Trade Show

So apparently my last post was too revealing/depressing? I didn't mean to come across like I was sad, I just was letting you know my thoughts....I am happy! Development work is so rewarding even if it is complicated! It was just deep thinking. I know that's not really my style of blogging so I guess I shall save that for my personal journal. Moving on, I got pictures today so this is fun!! I went to the outside market and attempted to look for Sam our cook that works at a barber shop when he's not cooking for us food but that failed. He was going to introduce me to his friend that braids hair cus I want my hurr braided! Mallory drew a map and being a Rushton we all know that number one I suck at maps and number two I am terrible with directions. I can't even get around Rexburg Idaho (where I have been attending school for the past two years) let alone an outside market in Africa. Hahahaha I was like asking everyone if they knew Sam and showing them the map Mallory made me. It was hilarious. It took a good half hour to finally find where the shop was and turned out it was closed. (I was with another volunteer mom, I wasn't alone) That was quite the adventure. I also went to an African trade show which is equivilant to a swap meet. I have become quite an expert at bargaining since I've been here so I got many good deals on many great items!

I traded this lady Caitlin's skirt for an African dress that I will be modeling at a later date

 I bought some nice things from this lady with my professional bargaining skills

 Oh these men are quite the story...so we came to the trade show after church last Sunday cus we thought it was only there for the day. (come to find out it's a week long thing but it's only once a year)  Since it was the first day of the trade show, we were both of these men first costumers so they were pretty much willing to give us what we wanted for whatever price we asked for. Super awesome. When we came back today they totally remembered us and were so excited to see us and were of course hoping we would buy more things. The guy standing next to me was telling me he could never forget me because of my laugh and my smile oh and lets not forget my beautiful face...borderline creepy? Oh well. Only in Uganda do you get good prices on things because first of all you are a Mzungu and second because well you are just overall beautiful (thank you Richard and Lara) hahahaha just kidding. But not really because that is seriously why I got a good deal haha. He wanted to have a formal sit down and have a conversation about who knows what but I said I wanted to look around hahaha. Good times.

 Oh this is a good story too. So I was willing to trade my shoes for some Ugandan sandels and the woman, Carol accepted my offer. Score! As I was looking at the sandels, this man, Isaac who turns out to be her brother starts asking me where I am from if I am married. I reply no then he proceeds to say, "oh, I'm searching"I just start laughing and say well I'm not so good luck to ya! Carol is just listening from a distance and starts laughing. I asked him if the only reason he asked me that is because I'm a mzungu and he of course said no no no and I told him I didn't believe him. I then continued to ask if I was an Ugandan woman, if he would have said the same thing and he said yes. I just laughed and said yeah right. We kept talking about why Ugandan men are so obsessed with mzungu women just because they are white and how they don't even know us or our personality and all that fun stuff. Somehow we then get into the conversation of Obama. He goes, are you voting for Obama? I replied, um probably not, I think I'm voting for Mitt Romney haha and he goes oh, does Obama believe in same gender marriage? I reply, I think so? Then he goes do you? I proceed to tell him my feelings towards it and then Carol chimes in and goes, if Obama believes in a man and a man that he must like a man hahaha and I go but he's married to a woman and she shakes her head and says it doesn't matter. haha Conversation like this one actually happen a lot here in Uganda. As soon as you tell an Ugandan you are from America the next conversation is always about same sex marriage/attraction. Since Ugandans are huge Bible believers they obviously don't agree with it..."because in the Bible it says man and woman" They are very interested to hear our opinion on it since we are surrounded by it. It is just interesting that is the main thing they know about America besides the ever obvious, "you have so much money." This one Boda driver that drove me home once was convinced that every single person in America has money and I tried to tell him there are poor people in America just like there are in Mbale and he honestly didn't believe me. He kept saying, no no no and I was like really? How the heck would you know, you've never even been there hahaha. Good times. Good convos. 

After my trade show experience, I taught nutrition with Kara to a group of women in the Namatala slum. It's challenging to teach these women because I don't really know if they grasp the importance of what we teach them. Also, they are the poorest of the poor. Dirt floors, stick roofs, a piece of cloth as their windows/doors so it's awkward to say you have to eat x amount of fruits/veggies/meat/dairy/fats a day when they can't even afford to buy their family posho. (the cheapest staple food in Uganda) In addition, since they like don't have jobs and have nothing better to do with their lives, alcoholism is a huge problem. They brew their own booze. Millet is actually pretty cheap which is how they make it and they ferment it and they give it to their children and it's just not alright. These are the women of families we want to give water filters to but not if their going to abuse themselves ya know? And that's where the culture thing comes in if you read Ashley's blog. Where do we draw the line? It's so complicated. Kara and I talked after and thought it would just be a good idea to teach a lesson about how damaging alcohol is to your body and hopefully that goes over well. We shall see about that. Overall, it was a good day. I skyped with Richard which is always a treat and the team ended the night watching Baby Mama. Cheers. (P.S. sorry about being in like all of these pictures with these people I met, I just looked at the post and realized it probably would have been better if I captured just them cus I'm kind of distracting and awkwardly standing next to them....note to self for future picture taking with people I have future great convo with)