Living with Raja, a male volunteer

Source of the Rwenzori bottled water

A volunteer is always welcome to visit placement locations of co-vols.  One can select from the database, contact the vol and make arrangements for a visit - meaning get free lodging.  For the Easter holidays, Joyce and I traveled to Kasese, western Uganda, where Raja is posted.   Raja met us at the Post bus station and insisted that the only way we can reach his house was to ride the boda-boda.

The scientist from India

OMG.  Joyce and I have never taken a bod (that's the slang) but we were just too tired from the 6-hour trip that we did not want to argue with him.  I got on the bod first to encourage Joyce as she was really pale and very reluctant.  She told me later that she closed her eyes while on saddle, and in my case I held on to the belt of the driver.  On hindsight, it was not safe

House in Kasese

as the belt could snap from my very tight grip.  Raja's house has two-bedrooms and two toilets and baths.  He showed us our toilet (Brit., loo) which he says is the Indian style (you squat).  What an irony.  He was the Indian, but he was using the western style (you sit).

Proud to finish his project

His main door and windows have the VSO trademark curtains (elephant prints) and they are always drawn to keep his privacy.  He does not want a mazungu like him to be the object of curiosity in his neighborhood.  Windows and doors are

Weather station in Raja's office

closed all the time to keep mosquitoes away.  He has no furniture in his living room since he does not invite guests, except co-vols.  But he has a satellite dish and a television set (his own expense) because he does not want to miss news from home and some tv series that he is following.  His kitchen

Ingredients for chipati

is something else.  He has lots and lots of spices (cummins, mustard, pepper) and he has a canny way of storing them.  He lives by chipatis everyday, especially made for him by a local store and he pairs them with masala-spiced dishes.  I have learned to love eating chipati. 

Spices in recycled bottle

It was nice listening to him and Joyce exchange cooking tips in the kitchen.  Joyce cooked dried fish and we had to blow the electric fan full blast to keep the aroma away.  Raja is very religious but he does not attend any Hindu temple actitivies.  He says he performs his

Vols take a pose

religious rites daily in his bedroom, and he brought from home all his relics.  He usually wears dhoti at home, perhaps to be more comfortable in a lotus position.  It was very kind of him to give up his electric fan in our favor.  He bought bread and noodles, which he does not

In the middle of the Earth

particularly like just for us because he thinks Filipinos enjoy them.  He does not like sweets but he also bought orange marmalade for us to neutralize the spicy food that we had to eat with him.  It was indeed a cultural exchange.  When we left at dawn, he walked with us to the bus station.  That was when he realized that he did not have to ride the boda-boda after all because walking there was a breeze, and quite pleasant.

What a wonderful time we had.

No chipatis this time..... only canned beans.