Weekend Consumerism

On Saturday, Becky took the girls to town to buy fabrics to take to the seamstress, Sarah, who made dresses, skirts, and purses for last year’s DE group. For now, I’m just having a simple dress made, but I’ll likely get a skirt and top as well. (I thought I’d let some of the other girls be the guinea pigs with the skirts and tops; we’ll see how the dress turns out.)

I then went to a sandal maker (where I already bought two pairs of shoes) to order these beautiful white shell-decorated sandals that some girls on the trip bought a few weeks ago. They initially told me that it would be two weeks before the shoes would be ready (they had run out of shells due to the high demand), but I received a phone call yesterday and the shoes are there, yay!

Lauren, Claire, and I visited an organic restaurant for lunch, where I had avocado and fruit (and beets with the fruit), and then we headed to “California Nails” for $5 pedicures for myself and Claire and a $5 massage for Lauren. The prices don’t represent the quality at all; pedis and massages are just that cheap here! (Now, if only souvenirs were equally inexpensive...) They use OPI polishes, and the $5 so-called “half treatment” includes a soak, trim, shaping, buff, and polish. Mine was pretty until I went running too soon after and slightly messed it up. Oh well.

Otherwise, I did the typical reading and movie/TV show watching at Tank Hill. Watched Enchanted for the first time (sappy but cute), parts of Mamma Mia (which I saw in theatres with Elisa--Pierce Brosnan is no better at singing the second time around, FYI), and worked my way through the first season of Friends, which has really grown on me.

I never thought I’d miss shopping while in Uganda, but the market here is just so different from that of Western countries--fewer high-quality goods and far fewer choices. The shops we visit are relatively small and basic compared to those in the U.S., and even Sarah, the seamstress, was just located at the end of an alleyway with a cluster of other seamstresses, all working outside on their foot-pumped sewing machines.