We're back, and this time with less to say! ha!
Jonna, one of Dom's workmate's wife, also a vet, took me to a women's cooperative in one of the villages 9kg outside of Kampala. Despite taking 2 hours each way on transferring between mini-buses to get through the polluted, dusty city, the cooperative was very peaceful and well worth it. My eyes and nose burn from the constant fumes and dust, and when i get home I can't wait to shower and clean out my nose and ears, which are black inside, yummmmmmmmm. The exhaust gives me and Jonna a headache too. We make sure to tell each other when we are ready to go home, knowing fully well once we start to feel the irritable side come through there's no turning back, and we will be in this state for 2 hours. So far so good, it's good to know oneself in these times!
The cooperative was started by two passionate Ugandans in 2000 and about 20 rural women who are widows with or without orphaned children come by every weeek to work on crafts and wine-making. The crafts are absolutely beautiful. Yesterday we help make paper beads. Colorful paper is rolled into beads, then varnished. The wine is more like a cherry and made out of cane sugar, pineapple, passion fruit and orange. It's tasty, well, I should speak for myself, as Dom is not so sure he likes cherry. During the day the founders, Sofia and Augustine, invited us (Jonna, me, and Tasha -a workmate's daughter) to their home for an amazing traditional lunch. Beef in broth, amazing rice, cooked corn maize (exactly like nshima in Zambian I was thrilled!), groundnut sauce- like peanut sauce (sounds gross but is one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten, and easy to make - peanuts water and onion), oh and fresh, perfectly ripe avocado. If I were fed this meal everyday I WILL gain a lot of weight. Trying hard not to do that, it ain't easy when you're not shovelling @#$! every day! Excuse me. The ladies next door to the cooperative make the most amazing dyed baskets I have ever seen. I would put a picture on here, but then i would ruin the surprise. Sorry.
Speaking of avocados, Jonna allowed me to hit some avos off her tree in her backyard. It was actually a difficult feat, as they are stubborn fruits! They were finally ripe to eat yesterday and Dom and I made a 3 avo guacamole, yum yum. We ran out of tomatoes b/c the fridge in the apt likes to freeze all my fresh veggies, argh that's annoying, but I have managed to figure it out. One avo had a few bruises from me smacking it 30 times to get it down. But it was really a great batch, we salvaged the cilantro, and even had a lime - we were prepared as this is our fav dinner and we were looking forward to it for a week! But just so everyone can be prepared...Uganda has NO tortilla chips in site. I mean there actually is a mexican restaurant nearby-ish, and that is a blessing, but you can't buy chips from them. But there are Pringles, salty Pringles that go REALLY well with guacamole.We happened to have one tube in the cubbord, and then some crackers like Saltines. Mexican food is THE thing I crave. I have yet to meet one Mexican in Africa.
BTW food and groceries in Arica is not cheap. If the prices are not the same as in the States, they're more. Silly me mazungu bought a kg of plums and .5kg of grapes, which were $10 each! OK learned my lesson not to eat grapes or plums in Uganda until I get a friggin job.
I almost forgot to mention, we went bowling last night!!!! At this mall, yes you heard me correctly, the main mall in Kampala, called Garden City, is ridiculous, and expensive. On the top floor (4 - no elevators here) they have a cinema with cap movies from the States and a bowling alley, with really loud music and strange men that sneak in and target mazungus and try to steal their purses! Thank goodness Mac, Jonna's hubby, saw the man sit NEXT to him, take my handpurse, and start walking away. Ummm, hello! Thank you Mac, I owe you big time for catching the guy! Then Dom got in the dude's face and followed him out of the place and was going to walk him straight to the security guards that are all around Kampala (for the Somalian bombs...) but the guy was too fast. Anyhoo, Bowling was really, really fun there were 6 of us.
We got home just in time for the roaches to wake from their slumber and right when I was starting to feel comfortable in "my" kitchen, two luckily dying roaches (one very small and one not very small) were on the counter where we made the guacomole!!! ARGH. "DOM...Clean up in isle 5 pretty, pretty please". SO I got to dream of roaches coming out of the drain all night, I woke up thinking I was a zoo keeper again.
Well hopefully you didn't read this just before bed either. Sorry to end on that note. More to come, like how Dom and I are going to Entebbe tonight for a dinner with Uganda Wildlife Education Center people, very excited about that! And that I am helping Jonna put Frontline (anti-tick stuff) on all the stray dogs at the shelter today. Anna, just getting some practice wrangling strays =)
Until next time, I hope you are well, and thank you for tuning in! xoxoxo Amy and Dom
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