Mr. Bakyondoza (from wayyy back...)

On our last official night in camp back in Feb, (yes I’m already reminiscing a bit…) Bern generously bought a goat from the market, and we all had roast goat for dinner. Nancy organized some games, a campfire with some good traditional Ugandan tribal dancing, and of course, farewell speeches from the Canadians. Then, as is tradition, the Ugandan crew gave each of us a Ugandan name. Me, I was tagged with Bakyondoza (pronounced, Ba-Chee-on-Doza), or, since many of the crew refer to us with Mr. or Ms., it’s Mr. Bakyondoza. Translated literally, it means Mr. Investigator. Haha, and it’s not too difficult to guess how they came up with that name. But to spell to it out, the crew knows that, between me and Mike, we were the engineers who were in pursuit of the projects that the crew would be constructing over the next few years. During our time, we climbed more hills than I think anyone had anticipated. In retrospect, perhaps we were too willing to climb so far to find a source because it would be a logistical nightmare for the crew to transport materials to those far off sources. But anyway, that’s the story, and the reason why all the Ugandans now call me Mr. Bakyondoza.

And, of course, that isn’t the only nickname that I’ve picked up during my time here. In October, basically when we started roving, I kind of stopped shaving. So, by the time we returned back into camp in late November, I’d managed to accumulate enough facial hair for some to classify as a goatee or small beard. Many of the construction crew thought it was the funniest thing, and a couple of them couldn’t resist touching it. Gordon, one of the crew, accurately labeled me, Carigou, or, man with small beard. He told me that if I keep growing it, the next time I saw him I might become a Marigou, or man with big beard. Unfortunately, I think my “beard” is destined to never be much more than a small goatee. Nevertheless, Ugandans still think it’s the oddest thing and I often get comments on the street or in restaurants about how smart my beard is.

So, to add onto the list of names that people here often refer to me with (re: Who am I? blog) I will now also respond to Carigou and Bakyondoza. haha, just one of those things I've learned in Africa!

** Internet's not fast enough to post any pics right now but I'll soon be back in Canada so I'll upload pictures then!