Nights in the village

Nights in the village have taken on a rhythm. The main evening task is dinner preparation. Without refrigeration, the preparation begins with buying fresh food. There are a number of small stores in Ruhiira but most are unmarked so it requires peering inside open doors to figure out what's there (is it a store or someone's home?). The stores tend to be small, dim (no artificial lights and usually no windows), and crowded. Once inside I usually point and smile with a questioning look. Most people in Ruhiira do not speak English and I am painfully feeling my ignorance of Runyankole. My latest phrase is, "Nsassara, nimanya Urujungu rwonka" (Sorry, I know English only). I've also picked up the words for matches, eggs, and tomatoes this week and can now count to 9,999 (important to get past 100 since 2200 Uganda Shillings= $1 and the smallest coin is 100 shillings). A row of women sit on one side of the main open space every evening. Each has what appears to me as an identical array of small piles of tomatoes, garlic cloves, and avocados in front of her. The women and most other people are quite amused by me. A Ugandan I was with commented that people 'liked me so much' but I corrected him that I believe they are laughing at me- a bit different.

Cooking itself takes a long time. I now refuse to peel matoke as the resin made my hands so sticky it took an hour of scrubbing to get it off (I clearly don't know the right technique). The lack of any refrigerated leftovers, the one functional burner, and fetching water when needed slows the process. By the time we're cooking, darkness has fallen and light in the kitchen comes from a candle. Dinner is eaten either in the dark sitting on the concrete step in the courtyard of the 'intern house' or seated on low stools in the candle-lit kitchen.

The darkness is intense in Ruhiira. I find it impossible to walk without tripping though the villagers seem to do just fine without a flashlight. The stores remain open after dark and are lit with usually a single gas lantern so that the spaces become darker still. I find them a bit more foreboding (even harder to walk into unknown territory) but also find them appealing in their intimacy. The stars are predictably impressive. Nights are cold and windy by Ugandan standards so reading in bed (after great challenges I can now download onto my Kindle to Uganda!) with my headlamp is a cozy event.