SMOi

Hello all,
If you are getting this email, it is because I have assumed that you
are interested in receiving emails about my journey in Uganda. If I
was wrong and you could careless, email me and I will take you off the
list.
As of right now it is noon here and 5am NC time. It is my second day
in Uganda and I am so grateful to be here. I miss all of you,
especially Aya, but I am very thankful that I get the opportunity to
serve Uganda. Everywhere the staff goes we get called "Mazungu" which
means white person. It is really cute to see the little children stop
and yell out "hello Mazungu." We are in the outskirts of town near
Kampala so we get to experience village life which is much better than
city life (mainly because of traffic and crowds of people).
The food is incredible here. Some things are different in taste and
do not look appealing but they are extremely good. I haven't had
anything out of the ordinary. As far as expenses go, one American
dollar equals 1600 shillings so we make it out pretty cheap for food
and clothing but gas or petrol is much more expensive here. It is
about 6 dollars a gallon and unskilled workers make about 20 American
dollars a week. So keep in mind that we, despite our complaints, have
it very well in the US. There are several gestures that we use
everyday in America but are taken wrongly here.
Hopefully these will make you smile:
A yawn in Uganda means you are hungry and people will give you food.
An eyebrow shrug with the sound "hmm" means yes in Ugandan culture.
Pregnant women will not say they are pregnant even when noticeable
because they don't want their baby to be cursed.
If you make eye contact with a woman while talking with them it means
you are very interested in her.
public displays of affection are very vulgar. the only affection you
will see is man to man or woman to woman (like holding hands).
Argentines would hate Uganda.
opening and closing your hand in a "hello gesture to a kid" means to
come here in Ugandan culture so if you do that in the village, kids
will flock to you.
someone who says they had to take a "short call" or a "long call" are
references to the bathroom.

I will send more culture differences when I think of them but that is
all for now. Other than that not much has been happening because we
are still going through orientation. Carbs and starch are the big
things you will always eat here which can be rough on the stomach but
I like it alright.
The bugs are not bad. Compared to Alaska, this place has very few
insects. I continue to take malaria medicine but bug spray isn't
necessary.
They have warned us that we will get a stomach virus or sickness while
we are here but that you will get through it. I don't look forward to
that but I still love it here.

If yall have any questions email me and I will include it in my next email.

I love yall, take care. Nick you are going to love Uganda. I wish I
could commit to a semester.

John