9 things that make me giggle

1. picking your nose in public is 100% appropriate and accepted here.

2. cell phone calls are of paramount importance- meaning that you answer your cell phone no matter what you are already doing. Last week I was at a ceremony opening a new hospital, when the speaker's mobile rang mid-speech - of course, he whipped it out, answered it, and had a brief conversation before continuing his speech.

3. I'm often greeted in one of the following ways: "Mono, hello how are you i am fine." "Mzungu, marry me." "Madam, give me your dog."

4. Nobody is ever described as having a bad personality trait here - they are just 'so stubborn.'

5. word pronunciation- z's turn into j's, and people just throw h's into words wherever they want: organization = organijajon; however = ow heva; social change = shoshal chan

6. last week i was introduced as 'a visiting dignitary.'

7. when you break out new dance moves, it's called 'pulling queer strokes'

8. when you want something ready immediately, you say 'now now' - as if 1 now isn't enough.

9. today i walked into my kitchen to find my fat little 'niece' Faith lying on the floor, wailing because she wanted a potato. this girl will eat anything and everything, and woe to the fool who comes between her and her food.

the expanse of the heavens

One time a friend told me that Africa is big sky country. That's putting it mildly. The african sky is so beautiful that it sometimes takes my breath away.














Let me try to paint a picture for you:









-you wake up with the dawn - the sun is already so strong that it burns through the curtains and plays with your morning dreams. The sunrise is mild hues of pink and corral, and it passes quickly into regular morning sunlight.




-during the morning, very few clouds mar the sky. It is blue as far as the eye can see - a deep azure like Longfellow's poem. Even if the morning air is cool, the sun begins to beat down in waves of dry heat.








-in the afternoon, the clouds begin to gather for their evening performance. They are magnificent - cirrus on top of cumulus and stratus. They look like varied brush strokes on a canvas of sunlight. The sun sometimes outlines the clouds or streams through them. The light turns orange and fierce, but the expanse of the heavens stretches far beyond what two eyes can take in.

-by sunset, you are eagerly anticipating what the sky will provide tonight: streaks of deep orange or pink, a flaming globe hanging low. no one can predict the glory of sunset in africa - some days it is understated, with lilac tones gently making waves across the world. other days you think the sun has disappeared, and then it rounds a foothill to blind you in its fierceness.


-dusk passes, and the moon arises - talk about your star performer. Every night the moon is beautiful. Last night it was a waxing crescent - soon it will be full, hopefully before I leave. It shines brightly enough to lighten the dark street where I live. The darker the night, the more brightly it shines - I could stare for hours.

-the night sky is littered with stars: so many that you want to throw your head back, let your jaw hang open, and just gape. I get in trouble for doing this while walking...










Not just in Uganda is the sky painfully beautiful - Kenya and Zimbabwe are the same. A colleague once told me, "There is something magical about the birds and the sky in Africa, take deep breaths and drink it in."

workin here in Gulu

Maybe it's about time I explained more of what I do over here in Africa. I'm sure most people have heard the boring spiel I always give ('I work for a US government contractor and manage 3 of our international programs. What I do isn't glamorous, but the projects are really cool.') - but here are some fun facts:
-USAID is a government agency paid for by your tax dollars. (thank you) It's not allowed to advertise in any way, which is why you may not have heard of it.
-My organization is a private, for-profit contractor for USAID - not an NGO.
-In Uganda, we are trying to help increase people's confidence in the Government of Uganda (with the underlying theory that this will help bring stability to the war-torn region of northern Uganda). To do this, we have various types of projects based on our funding: media, infrastructure rehabilitation, & reconciliation.

Those are the basics - the program out here does everything from rebuilding schools to installing new water pumps, to reburial ceremonies, to break dance competitions, to hiring war affected youth to build furniture for government offices. Everything we do is purposeful & strategic - including the way we award grants, the timing, the locations where we work. Because of the way the program is set up, we are able to implement projects a lot faster than most other contractors - which makes us the favorite of the politicians, the darling of the local media and the envy of other programs.

In a typical day, I get to the office by 8, and already have a stack of papers to sign. Every thing that comes to my desk is urgent and should have been signed yesterday. Most days I don't know where to begin (don't tell my team!). By nature of my position out here (Operations Coordinator), I get asked a lot of advice: this afternoon I had my door shut to conduct a phone interview for an hour and was interrupted 6 times.

On fun days I get to go on field visits - to see what we are actually accomplishing and monitor progress. Two weeks ago, I went to a small town 3 hours away in order to do an assessment of timber suppliers in the area. Please somebody go find my diploma in timber. I have no expertise here, but I went and gave the program spiel and talked about anti-corruption. This is the kind of thing that I love - I get to see the local towns, learn about a new area of procurement, and be a part of the action.

Tomorrow I'm going to visit our the site where we are filming a documentary of traditional Acholi dance, then in the afternoon I have to interview two candidates, and of course a thousand approvals to sign.

My favorite field memory is this time in January we had a drama competition, and my team asked me to pick out a nice prize for the winners: a bull. I trekked out to the town corral with one of my team (literally over a stream, through long grass, and across a field). Lydia showed me the bull she thought was best, and then we proceeded to rank the bulls based on health, age, fatness, ability to pull an ox plow, and beauty. Lydia kept telling me, 'Abigail - that is not a male,' but by the end I was an expert.

Of course there are also days like today when I feel beaten down - I know so little, I am not a part of this culture, I can't keep up with the workload... such is life. I have to pull myself out of the weeds to appreciate the big picture again. Like I said - not glamorous, but awesome results.

I'm really grateful to be a small part of what we are doing out here - every day I can go home and say, 'today, I made northern Uganda a better place.' cheesy, but actually true.

musings & echoes

One of the things I love most in the world is languages - not just the language of words, the dialects of body language, music, food, emotions, art - there are so many. The past couple of nights, I've gone to see this Congolese band play at one of the hotels around Gulu.

The Pearl Afrique band plays everything from La Bomba to Celine Dion's heart rendering Titanic theme song (this one is more ear-splitting than anything else), but their specialty of course is Congolese music. The music is quite complex - it involves guitars, a bass, keyboards, two types of drums, singers, a mandolin, and a sax. As I was listening last night, I was struck by how similar the rhythm is to some latino music. I could very well have been listening to a merengue band in El Salvador for all the similarities - it was beautiful.

Then I started thinking about how some languages sound similar, even though they have little or no relation to one another. When I hear people speak Farsi, I feel like I should be able to understand them - because it sounds so much like French. Even though our languages got scrambled at Babel, we are still given hints of a universalism - things everyone appreciates, even if they can't communicate through words.

So, how did the congolese culture pick up this carribbean music - or vice versa? How come the dance moves look so similar to cubano salsa? I think these are echoes; reminders that at one time human beings spoke one language. We are united by more than just similar dna - our souls come from the same Creator, who endowed all of us with an appreciation for beauty.

Since these are sort of random musings, I'd love to hear anybody's thoughts on this...

Weekend highlights

In no particular order, here are some moments to relish from a typical Gulu weekend:

1. There was a frog in my downstairs toilet last night. I chose the ‘avoidance’ strategy and found another bathroom – still am not sure if he was alive or dead… Am going to let my maid handle that one.
2. Attended a break dance practice that my organization is sponsoring – the performances start in 2 weeks, and are going to be slammin. Later met up with the instructors in a nightclub, and got to see two of the top break dancers in Uganda show off their moves. I think there might be a class this week? I will so be there.
3. Somebody cleaned the Gulu pool – as of Saturday afternoon, I could actually see to the bottom – very exciting.
4. Tried out a new church today, and felt so blessed by communion and singing familiar songs (Glorious things of thee are spoken, Onward Christian soldiers). It’s considered quite strange to cry in public here, but God’s presence was so present during worship – I couldn’t help it.
5. No internet or power for the past few days – was unable to check my work email, and now feel refreshed.
6. Ate spaghetti and watched the men’s 3rd round at the U.S. Open at a friend’s place last night. Yum and yum.
7. Sunday afternoon rainstorms from the balcony.

reading, reading, reading

I typically try to buy lots of paperbacks to haul across the Atlantic and leave them for the little mini-library I started over here. This time I found myself with a number of hardbacks (thanks to a used bookstore that Becky & I found in Fredericksburg)... Martha - in response to your request for my Africa reading list, here goes:

-Confessions of a Spy, Pete Earley
-Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris
-I know why the caged bird sings, Maya Angelou
-The early writings of John Gerstner (borrowed from Mom -thank you, and I will not donate this one!)
-Know your Christian Life, Sinclair Ferguson (also borrowed - thanks Mom)
-For whom the bell tolls, Ernest Hemmingway
-To the Lighthouse, Virginia Wolfe
-Imperial Hubris, Scheuer

I might not have lugged quite so many books if I had realized that Amazon actually ships to Gulu!! nice to know for next time...