Living in the Fort and Interacting with the People

Living and working in FP is a beautiful, challenging, fun, exciting, nerve-touching, saddening, joyful, and a many other adjective experience. I’ll take you through it how I saw it: first my house, then the surroundings, then the people.

Here is my house:

(The view from my house)

It is very posh! We have a self-contained house, which means that the kitchen and bathroom are inside. We have western-style toilets, a shower, a hot water heater (ooh fancy shmancy!) and basically what we need (more than, really).  The only thing we don’t have is a clothes washer and dryer, so I’ve started learning how to do this by hand. So far, I’m not very good. Half of my load ended up smelly from not drying fast enough and a quarter was still dirty when I was done so I have to do another load soon! Also, the house is two doors down from my office. Here is the road I take to work:

Here is my housemate, Mary Oldham:

(I'll explain everyone else at another time, this picture was from a trip that I'll get to later)

Mary is the only other person around from the States. She’s from Iowa and her father is a farmer (those extra details were for you, dad! I hope they made you smile). Long story short, she’s great and I’m so lucky to have her! With every day that passes, she reminds me more and more of Sonya (she’s a chemical engineer, by the way), which makes me miss Sonya very much at times, but also brings me a sense of ease and a lot of laughter!

In terms of land, FP is unlike any place I have ever been in many ways. First, the earth is red:

The terrain is hilly and lush with plants and trees and the town is tucked into some tall mountains (the Mountains of the Moon). The best way that I have described the look of it so far is that everything is in layers. Layers of trees sit on layers of hills and valleys. The hills themselves create layers before they are stopped by the hazy blue/purple mountains. The clouds also seem to come in layers. I hope these can convey what I mean:

Oh, before I forget, here is a photo of Sir Gerald Portal:

Funnily enough, the rumor is that he never actually carried a gun, and possibly never even made it to where Fort Portal is today!

Now that I’ve decently covered the area, I’ll try to give an idea of the people who live here. My qualifier is that I have not been here for a long time and will probably have different ideas about many things by the time I leave. I’ll keep you posted.

The people that I have met in Uganda are wonderful. I’ve heard that they are a reserved people in comparison with other African countries (this, I think, provides their calmness that I really appreciate). So far, I agree with this, but it seems to be in conflict with another large aspect of their personality, which is a love of laughing and a unique ability to laugh at almost anything. Also, the Ugandans I have met are sincere, kind, and polite. They are also highly religious. It has been interesting coming from Seattle (the PC capital of the world … hah, I meant political correctness, but I suppose the computer type would work as well) to a country where statements (both written and verbal) about the Christian God are common and accepted. 

I've been very impressed with the amount of weight women can carry on their heads (something men do not do). I have seen many men walking bicycles loaded with a lot of weight, though. Everything from enormous crates, to huge poles or pieces of wood, to other things... like this:

(In case you can't tell, this is a cow's head. Cows have huge horns and any that don't are called "exotic")

In case you are interested, here is what the money looks like here. I wish I would have placed a US dollar next to them to give you an idea, but they are much larger (wider and just as long). 

(Why can't our money be this pretty?!)