I Get Excited When I Can Condition my Hair.

And so begins the update. I really do get excited when I condition my hair, especially because I didn't bring any and was finally forced by humidity and equitorial heat to go to Uchumi and buy some. And now all showers are glorious.

The past week has been fabulous, and gone by way too fast. I have begun to perfect the art of gate crashing, which was demonstrated by two trips to the Ugandan Parliament as well as a trip to Makerere University. I now have contacts at both of those places, and am spending this weekend trying to focus my research on one specific aspect of malaria/economic development/public health policy, which is proving to be much harder than I originally planned. But I've met some interesting people and heard some interesting things.

My trip to Parliament was probably the highlight of the week (besides the Ugandan music video I was in, but I'll get to that later). I am constantly surprised and pleased at how trusting Ugandans are. I simply had to look up the names of the shadow ministers I wanted to speak to, sign in with the receptionist, and was given both the mobile number of the ministers and their office numbers. Score! One wasn't available, and the other (the shadow minister of planning, finance, and economic development) was in the middle of a small meeting, but invited me to sit down nonetheless. There's no way somebody could walk into Congress and be like "So I need to speak to the Democratic Senator of Ohio. Is he available?" and have the answer be "Of course, let me give you his cell phone number." Crazy.

At the end of my interview with Albert Oduman (the aforementioned economic development shadow minister), I happend to ask what these gigantic birds perched on top of a nearby building were called. He didn't know, but instead of brushing me off what did he do? Called the Minister of Environment and asked him. Ahh, I love this country.

The music video was a highlight because it was such a disappointment. As a favor to the manager of Backpackers, who I've become close to, I told her I would make an appearance in the music video of her friend Patrick, an aspiring musical artist. The concept of the video was this:

Two mzungus were looking at art in a gallery, and the gallery attendant was a good looking Ugandan woman. Patrick comes in serenading, swoops said attendant off her feet, and we white people are left alone to ponder which paintings we would like to purchase. There was also dancing involved. When we asked the director if we were dressed appropriately, his response was "You look like tourists, that is perfect." And when he is trying to describe to us what we're supposed to be doing, he said "I mean, I'm not really sure. Only white people go to these art exhibitions, so do whatever you would do there."

Riiiiiight. He knows me so well.

It was a painfully long process, but alllmoooost worth all of the pain and deep fried sausage lunch for a promise of Patrick's demo and a copy of the video. I'll make sure to remember all of you when I become a staple in the Ugandan music video industry. I've officially arrived.