Lesson #1: English is not a universal language

Hello everyone!

Sorry for not getting to send an update sooner. The power just came
back on tonight, after being out for 5 days now (welcome to Uganda!
haha) so internet access has been brief in order to conserve generator
power. Needless to say, my headlamp has become by far my most valuable
possession, and its been an adjustment getting used to living here.
But I’m learning more and more each day about the culture and the
people, and am starting to settle in.

I arrived in my village on Monday night, after traveling for an epic
48 hours. During my long layover in London, Caiti and I got to leave
the airport and see the city, which felt very worthwhile once I got my
picture taken in a red phone booth. However, I literally could not
keep my eyes open on the car ride from the airport in Uganda to my
village. I was told that I would be living in a village, but it has
been a little bit different from how I envisioned it. Every house here
has a medium to large plot of land for farming and livestock, so
things are fairly spread out. I live in the district of Bududa, but
the school is in the village of Bumwalukani, which is up the mountain
from where I live. There is a small trading center at the foot of the
mountain with maybe 20 shops and a “roundabout” made from placing 7
stones in a circle. The hike up to the school is about a mile walk up
a mud road, but the scenery is just beautiful! Very green and lush. It
rains almost every afternoon, and you can literally see it coming over
Mt. Nusu (Zach and Emily, have you heard of it?)

The view from our front yard

Minus not having power, the guest house that I’m living in has been
really nice. I have my own room, and was pleasantly surprised to have
a flush toilet just about 10 feet outside the guesthouse. We have a
shower next to the flush toilet as well, but I’ve been choosing to
take bucket showers instead. I think the shower feeds from a water
tank, and I don’t want to deplete it for that. Plus, the beauty of a
bucket shower is that it can be semi-warm by adding boiled water to
the cold water from the water tank. AAH hires a “house mom” named
Jennipher to come and cook for us and help take care of the guest
house. She has been great to have around, and so far, I’ve liked all
of the food she has cooked pretty well! Its typically something with
potatoes, so that’s right up my alley. Last week, I had my first meal
of matoke, which is literally every Ugandan’s favorite food, and its
pretty much just mushed up bananas but not as sweet as a normal
banana. I also had another local dish called posho, which is
cornmeal+water. It kind of tastes like nothing, but I think they
usually serve it with beans during school and I could see that being a
relatively good combination.

Home away from home

Jennipher, our house mom

Their school year runs on a trimester system, so the students have
been on break for most of the month of August. Their third term starts
tomorrow, and I am really excited to meet the students! I think that
they will by far be the highlight of my time here. I have already met
some of them during walks to and from the school. Most people here
have been very friendly, and greet you as you pass. People that are
confident in their English will usually walk with you and talk. Many
of the children don’t know English as well, but they will yell out
“mzungu, how arrre you?” which really becomes more of a greeting than
a question because that’s all they know. I’ve learned the local
greeting as well, and am hoping to pick up more of the local dialect
as I go along.

The hardest part so far has been adjusting to their accent. For the
past couple days, I have had a hard time understanding them, and them
me, even though we are both speaking English. That has been really
frustrating, mainly because I think much of my work will depend on it.
Eventually, I will be going out to the local Ugandan primary and
secondary school, and trying to implement some outreach programs. If
they can’t understand me though, I was getting worried that I wouldn’t
be effective at all. But the past couple days, I can tell that I’m
getting better at picking up their accent, and that more people can
understand me. The accent is kind of a funny one, I have to talk
pretty slow and kind of slur my words in a way. I have also had to
laugh at myself sometimes because I’ll be going for the Ugandan accent
and somehow my fake Indian or British accent will come out instead,
haha. But all that to say, I’m getting the hang of it slowly but
surely. I’m giving myself a couple weeks to get used to the school and
community, but I already have a list of outreach ideas and if I’m
lucky, I’ll get to try a couple of them out before Christmas. I’m
excited to try! They might end up not working out, but I am at least
excited to give it a go!

The other interesting thing is how much the community LOVED the
previous volunteer coordinator for Arlington Academy of Hope. I’ve had
multiple people tell me that they hope that I’m just like her, haha.
Which in some ways is so good, because she set us up well in that
people anticipate good things from us. On the other hand, it also
feels like we have some really big shoes to fill. I’ve kind of decided
that I’m not going to think about it too much though. I’ve never met
her, so there is literally no way to emulate her. Plus, I’m so new to
everything that its just going to take some time to get going. But
hopefully, I’ll be able to do a good job in my own right eventually,
and with time, they’ll get to know me too.

Wow, sorry this has gotten to be so long!! I miss you all a lot, and I
hope that everything is going well with school and work and Peace Corp
planning! I will try to write again soon, and please keep in touch
with updates from your lives! Even if its what you had for dinner, I’d
love to hear about it!

Much love,
Lacey