The Mzu*

At the moment, it’s 7:45 on a Sunday morning. I set my alarm for 6:00 so I could do some ISP work before church, but having successfully killed my alarm, that did not happen…and that setback in productivity has quickly spiraled into me writing a blog.

Have I mentioned that I love my house? I’m sitting on the back porch right now, and well, let me just show you:

Backyard!

I would love to do a little photo-essay of my house (and housemates) but alas, that might not come to fruition with the amount of research (and writing) that is looming on the horizon… But I’d love to show you the neighborhood kids who shimmy up our papaya trees to collect fruit, our Tweety Bird and Minnie Mouse mattresses that are arranged on the floor, the glorious amount of stars you can see at night, the huts across the way, the yellow flowers that dot our fences, and the meals we concoct (sans the stove, which broke!). Last night’s dinner was an assortment of vegetable samosas, pineapple and tomatoes. Other personal favorites of mine are bread and honey for breakfast, beans & rice take-away, and green apples—anytime.

Speaking of meals. Thanksgiving. Was. AWESOME. I have really gifted housemates who got inspired and whipped up the most amazing feast for all of us…on a charcoal stove no less! Our dear Ugandan friend, Paul, slaughtered two chickens for us (GIT IT), Jason made stuffing (BRAVO) and a group of chicas talentosas made vegetable soup, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, cow peas, garlic bread, fruit salad, salad salad, and meringue (BELLISIMO!). We all sat at a long table like one big fam, and sigh, it was lovely. And after that dinner, we won quiz night at a local bar! AMERICA FOR THE WIN. (juuuuuuust kidding.)

In other news: I love research. Well, maybe not so much research, but I love my research topic. I think I could spend a whole year—at least—digging my teeth into it, so I definitely know that my findings are going to be rather premature. I suppose what I love about researching dance (and dance therapy) though is that I’ve met some extraordinary people, and really fantastic kids because of it. Even people not directly associated with my research at all (like my beans & rice guy, Ibra, or my favorite boda-driver, Kenneth) I only met because my research caused my life to intersect with theirs. Bahhhh, it’s going to be hard to leave them all.

Sometimes, I wish I could live in the Mzu long-term, especially because I know it’s going to be really hard to go back to Wake. My work schedule here means making lots of little adventurous journeys to obscure huts to find contacts, building relationships with interviewees, and dancing. I’m sort of nervous about how I’ll do when work means memorizing facts and taking tests… Boo.

Ok, this is a strange turn of mood. I fully intended to just show you my backyard, because it’s beautiful, not get all mopey about leaving Uganda. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really excited to get back home soon. I just wish I could stuff a lot of things (and a lot of people) in my suitcase to bring back with me J

Fun facts to make this blog post worth your time:

I ate a grasshopper the other day.

I helped build a fire pit in our backyard to make ramen noodles. It was hard work. Irony, much?

Currently, my housemate is cutting the grass. With a machete.

And…uh…I was in a Ugandan music video. It was ridiculous. The link can be found on the lovely Chase Taylor’s blog: http://chasinguganda.blogspot.com/2010/11/welcome-to-uganda-shortest-post-yet.html

You’re welcome.

Much love,

Mary

*We have dubbed our house the Mzu—a play on the words Mzungu and Zoo—because lots of neighborhood chillens stand at our front gate and stare at us like we are particularly interesting animals. Hence the house being the Muh-Zoo. It is a wonderful place :D