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My first post is coming from a tiny village in Uganda called Kyamukama (pronounced Chamukama), an hour along a dirt road from the nearest city of Masaka. I am living in a school called Living Hope, with no electricity or running water with the family of a Pastor called John. Pastor John devised the project of Living Hope and oversees the running of everything. He and his family are lovely and very welcoming and so are the teachers and everybody in the village. I was pretty scared when I arrived last sunday, however. I had had a lovely weekend in Kampala with David, the nephew of Laura, my previous boss, his girlfriend Florence and their gorgous baby Solomon. They took me out for a lovely meal at a restaurant which had an amazing view over the city and Lake Victoria, complete with atmospehic lightning in the distance! They also took me along to a party where I met a guy called Ian Clark, an Irish guy who is the first muzungu to have been elected as mayor of a large section of Kampala. It turns out he is quite a celebrity as people have heard of him even where I am
now, far away from the city. So I had already experienced African hospitality, even within minutes of landing in Entebbe, as a woman on my flight offered me a lift to David and Florence's so I didn't have to get a taxi! I met my friend Hannah in Kampala as she also happens to be here for a couple of months with a charity. We went to Nanado's (!) and wandered around the city. It was still dawning on me that I was suddenly in Africa. Even though I have experienced Africa before, it was still a culture shock. The fact that it all felt so familiar just made me feel stranger, as this time I was on my own and I was not in Kansas any more.
Arriving in the village was rather more of a shock, however. I had a long bus ride from Kampala to Masaka, in a bus that was supposed to have four people in a row, but there was a little fold-down seat in the aisle so they squeezed six in a row. At one point on the journey, we pulled over and there was an exchange in which a bag and a
loaf of bread was passed out of a window, and a live chicken was passed in by my head. I was also offered grasshoppers by a nice girl next to me called Rose, but I politely declined. They are a pretty popular snack here. Anyway, I met Pastor John and we got in a shared taxi to the village. We walked up a track through the trees to the school and I was hit with what I had let myself in for. I suddenly felt very homesick and was wondering whether I could stick this out. My room is quite dark and it has a wash area - a concrete floor so I can wash with a jerry can of water, which is fetched from a little way away. I do have my own toilet hole round the corner, but it is still just a hole. We walked into the village after dark and I felt so much better when it turned out there is an internet cafe! I have no phone signal here, but at least I have access to the world!
On Monday I met the teachers who are all really friendly, and the children at the
school all seemed pretty bemused by me. They have had a few muzungu volunteers in the last few years but I still stand out. I also met some other muzungu volunteers that are in the local area - Esther and Samuel, both Germans at the orphanage in the next village who are lovely. There are also two English girls at their orphanage, Lucy and Caroline, and there is an English girl called Emily living at the parish, about 30 minutes walk, who are also all really nice. They have all been here for months and are loving it, so this made me feel a lot better.
So this week I have been 'teaching' the preschool children English and Maths! The preschool teachers, Mary and Allen (female), are so lovely and the children are so cute. I have taught the children Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Old Macdonald Had a Farm and also the Hokey Cokey, which is, quite frankly, a hit. They have taught me a great song called Shake, Shake the Mango Tree. I'm not sure my teaching skills are too great, especially to a bunch of kids that don't speak English, but they are so short staffed here that I think any help is a bonus. Mary and Allen share the nursery classes, in which there are at least 70 children split into 'top' and 'baby', and also have to go and give work to Primary 1 and Primary 2, so I am often left on my own with all these children. There aren't enough classrooms so we use the churchroom, and there is another larger room which also has to accommodate two classes. My afternoons are spent doing various things, such as teaching the P1s, or one day Samuel and I helped Mary go around to the village pigs to give them de-worming medicine. We had to catch and hold them down to get the medicine in their mouths, while they make the most horrendous screaming noise. It was quite distressing! The pigs are part of Pastor John's community project. He gave some pigs to various people, on the basis that when the pig has piglets, he gets two back to give to somebody else, while they can sell the rest and thus have a sustainable income. PJ has done the same with some crops and other animals. I am actually neighbours with some chickens. PJ wants to expand the farm at the school so that the children can learn about farming and also the school could then become self-sustaining. A lot of children go all day without a meal, so PJ would also like to have the means to start serving meals, which would of course also help the children learn better.
Now I have been here for a week, crazy things are feeling more normal. I have eaten grasshoppers now, which are quite salty and not too bad, but I couldn't eat too many! Yesterday I got in a five-seater taxi with 9 other adults and three children - it was pretty cosy! This weekend there is a wedding in the village, and yesterday was the introduction ceremony, where the two families are formally introduced. Esther and I had front-row seats and after they gave us a LOT of food - rice and chicken which was delicious (and a whole meal in itself), but also a huge plate of matoke (mashed plantain/banana) with 'innard sauce', which is a peanut sauce and I don't think too much about what is in it - there was a lot of sitting while there was a lot of formalities and women in beautiful traditional 'gomes' kneeling for other people while a compere with a painfully loud microphone did a lot of talking. The wedding was due to start at 2pm, so naturally things started happening at around 6pm. Today is the actual ceremony, so I had better go and see what is happening. I have lots more to talk about and will post again as soon as I can!
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