bye bye personal bubble

As I told bob when he got here; in Uganda you don’t have a personal bubble anymore. It popped when you got to the airport. Walk around any market here and you will find the truth of this. I decided to wander thru nakasero market and awino the claustrophobic area. That seems to be the heart of kampala and I want to experience this place. That and I wanted to find some more girl clothes. So I spent 3+ hours wandering around the markets. Got totally lost inside awino. Its hard to walk in one direction when you cant see the sky. One group of guys decided to hit on me to sell their clothes. So I walked away…into a dead end. So I walked back past them and listened to them long enough for one to propose to me. I just patted his head and walked on. There really is nothing to say to that. Once I found the sky again, I ended up in an area where sacks of food stacked to form the walkways. Also I found an alley full of odd herbs, spear heads, animal skins, fake bows, etc. opus told me later this place is the area where bugandans buy the things for performing their traditions. i had to cross a small bridge to get out of awino. Quick tip; don’t look into the water. And I found myself standing 2 blocks from where I entered. So much for the infallible sense of direction.

The shopkeepers call me all sorts of things to get my attention. Marine, sister, mommy, English, auntie, professor, my love, or just whistling. The most annoying has to be the hissing sound which effectively carries thru the chaos. In the market 2 fairly good looking guys grabbed my hands and introduced themselves. I gave them a fake name cuz they wouldn’t let go of my hand. They wanted to take me on a date and kept insisting on getting my contact (cell number). I eventually extricated my hand, I had already made sure they didn’t get into any of my pockets. I accused them of following me. No, no, we were just going that way. Ok, go on. I just folded my arms and leaned against the wall, watching them reluctantly go the way they said. Sigh.

I did find a really pretty shirt at one of the shops. The girl in the shop asked me to be her friend. I must be still kinda slow at this; it took me several minutes before I realized that “friend” meant “patron”. Sadly by the time I got home, the shirt had somehow escaped from my bag Clothes here range in price from 3000 to 15000 ($1.50 to $7.50). All of it seems to be secondhand from aid or Chinese knockoffs. Or its American mall prices at the mall. Eventually I hit a wall for my chaos intake and take a boda. They seem to be cheaper where white people aren’t usual.

I went for my first African massage. Nakedness and touching doesn’t seem to have any bad connotations here. However, I still have the belief that it means something. The masseuse and I had an interesting time drawing boundaries. Thank God it was a woman. “do you want me to massage your breasts?” uh…no. try the shoulders. Im not sure I like the dismissive view these people have towards body parts.

For those of you not familiar with this fact; there are lots of insects in Africa. I just had a minor freak out while watching the microwave heat my food. Suddenly I saw a giant cockroach walking inside the door of the microwave. Close to my food. My food. I think its dead now. Micro-waves do that. Also, the bag of sugarcane I bought had ants in it within an hour. Evil little buggers. Don’t even get me started on the mosquitoes.

Its just Bryce and I and the servants for a few days. Henry is with his wife. Leonard is in jinja. Jp flew to Europe to see his girlfriend. Bob went north with ben for a few days. Ah peace and quiet. I might actually get bored…nah.