There are two seasons in Uganda: rainy and dry. Dry season
is no fun, but I didn’t mind it so much last year because it would still rain a
bit and be somehow cool where I had been living. Here in the east, it’s a
different story! I haven’t seen rain since Christmas… until today! It’s amazing
how you can feel the dust being beat to the ground by each drop that falls. The
loud crash of water hitting my tin roof is music to my ears! And I’m in love
with the whole “not sweating in my house all the time” thing. Let’s raise our
glasses to bid farewell to the constant dust layer covering everything and
welcome instead, the muddy shoes and never dry laundry!
*clank*
*clank*
It seems that bad things always happen in clusters. Let’s
review the following week:
1. The nails in my back door hinge came out of the frame as
I was closing up for the night.
2. The water was out from the tap I fetch from when I was
having people come the next day.
3. My computer fan died and then my screen went totally
black…
But with every negative there is always a positive. Let’s
review the outcomes of each:
1. I got to feel awesome by balancing the door on a rock as
I nailed my door back in.
2. My pupils were nice enough to fetch water from the
borehole at the college until the water came back to the tap. Then my friends
who came helped me fetch even more water from that.
3. My faith and confidence in Ugandans was restored by
meeting Fred, who took apart, cleaned/fixed, and then reassembled my computer
like it was nothing. It’s now working better than it has in a long time. Also,
he only charged me half price!
 |
| Probably the most terrifying moment of my life, but a job well done! Also, disgusting dust clog. Yuck. |
 |
| Speaking of books, my pupils keep bringing me them because they 'love me' and they saw me reading at school. Oh Uganda... :P |
Tomorrow starts the 3rd week of school. I’ve had
a good 1st two weeks at the new place. I like all of my teachers and
it’s very convenient living so close. My counterpart was assigned a transfer to
another school, but we went to talk to the district education officer and she
got to come back! I hope she can stay all year because she is AWESOME. There
are a lot more pupils at this school than at my last which is a little
overwhelming, but I’ve begun doing reading assessments with the P4 pupils so I
can start reading groups. There are a lot of other things I’m ready
to get into motion as well. Like on Tuesday, some teachers and I are taking 2
pupils from each class on a field trip to the library in town. They’ll learn
how to use a library properly so they can share that knowledge with their
classmates for how to use our school library.
 |
| The P4 class. Wow. |
 |
| So cuuuute! |
Fun story: Bats live in my roof. Usually they don’t disturb
me other than dropping things and making noise. The other night I woke up to
one of them being stuck on top of my mosquito net. (I work up a bit later to a
mouse with the same problem) Then a couple nights after that, the bat somehow
managed to get stuck under my bed. Friday, I walk into my room and there he is,
just chillin’ on my bed post. So my friend helped me scoop him up in a can and
release him outside. I’m sure he’ll find his way back and I can still hear a
lot of creatures up there, but it was a total TIU (This Is Uganda) moment.
As I’ve mentioned, my new place is in a very convenient location
so I’ve been having a lot of visitors. I had a very nice birthday lunch last
week with my PCV neighbors and some more came this weekend for a Chinese New
Year/Valentine’s Day celebration. Involved lots of good food of course. My house is finally all organized and I’ve
also been keeping busy with other personal goals I’m wanting to work on this
year.
 |
| Happy (late) Valentine's Day & Xin Nian Kuai Le (next week)! |
This year has started out really well and I’m feeling very
happy to be here. Now, I’m going to go enjoy this rainy Sunday by drinking some tea
while snuggled up on the couch watching a movie. Chocolate will probably be involved as well. As always, thanks for the love
and support <3 <3
No comments:
Post a Comment