Tomato Sauce and Big Bugs

I went to Kampala last weekend. There, I went to a lot of places which would be much more like what you would find in the west than in the rest of Uganda. I had told my adopted Italian grandpa, Luigi, who has been here for 3 months, that I would see if I could buy him Ragu (or real tomato sauce). The women who cook at the priest’s house have been making their own version of “spaghetti”. It is nothing like Italian or American spaghetti.

So, I spent a rather large amount of shillings on 2 bottles of American Garden tomato sauce! Luigi got really excited when I gave them to him! He even has been sharing them with me. Elizabeth, one of the women who works at the Priest’s house, was eating with us when I gave it to him. She had never seen tomato sauce before. She had been told to make spaghetti, and had never in her whole life, seen what the sauce was suppose to look like. I promised to teach her to make it. Whatever we make won’t be as good because they only sell tomato paste here in Mbarara, I’ve looked. But I think we can come up with something closer to proper tomato sauce!

It is the rainy season. It rains just about every afternoon. Sometimes it rains hard, sometimes not. I thought there were a lot of types of rain in Ireland… but there are even more here. The ground becomes a mud pit. African mud is different than in other places. It sucks you in and won’t let go. My feet are constantly dirty.

Due to the rain, the bugs have started showing up. People here say that the rainy season “brings everything up”… meaning both bugs and plants. (Side note: My garden has been a major let down. It looks more like I sewed grass than carrots! I have a few watermelon plants… which I did not plant! I am hoping it will make a turn for the better soon!) So recently I have been noticing some really big bugs. I saw them first on the screen over our door. Thank God for that screen. The ones there were large and round. You could easily name all their parts without a microscope. When I say big, think big as in the continent of Africa is big! There was one flying around the class room the other night… probably one of the biggest bugs I’ve ever seen. (Second only to the spiders and cockroaches of Sudan, it’s hotter there)

Then there are the millapeds. They are about 4 inches long and snake along the ground as though they have nowhere to go. Their jointed bodies and millions of legs create quite a creature!

The ants have come again. Our bathroom is, each morning, invaded by flying ants which are gross and annoying. The small ants then come to eat the big ants. It’s a lovely combination. The smaller ants have also found my room. I am waging war. I do not cohabitat with ants! Nature is just so much closer here. Even in Kampala… I killed a cockroach in Susanna’s living room, and left my shoe on it for good measure. When I lifted my shoe there was the dead cockroach, covered in ants. Now where did they come from? Let’s just say I’ve started tucking in my mosquito net around the edge of my bed at night. Stay away bugs! Thankfully mosquitos aren't too bad here. Nothing like Masaka and Eldoret (Kenya)!! I am grateful for that, but Malaria is still a stalker.

The other night I came home from Kampala in the dark. Trudging up the long drive in the rain, navigating through the puddles by the reflection they let off from the lights of the compound, I found myself surrounded by cows. They didn’t mind me and I didn’t mind them. All I could think was that the US government is never going to allow me back into the country! I’ve lived on a farm.

My health is sort of improving. We’ll get there eventually.