Letting Go...

After living in Uganda for almost a year, you slowly start letting things go, it’s mostly because you would drive yourself crazy if you didn’t, but sometimes it’s because you just figure you’re in Africa, and you shouldn’t be held to the same standards as the rest of the continents.

What are these things that I’ve had to let go you ask?
For your convenience I’ve divided them into three main categories: bugs, myself, and other crap, of course I’ve had to let go of a lot of other things (like how things NEVER go according to plan), but I’m trying to keep things (relatively) brief.

Bugs:

In America I was pretty squeamish when it came to bugs. Which now, looking back is a bit amusing, because bugs in America are so infrequent, and often even cute (ex. Ladybugs). Anyways, when I used to come across a bug inside my house I would usually call my sister Emily to come and dispose of it for me. Which she would, and then look at me in disgust because I couldn't dispose of said bug myself.

My fear of bugs was something I had to let go very quickly, as Uganda seems to be the source and headquarter for most of the world’s insect population. Bugs invade my life so often, it would be impractical to do anything but ignore, squish, or pick them out of my food and throw them away.

I’ve learned that inevitably bugs will get into your food (ex. My friend Lauren ate a maggot on Tuesday while enjoying a mango), but then the question has now become: how much of my food have they invaded? Can a cut out the maggoty bit from this cucumber? Of course! I can just scoop around the white ants that always seem to be in the kimbo (shortening)? Why would you do anything else? No need to throw the entire pea pod away because of that worm, just pick around it, right? Right! I’m pretty sure those mosquito larva will die when you boil the water. They definitely will! I’ve let go of my aversion to dealing with bugs, and realize that while they are disgusting, vile little creatures, they can be easily ignored, or swiftly put to death.

Myself:

I by no means think that I have entirely let myself go, but I have to a certain extent.

I can still remember a time when I dressed nicely and wasn’t always a little bit dirty. That was before moths, hand washing, dirt, and sharp snagging objects took vengeance upon my clothes. I also constantly seem to have an assortment of bites, bruises, and scrapes all over me, enough that a friend’s young son was concerned enough to ask if he could put salve on my “wounds”.  Also, because of the sharp decrease of meat and dairy in my life, all of these “wounds” are scarring up very nicely, which, as you can imagine, is very attractive. I won’t even disgust you with the mangled, filthy state of my feet, I’ll just say that walking everywhere on dirt roads has never suited them less.

However, even though I don’t think I  (or anyone I know here) am living as our most polished selves, I really don’t feel like it matters that much. I like my scar on my arm I got in Mombasa, and the dress that is patched ‘cause it snagged when I was playing with Josiah, I don’t love my disgusting feet, but it’s part of life in Kaihura, and I wouldn’t want to be any other place.

Other crap:

So yeah, I’ve just had to deal with a lot more actual crap than I ever imagined. Aside for the latrine-style toilets, there is just poo everywhere. For months I thought mice were coming into my room, pooping, and disturbing nothing else, nope, that was lizard poo. The sheer amount that geckos must take a dump is baffling! I mean, they have such tiny little bodies, and it’s not as if there are gecko raves going on in my room every night, just the occasional lizard running across the wall, yet every single morning I will have to sweep my room free of little lizard turds.
Cow poop, chicken poop, lizard poop, goat poop, dog poop, people poop, it’s just all over the place. Once, a man whose nationality will remain anonymous (cough, polish, cough) took a dump in the water source for the whole village of Kaihura! What kind of person does that?!?! Later that same week my friend Jodie (not surprisingly) got very ill with giardia, which you get from coming into contact with feces, probably from her shower water (she wanted you to know that she doesn’t drink poop water). Yesterday I am positive Jodie and I walked through sewage water that some guy was scooping out of a drain onto the street. I'm not sure I ever had an aversion to poo, you don't come into contact with it too much in America, but  I'm definitely beyond caring about a little poo.

I think one of the most important lessons Uganda has taught me is to let things go, or more importantly, a lot of things probably aren’t as important as you think they are. It’s easy to get caught up in the small, unimportant details of life and ignore the things that really do matter. Uganda has done a good job of putting things in perspective.