The ex-pats told me last night that it’s apparently now somewhere in my neighborhood…

Bambi – pronounced baaahm-bee  = It’s a way that Ugandans say “Aw, you poor/cute dear.”  We say it sincerely with Ugandans, but us Americans mostly say it to each other ironically.   Like someone spills his or her beer on the floor.  “Ohhh, Bambi!”

Mmmm = If you have nothing to say in response, you don’t say anything.  You just mmmm.  “The sunshine, it is very strong today.”  “Mmmm.”

This one = It’s common and not rude to refer to someone standing near you as “this one” or “that one” as if they’re not present.  

Eyebrow raise = “Yes.” Ugandans typically don’t nod their head to say yes, and sometimes don’t even say “yes,” they just do a slight eyebrow raise and widen their eyes.  It can be confusing. 

Jangu! – pronounced jahn-goo = “Come here!”  This is actually Luganda.  You say it while clapping one hand, palm facing out, like you’re waving hello.

Even though Peace Corps assured me I wouldn’t have to move early this week so I’d have adequate time to pack since I was going away for the prior weekend, they changed their minds last minute, and I ended up having 1.5 hours to pack up my life to move to Kasese (pronounced kah-seh-say) on Tuesday.

My old village, in Bushenyi District, was pleasantly cold much of the time, rainy, and very green.  Kasese is more Africa-y, as it’s hot as balls, dusty as hell, and I’ve never been anywhere that had more mosquitos.  But it’s life changing to be in a town, instead of in a rural village, and it is also really beautiful and green in the outskirts of town during this rainy season.

Here’s a fun story about the district.

My new organization seems like it will be a good match for me (my first assignment involves taking photos).  It is an NGO that helps other tiny local NGOs that don’t have a lot of resources by teaching skills and assisting them in management, strategic planning, marketing, fundraising, etc.  The org is administered from the States, as it was started by an American who is a former PCV and has two more American-former-PCV staff members who also are from/live in San Diego.  Here with me in Kasese, the office is run by two local Ugandan staff members. 

I live in a room with its own bathroom inside the office, which is similar to my old place except with even less privacy and space, but it’s nice, also has running water & electricity, and with a good visit to a carpenter for custom furniture, I think I can turn it into a cozy single dorm room to live in for the next year and a half.  

There’s a trio of PCVs from the group a year ahead of me who also live in town and have been very welcoming and helpful in showing me around town, and it’ll definitely be nice to have them around until they leave this autumn.

I like San Diego, but I rarely get to be proud of it, so this is nice.

We had a pig roast for Easter at another volunteer’s house.  We met the live pig the day before, one volunteer slaughtered the pig, two others built a coal & brick oven in the yard, and the pig was cooked for about 12 hours.  

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This adorable baby goat came into my bank compound and discovered its beauty in the Loans Office door. 

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No photo for it yet, but I found out about my new site and will be moving to the town of Kasese (a few hours northwest of where I currently am) next week.  Details will come later.

The second issue of Uganda’s Young Stars, the youth newsletter I help put together, came out this week.  You can see an online copy at Scribd.  This issue’s theme was “Youth Empowerment,” and there are some interesting articles, including one from a 21-year old man who was abducted by the LRA as a child, several from young girls about how they view empowerment, and answers to whether youth would choose to have children if they knew their spouse was HIV+.

The newsletter falls under the Committee Formerly Known as GAD (Gender & Development), which is in the process of being renamed by PC Headquarters in Washington, D.C. as the Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment committee.  It doesn’t officially have the acronym GEWE or any acronym yet, but I have affectionately started pronouncing it gay-way. But not too loudly, cuz you know, that can be dangerous here.

I often see Good African coffee in stores here in Ugandan big cities, but never knew the story behind it. 

“Africa supplies about one-tenth of the world’s trade in raw beans, mostly of low quality. [Good African] would be a luminous symbol of the continent’s ability to rise, to compete: ‘We’re battling the idea of Africa being a backward, primordial society with nothing going for it, a continent of conflict, a continent just begging for handouts, a basket case.’”

“Twenty-three of the world’s 25 poorest countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, where half the population lives on less than $1.25 a day, and the continent’s resistance to economic development can be as puzzling to experts as how the fields above Kasese remained unterraced for so long. Standing on one side of a heated debate about how best to help is the economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Sachs argues that the forces of private enterprise can’t bring significant development to sub-Saharan Africa unless unprecedented international assistance establishes a better foundation of infrastructure, education and health care. On the opposite side are William Easterly, a professor of economics at New York University who served for many years at the World Bank, and Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist and younger World Bank veteran, whose book “Dead Aid” was a best seller a few years ago. They lament that philanthropy to Africa has barely any record of success, that trillions given since the end of colonialism has accomplished next to nothing. Worse, in Moyo’s eyes, it has instilled a kind of continental passivity, undercutting entrepreneurial ambition.”