Some tidbits of the every-day

I figure it's about time to offer some information on every day life from a gringo (whoops, "mzungu") in Kampala. This is going to be a rambler.


First of all, this is my flat:


I did a little video tour, but I'm not having any luck uploading it. Hopefully the internet will have a better day soon!


Secondly: language. No, I don't know how to speak with clicks yet. In fact I'm pretty sure there aren't even any languages in Uganda that involve clicking. Bummer.

Almost everyone I've interacted with so far in Kampala speaks some amount of English. Most of them are fluent enough to make usual conversation pretty easy. I don't even have to be Typical American Tourist and make myself understood by yelling really really slowly!
Seriously, though, it makes adjusting much easier when I'm not battling the language barrier and therefore feeling like a total moron every five minutes.

The most common indigenous language in Kampala is Luganda. Luganda is the language of Buganda - the largest of the handful of kingdoms that still exist as traditional divisions in Uganda. Yes, "Uganda" comes from "Buganda". Other than Luganda, however, there are about 35 other indigenous languages spoken all over Uganda. It gets confusing quickly. Imagine how much fun I'm going to have in a couple months when I'm traveling all over the country visiting survey sites for work? I'm going to need a different interpreter every 5 minutes. Or one interpreter who speaks 30 languages. Woo!

I really enjoy Ugandan accented English. It has a very precise and proper (maybe British influence?) sound to it. It helps that people, in general, are very polite when they speak. Almost every interaction, no matter how trivial, begins with "Hello. How are you? I am fine" or something along those lines. It makes buying bananas feel so much more formal.

There are some funny little nuances to Ugandan English. For instance, the most common farewell is "nice time"... waaaaaay easier than saying "HAVE A nice time". Similarly people will say "nice night" or "nice weekend". Ugandans also will say "pick" and "drop" rather than "pick up" and "drop off". You know what? Maybe they're on to something... they speak so much more efficiently!
A particular favorite cultural language tendency is Ugandans' love of the word "sorry" (generally pronounced "soddy") - to be used in damn near any context. I dropped a brick on your foot? Soddy! You tripped in a pothole? Soddy! I almost t-boned you with my motorbike even though your walking on the sidewalk? Soddy! You sneezed? Soddy! All the food in your refrigerator went bad because you haven't had electricity for 24 hours even though the power company (apparently) charges the 2nd highest rate for electricity in the world? Soddy!

I also love that when little children see me (or any other non-Ugandan), they instinctively yell "MZUNGU BYYYEEEEEEE" which apparently translates to "HIIIII WHITEYYYY!" Hah!



Now on to food. I'm afraid to say the local food doesn't really knock my socks off. It's by no means bad! And I think it's probably pretty healthy... it's just kinda bland. Basically the way it works is this: you get a big plate piled high with starches, another dish with some sort of meat, usually some pinto beans on one or the other dish and if you're lucky you may also get some sort of greens - be they a coleslaw-y salad or something along the lines of collard greens [thank you mom for the well-meaning email about "collard" greens not wearing shirts nor committing crimes, and therefore not, in fact, being "collared" greens... aaaaaand making me feel like a moron]. And if you're REALLY lucky there will be chili sauce with which to douse it all (and clean out your insides). Oh! And sometimes there's g-nut sauce, too. "g-nut" is how the cool kids say "ground nut". "ground nuts" are, well, peanuts. G-nut sauce is therefore close enough to peanut butter to thrill my pants off.

The plate-o-carbs options that I've discovered so far are: matoke (green bananas boiled into a pulpy mass), sweet potato, pumpkin, brown rice, cassava, white rice, phenomenally tasteless polenta-like stuff and french fries. Also that list is in the order of my preference at the moment (high to low).

The meat options are usually super-sketchy beef, slightly less-sketchy chicken and least-sketchy fish. I usually choose fish. I'm pretty sure the most common kind is Nile perch in a stew. Dip a forkful of carb-of-choice into stew, spear piece of meat, insert in mouth. Seriously, it's not bad, it's just... kinda... there. I could see myself averaging 1 local meal every other day without getting too burnt out.
The real up side is that a meal at a local-food restaurant usually runs between 3000 and 4000 Ugandan Shillings (UGX), or about $1.75 - $2.25. For a SERIOUS amount of grub.
Kampala does also have a pretty vibrant foreign-food scene - so far I've had Italian, Thai and Indian, all of which have been dang tasty.


Rice, beans, matoke; chicken & beans; chili sauce


Fish stew; matoke, sweet potato, beans, greans


This is, however, a GOOD place to be a tropical-fruit lover. I just got back from the Bugolobi Trading Center (the local marketplace), where I bought 2 mangos, an avocado and a bunch of those super-sweet little golden bananas for... $2.00 (also the pineapple I bought the other day was about $1). VICTORY! The only real tragedy is the lack of tortilla chips with which to eat aforementioned avocado. Kate, however, is working on this.

How is Kate trying to solve Kampala's tortillalessness, you may ask? Well... it just so happens that I lucked out and am living with a woman whose job is (among other things) to work with students at Makerere University's Food Science and Technology institute. What exactly is Food Science in Technology? It is the Science and Technology of making FOOD! Better food! These students work in groups with Ugandan farmers to "add value" to their products. For instance, if a farmer grows pineapples, he can sell those pineapples for, say 1000UGX, and he has to sell them relatively quickly before they go bad. If, however, he has the know-how and required technology, he can dry and package this pineapple, then store it for much longer and sell it for much more (packets of probably 1/5 of a pineapple go for 500UGX). It's a pretty cool project, and the students are coming up with pretty brilliant products. Kate, however, being the exploitative mzungu that she is (joking), is on a one-woman mission to get one of her students to figure out how to make tortillas (and thereby tortilla chips) with local ingredients. Joseph, one of her students, is hard at work. We wait with bated breath.

Some of the awesome products Kate's students are producing (and thereby stocking our cabinets with) are:
Peanut butter! (actually includes peanuts and sesame seeds... delicious)
"Nutri-nut": chocolate peanut butter!
Mango garlic sauce (we marinaded chicken breasts in this stuff and grilled it... WOW)
Mango chutney
"Zeeba Multi Grain Bar": super-crunchy nut-and-seed bar (this has been breakfast a few times)
Garlic & Chili Sauce (as I've been typing this I took down half an avocado with salt and this sauce on it)

They're all amazingly delicious. And cheap! And sustainable! Woohoo!


Needless to say, I lucked out and am living with a couple of serious gourmands. Life is tough.


The other day we got a bit carried away and breaded&fried everything we could. Including okra. Mmmm....


Epicurious Kate makes meatballs from scratch for spaghetti last night! Which means leftover meatball subs tonight! Woohoo!



In other news, click this for some photos from my walk to Bugolobi Trading Center today:

Images of daily life