Muzungu! Muzungu! (8/31)

This morning we met Sam.  Sam is Amos’ brother.  Amos is the man who founded Rwentutu, the school we will be teaching at, with his wife Edith.  The house that we are living in also belongs to Amos.  Doreen, our “house mom” is Sam’s daughter.  Other relatives of Sam, Amos, and Doreen also live in the quarters behind our house.  Sam is in charge of arranging our driver, house mom, and some things at the school.  He is also the pastor at the school.  See, everyone knows everyone here! 

We also had a little excitement this morning as a little lizard came into our room while we were getting ready! 

On the top of the hill overlooking Bwera

The private quarters of the hospital

Our first stop of many for the day was Bwera.  Bwera is about an hour away and is the town where Enoch, Edson, and Janet are all from.  We picked Enoch up at his home and then went to the Bwera hospital.  Each district has its own hospital, according to Enoch.  The way the hospital is set up is that there are two sections.  In one wing of the hospital it is private, where people pay to stay and receive care.  The remainder of the hospital is for the public and to my understanding is for free care.  The reason that Enoch took us to the hospital is because it is situated on the top of a hill that overlooks the rest of Bwera.  It was beautiful and we were even able to see some of Congo from the top. 

Our next stop was to a secondary school in Bwera.  This is the school that Enoch went to, and that he is now on the board of.  He believes it to be one of the nicest schools in the country.  We walked around the school and were able to go into a few empty classrooms to see the set up.  The school even had a computer lab that we were able to see and a library. 

Secondary School in Bwera

Classroom in the Bwera Secondary School

After the school we started making our way towards the border of Uganda and Congo.  As soon as we got nearer to the border we checked in with security letting them know of our intentions to go to the market.  We walked a little further and again checked in with more security.  At this point we were told not to take any more pictures, so I have very few pictures of the chaos that was the Uganda/Congo border/market.  We walked right up to the border of Congo and Uganda, literally right on the line, and then had to turn around.  Enoch told us the color bar is the reason we cannot enter the Congo.  This means that we are barred from entering because we are white.  The walk to the border was rather crazy with people everywhere carrying goods towards the border to exchange, and people coming back with newly purchased goods.  This included cattle, fish, goats, chickens, pigs, water, fabrics and so on.  Not only were people walking toward the border, but there were large trucks driving, and of course the boda-bodas.

Heading towards the border

Also heading toward the Uganda/Congo border

The Congo/Uganda market

More of the market

We then made our way to the market, which was right next to the border since the market contains a lot of goods from Congo as well as Uganda.  The market is another one of those indescribable experiences that I have had while here.  Like all markets we have been to thus far, we ended up walking through what seemed like a little secret passage way that lead to a wide open buzzing market.  It was completely overly stimulating.  My senses were in complete shock.  As we walked through the odors shifted from that of fresh produce to stinky fish and meat.  The sounds were a mix between animals and people.  The people speaking in their native Lukunzo language, or yelling “Muzungu” at us.  And the sun was beating down on my exposed skin.  And all my eyes could see were colors, beautiful, bright, natural colors.  The colors of the produce, the animals, the people, the fabrics, the sun, and the dirt.  The way the market was set up was that as soon as we entered we were by the fresh produce.  This included tomatoes, potatoes, jack fruit, pineapple, ground nuts, beans, onions, garlic, mangoes, among so much more.  The produce is laid out on blankets and then women sit behind the blankets and collect the money and put the purchased food into bags.  Katie and I did not buy anything as we had just been to our local market, but probably more so because we were just completely overwhelmed.  Then we moved into the meats and fish.  There were “fresh” cuts of meat and fish just laying out for purchase.  And there were men wheeling through the market with freshly killed animals to bring to the vendors to cut up and sell.  I was almost run over by a headless pig on a cart.  There is really no way to describe it, but the market was packed.  There were people EVERYWHERE.  There was hardly any room to move.  We just shimmied our way through.  This made it a little scary as we were carrying our purses and cameras.  Let’s just say I had a very firm grip on my bag the entire way through, as Enoch warned us about pick-pocketers right before entering.  After all the food choices we entered the fabrics part of the market.  This section was much less busy than the food, but still busy nonetheless.  Katie and I were in awe of all the beautiful fabric choices.  We were a bit rushed in our decision making, but probably for the best otherwise we would have probably stayed for hours picking out fabrics.  We chose two fabrics that are from Congo and were brought over to Uganda to sell in the market.  And then we will take the fabrics back to town and have skirts made from them. 

The fabrics part of the market

Some of the beautiful fabric choices

As soon as we left the market, I was instantly able to relax a little bit.  It was definitely a very stressful situation being in such a crowded, chaotic place, where we had no hopes of blending in with our pearly white skin.  Our next stop was lunch.  We went to lunch with Enoch.  For lunch Katie and I had chips (French fries), a plate of delicious, fresh, fruit, and coke.   The lunch lasted two hours as Enoch, Katie, and I were having such great conversation.  Enoch gave us so much information on Uganda and the culture.  I will share all the interesting things I have learned about Uganda and the culture in another post as this one is going to be far too long with everything we did!

The Congolese beer

After lunch, we went for a beer at a cute little bar/hotel.  Enoch really wanted us to try a Congolese beer and then he wanted us to compare it to a Ugandan beer.  The beer was actually quite tasty, but Enoch warned us that even though it is very smooth, it has 5% alcohol.  We just shared one beer between the three of us (it was a large one, see photo), and then we were back on the road.

Enoch in front of his mango tree

Because every day is a marathon day when you are with Enoch, we still had more planned for the day.  We drove Enoch back to his house to drop him off, but not before we got a walking tour of his 6 acres of land.  The land is beautiful.  It is so green!  And everything planted on it is planted with a purpose, for food.  He walked us through the land and pointed out all the different trees and plants he has and gave us bits of information on each one.  Some of the plants/trees he has include: mangoes, jack fruit, passion fruit, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, potatoes, tomatoes, oranges, lemons, papaya, plantains, sweet bananas, bananas, matoke, pineapple, and papyrus (and I’m sure more that I am forgetting).

Enoch's home

Matoke tree

Our next stop for the day was to the equator!  That’s right, Uganda is right on the equator.  It was on our way home, in fact, it is only about a 10-minute drive from where we live.  So of course we hopped out and snagged a few pictures of ourselves standing in both hemispheres at once!  Whoever said you can’t be two places at once?

Katie and I on the equator!

And we still had one more stop in us.  We went to the supermarket again to buy some of things for the house/us that we forgot such as laundry soap, dish soap, and dishrags.  But once we were finally home Katie and I were excited to make some pasta, as we found some macaroni noodles at the grocery store.  We had some noodles, tomatoes, onions, and olive oil and called it pasta.  Both of our bowls were clean in a matter of minutes.  Doreen on the other hand, tried the pasta and as always whenever she tries American food, she said, “it’s too sweet!”  I should also mention that Doreen watched us as we cooked the pasta and she could not stop laughing.  First she thought it was hilarious that our small portions of pasta was all we were having for supper, and then she laughed at the small amount of oil we used.  Ugandan cooking requires A LOT of oil.  After dinner Katie made some of her tea that she brought with her.  And again, we had Doreen try it.  She said she loved it!  As soon as we finished up with dinner the power was out so it was time to call it a night. 

The reason this post is entitled Muzungu is because this is what we heard ALL day.  All over the market and then from one place to the next in the car we heard, “Muzungu!” “Muzungu!”.  As I mentioned, Muzungu means white person.  But today we came to more of an understanding as to why people literally drop everything they are doing to point, stare, laugh, scream, whistle, run to tell others, and smile when they see us.  Edson, our driver, explained to us that most Ugandans probably only see one white person per year.  And if a Ugandan were to ever shake hands with a Muzungu, it would be a story that they would tell for years.  Enoch even went as far as to say to me while we were sitting drinking our beers, that if I were to stand up and start dancing with my sunglasses on the top of my head the way they were, that if I came back in a year I would be sure to see Ugandans doing the same thing!  This gave Katie and I quite a laugh.  And later, when we were at Enoch’s house we snapped a couple pictures of some of his grandchildren.  Well this turned into a photo shoot because they just loved it.  And as we were leaving Enoch said, “Do you think they will ever forge this?  The day that two Muzungus took their photos?  Because they won’t.  They will never forget this.”  Katie and I have plans to get these photos printed and sent to Enoch. 

Kids running up to the car yelling "Muzungu!"

Enoch's grandchildren

It’s really quite a bizarre feeling being treated as if you are a celebrity just because of your skin color.  It definitely has provided me that feeling of being part of a minority group that I desired to experience in hopes of having a better understanding for minority children that may be in my classroom someday.  But with that said, I can only relate to a degree.  We are by no means treated poorly because we are white or made fun of or are disrespected.  Rather, we are treated like royalty and with the utmost respect, which is rarely the way minority students are treated.