For everything there is a reason

As an international volunteer, my organization constantly issues reminders concerning health and safety. 

Chipati on the roadside

Volunteers are covered by the appropriate insurance and given the required vaccinations but what is being avoided is a situation where adequate medical facilities may not be available in the place of assignment.
For example, eating streetside food is discouraged  - so I have not tried this chipati that she is cooking. Staying indoors after dark is strongly suggested to avoid bites of malaria-carrying mosquitoes  - so I have not seen much of Gulu at night. 

Vols on motorbikes and helmets

Indoors, I always wear socks at night.  During the day, I also wear socks to avoid jiggers - a tiny mite whose larva lives on toenails.  

Use of boda-bodas (passenger-carrying motorbikes), the common means of transportation, is not encouraged - so I only to go places that are reachable by footing. 

If it does not turn right, blame the shades

Going to salons for a haircut or nail grooming is discouraged as one could get an injury and be infected. So what do vols do during off-hours and weekends?   

Plucking the adungo

Other than doing domestic chores,  going for church services or reading, some take a hobby, like playing the adungo, wait for a vol who can do a hair trim,

Next time, it will be my turn

Occasional cocktails

have cocktails before sundown at a nearby hotel or go to the forest to view the sewer dam,

Sewer dam

or the parade of Ankole cattle.

Parade of cattle

If this place had a Central Park or a Mall of Asia, then it would not need volunteers.  Perhaps, in the not too distant future..

The fruit and vegetable vendors of Gulu

Just beautiful

They say that here in Uganda, anything you plant grows.  This is likely to be very true as can be seen from the pictures of the produce that ordinary folks bring to market - but there is little variety.  Everyone seems to grow all of the same - tomatoes, avocados, cabbage, eggplants, amaranth, Irish potatoes and beans. 

As the weather is very similar to Tagaytay, and Mindanao combined, I plan to have some other seeds (such as pechay, kangkong) brought here from the Philippines. 

Sacks and sacks of beans

There is sweet potato but they don't eat the leaves - and I plan to introduce them to it.

On fruits, there is an abundance of fresh pineapples, lemons, and bananas. 

Fried bananas for sale

But sad to say, these are the ones that I do not relish eating back home.  

Avocados are plentiful and of very good variety - and I eat them frequently.

A sea of bananas

Garlic is a rare commodity here. I passed by a store once to look for garlic and the storekeeper said that one glove is 200 Ugandan shillings.  Since I wanted one whole piece, she just assembled the gloves like a jigsaw puzzle, and sold the reconstructed piece for 1,000Ugs.  The next day, my friend Pius, (a co-vol from Kenya) dropped by and plucked the garlic.  He chewed some (he says it is for his high blood pressure), and pocketed the rest.  There goes the dear garlic.

Wanna buy assembled or knocked-down?

Pius seems to be dancing