About 19 hours in the sky and 7 hours in various airports later, I arrived in Uganda. “Surreal” does not even come close to explain my first evening in Uganda. A rope line of our trainers and country director and a moonlit bus ride through Entebbe to Laweza (about 15 km outside of Kampala) led us to our first Ugandan meal, a few welcome speeches, and finally to our beds. Training at Laweza (a Protestant Conference Center where we spent our first few days) consisted of cross-cultural lessons, a crash course in Luganda (the language spoken in Central Uganda), security briefs, morning yoga routines, bird and monkey watching, starchy food, the last hot showers we will have for a long time, and an absolutely insane trip to the capitol, Kampala. In short, it was a busy couple of days. The streets and motor vehicles of Kampala make those of NYC look like child’s play—for the taxi and boda boda drivers, where there’s a will, there’s a way and little things like pedestrians, shops, other vehicles, and doors falling off the hinge should get in the way. Kampala introduced us to two other funny things about Uganda: no street signs and the word “muzungu.” “Muzungu” means foreigner/traveler and is the name called out to every volunteer wherever we go. Now that I have moved in with my host family in the village Kisimbiri (which is also near Kampala in the district Wokiso), the soundtrack to my 5K walk to classes is a chorus of children (50% of Uganda’s population is under 15 years old) yelling out “Muzungu!”
My host family is a small family (only 3 children) and has been wonderful to me: in addition to expanding my Lunganda vocabulary, they’ve helped me learn how to survive/cook/clean in Uganda. After settling into our lessons in Wokiso, I have become familiar with showering with a bucket, pit latrines, power outages, “Ugandan time” (I have been told that Ugandans keep time by the crow of the rooster and so, I am on time for a 7am meeting even if I don’t get there until 759am b/c it’s still in the 1st hour of daylight and if I don’t get there until 1pm or so, it’s ok), boiling all my water, washing clothes and dishes by hand with basins, and red mud and dirt.
Those of you who have seen me during or after my field work know that I have a lot in common with the Peanuts Character, Pig Pen…now that my skin color is about 50 shades lighter than that of most everyone else, dirt/mud shows up on my skin a lot better comparatively and so my pseudonym has been taken to the extreme.
Wonderful things about Uganda:
Everyone here greets everyone and hospitality is crucial—business cannot take place without a greeting and the formal greeting asks about how you spent the night/day, thanks you for your general work, and asks about your family.
Peace Corps here has a real family dynamic to it. The country leader is an absolutely inspirational figure and present volunteers are coming every week to speak to our training group.
When it is sunny, the bird calls fill the air and complement the warm air and when it is rainy, it is not cold.
About the next two years:
I now know what I will be teaching:
Chemistry and Math (Potentially Biology as well…just to spice things up)
AND
I know where I will be teaching:
Acholi Region or in layman’s terms the North/Northwest.
In our first security briefing, we learned that the Lord’s Resistance Army has been pushed well into the DRC and that it is stable up there (the NW is where Invisible Children was filmed). A year ago, they started sending volunteers up there and I will be 1 of 5 going to join the 13 already up there. The language is beautiful and my language teacher is wonderful so while the assignment was a surprise, I could not be happier. I will be going to one of 4 regions: Gulu, Adjumani, Kitgum, and Pader.
I miss you all and think of each of you often. I hope all is well. An ki mar (“I with love” in Acholi)