Fridays in Uganda are Country themed. At least my last two Fridays have had a country flair to them. On Friday May 30th Eliza and I returned home as Agnes prepared tea. As we watched Agnes prepare the food we realized we were having grilled corn and watermelon. I laughed. “This looks so Southern!” Eliza agreed. She started to hum if “I die young.” Because I had not been sick at all I was demosanufu, so I ran inside to grab my computer. With the use of the Internet stick Eliza and I subjected our host family to country music. We had heard it on the radio a few days earlier and figured they would enjoy it. They did. We sat outside on plastic wicker chairs surrounded by maize (corn), and listened to Jason Aldeen, Miranda Lambert, Lady Antebellum, and John Denver as we ate our grilled corn and watermelon. Our watermelon had seeds. I asked Agnes if they ever had watermelon seed spitting contests. She gave me a puzzled look. So I demonstrated. Because no one has genetically modified watermelon seeds here they have more weight, and go further. I spit the seed pretty far out into the yard. Agnes laughed at the fact that people had competitions over that, and said they did not have them in Uganda. We then introduced Agnes to Aretha Franklin, whom she loved. Eliza and I continued to lick the watermelon juice off our fingers as we passed the computer back and forth to choose songs. As we did this Chief switched seats to insure he could always see what the images on the screen. It amused us a great deal. The only thing that could have made the night more Southern is if the ginger milk had been sweet tea (although they probably have the same amount of sugar). It gave Eliza and I sense of comfort and connection to something familiar that we had been lacking.
Today also reminded me of what I believe the South to be like. A small stand next to Salama Shield sells water and snacks. The security guard and a couple other people from Salama Shield help to run it. It sits in between the Salama Shield compound and a field of corn. When I went to go buy water I found many of the Salama staff standing and seated around the shed. They were eating sugar cane and shooting the sh—breeze, shooting the breeze. Benon offered me some and Richard handed me an already pealed bit of stalk. They didn’t want me to use the knife and cut myself. Now, for those of you who don’t know how to eat sugar cane it works like this. You bite a bit off the top and pull down with your teeth until you get a long strip off. You then chew until the juice runs out then spit out the pulp. We all could have used a spittoon. Richard had a bag that he spit his into, but the rest of us littered the ground with our sucked out stalk. One of the drivers David then handed me a plate of sugar cane he cut up for me. Sugared out, I walked it around to the different offices seeing if anyone wanted any. The plate had dainty designs around the outside of the plate. That combined with the skirt I wore made me feel like a southern hostess ensuring that all my guests were taken care of. When people also heard that Eliza was sick they told me they would pray for her. I know it’s not the south, but its just kinda funny. Anyway, Southern Hospitality has nothing on genuine Ugandan Friendliness. I would rather be here then the southern United States almost day.
