Week one

I have been here for over a week and it is slowly starting to feel like home. I haven't been blogging because my mind has not been on Uganda. I can't stop thinking about Haiti and wishing I were there. Realistically I know that I would only be a burden if I were there now... but still.

School - I started classes last week and they are going well. I have most classes with other American student but taught by Ugandan profs. One of my professors attended Yale! Crazy. I often think about Kim Budd when I am in class. She hates having distractions and always closes the blinds during class. Here we have two huge windows on either side of the classroom. The first day 3 little Ugandan kids sat on the slope outside one window and waved at the classroom full of Mzungus (white people). Frequently we are visited by birds flying in, yesterday a dog followed some Americans to class and just stayed in our room during classtime. Funny story... That dog also ended up following me after class to the cafeteria, which is really like a big outdoor pavillion type thing. I have never been stared at so much in my life.

One of my classes is just a regular UCU class and I am the ONLY mzungu. I have yet to actually have that class yet as the prof seems to think he does not need to show up the first week. I sat for an hour waiting for him and he never came. I finally left but the whole class stayed and waited another hour. Crazy.

Family - There is lots to say about my family. First they are extremely hospitable. Almost too much so. My mother is called Toto in their language. The woman will NOT let me skip a meal. Sunday I skipped church and stayed in bed because my stomach hurt... but even so she guilted me into eating breakfast lunch and dinner that day. When I do eat she is always on my case about it not being enough. My family has some land that they farm to grow food for us to eat and some to sell. Sometimes I help with various food related chores like cutting the cassava so we can dry it and turn it into flour.

I share a room with one american and my ugandan sister. We have no electricity and no running water. It is sort of like camping. We bathe and wash our clothes in buckets. We use flashlights for light at night. My toto thinks we will burn the house down if we use candles inside. I expected life to be hard without electricity but it is actually sort of nice. I mainly miss having light. But it is refreshing to not have tv! We spend a lot of time singing and talking and playing games.

Culture - Mostly I am loving fitting into a new culture... and sometimes it is frustrating. It is so humbling to be like a child in this culture. The other day my host sister was watching me put in my contacts. She started guessing at what they were for. She wondered if they turned my eyes colors or if maybe they protected my eyes from the heat. She is 18 but she seemed like a baby when confronted with something from my culture. I must seem like that all the time here. I have no idea when I should pay the matatu driver, or how much money is reasonable to pay for tomatoes, or how to use a coal iron.

Food - Lots of rice and beans and matoke and posho. Yesterday my family killed one of our chickens for dinner. It was nice to have chicken... and the former vegetarian in me tried very hard to not think about where it came from. One of the chickens lives in the house with us because it is hatching some eggs. Francis' amazing sisters took me to 3 different grocerey stores in Kampala and we found all the ingrediants for smores!!! My family was crazy excited. I want to make some American food for my fam. I am going to make kebabs with whatever meat I can find. I am hoping to score some BBQ sauce. We cook everything over a fire or over charcoal. If anyone has any good camping recipes send them to me!!!