Sorry for my incredibly bad job at keeping up with this blog, the past week was pretty crazy. So! we left for western uganda last sunday in a very small and very crowded "taxi" which is really just a van. luckily i had many a song ot listen to on my ipod as well as monty python and the holy grail on a friends Ipod so of course it was a pretty great 5 hour journey to Mbarara Uganda. Plus, there were many cookies and chocolate involved which is always key. (I am really missing my daily pints of Ben and Jerrys ice cream though...hint hint, wink wink for when i return hehe) When we arrived in Mbarara we went to visit the Millenium Village Project, which are various villages across africa that are designed to achieve the millenium development goals. it was an interesting trip because they seemed to be doing so much good and really gettting alot done and the community seemed to be working hard on their own. but at the same time it was a strange concept because it almost felt like these communities were just a giant human experiment and the even stranger thing was those in charge of MVP really had to exit strategy or final measurable goal which i was not really into. We then went to a refugee camp but it was a very dissapointing trip because we were supposed to be able to talk to the refugees and finally get africans stories first hand instead of just hearing the same repetitive lectures everyday. but then unfortunately the Uganda government changed their rules about when visitng hours were and failed to inform us of that so we couldnt talk to any of the refugees after a 2 hours drive there. not cool. one thing that alot of the SIT students have been battling with is how we are doing all these really cool site visits, but it jsut feels like we are spectators or tourists and intruders and these peoples lives instead of learning from them or being activly engaged in the work they are doing. today we had a meeting with the dean of SIT whose in charge of all the africa and middle east programs so it was good we got to voice alot of our concerns about the program.
but back to the excursion!
While in Mbarara we watched Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April. Ive always loved the movie Hotel rwanda and i believe that was my third time watching, but after watching Sometime in April it really shed light on how hotel rwanda was sooooo hollywood and sometimes a little too dramatic or just after being in rwanda and hearing peoples stories it just really didnt give what actually happened much justice. and even though every time i watch that movie im disturbed, it still barely covers the absolute horrific events that took place for months and months and months and so forth. I liked sometimes in april because it seemed to cover more of what happened in rwanda as opposed to just at one hotel (but i guess the point of hotel rwanda was to focus on the milles collines so really how can i complain too much?). the only frustrating thing about watching sometimes in april was the movie kept on skipping what seemed to be very important parts of the story because the disk was badly scratched, but hopefully we'll get to watch the full version sometime and i bet we will view it even more differently after actually being in rwanda. which in itself was so strange.
so on tuesday we drove to rwanda. again, a very long car ride with many songs naps and cookies along the way. one of my favorite parts of the whole trip was just crossing the border from uganda to rwanda since i had never crossed a border before on foot! once in rwanda, it was literally the most beautiful place id ever seen. it was very ecuador like, but still there was just something so breath taking about it (dont worry i have many a picture, but am still having issues with uploading them on the computer). then we passed by many wetlands that have these crazy strange dr. seuss like plants that are very tallk green stalks with like the head of a peakock on top (big green fuzzy ball things) and all i could think about what how in sometimes in april, those marshes were literally where people lived for days on end to hide and thats when the reality of being in Rwanda set in. every where we went all i could think of was "oh, is that person tutsi?" "was that person a hutu?" "were they here for the genocide?" and so on and so on. it was just such a strange eerie feeling. the weirdest part of all was the main city of Kigali. Kampala is such a crowded, overwhelming, dusty, always traffic jammed, crazy busy, trash everywhere city, and Kigali was EXACTLY the opposite. There were traffic lights, there were crosswalks, there was no trash ANYWHERE, the drivers and even the passengers on the motorcycles or "boda bodas" (which are mad dangerous in kampala) were ALL wearing helmets and following traffic laws...such craziness, i know. it was just so weird that after all that the city of Kigali, let alone the entire country of Rwanda, went through and is STILL going through because of the genocide and just so much hate, that the city is doing far better than the capital of Uganda. it almost felt fake for some reason.
our next two days in kigali consisted mostly of visiting genocide memorial sites. the first one we went to was more of a museum. it was right in Kigali and there were three exhibits to go through. the first one was a history of the countless genocides that have taken place within the 20th century. All the information was a little overwhelming, especially since i felt like a total idiot that I didn't know about half of these genocides around the world that had happened. the second exhibit was the biggest and it focused solely on the rwandan genocide. from tis history to post-conflict, reconciliation. i already knew alot of the information they gave at the museum, but it was the images, videos of rwandans stories, and these three rooms that really just made it so much more real because the exhibit literally tried to put a face to the genocide. one of the three rooms were just walls and walls and walls of pictures of those who were killed in the genocide. men, women, elders, children, teenagers. i felt like we all tried to hard to go through every picture in the room, but after two walls you just couldn't look at each one anymore cause your head started to hurt or you felt as though you weren't giving each picture the time they deserved so instead many of us just sat down in the room for a bit. the next room were about five cases of skulls and various other bones and it just felt so weird to look at them and that they were on display because the last exhibit was putting a face to the genocide, but this part felt as though all these bones were just numbers and numbers of faceless people, but maybe i just wasn't able to effectively put those pictures to the bones, which in itself is a little overwhelming, but little did i know at the time that displays such as those get much worse and more intense (as i found out the following day). the last room was clothing hung from the ceiling so it looked as though there were people in these cases, but there were no bodies. that was the creepiest room for me because i felt as though there were all these ghosts or something looking at me since they looked like real people, but they were just clothing. the last part of the exhibit was the worst. it was a a hallway of huge pictures of individual infants and toddlers who had been killed in the genocide with information such as name, age, favorite food/activity, last memory, and how they were killed. it was just picture after picture and that exhibit upset me the most because you forget so easily at how children were treated and killed in the genocide. one interesting story that was in the second exhibit and i don't remember what made me think of this or how to analyze it, but i feel as though i should say what she said. it might have been about why people didn't do anything to stop it or why/how rwandans could kill rwandans when they have the same language, the same culture, they are such the same people, but still this happened, and the young women (maybe 20 years old?) said she thought that 90% of the population was just evil, 5% were neutral, and 5% were good and that's how she explained how this happened.
there was also exhibits outside that were mass graves but we didn't get enough time to really explore that part of the museum which was a bummer since it felt way more peaceful outside and you could process everything on your own more. a lot of the students talked a lot about how we felt as though we were being asked to compartmentalize so much of our experience not only in Rwanda, but in Uganda. We were given 30 minutes to look at this exhibit and deal with it, 10 minutes to walk around this mass grave, 20 minutes to be carted to another genocide site, and it was just all so disconnected when we al know how interconnected it all was. very frustrating position to be in.
that night we had a "processing session" which we're all still not really sure what it's supposed to entail, but basically it was just a set time where we all at down around a table and were supposed to just talk about our experience that day at the genocide. it was very forced unfortunatley but it ended up being an all right discusion, but we were all just exhausted cause it was 8:30 at night after a long day of traveling and intense stuff. i started off just saying how i had spoken to a man at the museum and he asked me why i was in africa and i said i wanted to learn about what it's really like here and he seemed to be very pleased that i wanted to learn from them and kept saying how we can learn alot from rwandans or africans in general. then he asked what we were doing while in rwanda and i explained we were mostly just going to genocide memorial sites and were supposed to go to a prison but that got cancelled. he said he wished we wouldn't just focus on the genocide and more on where Rwanda is now. Because even though the genocide is such a big part of Rwanda there is still alot of other aspects to the country which is totally valid after i said that we just talked alot about how we were ashamed of the west and many people were just so angry at how the "international community" acted. we also talked about how its so mind-boggling that this just keeps happening again and again and again. luckily, our academic director Charlotte is a brilliant lady and was a great facilitator in the discussion and kind of brought many of us back to reality in terms of how you really can't apportion blame because that's 1. not the point and 2. still doesn't truly resolve anything, which was a breath of freah air when many people were just on a major guilt trip slash anger rant, which is also valid at the same time. im totally for venting. we also learned that its rude now to ask someone if their hutu or tutsi and if you do ask them they will just say I'm Rwandan.
the next day we went to two more memorial sites outside of Rwanda but these were actual places where the genocide occurred and hundreds of thousands of people were killed. both places were churches but the first one was alot bigger than the second. i think somewhere around 15,000 people were killed there, but it could also be more than that. The church was preserved and the second you walked in this damp heavy feeling just took over. there were church benches everywhere pilled up with the clothes of those who were killed. all the clothes were covered in a damp mat of what looked like red clay. there were bullet holes throughout the entire tin roof. the moment we realized what atrocities took place there and how real it was, was when our guide abruptly pointed out that the faint stains on the alter cloth at the front of the church were drenched in blood. that really set the tone. at the back of the church was a little alcove where they apparently hide all the children there so that when the interhamwe would throw grenades into the church it would miss them. but apparently they were all still slaughtered and we were showed that there were stains on the walls where the children had been smashed against and that is how they were killed. again, how children were treated in the genocide is what disturbs me the most. we then went downstairs to a tomb like area where bones and skulls were on display as well as some of the tools used to carry out the killings. in the bottom of the encasement was one coffin where they had chosen to bury this women so they'd be able to tell the story of how she was killed. this women was young and also pregnant and they raped her then killed her, then tried to pull the fetus out of her from the bottom up, which i really can't go into any more detail than that because it is unimaginable. what i learned the most from the various memorial sites is how differently all these people were killed. it wasn't just machetes or guns it was soooo many ways both physically and mentally of torturing these people. some were thrown under piles of dead bodies, some were chained for days as they slowly chopped them away, some were rapped systematically and men who were known to have hiv/aids were the main perpetrators of the those cases, some were thrown into pit latrines many feet below ground while more and more people were piled onto them in the dark sewage pits. some were killed by hand. most were killed by their neighbors.
the second church was basically the same deal. the reason why so many of the genocide memorial sites in rwanda are churches is because that is where people went for refuge, but even the people they trusted most, such as the priests, turned their backs on them and killed. not to say though that there were not countless others who stood up and tried to stop the segregating and the killings at the expense of their own lives. again, the most chilling and disturbig part was when we went into a small childrens room at the second church and there was this huuuuugeee stained blob on the wall. im pretty sure i don't need to explain where it came from.
after that we were carted away to buy african fabric in the market...like i said, so compartmentalized. i did get some pretty sweet fabric though and can't wait to make many a dress and skirt out of them. i also had ice cream for the first time since ive been away and it was a glorious experience and only 50 cents! awesome. crossing the border back to Uganda though might have been the highlight of the trip. there was clearly a big storm a bruin and after handing in our declaration of departure from rwanda we had to walk across to the uganda side. as we were walking across though you could blatantly see a sheet of rain coming from behind us at an alarming rate. all of a sudden rwandans, ugandans, and i don't knwo who else were sprrriiiinnting across the border to reach the visa house and they all started yelling at us "muzungu run!!!!! muzungus run run!" so of course we did what we were told and it was SO MUCH FUN. ooohhh my lord. i felt like i was in a movie or something idk it was just ridiculous and fun AND, best of all, we beat the rain just as we got into the shelter. unfortunately though we had to go back out into the flood to get into the taxi and continue on the journey, so after all that running (and believe, it was alot considering ive done virtually NO exercise since ive been here) we still ended up getting soaked. o well! after rwanda we had a few more nights in western uganda. We went to Queen Elizabeth national park. saw some elephants next to the road just as we were arriving. went on a boat safari saw a bazillion birds, some crocodiles (shout out to sean, don't worry i took a pic of the first one i saw and named it sean naturally), buncha buffalos who decided it would be appropriate to "relieve themselves" quite vividly as we passed by. bunch of hippos that scared the blank out of me (apparently they're the most dangerous animal in africa), some warthogs, these animals that are basically gazelles and so beautiful and glorious and i want to be one so badly. unfortunately though we didn't see ANY lions on our 5 am safari (epic fail). but o well. still was a good trip. we also saw another development project site that was very environmentally inclined and all about conversing the envs and using traditional medicines and jewelry and making livelihoods out of that to finance the local children's education. it was a really cool system and it felt so genuine which was a nice change from some of the projects and lectures about development that we've had. it really reminded me of the reserve i stayed on in ecuador for two weeks.
then a long 7 hour drive back to kampal. yay cookies and dance parties (and acapella! shout out to mah q-notes, i got a fellow SIT students to literally listen to ALL our songs and thoroughly enjoy them as well haha).
photos still to come. so sorry for the delay.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
SPOTTED!....The Hunger Project!! Whooooooo
SO! The most exciting thing happened on friday while we were at the Jeliza hotel for the night. As I walked through the parking lot of a random hotel in Kampala, Uganda, whose company car did I see but THE HUNGER PROJECT UGANDA....WHAT????!!???? I am so amped. I was running around, trying to hug the car, wanted to take a pic in front of it but sadly noone had their camera on them. My friend Tim suggested I wake up early and stalk the hunger project people down and convince them to take me with them haha.
For those of you who are wondering what in the world I am talking about, The Hunger Project is an EPIC non-profit organization that works in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America to give communities the tools to empower themselves to end their own hunger and poverty on their own terms. Aka coolest organization ever. In the U.S. there is another incredible organization called Feel Good! Where across the country on college campuses students are social entrepreneurs and sell gourmet grilled cheeses where 100% of the profits go to the sustainable ending of chronic persistent world hunger IN OUR LIFETIME....yea. i know. At UVM Feel Good we partner with The Hunger Project so we invest in them, while FG World and others (like you) invest in us! Just to give you an idea of our impact, if we sell two sandwiches or $8 we end someones hunger for a year. Guess how many we sell typically in a day? I'd liiikke to say near 100. (hehe) Feel Good itself has raised almost a million dollars for the sustainable end of hunger sicne 2005...check us out at feelgoodworld.org and join the movement!
Now that I'm done with my Feel Good/Hunger Project schpeel, hopefully you get an idea of why I was so excited when I saw THP in Kampala. Now what's even MORE exciting is that for the last 6 weeks of my time in Uganda each student does their "practicum" which is basically liek a senior thesis (oy) with any organization they want, on any topic related to Uganda and development they want. So ooobbviouslly THP was first on my list. Yesterday I met with our Academic Director, Charlotte, to talk about potential study ideas. She (luckily) really like the various ideas I came up with for THP and said they'd be doable so now she just needs to pull those strings to get me in there!
Some of the ideas were...
For the last idea the reason it popped up there was because since I've been here my homestay family and even some of the academic lecturers from the University that speak to us have been saying "Oh you can't stave in Uganda." "There's no hunger in Uganda, BUT we have a huge nutrition problem." And 1. I've been like WHAT? are you serious?! No way. and 2. I've been very confused because 70% of those employed in Uganda are in the agricultural sector, but that sector has been declining significantly and is now only 40% of the GDP of the country so how in the world can there be "no hunger" in Uganda, especially if there's a "huge" nutrition problem, since i feel as though they are both so interconnected! I was thinking maybe they just each define hunger differently or I was wondering where this nutrition problem stems from. Is it because of their culture? Meaning they don't eat certain foods so their deficient in some nutrients and what not? OR is there a nutrition problem because these people lack ACCESS to certain foods? If the latter is the case than that problems stems from the same root cause as hunger...poverty! We also had another lecturer yesterday who said that the median voter in Uganda only has two meals a day, if that. I spoke with my academic director about the contradictions I keep hearing and she said that it really depends on who you are talking to and what their standing is. For example, if you talk to someone who has food on their kitchen (like my family) than they'll probably say there's no hunger. She also said that it depends on the "magnitude" of hunger we are talking. I sort of agreed with her on that, but at the same time my gut was like well hunger of any kind still dimineshes the human spirit so people can't reach their potential in the human family, so iiiiiii don't know. Hopefully my practicum will allow me to get some concrete answers and figure out why there seems to be such a perception that it's impossible to starve in Uganda when poverty is so prevalent?
....If you come up with any other ideas please let me know! And HOPEFULLY everything will work out! If I don't work with The Hunger Project I was also thinking of working with dance organizations to see how dance, like grassroots soccer, can be used as a tool to educate children about health and HIV/AIDS, as well as a tool for therapy since a lot of children were either affected by the civil unrest in the North or the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
ALSO! I've been telling eeevvverryonnnee on my trip about Feel Good and so my goal by the end of the trip is to have my fellow SIT peeps start their own chapters whooooo. So far two girls from GW seem kinda interested but hopefully I can recruit a few more (Corin they'll be gettin' in contact with you hopefully!)
For those of you who are wondering what in the world I am talking about, The Hunger Project is an EPIC non-profit organization that works in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America to give communities the tools to empower themselves to end their own hunger and poverty on their own terms. Aka coolest organization ever. In the U.S. there is another incredible organization called Feel Good! Where across the country on college campuses students are social entrepreneurs and sell gourmet grilled cheeses where 100% of the profits go to the sustainable ending of chronic persistent world hunger IN OUR LIFETIME....yea. i know. At UVM Feel Good we partner with The Hunger Project so we invest in them, while FG World and others (like you) invest in us! Just to give you an idea of our impact, if we sell two sandwiches or $8 we end someones hunger for a year. Guess how many we sell typically in a day? I'd liiikke to say near 100. (hehe) Feel Good itself has raised almost a million dollars for the sustainable end of hunger sicne 2005...check us out at feelgoodworld.org and join the movement!
Now that I'm done with my Feel Good/Hunger Project schpeel, hopefully you get an idea of why I was so excited when I saw THP in Kampala. Now what's even MORE exciting is that for the last 6 weeks of my time in Uganda each student does their "practicum" which is basically liek a senior thesis (oy) with any organization they want, on any topic related to Uganda and development they want. So ooobbviouslly THP was first on my list. Yesterday I met with our Academic Director, Charlotte, to talk about potential study ideas. She (luckily) really like the various ideas I came up with for THP and said they'd be doable so now she just needs to pull those strings to get me in there!
Some of the ideas were...
a. Go to different Epicenters of THP to compare how each ones geography, culture, past NGO experiences, and specific characteristics to their region influences their ability to keep on track with the THP 5 year self-reliant Epicenter program. What challenges do each face? What commonalities do each have? These epicenters are located in the southern part of the country from East to West.
b. Look at the “Animators” or change-agents that work for THP and determine what makes them each effective facilitators. Are they local? What is their educational background? How long have they been in that community? What personal characteristics do they each have? Are they all very similar or very different? Do they have different styles of facilitating empowerment? Which ones are more effective and why?
c. Focus on the commonalities of all the various epicenters in Uganda to prove the theory that we are all connected. We are the human family. How does the idea of being part of the human family influence peoples daily decisions as individuals? As communities? As global citizens? Does the THP program help such peoples to realize this connection and does it empower them?
d. Talk directly to The Hunger Project and ask them what they need someone to look at specifically so it can directly benefit their organization. Go from there. I think the director of THP Uganda used to be connected to SIT/World Learning.
e. I’ve heard from many people, including Prof. at SIT who say ,“there is no hunger in Uganda. No one starves, BUT there is a huge nutrition problem.” I could look at the difference between those two, what their root causes are, and above all conclude whether or not Uganda really has no “hungry” people since I find nutrition and hunger to be very interrelated.
For the last idea the reason it popped up there was because since I've been here my homestay family and even some of the academic lecturers from the University that speak to us have been saying "Oh you can't stave in Uganda." "There's no hunger in Uganda, BUT we have a huge nutrition problem." And 1. I've been like WHAT? are you serious?! No way. and 2. I've been very confused because 70% of those employed in Uganda are in the agricultural sector, but that sector has been declining significantly and is now only 40% of the GDP of the country so how in the world can there be "no hunger" in Uganda, especially if there's a "huge" nutrition problem, since i feel as though they are both so interconnected! I was thinking maybe they just each define hunger differently or I was wondering where this nutrition problem stems from. Is it because of their culture? Meaning they don't eat certain foods so their deficient in some nutrients and what not? OR is there a nutrition problem because these people lack ACCESS to certain foods? If the latter is the case than that problems stems from the same root cause as hunger...poverty! We also had another lecturer yesterday who said that the median voter in Uganda only has two meals a day, if that. I spoke with my academic director about the contradictions I keep hearing and she said that it really depends on who you are talking to and what their standing is. For example, if you talk to someone who has food on their kitchen (like my family) than they'll probably say there's no hunger. She also said that it depends on the "magnitude" of hunger we are talking. I sort of agreed with her on that, but at the same time my gut was like well hunger of any kind still dimineshes the human spirit so people can't reach their potential in the human family, so iiiiiii don't know. Hopefully my practicum will allow me to get some concrete answers and figure out why there seems to be such a perception that it's impossible to starve in Uganda when poverty is so prevalent?
Sunday, September 12, 2010
By Request...My Homestay!
I've officially been in my homestay for a week now and will be living here for another week before taking an exursion to the western part of Uganda and Rwanda (Whoo!). I think my family is well-off and at first I was afraid they weren't going to talk to me because at the meeting event at a hotel they didn't say very much to me at first. But then once we got home everyone talked to me a lot. The family is really big, but they don't all live in the house (pictures to come). There is Jaaja (mom/grandmother) and her husband but we don't talk much so I don't call him dad or grandad or even his first name which I think is Francis. They have five kids, but they're all grown up. I've only met three of them. One sister and one brother both live in the United States with children. The first sibling I met was Helen who is quite the character and speaks english much faster than I can understand sometimes. She is 29 and has a son in the U.S. (I think). She would normally be staying at the house, but her younger sister, Gloria who is 27, is expecting (she's due in November I think) and her husband Andrew who's really nice is away in China for the next 2 weeks, so Helen is staying with Gloria for the time being. Gloria and Andrew got married 3 years ago and live in Kololo. I live in Ntinda. I don't know what Gloria does, but Helen works as a risk assessment and compliance manager (or something like that). Andrew is a total tech nerd and works for some information technology company and is in love with everything Google. He loves his new iphone so much that he never writes anything down anymore, he just takes pictures of tickets or something on a board or a document from a meeting so he doesn't have to copy it. His wife, Gloria, says he keeps forgetting everything because his brain is turning to mush from not using it anymore because of the iphone.
My first night there I spoke alot with Andrew and the two sisters. Sometimes Jaaja and the sisters would start talking in Luganda and Andrew would translate for me. He talked to me the whooolleee time which was really nice. We talked about so you think you can dance and they think that Americans are the best dancers in the world which is pretty cool. We talked about t.v. shows, movies, Uganda, religion, their family, a whole bunch of stuff! I'm excited for when Andrew comes back from China cause he said Gloria and he would show me around the city and take me to contemporary church where they sing christian rock (like Camp Cherokee!) So I'm super pumped for that.
I have my own room, which is nice so I do get a lot of alone time but other than that I play a lot with Paula who is 6 and the daughter of one of the brothers in the U.S. She is absolutely crazy, but really nice too. Most of the time if I need to do work or read she leaves me alone. Last night was the only time I actually had to lock my bedroom door because she wouldn't leave when I was going to sleep. We started watching Monsters Inc. but haven't finished it yet.
There are also two housemaids, I always forget the girls name but she's my favorite person to talk to and helps me alot with my Luganda homework. And then the other is Freddie who I usually watch music videos with. Last night we watched a few Michael Jackson videos, which was awesome.
There's also Peace, one of the brothers, whose real name isn't really Peace, but apparently he was born during the war so his parents called him Peace. I barely even saw him for the first half of the week, but now we always eat together and talk sooooo so much. He is a talking machine and neeeever stops. Yesterday during dinner he was talking so much that he eventually realized I was dozing off cause it was late (Ugandans eat dinner late which stinks). I've showed the whole family all my pictures that I brought but he was the most animated when I showed them, especially the dance pictures. He just couldn't believe them. You would have to be there to get how animated he is about everything, but it's very entertaining. He also showed me his HUGE photo album yesterday at lunch.
All in all my homestays pretty good. I wish I would do more with them sometimes like go shopping or show me around, but I'm sure we will do that more at some point. Jaaja drives me to school every morning cause Paulas school is right near mine so I wake up at 6 am eeeeevverrydaayy ugh. The house is pretty nice and I'm definitely getting more used to the food. Lunch should be served soon which is good cause i'm staaarving.
My first night there I spoke alot with Andrew and the two sisters. Sometimes Jaaja and the sisters would start talking in Luganda and Andrew would translate for me. He talked to me the whooolleee time which was really nice. We talked about so you think you can dance and they think that Americans are the best dancers in the world which is pretty cool. We talked about t.v. shows, movies, Uganda, religion, their family, a whole bunch of stuff! I'm excited for when Andrew comes back from China cause he said Gloria and he would show me around the city and take me to contemporary church where they sing christian rock (like Camp Cherokee!) So I'm super pumped for that.
I have my own room, which is nice so I do get a lot of alone time but other than that I play a lot with Paula who is 6 and the daughter of one of the brothers in the U.S. She is absolutely crazy, but really nice too. Most of the time if I need to do work or read she leaves me alone. Last night was the only time I actually had to lock my bedroom door because she wouldn't leave when I was going to sleep. We started watching Monsters Inc. but haven't finished it yet.
There are also two housemaids, I always forget the girls name but she's my favorite person to talk to and helps me alot with my Luganda homework. And then the other is Freddie who I usually watch music videos with. Last night we watched a few Michael Jackson videos, which was awesome.
There's also Peace, one of the brothers, whose real name isn't really Peace, but apparently he was born during the war so his parents called him Peace. I barely even saw him for the first half of the week, but now we always eat together and talk sooooo so much. He is a talking machine and neeeever stops. Yesterday during dinner he was talking so much that he eventually realized I was dozing off cause it was late (Ugandans eat dinner late which stinks). I've showed the whole family all my pictures that I brought but he was the most animated when I showed them, especially the dance pictures. He just couldn't believe them. You would have to be there to get how animated he is about everything, but it's very entertaining. He also showed me his HUGE photo album yesterday at lunch.
All in all my homestays pretty good. I wish I would do more with them sometimes like go shopping or show me around, but I'm sure we will do that more at some point. Jaaja drives me to school every morning cause Paulas school is right near mine so I wake up at 6 am eeeeevverrydaayy ugh. The house is pretty nice and I'm definitely getting more used to the food. Lunch should be served soon which is good cause i'm staaarving.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Wise Words from Muna
So our wonderful Minister of Transport is named Muna and he ALWAYS has many words of wisdom to share with us SIT students so I feel like I should share the wisdom with all of you!
1. So the luckily we have a gorup of 17 where it isn't just 15 girls and 2 boys (like the last group). We have a pretty equal ratio of boys vs. girls so all the guys are referred to as "Generals" since they're basically in charge of making sure we ladies are always safe : ) yayyy BUT apparently the reason why Muna gave the guys the name "Generals" is because male Elephants are big (obviously) and tend to take care of the pack, especially since Elephants are really big into community and family (awww). So that's why the guys are the "Generals."
p.s. Muna LOVES animal metaphors for his wise words so get ready!!
One of our first nights here we had dinner at this awesome Indian food restaurant and this is where we learned how much Muna loves to share his words : )
2. When the waiter came around Muna said "I'll eat later" (which we later learned made sense since his Muslim and it was still Rahmadan at the time) so we were like "why aren't you eating" and he said "i am a bat!" "I only eat at night" and then made this really funny bat eating some fruit impersonation and it just ONLY got better from that point on at dinner...YES.
3. Then one of the students, Margie, made the mistake of asking Muna what some names of good Ugandan music artists were and he became silent..."I can't tell you that." And we were like "why not Muna??" Then he proceeded to explain how he doesn't listen to music or like music because it spoils your brain. That's all I really remember specifically about that rant but it did last about 20 minutes...maybe longer? Haha he kept having to start over because he thought we didn't understand him or agree even though we were like yes yes yes yes, but anyways it was definitely entertaining.
4. His next words of wisdom were sooo awesome and true! Basically he was talking about the idea of the ying-yang, how there's good and evil, and what not. He said that you need to take everyday as it comes. One day will be good, but the next will be bad. With good comes bad and with bad comes good so you just shouldn't worry about it because that's just the way it is! My friend Tim and I have decided that Muna is in fact, a ying-yang, which is pretty cool.
5. One day when we had class at Mekerere Univeristy we split up into small groups to brainstorm ideas for our group constitution and Muna sat with my group. He said that he had a VERY important rule for us to at to the constitution but he wanted to wait til we were done brainstorming before adding it. The concept was entitled "leave a mark." At first I was very confused when I heard this because when I hear leave a mark I think of the opposite, the girl scout motto "leave only footprints, take only pictures." so at first I was very skeptical but then he proceeded to ask one of us draw a snail (which only furthered our confusion) UNTIL he explained that when a snail moves its goo leaves a mark, a trail, and that we as students in a different country should always leave a mark. Meaning, if we go somewhere we should always let another student know so that they "leave a mark" and we all communicate and take care of one another! That piece of advice was the hit of the brainstorming session even of course.
6. How can an elephant eat a pineapple? Good question. You eat a pineapple like an elephant so if there's a hungry lion and a tree with many thorns would you rather face the lion or climb the tree? Answer: climb the thorny tree to live. Muna: YES so the elephant wants the pineapple so even though it's sharp on the outside it will still eat the pineapple because he wants it.
IN addition Muna was saying that you basically just need to be flexible in life. Don't always eawt with yours hands. If there is a fork then that's great, but if not use your hand as a tool. You will be seen as foolish if you are found dead from starvation because you didn't have a fork, but you did have your hands and other innovative ideas to eat the food.
7. These words of wisdom were alot like Stings glorious song if you love somebody set that free. Muna was saying how you can love someone or something too much because then you become blind to how it is or might be hurting you. For example, you see cute little monkeys everywhere in Uganda and you loooove love love them but then you dont realize that you're too close to one and then maybe they bite! which is no good!
8. My homestay is luckily really close to SIT so its a very short taxi ride home or about a 45 minute walk. But what's even better is that Muna is one of my neighbors! Whooo! So yesterday when we went as a class on a field trip to various cultural sites like the Uganda Museum and the Kings Palace (fancy i know) Muna just drove me home instead of having to take a taxi! So of course he had many wise words to share with me on this journey back to eka or home. First I asked what the last SIT group of students was like and at first he said "no one is holy" which in Muna talk means no one is perfect (that was another word of wisdom he gave previously in the ying-tang conversation) and then he started saying how funny we SIT students are because we complaaiinn and such things, which I can definitely see ahah. But then he got frustrated because apparently some SIT students would say they think they're homestay families only do it for the money (which is rather rude) because Muna way saying these families don't even need money. A lot of our homestay families are pretty well off so I can definitely see that, plus they all seem to be just incredibly hospitable and kind people (like all the other Ugandans I've met) so Muna was very upset when a student would say that since it blatantly isn't fair, which I totally agree with.
9. One his best pieces of wisdom though was that no matter what you (meaning SIT students) will learn so much or even at least something. He said some students may think oh I did not learn anything from this experience, but no matter what you will learn something valuable whether it's knowledge about a field, or just how to greet someone politely! Whether it's learning Luganda or learning how to take a taxi to and from school everyday. No matter what we will all come away with various insights and experiences that will stay with us forever sooo yay : )
That's all! Hope you enjoyed Muna's wise words of wisdom. I'm sure there will be more to come!
Sibabulungi! (have a nice day!)
1. So the luckily we have a gorup of 17 where it isn't just 15 girls and 2 boys (like the last group). We have a pretty equal ratio of boys vs. girls so all the guys are referred to as "Generals" since they're basically in charge of making sure we ladies are always safe : ) yayyy BUT apparently the reason why Muna gave the guys the name "Generals" is because male Elephants are big (obviously) and tend to take care of the pack, especially since Elephants are really big into community and family (awww). So that's why the guys are the "Generals."
p.s. Muna LOVES animal metaphors for his wise words so get ready!!
One of our first nights here we had dinner at this awesome Indian food restaurant and this is where we learned how much Muna loves to share his words : )
2. When the waiter came around Muna said "I'll eat later" (which we later learned made sense since his Muslim and it was still Rahmadan at the time) so we were like "why aren't you eating" and he said "i am a bat!" "I only eat at night" and then made this really funny bat eating some fruit impersonation and it just ONLY got better from that point on at dinner...YES.
3. Then one of the students, Margie, made the mistake of asking Muna what some names of good Ugandan music artists were and he became silent..."I can't tell you that." And we were like "why not Muna??" Then he proceeded to explain how he doesn't listen to music or like music because it spoils your brain. That's all I really remember specifically about that rant but it did last about 20 minutes...maybe longer? Haha he kept having to start over because he thought we didn't understand him or agree even though we were like yes yes yes yes, but anyways it was definitely entertaining.
4. His next words of wisdom were sooo awesome and true! Basically he was talking about the idea of the ying-yang, how there's good and evil, and what not. He said that you need to take everyday as it comes. One day will be good, but the next will be bad. With good comes bad and with bad comes good so you just shouldn't worry about it because that's just the way it is! My friend Tim and I have decided that Muna is in fact, a ying-yang, which is pretty cool.
5. One day when we had class at Mekerere Univeristy we split up into small groups to brainstorm ideas for our group constitution and Muna sat with my group. He said that he had a VERY important rule for us to at to the constitution but he wanted to wait til we were done brainstorming before adding it. The concept was entitled "leave a mark." At first I was very confused when I heard this because when I hear leave a mark I think of the opposite, the girl scout motto "leave only footprints, take only pictures." so at first I was very skeptical but then he proceeded to ask one of us draw a snail (which only furthered our confusion) UNTIL he explained that when a snail moves its goo leaves a mark, a trail, and that we as students in a different country should always leave a mark. Meaning, if we go somewhere we should always let another student know so that they "leave a mark" and we all communicate and take care of one another! That piece of advice was the hit of the brainstorming session even of course.
6. How can an elephant eat a pineapple? Good question. You eat a pineapple like an elephant so if there's a hungry lion and a tree with many thorns would you rather face the lion or climb the tree? Answer: climb the thorny tree to live. Muna: YES so the elephant wants the pineapple so even though it's sharp on the outside it will still eat the pineapple because he wants it.
IN addition Muna was saying that you basically just need to be flexible in life. Don't always eawt with yours hands. If there is a fork then that's great, but if not use your hand as a tool. You will be seen as foolish if you are found dead from starvation because you didn't have a fork, but you did have your hands and other innovative ideas to eat the food.
7. These words of wisdom were alot like Stings glorious song if you love somebody set that free. Muna was saying how you can love someone or something too much because then you become blind to how it is or might be hurting you. For example, you see cute little monkeys everywhere in Uganda and you loooove love love them but then you dont realize that you're too close to one and then maybe they bite! which is no good!
8. My homestay is luckily really close to SIT so its a very short taxi ride home or about a 45 minute walk. But what's even better is that Muna is one of my neighbors! Whooo! So yesterday when we went as a class on a field trip to various cultural sites like the Uganda Museum and the Kings Palace (fancy i know) Muna just drove me home instead of having to take a taxi! So of course he had many wise words to share with me on this journey back to eka or home. First I asked what the last SIT group of students was like and at first he said "no one is holy" which in Muna talk means no one is perfect (that was another word of wisdom he gave previously in the ying-tang conversation) and then he started saying how funny we SIT students are because we complaaiinn and such things, which I can definitely see ahah. But then he got frustrated because apparently some SIT students would say they think they're homestay families only do it for the money (which is rather rude) because Muna way saying these families don't even need money. A lot of our homestay families are pretty well off so I can definitely see that, plus they all seem to be just incredibly hospitable and kind people (like all the other Ugandans I've met) so Muna was very upset when a student would say that since it blatantly isn't fair, which I totally agree with.
9. One his best pieces of wisdom though was that no matter what you (meaning SIT students) will learn so much or even at least something. He said some students may think oh I did not learn anything from this experience, but no matter what you will learn something valuable whether it's knowledge about a field, or just how to greet someone politely! Whether it's learning Luganda or learning how to take a taxi to and from school everyday. No matter what we will all come away with various insights and experiences that will stay with us forever sooo yay : )
That's all! Hope you enjoyed Muna's wise words of wisdom. I'm sure there will be more to come!
Sibabulungi! (have a nice day!)
Monday, September 6, 2010
Let Classes Begin!
So yesterday, monday, classes officially started....yay!!! i always looove the first day back but oh my lord i had to wake up soooo early aka 6 am, but really i woke up at 5:15 because my house is right near this small mosque so around that time there was all this singing out of no where and i was so confused cause i couldn't figure out where it was coming rom, but now i like it cause they also ring at night for a long time since its rahmadan and its just so pretty to listen to!
It's really convenient because literally EVERYONE except me lives very far away from the SIT/World Learning classroom, whereas i live about a 5-10 minute drive away, and hopefully one day i can try walking it because it shouldn't take more than 45, but more likely around 30 minutes.
We have Luganda class every morning for two hours and it's soooo much fun. Yesterday we kept onlearning more greetings, both formal and informal. My new favorite greeting is "Ogamba ki" and then you respond by saying "si bubi" which is just so cute!! I'm definitely learning a lot more, but it's kind of hard to retain all of it so quickly especially since most people just speak English so you have to go out of your way to speak Luganda to them, but then usually they just laugh at you since they think it's funny you know a little Luganda. We have a really big proficiency test at the end of the 6 weeks in kampala so hopefully i'll get the phrases down better.
We then have various Deveclopment Studies Seminars and Field Study Seminars throughout the day. Most of the DSS seminars right now are just learning basic information about Uganda, such as the geography and ethnicity of the state, or history of Uganda. today we'll be learning alot about development studies which should be good. One of the Prof. yesterday was sooooooooo funny though! First of all he kept saying United State of "America" trying to impersonate the way George Bush says America. Also he went to univeristy at University of WIsconsin at Madison so he told us the story of his journey from Africa to Wisconsin and he said that when the plane landed the pilot said "Hello ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to inform you that we have landed in the Madison airport and it is currently NEGATIVE 20 DEGREES." Luckily the family that was hosting him for his stay in the U.S. brought a huge jacket for him. But we started talking about rivers, since the Nile river starts in Uganda and is the second largest in the world, and he knew a song about the Missouri River and then...just started singing it! But he was soooo good! Like just a beautiful voice I couldn't believe it! we then learned that he loooovesssss national anthems so then he sang the Ugandan anthem and i almost cried it was so good! And THEN he said the U.S.A.'s anthem, but didn't know all the words and just hummed it and he hit ALL those high notes so easily it was crazzy!! I wonder if he sings as a hobby cuz he was mad good.
It was definitely a long school day and there's a huge amount of time from breakfast to lunch so i was struggling soooo badly, but today i brought a little peanut butter sandwich that i am VERY excited about. The tea here is also sooo good its very milky and smooth and mmmm. just so good. But this morning my mom or Jjiji which means grandmother asked me if a brought a sweater because its cold out (i didn't) but it was just funny because its like spring weather and they consider that chilly.
I keep forgetting to upload pictures but I will soon! The one thing I forgot to bring was the connecter from my camera to the computer, but there are a few people who have the same connectors as me so i can just borrow them
ALSO! random news not related to Uganda! BUT I just heard from a few of my advisors and so im officially going to change my dual degree to be a Environmental Studies Major, and have two minors: Community and International Development, and Dance!!! Yayyyyyy
It's really convenient because literally EVERYONE except me lives very far away from the SIT/World Learning classroom, whereas i live about a 5-10 minute drive away, and hopefully one day i can try walking it because it shouldn't take more than 45, but more likely around 30 minutes.
We have Luganda class every morning for two hours and it's soooo much fun. Yesterday we kept onlearning more greetings, both formal and informal. My new favorite greeting is "Ogamba ki" and then you respond by saying "si bubi" which is just so cute!! I'm definitely learning a lot more, but it's kind of hard to retain all of it so quickly especially since most people just speak English so you have to go out of your way to speak Luganda to them, but then usually they just laugh at you since they think it's funny you know a little Luganda. We have a really big proficiency test at the end of the 6 weeks in kampala so hopefully i'll get the phrases down better.
We then have various Deveclopment Studies Seminars and Field Study Seminars throughout the day. Most of the DSS seminars right now are just learning basic information about Uganda, such as the geography and ethnicity of the state, or history of Uganda. today we'll be learning alot about development studies which should be good. One of the Prof. yesterday was sooooooooo funny though! First of all he kept saying United State of "America" trying to impersonate the way George Bush says America. Also he went to univeristy at University of WIsconsin at Madison so he told us the story of his journey from Africa to Wisconsin and he said that when the plane landed the pilot said "Hello ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to inform you that we have landed in the Madison airport and it is currently NEGATIVE 20 DEGREES." Luckily the family that was hosting him for his stay in the U.S. brought a huge jacket for him. But we started talking about rivers, since the Nile river starts in Uganda and is the second largest in the world, and he knew a song about the Missouri River and then...just started singing it! But he was soooo good! Like just a beautiful voice I couldn't believe it! we then learned that he loooovesssss national anthems so then he sang the Ugandan anthem and i almost cried it was so good! And THEN he said the U.S.A.'s anthem, but didn't know all the words and just hummed it and he hit ALL those high notes so easily it was crazzy!! I wonder if he sings as a hobby cuz he was mad good.
It was definitely a long school day and there's a huge amount of time from breakfast to lunch so i was struggling soooo badly, but today i brought a little peanut butter sandwich that i am VERY excited about. The tea here is also sooo good its very milky and smooth and mmmm. just so good. But this morning my mom or Jjiji which means grandmother asked me if a brought a sweater because its cold out (i didn't) but it was just funny because its like spring weather and they consider that chilly.
I keep forgetting to upload pictures but I will soon! The one thing I forgot to bring was the connecter from my camera to the computer, but there are a few people who have the same connectors as me so i can just borrow them
ALSO! random news not related to Uganda! BUT I just heard from a few of my advisors and so im officially going to change my dual degree to be a Environmental Studies Major, and have two minors: Community and International Development, and Dance!!! Yayyyyyy
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Culture Shock!
Sorry for not posting in a few days but since thursday its been caraaaazy busy going from place to place.
Thursday was the big "drop-off" day and we split up into groups of 3 for different categories and had to go out into Kampala and found out certain information. My group was entertainment, the national theatre, dance halls, cinema, and restaurants. I was super pumped to go to the National Theatre after seeing the movie "War Dance". Hopefully I can go see a bunch of shows since they're sooo inexpensive and the Uganda Contemporary Ballet performs every 2nd to last wednesday of the month. My friend Margie and I (who! very randomly knows one of Bradfords best friends, David Jensen, sooooo random) but we made a friend who is a student at Makerere University as a music student and he invited our group to basically start up an exchange program type thing with his dance and drum troupe which would be increddible. He also is a teacher for a kids dance and drum group called Children of Uganda (i believe) and they are apparently coming to NYC next fall to perform all over the city! There is also a really big festival of the arts coming up that is free and there's a film festival coming up in the end of October. We also found out that AT the University you can get a gym membership and workout, take aerobics classes, and dance classes so that's very good news.
The funniest thing though about Ugandans that we discovered are the following...
1. THey give extremely vague directions such as... "So what restaurant would you recommend?" "There are some good ones on Jinja Road" "Oh really? Where and what's the name?" "Oh you just go this way" and then they make a very twisted arm motion and you have really no idea what direction they are referring to ahha. There was one man we spoke to on how to get to the National Theatre who gave us the right directions except we discovered finally that when he told us left, he really meant right. It's also funny to just ask different people how to get to the same place and they all tell you different ways...of course, vaguely.
2. Everything takes muuuuuch longer than you think it's going to. For example, you can't just say hello in passing, you have to commit to like a 10-15 minute conversation with a stranger about various things. It is definitely true that Ugandans are such friendly hospitable people, but they are definitely on what we refer to as "Africa Time." One night our dinner at the hotel was supposed to start at 7 and it didn't get put out til 9:45 haha whoopsiee. I was fine though cause I just had someone awesome Skippy Peanut Butter. Another time for lunch we got the restaurant at 11:45 and were told the buffet would be ready soon, which translated as not ready til 1:15.
We found a good movie theatre, some dance halls, but not very restaurants since people never really told us a specific place they liked, whereas if you were in the U.S. someone would give you like 3 specific restaurants and then tell you exactly how to get there on a map, but again that's not reallllyyy fair to compare to Kampala since many of the roads just don't have names...they're really big into landmark directions with funny hand motions.
There were some other great stories that other SIT kids had on their "drop-off" experience. Two people, Erin and Jack, had to go around to the various markets and compare their prices and goods and what not. Jack found this cool watches being sold and the salesmen tried and tried and tried to sell him this one "automatic watch". Apparently Jack pointed out that the hand on the clock was moving and the main replied "oh! well you have to start walking away and THEN it starts working" Of course, Jack and everyone else who heard this story just assumed it was a trick to get him to buy a broken watch, but later someone told us that there is such a thing as automatic watches that start working once you move them around haha
Two other guys, Shreyas and Tim, had to go to the Police Stations and Hospitals and ooooh my lord their trip to the Central Ugandan Police Station is one of the most ridiculous stories I've ever heard. I probably won't remember everything so it might not be as good, but I'll try my best to re-tell it. THey went to the police station and just from the beginning all the police men were just very suspicious of htem being there 1. because they're these random white dudes all dressed up because guys always have to wear button up collared shirts in Uganda. But basically they just go trapsing around the police station trying to find the information desk. They get sent up to the top top floor which apparently ended up being a restricted area and the policemen up there didn't know how they got up there so they of course asked who they were and they said "SIT students" and they policemen just got even more suspiscious cause they had aaaabsotutely no idea what SIT was, so then they asked for I.D. and Tim didn't have any I.D. on him except his medical bracelet so he tried using that but that was just a joke and Shreyas had his Driver liscense but the policement came back over to him with and said "ok, it does say you're from the United States, but then right next to that it also says Georgia" which he clearly took as the COUNTRY Georgia not that state so they just weren't getting anywhere. Eventually after a huge crowd of Ugandan policemen had gathered they left and its a much longer story, but still just funny.
Yesterday, saturday, we went to the source of the Nile in Jinja, but I'll talk more about that once I upload pictures from it.
Thursday was the big "drop-off" day and we split up into groups of 3 for different categories and had to go out into Kampala and found out certain information. My group was entertainment, the national theatre, dance halls, cinema, and restaurants. I was super pumped to go to the National Theatre after seeing the movie "War Dance". Hopefully I can go see a bunch of shows since they're sooo inexpensive and the Uganda Contemporary Ballet performs every 2nd to last wednesday of the month. My friend Margie and I (who! very randomly knows one of Bradfords best friends, David Jensen, sooooo random) but we made a friend who is a student at Makerere University as a music student and he invited our group to basically start up an exchange program type thing with his dance and drum troupe which would be increddible. He also is a teacher for a kids dance and drum group called Children of Uganda (i believe) and they are apparently coming to NYC next fall to perform all over the city! There is also a really big festival of the arts coming up that is free and there's a film festival coming up in the end of October. We also found out that AT the University you can get a gym membership and workout, take aerobics classes, and dance classes so that's very good news.
The funniest thing though about Ugandans that we discovered are the following...
1. THey give extremely vague directions such as... "So what restaurant would you recommend?" "There are some good ones on Jinja Road" "Oh really? Where and what's the name?" "Oh you just go this way" and then they make a very twisted arm motion and you have really no idea what direction they are referring to ahha. There was one man we spoke to on how to get to the National Theatre who gave us the right directions except we discovered finally that when he told us left, he really meant right. It's also funny to just ask different people how to get to the same place and they all tell you different ways...of course, vaguely.
2. Everything takes muuuuuch longer than you think it's going to. For example, you can't just say hello in passing, you have to commit to like a 10-15 minute conversation with a stranger about various things. It is definitely true that Ugandans are such friendly hospitable people, but they are definitely on what we refer to as "Africa Time." One night our dinner at the hotel was supposed to start at 7 and it didn't get put out til 9:45 haha whoopsiee. I was fine though cause I just had someone awesome Skippy Peanut Butter. Another time for lunch we got the restaurant at 11:45 and were told the buffet would be ready soon, which translated as not ready til 1:15.
We found a good movie theatre, some dance halls, but not very restaurants since people never really told us a specific place they liked, whereas if you were in the U.S. someone would give you like 3 specific restaurants and then tell you exactly how to get there on a map, but again that's not reallllyyy fair to compare to Kampala since many of the roads just don't have names...they're really big into landmark directions with funny hand motions.
There were some other great stories that other SIT kids had on their "drop-off" experience. Two people, Erin and Jack, had to go around to the various markets and compare their prices and goods and what not. Jack found this cool watches being sold and the salesmen tried and tried and tried to sell him this one "automatic watch". Apparently Jack pointed out that the hand on the clock was moving and the main replied "oh! well you have to start walking away and THEN it starts working" Of course, Jack and everyone else who heard this story just assumed it was a trick to get him to buy a broken watch, but later someone told us that there is such a thing as automatic watches that start working once you move them around haha
Two other guys, Shreyas and Tim, had to go to the Police Stations and Hospitals and ooooh my lord their trip to the Central Ugandan Police Station is one of the most ridiculous stories I've ever heard. I probably won't remember everything so it might not be as good, but I'll try my best to re-tell it. THey went to the police station and just from the beginning all the police men were just very suspicious of htem being there 1. because they're these random white dudes all dressed up because guys always have to wear button up collared shirts in Uganda. But basically they just go trapsing around the police station trying to find the information desk. They get sent up to the top top floor which apparently ended up being a restricted area and the policemen up there didn't know how they got up there so they of course asked who they were and they said "SIT students" and they policemen just got even more suspiscious cause they had aaaabsotutely no idea what SIT was, so then they asked for I.D. and Tim didn't have any I.D. on him except his medical bracelet so he tried using that but that was just a joke and Shreyas had his Driver liscense but the policement came back over to him with and said "ok, it does say you're from the United States, but then right next to that it also says Georgia" which he clearly took as the COUNTRY Georgia not that state so they just weren't getting anywhere. Eventually after a huge crowd of Ugandan policemen had gathered they left and its a much longer story, but still just funny.
Yesterday, saturday, we went to the source of the Nile in Jinja, but I'll talk more about that once I upload pictures from it.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Survival Luganda!
Today was aaallll about Uganda, Buganda, Baganda, and Luganda....alot of gandas i know. Uganda = the country, Buganda = the region of central africa, Baganda = the culture/people of Buganda, and Luganda = their language...which we had our first lesson in today!
Here's some basics about Luganda!
Lesson 1: How to greet someone!
Sammy: oli otya ssebo (how are you sir?)
Mr. Buganda: gyendi nnyabo (fine madam)
Sammy: Mm (confirm)
Mr. Buganda: oli otya (how are you?)
Sammy: gyendi ssebo (fine sir)
Mr. Buganda: Mm
Sammy: Mm
If it's the morning you say: Wasuze otyanno? (how did you spend your night?)
" " rest of the day: ossibye otyanno? (how have you spent your day?)
Nze Samantha: I am Samantha
Ggwe Samantha: You are Samantha
Yee Samantha: She is Samantha
some funny key phrases that I thought were extremely entertaining as we mazumgoes aka white-people (also funny) wee all repeating this phrases extremely loudly at our hotel where many Ugandan people are and were probably making fun of us...here's why (i apologize if my humor doesn't come across, it's kinda of hard not in person BUT hopefully you'll see the humor in the situation)
my personal favorite go to while walking through the city...
Salina sente kubanga ndi muyizi aka I DON'T HAVE MONEY BECAUSE I AM A STUDENT
--> I don't really see how that excuse will get small children to stop begging for money, BUT you do see that excuse alot in the states
more great go to's for the mazungo's first time in africa are:
Ddamu mpola mpola: repeat slowly slowly
Ndeka : leave me alone
Sitegedde: I have not understood you
Nsonyiwa: forgive me (i will definitely be using that one maaaaannyy times)
It was a really fun lesson but at the same time a bit overwhelming cause they gave us like almost 50 words to know in order to survive a day in Uganda aka TOMORROW and we just learned it BUT i am definitely goona have my cheat sheet with me. The teachers were sooooo funny and awesome though and it was really fun. The language seems pretty straightforward and the spelling makes alot more sense once you've heard a few of the words, but it was just soo much information all at once it was a little crazy.
Incase you were wondering what in the world a mazungo is (and i'm totally spelling it wrong) but it's what ugandas call white-people and it's not a derrogatory word it's actually just really friendly and they're just identifying you as diffrent from them, but you shouldn't take it as an insult by any means. it's actually just really funny! The teachers will be like "be back in here in 5 mazungo minutes" which means on-time whereas Uganda time is alot like other countries, like Ecuador. Meaning, they're very flexible and are late but that's ok at least they arrived and such. For example! We were supposed to have dinner tonight at 7 Buuuuutt apparently we were on Uganda time and it wasn't served till about 9:45...whoops. LUCKILY i brought two jars of skippy peanut butter and had a decent amount of it which was glooooriouss.
Everyone in the group of 17 is really great. No ones really irked me in any way and everyones soooo different but just so friendly and wonderful...it's just like UVM!!!! : D
Anyways we also learned social etiquette and had a general in the Uganda ARMY come and give us a lecture on safety and security and THEN gave us HIS cell phone number AND the armys cell phone (happy dad? lol)
Weeraba! (goodbye!)
Sam
p.s. i can't decide whether to introduce myself as Sam or Samantha or Sammy. I've been tryin gout Sam and Samantha to see which one is easier for Ugandas to say, but surprisingly I think Sam is harder, but sometimes it's Samantha so maybe I should try out Sammy! ANyways that's really random but whaaatver!
Here's some basics about Luganda!
Lesson 1: How to greet someone!
Sammy: oli otya ssebo (how are you sir?)
Mr. Buganda: gyendi nnyabo (fine madam)
Sammy: Mm (confirm)
Mr. Buganda: oli otya (how are you?)
Sammy: gyendi ssebo (fine sir)
Mr. Buganda: Mm
Sammy: Mm
If it's the morning you say: Wasuze otyanno? (how did you spend your night?)
" " rest of the day: ossibye otyanno? (how have you spent your day?)
Nze Samantha: I am Samantha
Ggwe Samantha: You are Samantha
Yee Samantha: She is Samantha
some funny key phrases that I thought were extremely entertaining as we mazumgoes aka white-people (also funny) wee all repeating this phrases extremely loudly at our hotel where many Ugandan people are and were probably making fun of us...here's why (i apologize if my humor doesn't come across, it's kinda of hard not in person BUT hopefully you'll see the humor in the situation)
my personal favorite go to while walking through the city...
Salina sente kubanga ndi muyizi aka I DON'T HAVE MONEY BECAUSE I AM A STUDENT
--> I don't really see how that excuse will get small children to stop begging for money, BUT you do see that excuse alot in the states
more great go to's for the mazungo's first time in africa are:
Ddamu mpola mpola: repeat slowly slowly
Ndeka : leave me alone
Sitegedde: I have not understood you
Nsonyiwa: forgive me (i will definitely be using that one maaaaannyy times)
It was a really fun lesson but at the same time a bit overwhelming cause they gave us like almost 50 words to know in order to survive a day in Uganda aka TOMORROW and we just learned it BUT i am definitely goona have my cheat sheet with me. The teachers were sooooo funny and awesome though and it was really fun. The language seems pretty straightforward and the spelling makes alot more sense once you've heard a few of the words, but it was just soo much information all at once it was a little crazy.
Incase you were wondering what in the world a mazungo is (and i'm totally spelling it wrong) but it's what ugandas call white-people and it's not a derrogatory word it's actually just really friendly and they're just identifying you as diffrent from them, but you shouldn't take it as an insult by any means. it's actually just really funny! The teachers will be like "be back in here in 5 mazungo minutes" which means on-time whereas Uganda time is alot like other countries, like Ecuador. Meaning, they're very flexible and are late but that's ok at least they arrived and such. For example! We were supposed to have dinner tonight at 7 Buuuuutt apparently we were on Uganda time and it wasn't served till about 9:45...whoops. LUCKILY i brought two jars of skippy peanut butter and had a decent amount of it which was glooooriouss.
Everyone in the group of 17 is really great. No ones really irked me in any way and everyones soooo different but just so friendly and wonderful...it's just like UVM!!!! : D
Anyways we also learned social etiquette and had a general in the Uganda ARMY come and give us a lecture on safety and security and THEN gave us HIS cell phone number AND the armys cell phone (happy dad? lol)
Weeraba! (goodbye!)
Sam
p.s. i can't decide whether to introduce myself as Sam or Samantha or Sammy. I've been tryin gout Sam and Samantha to see which one is easier for Ugandas to say, but surprisingly I think Sam is harder, but sometimes it's Samantha so maybe I should try out Sammy! ANyways that's really random but whaaatver!
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