Home sweet home

So I have finally moved into my house!! I am working at a Primary Teachers College as well as a Coordinating Center, so I live at the college with the rest of the teachers. In Uganda they call them “tutors”. There are about 15 teachers at my college, all of which are much older and much more qualified than myself. There are a little over 300 students at my college and they are all future Primary Teachers. I am excited to begin teaching here and hopefully make an impact of the future teachers of Uganda. Classes just ended here on the 24th and they have a month long break before they start classes again at the end of May, so I have a full month of settling in and working one on one with the Coordinating Center Tutor with in-service teachers and the community.

My house is a palace by Uganda standards. I have 2 bedrooms… yes my friends 2! When you walk into my house there is a small sitting room and the bedrooms branch off onto either sides. Next to my bedroom there is a bathroom, with a FLUSHING toilet!! There is a shower as well, but it seems to get the whole bathroom wet so I am still taking bucket baths. The kitchen is connected to the sitting room and has a sink (that doesn’t work) as well as a concrete shelving unit.

I live about 4 miles outside of Masaka town which is probably the 3rd or 4th largest town in Uganda. The school itself is fairly rural and about 2 K from anything. I live about 20K from Lake Victoria and apparently its in Ugandas “wetlands”. Basically that means I live in somewhat of a swamp. But let me tell you, a very beautiful swamp indeed. My nightly runs go through banana plantations, on dirt roads past mud shacks and my neighbors. I thought that I had seen all of the birds of Uganda when I was in Wakiso but the birds that live in the wetlands of Uganda are like those you would imagine living in Papua New Guinea. There are huge white birds with beaks that look like they could kill you and crazy black birds with foot long beaks that curve like machetes. This place is beautiful to say the least.

I have been trying to use my Luganda as much as possible because I want people to speak to me in Luganda instead of English, although most of the time their knowledge of English far exceeds mine of Luganda. I am sure to greet everyone that I pass on my runs and it usually startles them that I am able to greet properly. I like to see the smiles that spread over their faces as they realize that the muzungu knows their language. I greet everyone on my runs, out of breath and red-faced. They are first confused that someone is running (no extra calories to spare in Uganda), then they are confused that someone is white and running in their village, last they are confused that someone is white, running, and speaking Luganda. Ha.. But when I get back to the States I know I am going to be taken aback by how much we fail to greet each other. If you do not greet your neighbor, your friend, or even someone you pass on the street and have never met then you are implying that they have wronged you in some way. It is a comfort to know that when I walk down the street at least 15 people will say hello and thank you for your work within my first 10 steps.

Ugandas are such interesting people. They are constantly reading into whatever you say, because they themselves are not very forward. It is interesting being an American (who is exceptionally forward, and usually means exactly what she says) and living in a cultural where they are continuously thinking you mean something other than what you are saying. As an example, I was asking my technical trainer whether or not she was the one who decided exactly what it was that we would be learning, with the intention of simply knowing whether or not she was the one who created the “syllabus”. She said that is wasn’t her and left it at that. The following day she came up to me and said that she could not stop thinking about what I had asked the previous day and was wondering if I asked the question because I was un-satisfied with the program. When I explained that I just wanted to know if she decided what we learned or if it was someone else, she continued asking for another 15 minutes until she was fully satisfied that I had indeed just asked because I was curious and for no other reason except for that. To give you an example of how a Ugandan might ask a question or statement that implies much more than they have said, here ya go:

“Was the power off last night?” = Why are your clothes wrinkled, didn’t you have power to iron them?

“I think you wash your clothes on Saturday.” = Even though you wash your clothes on Sunday, you should start doing them on Saturday so they are fully dry.

Not only their lack of forwardness, but their love of meetings and long ones at that still baffles me. I sat through a 4 hour meeting today. Yes you may be thinking, what could you be doing for 4 hours in a meeting and I am still asking myself the same question. Ugandans are people who LOVE protocol and hate the idea of being on time. The meetings started at ten, so I was there bright and shiny at 10 sharp. I was the ONLY one there at 10. So I read my book, and then the newspaper, and then another newspaper, did the crossword, then Sudoku, and then decided that it was noon and therefore my lunch time and I should go home to prepare it. So I did. When I returned at 1 the meeting was just starting and we were still missing half of the people. Ugandans begin their meetings with prayer (and interestingly enough, they have posted on the wall of the school the denominations of every teacher, which I find to be both strange and a bit unnerving because there is an obvious split between the Muslim and Christian faiths) No clue what they will have to do whenever they put my name up there. Ha. So the meeting began and went on and on and on and on and on. Finally at 4 they decided that everyone must be hungry for lunch (can you believe so late!?!?) and so lunch was served. They always get super unnerved when I eat about 1/10th of the amount of food they eat, but really I usually have already eaten and on top of that 95% of their diet is carbs, which we all know I adore. ha. After the lunch we finished the meeting with feedback and then I was permitted to go home for the evening. I am going to be the worlds most patient person when I return to the States.

On a very exciting note, I finally got a Ugandan name. It is Nakimera, pronounced Nah-chee-may-lah. I am part of the “grasshopper” clan, which means I am unable to eat grasshopper (shame) which is a delicacy here and apparently it is grasshopper season right now. We all know I am very sad about this. Not. Autumn (who is placed very close to me) is called Nalubega (nah-lou-begga) which reminds me of Lou Begga who sang Mambo Number 5 and that’s all I can think of every time someone calls her it. Too funny. But it is very hard for people to pronounce my American name here because their language doesn’t pronounce R’s like ours and also their vowels are different, so its very convenient that I know have an African name.

Well…. That about all I have right now. I am sure once I start working I will have stories galore. I hope that life is good for everyone at home. I miss and love you all.