I am finally sitting down and having some time to write on here for the first time since being back. I have been back a total of 12 days. In some ways it seems like I have been here a lot longer, in some ways, the time is very short, and I feel like I just arrived. Either way, it is not that long, and musing over the actual perception to reality difference is a bit too meta to really be interesting.
I arrived on Tuesday the 17th on a 15 hour flight from Dubai. It was rather unremarkable. I slept a lot, I ate 4 times, and watched a number of movies. When I arrived, customs and immigration was the quickest at Dulles that I have ever experienced. It took less than 45 minutes to go through immigration, gather my luggage, and pass through customs. It was refreshing. Usually, because of the ineffective way Dulles shuttles people from the international terminal to the main airport terminal, there are bottlenecks that are frustrating and interminably irritating after traveling from far-off parts of the world. Luckily, I was greeted on the other side by the smiling face of Winnie Auma, our Uganda country director and my good friend from Village Enterprise. By brother picked us from the the airport, and we began a crazy day.
My brother treated us to lunch a local diner, and I was thrilled to eat a delicious club sandwich. Winnie ate biscuits and gravy for the first time (yeah I know, like the fattest American food, but it is legit). Then we went to his house where we prepared for a meeting by having a skype call with Ellen in Uganda. Then we took an Uber black car into the city, all the while I was deliriously pointing out monuments to Winnie. This whole time I was g-chatting with Lee who did not know I was in the US, and I was pretending I was in Kampala getting ready to come to the US. Surprises.
The black car dropped us at FHI 360 where we had a preparatory meeting for a presentation we would be giving on that Thursday. From there we went to a meeting with the funder of our randomized controlled trial (impact evaluation) that is running on our program in Uganda. We met Konstantin in Dupont Ciricle (I was afraid Lee would catch a glimpse of me in the circle like one of those tabloid photos of bigfoot) so I was trying my best to cover my face. Winnie, Konstantin, and I went to the meeting and then we walked down to Konstantin's office where my brother again met me for the grand surprise!
Evan, Rebecca, and I all went to Kapnos in the 14th Street area of NW where Lee was waiting, none the wiser that I was going to be showing up with Evan and Rebecca. It was so nice to see Evan and Rebecca pull up in front of Konstantin's office. It was surreal to be in DC, and I had only been there for 9 hours at this point, but I was excited to see Lee's face. We agreed that we would all walk into the restaurant, and I would come in last, somewhat hidden by Evan (I am easily hidden because I am dainty).
Evan and Rebecca walked in first, and they both said hi to Lee and hugged her. She was beautiful in a floral dress, sipping a glass of champagne and absently thumbing through her hair. I was last in line to say hello and at first she simply said "hey!" and then it set in that I was there, and not supposed to be there, and surprising her, and that I was there, and for the next 10 minutes she laughed, while crying, and just saying "oh my god." It was a pretty spectacular reaction. We had a lovely dinner all four of us, and then we went back for my first sight of OUR APARTMENT!
The apartment is lovely. It is just the right size, there are tons of windows that throw beautiful light on every space, and it is so nicely decorated. Lee worked hard and did an amazing job of setting the place up. It is compact, but spacious, and not cramped. It feels like our place, and it is such a comfortable, welcoming space. The building is lovely, and directly across the street from Meridian Hill Park. We are a close walk to the 14th Street strip, U street, Shaw, and Columbia Heights. It is ideal. We unfortunately did not even have time to do nothing and enjoy each other because we both had to work a lot.
The next two days were filled with meetings, conferences, presentations, and courting potential funders, and current partners. But finally, over the weekend we had time to just be together. It was amazing to know that we could go to dinner, and not feel like we had to go all the restaurants we needed to. We could go out, stay in, go for walks, and not feel like there was pressure to try to do everything all at once. We shopped for the apartment, went out for tacos with a dear friend who I hadn't seen since Christmas, went to the National Zoo, and generally enjoyed being together with no hurry for the first time in two years. We cooked meals, made grocery lists, and planned dinners. It was such a nice thing.
On a cultural note, the grocery stores here are insane. After coming from Hoima where there are 11 things to choose from. The grocery store here just makes me stop in my tracks. In 3 or 4 grocery trips, I have generally ended up with at least 7 random things (mostly cheeses or cheese products), and spent much more than intended. The tropical fruits in the store are stupid expensive and not ripe, there are more cereals than anyone could possibly eat, I can begin to describe how amazing it is to have whole grain and health food options. It is all overwhelming. And, no one tries to sell it to you! You just go and casually pick what you want. It is overwhelming.
On another cultural note, everyone looks like me here. I know that seems obvious, but there are so many white 20 somethings who have facial hair and preppy clothes in this area. At the grocery store, the park, the bars, anywhere, there are so many of me around. I never confronted either my sameness, or that I could be so different based on the context. It is pretty amazing. The crowds of people, cars, options, and general transition have led to a few panic attacks, but those have been manageable, par for the course I suppose. Even if I am not actually dying, I feel like I am, and I think about how I could just be buried under varieties of cheese and hot sauce and suffocate under the pile, and then the panic seems all at once more tangible, but less threatening. Cheese is a double-edged sword. More on that later I s'pose.
I arrived on Tuesday the 17th on a 15 hour flight from Dubai. It was rather unremarkable. I slept a lot, I ate 4 times, and watched a number of movies. When I arrived, customs and immigration was the quickest at Dulles that I have ever experienced. It took less than 45 minutes to go through immigration, gather my luggage, and pass through customs. It was refreshing. Usually, because of the ineffective way Dulles shuttles people from the international terminal to the main airport terminal, there are bottlenecks that are frustrating and interminably irritating after traveling from far-off parts of the world. Luckily, I was greeted on the other side by the smiling face of Winnie Auma, our Uganda country director and my good friend from Village Enterprise. By brother picked us from the the airport, and we began a crazy day.
My brother treated us to lunch a local diner, and I was thrilled to eat a delicious club sandwich. Winnie ate biscuits and gravy for the first time (yeah I know, like the fattest American food, but it is legit). Then we went to his house where we prepared for a meeting by having a skype call with Ellen in Uganda. Then we took an Uber black car into the city, all the while I was deliriously pointing out monuments to Winnie. This whole time I was g-chatting with Lee who did not know I was in the US, and I was pretending I was in Kampala getting ready to come to the US. Surprises.
The black car dropped us at FHI 360 where we had a preparatory meeting for a presentation we would be giving on that Thursday. From there we went to a meeting with the funder of our randomized controlled trial (impact evaluation) that is running on our program in Uganda. We met Konstantin in Dupont Ciricle (I was afraid Lee would catch a glimpse of me in the circle like one of those tabloid photos of bigfoot) so I was trying my best to cover my face. Winnie, Konstantin, and I went to the meeting and then we walked down to Konstantin's office where my brother again met me for the grand surprise!
Evan, Rebecca, and I all went to Kapnos in the 14th Street area of NW where Lee was waiting, none the wiser that I was going to be showing up with Evan and Rebecca. It was so nice to see Evan and Rebecca pull up in front of Konstantin's office. It was surreal to be in DC, and I had only been there for 9 hours at this point, but I was excited to see Lee's face. We agreed that we would all walk into the restaurant, and I would come in last, somewhat hidden by Evan (I am easily hidden because I am dainty).
Evan and Rebecca walked in first, and they both said hi to Lee and hugged her. She was beautiful in a floral dress, sipping a glass of champagne and absently thumbing through her hair. I was last in line to say hello and at first she simply said "hey!" and then it set in that I was there, and not supposed to be there, and surprising her, and that I was there, and for the next 10 minutes she laughed, while crying, and just saying "oh my god." It was a pretty spectacular reaction. We had a lovely dinner all four of us, and then we went back for my first sight of OUR APARTMENT!
The apartment is lovely. It is just the right size, there are tons of windows that throw beautiful light on every space, and it is so nicely decorated. Lee worked hard and did an amazing job of setting the place up. It is compact, but spacious, and not cramped. It feels like our place, and it is such a comfortable, welcoming space. The building is lovely, and directly across the street from Meridian Hill Park. We are a close walk to the 14th Street strip, U street, Shaw, and Columbia Heights. It is ideal. We unfortunately did not even have time to do nothing and enjoy each other because we both had to work a lot.
The next two days were filled with meetings, conferences, presentations, and courting potential funders, and current partners. But finally, over the weekend we had time to just be together. It was amazing to know that we could go to dinner, and not feel like we had to go all the restaurants we needed to. We could go out, stay in, go for walks, and not feel like there was pressure to try to do everything all at once. We shopped for the apartment, went out for tacos with a dear friend who I hadn't seen since Christmas, went to the National Zoo, and generally enjoyed being together with no hurry for the first time in two years. We cooked meals, made grocery lists, and planned dinners. It was such a nice thing.
On a cultural note, the grocery stores here are insane. After coming from Hoima where there are 11 things to choose from. The grocery store here just makes me stop in my tracks. In 3 or 4 grocery trips, I have generally ended up with at least 7 random things (mostly cheeses or cheese products), and spent much more than intended. The tropical fruits in the store are stupid expensive and not ripe, there are more cereals than anyone could possibly eat, I can begin to describe how amazing it is to have whole grain and health food options. It is all overwhelming. And, no one tries to sell it to you! You just go and casually pick what you want. It is overwhelming.
On another cultural note, everyone looks like me here. I know that seems obvious, but there are so many white 20 somethings who have facial hair and preppy clothes in this area. At the grocery store, the park, the bars, anywhere, there are so many of me around. I never confronted either my sameness, or that I could be so different based on the context. It is pretty amazing. The crowds of people, cars, options, and general transition have led to a few panic attacks, but those have been manageable, par for the course I suppose. Even if I am not actually dying, I feel like I am, and I think about how I could just be buried under varieties of cheese and hot sauce and suffocate under the pile, and then the panic seems all at once more tangible, but less threatening. Cheese is a double-edged sword. More on that later I s'pose.
