A Day in the Imvepi Life

Early morning view of Imvepi, on my way to a bucket shower

Welcome back! I hope this finds everyone doing well.

I get a lot of questions about aspects of daily life here, such as how we take showers or what we eat. I thought I would write a post on some details of my daily routine on an average workday (Monday through Saturday). I wake up by 5:30am because our housing loses power around 6am when the electric generator is shut off. Power does not return until 8am, after I have gone to work, so I boil water in the electric kettle early and get organized before everything goes dark. First thing, I fill a small bucket with water, grab my towel and a bar of soap, and walk outside to the enclosed bathing area. I love this part of the day when pre-dawn sky is pink and I listen to bird sounds as the whole world feels still and peaceful. I splash, soap, scrub, and re-splash my body.

Feeling fresher, I brush teeth and make a cup of instant coffee before until the power shuts down. Then I transition to cleaning. My small room can feel cluttered quickly so I try to put things in place, then wash yesterday’s dishes, which are piled in a shallow plastic bin. I take the bin outside and use water from my yellow jerrycan to soap, scrub, and rinse all of my dishes on the stoop in front of my room. Our water comes from a spigot down a slope so if needed I run down and fill the jerrycan, hauling it back up the hill.

Morning dishes on the front stoop

Usually by this point my neighbors are waking up and opening their doors, brushing teeth, and greeting one another with “good morning! How did you sleep?” It is such a lovely, communal way to start the day. After dishes, I get my backpack set with materials for research including consent forms, markers, photo cards, bottles of water, digital scale, measuring tape, snacks for translators and participants, etc. By 7:45 I am dressed, packed, and grab my motorcycle helmet as I walk up the hill to meet my motorcycle driver. As I mentioned before, I bought a motorcycle for this project, but I don’t have a license or sufficient knowledge of how to ride yet. I had one lesson so far, but I need to get serious and make time for more. In the meantime, I am hiring two wonderful men, Brian and Robilert, who are both hosts living locally, to drive me and my translators to participant homes.

We work on research activities until about 2pm, by which time we are very hot and tired, especially if we’ve been on firewood collection walks with refugees. We call the motorcycle driver to pick us up and drop us at our homes. Once back, I place myself directly next to the fan and drink liters of lemon water, trying to cool off. I take my first food which is usually some groundnuts or biscuits and open up my computer to process the data collected during the morning, making sure that the survey data was entered correctly in the field, and I type field notes. Typically we don’t go back into the field in the afternoon given hot temperatures and also the fact that participants are less available during those hours.

I take care of computer work until 3 or 4pm, which is when I go to the nearby restaurant in Imvepi's basecamp with my bowl, looking for “beans and boo.” Beans are simply a bean stew with tomatoes, while boo is a local dish made with greens and groundnut paste. They are delicious together. I bring my own bowl because otherwise they will overload me with rice and posho (boiled corn mash) and I will end up with few beans at all. I take the food back to my room and either eat then or save it for later in the evening.

Beans, boo, and white sweet potato from the local restaurant

At 5pm, I often meet up with two men who work for a different organization, Patrick and Simon, and we go for a brisk walk around Imvepi. They know the settlement inside and out and it is fascinating to explore different pathways. It is also nice to just be out and moving as the sun begins to lower in the sky and refugees across the settlement gather at their compounds. We usually walk silently which is nice and I treat it as a walking meditation.

Views of an Imvepi evening, while out with the walking club

When I get home, it is time for a second bucket shower. By this time in the evening, my neighbors have returned from work and there is a festive atmosphere as they sit outside and start cooking together, chatting musically about the events of the day. I absolutely love the sisterhood and comradery. Some of our neighbors are currently celebrating Ramadan, so they prepare large feasts to eat in the evening time, and even those of us not fasting get to enjoy.

My neighbors, preparing evening katogo (cassava boiled in groundnut paste)

Originally, my neighbors believed that I do not know how to cook, and truly I don’t know how to cook most traditional Ugandan dishes. Once, however, I made a boiled cabbage/tomato/onion dish that was very popular so they now request most evenings that I make cabbage to contribute to the meal. It is the least I can do, when usually by 8pm they are serving me with heaping plates of food—sometimes rice, beans, or a local dish called katogo where cassava or plantains are boiled in groundnut paste. We sit outside on grass-woven mats and eat together under the stars and moon. After eating, I lie on my back and look at the sky as I listen to animated conversations about every topic imaginable: clothing, work, body shape, men, food, etc.

My specialty: Cabbage a la Mzungu

The power comes back on by 9pm and I can organize for the next day, set up my mosquito net, and try to catch some sleep in the thick Imvepi heat. Thanks very much for reading, and stay tuned for more!