uganda, week 2: haute cuisine

Ugandans have mastered the art of eating. The Ugandan concept of ‘food’ is everything, literally. I laughed whe I saw signs saying ‘Food + meat’ and so forth, so I actually ordered it, and it came. Pumpkin, matoke, cassava, ugali and rice, and meat in a plate on the side. Massive chunks of meat. Teeth are for biting.
All this food can be attributed to the fact that the country is excessively green. Everywhere. It rains, the earth brings forth stuff that can be eaten, and it gets eaten. So far I have eaten all sorts of things, in no particular order:

• the humble rolex,
• grasshoppers (close your eyes and think of chicken),
• fries with gravy (delicious),
• matoke (apparently we do it wrong, over here the bananas are mashed),
• chaps (that I thought were chapati, only to be proven quite deliciously wrong),
• a goat head and hoof (close your eyes and think of meat. Where it comes from is not important)

Over and above the Ugandans’ love for food is their love for drink. There are all sorts of things available to choose from. I have mentioned before that Uganda has a massive variety of Pepsi products… They have Mountain Dew, which I have concluded is the best soda on this planet.
As for other faire, there’s things like Nile Special and Nile Gold, Bell, Club and all other sorts of beer, and there’s Uganda Waragi, which has a kick comparable to, well, a kick to the forehead.
Back to food. There’s a way Uganda also has its fair share of Lake Victoria (including the water around Migingo… WE SHALL NOT FORGET), so there’s loads of fish available all the time. And they cook it in all sorts of ways, deep fried, roasted, boiled, baked…
And there is chicken by the road. Delicious roasted roadside chicken that just touches that spot right there, that one. The one that makes you want chicken in the first place.
Ugandan coffee is excellent. Goes down well after a hard night
But generally, Ugandans know how to eat. And they know how to drink as well. And they sure can party…

choices

I had to make a decision, go with an entry-level job with relatively modest pay or go abroad for an unpaid but rewarding opportunity…
Background info: I had a job once, when I was 19 and life was good… So I got a job and I did quite well at it, but i had to quit coz of school. I wanted to go back several times, but school kept messing it up, so there was no choice, really. Now, 3 years later and I went back. Place is pretty much the same, even the salary hasn’t changed. And a bunch of people I worked with are still there, the job description is still the same, so as far as opportunities for growth are concerned, there is not much left. If anything I know some of the stunts they pull, like all the mind-games and the sense of obligation and whatnot.
The other option is a CEED, a Cultural Envoy for Exchange Development. I’m taking the opportunity between now and July when my term as local committee president to go learn a bit on Projects and see what else I can help them out on. And I can see opportunities for growth here, getting out there and seeing how the rest of the World (ok, it’s Uganda, but it still counts as a part of the rest of the world…) does it…
Explaining my reasons has been hard. Like now I should stay and take the job because it’s money, and I shouldn’t let it go to waste. And the one question that kept coming up was whether the project I was going to do would pay more than staying and working. But that did not feature in my consideration. I raised my hand when they asked if anyone was there for the interview just to get a job, which was my reasoning. And I was not ashamed of the fact. A little extra money wouldn’t hurt, but then again, neither would going on an awesome learning experience.

I leave for Uganda in a few days. I do not regret my decision.