Thoughts from Newman

While Trish will probably be the one that keeps you all up to date with our lives I want to throw my 200 shillings in from time to time as well.

First off, showering in Uganda… Those of you that have lived with me know that I tend to take long showers.  I’d like to think that this makes me cleaner than those of you who take short showers.  Here, showering is a bit different.  Our shower consists of a hose with a handle and shower head like many people have at home.  They are great because you can shoot water in any direction you want that is, assuming the water shoots.  Water pressure here in the guest house is good, you can turn the water on full blast and it seems to be like a faucet running at maybe half capacity.  I am glad I have short hair.  The good thing about the low water pressure is that there is no shower curtain or tub, so basically we have a drain in the floor about two feet over from the toilet.  Since there is no water pressure though I don’t have to worry about anything getting wet except for whatever is about 2 inches from the nozzle.  The electric hot water heater is about three feet away so rest assured the water will not spray that far and we are not at risk of electric shock while showering.  We do have a hot water heater, when the power is on, so I am still able to take nice long hot showers much like I did at home. 

Second, Trish has mentioned the mosquito net.  We do sleep under a mosquito net do to the threat of malaria, which is very common here and what a large percentage of our patients at the clinic have been coming in with recently.  Our bed is somewhat of a combination of a romantically decorated four poster bed and my camping tent.  We crawl under the net at night and then argue over which of us will have to get back up to turn the light off or find the secret stash of M&M’s in my backpack while we watch a movie in bed.  The funniest event to date involving this mosquito net happened our first night in the guest house.  We have gotten ready for bed, had a dvd on the laptop, and even had the M&M’s and bottles of water close at hand.  Trish decided that she needed to get up just one more time before going to sleep so that she wouldn’t have to get up in the night… She crawled out from under the net, put her house shoes on (we never wore house shoes before), turned on the light that is on the wall outside of the bathroom, and as she sat down she remembered we have no toilet seat.  She looked at me, the toilet is about ten feet from the bed and the door was open, and she said “Dangit, I forgot where we were.”  Apparently the mosquito net hadn’t served as enough of a reminder.  I did go the next day to our local “Lowes” and purchase a heavy duty toilet seat since it was only $1.50 more than the regular one and soon I will purchase another mosquito net to hang on every bed we ever own since apparently is can be used to disguise our real location from Trish. 

Lastly, and this is probably one of my favorite things so far.   Many things that are said here are said as rhetorical questions.  I find it hilarious that every other sentence ends in what? It ends in the word what.  Follow that?  Here’s another one for you, maybe a little easier.  I am typing this blog on what?  On my laptop.  Tonight we are going to have what?  We are going to have dinner.  Of course this is all funnier in the Ugandan/ English accent and in context but that just means that you all will have to what?  Come visit us and hear it for yourself!!

That’s all I have for now.  We are doing well and have come to appreciate our senses of humor and patience.  We look forward to sharing more of our lives with you all and hearing about yours too as we will miss many gatherings and events.  Feel free to make life size cutouts of us and take us out to dinner or to your parties as we would love to actually be there.