Uganda Mission
We finally have the final blog posts from Dr. Lieberman’s Uganda trip!
Day 8 – Seeing More of Kampala
Contributed by Erin Sadler
The day started with some of the team heading off to round on post-operative patients at the respective hospitals. The others who remained at the apartments spent the morning doing laundry, finishing up some work, catching up on other odds and ends, plugged into the Olympics, and in Dr. Holman’s case: fighting a suspected case of food poisoning. In the early hours of the morning, it came to Ngozi’s and my attention that Dr. Holman was feeling under the weather. By the time the morning arrived he was feeling worse and we were all concerned that he had eaten something bad that was taking a toll on his system. It was no surprise that Liz took on the nurturing role of nurse to keep a close eye on him.
Once everyone had returned from rounding, we decided to spend the afternoon going to the art market and gain a more inside look at Kampala by visiting the city market. We had initially thought we would visit the Bujagali Falls, but the previous day, during our return from Putti, we had sat in traffic for over an hour, and thus we were hesitant to take this same route, and spend the afternoon baking in a vehicle stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. Instead, we settled on the local markets. After getting a grocery list from Liz with remedies for Dr. Holman, including salted crackers, ginger ale, and Lucozade, we headed off in the bus to exercise our bargaining skills at the market.
The art market is an area in the center of town where various vendors have set up booths and sell their goods. There is everything from jewelry to art, to authentic Ugandan clothing, pottery, and other trinkets. Going from booth to booth we began to appreciate not only the art of the vendors, but the art of bargaining the price down. This was best demonstrated when we were looking at the section of the market with paintings. It was quite entertaining to see Brian attempt to exercise his negotiating prowess to try and get a painting from 150000 shillings to 80000. Although he claims he “won” since he did not end up paying more than he wanted, he also walked away empty-handed because the artist wouldn’t budge below 90000. Others were more successful, and came away with treasures that they had negotiated to a reasonable price.
From the art market, we courageously ventured to the real Kampala city market where goods are bought, sold, and traded. This was an absolutely incredible experience, to gain an insider’s look at the local commerce of Uganda. We also gained important knowledge regarding appropriate attire to wear in Ugandan public: women should not wear shorts. Unbeknownst to me, wearing shorts is the closest thing to being naked, as in Ugandan culture, a women’s thighs should only be exposed to her husband. I guess I had to learn this lesson the hard way, as many of the locals were taking pictures and quite interested in the “Muzungu” who was “naked.” Needless to say, the group of us was quite a spectacle to see wandering through the maze of alley-ways filled with mountains of clothing, shoes, electronics, and various food products and other provisions. This visit did serve a greater purpose; upon seeing the glorious local produce, we were inspired to buy ingredients to make guacamole. Under the keen eye of Chef Brian, we selected and bought the finest avocados, garlic, onions, hot peppers and limes. After making our way safely back to the vans, with our purchases in tow, and the new knowledge of what not to wear, we headed home. After a quick stop at the Nakumatt (the 24 hour grocery store) to buy a few more key ingredients including cilantro, salt and chips, we arrived home, all of us anticipating Brian’s creation. I have to admit I was skeptical, but Brian proved to be quite the chef, and concocted some of the most delicious guacamole I have ever tasted.
After our delicious appetizer, we decided to have our second dinner at Khyper Pass, the delicious Indian restaurant we had gone to on the first evening. Unfortunately, Dr. Holman was still feeling sick, and after giving him a few litres of intravenous saline and reminding him what it is like to be on the patient side of health care, he was still not up for taking solid food, so we headed off without him, promising white rice upon our return.
With our bellies full and white rice for Dr. Holman, we returned home to play a lively game of “Things.” Hopefully you have played this game, because in my opinion it might be the most fun game ever created. Needless to say, the rest of the evening was filled with hysterical laughter, learning a lot about each other, perhaps even things we may not have wanted to know, and most importantly, the complexities of Brian’s relationship with his cat, Max.