It's A Small World...

On Sunday afternoon, I went with one of my colleagues, Sarah, to a breakdance performance show. That in itself was pretty cool (and very cute, it was all kids performing!), but the amazing part was seeing Hannah Cunningham, a girl I went to high school in NC with! Just after I sat down, she came up to me, and we both freaked out! Talk about a crazy place to run into an old classmate! She worked in Uganda for a year a couple of years ago, and is back for a month doing some independent research through Williams. I went to her house for dinner afterwards, and we caught up on Chapel Hill gossip. Hannah is only here for another week, but it's great to have someone I know here as I begin to acclimate.

Yesterday, Monday, was the first day of work and my introduction to real Ugandan food! There are 10 of us (or so) working for IPA Uganda, although about half are leaving in the next week to spread to more rural areas. We spent most of the day going through administrative orientation-type stuff and learned some useful guidelines for living in Uganda. Lunch was matoke and rice with chicken. In Uganda, you order "food" and "sauce"--not much of a point in looking at the menu, since they are usually not serving a majority of the items! "Food" is a starch or choice of starches (rice, yams, some sort of porridge, matoke...I'm sure I will learn the rest). I tried matoke, a steamed plantain with a mashed potato consistency. Not very good. I had eaten matoke chips with Hannah that were delicious the night before, so perhaps my expectations were too high! The chicken was a full piece of chicken in a nicely flavored broth, that I poured over my rice. My meal, with a bottled water was 2,500 UGX (~$1.25!) Insane.

We went out to dinner with the extended IPA family for Ethiopian food, which I have never had! We ordered four large platters, two vegetarian and two carnivore. On each platter, there were 6 different foods on a large round piece of sour bread that looked like a big sponge. There are no utensils, each person grabs a piece of bread and uses it to pick up the food and eat it with the bread. Very different from anything I have ever tried, but pretty delicious. I especially liked this coleslaw-ish cabbage dish on the veggie platter. I stayed away from the meat platter; so far, the meat has been seasoned nicely but is very tough.

I spent the morning working on my thesis and at the Kabira Country Club pool--so far, the Lady Diana sunscreen seems to be doing its job. I am a little pink, but that's normal! I was planning on running, but the hills in Kampala proved to be a bit much for me yesterday morning, my leg muscles have been on fire all day! Quite a different workout than in Chicago...

Headed off to Day #2 of work now! Things are on the relaxed side now, as the survey doesn't begin until mid-February, so as Pia suggested, I am enjoying the chill work schedule. This afternoon, Kareem and I will meet with Pia for 2 hours before meeting our team leads (the people who will be supervising the survey teams).