In case you were wondering . . .

I'm doing well physically, mentally and spiritually.

On the physical side of things, I have lost about 45 lbsf.  This was a much needed weight loss and I hope to lose another 30 lbsf. before I come home.  Now understand this, I am not losing weight because there is no food.  Quite the contrary, I am eating very well.  Ugandan cooking is very good and they eat well.  At least this year they eat well.  The rains have been very good this rainy season and therefore the crops have done well.  I have lost so much weight because of all the activity in a day.  My primary means of transportation is "footing it" as they say here.  The second way is by motorcycle, but more on that in another post.

Mentally, I feel very peaceful and centered (whatever that really means).  Without all the distractions of TV, radio, regular and reliable Internet service, and everything else, it's easier to relax even if there is so much to do that you can't really slow down.  There is plenty of work to be done and I am somewhat disappointed that it is almost time to come home.  The people here are so wonderful and warm and friendly.

Spiritually, well that was an area that I expected to continue to lie dormant as it has for the past 25 years.  But in Uganda, religion is the culture.  People are very sincere in their faith and I have been "taken" to church about 5 times.  The last time, this past Sunday, my namesake was baptized.  I was thrilled when her mother Christine handed little Lisa to me to hold while the pastor baptized her.  What an honor!

Do understand that now that I have a namesake, you will hear about her every movement until she reaches the terrible teens, but probably even then too.

Cheers:)

Lisa

Happy 1 month Birthday Lisa Ellen Grose

Every time I see my namesake, I cannot help but sing this Furman lullaby to her.  In my heart, this song is for for little Lisa and her mother Christine Acham.

Guess what you can't buy in Uganda?

And apparently for a reason I would have never in a million years thought of.  Go ahead.  Google it and see why.

Jackie O. might have approved

Every summer for at least the past 6 summers since Blossom Shoes and Such opened in Greenwood, SC under the classic eternal good taste of Kimberly Stephens, I have enjoyed a new pair of  Jack Rogers sandals every year.

Past pleasures for my feet with ridiculously expensive taste have included:

And this is to name only 3 of the pairs I have.  I have more Jack Rogers sandals than maybe Jack Rogers.

I love summer and I'm always on the lookout for a really great summer sandal.  Since I knew I was going to Uganda this year, I didn't buy my annual pair of Jacks and decided to wait and see what treats would be over here.  Let me tell you how glad I am that I waited.  Check these out!

These hand-sewn and hand-beaded sandals are made in Uganda.  I found them at the local crafts market in Entebbe.  The cost after bargaining, 22,000 UGX (about $9 USD).  There are all kinds of local crafts around that are stunning fashion and home decor pieces, not just the mass made masks.

Hope you like these as much as I do.  I have another pair too.  I'm saving them for special occasions - Havianas can do the everyday job.

Cheers:)

Lisa

Must be doing something right

Good morning everyone!  Meet  my student Irene Agadi.  Irene's husband called this morning just before 5 a.m. to tell me that she had a healthy baby boy.   Irene is doing well too which is amazing because about 1 month ago Irene developed a soccer ball sized cyst/tumor in her vagina.  Week before last, doctors at a local hospital said she MUST have surgery to remove the tumor so that she would be able to deliver vaginally.   The cost of the surgery was around 200,000 UGX (about $80 at the current exchange rate).  An impossible amount of money that required her husband to go to every relative they had plus a few others to scrape together a loan package for the surgery.

 C-sections are a curse here in Africa because the recovery time is 6 weeks and no woman in Africa has enough family support or time to recover from a C-section.  There is water to fetch twice a day, digging in the garden, clothes to be washed, homes to be swept and mopped, harvesting to be done in the garden, cooking to be done, shopping for food to be done.  There is literally no end to the list of work that an African woman must do in order for her family to survive.

And the miracle of Irene's new son is that she was able to have the surgery just in the nick of time and two weeks later, she has a brand new son.  Her oldest child, a two year old girl named Mercy, has been beside herself with excitement about the coming of the new baby.

This little boy doesn't have a name yet because it is Ugandan custom to wait until the baby is three days old.  

Congratulations!

Fixing Subsaharan Africa the Redneck Way

I've been here long enough to see that some simple products could go a long way to repairing many things here.  I've also been here long enough to know that not all really good ideas come from a working group or an official team.  Don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying these are good ideas.  These are just things I think most Ugandans would find damned handy in their daily lives.  So here's a short list of items I think could really help improve the standard of living of most Ugandans.

1.     No Ugandan kitchen or office should be without the Hefty Ziploc bags that have the plastic zipper pull.  They hold most everything and keep flies where they belong -- away from food.

2.     The one, the only, the stuff that holds Alabama and Mississippi together -- Duct Tape.

3.    This can fix all those cheesy Chinese made locks that aren't made of stainless steel as they should be.  The beauty of WD-40 is that it is not so viscose as to make the lock easy to pick after you have lubricated it.

4.  Loctite saved my fanny many, many times as a manufacturing engineer.  That and it's darker cousin called "Black Max" could fix anything plastic or metal that had broken.  Subsaharan Africa needs about 30 metric tons of this stuff for every manufacturing facility opened here.

5.   The Leatherman tool should be given to every student who graduates from S4 (that's the 4th year of high school).  If a student graduates from S6 (the two extra years of high school to prepare for the university), the then student gets the French Army version of this tool which includes a corkscrew.  These things can fix anything.

Send your additions via the comments section.  One of my next posts will be about all the cheap and simple things that can be done to make hospitals around these parts safe and sanitary.

Cheers:)

Brazil's answer to the Mojito

The Boma Caipiroska

1 oz Vodka 
Simple syrup mixed with the juice of 3 fresh lime wedges 
Large grain sugar on the rim of your rocks glass 
Serve over crushed ice with a lime wedge garnish


Best served by the Boma Entebbe's pool.

Cheers:)
Lisa


The Boma Hotel, Entebbe, Uganda