I’m sitting on my bed under my mosquito net writing this
tonight. I take a pill each morning to
avoid malaria and so far there don’t appear to be mosquitoes in the room but
the idea of sleeping under the net is sort of nice. It’s a bit like sleeping in a tent made of a
very light mesh and it’s kind of cozy.
There are definitely mosquitoes outside but with some spray they don’t
bother me.
That reminds me that I wanted to tell you about the program
that the government has put in place to reduce the rate of malaria infections. You see these lines of people on bicycles
with what look a bit like an oxygen tanks a diver uses, strapped to their
backs. They have white helmets on and
blue coveralls. They travel on the country roads and stop at every house they
see and spray for mosquitoes. Apparently
it’s working and the rate of malaria has fallen dramatically since the program
started.
We’re off as usual today to finish the work with Surenet
SACCO. One thing that we were told about before we left Canada is that the
western concept of time is different than the Ugandan concept of time. We tend to be very concerned about time and
the Ugandans don’t have the same approach.
My partner Isaac refers to Uganda time; today was typical in that our 9
am meeting began closer to 10:30. I want
to be clear that this is in no way indicative of a lack of interest on the part
of the participants – the whole concept of time is just different here. In many ways it’s refreshing. You just have to learn to be flexible and
that’s not a bad thing at all.
Today I learned something new. We were dealing with something and I was
impressed with what they’d done so said ‘let’s have a round of applause’. The Ugandans have a way of clapping where
they clap twice, pause briefly, clap 3 time, pause and clap 3 times again and
on the last clap instead of clapping they slide their right hand along their
left hand and ‘send’ the clap towards you.
This means they’re acknowledging something that you’ve done. If you’re the recipient of the clap you
‘receive’ the clap by ‘catching in with your hands’ and putting them on your
chest. You’d likely laugh if you could
see me in my mosquito cocoon trying this out to decide how best to describe it
in writing. Give it a try.
We spent part of the afternoon finishing our report for the
SACCO we just finished working with and preparing for the next one
tomorrow. We’re back on the country road
we were on a few days ago and had to turn back.
So far no rain and if it lasts through the night I’m hopeful we’ll get
through.
I’ve finally loaded the pictures on the computer and I’ve
sorted them. If I can get internet
access tomorrow I’ll send some along.
I’m snug in my bed and will sign off for tonight. Pray that the rain stays away for a few
days.
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