Since arriving in Kampala a little over a week ago most of my daily activities have involved settling in my temporary housing and determining all of the logistical items that must be resolved to get settled more permanently. I’ve been working with people on the ground here to address issues of transportation, accommodations, meals and cultural differences in ways of doing things. While I have done some short term travel in parts of Africa, living here and going about day to day activities is entirely another story. I had some experience with “Africa time” (things move at a very different pace here and with different understandings of time!), the traffic, the noise, the dust, the power outages, and such on my previous travels along with all the sights and pleasures of leisure travel. However, the impact of all these factors while trying to begin a new job and settle in a new place to live is entirely different from how these things impact the leisure traveler. Yes there is a good bit of culture shock in a few areas! And my to do list is so long – work permits, furniture shopping, grocery shopping, household items, finding my way around, discovering where to buy things, and learning how things work.
Doing all this in an unfamiliar city is one thing but it is extra challenging here in a completely different culture and environment. Things that people here are used to dealing with aren’t part of my natural way of thinking because I’ve learned how to function in another environment. One of the primary challenges I continue to struggle with is daily meals. What is a relatively simple task for me in the United States consumes a large part of my day here. It is not just any one factor that makes it so challenging. When I first arrived, we made a quick stop at a grocery store to pick up necessities. However, since I hadn’t even been to my temporary apartment I didn’t know how it was outfitted and had to make assumptions about what I would be able to prepare. I bought some cereal and milk for breakfast the next day and some noodles and sauce to make a simple spaghetti dinner for that evening. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I did not have a refrigerator! So breakfast became dinner and I figured I would have to improvise for the next morning with dry cereal.
I had a sense of uncertainty I’ve never experienced about my daily meals. I did not have any transportation. I was unfamiliar with my surroundings and whether I could safely venture out. I didn’t even know if there was any food within walking distance of my apartment. Knowing this was not like the US with plentiful restaurants I didn’t know what I might find. I wasn’t even certain when I would next see any of my hosts after they left me the first night. For the first time in my life, I went to bed not knowing whether I would be able to have my daily meals. It really made me think about what it means to pray the line in the Lord’s Prayer “give us this day our daily bread.” For many years for me, this had meant not so much physical bread but the spiritual needs that God provides us every day. But this day I knew what it meant to pray to God for my daily bread in a physical sense.
Even so I had to count myself very fortunate because I knew that mine was a temporary situation that would be resolved in a few days. Unlike many of my neighbors here who know that feeling because they do not have enough money to feed themselves or their family, I had the security of knowing eventually I would find a way to get have some kind of food so that I would not go hungry each day. But because of my situation I still have to think about food on an almost daily basis. After two days of no refrigerator, we finally located one. I felt I had at least a temporary fix of how to store some basic items like milk and yogurt for breakfast with bread or bananas. Then the next challenge became how to work the stove so I could make tea and cook some simple items for myself. No one seemed to know how it worked since most people here don’t use a gas or electric stove. After some consultation, we discovered that the electric side was faulty and the starter didn’t work for the gas side so we resorted to manually lighting it with a match. With new-found confidence I felt sure I could cook a few things for myself just as I did at home and started with a few basic items to test the waters – ramen noodles, pasta and pasta sauce.
After a couple of evenings of simple items I decided it was now a good time to do some real shopping to prepare myself “real” meals. On Wednesday evening, I loaded up my refrigerator with chicken, ground beef, milk, cheeses to snack on, yogurt and some vegetables. I was ready to feed myself all the way through the Christmas holiday weekend. And then the power went out. Well the power had gone out before but only for a few hours. This time it was out for over 12 hours overnight. By Thursday morning all of the meat and dairy I had hoarded away in the small refrigerator had gone to waste. Just like manna from heaven, that which I could not consume by evening had been ruined by morning. I was back to focusing on my daily bread.
Thursday my goal was to find out what could be done about power generation during power outage periods - what they call “load sharing.” I had originally thought that a generator would be the answer but they are loud, cumbersome to use by yourself and you need to be around when the power is out to connect the generator to the house. Another solution that is used here is an inverter. The inverter stores electricity in batteries while the power is on and when power is lost will switch to the batteries as emergency power. Ultimately this is what we will end up installing in my apartment but for now I am at the mercy of intermittent power.
By Thursday evening I had learned my lesson and thought I would just get some milk for breakfast Friday morning and some meat to cook a nice dinner Friday night. Surely since the power had been out the night before I would have power Thursday night, right? Apparently I’m a slow learner. Yes, the power went out again late Thursday night and had not returned by Friday morning. In the morning, I had my cereal and milk and gave the rest of the milk to Wilson who works in the garden to drink since it would spoil if the power did not come back on. Friday night I just gave up on the nice home-cooked meal and picked up a piece of fried chicken on the way home to go with a bowl of ramen noodles. All of this is of course a foreign concept to my neighbors who can’t imagine that this would be a problem. Refrigeration is a luxury here - out of reach for most people.
So back to my daily bread. For me it is another opportunity to reflect on worrying about the future. I have always been a planner and forward-thinker. Of course it is important to set goals and to be prepared for what may come but it is also important to live in the present. I try to keep a balance between thinking ahead and being present in the moment but usually one is winning out over the other. And at times in our lives we can’t help but focus on one versus the other, particularly in times of uncertainty. For me this week, my daily bread is a reminder to evaluate that balance between thinking about the here and now and what may come next week or next month or next year. And for now I’m OK with where I am - focusing on my daily bread, spiritual and otherwise.
