Scott's Drawings

Scott has an extraordinary talent for drawing, among other things. While he was here, he started drawing again, and it became a wonderful way to interact with people. As soon as he would start drawing, people would collect around him, discussing his drawing with each other in local languages, and occasionally exclaiming, "Fine artist!" They had good reason to be impressed. His drawings were vivid and inspiring, bringing out the color and spirit of the subject. I would be sitting there watching him draw a scene and think "Wow, I want to be there" - even though I already was there.


This was the view from the window of a beautiful house we stayed in in San Francisco.




This is a street scene in Tororo.




Sipi Falls




A shop owner and her three children. She was very amused to pose for Scott, and when he showed her the completed drawing, she burst into raucous laughter and showed everyone in the shop. One of her young daughters really took to Scott, calling him "my mzungu" and frequently asking him to "write the baby" (read draw a picture of her infant sibling).




The market




A tailor




The Bo Kap neighborhood of Cape Town




A woman in Tororo





There are so many and they are all so beautiful.

Safari

Before Cape Town, I went on Safari outside of Johannesburg at Madiwke Game Reserve.

We stayed at the Mosetlha Game Reserve - a cute little place that had no power or running water. It was very quaint for three days - I imagine any longer than that would be a pain in the ass.
In order to take a shower, you had to take a bucket of water, drag it to the water heater, pour it into the water heater and then back into your bucket, drag it to the shower, lower a bucket on a pulley, pour the hot water in, list the bucket back above your head, and shower. There was enough water only if you shut off the water while soaping up. But the shower wasn't quite enclosed, so there were chilly breezes that would make you somewhat cold if the water was off.
Still, it was very cute. We stayed in comfortable little cabins



We drove around in an elongated jeep, which was remarkably comfortable given the circumstances. Each game drive was four hours long, from 6am-10am, and 4pm-8pm.

The car



Some days, we saw lots of game. Other days, we saw very little. But over the 3 days we were there, we managed to see a lot:

Kuru
(incidentally, I had some Kuru carpaccio in Cape Town - it was delicious!)



Springbok





Ostrich



Elephant



Giraffes





Rhinos



Lions

South Africa

I just arrived in Cape Town. We were outside Johannesburg on Safari - I'll post about that later.

At the moment, I am remembering the comforts of industrialized life, including the following things:

1. Sushi
2. Insanely fast internet
3. Smooth roads
4. Lanes in the smooth roads
5. Brie
6. Architecture, esp. Art Deco
7. Pervasive hipness
8. Attentive restaurant service
9. Salad
10. Mustard
11. Sidewalks

It's also refreshing and slightly confusing that everyone understands me when I speak. I am so used to having to enunciate and convert my accent that it's hard to stop doing.

I've been in Cape Town for 2 hours, and I'm already in love with it. It seems so beautiful and fascinating. I think there are too many things to do - I'll definitely have to come back.

Gardening

Between our large yard and Uganda's fertile soil (Eggplant grows as a weed. Seriously.), it was hard to resist the idea to start a garden outside our house.

We decided to start with plants and flowers first, because they are readily available in town. If it works well, I might venture into vegetables.

We went to a lady who sells plants near the hospital and picked out the types we wanted, then picked the best-looking one of each type. Once I see how they take, I will come back for more. Of course, once I had picked all the plants, paid her USh 10,000 ($5) and packed the plants in a box, we tried to hop on the Mate to go home, and it broke! The starter pedal just clean broke. (More on that later) So I took a boda home.

We started by choosing a patch of grass to use for the garden and breaking it up with a hoe, then pulling up all the roots.





After a lot of hacking and pulling, the ground was finally prepared.



I had left the plants we bought just inside the front gate, but when I went to get them, they were missing! Recently our security guard had his bike and radio stolen while he was on duty (yes, you read that correctly), so I assumed that they had come back for my plants. But why would anyone steal plants?
As it turns out, the same security guard had assumed that the plants belonged to our neighbor (a mzungu who works with me) and had brought them to her house.

So once that was cleared up and the plants were back in our possession, we were ready to plant. We created the border for the garden using empty wine bottles. The smaller area of the garden had poorer soil than the larger area, so we avoided it for now. We had started a compost pile, so in a couple of weeks I will mix the compost into that side.

We planted the plants we had bought, and put some limestone in for prettiness, and poured lots of water.





I'll be in South Africa for the next two weeks, but I'm excited to see how the garden will be doing by the time i get back.

We did more cooking this weekend.

We fired up the Braai (grill), which involved over an hour of effort from Scott to get the charcoal going. Now I appreciate quick-start charcoal. Cheating, schmeating.

We made steaks rubbed with salt, pepper and Tandoori spice, and beef kabobs marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, tamarind, salt pepper, BBQ seasoning and honey.
We made string beans in tomato sauce - a long time favorite of mine that mom makes (of course).

Scott also found these weird tiny vegetables in the market. They're green and the size of half a finger. When you ask, they tell you the Luganda name for the vegetable, which doesn't help.



We couldn't figure out what they were, until Scott finally bit into one and it tasted like a cucumber. They were tiny, tiny cucumbers.



I chose to stir-fry them, for lack of ideas on what to do with tiny cucumbers - half in soy sauce, half in soy sauce plus tamarind. The ones with the tamarind were decidedly tastier. I don't think I'll make them again, though, because they were a pain to slice up, being so super tiny.

For dessert, we grilled a pineapple, which was the most delicious thing ever.

We were highly satisfied with our cooking effort, as was Joseph, our night guard, who proclaimed our cooking to be of "high quality." Next time, we want to make a BBQ for the whole house - probably not on a weekend, though, since everyone flees to Kampala.

Next project: Meat Omelet.

Anemia

A mzungu family medicine resident from California was working here for a month, and he rotated through all the wards. On the pediatric ward, he saw a child with the following lab results. (Keep in mind, this patient is alive.)



Hemoglobin 1.2!
I didn't know that was consistent with life, but apparently in Uganda, it is. Go figure.

Passion Big

The Rock Hotel has a very nice passion juice that we like to order when we're swimming. Passion juice is absolutely delicious. It is tart and rich, and The Rock Hotel makes a really nice one.
You can order a "Passion Small" or a "Passion Big." Passion Big is really big, but it's so tasty that I can usually drink it all.



Passion Big is high on my list of things that I love about living here.