Day 34 - Thursday

“It was a day just like any other.”

I don’t know what to blog about these days! School is getting pretty hectic, but nobody wants to read an African blog to hear about schoolwork.  So Africa… the group here is planning a weekend Safari sometime soon.  I don’t think I’m going to go though.  It’s a few hundred dollars & I don’t know if it would be really worth it.  I also wouldn’t want to be away from my family and job for that long.  Time is flying by… it seems like almost every weekend we have some trip or event, & that makes the weeks pass like nothing.  This weekend I’ll be working at the Child Development Center. 

On the 17^th our whole group will be going on our rural homestay trip… I think the whole thing is about 10 days long.  It’s like our spring break, except we’ll be living in REALLY rural areas & working really hard.  Our families probably won’t speak any English, there probably won’t be any clean water, and there definitely won’t be electricity.  I’ve heard that the food will be bad too, but I hope not!  Mama has been teaching me even more Luganda now that our rural trip is coming up… she doesn’t want me to be uncomfortable & not know how to ask things like, “Can I have water?” “Where is the latrine?” & “May I sleep?”

I’m glad to be speaking more Luganda at home because I recently found out that I have a 30-minute ORAL exam on Wednesday.  Goodness gracious, they think I’m that fluent!

Today I did a pretty good job though, if I do say so myself.  This older woman came around our house & sat down on the ledge outside the backdoor, so I greeted her in Luganda.  By that I mean I got down on my knees, offered her my hand & said, “Olyotya nnyabo?” Other things were said, but I think I really surprised her & I didn’t mess it up at all.  I was so proud of myself that I told Mama when she came home.

Tonight my sister Patience was chewing on the inner part of a pen (the ink part) before dinner.  Kids put the craziest things in their mouths here & its totally okay… lead pencils, knives, rocks... Anyway, I told Patience that the ink pen had turned her teeth all blue.  She said she didn’t believe me, but I think I had her going for a while.  Right after I was teasing her the thing exploded in her hand (and mine) & we had to take a good 5 minutes scrubing the ink off.  I learned from Mama that it’s not good to wash your hands in the same water as someone else here…  she said that if a person has “problems” and they wash their hands all of the problems go into the water.  If someone else washes their hands in the same water it’s as though they’re taking up the “problems” of the other person.  Interesting.

It’s impossible to pull a late night of homework here.  First of all, I don’t have my usual dirty chai to keep me awake.  Second, I’m so tired all the time! I don’t know if it’s the heat or what, but all of the Mzungus are always tired.  So I’m going to go to bed & I'll post this in the morning.  Goodnight everybody.  I hope home is peaceful.  Sula Bulungi.