Shelling Beans

Tuesday I went to Kampala to take care of some business. The American Embassy had called to tell me that the Ugandan Immigration Office had some questions about my relationship with Bry'Chell and needed a letter from me explaining her presence with me. Turns out child trafficking is an issue in Uganda. My neighbor, who is from Tanzania, was taking her kids (Hakima, age 4 and Ieka, age 2) home to Tanzania for Christmas and was stopped at the airport. Her husband is from Uganda but the kids were born in Tanzania, so she had to justify how she came to be with the kids.

Fortunately, I have the papers I need to justify my custody of Bry'Chell. I wrote a letter explaining the situation and made copies of the Power of Attorney papers and the travel papers. (I've learned never to let originals out of my possession.) Catherine at the American Embassy said the letter looked good and the papers were helpful. They'll get back to me when it's all straightened out. Thank God for the American Embassy.

While I was in town I did some shopping, getting groceries I can't find in Nkozi. On the way back Paul, the driver stopped to buy some beans from a roadside stand. As a Muzungu, I would get charged more than Buganda folks, so I waited until Paul had negotiated the price and then I asked him if I could buy some beans as well. I paid the same price he did--3,000 Ush, about $1.50.

The beans were unshelled, so that means Bry'Chell and I had to shell them. I started, but there were a lot of beans. I left note for Bry'Chell asking her to shell some of the beans while I was teaching. I came home this morning to find all the beans shelled. Turns out Carol helped Bry'Chell shell the beans. Carol has way more experience than Bry'Chell and I do, she's a lot faster. They finished the whole bag. I came home to find a big pile of beans all shelled and ready to go. Hurray!

Now all I have to do is cook them. Beans here are better than beans in the US. For one thing they're a lot fresher. We were eating the beans from our garden, but they're gone now and the new crop is just coming up. The beans we have now will be enough until the new crop is ready.