I'm Famous!

We interrupt this regularly-scheduled DRC blog post to update you on other aspects of my life, like the fact that … I’m famous!  =)

The colorful hallway (the sign is in the background)

No, not the cute Batman kid. I'm the one in blue.

A couple weeks ago, I was in the midst of fabric shopping with some friends in downtown Kampala, standing in a hallway/breezeway between a bunch of small shops where I have probably done most of my fabric shopping over the last 2 years.  As I’m standing there, waiting for Katherine & Lise to finish at a nearby shop, Carey glances up and makes a casual comment about the irony of a sign over a nearby fabric shop that is depicting only mzungus (White people).  I look up at the sign, and for a split second one of the pictures strikes me as oddly familiar.  I suddenly suck in a huge breath of air, and incoherently start exclaiming “That’s us!  That’s us!”  I’m so excited that I can’t even stop to explain to confused Carey what I’m talking about.  “Oh my gosh, that’s me!  I can’t believe it!  I need your camera!  Get out your camera!”  She slowly realizes that I’m blabbering about the fact that _I_ am on the sign that she was referring to!  I couldn’t believe it.  A very familiar picture of me, Rachel, and Megan (two fellow EMI interns from 2010) wearing traditional Ugandan dresses is manufactured proudly into the sign above the “Jesus J & J” shop, which sells fabric for that type of dress.  (And no, of course that is not the shop where we bought the fabric for the dresses, but I’ve long since realized that there’s no expectation of “truth in advertising” here.)  We wore these dresses for a Ugandan co-worker’s wedding (see my old blog post).  I can only assume they got this photo from one of our blogs.  I bet they never thought I’d actually still live in Kampala and eventually see that sign.  It kind of makes me wonder about all the photos of people I see on various signs.  How many of them actually know how their photos are being used?  The funny thing is that it’s a fabric isle I’ve been to many times before, and I still wouldn’t have noticed if Carey hadn’t said something about it.  I wonder how long it’s been up there….

Pointing out the sign that made me famous

We ended up standing in that hallway for quite a while because first I had to explain it to Carey, then I had to explain it again to Katherine & Lise, and finally I came back again to show it to a friend we ran into (actually one of the staff from The Congo Initiative who happened to be in town).  The longer we were there exclaiming and pointing at the sign, the more people around us caught on to what the commotion was about.  Most of the ladies in the surrounding shops were pretty amused by it.  I tried to explain it to the ladies working in the “Jesus J & J” shop, but they seemed very UN-amused and keep avoiding eye contact.  I’m guessing they were worried that I would get mad at them for using my picture.  But I was so shocked and excited that I wasn’t mad at all!

Whenever people from out of town visit me in Seattle, or whenever I’m back home and want to do something Seattle-y, I go to Pike Place Market.  Yep, that famous outdoor/indoor food and craft market where they throw fish and the first ever Starbucks Coffee shop is located.  It’s possibly my favorite place in Seattle.  Mouth-watering produce, fun crafts, curious shops, specialty food items (like chocolate linguine), seasonal flowers, almost every ethnic food imaginable, live musicians and balloon animal makers, great people-watching, and only a few steps away from the waterfront!  Anyways, whenever I visit, I MUST go find my tile on the floor.  Yep, it’s MY tile.  It even has my name on it!  [Grr, I KNOW I have a picture of it somewhere, but I can’t find it!  You know, it's one of those things where you help support the Market by paying for your name to be put on a tile.]  I’ve seen it dozens of times, but it’s my tradition to go and find it every time I’m at Pike Place Market.  (Yes, sadly, I still have to FIND it every time, although I am getting faster at it.)  Well, the “I can’t believe I’m on a sign in downtown Kampala” episode made me think of that, because I now have a place where I MUST take anyone who visits me in Uganda.  Anyone want to come see it?  =D