backlog, Saturday, Feb 24

Saturday, Feb 24

First impressions:
Sons and daughters of Arua move fast – much faster than those in Kampala. People here seem to have somewhere to be, they are always moving, walking, carrying.

I’ve been told its bustling here, but its mostly just bicycles. I guess I didn’t have any specific expectations, but it’s surprising for one reason or another.

It’s also strange that all the people I’ve met so far are self-proclaimed introverts. I hope I can survive this. Everyone tells me to give myself time to adjust, time to breathe. I am so not used to that – I’m always on the go. I guess this is conflicting – I say people here are on the go, but I don’t feel that I am! In some ways it must be the acclimation period, but I just feel lonely and afraid. I went to bed at 10 o’clock last night, after going to one of the two restaurants in Arua and having an uncomfortable dinner with two strangers, that I had been hopeful about meeting. They both work for Right to Play and do their work in Rhino Camp, refugee settlement. Maybe they are just more comfortable and experienced and that is why they don’t seem interested in me or being real friends. Maybe its because the are both leaving (their contracts are over) and they have their eyes and minds somewhere else. Maybe I’m just feeling too sensitive.

Thank god I have Philipp. I think I need him to feel connected and safe while I’m here. Without him telling me he loves me so much and that he misses me I think I would feel I had fallen off the planet.

I hear a farmer singing in low tones. At first I thought that it was a bee buzzing, but I’m pretty sure it’s human. I am in Africa and I’m starting to feel it. I like it here on Pernille’s front porch. I feel I’ve got front row tickets to the village. People passing, animals sounding…I particularly like the sound of the orange lizards running on the tin roof as they bob their heads and then slide down the corrugated covering.

Sarah, Pernille’s neighbor, has been wonderful to me. A British linguist, she is here with a faith-based organization working to preserve “indigenous languages” in eastern Congo and teaching bible translation in the promotion of literacy. She has lived in a few parts of Africa (Burkina Faso, Kenya, and here in Uganda for over a year). She has a cute little house and I’m grateful she invited me for breakfast this morning. Bacon and eggs in the bush! She makes her own yogurt and bread, too. She says that she has more things to keep her busy than she has time, which I suppose is hopeful. Her friends, Eric and Martha, have said the same things. They are liberals, and Christians, which until now has been a completely foreign concept/presence in my life in the states, working as consultants for a hunger organization. I have never been one to associate with religious people, but the times are ‘a changing. Especially as I seem to be the only “faith-less” person this side of the Sahara.