Yesterday dawned cool and breezy – lovely clouds in the sky – some looking like rain. I got excited – thinking optimistically that they would accidentally spill a few drops. They were just teasers… no rain – but one can dream. As I walked into town, with hat and sunglasses – always sunglasses, I was surrounded by clouds of dust so thick you can taste it, wrapping around my glasses and attacking my eyes. This mix is made even more heinous by being blended with soot, transported from the fields that are being burned to clear for planting in March, when – theoretically rain comes again. Everything in Uganda revolves around burning, digging, planting and harvesting. When I say everything, I mean it: school, work, transport, travel, health. The increase in eye, sinus and upper-respiratory infections is astronomical. And perversely, the mosquitoes are worse in dry season than rainy. The daily rain keeps water moving, while in dry season, the water left over from rainy season stagnates and creates the perfect swamp for mosquitoes.
To offset the malaise caused from heat and dust I decided to finally buy a few belated Christmas presents, the timely purchase of which was derailed by “the foot.” So today I need to determine the best way to get them to the States. While that may seem obvious, here it is like solving a chinese puzzle. Finding packing supplies at all is like a scavenger hunt. Finding those that will survive the trip to the States, adds another level of difficulty. That’s why – in the suggested packing list for PC, it’s recommended we bring a bunch of bubble envelopes. Right – you’re packing for two years in two bags totaling 80 pounds that you personally have to haul around? Bubble packets just don’t make the short list. This is one of those things you miss in a third world country… Simple things like index cards, envelopes with stick-um on the back flap that really sticks, packaging, insect spray that kills, mirrors larger than the size of your hand… So I’ll get inventive and hope the package holds up long enough to get across the pond.
Since yesterday was also a “power is finished” or power-is-not-there” day, it means either nothing gets done or folks (meaning mostly Munus) gravitate to the either Coffee Hut or Sankofa, two eating establishments that have power (even if it’s a generator) almost no-matter-what. It doesn’t take a business genius to figure out that people with computers, cell-phones, cameras, etc. that need to be charged will come and sit for HOURS while charging various gadgets and in the process order vastly overpriced food and drinks. These places do very well indeed. The fact that they cater to the western pallet helps: one can get almost-pizza, almost-hamburgers, almost-pancakes, pretty decent BLT’s, milk-shakes (sometimes) and to-die-for Brochette made with fresh tomatoes and garlic – lots of garlic. It means that they are packed to capacity on no-power days.
Not wanting to spend my day at either, I opted for a compromise of exhausting battery power and heading for the only pool in town. I resolved that I would not be seen in a bathing suit or expose my skin (which, from living on a sailboat, has seen enough sun to last several lifetimes) to equatorial sun. But, this being the dry season, and there being water for the having, I succumbed and lounged around like a lizard, the difference being that lizards don’t like water. Oh, it was grand, just looking at it. And on a scale of 1 – 10, jumping in was about a 15. So, I’ll be back and it may be the saving grace of being in Gulu. Resolutions being made to be broken – I did not make any for 2012.
So that’s it. Power came on just long enough to re-charge to 59% and it is now “finished.” Ear plugs, a book light and Ken Follett’s, The Pillars of the Earth will no nicely to finish off the night.
Dong maber (remain well)!