Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

“Quand on aime, il faut partir.”
“When one loves, it is necessary to leave.”
- Blaise Cendrars

Today woke and made coffee for the first time. We don’t have a coffee pot so I had to grind the coffee with Emily’s grinder and then let the rinds seep in boiled water. Wasn’t the best coffee I’ve ever had…but it was delicious since I never get to drink it here! (I know, I know…it’s only been a week. But a week without coffee is hard!). I also drank yogurt…yes, that’s right. Drank it. Here they serve all dairy products in a bag (milk, yogurt…etc). For yogurt you just cut a slit in the bag, put the bag in a cup and sip away! Its really delicious…probably my favorite breakfast food.
Then I read microfinance for two hours. For lunch Gael and I decided to walk across the street to a VERY local restaurant. No door. There was a chain of ants walking up and down the wall in a strip an inch thick…lovely. When you go to these restaurants you don’t ask for a menu…you ask what they have. Then they tell you and you order from that. Today they had matoke, rice, posho (maize ground and then steamed into a white, tasteless patty) and meat stew. Yeah – not the tastiest thing I’ve ever had. I am always sure to order a coke when I go to places like that…at least I know the coke will give me some calories and energy. It’s hard to eat this stuff. It’s all VERY bland – you can tell that people here are more concerned with energy and calorie content (eat a lot of starches) than with taste. I guess that’s yet another luxury those in the developed world have…but don’t think about. We eat things to get enjoyment – these people eat things for subsistence.
Gael and I had a lovely conversation. We discussed some of the challenges we had both been through in our life. Love. Career. Disappointment. Fear. Wonderment. We talked about my failed engagement. We talked about how hard it is to be away from our families. The Gael said something (in French, which always sounds cooler,) that struck me.
“Quand on aime, il faut partir.”
“What does that mean?”
“When one loves, it is necessary to leave.”
The moral of the story being that you aren’t able to appreciate that which you need…those who are important to you…those you love…those that love you…etcetera, until you are away from them. He has a point. You learn a lot about people when you’re not around them. Already I feel closer to some and further away from others.
I’m sad he’s leaving in 2 days…far too short. He’s one of the more interesting, personable and adventurous people I’ve ever come acres. He will be missed in the compound.
Afterwards Gael invited me to come to Pearl School in Makayende. We were in a matatu just about to enter Kampala when WHAM!!! a motorcycle flew across the intersection and slammed into another motorcycle rider. HERE’S THE CRAZY PART! The guy who rammed the other guy got off the ground, turned and ran away! There were guards (since it was the middle of an intersection in Kampala) but the guy just disappeared into the crowd and the guards didn’t give chase. WHAT?!?! He left his motorcycle right there! In travel guides they tell foreigners that if you hit someone at an intersection to keep driving because often times mob mentality takes over and people beat the perpetrator to death. Gulp. Glad I don’t drive. Anyways, the guy who was hit was pretty messed up. His leg was broken. He was shaken up badly. They dragged him to the side of the road and people continued on their way. Lets put it like this – life doesn’t have the same value in American and Kampala. I can’t help but feel that people take life and death way to cavalierly here. You need to keep your guard up.
Gael and I walked to the cell phone lady that turned me away the day before because her store didn’t have power.
“Madame – you sold me this phone and it doesn’t work. I need you to give me another phone.”
She didn’t say anything, but grabbed another charger (this one said Nokia, my first one wasn’t a name brand one) and my phone finally turned on after it was plugged in.
“Thank you nyeboo.”
Nothing. What a sweet heart.
We found a matutu to Makayende and got to Pearl school without any issues. The class was interesting – the students were learning about being a social entrepreneur…product differentiation…price differentiation…market share…sustainable competitive advantage. There were two students – Maria and Thomas were very impressive. After the class…same stuff…all the students wanted me email and wanted me to promise I’d come back. Pretty cool stuff.
Afterwards I was going to go a salsa dancing class with Gael (random, I know) just to keep on my trend of opening horizons and trying new things, BUT it was all the way across town and class went late. Instead we went to a restaurant in the middle of the city. The fumes from the car below was enough to choke you, but we ate outside anyways. There was a film on everything…lovely. Fried chicken and chips – seems to be a staple here.