Well, I just took my second shower at my house. Fixed the small leaks with the sink and shower and now I am good to go with my 500L tank. Running water is amazing. I certainly appreciate it more here than I ever did in the states.
At this point, my house is feeling a bit like home. I look forward to coming back to it when I am traveling around the country. My neighbors always give me warm greetings and the people in town when I get off the taxi are slowly learning my name (or at least that my name is not “white man” or mundo). Right now I am sitting at my new desk in my room with the light on and my lovely solar fan keeping me cool. I guess you could say I have my own small version of America set up here.
It is already time for mid-terms! I just finished covering vectors. Some students are really getting it but there are still many students who cannot explain what a vector is. When talking with other teachers and PCVs, the best advice I seem to get is to be the best teacher I can to those who learn. I want to motive everyone to learn, but it is not easy to motivate the students and if I try too hard to keep the students interested I will find myself not covering any material. We will see how things go; I have hope and I hear that is a good place to start.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
The New Term Has Begun, Somehow
Well, it has been a while since my last post. I’d say at least a few things have happened since then. Let me recap:
My first term of teaching ended. I was only teaching two stream of S3 mathematics, but it was tough. The end of term exam I gave was a fair exam, I think, but the best student’s score was still less than 50%. This is apparently true for teachers of other subjects as well. I have my work cut out for me there.
I am starting to set up an internet café in my town. A businessman approached me about starting one up with the intention of increasing computer literacy and allowing easier access to the internet. We will see how that pans out.
Been setting up my house more. Got new furniture, I bed I can fit in, a place to hang my clothes. Just the ma-bear necessities!
Visited the US. My bro got Mari’d. Got to see Selina. Got to hang with my parents. (They are great, they even send me gummy candy and Cookie Crisp!) (:-P) I also got to see most of the old Moyer Gang! Great fun! Gained about 15 pounds in two weeks. Good food.
On the way back from the states, I flew through Dubai. Had a 10 hour or so layover (with free hotel accomodations!). I got to see the town. It is crazy. There is the world’s largest building of course, then there is the world’s only 7-star hotel (which looks like the USS Enterprise is coming out of the top of it), an indoor SKI SLOPE (wanna check it out, Scott?), and way too many 6-star hotels everywhere you go. One of the famous hotels has a room that costs at least $15,000 a night. I asked about it and no the room does not come with an indoor golf course for that price – just a private pool. I met this chap from South Africa who knew a bit about the town. He told me the odd and ends of the place as we took a $30 2-hour tour around the self-proclaimed tourist capital of the world. Nice town. Little tid bit about Dubai: No crime. No crime to the point that you can literally park your car on the street, with keys in the ignition and it still running and the AC on high, go shopping and come back out to your cool vehicle. It won’t get stolen. Also, the cost of fuel is half the cost of water. Gas costs $0.35 per liter, which is about $1.40 per gallon. Anyway, I had fun in Dubai.
Also while in the US, I acquired more stuff. As I lay here in bed, I have my awesome DC clip-on fans keeping me cool. No more night sweats, if you want to know the truth of it. Everything I brought back with me made it to my house, save my headlamp. (I couldn’t save my headlamp, that is.) But, as the Ugandans say, “It’s okay!” as in “The way that most my stuff made it to my house is just okay.”
I have made some recent adjustments to my house as well. I added a solar panel, rewired my house and custom-made outlets so that each room has 12V car charger plugs (Selina rocks), upgraded my battery, got a water tower for my 500L tank (Oh yeahh!), Kirk installed a sink in my bedroom (seemed a good place for a sink), and I love my house. This weekend we (Kirk the Mechanical Genius and I) will finish the plumbing now that the pipes have arrived and we will install my new shower! Indoor plumbing, it’s gunna be big!
The new term has started, but teachers were on strike, demanding a pay raise. The government agreed to a 15% increase. Unfortunately, that 15% does not go far with the rising costs of goods (many foods are doubling or even tripling in cost). A can of cheese cost 1000Ush when I got to Uganda. Now it costs 4500Ush. Some teachers are having to really struggle to supplement their salary.
Anyway, I am back online for the new term! This week was sort of the first week of classes. Hopefully more students will show up next week when everyone realizes the strike has ended. We will see. I am starting to give lessons on computers to my fellow teachers as well as continuing to teach S3 math during this next term. That may be changing soon, however...
Until next time,
Mark “Parombro” Cotton
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Contact me in Uganda!
Hello, friends! Thanks to those of you who having been taking time to read my blog! Just wanted to let people know how to contact me (as I begin teaching her in about a week).
Mail:
Mark Cotton
PO Box 100
Nebbi, Uganda
(Letters will take a few weeks, small packages, which could easily contain sour gummy worms or cereal, take anywhere from 1 to 3 months. Send me some snail!)
You can also text me directly for FREE at (425) 247-1812. I can't receive calls or pictures this way though, sorry.
I'd love to Skype with you as well! Send me a text and I will get on Skype if I can. My username is mark2d2.
That's all for now from toasty Parombo.
Mail:
Mark Cotton
PO Box 100
Nebbi, Uganda
(Letters will take a few weeks, small packages, which could easily contain sour gummy worms or cereal, take anywhere from 1 to 3 months. Send me some snail!)
You can also text me directly for FREE at (425) 247-1812. I can't receive calls or pictures this way though, sorry.
I'd love to Skype with you as well! Send me a text and I will get on Skype if I can. My username is mark2d2.
That's all for now from toasty Parombo.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Beans and Scorpions
Refried beans, tortillas and rice. Not bad. Scorpion in my room as I'm going to bed: Not cool.
I thought it was just another one of those overgrown radioactive spiders that move really fast in the night and appear to have 10 legs. Nope. It had 8 legs and two pincers (and...the tale). First wild living scorpion I have seen in my life. Crawling in my pile of clothes. Allrright! Hoo-ra! (At least I have a flock of goats to protect my house. They probably eat scorpions.)
I thought it was just another one of those overgrown radioactive spiders that move really fast in the night and appear to have 10 legs. Nope. It had 8 legs and two pincers (and...the tale). First wild living scorpion I have seen in my life. Crawling in my pile of clothes. Allrright! Hoo-ra! (At least I have a flock of goats to protect my house. They probably eat scorpions.)
Friday, May 6, 2011
Parombro
I am now, and have been for two weeks, at my site in Parombo.
So much to say, so much time. But I will be brief. What five words would I best use to describe my life right now? Well, since you ask, I'd have to say French solar Scrabble pancakes.
French - I hitched a ride back to town in a pickup. I tried speaking with the driver but he didn't really speak Alur and spoke even less English. Fluent in French, though. Sadly, je ne parle pas francais. I wish I could remember more...
Solar - My town does not have power. A couple shops use generators and such. I got my solar setup the first full day...(not out of extreme anxiety but due to my headteacher's on-the-ball-ness). It's nice to have lights (as I type this and my battery has been depleted for the evening).
Scrabble - My headteacher is not bad at it. We play it every couple nights. He scored 99 points off the word "Donkeys" so...Scott, you down for some scrabbs?
Pancakes - Parombo has one, uh, restaurant. They serve beans sometimes. In Uganda, sometimes when you walk into a restaurant and ask for food, during meantime no less, the waiters will come out and stare at you like you are crazy and then eventually tell you they have no food. ("Food? Why would you want food?" I hear them thinking.) I am starting to cook. Made my first every batch of completely from scratch (banana) pancakes. SO good. I will be getting syrup soon.
Alright, that's all for now. Though I do have some sweet Spiders, if anyone is interested.
So much to say, so much time. But I will be brief. What five words would I best use to describe my life right now? Well, since you ask, I'd have to say French solar Scrabble pancakes.
French - I hitched a ride back to town in a pickup. I tried speaking with the driver but he didn't really speak Alur and spoke even less English. Fluent in French, though. Sadly, je ne parle pas francais. I wish I could remember more...
Solar - My town does not have power. A couple shops use generators and such. I got my solar setup the first full day...(not out of extreme anxiety but due to my headteacher's on-the-ball-ness). It's nice to have lights (as I type this and my battery has been depleted for the evening).
Scrabble - My headteacher is not bad at it. We play it every couple nights. He scored 99 points off the word "Donkeys" so...Scott, you down for some scrabbs?
Pancakes - Parombo has one, uh, restaurant. They serve beans sometimes. In Uganda, sometimes when you walk into a restaurant and ask for food, during meantime no less, the waiters will come out and stare at you like you are crazy and then eventually tell you they have no food. ("Food? Why would you want food?" I hear them thinking.) I am starting to cook. Made my first every batch of completely from scratch (banana) pancakes. SO good. I will be getting syrup soon.
Alright, that's all for now. Though I do have some sweet Spiders, if anyone is interested.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Cool pool party
An all day long pool party with a bunch of great friends at a 5ish star hotel in the middle of Uganda is a beautiful thing. Today marks the day when I moved out of my wonderful homestay for the final stretch of preparation before I move to my site as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. Apparently there was teargas in Kampala and the opposition leader (who also ran for President) was arrested again today, for the third time. PC decided it was best for us to stay put in our hotel. In one of the nicest hotels in Uganda. A, Frickin'! I got to go swimming for the first time since I got here. And my room has a mini-fridge. What’s up!?
So, I had my big Alur language exam about a week and a half ago. I felt like I did horribly on it which would have been okay except that Peace Corps threatened to send us home if we failed. Really, failing most likely means that you need to continue studying the language (formally) and take the exam again in 3 months. But they take failures case-by-case. Anyway, to my surprise, I passed! (With the lowest score possible to pass, I might add, but passing is passing!) So that was awesome.
I found out my score Saturday afternoon after our homestay appreciation ceremony. For the celebration, all the language groups put on skits about how thankful we were to the host families and we shared some of our (United States of) American culture with them. One group did “Who’s on first?” which was great (except I didn’t think many Ugandans in the room knew the in(ning)s and outs of baseball). It was from our presentation that Kirk said,
“If you had told me at any point in my life that I would be using an Arnold Schwarzenegger soundboard in an official government capacity in front of a room full of Africans, I would have never believed you.”
Yeah, we basically made an Arnold Schwarzenegger Alur learning aid. Learn the language with the help of your favorite internationally acclaimed movie star, body builder, and governator. Celebrities make learning fun! Learn useful phrases such as, “Abi dwogu!” (I’ll be back!) and “Baba peri nga man etiye ungo?” (Who is your daddy and what does he do?).
Anyway, I swear in as an official Volunteer on Thursday and should be moved to my site before Easter Sunday. I just have a couple last-minute things to get before I go. I can’t believe my 10 weeks of training is finally coming to an end. I am going to miss spending all my time with the group. It will be exciting and challenging adjusting to my new life away from all the Americans, searching for new friends and trying to integrate with my new community. I look forward to the challenge!
About my site: I visited my future house almost two weeks ago. It’s in a beautiful area with very friendly people nearby and it is only perhaps semi-rural. By that I mean I don’t have to travel 10km to get to the nearest market. In fact, I will be living on a teachers’ compound about 1.5km from the school and about a kilometer from a market. There are a few small shops for basic supplies and furniture within walking distance. The name of the small town is Parombo and the school is rightly called Parombo Secondary. There are mountains (not snow-capped, so I hesitate to call them mountains) surrounding my house. I suppose it’s similar to the hilliness of western Montana with the dry, lushness of Bend if I had to make a comparison. The sunsets are breathtaking (at least I think it’s the sunsets that take my breath away – either that or the burning plastic bottles that are inescapable in Uganda). Oh, and I can see Russia from my house. …I mean the Congo. From my bedroom window, I could watch a Congolese sunset every night. Not bad. My house has three rooms, a few walls, one ceiling and some doors. Eventually I’ll post some pictures. I have my very own pit latrine and my own cement box with a drain to bucket bathe in. No running water or electricity do I have. I am going to set up solar panels though to alleviate this concern. Pretty stoked for that little project. Did I mention I will have internet IN MY HOUSE! That means I can blog and email from home (but little more – its far too slow to even make voice calls on Skype), which is great.
Anyway, I think I have been long-winded enough for one blog. I hope I am not boring any of you too much. “The best is yet to come, and babe won’t it be fine? You think you’ve seen the sun, but you aint seen it...”
So, I had my big Alur language exam about a week and a half ago. I felt like I did horribly on it which would have been okay except that Peace Corps threatened to send us home if we failed. Really, failing most likely means that you need to continue studying the language (formally) and take the exam again in 3 months. But they take failures case-by-case. Anyway, to my surprise, I passed! (With the lowest score possible to pass, I might add, but passing is passing!) So that was awesome.
I found out my score Saturday afternoon after our homestay appreciation ceremony. For the celebration, all the language groups put on skits about how thankful we were to the host families and we shared some of our (United States of) American culture with them. One group did “Who’s on first?” which was great (except I didn’t think many Ugandans in the room knew the in(ning)s and outs of baseball). It was from our presentation that Kirk said,
“If you had told me at any point in my life that I would be using an Arnold Schwarzenegger soundboard in an official government capacity in front of a room full of Africans, I would have never believed you.”
Yeah, we basically made an Arnold Schwarzenegger Alur learning aid. Learn the language with the help of your favorite internationally acclaimed movie star, body builder, and governator. Celebrities make learning fun! Learn useful phrases such as, “Abi dwogu!” (I’ll be back!) and “Baba peri nga man etiye ungo?” (Who is your daddy and what does he do?).
Anyway, I swear in as an official Volunteer on Thursday and should be moved to my site before Easter Sunday. I just have a couple last-minute things to get before I go. I can’t believe my 10 weeks of training is finally coming to an end. I am going to miss spending all my time with the group. It will be exciting and challenging adjusting to my new life away from all the Americans, searching for new friends and trying to integrate with my new community. I look forward to the challenge!
About my site: I visited my future house almost two weeks ago. It’s in a beautiful area with very friendly people nearby and it is only perhaps semi-rural. By that I mean I don’t have to travel 10km to get to the nearest market. In fact, I will be living on a teachers’ compound about 1.5km from the school and about a kilometer from a market. There are a few small shops for basic supplies and furniture within walking distance. The name of the small town is Parombo and the school is rightly called Parombo Secondary. There are mountains (not snow-capped, so I hesitate to call them mountains) surrounding my house. I suppose it’s similar to the hilliness of western Montana with the dry, lushness of Bend if I had to make a comparison. The sunsets are breathtaking (at least I think it’s the sunsets that take my breath away – either that or the burning plastic bottles that are inescapable in Uganda). Oh, and I can see Russia from my house. …I mean the Congo. From my bedroom window, I could watch a Congolese sunset every night. Not bad. My house has three rooms, a few walls, one ceiling and some doors. Eventually I’ll post some pictures. I have my very own pit latrine and my own cement box with a drain to bucket bathe in. No running water or electricity do I have. I am going to set up solar panels though to alleviate this concern. Pretty stoked for that little project. Did I mention I will have internet IN MY HOUSE! That means I can blog and email from home (but little more – its far too slow to even make voice calls on Skype), which is great.
Anyway, I think I have been long-winded enough for one blog. I hope I am not boring any of you too much. “The best is yet to come, and babe won’t it be fine? You think you’ve seen the sun, but you aint seen it...”
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Who is a bear?
Since my last installment, I have been to Kampala twice and visited Nebbi, in northwestern Uganda (AKA the West Nile). I am very excited to be in some part of Nebbi – it is a beautiful area eerily reminiscent of Bend, Oregon. Basically, it is a very lush, brown, desert-ish looking area. It is very green and brown at the same time!!! We saw a few elephants on the way and a couple of hippos yawning in the water. It’s not a big deal.
The ride to Nebbi (on the morning of the 20th) was nearly detrimental, but I made it without a hitch. The near-catastrophe was a result of the previous day. On Saturday, we spent time in Kampala, going on our first tour of the forbidden city. (We need special clearance to enter it.) It was very hectic and it was unnerving at times catching mutates (moo-tah-too-s AKA taxis) and walking between cars hoping not to get squished. But there is most everything you need in the city for fairly cheap. Sadly, all imported musical instruments and electronics are insanely expensive here. I believe that to buy an iPhone in country you would be hard pressed to find one under $900US. But you can talk the dealers down and get a djembe for $15! I am totally going to learn me some drums.
So, for dinner I had my first ever Ethiopian food. We had to walk down an inconspicuous alleyway in the middle of town, through a little “market”/courtyard, up some stairs that went up the side of the building into a woman’s living room. We ate on couches and coffee tables. (Apparently, we walked through a brothel to get there, but it was the middle of the day so I wouldn’t have noticed anyway.) She cooked the food for us and brought is out. IT WAS SOOOO GOOD! And only 3,500/= (shillings) – less than $2! Mmmmm.
Sadly, I believe this is what lead to my demise/first time getting sick. I think. But I still want to go eat there again. I was…pressed for time as I Ron Queasily waited to leave the house Sunday morning. The drugs I took helped me get to Nebbi (8ish hours of total travel time). So I made it. Oh, and we crossed the Nile twice on the way there, unbeknownst to me. I saw it both times on the way back.
Life is good. I am getting plenty of time to play guitar, hang with my host family, spend time with other PCTs and get my 9-5 training/work/language done. I have gotten more comfortable(/dare I say better?) at guitar in the past month than I did in the past 6 months before coming here. Also, I have been setting up a lot of tech/computer stuff (getting my nerd on!) since getting here and am starting to play with Linux. Oh, and my host dad, Pastor Stephen, has been in the states since I got here and will hopefully get to have a meal with my parents before I even get the chance to meet him.
What’s next for me: I will be receiving my site placement Monday and visit my site and the secondary school I will be teaching at on Thursday.
Alur Lesson: “Nyanya nya ngic ngic” which literally means “The tomatoes are sort of cold.”
To say “Are you well this morning?” “Yes, I am good!” you say “I ai maberi?” “Eyo, I ai maber!”
(To learn this and speak it, you only need to remember that “I AM A BEAR!” and make hand motions of having your bear paws in the air.)
Until next time!
The ride to Nebbi (on the morning of the 20th) was nearly detrimental, but I made it without a hitch. The near-catastrophe was a result of the previous day. On Saturday, we spent time in Kampala, going on our first tour of the forbidden city. (We need special clearance to enter it.) It was very hectic and it was unnerving at times catching mutates (moo-tah-too-s AKA taxis) and walking between cars hoping not to get squished. But there is most everything you need in the city for fairly cheap. Sadly, all imported musical instruments and electronics are insanely expensive here. I believe that to buy an iPhone in country you would be hard pressed to find one under $900US. But you can talk the dealers down and get a djembe for $15! I am totally going to learn me some drums.
So, for dinner I had my first ever Ethiopian food. We had to walk down an inconspicuous alleyway in the middle of town, through a little “market”/courtyard, up some stairs that went up the side of the building into a woman’s living room. We ate on couches and coffee tables. (Apparently, we walked through a brothel to get there, but it was the middle of the day so I wouldn’t have noticed anyway.) She cooked the food for us and brought is out. IT WAS SOOOO GOOD! And only 3,500/= (shillings) – less than $2! Mmmmm.
Sadly, I believe this is what lead to my demise/first time getting sick. I think. But I still want to go eat there again. I was…pressed for time as I Ron Queasily waited to leave the house Sunday morning. The drugs I took helped me get to Nebbi (8ish hours of total travel time). So I made it. Oh, and we crossed the Nile twice on the way there, unbeknownst to me. I saw it both times on the way back.
Life is good. I am getting plenty of time to play guitar, hang with my host family, spend time with other PCTs and get my 9-5 training/work/language done. I have gotten more comfortable(/dare I say better?) at guitar in the past month than I did in the past 6 months before coming here. Also, I have been setting up a lot of tech/computer stuff (getting my nerd on!) since getting here and am starting to play with Linux. Oh, and my host dad, Pastor Stephen, has been in the states since I got here and will hopefully get to have a meal with my parents before I even get the chance to meet him.
What’s next for me: I will be receiving my site placement Monday and visit my site and the secondary school I will be teaching at on Thursday.
Alur Lesson: “Nyanya nya ngic ngic” which literally means “The tomatoes are sort of cold.”
To say “Are you well this morning?” “Yes, I am good!” you say “I ai maberi?” “Eyo, I ai maber!”
(To learn this and speak it, you only need to remember that “I AM A BEAR!” and make hand motions of having your bear paws in the air.)
Until next time!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Guess where I've Gone Ta?
"You are all most welcome!" (not to be confused with "You are almost welcome!") was the greeting I got when I first touched ground in Uganda.
I love it here already. It is far more connected to "the outside world" than I could have expected and it is certainly not nearly as hot as I thought it would be! The best part is that people keep reassuring me that they think it is far too hot - this is the hottest part of the year as well - and I do not feel like I am dying everyday from the heat. In fact, save the fact that I have been sleeping on top of my sheets every night, the heat is not unbearable at all. I was expecting the heat to be near as bad as it gets in Florida but the highs stay in the 80s. The lack of paved roads and presence of greenery allows the water cycle to continue unhindered unlike what happens to big cities in the states, thus keeping the temperature down long term. Our pavement keeps the heat in. Just my theory. Life a couple degrees above the equator aint so bad. Got 15 more freckles already though. (I tried counting.)
So much has happened in the last three weeks since arriving. I'll give a brief summary so as to keep you all updated but not bored with too many details.
The first two weeks we were here, we were living at the conference center waiting for the presidential elections to happen. We were on a standfast with very few places to go visit so I have not had much opportunity to connect until now. Nevertheless, those weeks were great for getting to know my fellow trainees and learn to wash my clothes by hand. Got to play guitar with Ryan some more, my friend Josh joined in, Stevie (her first name is Amanda but she goes by her middle) played some sweet 'monica. Har har.
The food at our center was bland at best. Nothing that hot sauce couldn't sure, though, which gave me a taste of home.
I have been at my homestay now for over a week. I moved in on the 26th. They are AMAZING!!! My host dad is a pastor, my host mom is an AMAZING cook, and everyone in my family is musical. Way musical. As a side note, I thought I would have to be a vegetarian during my time here because I could not stomach the meat at training (all bones and gristle, little meat) but Sarah (my host mom) cooks so well that I had to change my mind. My host brother, Richard, plays guitar and SINGS! Someone told me that he was "the best singer in Uganda" and I really could believe it. He is a very humble guy, though - it took me about a week to find out that he has a manager and I think he has a music video and stuff. He says he has only been playing guitar for a year or two but his rhythm is IMPECCABLE. He wants to learn music theory, so I am teaching him some and he is helping me work on mah rhythm. (Scott, oh man, I wish you could meet this guy and that he could meet you. Oh man, you guys would like each other.) I've been recording a little of our music here and there, too, on a little voice recorder. Oh man, we have so much fun. Another one of my "brothers" Kingsley (he is a long time family friend basically) is in a gospel reggae band and is know for being the best local producer for artists interested in going international. He has introduced me to other local big-name producers. It is crazy all the people that I am meeting! I went to a gospel concert with him and my other brother, Phila, the first weekend. It was held outside at the largest church in Uganda which holds about 15,000 people. They took me backstage to say hi and introduce me to some people (including "the best DJ in Uganda"). Crazy stuff.
Kingsley and Phila's band are going to be going on tour around Europe and, as King told me, that will make them the first Ugandan band to play for international audiences or something. I listened to a song of theirs and it was awesome. For serious. Also, one of King's friends was in town from Canada and another big-name African musician joined us on Sunday. They are both from Africa (not Uganda) originally but were living elsewhere. Erin, the Canadian, is a professional guitarist who played with Celine Deon. He was pretty good. With him playing, the other singing, Richie playing and singing (oh man, he is good), we had the most amazing time. Ryan was over too and we joined in. I recorded stuff.
We started in-school training last week and are going this week and the next, observing, co-teaching and solo teaching. That is going alright - it is neat to see some of the Ugandan school system.
Needless to say, I am God's favorite. God has many favorites (he can do that and it makes each favorite no less special), but man has God been blessing me. Good people, good food, good sleep, good house, good fam, good teaching experience, good health. Good God!
Thank you all so very much for all of your prayers. It means a lot to me and it is definitely helping. I could not have possibly imagined for things to be going so well.
Until next time,
Mark
PS My internet situation will not be established until I am at site in late April. I don't know when the next time I will be able to update my blog will be by I will try to get back on in the next few weeks. Also, with slow internet right now I can't check much internet and am not going to be staying up to date with facebook.
I love it here already. It is far more connected to "the outside world" than I could have expected and it is certainly not nearly as hot as I thought it would be! The best part is that people keep reassuring me that they think it is far too hot - this is the hottest part of the year as well - and I do not feel like I am dying everyday from the heat. In fact, save the fact that I have been sleeping on top of my sheets every night, the heat is not unbearable at all. I was expecting the heat to be near as bad as it gets in Florida but the highs stay in the 80s. The lack of paved roads and presence of greenery allows the water cycle to continue unhindered unlike what happens to big cities in the states, thus keeping the temperature down long term. Our pavement keeps the heat in. Just my theory. Life a couple degrees above the equator aint so bad. Got 15 more freckles already though. (I tried counting.)
So much has happened in the last three weeks since arriving. I'll give a brief summary so as to keep you all updated but not bored with too many details.
The first two weeks we were here, we were living at the conference center waiting for the presidential elections to happen. We were on a standfast with very few places to go visit so I have not had much opportunity to connect until now. Nevertheless, those weeks were great for getting to know my fellow trainees and learn to wash my clothes by hand. Got to play guitar with Ryan some more, my friend Josh joined in, Stevie (her first name is Amanda but she goes by her middle) played some sweet 'monica. Har har.
The food at our center was bland at best. Nothing that hot sauce couldn't sure, though, which gave me a taste of home.
I have been at my homestay now for over a week. I moved in on the 26th. They are AMAZING!!! My host dad is a pastor, my host mom is an AMAZING cook, and everyone in my family is musical. Way musical. As a side note, I thought I would have to be a vegetarian during my time here because I could not stomach the meat at training (all bones and gristle, little meat) but Sarah (my host mom) cooks so well that I had to change my mind. My host brother, Richard, plays guitar and SINGS! Someone told me that he was "the best singer in Uganda" and I really could believe it. He is a very humble guy, though - it took me about a week to find out that he has a manager and I think he has a music video and stuff. He says he has only been playing guitar for a year or two but his rhythm is IMPECCABLE. He wants to learn music theory, so I am teaching him some and he is helping me work on mah rhythm. (Scott, oh man, I wish you could meet this guy and that he could meet you. Oh man, you guys would like each other.) I've been recording a little of our music here and there, too, on a little voice recorder. Oh man, we have so much fun. Another one of my "brothers" Kingsley (he is a long time family friend basically) is in a gospel reggae band and is know for being the best local producer for artists interested in going international. He has introduced me to other local big-name producers. It is crazy all the people that I am meeting! I went to a gospel concert with him and my other brother, Phila, the first weekend. It was held outside at the largest church in Uganda which holds about 15,000 people. They took me backstage to say hi and introduce me to some people (including "the best DJ in Uganda"). Crazy stuff.
Kingsley and Phila's band are going to be going on tour around Europe and, as King told me, that will make them the first Ugandan band to play for international audiences or something. I listened to a song of theirs and it was awesome. For serious. Also, one of King's friends was in town from Canada and another big-name African musician joined us on Sunday. They are both from Africa (not Uganda) originally but were living elsewhere. Erin, the Canadian, is a professional guitarist who played with Celine Deon. He was pretty good. With him playing, the other singing, Richie playing and singing (oh man, he is good), we had the most amazing time. Ryan was over too and we joined in. I recorded stuff.
We started in-school training last week and are going this week and the next, observing, co-teaching and solo teaching. That is going alright - it is neat to see some of the Ugandan school system.
Needless to say, I am God's favorite. God has many favorites (he can do that and it makes each favorite no less special), but man has God been blessing me. Good people, good food, good sleep, good house, good fam, good teaching experience, good health. Good God!
Thank you all so very much for all of your prayers. It means a lot to me and it is definitely helping. I could not have possibly imagined for things to be going so well.
Until next time,
Mark
PS My internet situation will not be established until I am at site in late April. I don't know when the next time I will be able to update my blog will be by I will try to get back on in the next few weeks. Also, with slow internet right now I can't check much internet and am not going to be staying up to date with facebook.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Adventure awaits
After a late night of preparation and no sleep, I somehow managed to make it on the plane with all my earthly possessions to take with me on my journey. As the combination of beef jerky, sleep deprivation and nasty turbulence hit me while the plane landed in Philadelphia, I realized that I was soon to meet the new people whom I would be sharing my life with over the next two years. The fact that I am leaving for Africa finally started to sink in.
The people here are amazing, to say the least! I met a couple equally lost volunteers at the airport (we were all waiting for a shuttle to the hotel that would never come). Got some brotherly love directions to take the train in and met some more volunteers at the hotel. So far, it seems we are all in our early 20s and fairly fresh out of college. They all seem like fairly normal, extraordinary people to me. (Most people thus far have been engineers or mathematicians - so I don't need to sensor myself.) I got into my room to find a fellow guitar. I later met the mathematician human attached to it, who shares a similar numerical fascination with music as I do. I have no idea who I will stay in contact with in Uganda, but there is great potential for some fun music to happen. Also, we jammed and it was awesome.
Tomorrow is our intense pre-service orientation before we head out Thursday morning at 2am for our 10am flight in New York. There are ungrounded rumors about riding horseback to be able to catch our flight in time. Then its a 15 hour shot down to Johannesburg and a 4 hour jot to Uganda. It sounds like I may not be able to have access to email or a phone during the first month or two.
That's all for now!
The people here are amazing, to say the least! I met a couple equally lost volunteers at the airport (we were all waiting for a shuttle to the hotel that would never come). Got some brotherly love directions to take the train in and met some more volunteers at the hotel. So far, it seems we are all in our early 20s and fairly fresh out of college. They all seem like fairly normal, extraordinary people to me. (Most people thus far have been engineers or mathematicians - so I don't need to sensor myself.) I got into my room to find a fellow guitar. I later met the mathematician human attached to it, who shares a similar numerical fascination with music as I do. I have no idea who I will stay in contact with in Uganda, but there is great potential for some fun music to happen. Also, we jammed and it was awesome.
Tomorrow is our intense pre-service orientation before we head out Thursday morning at 2am for our 10am flight in New York. There are ungrounded rumors about riding horseback to be able to catch our flight in time. Then its a 15 hour shot down to Johannesburg and a 4 hour jot to Uganda. It sounds like I may not be able to have access to email or a phone during the first month or two.
That's all for now!
Mailing Info
During the first few months of my service, my mailing address will be:
Mark Cotton, Peace Corps Trainee
P.O. Box 29348
Kampala, Uganda
Please note that it can take 4-6 weeks for me to get a letter and that, from my site, it might take 1-2 months to reach the US. It is also a good idea to number letters sent to me just in case they get lost in the mail.
Here is the link to the complete contact info document:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2906032/UG%20Family%20Letter.doc
Mark Cotton, Peace Corps Trainee
P.O. Box 29348
Kampala, Uganda
Please note that it can take 4-6 weeks for me to get a letter and that, from my site, it might take 1-2 months to reach the US. It is also a good idea to number letters sent to me just in case they get lost in the mail.
Here is the link to the complete contact info document:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2906032/UG%20Family%20Letter.doc
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Preparing to leave
I am anxiously counting down the days until I depart for Uganda. On February 8th I fly to Philadelphia for a brief orientation before making the long trek to Uganda. I do not yet know where I will be staying in-country but I do know that the first three months will be filled with intensive language training and prepping me to teach. Near the end of my training I will find out where I will be teaching. I am studying what I can of the Lugandan language and will post more once I start out on my adventure. Pray for me that I am able to get everything ready in time and that I have safe travels.
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