Have I been back two weeks already?? Did I actually leave at all or was that just a vivid dream? It feels so weird being right back into the routine.
I stopped over a few days in Kampala before heading out to Soroti because my good friend Ronnie waited for me to come back to have her baby. :-)
I didn't spend as much time with them at the hospital as I would have liked but I spent lots of hours with their older two kids.
It also proved more of a challenge than I expected to get my truck to Kampala. I had left it in Soroti for the duration of my furlough and there are plenty of drivers who could be hired to bring it up but it was having several mechanical problems and then I discovered that no one wanted to travel around the holiday (which here is a full week). Anyway, finally got it worked out and on Jan 2nd began the trek back to Soroti. The house was pretty dusty but overall not bad. I got sheets out of storage and decided I just needed to sit down for a few minutes. I thought I was mostly over the jet lag but after driving all those hours, well, I woke up from my rest six hours later. Hadn't yet even unpacked the truck. Discovered that neither of the fridges in the kitchen were working. (I have two at the moment because in the weeks leading up to departure my regular fridge sprung a Freon leak. This is a complicated problem to fix in Soroti. But finally, after at least six different visits from the repair man, and several things ordered from Kampala, including a freon tank, it was working again. In the mean time I had borrowed a small one from friends. Had not yet returned it before I left as they didn't need it anyway. So now I have two fridges and neither of them work). I had a strange mishmash of foods for midnight dinner, finished airing out the house, unloaded the truck, pulled a few clothes and other things out of storage and headed back to bed. Was woken in the morning by kids banging on my gate. It was Ken and Janet asking for money. I'd been back in Soroti roughly twelve hours and it was already beginning again.
Headed out to church where I was overwhelmed by the dust, heat and noise. After that headed into town to get some groceries and discovered the ATM wasn't giving any money. So back to the house and tried to make dinner with what I had, when I discovered after I hooked the gas back up and turned the oven on it smelled overwhelmingly like burning rat. Turned that back off and discovered a large mouse house between it and the wall. Once it cooled down I opened the back panels and found two more nests. Full of now cooked baby mice. Welcome back to Soroti.
Anyway, here it is thursday and I've talked to the fridge repairman several time but he has not yet showed up. I've cleaned the oven and removed all the rotten insulation. I can still use it but am finding that it doesn't heat nearly as well, which isn't actually that big a problem as I don't really have any food to cook anyway. I'm trying to find something in Soroti that I can re-insulate it with but it seems like I'll have to get something in Kampal next time I go back there. I've brought the truck back to the mechanic and he has ordered parts to hopefully by next week it will be back to normal.
In much more positive news I've re-acquired all my pets. Mbwa (the dog) seems very happy to be back. The cat has eaten at least six mice, probably more as I've heard lots of running and slamming into things at night.
My little duck has finally decided to hatch some eggs. She is sitting on a nest of seven and though the transition from one home to another was a little tricky I think we managed. Also, I've added a new male bunny and he and my female hit it off. Little ducklings in 20 days and more little bunnies in 31 days?!
Anyway, the next few weeks are going to be busy. The VHTs have already called asking for medications so I am planning a trip up very shortly. But I've learned that CLIDE is having their quarterly meeting next week so that may throw a wrench in my plans. I'm in a rush because I'm headed down to western Uganda (three days of travel) to meet a team coming from NC. I'm looking forward to it but I'd managed to forget how long it takes to do anything here.
So, thats the low-down. Probably a bunch of information you didn't really need but I'm just trying to get back into the swing of things.
All of them are growing well and are fun to have around the yard. They are very funny if I leave a basin of water out.
Hung out with family members this past weekend. Seems funny to write that as I'm still in Uganda. But they live here now!!! I just got back from Jinja (the city they live, about 5 hours from Soroti) and still need to unpack my truck and get ready for the week but it was wonderful hanging out with them. I'm afraid I'm going to be spending a bit more time in Jinja than I have in the past....
Here is a peek at my day yesterday. You would think by now I'd be more used to the ridiculousness of bureaucracy here but it still gets under my skin really quickly. I just need to open two bank accounts. Now, I know I'm a foreigner but I went with all sorts of documents that show that I work here, pay rent and bills regularly, that I have the permits to be here, etc... I went to the bank Tuesday afternoon, got in line and waited to see the manager. 35 minutes later I'm informed that, actually, the person I need to see for a foreign currency account wasn't there and that he will surely be back Wednesday. I went back Thursday and waited a few minutes but quickly discovered there were 16 people (not exaggerating) in line ahead of me and in the 10 minutes I waited the line only got longer, not shorter. So I left. 8:30 sharp (the time they are supposed to open) Friday morning found me waiting outside the bank. Lets just say they didn't really open on time. But I was the first one in line to see the manager. I explained that I would like to open two accounts, a dollar account and a shilling account. He said fine, asked to see some ID. I gave him my CLIDE badge and we made small talk about the consultancy. He knew several of my co-workers so we talked about a recent wedding and other things. Then he asked to see another piece of ID. I gave him my MI drivers license. He immediately found a problem. My license reads Jennifer Jane Kragt and the CLIDE one reads Jennifer Kragt. He didn't like that one "had another name". I explained how middle names in the States work and how no one calls me Jane so it isn't on the CLIDE card. He asked to see another form of ID. I showed him my birth certificate but that one doesn't have a picture so he didn't like it. He really wanted another Ugandan issued ID but I don't have anything else. We settled on my passport but he really wasn't happy. He asked to see my papers that I used to get a work permit (in lieu of a letter of introduction from CLIDE) and at first he was fine but then he decided that because he had put Jennifer Jane on all of his papers my letters had to have that name too. So I have to go get a new letter of introduction from my boss that says that I work for CLIDE (which you would think both my ID card and work permit make pretty clear) and make sure it says Jane on it somewhere. He explained to me that I also need to get a letter of permission (?!?!) from the Local Council Chairman (LC1) and bring that with me to the bank when I get back. As it was nearly 11 am by this time (it had taken him forever to find the right papers, get the instructions from someone above him and do whatever else he was doing while I was sitting waiting at his desk. I should mention here the one of the things which made it take longer was that on the first paper he gave me to sign I signed Jennifer Jane Kragt. The same on the second. When he got to the third and fourth signatures I just scribbled J. Kragt. My mistake. He had to fill those two out again and have me sign CORRECTLY. Also, because he left me sitting so long, (his mistake!), I had a chance to read a few of the things I was signing. I discovered that the account I was opening was going to cost 10,000 UGX per month. I challenged him in this and he insisted it wouldn't be nearly that much. I countered with maybe it shouldn't say it on the paperwork if it wasn't true. I had also read that I could only open the shillings account with less than 600,000 UGX of and no minimum balance had to be maintained. Both of which contradicted what I had been told earlier. Mr. Manager obviously didn't know what was on the papers and told me to not worry about it.) I just packed it up and headed out. I met with Dr. Moses and asked for the letter by Monday which he said was not problem. Then I called my landlord to see if he would "introduce" me to the LC1 so I could get a letter from him. My landlord is out of town on business and it was unclear when he was getting back so I decided that even though it isn't really cultural I was just going to find him myself. So some of my neighbors gave me directions and I finally found him in a local bar already drunk. (Still before noon.)
The first day in Kisoro, before the team arrived I tagged along with Dr. Daniel to check on his rabbit program. It is fun to see a thriving, successful project.
Because it was raining the day we did this a few people invited us to sit inside their tiny houses. Here is a looks at the bed in their only bedroom. 
