Oh no! Today the “e”-button on my laptop fell off –just like that under my very gentle fingers! I have to admit that it made me a bit nervous. For some seconds I could see a picture of how my dear little friend, the computer, would crumble into many little pieces. There’s never a good time for a computer to break down and die, but now the timing would have been worse than ever. Luckily, there’s a little MacGyver living inside me too so I managed to fix it without any bigger problems. Just hope that the button will stay where it is now and that no other buttons decide to come off too.
Things seem to break all the time here. Last Friday I came to the office in the morning and found out that the power is gone once again. The generator was running though, so we could still use the computers. A woman from a Danish organisation for disabled people was here working on a project proposal together with the NUWODU staff and she used her own laptop. While I was sitting by the computer alone in one room I could all of a sudden see a lot of smoke coming out of the computer I was using while it did a buzzing noise. That’s when I said “oh shit!” afraid that the whole thing would explode. I ran up and turned off the power by the wall while the others, who could only see smoke in the room I was sitting in, wondered what was happening. Ten seconds later the Danish woman (who is disabled and can’t get up from a chair without help) yells that smoke is also coming out of her computer, so once again I rush to turn off the power to her laptop. The result: one computer and one laptop adapter are completely dead. It reminded me, once again, that it’s very easy to die in Africa. It’s also not long ago that my hotplate, that I use for cooking, was about to explode while I was using it. That one doesn’t work anymore either...
I’ve had a period now when I’ve been a bit down and very annoyed with all the people here and how they always yell “muzungo” and treat me differently. It makes me tired and I have many times just gone straight home and locked myself inside my room refusing to come out. I don’t like to see how angry and unfriendly I become among the people. I like to be smiley and happy! Anyway, I think I’m about to recover from this “dark period” now, because I can smile again when people give me more attention than I actually want. I’m getting back to a normal and happy Pamela.
A lot of people take it for granted that every white person comes from USA, which I find rather irritating. This includes me, of course, because I’m white and I speak English to them (that’s enough to qualify for being a person that comes from USA). So, one day on my way to NUWODU office a man came up to me and asked if I was from America or (to my surprise) China! I just looked at him trying not to laugh out loud. I would have loved to know why of all the countries in the whole world he picked China. It must have been my curly blond hair and blue eyes that fooled him...
I’m about to move out from my hostel in Wandegeya. Finally! This is what I wanted since I came back here. It wasn’t very easy to find a place that I’d like to call my home and to my surprise it was very difficult to find a place with a green garden. People seem to like concrete here, which I suppose is guaranteed to not become muddy when it rains. I looked at several places but one place won the price: the extremely tiny toilet had a big hole in the ceiling and the one and only socket in the kitchen was melted. I laughed and said no thank you to the house broker who then took me to the place that is now mine. It’s an apartment with 2 bedrooms, 1 seating room, kitchen and bathroom. I have no idea what to do with all that space so I really hope that I’ll have some visitors from home while I’m in Uganda. *hint hint*
Unfortunately the yard isn’t very green, but outside the walls that surround the house I have banana plants, green fields and cows. It’s going to be a quiet place; maybe I’ll get a shock and miss the noise and all the people in Wandegeya.
A friend who works for an organisation of deaf people has asked me if I’d like to go with him up to Gulu in northern Uganda in the beginning of December. He’s going for some field work and he knows that I’ve been complaining about sometimes being a bit bored since there’s not always so much work for me at NUWODU. I’d love to go and I have not yet been to Gulu, but I’ll see whether I can go or not. That’s after all the time when I should be moving into my new home AND it’s time for me to go back to immigration office to carry on with my visa-struggles. One month has already passed! I wonder if my visa will be ready now...
Oh, and I don’t think that I’ve told that I’ve done a language course in Swahili and that I also try to learn sign language. My Swahili course lasted only for one month, so I still have more than lots to learn. But it was good, at least I understand now how they build sentences and I know how to count to a million :o) I learn sign language whenever I meet me deaf friend and that’s fun! Very logic but I find it hard to control my fingers that want to point in a lot of wrong directions.
Another little story before I finish. On Saturday I went out together with my deaf friend and that was a lot of fun until the very early morning. My friend left me alone for 5 minutes and it didn’t take long until one Ugandan and one Indian guy came up to me, both wanting the same thing: my phone number. I told them that I’m Anna from Switzerland and that no one will get my phone number. The Ugandan guy was ok, quite entertaining, but not the Indian guy. All of a sudden the Indian guy pulled money out of his pocket and held them straight in front of my face. I didn’t know exactly what he meant with this, but I interpreted it as he thought he could buy sex from me. I got extremely angry and kicked him right between his legs with my red semi-high heeled shoes. That’s when he finally left, but only to try a bit later to come back but then didn’t dare to because he saw me getting ready to attack him again. Oh dear, all the things you have to go through before you die!
Things seem to break all the time here. Last Friday I came to the office in the morning and found out that the power is gone once again. The generator was running though, so we could still use the computers. A woman from a Danish organisation for disabled people was here working on a project proposal together with the NUWODU staff and she used her own laptop. While I was sitting by the computer alone in one room I could all of a sudden see a lot of smoke coming out of the computer I was using while it did a buzzing noise. That’s when I said “oh shit!” afraid that the whole thing would explode. I ran up and turned off the power by the wall while the others, who could only see smoke in the room I was sitting in, wondered what was happening. Ten seconds later the Danish woman (who is disabled and can’t get up from a chair without help) yells that smoke is also coming out of her computer, so once again I rush to turn off the power to her laptop. The result: one computer and one laptop adapter are completely dead. It reminded me, once again, that it’s very easy to die in Africa. It’s also not long ago that my hotplate, that I use for cooking, was about to explode while I was using it. That one doesn’t work anymore either...
I’ve had a period now when I’ve been a bit down and very annoyed with all the people here and how they always yell “muzungo” and treat me differently. It makes me tired and I have many times just gone straight home and locked myself inside my room refusing to come out. I don’t like to see how angry and unfriendly I become among the people. I like to be smiley and happy! Anyway, I think I’m about to recover from this “dark period” now, because I can smile again when people give me more attention than I actually want. I’m getting back to a normal and happy Pamela.
A lot of people take it for granted that every white person comes from USA, which I find rather irritating. This includes me, of course, because I’m white and I speak English to them (that’s enough to qualify for being a person that comes from USA). So, one day on my way to NUWODU office a man came up to me and asked if I was from America or (to my surprise) China! I just looked at him trying not to laugh out loud. I would have loved to know why of all the countries in the whole world he picked China. It must have been my curly blond hair and blue eyes that fooled him...
I’m about to move out from my hostel in Wandegeya. Finally! This is what I wanted since I came back here. It wasn’t very easy to find a place that I’d like to call my home and to my surprise it was very difficult to find a place with a green garden. People seem to like concrete here, which I suppose is guaranteed to not become muddy when it rains. I looked at several places but one place won the price: the extremely tiny toilet had a big hole in the ceiling and the one and only socket in the kitchen was melted. I laughed and said no thank you to the house broker who then took me to the place that is now mine. It’s an apartment with 2 bedrooms, 1 seating room, kitchen and bathroom. I have no idea what to do with all that space so I really hope that I’ll have some visitors from home while I’m in Uganda. *hint hint*
Unfortunately the yard isn’t very green, but outside the walls that surround the house I have banana plants, green fields and cows. It’s going to be a quiet place; maybe I’ll get a shock and miss the noise and all the people in Wandegeya.
A friend who works for an organisation of deaf people has asked me if I’d like to go with him up to Gulu in northern Uganda in the beginning of December. He’s going for some field work and he knows that I’ve been complaining about sometimes being a bit bored since there’s not always so much work for me at NUWODU. I’d love to go and I have not yet been to Gulu, but I’ll see whether I can go or not. That’s after all the time when I should be moving into my new home AND it’s time for me to go back to immigration office to carry on with my visa-struggles. One month has already passed! I wonder if my visa will be ready now...
Oh, and I don’t think that I’ve told that I’ve done a language course in Swahili and that I also try to learn sign language. My Swahili course lasted only for one month, so I still have more than lots to learn. But it was good, at least I understand now how they build sentences and I know how to count to a million :o) I learn sign language whenever I meet me deaf friend and that’s fun! Very logic but I find it hard to control my fingers that want to point in a lot of wrong directions.
Another little story before I finish. On Saturday I went out together with my deaf friend and that was a lot of fun until the very early morning. My friend left me alone for 5 minutes and it didn’t take long until one Ugandan and one Indian guy came up to me, both wanting the same thing: my phone number. I told them that I’m Anna from Switzerland and that no one will get my phone number. The Ugandan guy was ok, quite entertaining, but not the Indian guy. All of a sudden the Indian guy pulled money out of his pocket and held them straight in front of my face. I didn’t know exactly what he meant with this, but I interpreted it as he thought he could buy sex from me. I got extremely angry and kicked him right between his legs with my red semi-high heeled shoes. That’s when he finally left, but only to try a bit later to come back but then didn’t dare to because he saw me getting ready to attack him again. Oh dear, all the things you have to go through before you die!
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