mzungu-land

I was walking home the other day, up a hill in the suburbs of Kampala, when some kids spotted me. They started chanting together, "mzungu, mzungu, mzungu!" [white person]

Me: "Siri mzungu. Mzungu ali wa?" [I'm not a mzungu. Where is the mzungu?]
Kids: "Mzungu?" ... confused looks.
Me: "Siri mzungu. Nze Anna." [I'm not a mzungu. I'm Anna.]
Kids, chanting again: "Anna, bye-i, bye-i Anna!"

I walked on with a smile. These kids are cute, but imagine this kind of conversation (mzungu!) happening countless times every day, almost everywhere I walk. The anonyminity that one might expect in cities has evaporated into cries of mzungu!

But my Luganda language skills are coming back and it's fun to surprise people with the little that I know. These kinds of random conversation, while sometimes frustrating, make every day an adventure. I never know what's around the corner (literally -- could be cows in the road or burning tires or a roadside markets).

I begin work at the Daily Monitor newspaper tomorrow morning and am really excited. More to come!

shifting gears

You may notice some changes to this blog. Instead of starting an entirely new site, I’m switching gears on this one as I head to Uganda for an internship at the Daily Monitor newspaper. I plan to update this blog with stories I write for the paper as well as with experiences of daily life.

I lived in Uganda in 2006, so I’m excited to return, see my dear friends again, and see how Kampala has changed in my absence. More coming…