A Long Time to be Gone, a Short Time to be There (Here).
It’s starting to feel that way a little bit. In the grand scheme of life I’m sure these past 6 weeks, and more once it’s all said and done, will seem like a small blip on the radar. But for a little more each day lately it feels like a long time away from home. We should be 2/3 of the way through if things continue to go according to plan. The experience has been more than worth it, and certainly life changing, but still I am longing for a lick on the face from Cody, and a nice long snuggle with Scruggs. I can miss winter, I can miss the bike rides, I can miss work, I can miss the river, but I can’t get those doggies out of my mind lately. I know they are being well taken care of, and that they are happy, but still…Maybe we just need to get out of town again.
Ok enough of that, the past week has been great. We celebrated Jimmy’s official birthday with a homemade cake and party here at the guest house. It turns out that we were 2 days late because we read the picture of Jimmy’s birth certificate wrong. Either way, it was a real good time. I’m not sure Jimmy knew what was going on, but the kids loved the balloons, hats, noise makers, and cake.
Jimmy’s passport is in hand, and we have an International Organization for Migration appointment on Monday. IOM is where we take Jimmy for a health exam, including a TB test. We’ll take Jimmy back on Wednesday to read the TB test. Once we clear that, and hopefully we will, IOM will send our info onto the Embassy to get our document check scheduled. That takes at least a week to get scheduled. The exit interview comes after that. We’ll get the visa a few days after that if things go smoothly (which they typically don’t), and if the embassy isn’t backed up (which they currently are). It seems like we only know one family since we have been here that has gone through the embassy process smoothly. Everyone else has been delayed by at least a week or two. We could potentially have a visa in hand on 12/28. The federal government is slow even when it’s in another country. They only do certain things on certain days of the week. That’s ok, I’m not sure I want to travel through the Christmas chaos anyway. But those dogs are waiting…
We went to the Ndere Cultural Center with Pius last Sunday night. What an awesome experience. It was about 4 hours of non-stop music, dancing, comedy, and cultural performances. The pictures don’t do it justice, and the internet is too slow to upload the videos. Different kinds of drums, fiddles, bass, and mandolin sounding things. One drum troupe came in playing with massive drums on their heads, even kicking them. The dancers shook it for 4 hours straight. They took booty shaking to a whole different level. The buffet, mostly local food, was awesome. Grilled meats, chips (fries), matooke, rice, and veggies. I could go once a week. The troupe has existed since 1983. $15 covers the performance and food, water, and schooling for the troupe. The MC, one of the original founders, was hilarious. I’ll try to summarize one of his jokes:
Uganda is debt free! The World Bank came in and declared us debt free, but not because we paid the debt. They came to visit, saw us walking around very relaxed (a nod to a previous joke), and spoke to some workers. They spoke to a fisherman relaxing under a tree. Fisherman! How many fish did you catch yesterday? Three. One for my family, one for my neighbor, and one for tonight. I will go back tomorrow for 3 more. But, why don’t you catch more?! Why would I catch more? The lake has boundaries, the fish can’t leave. I will let them live until tomorrow. But why not catch more fish? Why would I do that? So you can get a bigger boat. Why would I do that? So you can buy a motor for your boat! Why would I do that? So you can buy an even bigger boat! But why would I do that? So you can catch more fish! But why would I do that? So you can make more money! But why would I do that? So you can hire more people to catch more fish and make even more money! But why would I do that? So you can buy a bigger house! But why would I do that? So you can relax! Do I not look relaxed right now? Why would I do all that just to feel the way I do right now?!
Hilarious, and indicative of some differences between Uganda and the west.
The rest of the night featured performances from the various tribes and regions of Uganda and a couple of other countries.
Again, the pictures don’t do it justice, but I will upload the videos when we get home, or I am sure YouTube has some videos as well.
I have a newfound love of drums, and Jimmy loves them so watch out Town Park, Jimmy is about to rock your world. If drums are good enough for Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, and Jerry Douglas, they are good enough for your town park pick. ;-)
I do want to go back there before we leave. It would be worth it even if the jokes and performances are exactly the same. It was awesome to see locals there enjoying the event.
The rest of the week was pretty quiet as we waited for passport news. We finally made it across town to meet another family from our agency who is staying in an apartment with a pool. Jimmy loved swimming, even though his teeth were chattering from the cold water. This place was NICE. 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, living room and kitchen, pool, cleaning and laundry service, for about the same price as this guest house. That place is going to stay in our back pocket in case we get delayed here for a long time, or if we ever decide to do this again. It might not be as conducive to playtime as this place is, or as close to the embassy, but it has a pool, other adoptive families, and I wouldn’t have to sleep on a top bunk like I am now.
We went to schedule the IOM appointment on Friday. Afterwards, we went for breakfast at a nice little coffeehouse. It was the first time I have had good bacon in 5.5 weeks. Oh man. We’ll be back tomorrow after IOM if it’s early enough. Jimmy of course made friends with the other guests and workers like he always does. I don’t know what it is about this kid, people just love him. Well, I do know what it is, he is just so personable, hilarious, and adorable. The other night we walked down to get some ice cream. It was his first ice cream cone. Naturally he was high on sugar within 3 licks, rolling on the floor, laughing, causing a scene, talking in Luganda. The workers all thought he was hilarious, and so did the other customers. Something tells me people won’t look so fondly at this type of behavior in the US, whatever, it’s hilarious. Let the kid enjoy all these firsts.
We went for a boat ride on Lake Victoria at Speke Resort Friday afternoon. It was good to get out of the house for a while to kill some time. The resort is growing on me and I think we’ll spend Christmas there. It has an awesome pool, fishing, boats, good restaurants, and nice rooms. We invited our driver, Najiib, to join us on the boat. Najiib is great, but serious. It felt good to give him a chance to kick back and enjoy his country a little bit.
We walked to the grocery store on Saturday after breakfast to kill some time. On the way back I decided I needed a haircut. There is a little spot called JamRock with Bob Marley posters all over the wall that we pass every day, and the guy seems cool, so I hit him up. Some of the kids have had their hair cut there, and he is great with them, so why not? The power went out right before he started, so we started to walk back home. Meg went into a craft store and it was back on, so I went back. I totally worried we were going to lose power again mid cut. He definitely charged me the Mzungu price, but it only came to something like $3.50. He was super gentle even though I just requested a buzz on #3. It took almost an hour for a buzz! This was my 4th haircut in 4 years, and 2nd in less than 2 months. Short hair is awesome!
Hopefully IOM will go smoothly. We’re planning on going to Murchison Falls NP starting Thursday for 2 nights. Murchison is the park people tell us not to miss, and we’re going with Pius, who does this for a living. It should be awesome. Here’s hoping for some giraffes!