My first two weeks in country were...surreal. I ate well (mostly). I slept well (mostly). The only insects I saw were outside (mostly) where they belong. Everything ran like clockwork (mostly). The temperature was lovely and breezy (mostly). There was time to relax (mostly). There was electricity (mostly). There were flush toilets and running water (always). And the whole time, I kept thinking, "Wow! Uganda is so different from Ghana! I barely recognize this continent!"
And then, my friends, the third week came. We moved from our little training sanctuary to a Primary Teacher's College a couple of hours away. We are here to apply the teaching skills we acquired in training. We teach at either the teacher's college or the nearby primary school (elementary school) every day from about 7:30-1:00, We then we come "home," eat lunch, have training sessions in the afternoon, meet with mentor groups, eat dinner, and prepare to teach the next day.
It's hot here. It's, "Oh, yeah, I live on the equator" hot. The water only works every other day or so, which makes bathing and flushing tricky/non-existent. The toilets where we sleep are Turkish (squat toilets) and the toilets during the day at the school are pit latrines (a cement hole in the ground). The schedule is, well, on Ugandan time. Meals are sometimes an hour late and quite a bit short of food. The little things in life that I took for granted at our last locale, like the ability to put salt on our food, are gone. Instead of one roommate, I have six. All of us share one outlet, and sleeping has become a difficult endeavor. The other day, a cockroach fell from the table and onto my lap. I'm one of the lucky few who does not have cockroaches and/or ants crawling all over the clothes in
my closet.
There's been an emotional shift this week as well. I've been teaching in a P2 classroom, which means teaching students who are at the end of first grade. Typically, students in Uganda don't learn English until the fourth grade. Luckily, these students are advanced and understand some of what I've been saying, but it has definitely been a challenge. The days have been long and exhausting. Another one of us chose to go home this week.
It's been a hard week. I've found myself chuckling and saying, "Oh, THERE you are, Africa!" I knew it couldn't hide for long.
Reading this is good for me. I should stop complaining about the little annoyances in my life, so thanks for that! The toilets would probably be my most hated aspect. I can't even imagine! I suppose your thighs will be nice and strong.. I'm glad you're "finally" in the classroom. I'm so excited for those kids to have you, what a blessing. I know this week was hard, so it's a good thing you're so strong. Love you and miss you!
ReplyDeleteI love you, Noey. :)
DeleteScratch that! I just made the mistake of looking in my closet after dark and there are roaches in there. Lots if them. And I killed one on my bed today. And there's a mouse running around in here.
ReplyDeleteyo!! So I finally read all your blog posts today. Lot's to ketchup on! I have to say, the training locale sounded too good to be true when I was reading what you were eating (mangoes and watermelon: "that actually sounds good," I kept thinking). You have an awesome assignment! (too much focus on math and computers anyway; #humanitiesrule;sciencedrools). I also enjoyed reading your older posts about your reasons for joining PC in the first place. On that note, on my mission I had to remind myself many times why I was out serving. When I did, I'd remember, "you can only do this for two years and then you'll NEVER get to do this ever again." That thought ALWAYS motivated me to push through whatever struggles I was having (and, those struggles are always dwarfed by the sweet memories that surround them). So.... I love you. You're awesome. I'm proud of you and proud to be your brother. Muzungu represent! (do they call you Muzungu?!).
ReplyDeleteGood morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Uganda? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Uganda in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez