Written by Nicole Mills in Uganda:
Friday was an eventful day to say the LEAST!
Earlier this week we bought 300 kilos of rice for the New Year Day feeding in the ghetto. So, this morning we drove to the ghetto and dropped it off at the leader of the Jeremiah Women group's house. Lillian is one of the strongest women I have ever met. She is tall and willowy and basically my Tomi's right hand woman in the ghetto. I have never witnessed such valor.
After dropping off the rice we were driving down the road and we saw a huge crowd with tree branches and in traditional dress all gathered around this store front. They were performing a circumcision. If you are from this certain tribe, even if you did not grow up in the village, if are not circumcised they will find you in your teenage or adult life and circumcise you where ever you are. TIA (This Is Africa)
We arrived at the craft market, which is a field near the railroad tracks full of tents and mats covered with local artistry. Everything from carved wooden animals, to woven baskets and jewelry litter the ground so much so that the initial vision of it all is overwhelming. We walked through the aisles to negotiate the prices from what we call Mzungu (white person) prices to normal pricing. Needless to say, Tomi and I negotiating together as a team are unbeatable. The women from the Jeremiah Women group were there selling their paper beads and I was able to support them. They also gave me several as gifts because KIK is such a huge support in their lives.
From the craft market we went to the meat market! It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was behind these unassuming walls and down a driveway type road and all of a sudden it was like we were in a different world. I had to make sure I hitched up my skirt as I walked because the ground was covered in blood and bits of meat.
Inside one of the buildings there was a large scale and a couple of non-refrigerated cases containing various assortments of meats. Everyone that worked there was dressed in white robes and rain boots splattered with blood. Behind the counter was a giant tree stump that looked like something out of a horror film. It was covered with blood and the white tile wall behind it was splattered with the spray from the machete that they were using to hack the meat.
We ordered our meat and everyone was very excited to meet me since they are all friends of Tomi. We made our way to the center of the meat market. The stench of raw meat was nearly overwhelming. It was a definite "breathe through your mouth, not your nose" scenario.
Cliff, our administrator had gone off to find herding sticks for goats that he needed (I'll explain later) and it gave us time to take in the surroundings. The fact that all the butchers were wearing white robes covered in blood looked like something out of a scary movie. They were doing various activities like loading hunks of animal body parts into containers on the back of motorcycles and into trucks, the main butcher area had half cows and goats hanging from giant hooks and there were very large vulture type birds ominously circling the entire area and covering the roof tops.
When cliff returned we put the sticks and the meat we had just purchased (it was in a plastic grocery sack...not wrapped or anything in the back of the car and took off right as they were piling the skin of several freshly skinned cows onto a giant scale and displaying the intestines on a special table to buy.
We headed out to this restaurant in the middle of town called New York Kitchen. They serve their version of American food and since it was New Year's Eve we decided to celebrate with a large pepperoni pizza and a slice of chocolate cake. Since we knew we needed to be up at 6am for the feeding in the ghetto the next day we planned on calling it a fairly early night. The pizza did not taste exactly like American pizza, but it would have to do. We also stopped by grocery store next to the American Embassy and bought Dr. Pepper (it also didn't taste quite the same, but it was still good) and splurged on a can of Pringles for the three of us to split.
New Year's Eve passed here in Uganda with relative quietness.
Our last stop of the day was a very Ugandan event. We went to buy goats. We needed these goats for the bride price being negotiated for one of Cliff's cousins and a family friend of my mom's. We would go to the ceremony of the bride price negotiation on Sunday called an Introduction. We drove until we hit a traffic jam that was taking too long to pass so we pulled into gas station and Cliff jumped out to go find the goats. As we are sitting there waiting Lauren (volunteer from Texas) says, "Hey look here come two goats. I bet Cliff is right behind them."
They were being herded by a man carry the same stick as the kind Cliff had just bought. All of a sudden one of the goats takes off and the man hit the goat in such a way that the goat leaped in the air and did a spectacular back flip before the guy put its head on the ground with his foot. The all of a sudden, instead of Cliff rounding the corner, a massive heard of goats comes stampeding towards us... The petrol (gas) station attendant (no one pumps their own gas here is it is all assisted because no one trusts anyone) gets up and starts helping heard the goats. You know you are in Africa when the petrol station attendant knows how to herd goats. Once they pass Cliff arrives several minutes later with two goats in tow. They lead the goats by dragging them by their front foot tied with rope. We put the two goats...in the trunk of the van. Needless to say, the car smelled like a barn the whole way home. We affectionately named them Oreo (he was black and white) and Spike (all black). After today I really don't think PETA would approve of the animal conditions here in Africa. We decided that here PETA should stand for People Eating Tons of Animals.
Friday was an eventful day to say the LEAST!
Earlier this week we bought 300 kilos of rice for the New Year Day feeding in the ghetto. So, this morning we drove to the ghetto and dropped it off at the leader of the Jeremiah Women group's house. Lillian is one of the strongest women I have ever met. She is tall and willowy and basically my Tomi's right hand woman in the ghetto. I have never witnessed such valor.
After dropping off the rice we were driving down the road and we saw a huge crowd with tree branches and in traditional dress all gathered around this store front. They were performing a circumcision. If you are from this certain tribe, even if you did not grow up in the village, if are not circumcised they will find you in your teenage or adult life and circumcise you where ever you are. TIA (This Is Africa)
We arrived at the craft market, which is a field near the railroad tracks full of tents and mats covered with local artistry. Everything from carved wooden animals, to woven baskets and jewelry litter the ground so much so that the initial vision of it all is overwhelming. We walked through the aisles to negotiate the prices from what we call Mzungu (white person) prices to normal pricing. Needless to say, Tomi and I negotiating together as a team are unbeatable. The women from the Jeremiah Women group were there selling their paper beads and I was able to support them. They also gave me several as gifts because KIK is such a huge support in their lives.
From the craft market we went to the meat market! It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was behind these unassuming walls and down a driveway type road and all of a sudden it was like we were in a different world. I had to make sure I hitched up my skirt as I walked because the ground was covered in blood and bits of meat.
Inside one of the buildings there was a large scale and a couple of non-refrigerated cases containing various assortments of meats. Everyone that worked there was dressed in white robes and rain boots splattered with blood. Behind the counter was a giant tree stump that looked like something out of a horror film. It was covered with blood and the white tile wall behind it was splattered with the spray from the machete that they were using to hack the meat.
We ordered our meat and everyone was very excited to meet me since they are all friends of Tomi. We made our way to the center of the meat market. The stench of raw meat was nearly overwhelming. It was a definite "breathe through your mouth, not your nose" scenario.
Cliff, our administrator had gone off to find herding sticks for goats that he needed (I'll explain later) and it gave us time to take in the surroundings. The fact that all the butchers were wearing white robes covered in blood looked like something out of a scary movie. They were doing various activities like loading hunks of animal body parts into containers on the back of motorcycles and into trucks, the main butcher area had half cows and goats hanging from giant hooks and there were very large vulture type birds ominously circling the entire area and covering the roof tops.
When cliff returned we put the sticks and the meat we had just purchased (it was in a plastic grocery sack...not wrapped or anything in the back of the car and took off right as they were piling the skin of several freshly skinned cows onto a giant scale and displaying the intestines on a special table to buy.
We headed out to this restaurant in the middle of town called New York Kitchen. They serve their version of American food and since it was New Year's Eve we decided to celebrate with a large pepperoni pizza and a slice of chocolate cake. Since we knew we needed to be up at 6am for the feeding in the ghetto the next day we planned on calling it a fairly early night. The pizza did not taste exactly like American pizza, but it would have to do. We also stopped by grocery store next to the American Embassy and bought Dr. Pepper (it also didn't taste quite the same, but it was still good) and splurged on a can of Pringles for the three of us to split.
New Year's Eve passed here in Uganda with relative quietness.
Our last stop of the day was a very Ugandan event. We went to buy goats. We needed these goats for the bride price being negotiated for one of Cliff's cousins and a family friend of my mom's. We would go to the ceremony of the bride price negotiation on Sunday called an Introduction. We drove until we hit a traffic jam that was taking too long to pass so we pulled into gas station and Cliff jumped out to go find the goats. As we are sitting there waiting Lauren (volunteer from Texas) says, "Hey look here come two goats. I bet Cliff is right behind them."
They were being herded by a man carry the same stick as the kind Cliff had just bought. All of a sudden one of the goats takes off and the man hit the goat in such a way that the goat leaped in the air and did a spectacular back flip before the guy put its head on the ground with his foot. The all of a sudden, instead of Cliff rounding the corner, a massive heard of goats comes stampeding towards us... The petrol (gas) station attendant (no one pumps their own gas here is it is all assisted because no one trusts anyone) gets up and starts helping heard the goats. You know you are in Africa when the petrol station attendant knows how to herd goats. Once they pass Cliff arrives several minutes later with two goats in tow. They lead the goats by dragging them by their front foot tied with rope. We put the two goats...in the trunk of the van. Needless to say, the car smelled like a barn the whole way home. We affectionately named them Oreo (he was black and white) and Spike (all black). After today I really don't think PETA would approve of the animal conditions here in Africa. We decided that here PETA should stand for People Eating Tons of Animals.
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