Sunday, November 24, 2013

           

            We’ve officially had our second weekend in country! Saturday was a day for laundry. It took me two hours to wash my clothes and they’re probably not even that clean. This hand-washing thing is so hard! I watch the Ugandans in awe because they are so good at it. And I’m terrible at ringing my clothes out – they’re still dripping when I hang them on the line. Oh well, I guess with time I’ll get better. Worst part of today, I’m so sunburnt. Look like a tomato sunburnt. I’ve got a great frat tank tan line and Chaco tan lines. What’s worse than Chaco tan lines? Nothing. And I’ll be wearing those shoes a lot so I doubt they’ll ever go away.

            We also finally found out about our future sites! The way it works is we were given information on all the participating schools and the roles of a literacy specialist versus a teacher trainer. We then chose whether we wanted to be a literacy specialist at a primary school or a teacher trainer at a PTC (Primary Teachers College). Most of the PTC’s have associated primary schools that they work with, so most, but not all, will have site partners that live nearby. From the information given from the schools we ranked our top three and reasons why each one would be a good fit. The revealing of sites was pretty awesome – the trainers mimicked Harry Potter with using ‘the sorting hat,’ so we each went up one by one, played a bit of an African song (like the opening one from Lion King), then shouted our language region. We were handed a piece of paper that stated our school and other necessary information and ran to our language groups. I received a primary school in central Uganda which means I'll be learning Luganda. And Taylor is going to be working at the correlating PTC! We will actually be living together on the PTC campus, because my school is not able to provide housing. I am totally a-ok with that! Coming in, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to live with someone, but the more time spent in country I thought I would be more comfortable living with someone and I couldn’t have picked a better person than Taylor to spend to years living with. Plus I kind of lucked out because the tutor houses at the PTC are always a lot nicer than those of the primary teachers’. We were told it’s a two bedroom and has a toilet and shower. We’re stoked. Part of me thinks since I’m here I should just have gone all out and lived in a mud hut with no electricity or running water, but then again I honestly don’t know if I could handle that for two years. That means I’d be deep in a village, potentially not close to many volunteers. I can do no electricity and I can do the pit latrine and bucket baths, but I think if I lived alone away from my friends I’d go crazy. I’d be ok and I’d do my service, but I don’t know if I’d be genuinely happy. That’s why I’m so glad to have Taylor there – someone to understand what I’m going through, someone to vent to, someone to talk to and laugh with. I’m SO excited to move to site and start my new life! But we’ve still got a little while.

            Today, Sunday, was our Kampala tour! I was in a group with Taylor and Eric and we were def the group (a pretty awesome group by the way) with the best tour guide – one of our trainers, Eric. We all got dropped off in Kampala, just on the side of the road near the post office, and each group set out on their own to walk around the city. We saw all the necessities, like the new taxi park where we’ll catch a taxi or bus in order to travel to different areas of Uganda, the hostel where most volunteers stay, and shopping centers. I finally got a phone! It was the simplest, cheapest phone in the store. It took me forever to decide what kind of phone I wanted – should I get a dual sim? Do I splurge and get a smart phone that I can also use as a hot spot or get something simple and then buy a modem? Maybe I should unlock my iPhone and then get a little, cheap one to use in the cities. These were the thoughts circulating through my mind daily and I couldn’t decide which was the best option. I just went with my gut in the moment. I still need me an internet modem, but that’s a different issue for another day. The Peace Corps actually has wifi for us here at Kulika, but it’s slower than molasses. It takes about a half hour for me to log onto my email and another half hour for it to actually send. It’s hard to go from unlimited texting/calling/data usage to having to buy scratch off airtime cards for one of the previously mentioned ways of contacting people. It’s also confusing that you just buy x shillings of airtime and it can be converted to data or international calling, etc. But I guess that’s just one more thing I’ll get used to. When I studied abroad in Spain I remember that we got Orange phones (a company that’s also here) but that’s the extent of what I remember about my international phone usage. The problem here is they have like four different phone companies and some work better in certain areas than others. Peace Corps provided us with a MTN sim card where we’ll all be on a closed group network (which is pretty sweet) so then I got an Orange dual sim phone since Orange seems to be the best for international calling. Fingers crossed that at least one of those works well at my future site.

            Favorite part of our Kampala tour? After we walked around for a few hours, we were ready to sit down and relax for a little, so Eric took us to a coffee shop in one of the malls. Not only did I get good coffee, but I got iced coffee! Oh man, was it good. Lunch was pretty good, too. I never thought I’d miss sandwiches so much. And Kampala has movie theaters, bowling, and a casino! Too bad we can’t really go to Kampala.

            One of the ‘required activities’ for us was to find our way back on a matatu, or taxi. Taxis here are nothing like taxis at home. It’s a van that seats like 15 maybe, but two of the seats go to the driver and the conductor, except they’ll still squeeze in like 20 people plus potentially some animals. You get in and tell them where you’re going and then you get dropped off. Doesn’t sound too terrible, right? My first experience wasn’t, but I’m just imagining being squeezed in with a ton of people. In Kamapala, after we felt we had sufficiently seen enough of the city, Eric had us lead him (instead of him lead us) to the new taxi park. Good thing Taylor has a good sense of direction because I was so lost. But we finally made it; we squeezed our way through the ridiculous amount of taxis to find the one that goes to our area. I somehow got stuck in the front row, so it was myself with two other Ugandans and then the conductor – four people squeezed into a three person row. I had to sit half on one seat and half on the other; it was definitely not the most comfortable ride. The conductor kept messing with me, saying to pay him when we first got on (which you’re not supposed to do) and then asking for more money. I was just the dumb, blonde Muzungu in the front, so I kept looking back at everyone else with a ‘what do I do?’ face. Regardless, we made it back to Kulika in one piece.

            Once we got back, I had to finish my big book. Most Ugandan classrooms have a ton of kids and sometimes it can be hard to move around the classroom while teaching, so big books were created. They are made from grain sacks and are just what they sound like – a big book. They’re big enough to allow all the students to see. Typically it’s eight pages including the title page. One can summarize an already written story or make up their own; it can be focused purely on literacy or have some other component (such as math, science, etc.). I decided to write my own and make it math related. It’s called, “Benji the Bear.” I have terrible handwriting and can’t draw to save my life, so it’s taken me forever. Luckily I have wonderful fellow volunteers who can draw for me, but I’ll have to learn somehow so I can make more when I get to site!

            All in all, it was a great weekend. Ali G out.