Muzungu in the Mist

So, I’m in Uganda!
I traveled from Abilene, to Dallas, to Philadelphia, to New York, to Johannesburg, to Entebbe, to Lweza, to Wakiso….and BAM! Here I am at training.

We all met in Philadelphia, and then traveled into Uganda as a group. Meeting and getting to know everyone in my training class has been wonderful. Our class is full of amazing people of all different backgrounds, professions, and ages, yet we are all similar. There are two other Texans! Woo Hoo!
I couldn’t possibly try to write everything that’s happened since I’ve been in country, so I’ll hit the highlights:

MONKEYS
Our first day in Uganda, we saw monkeys. They were like squirrels, always climbing, running, and swinging around the Lweza training center.

KAMPALA
Besides feeling like I was going to vomit into my purse on the way to Uganda’s capital city, Kampala was great. My stomach was in the process of “adjusting” to Ugandan food, and the bumpy taxi van/clown car didn’t help much. After arriving, I chugged a bunch of water and was A-OK. We walked around the city to familiarize ourselves with certain locations that we’re going to need to access in the future. We were also instructed to buy some necessities for life in Uganda. Among these were a cell phone ($30) and a poop bucket for nighttime emergencies, which I will describe in detail later. The traffic in Kampala, and Uganda in general, is absolutely crazy. There are no stoplights and very few stop signs. Cars, taxis, and boda bodas (motorcycle taxis) drive wherever they want and whenever they want. Plus, it really helps that they are all traveling down the left side of the road. It’s hard to get used to watching for traffic on the other side of the road. I’m pretty sure that if I am ever seriously injured during my service, it will be because I am hit by a boda boda on the street.

SING SONG
I heard a school group singing a song in English, and this is how it went:
When I wash my face, I think about the Lord.
When I wash my face, I think about the Lord.
When I brush my teeth, I think about the Lord.
When I brush my teeth, I think about the Lord.
I catch myself singing it every once in a while.

LANGUAGE
The language that I am learning is Runyankore/Rukiga (run-yawn-core-A/roo-cheega). It is spoken in the South West part of Uganda. This gives me an idea as to where my site assignment will be. It is a little bit like Luganda, the local language around Kampala. Tons of people speak English in Uganda, so between their English and my beginner Rukiga, I should be able to communicate the basics. My Homestay mother speaks the language I am learning, so that is a big help. She is going to help me learn her language, and I’m going to help her learn Spanish.

HOMESTAY FAMILY
I love my homestay family. My mom is Anna Lewemba, who has 3 kids: Lulu (6), Jojo (4), and Gina (2). Anna’s husband works in a different city, so I haven’t met him yet. She works in Kampala a few days a week as a social work trainer. Her top 3 favorite movies are, in order:

1. Coming to America
2. Titanic
3. Pretty Woman

I started laughing after I heard the first one and had to ask her to repeat the last two.
They are a really nice Christian family. I found out yesterday that she requested a Christian volunteer. Little did she know that I requested a Christian host family. It couldn’t have worked out better.

The house does have electricity, but is only used to power the television and a small light in the hallway. The kids watch a movie every night during dinner. Most of the time, it is the Sound of Music. I’ve seen it 4 times this week. There is no indoor plumbing. Drinking water comes from a tap outside in the yard and is boiled before consumption.

BATHROOM AND BATHING SITUATION
Baths are taken out of a bucket outside in a little designated “bathing area” behind a wall that hits me mid chest. I duck a lot during my bucket baths. The bathroom is outside and is a “pit latrine”. It is basically a 5” X 7” hole in the ground. Aim is extremely important. I’m really going to have to warm up to the idea that I am going to be having “stomach trouble” into a 5” X 7” hole in the ground, at which I am going to have to squat and aim.

If I should need to get up in the night to go to the bathroom, I am to go in my “poop bucket” that I bought in Kampala. You don’t go outside in the night to the pit latrine because, according to mama Anna, that’s when the mosquitoes and thieves come out. I have, in fact, broken in the bucket. I woke up and had to empty my bladder in the middle of the night…twice. By the second time, I was a pro. Gross, but do-able.

FOOD
The food is good. It takes some getting used to, but it is pretty good. There are tons of starches to choose from: sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, rice, matoke, beans, posho, and macaroni, just to name a few. Matoke is the only thing that I cannot eat. It is, in my opinion, absolutely disgusting. Matoke, if I am correct, is steam cooked, mushed up plantains. Ugandans love it. I do not. Fear Factor could probably use it in an episode.

Fear Factor: The Matoke Challenge

Besides starches, there is sometimes a vegetable served, and also a broth with chunks of meat in it every once in a while that you pour over all of your starches. They also have a g-nut* sauce that they pour over all of their starches as well. There is a lot of fruit, which I love. Pineapple, cantaloupe, tangerines, passion fruit, jack fruit, avacado (fruit?), watermelon, papaya, and bananas are everywhere.

*G-nut = ground nut = peanut

TOOTH FAIRY…OR THE TOOTH RAT
I learned what happens when a kid in Uganda loses his/her tooth. My host mom, Anna, told me that they have “The Rat” that comes for teeth in the night. When you lose a tooth, you place it in the spot where the rats most frequent. Then, in the night, the rat comes and leaves you some little presents for the tooth. I was shown where the rats are seen in the house, thus where they place teeth when the kids pull them.

Anna also told me that when she was little and lost a tooth, you had to go find a special kind of bird and let it walk between your legs. As it was walking through your legs, you gave it the tooth and said, “Take this bad tooth, and bring me a good one”. If you didn’t say these exact words to the bird, your tooth wouldn’t grow back.

Good times.

TRAINING
Training is going well so far. We have cross cultural, language, safety, medical, and project training. Training begins at 8 am every day, and goes until 5 pm. It takes me about an hour to walk to our training site from my homestay, or about 35 minutes if I bike it. I usually leave my house at 7 am. It is a really pretty walk and/or bike ride. You can bike/walk down the roads, which are extremely bumpy, or you can walk the shortcut. The shortcut takes you through the countryside, down tiny trails, and through some pasture. It’s a very fun walk.

ON A DIFFERENT NOTE
I’ve found that it is so much easier to maintain my relationship with God while I am here than I thought it would be. I thought that it would be such a challenge to find time with Him in my busy training schedule, but that is not the case. It is so easy, easier than it was for me in the states, to spend quiet time in the word. I read my daily devotions every morning (thank you Michele) with a flashlight under my mosquito net, and am constantly reminded of what I read throughout the day. Each devotion seems tailored to something that I am going through or will have to deal with on that particular day. It is so neat how He works.

There are lots of highs and lows with being in the Peace Corps. You can be completely excited about your project and eager to get started, and then 5 minutes later feel so discouraged. It is a process that we get through together by voicing our concerns to each other as a training group. Knowing that everyone is going through the same things as you really helps boost confidence and morale. When I take my concerns to the Lord in prayer, I can feel them later melting away.

On September 1st, I am starting a “Read the Bible in one Year” study. The particular study that I am doing is a New International Version, in chronological order. This is something that my parents and I are going to do together to stay connected. So, if anyone would like to start with my parents and me and read the bible in a year in chronological order, please feel free. The more the merrier. You can probably buy a copy at Lifeway, Mendel’s (I got mine at Mendel’s), or from Amazon.com.

Until next time…
Musiibe gye!