Hello all. For those of you in VA, I hope you and your belongings survived the earthquake! All those in VA and NYC, I hear that you are living without power for the time being which means that we can have some shared experiences now. The term ended about 2 weeks ago and will start again in a week. 
During the term, we took one more giant step towards finishing the World Map (there are now names on the countries (including the new Republic of Southern Sudan) and we’ve added all those pesky little islands that my students have been a bit too eager to paint right over with blue…despite the fact that they now know that Uganda is indeed quite a small ountry, anything smaller than Uganda doesn’t seem to really be worth the effort in their minds…), our students are getting ready for their national exams next term, and our power transmission was stolen so we spent the second half the term without power. At the end of the term, I joined hands with the other female teachers at my school to welcome and host Archbishop Orumbi (Archbishop of the Protestant Church here) and 2000 other people coming to see him. I also acquired two more women’s groups with whom I have started to make liquid soap (I now have a grand total of 4 groups plus my students…watch as my empire grows). I traveled to the SW to build an oven, carrying a full bag of tools (trowels, level, L ruler etc) and 3 welded pieces: a chimney that was light, but about 6ft long, a chimney base that weighed maybe 30lbs and was about 1m2 and last but not least, an oven box that was 40cmX60cmX60cm and took 2 strong men (4 weaker men) to carry (did I mention that the trip takes about 20 hours and involves changing to progressively smaller and more packed vehicles 3 times?) I put here a picture of the last vehicle which took 
me and 7 other people (and 2 children) about an hour down a dirt road that has seen better days. This trip made me realize that I seem to pack a ridiculous amount on public transport vehicles here (there’s a good chance I was a pack horse in a past life because most normal Peace Corps Volunteers tend to pack less and less as time goes on….). So here’s the top 5 list of things I’ve transported:
1) Oven etc (this must top the list because really, needing 3-5 people to help you carry your “luggage” really should put me up there on the level with royalty—eat your heart out Marie Antoinette)
2) 27 2*2*1 ft boxes of books and a desktop computer
3) 3 jerry cans of chemicals and other solid chemicals in a box and a large bag of empty water bottles (this has happened multiple times/in different combinations)
4) 10L of peanut sauce and 8kg of black beans
5) 13 secondary school girls and a pair of black shoes in a black plastic bag that I accidentally took, thinking the bag was mine….it belonged another unknown and now shoeless secondary school girl…whoops
Also, since I’ve now completed 1 1/3 years of teaching here, I thought I’d mention things that have happened to me here that would never happen to a teacher in the US:
1) A chicken flying into the classroom only to be caught by a student and forced back out the window, only causing a minute or two of distraction from the normal lesson
2) A rainstorm that forces 70 students to crowd around me in the center of the room because the rain was soaking 75% of the classroom and making it impossible to move or talk in the remaining 25%
3) Giving a 2 hour computer exam, 3 girls at a time, by candlelight (the generator can only power so much)
At the end of the term, I headed to the SW to be a counselor for a regional GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) camp during which I rewrote many popular Ugandan songs to be camp songs (truly, my radio listening experience here will never be the same). Afterwards, I visited Sipi Falls in the East with a friend which is has 3 beautiful waterfalls—we could get close enough to get a bit of a mist shower (the best thing about the trip is that not many tourists visit the Falls so it’s almost an untouched part of Uganda). I believe that we thoroughly entertained our guide by constantly singing (we were fresh from being Camp counselors) and by greeting everyone along the way in their local language (this is quite unusual for foreigners to do…period).
Here in Uganda, I have met a lot of people who were named after famous people (George Bush, Obama, Bill Clinton, Sadam Hussein….), but now there is a new installment to the list: a dog named Qadaffi…truly, the Ugandans know how to celebrate history.
Anyways, I hope all is well! Please tell me what’s going on with you all!
During the term, we took one more giant step towards finishing the World Map (there are now names on the countries (including the new Republic of Southern Sudan) and we’ve added all those pesky little islands that my students have been a bit too eager to paint right over with blue…despite the fact that they now know that Uganda is indeed quite a small ountry, anything smaller than Uganda doesn’t seem to really be worth the effort in their minds…), our students are getting ready for their national exams next term, and our power transmission was stolen so we spent the second half the term without power. At the end of the term, I joined hands with the other female teachers at my school to welcome and host Archbishop Orumbi (Archbishop of the Protestant Church here) and 2000 other people coming to see him. I also acquired two more women’s groups with whom I have started to make liquid soap (I now have a grand total of 4 groups plus my students…watch as my empire grows). I traveled to the SW to build an oven, carrying a full bag of tools (trowels, level, L ruler etc) and 3 welded pieces: a chimney that was light, but about 6ft long, a chimney base that weighed maybe 30lbs and was about 1m2 and last but not least, an oven box that was 40cmX60cmX60cm and took 2 strong men (4 weaker men) to carry (did I mention that the trip takes about 20 hours and involves changing to progressively smaller and more packed vehicles 3 times?) I put here a picture of the last vehicle which took 
me and 7 other people (and 2 children) about an hour down a dirt road that has seen better days. This trip made me realize that I seem to pack a ridiculous amount on public transport vehicles here (there’s a good chance I was a pack horse in a past life because most normal Peace Corps Volunteers tend to pack less and less as time goes on….). So here’s the top 5 list of things I’ve transported:
1) Oven etc (this must top the list because really, needing 3-5 people to help you carry your “luggage” really should put me up there on the level with royalty—eat your heart out Marie Antoinette)
2) 27 2*2*1 ft boxes of books and a desktop computer
3) 3 jerry cans of chemicals and other solid chemicals in a box and a large bag of empty water bottles (this has happened multiple times/in different combinations)
4) 10L of peanut sauce and 8kg of black beans
5) 13 secondary school girls and a pair of black shoes in a black plastic bag that I accidentally took, thinking the bag was mine….it belonged another unknown and now shoeless secondary school girl…whoops
Also, since I’ve now completed 1 1/3 years of teaching here, I thought I’d mention things that have happened to me here that would never happen to a teacher in the US:
1) A chicken flying into the classroom only to be caught by a student and forced back out the window, only causing a minute or two of distraction from the normal lesson
2) A rainstorm that forces 70 students to crowd around me in the center of the room because the rain was soaking 75% of the classroom and making it impossible to move or talk in the remaining 25%
3) Giving a 2 hour computer exam, 3 girls at a time, by candlelight (the generator can only power so much)
At the end of the term, I headed to the SW to be a counselor for a regional GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) camp during which I rewrote many popular Ugandan songs to be camp songs (truly, my radio listening experience here will never be the same). Afterwards, I visited Sipi Falls in the East with a friend which is has 3 beautiful waterfalls—we could get close enough to get a bit of a mist shower (the best thing about the trip is that not many tourists visit the Falls so it’s almost an untouched part of Uganda). I believe that we thoroughly entertained our guide by constantly singing (we were fresh from being Camp counselors) and by greeting everyone along the way in their local language (this is quite unusual for foreigners to do…period).
Here in Uganda, I have met a lot of people who were named after famous people (George Bush, Obama, Bill Clinton, Sadam Hussein….), but now there is a new installment to the list: a dog named Qadaffi…truly, the Ugandans know how to celebrate history.
Anyways, I hope all is well! Please tell me what’s going on with you all!
