Delays

Today was not as productive as it could have been- I was supposed to be picked up at 9:30 to move my belongings to the new bed and breakfast, but didn’t get picked up till 12 noon. Part of the reason was that Marx asked someone else to drive me, and that person needed gas (and there is a big gas crisis in Uganda, something on the order of 5x more expensive to buy gas here than in the States, and availability is lower too).

I exchanged some money to be able to pay for my stay at the bed and breakfast up front (something about since I got a discounted price at the bed and breakfast, the landlady wanted me to pay up front) dropped off my suitcase, took my mefloquine tablet for the week, and walked to work. This new bed and breakfast is right across the street from Kisamente, which I was very familiar with back when I was in Uganda last time- it’s very convenient since I both know the area well and know the transport in the area well. It’s overall made me feel less stress concerning my belongings and the commuting. I’ll actually look forward to wandering around this weekend doing late Christmas shopping and such. The only downside is that I don’t have a key for my room- apparently I can lock from the inside of my room, but when I leave, I have to leave it unlocked (something about the lock not being completely functional). The caretaker there assured me that it would be ok since she would be around and the front door guard would also be there, so I’m relatively confident that it’ll be ok.

I’ve stuck mainly to my own food so far, and not really eaten a lot of Ugandan food this trip- I tried pretty much all of the types of food last trip, and was rewarded with GI distress, so I don’t feel to bad living on Clif/Luna bars, ramen packs, dried fruit, almonds, and various snacky foods (Pringles, Cheez-its, etc.) that I packed from home. I do plan on going out to eat, and learned from Edwin how to potentially prevent diarrhea- eat a pepto-bismol tablet before the meal. They sell tablets now, which are much more convenient than drinking a cupful of the liquid stuff (and it tastes better too). I’ve eaten 1 Ugandan meal and at a Thai place with Grant, and before both I took a tablet, and so far my stomach has been ok. Who knows what would have happened sans-tablets.

The most productive part of today was going through 2 time series analysis primers, and I feel a lot happier and more confident about time series and ARIMA in general. I’ve downloaded a few other documents that should help me out as well, and I’m looking forward to using tomorrow and this weekend to really play around with my data and see what I can do with my newfound knowledge. Oh, and I have to do my lit reviews tomorrow so I have lots to read over the weekend.

Last note: I’ve been reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars) and will probably finish the last book by the end of this trip- I’m halfway through. It’s a good series, very technical, but plausible sounding- the tech descriptions seemed well researched. After reading this series, I found it surprising that only today I thought of Uganda as a Mars-like place… but only with regards to the color of the soil.