Clean Sweep

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.
-Goethe


This morning I went to the "sanitorium," as they call it- the place where the older sisters stay. It's like a nursing home- all of them are handicapped in one way or another and need assistance. Usually there is an exercise class on Monday and Tuesday mornings, but with the holiday, there were no classes this week. Instead, this morning, they made brooms! One of the sisters taught me how. Making a broom is pretty hard work. Brooms here are made out of weeds called buukansi. I have no idea what that is in English, but I suppose it doesn't matter- all you need to know is that they are long and skinny good for tying together in a big bunch. First you have to line them up one by one, very neatly, and then you have to temporarily tie them all of the stalks together with a banana fiber. After you have a couple bunches, you combine them into a bigger bunch, and you use this plasticy rope stuff to permanently tie all of the stalks together. Then you go back and reinforce it with more plastic rope, using a big huge needle to sew it all together. I had no idea it was so hard to make a broom! It took me a few hours, and my thumb was red and sore. But, the sister that taught me was very patient- she's so cute. She's really really old, in a wheelchair, and has big black plastic glasses that make her eyes look gigantic. She doesn't speak any English, and my command of Luganda is not so great, but I did learn a new word today: "siika!"- pull! Yet another word I won't soon forget. After we finished, she let me keep the broom, and you can believe that no one has ever been more proud of owning a broom. Let's just hope that I siika-ed hard enough on the rope so that it all stays together!

Kulika Omwaka- Happy New Year!