Umeme’s timing is exquisite. Umeme is the power company and has such a reputation of predictability (i.e it will NOT “be there” when it is most needed) that it has gained Entity status. People here talk about Umeme as tho it is a person. “Ah! That Umeme is fickle….” And indeed it is. It has yet to be tagged with a gender, but Uganda, in seeking gender equity would be ill advised to label it female as is the case with many other fickle entities.
And so it is tonight – fickle. Having been without Umeme, for two days, sweltering in the night because of the unseasonable heat (did I mentioned in the last post about it pegging 117 degrees last week?) we were gifted two days with power. No doubt because it would be bad form to mark the 50th anniversary of Uganda’s independence with noooooo electricity for celebrations. But – since it IS the big five-0, all of the local area officials are in Kampala at the huge do-das there. So the date of our parade, etc. is “to be determined.” Still – I have the week off – a totally unexpected vacation. And wait! There’s a flash of light! OH-MY Umeme is baaaaack. Whee – I have to go blow out a house full of candles… I’ve learned to always keep some sort of tap light or candle and lighter nearby. When it’s dark here it is really dark.
Monday night, Independence Day eve – Diana Gardens, the club in my front yard, had a big event. They began tuning up for this around three in the afternoon and my doors and windows were rattling. There is a true obsession with “loud” here. I don’t get it and I especially don’t get how people can still hear. Why is “noise induced hearing loss” not rampant? People are still engaged in whispered greetings a 20 paces while walking away from each other. And they hear it! Well – not this Muzungu. After putting wads of toilet paper around every iron bolt, in all the doors and windows I foolishly asked if they might turn the volume down just a smidge – you know to maybe an intimate 130 decibels. No way – they were just getting warmed up.
The party got started in earnest about 9PM after a good rain and continued until 4AM without so much as a pause for breath. Sleep was not to be had, with or without earplugs. I practically had to hold on to the bed to keep from being vibrated out – OK a slight exaggeration. So I finished book #92 somewhere around 3:45AM.
And speaking of vibrations, we had a little mini-earthquake last Friday night. The earth moved – and for all the wrong reasons. I would have thought it was a train going by – but – oh yeah – I forgot – we don’t HAVE trains up here. (Museveni destroyed all the tracks for fear of invasions.) Lasted about 5 seconds. I would have dismissed it as imagination had not Jenna texted me from the States that Gulu had an earthquake. Now how did she know that? Face Book no doubt – and then it was confirmed by a Ugandan friend. UFOs, earthquakes – this is feeling like California.
Mid-service is almost here! And the Ethiopia trip has been approved except for traveling in the south. Seems Al Shabab is lurking, having come over the borders of Sudan and Somalia. Turns out that the oldest physical evidence of a humanoid remains (3.5 Million years old) was discovered there and the Arc of the Covenant is said to still be enshrined in a temple at Axum. Should make for an interesting trip. And any country settled in part by the Portuguese and Italians has gotta have good food. Even tho the Brits got there later, the good food habit was already established. Can’t wait – three weeks of adventure and culinary bliss.
Yin-kitty (of the Yin/Yang duo) becomes more and more tame, still being trailed by her sole remaining calico kitten. Somehow, having an almost-pet makes life feel more normal. On a purely Peace Corps note, a friend whose project is helping to raise pigs in a village that’s damn near impossible to get to is playing nursemaid to several baby piglets. The mama died and the other new mama won’t suckle them. Soooo, she is tasked with finding a bottle to feed said piglets. But – she ran out of propane and in addition to not being able to cook, she can’t HEAT THE MILK for the little oinkers. Just about the time life becomes mundane, there’s another story around the corner. Stay tuned.