huts near the backbone of Uganda. There are roughly 15 acres of farm land that Musana owns. Today Bryan and I got to pick beans for the children’s food. It was basically like pulling weeds across a large stretch of land. We did a lot of work but at the same time we didn’t because there were many more beans to pick when we left. The usual work ends around noon because it gets too hot then everyone picks back up when it cools off around 5 or 6. I had a good time, well as good of a time you can have bending over for a couple hours pulling little weed like things out of the ground. I almost made it to the end of the little stretch of land but ended up cutting the living crap out of my pointer finger on a vine while pulling it up. Never really been cut that deep with that much dirt on my hand. It was interesting the way the blood solidified so fast. I expected a lot more blood to come out. The thing about here is you can’t really clean or treat any wound until you get back to a more civilized place. It worked out cus upon arriving home we all got to take cold showers which have never felt so good.

I am learning more and more the harsh way of life here in Uganda. The thing is that picking beans is the easy work out at the farm. Apparently it gets much harder. You truly get to see the crazy way of life in this part of the world. It is certainly a humbling experience that makes you ever so thankful for being born into a family and country that is much better off than most here.

I have also been thinking that life here compared to life in America is all relative. Natives here don’t know any different. They are born here, raised here, and rarely get to leave here to experience any other kind of life. So to them, everything is fine because this is just the way it is. You deal with minimum electricity, water that you have to pump from a well and carry back to your home, and an average salary of 2 to 6 thousand shillings a day. Life is difficult here but I guess to everyone around here, it’s just the way it is.

To top the night off a bunch of us went to “Desire” which is a club here in Iganga. What an experience. I got in free with my college I.D. somehow, but then had to buy a beer anyway so it was 100% free. It seemed like a similar club to what we have in America with loud music and tons of people. There were only a few white people there at the start but by the time I left I was the only white person in there so that was different. I feel like I fit in ok with my “American” dance moves. Over all I had a pretty excellent time. Still not sure if I will be going back anytime soon.