Mbale here I come!!!

March 5, 2010

These weeks go by so fast. It is already Friday night and it felt like the week just started… The training is starting to become more enjoyable because current volunteers are presenting to us and also we are doing more activities during the day. So after this week I will have 7 more weeks of training before I am sent off to my village to start teaching. It was pretty sad this week because there was a large landslide in Mbale which killed hundreds of people. That is the city I am moving to and I want to pray for these people and their families during this time of hardship.

One part of the Peace Corps I was not looking forward to was learning the local language! Many people come in looking forward to it but not me. I hated learning new languages because of my bad experiences of 5 years in Spanish. So when we started daily language classes on the language of Mbale, Lumasaba, I was not excited. I felt bad for my language teacher, Mango, because he was going to have to deal with my lack of ability to learn a language…

To my pleasant surprise Mango is one of the best teachers I have ever had in my 17 years of schooling. His enthusiasm for the language and us learning is contagious. Lumasaba is hard because it has a lot of sounds that we don’t have in English. But fortunately I am picking it up and enjoying it as well. Every Peace Corps Volunteer tells me that the better they know the local language the easier it is to get plugged into the culture. Even though they speak English most places many of the uneducated don’t. Regardless I am hoping to continue to enjoy it!

Finally, I am so thankful and feel so fortunate for this opportunity to be here in Uganda. My mom called me and I was explaining to her that I really feel like I am meant to be here. God has granted me a peace within my heart that he wants me here and I praise Him for that. I am getting more excited about getting my own classroom and building relationships in my community I can’t wait!

February 23, 2010

So our medical staff always told us that everyone has ups and downs while here in the Peace Corp. Many of my friends here are having a tough time and Peace Corps is wearing on them. The sadness of the poverty, the questioning of what can I really accomplish, reminding yourself it is two full years away from life in US… all these things are kicking in for many people. It wears on me a little to hear everyone complaining of what we don’t have and why they are thinking about leaving. Training is tough because we came here to change the world and we just sit in a room all day listening to boring lectures (not all of them but many are…). We have to do this for 10 weeks so that is tough.

I got a few friends to write out why they came to P.C. I also did it to help me remember that I felt God calling me here. I believe he has many lives he wants me to affect and he wants to change me even more. I must continue to remind myself this and I will continue to get my strength from God.

I was going over 2 Corinthians 12: 5-10 and sharing it with a friend. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” “That is why, for Christ’s sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” I remember when Pastor Terry talked about this at the Men’s retreat and Paul having his Thorn that kept bothering him but it reminded him of God and God’s greatness. Certain times in my life I felt I could relate to that so well especially with my back stuff. I want to make sure I always come back to that.

February 17, 2010

Well here I am in the dark in my host families bedroom writing on my computer. Today is Wednesday and I got here two days ago. My host family is wonderful. They live in a really nice house for Uganda standards but it has no running water and electricity about 6 hour a day. Good luck on planning which 6 hours they are. Mr. and Mrs. Katamaba are so hospitable it is amazing. I am going to save most of the stories for the Video blog but overall it is great! I have been trying to get used to showering with a bucket filled with water. You would think pouring it on over your head would be most logical but it isn’t. It wasn’t the water and you don’t have much… The most efficient (so glad I am an Industrial Engineer) is to put your hands in the bucket and grab some water and place a little on you at a time. Rub it around and then do it all over again in another spot. Most Ugandans use soap but I am trying not to use much because I don’t have enough water to get it off. I guess my method isn’t the most efficient because Ugandans use the soap and get it off while using less water.

In my family there is Mr. and Mrs. Katamba, Faith and Caroline. Faith is 22 years old and graduated high school. Speaks relatively good English and does most of the chores around the house. Caroline is 14 and in school right now. I thought I had it hard but she goes to school for 8 hours initially and then goes back for a 3 hour study session after doing some chores around the home… I thought I had it tough growing up… Not to mention she does that 6 days a week!!! In addition to learning Ugandan do’s and don’ts the kids will answer my questions pretty honestly, which is nice. Especially because it is rude to be direct here. I hope I don’t make too many people mad…

The food we eat is wonderful. Matokee is the main Ugandan dish and it is a plantain/banana dish that is mashed like mashed potatoes. We normally put beans on it to add some flavor because it is bland by itself. Ugandans normally eat a huge lunch around 1 and a huge dinner at 10 pm… No breakfast. What! That goes against my 5 small meals a day to keep my metabolism down. Fortunately for me Mrs. Matamba wakes up early to make me a Pourage (really thin oatmeal style dish). I really like it and she has lots of fruit too. Lots of fresh flavorful bananas and also Jackfruit which is a juicy fruit that I can only relate to something like cantaloupe but more flavorful.

February 12, 2010

I am sitting here in my bedroom. We have had a long day of training in our compound that we eat, sleep, play soccer, and learn. It doesn’t feel like we are in Uganda because we haven’t gone outside these walls since we arrived from the airport last night. The entire staff of Peace Corps Uganda overwhelmed us with their greetings at the airport. It was really nice to see so many smiling faces greeting us and made us feel special.

We are really bonding with the all of the volunteers. There are 29 of us and everyone gets along really well. Even though it is only 3 days into this we are with each other every hour of the day so I feel like I know them better than that. A few of us were talking about how it is going to be sad when we have to go to our posts because we won’t be together and it will get real lonely. Since we are all together all the time my extrovert qualities are coming out more because towards the end of my time in San Fran I felt like I was becoming more of an introvert. I guess I was just ready to come to Uganda.

I learned that as of today I am going to be a Secondary School Math Teacher. I am going to be teaching math to kids that are in 6^th – 8^th grade. The class sizes are anywhere from 60 – 100 students! When I originally applied the Business Development Program of the Peace Corps and was accepted to Teach math I was not excited and almost didn’t accept my invitation because I was set on business. But now I am here I am set on teaching and more excited about that. Supposedly Business Development doesn’t have much structure and with teaching math I will have spare time to do business development on the side. I can’t wait to get out there.

Finally one thing I heard is the if you aren’t emotionally unstable coming into the Peace Corps you definitely will bee going out… Right now is an emotional high with meeting all these like-minded individuals that want to change the world. I look forward to what God has for me next….