In the past, we have shared different blogs about the funny, beautiful and challenging things about living in Uganda – things that make us smile, things that drive us crazy, things we marvel at, and things that give us a serious laugh. I’ll list some old blog posts at the bottom of this post about the different aspects of life here. But in all of it, we regularly say “oh the life we live…”
For example, every morning, we wake up to ask the question “Is electricity and water on”? We have a small community WhatsApp group that is regularly messaging about power or water issues. It’s an every day thing! We are used to it, mostly. But there are time when electricity or water has been off longer than anticipated, so we have to ask others to determine if it’s an area issue or only at our home. There is solidarity of community in “suffering” when electricity or water is off for everyone, rather than the panic and going into “fix it” mode when it turns out to be just our house.
There are many times when products are no longer in stock – staple items that you might not fathom could be out of stock for months at a time. There was a period of several months when the ladies in the community were having ongoing conversations about how butter had been gone, and we were not sure how long it would be gone, so when some of us traveled to Jinja (about 2 hours away) for a weekend and found 6 sticks of butter – we bought them all! Frozen chicken and beef are regularly not missing. Yes, I could get a live chicken and slaughter it myself, but I have my limits. 😂 A good brand of toilet paper many people really like went out of stock without any knowledge of when it will come back (and yes, we have a favorite toilet paper). You might be thinking, just get another brand of toilet paper, but that’s easier said than done. Most of the options are either like using a soft sand paper or tissue paper – not ideal. 🤨 I don’t usually trust box food (cake mixes, cereal, oatmeal, bread crumbs, etc) because I’m unsure how long it’s been on the shelves and I have found them full of weevils on many occasions. No thank you! We also get excited when a new product comes into town for a little while, like chocolate chips, shampoo/conditioner, cream cheese, or American-recognized brands. We can’t expect them, so it’s a nice treat when “special” items arrive. We never know how long they’ll be there, but we rejoice for the moment. And we often take photos to share with one another, in case someone else might want the product.
The uncertainty also leads me into some hoarding tendencies that I have to fight against…What if the item disappears when I need it?!? So I stock up, and sometimes I stock up a little too much. 😂 Thankfully, our house doesn’t have much storage, so it keeps me in check most of the time. But there was a time when worcestershire sauce was gone for several months, and we ran out. So when it came back, I bought 3 bottles…We don’t use it that much, so it lasted quite a while! My new tendency since moving to Uganda is… if I see it, buy it because I don’t know if it will be there again. We’ve also done a decent job of adjusting to when things aren’t available and adapting to the limited options we have here. We also have a trunk of American goodies that people send or bring us, so we ration those out over time to enjoy some treats from home.
There are so many funny aspects of life here. Things we see, what happens when we ask for things to be fixed, and things we never imagined we’d do in our life. One of my favorite words used here is “somehow“. That bookcase was built almost right – the shelves aren’t level: Somehow. The check engine light came on in the vehicle – the mechanic fixed the problem but now the window won’t roll down: Somehow. I ordered vegetable curry but got vegetable stew: Somehow. Someone came to dig up the weeds in the garden but only did half the work before he left: Somehow. It’s a perfect word for so many things that are just not quite right. It was almost there, 80% of the way.
Then there’s the random things we see… a camel walking down the street. Why? I have no idea. A few guys in the back of a truck with loudspeakers, dressed in random costumes of Mario, Donald Duck and Spiderman. Tiny trucks carrying too large items or overloaded vehicles, giant termite mounds, cattle traffic jams, a regular grocery store called Walmart, funny product names, crazy-looking bugs, interesting signs, and of course all the Boda Fun.
Oh the life we live… It’s a great one!
Sawyers In Uganda 