BPOV
As Fred drove us up to Sarah and Hajjis' gate to drop us off, I could hardly contain myself. I leaped out of the car to open the gate and gestured him through. Standing on the front porch was my Ugandan "mom" beaming at me with her arms held open. I walked into her arms and received her warm hug. I was so happy to be back here, in this village, at this house with these wonderful people.
"Oli Otya?" I said to Sarah. I never had been able to fully learn the Lugandan language, but between Sarah, Hajji and Fred, I had become quite proficient at every day words and phrases.
"Gyendi, Nnyabo. Oli Otya?" Sarah answered.
"Gyendi. I have missed you though. It is good to be home."
Suddenly Sarah's attention shifted to over my shoulder. Her eyes widened, and I knew she was looking at Edward. She had always been interested in my love life, or lack thereof, and I could almost see the wheels turning in her head. Before she could speculate more, I made the introductions.
"Sarah, this is Edward. I told you that when I was assigned here, I was to be a nurse for the doctor at the clinic. He is the doctor I will be helping." I grasped Edward's hand and pulled him forward for inspection.
I was surprised to hear Sarah giggle slightly as she knelt before Edward and bowed her head. He looked embarrassed by the gesture and flushed a slight shade of red. I whispered quietly in his ear as she stood up that it was considered a sign of respect here for women to bow to men so he wouldn't offend her.
"I is very nice to meet you, Sseebo Edward. I am glad that Bella has someone to watch over her here. The north is a very dangerous place right now. You take care of my baby mzungu for me." Sarah commanded.
I could see Edward working out in his head what she was saying. "You'll get used to the accent soon enough. You'll probably start speaking with one of your own within the next couple of weeks." I whispered again.
To my surprise, he answered Sarah without needing interpretation. "Yes, I know it is dangerous. I promise you that I will do everything I can to keep her safe." He spoke so solemnly that no one could doubt the truth of his words.
Sarah nodded once and grasped both our hands and begin tugging us through the house. I smiled at the familiar narrow staircase leading upstairs to where we would be sleeping. To my surprise, she opened a single door-the door to the room where I had slept with my roommate before and led us both in. There were the two narrow twin beds on either side of the room with the exact same barbie bedsheets on one bed and the normal striped sheets on the other. A small patch of floor about 3 feet wide was all the space that was available in between the beds.
I wanted to weep as I spied the hand print on the wall that Michelle and I had dubbed "Wilson" after the movie Castaway. The walls were whitewashed and subsequently areas that had a tendency to get dirty, stayed that way. Washing was not an option because it took the whitewash off along with the dirt. The room had not changed a bit since the years I had been away.
"I am sorry Nankya, but you will have to share a room with Edward. It is improper, but we have no where else for him. Jamilia and Hasifa are home from school as well as Beka and Boumb. I trust him to be on his best behavior." she leveled a steely eyed glare at him until he meekly nodded.
"Get your bags settled and come downstairs. The family wants to see you and I will have tea ready." She left us, a bustle of energy whirling out of the room.
I stared at Edward's wide eyed expression for a moment, then put my finger under his chin to close his mouth. "You'll get used to her."
"She is a fierce mother hen isn't she? I'd best take care not to harm you in any way." He finally found the humor in it and began to grin.
"Oh, yes. For some reason, she took me in just as if I were her own. My roommate Michelle was treated more like a friend or adult, but I was the baby. She even lectured me like her own child. I'm sure you'll notice that soon enough." I laughed. I loved my host mom as if she really had given birth to me. I was quite sure she felt the same way.
"Well, which bed do you want" Edward questioned finally. I pointed to my bed, the one that had always been mine.
"Wait! That's not fair. You left me with the Barbie bed!" He protested. I could tell he really wasn't serious so I shoved him playfully on it.
"Nope, no complaining now. I'll tell Sarah you're being mean to me and you don't want that, do you?" I questioned with an innocent look on my face.
"Well, that does it. I guess I'm stuck in barbie land. You'd best not tell anyone about this at home." he threatened lightly.
I grinned and plopped down on my bed, setting out a small alarm clock on the one nightstand between our beds. I didn't bother to unpack much of anything else, and stacked my luggage in the small space at the end of the bed. I heard an unmanly squeak as a mouse ran out from under the bed.
Laughing I looked up to see that Edward had jumped on his bed, taking his feet out of the way of the little rodent scurrying across the floor. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it soon enough."
I watched as he gingerly set his feet back on the floor and stacked his luggage in a similar manner as mine. "Come on. I'll show you around." I said, once again grabbing his hand and tugging him along eagerly. I couldn't wait to see the rest of my home again and I figured that the only way to stop his gawking and hurry him along would be to drag him.
"You go through here to the bathroom." I said leading him out onto the balcony. From the railing you could see the little mud huts outside the fence that surrounded the house. There were little children playing in the dirt and a few huts had small cooking fires burning outside. I waved to a few of the children that began chanting "mzungu, mzungu" upon seeing us and reminded myself to raid the candy stash I had brought to share with the children.
I walked into the small room off to the side. It has a futon sitting against the wall, and three more doors leading off of it. Gesturing to the one straight ahead, I led him out onto another veranda. This time, I heard him gasp and smiled.
Instead of the small huts and other houses in the village that were visible from the other balcony, this one was on the opposite side of the house and looked out onto beautiful African jungle. A few monkeys were swinging from the trees outside the gates and small patches of red dirt and water were visible where there were breaks in the trees. The sun was now a blood red color as it began its slow descent out of the sky for the day.
"It's beautiful huh?" I said, still watching his awed face. "Come on, you'll have time to look later. I want to show you the rest of the house and find my brothers and sisters."
I led him back through the door and pointed to the small door on the right. "That's the toilet. We are lucky to have one! It sure beats pit latrines which I'm sure we'll find ourselves using more often than not."
Pointing to the sink I instructed him. "Make sure that you only use that to wash your hands. Use your bottled water to rinse your toothbrush and your mouth." Grabbing his hand, I opened the other door.
"This is the shower." I said almost reverently. I was looking forward to at least a week more of showers. I had already resigned myself to bucket bathing and pit latrines for the rest of my two years here not knowing what my living situation would be like in Kitgum.
EPOV
It was funny to me, the look of bliss that Bella had on her face as she looked at the shower. It was really nothing great to look at-a small square shaped shower with a drain. The sides of the shower weren't even half a foot tall and there were no shower curtains. The window was also quite see through and no shower curtains adorned that as well. I figured that it was high enough that privacy was still granted though.
"Running water...warm, running water." Bella sighed under her breath. I watched in fascination. Finally, her gaze focused and she flushed realizing that ɪ was staring at her curiously. "You don't know how much you'll crave long showers after living here!" She said defensively.
I just grinned at her, flustering her even more. "Anyways, this is how you shower here." She said ignoring me now. "First of course, you take off your clothes. Always, always wear your flip flops in the shower though! Next, turn on the water, get wet and turn it off. Now you soap up, wash your hair and then turn on the water again and rinse off. If you use conditioner you repeat the process again until your done." She really was a bossy little thing.
I grinned again. "So, I'm not sure how to do all that correctly. Maybe you can give me a demonstration first."
"I-I'm not sure..." she broke off flustered, only to realize that I was teasing her. "Ha ha, very funny." she said as she punched me lightly on the shoulder.
"Sorry, it was just too much of an opening." I apologized, following as she led me back the way we'd come and down the stairs.
"Be careful on these stairs, they're a danger trap" she was saying just as her shoe caught-on what I could only presume was air-and she tripped headfirst down the stairs. To my horror, I could only stand and watch her fall.
Suddenly she was caught by a teenage boy who was smiling from ear to ear. I smiled, not only happy that she was safe, but glad that I was still going to be in Sarah's good graces. "Beka!" she squealed throwing her arms around the young man. He looked to be about 19 years old, with a shaved head and a white shirt with a color and shorts. He was wearing the same blue flip flops that I had seen on many people here already.
Before I could even blink, we were surrounded by people. Bella was busy throwing her arms around everyone, but I was slightly uncomfortable as four pairs of dark ebony eyes looked at me curiously. All four of them had shaved heads, yet I could clearly tell the difference between which ones were boys and which were girls. The girls were just to pretty to be anything else. "Sorry, everyone this is Edward. He's going to be my partner at the clinic the next couple of years. We'll come and visit as often as we can." After measuring me for a moment, they all looked away and began dragging Bella to the couch jabbering on about a card game called egyptian rat killer.
Bella winked at me and I could only gape. Somehow, I had been left standing alone staring after her. I knew that it would be awhile before I was accustomed to the melee that usually surrounded her.
I sat next to her on the couch as she chattered on with the others. Suddenly I noticed Sarah coming in with a huge platter. On the platter was a whole fish of a type I had never seen before. It was steaming, so it was obviously cooked, yet it had been cooked whole-head and all. I gulped as she set it down before me and commanded "Edward, you eat."
"Um, I'm not sure..." I said looking to Bella. I was at a loss as to how to begin. She grinned at me, enjoying my discomfort, but took pity on me.
"Like this", she said peeling back the layer of outside skin to reveal the white fleshy meat underneath. She pinched a little of the meat between her fingers, blowing it off gently before popping it into her mouth and beginning to chew. I followed suit. My eyes widened as I began to chew the fish. It was surprisingly good. "What is this?" I asked quietly. The rest of the family had begun to dig into the fish, devouring it quicker than I imagined possible.
"Oh, that's Nile Perch. It's good isn't it?" Bella asked grinning at me before pinching another bite. I watched in amazement as the fish was quickly eaten-even the head.
After a long evening of surprises and fun, it was time for us to go to bed. I was tired and ready for bed. They didn't eat dinner until around 10, so by the time we finished eating-a "small" meal of beans, rice and a tortilla like food known as chipote, I was ready to fall asleep in my food.
I stumbled upstairs after Bella and grabbed my clothes to go get ready in the bathroom. I quickly pulled my clothes on and realized that I had forgotten some bottled water to use and ran back to the bedroom. I noticed the door was slightly opened and peeked in. Bella was sitting on the side of her bed with the 8 year old Jamilia cuddled up next to her. She was singing a lullaby and slowly stroking the little girls smooth head.
Tender feelings welled up within me as I watched how lovingly she sang to her. She was such and extraordinary woman-so gentle, loving and tenderhearted, yet she was full of passion and spirit as well. I felt so incredibly grateful to whatever benevolent god was allowing me to be near her.
I gently knocked on the door and pushed it open when she looked up and smiled. "Jamilia, time for bed." she whispered to the little girl and gave her a kiss on the cheek before she scampered off.
"I forgot the bottled water for my teeth." I stated, grabbing it and turning to leave. I felt so awkward around her suddenly and wanted to escape quickly to think over what was happening to me.
"Hey! Wait up. I'll come too. Do you mind sharing your water with me, so I don't have to dig one out of my suitcase. We'll probably have to buy some more tomorrow." She babbled on as she followed me, not even giving me time to answer.
After brushing our teeth, we hurried back to the room. Bella turned the small fan on that was to serve as our air conditioner for the night and shut the window-"to keep the mosquitoes out"-she said.
I smiled as she turned off the light. What a day-what an adventure I was starting! It certainly helped me not to feel as homesick to know that I would be experiencing it with the most amazing creature I had ever met in my life.
"Good night, Bella. Thank you for helping me so much today." I said, as I laid my head on my pillow. I fell asleep quicker than I had in my entire life and I didn't even hear her reply.
