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...”
