A week with me

I only wrote once in January and that makes me kind of sad. Since I am working for a study abroad program it makes it kind of difficult to write about anything new since we run the same program every semester. Yet the beginning of the semester has been very busy and I haven't had as much down time to  write. I thought to myself, If I am busy that must mean I have something to write about. My life out here in Uganda is still quite interesting. Working with more students and having more responsibility is making my job fun. I've realized that I have never written about my work life here in Uganda. This post will describe one of my busiest weeks in Uganda this year.

During the third week of January I found that I put too much on my plate. Monday started off fine. I have a staff meeting every Monday. These are never too unusual. Mondays can be kind of busy since it is the start of the work week, but in regards to everything that I had to do that week, Monday was quite easy.

Tuesday I visited one of the students home stays. Allison lives about 45-50 minute walk away from campus. Since I have to check in on student who live in home stays for the whole semester, I decided to start off with Allison's. It was a good visite to her home. Her family is very kind and used to having American around. Her host mama and friend asked me questions about how it is being a Black American in Uganda. These are always fun conversations to have since I have been told many times I look like a Ugandan. After we chatted and had tea I made the 45-50 journey back to campus.

Allison showing Martin Mpooya the mat she is making

Wednesday I decided to ask another student, Olivia, when I could visit her family. She told me to come to here house that day since they were having a graduation party. I wasn't planning on going on another home visit until the following week, but I figured there would be good food there. The dinning hall food on campus is awful. Even though I didn't know who the graduates were, I still felt welcomed. I got to sit on the family side of the aisle of the party and got a warm welcome by Olivia's mom, Mama Margaret. She told me to eat and leave when I have to. I did eat good food and left before the hour long speeches started.

Mama Margaret greeting guestt

Olivia and Mama Margaret

Olivia and her sister Angie

Thursday I took two students to their first day at their practicum site, ACHERU. ACHERU is the organization I volunteered with when I was here 6 and a half years ago. It's an organization that helps kids with physical disabilities and deformities. The thing I love about ACHERU is that volunteers get to do hands on work. Also, ACHERU does outreaches to remote areas of Uganda to help kids with disabilities and to share awareness about what disabilities are and to remove the stigma about them.

Allison helping to cast a scared boy

Friday, finally it was Friday! I still had to take two more students to their first day at their practicum site at Noah's Ark.  I actually monitor and supervise around 14 students at three practicum sites, ACHERU, Off-Tu mission, and Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark is an orphanage, school, vocational school, and much more. When we got to Noah's Ark the students got an orientation of the organization and saw the areas where they would volunteer for the whole semester. It was a hectic beginning and middle. There are over 150 kids who live there. When they saw the two male students, both name David, coming into their play area they pretty much just jumped on both of them screaming "Uncle, Uncle!" which is a sign of respect out here. In the end we finally escaped from them and finished up the orientation.

The David's with some of the boys

In exchange for his desire to take my water botter I took pictures of him instead and showed them to him

David and his own personal tour guide

So that was a hectic week for me. I ended the week exhausted and hot. Did I forget to write about how hot it was that week? It was beyond what I could bare. I really missed Seattle's winters at that point. I would finish close to two liters of water in a day and was still kind of weak. I'm starting to now realize the lack of sugar in my diet. I only have sugar when I drink tea. Well on Friday it rained. Oh blessed rain. It was a cause for celebration.

Vincent (the driver who taught me how to drive) and I celebrating the rain in the rain

When Saturday came I escaped into Kampala, went to a coffee shop, had a tuna sandwich and a Sprite. I was also able to journal and reflect on my week and my life so far. Even though I had a busy week, I still felt really blessed to be where I was at. Work might have driven me to escape for some personal time, but it also led me to hang out with great friends that evening. I need to take pictures of my friends out here so you all will know they are real. That is on my list of thing to do.

Sunday I wanted to sleep in, but I spend the day taking out my braids and washing my hair. One day you might see me with a shaved head. Hair is just too much to deal with.

So that is a week with me!