American Jinja

A taste of America

Even though we live in Jinja, Uganda, it does not mean we are without everything American.  There are many aspects of America that seem to have randomly made it over here. We can buy Hungry Jack pancake mix, microwave popcorn, Coke, and recently found . . . wait for it . . . Cheetos!  The beauty is that the Cheetos, despite the Arabic lettering under the English, tasted like Cheetos. Not all things labelled as American products taste American. Just because the box says Corn Flakes does not mean it will look or taste like Kellogg's Corn Flakes.  Nevertheless, many items are genuine. The microwave popcorn actually pops and tastes legitimate. The Coke is the real thing.

American culture has its appeal with the Ruth House girls. Over the Easter weekend, we had a Cultural Gala at the school. Ugandan culture has been greatly influenced by various indigenous tribal groups, of which there have been very many.  Ugandan history is filled with a melting pot of tribal influences from all regions of the country. So much so that some historians raise the question of whether Uganda was ever one "place" until the British colonized the area and marked out the modern-day political boundaries. To recognize the contributions of all the tribal groups that have lived in the geographic region that is present-day Uganda, students were told to join tribal groups and present significant cultural aspects of each tribe.  They were to present greetings, clothing styles, staple foods, marriage traditions, and traditional dances. For some reason, completely unrelated to historical Ugandan culture, seven of the 24 Ruth House girls decided to join the "American" Tribe.

Don't they look like they just came off Main Street USA?
Shirts and jeans were supplied by Ugandan mentors.

Sandra and Denny were "off" on the day that the cultural presentations occurred.  Below is a description of how the American Tribe perceives America, which was written by one of the western teachers on campus:

 According to them, we all wear jeans and t-shirts, except for at funerals we wear black dresses and carry black umbrellas, our staple foods are pizza and hamburgers, we don't pay a dowry for marriage because we are priceless, and our traditional dance is the Electric Slide.

The teacher thought they pretty much nailed who we Americans are. To give you a taste of what the presentation might have looked like, we have posted the Ruth House girls practicing the Electric Slide.  For comparison purposes, here are some of the same girls dancing to a popular African song called "Viva Africa" by Eddy Kenzo.  The clips can be found here.

Shopping in Jinja is not difficult in the sense that you can find what you need, but it has its challenges in that you typically have to go to several stores to find everything you need.  There are also the occasional shortages, such as recently butter disappeared for a few weeks, and supplies are not always guaranteed. The store that had the pancake mix last week may be out of it this week. Well. . . all of that may have changed.  Walmart has come to Jinja:

Wally World Jinja style

It is not the big box store of America, but by Jinja standards it might as well be.  Every item, except super glue (which we use to repair the girls' shoes), that we buy on a regular basis is in Walmart. And the prices. Just like in America, they are slashed everywhere.  The little guy, which is basically every grocery store owner in Jinja, is facing major price competition on every single item. Low-priced, one-stop shopping has arrived.