Bananas and Dirt

In my last post I misspelled the popular national dish of Uganda and may have left a false impression. The dish is matooke and it is made from green bananas, the skin of the bananas is green not the fruit. However, matooke is made from the fruit, not the skin of the banana.

I've mentioned that we have a housekeeper who comes three days a week, mostly to do laundry, which is done by hand, and to iron. Without a dryer, clothes are much more wrinkled and definitely need to be ironed. Specioza is a wonderful woman. She is patient with my difficult to understand American accent and just smiles when I talk too fast--as I tend to do when I get excited or confused. (Often these days.)

Specioza usually comes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She washes on Monday and Friday and irons on Wednesday. She also mops everyday she comes over. My floors have never been so clean. I could probably pay her less, but between Marie Ester, for whom she works on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and myself, she makes the same as a primary school teacher. This isn't to say we pay her a lot, but it's a good wage for Uganda. She has three children, a girl of 9, and two boys, ages 7 and 4. It would be wrong to pay her less than it takes to feed her kids.

Tuesday she washed as usual (there was a mix-up on Monday). She hung the clothes on the line and, as usual, I took them down in the evening when they were dry. However, the bath towels were not dry. When they still weren't dry in the morning, Bry'Chell and I used them anyway and then I hung them back on the line. Evidently, they weren't clean enough for Specioza, because she washed them again and hung them out to dry. It's sort of like having your mother around, OK, my mom would have told me to wash the towels, but you get the idea.

Things do get dirty here. When it rains it's muddy, when it doesn't rain it's dusty. The dirt is red, the color reminds me of the Grand Canyon. Since the roads are mostly dirt, except for the main highway, everything gets covered with dust, or mud depending on the day. The school kids carry a handkerchief to wipe off their shoes when they get to school so they look nice. School kids here are somewhat different than school kids at home. They like to look "smart" as they say. Translate that as clean and neat--sort of preppy, minus the brand names.

Sr. Sanyu, the Head Mistress at St. Mary's sent Bry'Chell home with some beautiful eggplant the other day. I wasn't quite sure what do do with them. In the past I put them in the fried rice. Thanks to Anji I know you can put just about anything in fried rice. These were too many and too big, so I figured I go on-line and get a recipe for Eggplant Parmesan, only I couldn't access the internet. I did my best guess based on my two restaurant experiences. I didn't have any Parmesan, but I did have fresh Mozzarella and I had leftoever sauce from spaghetti the night before. It was a hit! Bry'Chell scarfed it down and had seconds.

My books have been a hit with both faculty and students. The students come over just to stare at my bookshelf and tell me that nobody here reads that many books. I don't have the heart to tell them that these are just a few of the books I have. The faculty comes over to borrow books, specifically research methods books. This is clearly an area that needs some improvement. Fortunately, I brought several research methods books.

I haven't been able to post pictures because the internet connection has been so slow, but I'm going to try again today. The country is beautiful and I would like to share some of the pictures we've taken.