Ugandan Honey, Chicken Guts & Marriage.

Nothing could be more random than the collection of stories in this blog post, so I figured that the title should reflect that.

First, let me start with Ugandan honey. This weekend, Matt and I went out to visit some students’ homes. After Alex had a slightly strange experience, we decided to stick together and both visit both students. We left the house around 1:30 and arrived at the school about a half hour later to ask King James (the headmaster) for directions to the houses. I spied some of my students (who are boarders) and we giggled at the novelty of seeing each other on a Sunday, without their uniforms, my presence unannounced. Then we headed to find Medrine, one of Matt’s students. We drove down a winding, bumpy road and stopped when the road was no longer navigable by car. Samson went up to a random man to enquire about Medrine’s house. Unexpectedly, the man generously led us on the 10 minute walk. I thought it was cool that this guy seemed to know where everyone lived, especially because the narrow paths were twisting and unmarked. The walk was beautiful; we wove between banana and coffee trees and cassava plants, and the mountains surrounded us.

Medrine’s father welcomed us warmly. He had a wide smile and a booming laugh, and once the awkwardness subsided, we had a great time looking through photo albums and talking. I was happy to find that he asked us questions, seemed to respect our opinions, and answered ours. So, unlike my prior experiences, I felt that our conversation was pretty successful. However, I didn’t think he knew English well enough to have a conversation about what purpose he thought education served, and what he wanted his children to get out of education, so I held back, even though I’d been wanting to have that conversation with a parent. One thing that surprised me was that Medrine’s mother did not sit and talk with us. She seemed busy and clearly did not know English, but it almost seemed like she didn’t think she belonged in the conversation. Medrine, too, shied away from joining us and busied herself with cleaning up after us. Oh, they made us food! It was incredible. Rice, beans, potatoes, cabbage, matooke, freshly squeezed orange juice, avacado… it was so good! I hope it wasn’t rude for us to take a little proportion compared with what they eat, but it was so filling that I couldn’t eat any more! Matt was also given some papayas, as a gift is customary for visitors to receive.

The family's guinea pigs. Nothing cuter than guinea pigs eating matooke and beans!

Matt with Medrine and her parents

We took photos with the family and said our goodbyes. It took us a while to find Christopher’s house, but I knew we were there when Mbambu Ruth appeared, running towards me! So, to clarify, Christopher is my student in P6, but he also has 2 siblings at Rwentutu: Sam in P1, and Ruth in preschool. Ruth and I are buddies. Anyways, we were graciously welcomed into the family’s brick home. I didn’t get to talk to his parents much, but Christopher and Samson were able to translate a few things for us. The parents seemed very gentle and happy, so I was pleased that it looked like Christopher had a loving family. His aunt spoke English very well, so we also visited their house (on the same compound) and hung out with the cousins, who also attend Rwentutu. Ruth was so excited to give me some of the family’s honey and I was so excited to receive it! I had been talking about finding some local honey, so it couldn’t have been a better gift! It’s got some ants floating around in it, but who minds a little crunch? It’s delicious. I also got two eggs, which I think is very generous, because I’ve heard students saying that they only eat eggs when they’re sick. It felt like such a short time at Christopher’s house, and we didn’t get to speak much to each other, but I was so happy to have gone.

With the family: Sam, Christopher, and Ruth (front) are siblings, with their parents (center). The four other children are cousins (front left, back, and front right).

Honey & eggs!

We also stopped by Samson’s parents’ home. Seeing all three houses up close, and many others from the road, gave me a much better picture of how people here live. I’ll try to summarize my findings. First, everyone has a cooking house/hut. It’s usually made of mud, but sometimes brick. It’s pretty smart to have this set up, so you’ll only burn down one part of the house instead of all of it if the open fire spreads, and so the smoke doesn’t fill the house. Some people live in temporary huts made of mud or straw, but I don't know how common that is. I don't think the people living in those houses could afford to send their kids to school. Many people seem to have brick and/or cement houses. In all three houses we visited, there was a small sitting room, with wooden furniture and sometimes cushioned seats. There are only a few bedrooms despite the large family size, so I think it’s safe to assume that lots of children share a small space. Most have tin roofs. Medrine and Samson lived in areas with coffee and banana trees, so it was slightly shaded and woodsy-feeling, but Christopher lived by a maize field, which was harvested already at this time of year, so it felt very farm-like.

Christopher's house

I guess you could say that people live simply. But it’s not a shocking, destitute sight. It’s just the way it is. People aren’t scrapping by, looking desperately for help, or dying of starvation. I’m not trying to say that life isn’t difficult. People here definitely work harder than most Americans. And I’ve heard of more burials happening in the last 8 weeks than I’ve heard throughout the rest of my life. But I don’t want you to think that I saw sad, struggling people living in awful conditions, or happy people that are “overcoming” their situations. They’re just living. 

Christopher's aunt's house (the picture is crooked, not the house)

So, onto the wedding. Friday, Alex told us that we were maybe invited to a wedding (it wasn’t clear whether Doreen had invited just her or all of us). I promptly forgot, and then was reminded on Saturday, an hour before we were supposed to leave. So, I wasn’t really prepared to go in the first place, and I wasn’t prepared to be there the entire day. By now, I’ve come to expect that time moves slowly here, and things will never go as planned, but dang. We did a lot of waiting, on a day when I had a lot of work to do. So I’ll leave my complaints at that. But, when things were happening, it was super interesting! There were performers throughout… young boys breakdancing, grown men crooning, a collection of people who seemed random dancing together… the surprises were endless! Just like the talent show at Juliet’s high school, audience members came up and gave change to performers they enjoyed. 

People dancing!

So at least it was entertaining! We were also fed, which was awesome. There was matooke, groundnut sauce, potato, beans, cabbage, some unidentifiable foods… and SO much of it. I had to force it all down, because I didn’t want to be rude, and I didn’t eat for the rest of the day. Oh, and I ate with my hands, as is pretty common here. Most of the kids eat posho and beans with their hands every day at school. I thought that I would be grossed out by the texture, but it’s not that bad. It’s kinda fun. 

The food line

Eatin' with my hands! My kid-self was loving the revenge on Mom's table manners

We left early because we did have things to do, and I felt rude doing so. But we at least stayed to see the bride & groom, which I was glad about. They hadn’t been there the whole time– from about 2 to 5– because they were at the church, getting their pictures taken, eating, being delayed…. As I said, it never goes as planned. But they had an incredibly grand entrance- and danced down the aisle! I’m so doing that for my wedding.

The bride & groom getting their groove on!

Finally—chicken guts. Alex visited Samson’s family last weekend and returned, horrified, with a squawking chicken in hand. Their generous gift became our dinner last Wednesday, after Doreen decided that its life had become too hopeless. It had been bullied as a new member of our compound’s chicken community, and was no longer eating. That may sound funny, but it was actually horrible to watch. The rooster would attack it and even the chicks would push it away from everyone else. Anyways, we all donned our “slaughtering suits,” as Doreen called them (we had just taught her what “birthday suit” meant) and headed out to the backyard. We decided that Alex had to kill it since it was hers, and I think the experience scarred her for life. But it gave us a delicious chicken stew.

Alex & Doreen with Chicken head & Chicken body.

Chicken guts

For all you city folk like me, here’s how you do it.

1.     Hold the chicken’s wings down and grip its neck.

2.     Saw off the neck (we didn’t have a knife good enough for a clean chop).

3.     Keep holding it until you feel it stop squirming, because it will run around without a head, and let the blood drip from its neck.

4.     Play with its detached head and make its beak move while you pretend to talk for it. Look at its freaky eyes.

5.     Dump the rest of the body into a bucket/pot of just-boiled water.

6.     Pluck the feathers off (the hot water makes it easier). Give the bucket of hot feather water to some weirdo who wants to drink it, or dump it in the back corner of the yard.

7.     Bring the carcass into the kitchen and beat it up a little with a knife. Take out all the guts and throw those away. Except you might want to keep the gizzard, liver, kidneys, and heart, if you’re gross like Matt and Doreen.

8.     Break the bones so you get nice chunks.

9.     Fry it all in a pot of oil.

10. Add stuff to make a stew and eat it.

What a lovely result!