I am up early today to try to do a little before our day starts with a visit to the local primary school at eight. But it’s dark here still and we have no power so I am using the one thing that is easy right now - the computer! Thankfully David has found a way for me to send my blog posts by email so I can type them now and send them whenever we get a chance to log in during internet hours at someone else’s house.

Saturday was the big market day in Nyahuka (our local village). Pat, a missionary friend, took me down with her while another friend kept the kids and met us at the end. The market is just jam packed with people. When we talked to the chairman the other day he estimated that there are about 500 heads of households in this area, which means about 2500 people including moms and babies. Of course for market day people from other areas may come. Some of the people selling things at the market were from Congo.

The market has the East African version of lemonade and hot dogs. Chipatis (sort of tortillas), cooked bananas, roasted g-nuts (peanuts) by the handful, and little baggies of kool aid type stuff. Apparently those little baggies of drinks are a sure way to get VERY sick. We didn’t test them since they certainly didn’t look appetizing!

The foods at the market don’t look terribly appealing. Next week I will try to take a picture. Nothing has been dyed or waxed to appeal to the consumer, as have the things on your local grocery shelves. They come as they are and they taste pretty good. Our local oranges are a brilliant green color and completely sour but not bad with sugar, I have heard. We found some mangos, much smaller and greener than those I have eaten before and are looking forward to trying them. We bought onions, tomatoes, and a gorgeous huge avocado also. I am still thinking about that avocado which I devoured immediately, so pleased to find it already perfectly ripe.

I also went to Iddi’s shop. He is a Muslim man who travels the road back and forth to Fort Portal to buy supplies such as flour, salt, sugar. I stocked up on those items to begin baking our bread and making muffins, pancakes, etc. We also picked up some posho, which is the local cornmeal. Yummy. A big ripe pineapple came home with us too.

Before you feel jealous of all our wonderful foods here, let me just tell you about my brief foray into the meat market . . . . I arrived to encounter some men trying to hack a hoof off a cow leg with machetes (in rereading this, I see that it would be helpful to mention that the cow is dead). Huge pieces of beef hang from hooks, and this stuff has literally just come off the cow. Most of it is being attacked by flies and it is hard to see ourselves eating this, but apparently it is okay to eat if ground up. Too tough any other way. I am craving protein which we have had so much less of since we got here (send protein bars! ). Meat and dairy items are hard to get, even in Kampala now because of the frequent black outs, the stores that used to carry such things as chicken are not able to anymore. Of course there are live chickens all over the place here. At the market you buy them live and carry them home to kill and pluck for your dinner. Not an easy job; the carrying, the killing, or the plucking. Sort of makes you think twice about chicken for dinner. Plus it’s apparently VERY tough - so free range, you know. And did I mention, organic??