A Day in the Life.

Recently I have been asked what I do on a daily basis. I have been asked this not only by my friends and family but also my language trainers, being required to respond in Luganda. Which, by now has become routine. So here is my daily routine… In English of course.

Most mornings I am awoken by the sounds of roosters crowing at 3am. The roosters will crow for about 10-20 minutes. Shortly after they stop I fall back to sleep, and I am awaken by a loud crying dog, that I didn’t even know my family had, nor have I ever seen a dog in our yard, but my lanta, it’s there and it whines for several hours in the morning. Finally my alarm goes off at 6 and I get out of bed at seven after several snoozes. Once I am up I take a quick bath since I bathed right before bed. Plus I am usually very cold in the morning and with the water cold you don’t want to take a long shower. Side note I have finally got good at bucket bathing, yes it’s just how it sounds. The only thing about bucket bathing I haven’t mastered is washing my hair, which I don’t think I will ever be able to do.  Once I have bathed and dressed I go out for breakfast, I greet my family along the way. “Wasuze Otyanno Maama?” “How did you spend the night?” “Bulungi,” she says. Then I eat my breakfast and head to school. Walking to school is really a grand adventure. I walk up several hills through the jungle for twenty minutes to get to school. Not only are you walking up huge hills you are also hoping you don’t fall along the way. The possibility of falling has truly become a part of the adventure. I honestly cannot tell you how many times I have almost fallen flat on my ass. It’s been so many times that I have gotten pretty good at recovering from the fall. However, I have fallen twice, both times I landed on the same knee. Uganda: 2 Chanty:0 well unless you count the times I didn’t actually fall as victory. I don’t actually know. Anyway by the time I finally make it to school I’m hot and ready to go back to bed. We study Luganda till about 12:30 than we head to lunch. Which you guessed it, it means we walk down a large hill to get to a restaurant eat and then walk back up the hill. Our lunches are any food we can find in town. We got pretty lucky because Masaka has some good American food places. So we have had our fair share of pizza, burgers, wraps, salads, and even a quesadilla and some crepes. However, we don’t always have American food, on the days we don’t we eat meat pies at a bakery or chicken and chips at Chicken Republic. Once we are back from lunch we study Luganda until 5, and than head back down the hill to go home. Once at home I watch Nickelodeon and Disney JR., play cards, and practice Luganda with my siblings and maama. Once dinner is ready I eat and than head to bed and do it all again in the morning. This is how we spend our days in Language Training and honestly I can’t imagine anything better, it truly is a grand adventure. I am glad that this is my Peace Corps life.

Now, I can’t lie and say that language training has been a walk in the park because I have had so difficult moments. Learning a new language in three weeks is not easy. But it is truly incredible knowing that at the end of this I will have a new skill that I will get to grow for the next two years. I mean I can almost have a 20 minute long conversation about myself and my family, what we do, where we are from, the foods we like, and what we like to do for fun really helps me push through the struggles of learning a new language. Some other struggles have been feeling homesick every once in awhile, but I truly have made a home here in Uganda. Any way enough of the struggles. The past three weeks we have been able to do some really cool things. Like for example buying Kitenge for swearing in. Peace Corps Uganda has adopted a tradition that each cohort and language group gets to choose if the want to participate in. Our cohort choose to participate. What the tradition entails is each language group picking Kitenge, (which is the local fabric) to make a dress, skirt, shirt, or pantsuit in order for each language group to match during swearing in. We were able to pick up our outfits on Friday and they look good. Pictures to follow after we swear in. I am so in love with Kitenge that I had another dress made just for me. We have been able to explore Masaka, I think we can all successfully get around with out getting lost. We have eaten at some really cool restaurants, gotten to stay in a nice hotel hostile style and go swimming in the hotel pool, and we have hit up so chill bars just to hang out together. Not only have we done some fun things and been on some fun adventures we all have some pretty cool host families that we come home to each evening and hang out with.

I hope I didn’t seem like I was complaining at all because honestly life is really great. I am having a blast, I am becoming more brave, more free, and more myself. The Peace Corps was the best decision I have made.

^ This is one of the paths I take to get to school each day.

^ This is the view from school.

^ This is another view from school.

^ This is the hill we walk down to get to lunch.

^ Same hill but walking back.

^ The path I take to get to school.

Hills on hills. 

So many hills.

My kitenge dress. 

Little Maxy.

My host sibs watching tv.