Tuesday, February 10, 2009
sites, sounds and smells of Bugujju at night
My family lives in the village Bugujju, it is the village closest to campus, we walk out the tech park gate and around the corner and arrive at our compound. We are required to be at home by 7 pm for safety precautions. But once we are with our families we can walk with them anywhere, within reason. Well on occasion our family needs to run down to the local shop or stand to purchase anything from milk to breakfast buns to chipati. Well our family in particular spends a lot of time outside in the evening because it is cooler and brighter based on cloud cover. We also live near several clubs and what my brother calls the cinima. So the noise level around our house at night is rather load. Tori and I get a good laugh decifering what movie is playing at the cinima that night and who the singer is that is being blasted from the clubs. Tori and I also noticed one night at around exactly 9 in the evening right before dinner a certain flower starts to bloom. It blooms for about 30 min and then closes again and waits until the next evening to bloom. We cant see the flower but when it blooms suddenly the air is filled with this unimaginably good sweet smell. It is so contrary to the ordinary smells of Africa you cant help but sit down and take large gulps of air. Well like I mentioned earlier our family occasionally walks to the food stands for last min purchases. Well last night we went out with our sister kevina to pick up some chipati for dinner. As we walked down the street several men started calling out in Lugandan. Then realizing we couldnt understand transfered to English, well it turns out they were trying to get my attention by yelling "Bald Woman". Now I have heard it all, muzungu why have you shaved your head, muzungu why dont you have hair, Muzungu where did your hair go. But I have never heard someone shout hey Bald Women. I'm not sure where the line was drawn but I snapped, suddenly it wasnt funny. I'm glad it was dark and we kept walking because I was furrious. I know they werent meaning anything by it they probably wanted to get a better look at both myself and tori but didnt have any other way of getting our attention. Thankfully it has never happened while I was alone but when traveling with the group often men will half jokingly half serious try to purchase us girls for the small amount of farm animals. I was once bid off for a chicken, being appaled that I was only worth a chicken I refused. haha but I guess this is all that one can experience while in uganda.
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the flower you're describing reminds me of evenings at my grandmother's in san diego. there it was night-blooming jasmine.
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