Things I See From My Front Porch

I am a big people watcher; even in the states I was always people watching. I love to see how people interact with other people throughout their daily lives. Ugandans have a very different way of interacting with each other, I have not yet found a way to be able to explain it. It is one of those things that you have to see in person and experience to understand. 

I have been very fortunate in my Peace Corps placement that I have a beautiful view from my front yard. 

From my front porch, I watch and smile and wave to people as they go by...

• I watch two butterflies playing tag with each other through the trees.
• I watch the plants grow. They grow very fast here in Uganda. (Photos of plants in yard)
• Angry words between a husband and a wife on the way to church.
• Laughter from Ugandans as bikes, motorcycles, trucks, and even people get stuck in the mood and as they work to push them out.
• The beautiful smiles, people express as they pass by and we greet each other in the local language. “Oraire Ota Abooki?..... Oraire kurungi Akiiki.”
• A prison inmate in his bright orange jump suit as he bikes along humming to himself. Yes a prison inmate – the Ugandan prison system is slightly different than United States system.
• A woman laughing at herself as she loses her shoe in the mud.  
• The storm clouds building from far away working their way across the fields and landscape until they reach me.
• Children playing make believe as motorcycle drivers with one tire and a stick driving back and forth, up and down the road. 
• A very over loaded motorcycle with Ebitooki and charcoal.
• A pair of Grey Parrots talking to each other as they fly overhead. 
• Birds in the trees; playing, feeding, fighting, and teasing each other.
• Bird feathers being carried on the wind.
• Laughter and conversation from the water pump up the road.
• What sounds like an airplane but is really only Black and White Casqued Hornbill gliding along.
• The sun rising and the sun setting over the tea plantation workers as they pick their way through miles and miles of tea plants.
• Laughter of children as they run along.
• A mother and children carrying jerrycans heading to the well. The children looking at you wide eyed when you greet them and the mothers laughing and encouraging them to answer back.
• Ladies dressed in their best heading to church.
• Secondary School Children walking buy in matching uniforms laughing and enjoying life.
• Children looking through the fence and calling my name.

 From my front porch, I watch the world go by.