Week 6: Addicted to Rolex

Ok, so I finally caved in and bought a Rolex. Actually 2. And together, they only cost 70 cents. That's because a rolex here is not a high end watch, but rather a chapati filled with egg, tomato, onions, and avocado...sort of like a Ugandan hotdog. No one is quite sure how the name came to be, but the rumor is that it's from the fact that you roll the eggs in the chapati (rolled eggs = rolex). In any case, delicious. The food here is generally really good if a bit repetitive...lots of mashed bananas, rice, beans, groundnut sauce, and some really juicy pineapple, and the occasional meat (though meat is expensive here).

Anyways, since this past week at work was focused on preparing a grant proposal to fund my project, I wont spend a lot of time describing that. Instead, I'll focus on some cool things I've noticed recently. For instance, on Friday my host brother Ben and I stopped for a beer a few minutes walk from our home around dusk. As we were sitting there, I was just kind of staring off into the horizon taking in the surroundings. After awhile, I came to and noticed I was looking right at the Nile Brewery -- where the beer we were drinking was made -- which was maybe 500 meters away. And the manufacture date on the bottle was just 3 days old...about as fresh as you can get.

Then there is the cultural differences. People at work will joke all the time with each other, but at the weekly meeting everything is done by strict protocol in very quiet voices. Everything gets discussed...and I really mean everything. At my first meeting, one agenda item was whether to keep a bucket in the toilets for women to use for disposal when it comes to that time of the month! When asked for my opinion, I told them that I thought they had it pretty well figured out...

But regardless of the occasional odd conversation, we have a great time at work, and after work. Like on Saturday, we all went out to the Pearl of Africa Music Awards, which was complete with fireworks and lots of local music performances. Another great end to a great week!