Hey everyone! It’ been a while but I promise it will have
been worth your wait. A LOT has happened since I was last able to post. Today
marks my 2 month day since I left my home in Michigan and it still hasn’t sunk
in yet that I will be living in Africa for the next 2 years. Actually it still
has not sunk in that I am currently in Uganda. Even with all the experiences I
have already had!
So here is what I have been up to in short:
I stayed with a host family for 4 weeks from June 5th(ish)
to July 3rd. It was really really awkward and uncomfortable for
about a day or two but we warmed up to each other. I just remember the 6 hour Matatu/ Taxi ride
with 14 people (plus driver) backpacks on lap, blankets under the seat, and all
our big bags strapped to the top of this van. Ugh. But we did get to stop on
the Equator!! Like the legit equator… where the water spins the opposite way
and everything! They even have demonstrations that you could pay a guy to pour
water into a dish with a drain and watch it spins on either side of the
North/South equator. But we didn’t do it…. Why should I when I’ll be LIVING in
the southern hemisphere!!! Sweet eh? Anyway…. My Uganda family (maama, taata, 3
younger brothers in boarding school, and 2 sisters in college but living at
home) was very hospitable the entire time I was there and I look forward to
visiting them again. When I stayed with them I had my own bedroom, bathed with
a bucket in a small room that just had a drain, relieved myself while squatting
over a hole in the ground (looked like an outhouse from the outside), and
cooked on an open flame in a room not connected to the main house. My family
had electricity but no running water inside although they did have 1 faucet
outside in the compound. The house was in a concrete compound with glass bottle
shards on the top of the wall and a steel door to get in and out that was
locked every night around dusk…. which meant I couldn’t go to the latrine after
dark. Problem solved… you get a small bucket with a lid (chamber pot, or night
bucket) and go in that. In the morning you just throw it in the pit latrine…
Uganda makes me pee a lot so I got some good use out of it. Unfortunately I thought
it was durable enough to site on… hahaha BIG mistake…. It cracked…. And even
ductape couldn’t even keep the smell sealed in sometimes… but I drew all over
it and made it look awesome! If you really must know…because I know you are
going to go crazy not knowing, I wrote ‘this is what I am for’ in the bottom on
the inside for those days at the beginning where I just felt shame using it.
Especially in the morning when I would walk out with it in front of my family…
through the house… it also sucks when you take a long call (think about it) and
you can’t open the window in the room. Good thing all houses in Uganda have
vents at the top of each room to let the air flow a bit.
Food: They eat a TON of carbs here. Potatoes (whole since
Ugandans are not a fan of mashed foods), Matooke (steamed plantains/ unripe
bananas), Posho (something with maze/ corn meal and resembling mashed potatoes),
Callo (millet bread very sticky), Cabbage with Carrots, eggs, chicken, goat,
beef, rice, noodles, squash, beans… it’s a pretty bland diet here without
spices but when I can cook for myself it will be GREAT!
My family had a big/ half blind cow that I got to milk!!! They
also had about 20 chickens that I would regularly pet and pick up. The neighbor
had 2 baby piglets, some goats, and a duck. Sometimes I like to describe Uganda
as a petting zoo…. Goats, cows, and chicken roam the streets all the time… its
soo cool!
I spent those 4 weeks learning Runyankore/Rukiga from 8am-5pm
(most days) Monday-Saturday. Exhausting for sure especially when I had to be
home by 7 and usually I would study when I got home. Then the past 2.5 weeks I’ve
been back at the training center (Kulika) going through technical training
while continuing language. It was hard but I passed my LPI (Language Proficiency
Interview) and got INTERMEDIATE MID!!! We only needed Intermediate Low to pass
so heck yes! Go me! That was yesterday
that I found out so I’m still pumped about it.
I’ve been to my future site and met my counterparts! I’ll be
working at a Primary school (little kids 4-16ish) doing idk what but I would
LOVE to help them build a playground! And I will be working in the villages
with 2 different women's group crafting and helping them save some money! My
house is more like an apartment style where my neighbors are connected to me. I
have 2 small rooms (bedroom and living space/ kitchen area) and they built me
my very own pit latrine/ bathing area in the back (a concrete toilet complete with a wooden seat and everything!) and I have my own privacy fence in the back (aka my backyard),
and it’s about a 2 minute walk from the school.
I’ll be swearing in as an official volunteer on THURSDAY!
Woop! I’ll be an actual PCV (volunteer) instead of a PCT (trainee)!! So I’m a bit excited! I’ll talk more about my
site/ work next time I get on. Hope everyone is surviving the heat wave… it gets chilly here at night in the 60s :p
P.S. I went to Queen Elizabeth National Park and saw some
ELEPHANTS, hippos, water buck, impala, flamingos, and water buffalo! And one of
the wild moneys at Kulika went crazy and bit one of the guard dogs. Ouch. So
they killed the wild thing. Vervet monkies are the worst.
Miss everyone! Thanks for reading this! Hope to write soon!
-Kemigisha (My Runyankore name meaning Blessing/ a gift from God)
