From a mzungu point of view.....

Mzungu: Kiswahili for white person - used in many African countries

the positives...

• Fresh, locally grown avocadoes for the equivalent of 3 pence/6 cents
• Huge sweet pineapples
• Friendly people
• Beautiful landscape
• Nearly perfect weather
• Unpolluted
• Very low crime in our area
• BBC World Service on the radio
• CNN several hours/day when the power is on
• Having the internet at home
• Several good European restaurants in town
• The reaction we get when we speak in the local language (Runyankole)
• Markets with fabulous fruit and veg
• Pleasant campus
• Fellow volunteers
• Kids everywhere are always so happy to see us
• Hardly anyone smokes
• No negative black/white history so no grudge or chip on shoulders – we are welcomed with open arms
• Exchange rate with our pound
  

the negatives ...

• Unreliable electricity
• Slow internet
• Shoddily-made goods (Chinese-made rejects from western countries)
• Not finding the items we need
• Mozzies all year!
• The need to sleep under an inconvenient mozzie net
• The battery on my computer lasting only 1.5 hours
• No haddock, but great chips
• No proper milk (just UHT/long life or unpasteurized whole milk)
• Not knowing how much we are being overcharged for some items (always charged more because ‘wealthy’ is tattoed across our mzungu faces!)
• Trying to find a hairdresser who knows how to cut my fine, straight hair
• Was told that ALL volunteers lose weight in the first few months of their placement – HA! Not me. Not with these free high carb/high calorie lunches
• Get homesick for Scotland and for family in the US
• Weather actually gets monotonous – no seasons
• The roads, the drivers, the transportation

...and just plain different/a curiosity

Everyone’s curtains are put up with the design showing on the outside and the lining on the inside

• Being the centre of attention in town
• Trying to figure out how to explain the internet, ipod, etc to people
• Having to boil water to drink
• Bargaining in shops
• Weird dreams because of our anti-malarial med
• Seamstresses using Singer pedal sewing machines to make clothing whilst sitting outside their shops
• Charcoal-fueled irons
• Using a panga (machete) for gardening instead of shovels
• People make their own bricks by hand to build their own houses
• Ugandans like their meat tough and chewy
• Ugandans eat matoke (cooked and smashed plantains) every day
• The curious use of English (their 2nd language) – phrases such as “how was the night”, “how is the day”, “you have been lost” (when someone hasn’t seen me for a few days).