4 a.m. Wake up unable to breathe, almost like gauze has been wrapped around my face and neck. Panic. Then realize gauze has, in fact, been wrapped around my face and neck – I’m tangled in my mosquito net.
5 a.m. Wake up to a chorus of roosters, obviously competing for which early bird will get the worm.
7 a.m. Drunk guy in my dorm room falls off his bunk. At the very least, this has temporarily stopped the snoring.
8:14 a.m. Someone lifts my mosquito net and peers at my face. “Oh, sorry,” she says. “Wrong person.”
8:30 a.m. There’s a goat in my room.
8:42 a.m. Leave the dorm in search of a toilet. Find one, but it doesn’t flush.
8:59 a.m. Hooray! Found a toilet that flushes. This makes me feel very accomplished.
9:15 a.m. Breakfast time: A French press filled with incredibly rich Ugandan coffee and a sad packet of instant oatmeal.
10 a.m. Shower. Water is hot.
10: 02 a.m. Shower. Water is not hot.
10:04 a.m. Shower. Water is hot.
10:05 a.m. Shower. Water is not hot. I am beginning to see a trend here.
10:34 a.m. Wash my laundry in a sink using Dove soap and a fingernail brush. Vow to never complain about doing laundry once I return home.
11:05 a.m. I am speeding through downtown Kampala on a boda-boda (motorcycle), weaving in and out of chaotic traffic, soaring over potholes, my hair flying in the wind because helmets don’t exist here. If my dad could see me now, he would kill me.
11:10 a.m. Everywhere I go, kids are running after me, laughing, waving and shouting, “Mzungu! Mzungu!” (“White! White!”)
11:45 a.m. Find an electronics shop where I can buy a converter to adapt all my American cords for Ugandan plugs. The man tells me the price, and it seems very expensive. I try to do the conversion in my head, (2,280 shillings to the U.S. dollar), but the math is too much for my little brain and I want to cry. The shop is very frantic and a lot of people are crowding around me, yelling things. I hand over the money, and then later realize I got ripped off.
12:02 p.m. Meet Ivan, who owns a batik fabric shop. He asks where I’m from. “California,” I say. “Ah, the Governator,” he says, then launches into an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation.
12:57 p.m. Because I got ripped off at the electronics store, I try to offset the cost by skimping on lunch. My feast consists of vegan jerky and an apple.
2:11 p.m. Wander around the market. Someone’s cell phone ringtone is the theme for “Beverly Hills 90210.”
3 p.m. Work. Write. Work. Send e-mails about potential volunteer work in Kenya and Ethiopia.
7:30 p.m. Dinner. Roasted pumpkin curry with rice for $3. Washed down with a cold Nile beer for $1.05. Amazing.
8 p.m. Beautiful Ugandan songs play on the radio. I ask what it is, and the reply is shocking: Country music! Next stop, Toby Keith.
10 p.m. Read, then it’s bedtime. I say goodnight to the goat and turn out the lights.
