January 18, 1965
(morning). The curtains are up, the books are arranged, and we are settled in. Hurray. Of course settling in can mean many things. Stanley, for instance, still has me a little unsettled. I may have to learn Luchiga to make him understand me- but It’s worth it. He cooked a roasted chicken dinner last night that was just great. We are very happy with the way he works, and I hope that we will grow accustomed to having a houseboy soon.

School has sort of started. Lou has a class today and one tomorrow. I won’t have any until next week. I can wait. I hope we have some kind of biology text by then. It would make things easier.

We don’t yet have all of our furniture, but we’re getting it slowly. The grill on the stove doesn’t work, but we will get the Singh to fix it (We picked up local derogatory language fast0. And- if we’re lucky- our frig will come today. I can’t wait to see if it does. Man! What a help. We can have real meat & ice cubes and everything. I feel like I’m waiting for the Wells Fargo Wagon (FMP).

(evening). The fridge didn’t come but Mrs. Patel took me around and showed me all of the best shops to go to and introduced me and said she knew they’d give me a fair price. She also got me a basket-quite nice. Those first days much of our energy and thoughts were on the domestic side; creature comforts. Perhaps this was a defense but we appear in these notes to be absorbing very little of what was going on around us, socially, politically or otherwise.

Lou has spent the whole day fidgeting about teaching tomorrow. My time hasn’t come yet- so I’m teasing him. You’d think he was off to lecture to a group of Rhodes scholars the way he’s planning.

The fog on the valley behind the school reminds me of Pennsylvania (FMP).

January 19
Its going to be fun. Taught my first class today. I can’t get over how polite the kids are. Yes, sir, no sir, etc. They stand when you enter the room for the first time and the whole bit.

We got the fridge and our first load of meat today. Also must mention the cows in the front of the house. Ankoles, Jim says.

Tea at Norman’s; a nice guy but a bit difficult at times. Extremely well meaning, and very good to us. [Norman Davies was a British contract teacher.]

A coup attempt in Nigeria this week. Right after the close of the Lagos conference. The military has taken over. The issue was federalism. Needless to say, this is the only thing in Uganda which could cause an explosion [Little did I know]. Also Nigeria [is] the first Commonwealth country to lose constitutional government this way. It could happen again. Also this is the fourth or fifth explosion in Africa in the last few months. I wonder where Balewa is (LAP) [Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa who had been murdered in the coup]