Osiibi Otyanno? (How did you spend the day?)
This Sunday I was able visit my
Future Site for three days, which is my future home for the next two years. On
Sunday we woke up early to leave Shimoni by 6:30 so we could be dropped off at
our supervisors’ hotel. Naturally we didn’t leave until almost 7. We were all
excited and anxious to get to our sites to see the place we were going to call
home. None of us really new what to expect and we were going through so man
emotions thinking about leaving our cohort and going into something so unknown.
So there I was waiting at the hotel for my supervisor to take me home. We pile
into her car, with another Peace Corps Trainee who lives about a thirty-minute
drive from my site. We dropped her and her supervisor off first and then headed
to my new school. We turned onto the dirt rode that led us to our school, as we
drove I kept wondering which school was ours. We kept driving, and driving, and
driving. Soon realized just how rural I was about to be living and I was also
struck by the beauty that I was surrounded by. Thirty minutes later we arrived
at my new home. The campus is just as incredibly gorgeous as the drive up was.
I got out of the car and realized… I’m home. For the next three days I would be
staying at the house with my supervisor. As the night went on I became very
overwhelmed, I was meeting so many people some who barely spoke to me, some who
didn’t speak to me at all, I missed my cohort, and when I could escape I moved
to the room I was staying in and cried. I reached out to my sweet friends who
were going through the same things as I was. They were there and shortly calmed
me down and made me realized that the people I am meeting are just as nervous
as I am, which is why they aren’t talking as much. I don’t want you to think
that because I cried means that anything was wrong. It truly was just an
overwhelming day with weekend with all of the changes that happened. However,
the days did get easier as I continued my site visit. We toured the school, saw
my house, walked around the village, visited the police, the district, and the
local council, as well as going to the markets so I could see where I would be
doing my food shopping. I met my three counterparts, Emanuel 1, Emanuel 2, and
Margaret. These sweet humans are all humans who are going to be a great support
system to get me through the good and the bad of the next two years. I am
seriously incredibly excited about the incredible fit that I have with my
school, my supervisor, and my counterparts. They took great care of me the
three days of my site visit and I know it’s going to be a great two years. I
know that these two years are going to be some of the most challenge of my
life, but I also know that they are going to be some of most rewarding as well.
I know that as times get tough I have the best support system a girl could ask
for in country and back home.
Yesterday
morning we left our future sites to travel to our language training, which is
also our homestay. The Luganda group traveled to Masaka. Two of us live so
close to Masaka that it took them about forty-five minutes to get to the
Satellite Venue. The other six of us traveled to Kampala first. Where we
waiting around for all six of us to arrive and then traveled together to
Masaka, which was about a three hour, taxi ride. Now we are in Masaka with our
sweet homestay families learning Luganda. I will blog specifically about
Language training and homestay later.
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