Notes from the Field 2009

By Sarah Brunsberg
Uganda

I arrived in Uganda after 30 hours of travel completely and utterly exhausted and was greeted by Peter who was a special hired driver to drive me to Kampala for the night. It was an interesting experience arriving so exhausted and making the drive to Kampala trying to understand Peter's Ugandan English while driving on the wrong side of the road and avoiding 10 head on collisions (or what it seemed like to me at the time).

It has been difficult adjusting to how they drive in Uganda, but other than I often feel safer in Uganda than in the United States. Before I left all I heard was how cautious I needed to be and the precautions I needed to take with my money and things. However, I have not taken action with any of the precautions I came with to Uganda. Ugandans are the nicest and most honest people I have ever met. In the market one day a man chased after Anna just to give her the left over change she has forgotten. Besides the honesty there are absolutely no beggars here and from what I can tell everyone works, and they work hard. The staff at our Ssembabule site are amazing. They keep it very clean and make us tea and food often. The only drawback is that toilet paper often runs out and is not replaced quickly.

The living conditions are extremely different from the United States and I miss the luxuries we have back home, but I am adjusting to the living conditions here. Yesterday we went out into an even more rural village than the one we live in and I felt lucky for the pit latrine toilet and bucket baths we use at our site. These villages have nothing and it is amazing how generous the people living here are. The council woman of this village offered me three lemons which I gladly accepted because I am missing the food variety in the United States.

My conclusions thus far are although I am very homesick and miss things about the US, Ugandans are amazing people who are forcing me to slow down and enjoy the simple things in life.