The satisfying thud

Blog 9.17.

Hello again friends I hope that all is well in the world. I am assuming that everything is ok because no one has told me otherwise. Also, if someone could send me an email telling me how the UVa football team is doing, that would be great.

One of the expectations of every Peace Corps volunteer is that they will become violently ill at some point in the next two years. I have been 85-90% most the time and am ready for my body to explode suddenly. Medical does a good job every week of telling us all of the diseases and bugs that we can possibly get in Uganda. There are parasites, amoebas, diseases, and the three days of uncontrolled diarrhea that can’t be explained but you survive and hope doesn’t happen again. Usually it’s just food poisoning so it passes pretty quickly. So far mostly everyone in our group has felt ill at some point. Two people have been treated for Giardhia and two people (not including myself) think they have it. Fun! In the past few weeks my bowels have made themselves present more than I am used to or appreciate. I like to know that my GI tract is working, but lately it has been reminding me almost every moment of every day. My stomach is constantly rumbling and gas is constantly coming out of both ends (though I have yet to have the “Big D”).
I think that this is a good time to talk about waste management in Uganda. In Uganda there are two acceptable places to use the bathroom. There is the popular and widely known pit latrine for every day use. That was a big obstacle for me as the hole is only 8 inches by 4 inches, a lot smaller than I expected. Squating and aiming is hard but the “satisfying thud” has been one of Uganda’s most pleasant surprises, especially since it's a 30 foot drop (though not hearing it is one of the most horrifying things that happens). At night Ugandans (and therefore me) do not use the pit latrine because they are outside and it is incredibly dark and most people do not have flashlights. So let me introduce you to the susu, which is just a bucket with a lid that you use the bathroom in at night; mine is a purple pitcher. In the morning you walk out to the latrine and empty it out. I think that if you ask any volunteer here, they will have a susu story to share. There are two problems with the susu and therefore usually two types of stories. The first is that a lot of people knock them over which is messy because you have to clean it up, which is its own problem. Families here don’t have paper towels or conventional mops so most people end up using their clothes and you have pee-soaked clothes in your room until you can wash it. On top of that there is usually no electricity so all the cleaning is done in the dark or by headlamp. The second problem is when people get violently sick in the middle of the night and all you have is a bucket. Not pretty (not that it has happened to me, but there have been some stories) but a part of life here.
The food here is great! Actually not amazing, but full of potential. The staple food here is Matooke, which is made from mashed plantains. Basically, the plantains are wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed for hours, then mashed. This is served almost everyday for lunch and dinner. To give it flavor, there is ground nut sauce, which is ground peanuts mixed in boiling water and stirred until enough water evaporates and it becomes a thick sauce. That is the main course. Usually on the side there is a combination of cabbage or eggplant, avocado, papaya, pasta, greens (kale, I think), potatoes and a number of other things that you can plant here. Mostly, the food prepared for me is edible and pretty good, but I am really looking forward to getting to my site and playing with new, fun ingredients. In my next entry I will talk about jackfruit and other foods.
On Saturday we went to jinja to see the source of the nile and explore the east a little bit. It only makes me more excited beacuase the east is beautiful. This is getting long. Later.