Starting Week Four

The computers are particularly slow and capricous today - wish me luck. But at least it's up...she was closed last week because someone stole her outside cable!! It's always an adventure here.

Went to church and cried again - I may have to stop going. They sang "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" and I teared up. It's really a moving thing to be so far away and have the same songs, etc. One difference...the lady next to me asked to put her cell phone in my backback to hide it while we went to Communion!!

As of Monday we will have been goine one month and one month to go to swearing in as PCVs! After our trip last week we all had trouble adjusting to being back in class all day - our health group did get one trip to a family planning center and saw school kids do African dances at a Red Cross Center - very neat! On Weds. we get our site assignments and get to meet our counterpart - the person we'll work with for two years! Everyone is VERY anxious. We all want to be out on our own, but think we'll miss the fellowship here.

We will get to visit our sites on March 26 for a few days and I'll set up a P.O. Box there. I really hope I have at least electricity. Since we are on the equator we have 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of dark every day - and it's DARK at 7:00 p.m. Can use the kerosene lamp or a headlight but it's not the same....I'm spoiled now. It's not always on but I love it. Appricate your electric switches!

My biggest challenge is learning the language....one of the "old folks" found an article about how much harder it is for us to learn - takes monumental memorization. I really need to study more but it's so overwhelming! My plan now is to learn 30 verbs (pick your favorites) and learn the conjugations of those and hope it works when we take our proficiency test. We asked if they'd be easy on us since training is two weeks shorter than before but don't think they will.

Other challenge is laundry - did my sheets and towel today (finally)...what a project!! It's just neverending. Women here are amazing!!

It's been raining some afternoons - cools it off for awhile. People say the rains aren't coming like they used to - they say the Sahara is on the way south!

Food: The endless subject. I'm finding that only people in prosperous places have the luxury of variety. We have the same foods every day - and Ugandans have then several times a day. Matoke (steamed, mashed bananas), rice, sweet potatoes, fried cabbage, beans, and occasionally stewed meat and fruit. Take lots of preparation time, too. We're on our own for lunch now and we go get fruit - pineapple (about $1), passion fruit, bannanas, papaya, mangos....very good and everywhere. Favorite lunch is chipati (fried bread) or Rolex - Chipati wrapped around a scrambled egg/onion/tomato - and wrapped in newspaper - takes off some of the grease! But they are GOOD. Children and men are incredible skinny for the volume they eat. Adult women sort of pack it on. Another new find is Stoney - a Coka Cola product that is like a ginger cola. The Indian "supermarket" stocks it for us.

I hope someday to have better internet access and be able to write to people individually, but for now I'm grateful for this. Most of the computers are being used now (noon on Sunday) by the PCTs!! We all miss the instant communication. I've learned to text since that's cheaper but don't think it goes international.

For those who don't know Jessica (June), Gail (Sept.) and Jamie and Naomi (Oct?) are due this year....What a year to miss!! Will be nine at Christmas instead of five...think of the shopping I could have done!! Kids here have almost no toys and their clothes definitely mostly come from church boxes from England or America. They all have school uniforms though.