Independence Day

HAPPY 4th of JULY EVERYONE! So I changed the template for this special day.

First off, a big thanks to Chet and Barbara for the E-card! It was really cute haha.

Biggest news of the day: Lopez Lomong has advanced to the Olympic trial semifinals for the 1500 meter. I really hope he makes it. He has already qualified for the U.S. team on the 5000 meter.

So today we woke up kinda early and started off getting food items for our little celebration today. Father Amayo let us take his Toyota Prado for a ride into the town, and there was definitely a big difference between his car and our lame Pajero. The Prado ran so smoothly; we actually did not even mind driving over the potholes because the suspension in the car was so good. And the best part of his car—he had a 6-disc CD changer! So Jerome played his Phil Collins and reggae Ugandan music as we drove into the market. I was afraid to park anywhere too close to the market because Father Amayo’s car had a lot of nice electronics that could easily get stolen. Plus, khawajas in the car make it even more conspicuous than it is. But Jerome insisted we park right next to the discotheque, where Ed found our bamboo sticks long time ago. Our first immediate task was finding 4 chickens, but we STILL, at this morning hour, could not find any around the market. I don’t get why chickens are so rare here…they should seriously be considered a delicacy in Torit. The man at the discotheque, who happened to be Jerome’s friend, said we would get them around 11 AM.

So we walk further into the market and buy our produce. Even though I previously promised to take pictures of the place, there were a lot of SPLA and police officers around...maybe next time. Anyways, we buy tomatoes, potatoes, onions, bread, and rice (which tasted really good). We wanted to buy American ketchup because their ketchup has a sweet and sour taste to it, but we could not find any. We thought maybe we could make our own ketchup using the tomatoes we bought, but we never attempted to do this later on in the day. At one point, a couple from behind the counter from one of the shops calls the three of us over. They ask us where we are from, and I tell them I am American. The lady turns to her husband as to confirm and question, “American?” I then have to explain to her my parents are from India, but I was born in the U.S.

We leave them to buy cooking oil, and the owner of the shop prices 15 pounds. But literally within 2 seconds, he changes his mind and asks for 17 pounds. Emma, George, and I get furious! We argue with him, saying we won’t buy it because he jacked up the price within a span of 2 seconds right in front of our faces. So we leave and buy cooking oil at another shop.

We then go get our crate full of soda and Tusker beer, at the posterior of the market. Three white men come over to us and tap us on our shoulders. The main talker says, “So we saw some other white people in the market and wanted to introduce ourselves.” I roll my eyes. We find out that they were all from the Midwest states, and they were here to teach English at a secondary school. Before we say goodbye, I yell to them “Happy 4th of July!” The main talker lifts his eyes in surprise and responds, “Oh yeah! I forgot!” Wow.

We then go buy butchered beef. We ask for 3 kilos, and the man hands over 3 kilos. Before we left for the market, Emmanuel told us we could find a grinder at the Bishop’s to grind up our beef and make hamburger patties. We go to the Bishop’s…..but we find no grinder. I don’t know even know why I listen to Emmanuel anymore; I think he likes to screw around with us. So we go back to the market, and ask Jerome’s friend where we could find a grinder. Lucky us, we find it at the restaurant right next to the discotheque. But unlucky us, we find out that the meat we bought was all made up of bones and fat. We got jipped.

So we went to another shop, asked for 3 kilos of STEAK, and go back home. Someone tells us that there is a grinder in the compound, and obviously, we feel stupid searching for one all this time. Emma and George start trimming the fat, but I get disgusted and leave.

Later on in the day, Emma calls me to go to the market again for the chickens. We still cannot find any. So we ask Jerome’s friend where they are. He was playing pool next to the discotheque, with a group of other men hanging around the table. They really sucked, just to tell you. But anyways, he won and led us deep into the market, winding this way and that through the shops, and finally out into the open. There they were—the chickens. There were about 15 flapping inside a big round basket, and a man took some out to weigh them for us. There was no way in hell we could have find our way through the market and gotten to those chickens on our own. He found 4 good ones, at 25 pounds each, and gave two to Jerome to hold. Emma, after much screaming, finally managed to hold the other two by their wing joint shoulder blade. I admit, I was too much of a big wuss to help out holding the chickens.

We go through the market again, winding through and finally finding our way out to where our car was parked. We throw the chickens in the back and drive back home. I helped Emma and Lucy collect some dry firewood around the compound, but they had thorns so I had to be super careful. I still got some thorns stuck to my sandals. Then Father Amayo, a French guy named Desire (can you believe the name? haha), Lucy, Abigail, and Emma start preparing the chickens. George and Jerome made a mini grill out of the wires and netted material we found around the compound, and started to roll up the ground beef and cooked them over the fire. At first the patties were sticking to the grill, so they put some cooking oil around the patties and it worked better. Desire slaughtered the chickens because none of us had the guts to. Then I left the kitchen. Emma actually helped out with plucking and degutting the chicken. Crazy. I could never have done that. Later on, I saw the intestines outside of the chicken and the remains of the chicken’s lungs on its ribcage. Desire showed me its gizzard and kidneys. Although I was pretty disgusted, I gotta admit, anatomically it was pretty cool. I have dissected rats before, so I tried applying my Bio 1Al knowledge (again) to identify the organs I saw. But still, I would never have tried to actively pull out all the intestines out of the dead chicken’s cut anus the way Emma did (sorry for the graphic details).

George and Emma start building a bonfire, right next to our grill. At first it fails, and then they take some of the leaking diesel from our car and throw it on the firewood (Kids, you should never try this at home). That diesel worked like a charm; the wood burned immediately…but there was also a lot of smoke.

Father Amayo then let us play American music in his car, but we could not get our iPods to work. Even though we managed to connect our speakers to play American music in our Pajero, we did not use the Pajero because our speakers were pretty pathetic. So we said screw it, and played some Ugandan music throughout the night. I decided I liked Kenyan music more (it sounds more like rap), but I did not want to offend Jerome.

Pretty soon dinner was ready. Boy it looked like a good feast. Fried and roasted chicken, hamburger patties, sliced bread, rice, pasta, and sliced onions and tomatoes. We prepared for 15 people, and what do you know? 14 people showed up! I was really worried we would not get about 15 people because earlier today, Emmanuel, Joseph, and Moses ditched us to attend to some business in Kapoeta. These guys are always on the run. We still have not gotten Emmanuel’s MOU draft, and George was very angry with him when he left. One of these days we are going to plot a way to physically tie Emmanuel to his room. Seriously. But whatever, we got 15 people incidentally…15 people we did not even plan for. About 7 strangers dropped by and found us having a big fiesta. So they joined our celebration.

But before we could start eating, Father Amayo and all our guests pressured the three of us to sing the Star-Spangled Banner. So we got in front of the table, everyone stood up, placed their hands over their hearts, and we started to sing. My gosh, the three of us sounded so BAAADDD. We were totally off key, and we did not even remember the words too well. Haha but it was fun making a total fool of ourselves. In the end, everyone gave us a round of applause, and we started to eat. Hardly anyone touched the hamburger patties, much to Emma and George’s disappointment. But they said it was significantly better than the batch they tried out during lunch because of the grill, oil, and salt. Even though the roasted chicken was pretty burnt, everyone ate most of the chicken. My plate had a good 6 pieces of chicken on it. Father Amayo then asks us to tell our guests about the history of America’s Independence, and George narrates it very well. It was very funny.

I don’t drink, and I do not like beer (even though Tusker is the best I have tried). But ever since Jerome has met me, he has been very intent on trying to get me something I would really like. I tell him I like dessert drinks, like liqueur, in which I can hardly taste the alcohol. So today, on this very special day, he bought me a 17 pound ($8.5o) Ugandan V&A Sherry drink. I was very impressed. Although I could still taste the stinging alcohol, it was pretty sweet…the sweetest wine I have ever tasted (and I usually HATE wine). But it was pretty strong, so I could feel a flush of redness rising to my cheeks. Let me just tell you, the rest of the night was fabulous haha. I got all our guests to stand up and dance to the Ugandan music playing from Father Amayo’s car. Father Amayo loved it. It was really cute to see everyone shaking their booties and waving their arms around. Desire, I voted, was the best dancer; Jerome was the worst. Everyone looked like they were having a good time. The bonfire died in the middle, and we poured some more diesel to start it up again. Emma, George, Jerome, and I danced around the bonfire. Father Ben came later on in the day, and he pulled Emma and me up to dance with him. Haha it was great.

The generator stopped at 10:30 PM. Tonight we saw the best stars. I identified the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper with Father Amayo, and then all of a sudden the generator started back on. Desire turned on ours, and he left it on until 12:30 AM! Wow…this was really a good day for us. So for the remainder of the night, Emma insisted that we have some team bonding. We sat out on our porch and played Thumper while sipping some beers. Tusker really tasted like water after drinking that V&A. We then played some other games, talked a lot more, and killed some giant bugs (a HUGE 4 inch beetle and a 5 inch praying mantis). The generator then turned off, and we went off to bed. I could still smell the bonfire smoke in my hair. But man, it was a great night. :-)

So Happy Independence Day everyone! We have proven that it doesn’t matter whether you are American or not; anyone can celebrate the 4th of July! haha

-Neesha, Nous-Nous (half-half), Nemo, Chiqueets, Ping-pong, Missy