Host Family

After spending the Easter holiday with family in northern Uganda, Nigel and his family met me at the Rotary club of Kalolo last night. Nigel is an attorney who works for the Ugandan government. He went to law school here in Uganda, but also studied at the London School of Economics. Nigel is a very nice, very successful man. He loves pop music (we listened to Michel Jackson and the local pop radio station on the way home), “soccer, beer and his family”. He and I watched the Arsenal v Barcelona game two nights ago, which was great. He’s a huge Arsenal fan, so naturally I was rooting for Barcelona (to make it interesting). Barcelona crushed. Nigel was sad.

The rest of the family includes Ralph, a 16-yr old sophomore at a nearby boarding school (not sure if I’ll meet him), a 7-yr old daughter named Amanda and a wife named Berna (Bernita). So far I’ve been able to ascertain that Amanda loves Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers, The Suite Life (of Zach and Cody), singing Michael Jackson (especially Black and White) and wearing my rain jacket. So basically we’re best friends. I feel kinda bad because I don’t have gifts that are appropriate for a 7-yr old girl. I’ll have to pull something together last minute.

I’ve been pummeling Nigel with questions about Uganda. I learned that samosas are extremely popular in Uganda after the Indian government sent a bunch of Indian citizens to East Africa to build a railroad in from the coast in the early/mid 1900s. Indians basically set up shop all along the tracks and began to dominate the small business market. Ever since the Idi Amin regime, race relations between the indigenous Africans and the Indians have been improving…but still leave a lot to be desired. Many of the large businesses in Kampala are still owned or managed by Indian expatriates. You’d think that if the Indian citizens were/are smart enough to take over all the extremely profitable jobs, they would be smart enough to engage the local community and build stable and sustainable relations. Right?

Other interesting facts:

-       Beyonce is WAY too popular

-       Volleyball is the only truly multinational sport in Uganda

-       The stealing of people’s land is fairly prevalent in Kampala; so prevalent in fact that people have to paint “this is not for sale” on the side of their houses (I’ll get a picture of this soon)

-       R. Kelly recently had a concert here; it was sub par (shocking)

-       Local guards carry bows and arrows (working on getting a picture of this too)

-       The largest population of Ugandans in Minnesota are from Jinja

Anyway, the family seems to be relatively reserved, so I think they’re sizing me up. I’m hoping they’ll break out of their shell a little and open up, but I also think they are naturally a calm and quiet bunch. I’ve seen Amanda break out a few dance moves, but that’s about it. I’ll get a new host family when we travel up to Gulu next week, but I’ll be back with Nigel, Berna and Amanda the week after.