Monday, April 10, 2006
Geez, it's been a while. What happened was: I stayed up super late handwriting a long, long journal entry that I intended to type up for my blog. But time passed, I would type little by little whenever I had time and was near an internet cafe. The entry was basically an outline of my "typical" day here - if such a thing exists - using a few tuesdays ago, when I hung out with a doctor from Makerere Medical School, as an example. There was a long digression about relationships and vulnerability. You would have liked it, I'm sure!
However, the next tuesday (before I'd finished typing up the entry) I hung out with the doctor again, and the experience TOTALLY soured my view of the previous tuesday, and made me feel queasy if I even looked at the Word document on my disk.
I think I have some issues.
Really, the experience wasn't all that bad. For someone slightly less conservative than me it would probably just be funny. I really don't want to talk about it ever again, but now you are probably imagining that I was horribly molested, and that's really not the case. I just got hit on, by someone I did not expect to get hit on. By a man 15 years older than me and a lecturer at a medical school. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least. I'm glad *whimper* that I had it, because just during our conversation I learned a LOT about how men and women are expected to interact in Uganda. A lot of stuff that I'd heard people talk about suddenly made sense.
I realize that all I write about in this blog is getting hit on. I'm sorry. It's probably because I subconciously want everyone to think that I am just that hot. However, as I will tell anyone here who asks, the greatest challenge I've had here - not the only, but the most emotionally troublesome - is knowing how to deal with Ugandan men.
I've met some really, really great guys here, don't get me wrong. My host father is possibly the awesomest person in this time zone, and he's been an amazing resource, actually, for dealing with aforementioned men.
I made a good friend Henry who I'll probably post pictures of later. I enjoy hanging out with him, despite my slight discomfort his stated intention to marry a white woman. Join the club! I hear they're making membership cards now. But he's quality.
But, yeah. Maybe I shouldn't come back until I'm married.
However, the next tuesday (before I'd finished typing up the entry) I hung out with the doctor again, and the experience TOTALLY soured my view of the previous tuesday, and made me feel queasy if I even looked at the Word document on my disk.
I think I have some issues.
Really, the experience wasn't all that bad. For someone slightly less conservative than me it would probably just be funny. I really don't want to talk about it ever again, but now you are probably imagining that I was horribly molested, and that's really not the case. I just got hit on, by someone I did not expect to get hit on. By a man 15 years older than me and a lecturer at a medical school. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least. I'm glad *whimper* that I had it, because just during our conversation I learned a LOT about how men and women are expected to interact in Uganda. A lot of stuff that I'd heard people talk about suddenly made sense.
I realize that all I write about in this blog is getting hit on. I'm sorry. It's probably because I subconciously want everyone to think that I am just that hot. However, as I will tell anyone here who asks, the greatest challenge I've had here - not the only, but the most emotionally troublesome - is knowing how to deal with Ugandan men.
I've met some really, really great guys here, don't get me wrong. My host father is possibly the awesomest person in this time zone, and he's been an amazing resource, actually, for dealing with aforementioned men.
I made a good friend Henry who I'll probably post pictures of later. I enjoy hanging out with him, despite my slight discomfort his stated intention to marry a white woman. Join the club! I hear they're making membership cards now. But he's quality.
But, yeah. Maybe I shouldn't come back until I'm married.
