The First Real Day

I wake up at dawn – no choice really with all the noise of the roosters and the village starting their day. I look out my window to see a girl sweeping the dirt outside as another washes dishes. I go outside and just soak in the morning. Chickens walk across the yard pecking or food. Festus is surprised to wee me awake so early.

Since I missed the shower last night, he asks a girl to boil some water to bring to the shower for me. Which is really a small room with a concrete floor and two plastic tubs on the ground. I missed the hot and cold water – just a little because I know what it costs to get it and soap up with the travel soap I brought. I wish I would have just brought all my soap and shampoo – I forgot a washcloth.

I feel so happy living like this.. and guilty that I might just be finding novelty in this way of life. But the Ugandan are happy too.

I count my money to find out that the exchange place robbed me out of 100,450 Shillings (about $58) – I was so stupid not to count it right there, but I was overwhelmed with the amount of 10,000 Ush bills I was getting and wanted to put them away as soon as possible. The woman handed me a receipt and everything and the whole time a security guard stood outside with a rifle. It was a lesson learned the hard way.. so after the 609,000 Ush I need to pay Festus, I have 54,000 I can spend for the next month and a half. ($31) Maybe I can do it .. I only spent 30 cents today..

After a breakfast of bread and butter (which I was happy for because I never have room for the other meals) Jeff, Kelley and I leave for the 9am meeting in Ntenjeru – the larger village where the Volset office is located.

This boda boda passes us with the biggest fish I have ever seen in my entire life. It looked like a giant bass the size of a baby dolphin. It just lies over the back of the scooter, getting covered in dust and giggling a little with each bump in the road.

People stare at me – especially kids. People here say “bye: instead of “hi”.. mostly I guess as you walk by down the road. A lot of the kids know Jeff and greet him in Luanda and he answers back with short conversations. I can’t wait to know what much.

At the Volset office I meet Erin, who is the Peace Corp volunteer assigned to this area. She’s from East Washington State. At these meetings the volunteers talk about the projects their thinking of instituting and then go about it. Jeff is hanging mosquito nets in the remote parts of the villages, Kelley is working on health. I am going to work on the Volset website – making it attractive and easily navigable with sorties from volunteers and photos and profiles on the different children who need sponsors to continue sin school. I ‘m going to try to find a sponsor to pay for the website.

I mention that I want to teach so after the meeting Erin takes me to the Ntenjeru Parent High School to meet the headmaster – I was immediately given as many classes as I wanted. I’m starting out only teaching in the mornings. I find out next Friday my exact schedule and what classes I’m going to teach. They have Fine Arts, which I think is excellent. John, the headmaster, shows us some fabric- that at first we think are art supplies – but really they are fabric that the kids designed with stencils and ink, they looked so professional and each kid invented their own patterns. We are so impressed and John is very pleased that we are. Erin is starting a Life Skills program at the school to teach about HIV and how girls can be assertive when talking to their boyfriends – pretty cool. I go with Erin to the Unique Standard High School to meet with the Headmaster so she can institute the same program over there.

Then we eat lunch with Festus. I get a bottle of Fanta citrus soda. Earlier one of the villagers was drinking a Sprite beside me on a bench and asked me they have them in America. Ha. I told him yes, but all the bottles are in plastic.

There is a half naked boy in the market where I went with Lydia to buy Matooke for dinner. The baby didn’t know what to think.

Erin taught me some basic Luanda today and I use it now non-stop, to every villager’s delight. They love that a Muzungo is trying to speak Luanda.

Ugandans are so friendly and welcoming, so sincere. Handshakes are never quick, but slow with eye contact. “You are so welcome,” they say, so polite. They love to hear that I am Mulinde from the dog clan.

Festus and I go to the primary school he is building. There are workers mixing cement and placing bricks and digging a latrine. There is a guy about 30 feet down an exact rectangular hole, digging deeper (it has to be at least 50 feet deep.)

Dan gives me some sugar cane. Him and other workers teach me how to eat it. Festus comes around the corner and says, “Now you are a true Ugandan!”

Festus is going to use this school to teach primary school children basic studies, but also vocational training. Adults will be able to take classes here as well.

I ride back to the White House on a boda boda sandwiched between two Ugandans. People started and laughed from their yards to see the Muzungo on a boda boda.

I get to meet Ronnie, Jeff’s friend that is a boda boda driver. He is helping him drive to small villages to hang mosquito nets. He hangs them himself because otherwise the people might use them for other things like curtains of fishing nests or turn around and sell them for extra cash.

Ten Irish people arrive. They are supposedly with a program that takes young adults who have had problems with the law or who have been in jail, and do some service projects after they get out so they realize they can be useful and do good. They are here for 12 days I think. They are going to help build the school. It was so neat to see the Ugandans work on the school today, mixing concrete with their bare feet.

I have only been here for a day longer than the Irish, but I feel like I’ve been here forever and that they are new, when I am just as new myself.

Tomorrow I’m going with Jeff and Ronnie out to really remote villages to hang nets.

I need to poop, but I don’t have a flashlight and the latrine is a hole in the ground. I haven’t gone number two yet in Uganda.. I’m sure it will be an adventure. Probably just like when I was camping in New Mexico. All the latrines had red shingles o they were called “Red Roof Inns.” Some had two toilets next to each other – “pilot to co-pilot” or back to back – “pilot to bombardier.”

So much has happened today. I feel like I have been here a week already I can’t believe I only left Florida three days ago.

I didn’t take any photos today. I have three months and if you bring a camera you experience everything once removed from the situation by a lens.

I hope to take thousands of photos. Everywhere I looked today I saw photos.

Jeff is outside playing guitar. Kellie is in Jinja tonight – she is visiting a child she sponsors for school. I want to wake up early and take photos tomorrow . I hope the dust isn’t a problem. Everything here is stained red and orange with Clay.