Runyoro/Rutooro Language Class

Here are a few pictures from my past week in Kyenjojo. Language training and homestay have both been a tremendous challenge for me. A week and a half to go!

Here are the nine of us that will be serving in the western part of Uganda. From left to right: me, David, Tom, James, Becca, Hope, Coy, Katie, and Danielle. We will be spread throughout the region, but I think remaining within an hour or two of each other. It is a wonderful group and I am thankful to have their support during this portion of the training. The language is getting the best of me and beyond simply greetings, I am lost. In all honesty, it's a difficult language because it's a spoken language, past down through the generations (not taught in schools), and I'm not the only one struggling. The grammar, spelling, and pronunciations are bizarre. 

These are some of the girls from my homestay family. They are playing with a deck of Uno cards that I brought from the US, but they prefer to play some kind of matching game rather than the actual Uno game. I tried to teach them the real game, and they will play it with me, but left on their own, they play the matching game. I think my homestay has been difficult because there are so many girls coming and going. They are all orphans and bounce around from homes to shelters. There are about ten regulars at the house that I have gotten to know, and another ten that may look familiar, but I couldn't tell you their names or backstory. The parents (pastors and the founders of the actual shelter that houses 90 children) are rarely home either, so the girls fend for themselves and do their best to take care of me. They are very sweet, I'm just overwhelmed!

My new yard pets. I'm enjoying the chickens that run around. It the comic relief at the end of a hard day in language class. I hope to have a few when I get to my own home. 

This is Moreen. She came to the home at age 11. She is now 20, finished with school, and stays at the house to do the cooking and cleaning. I would be lost without her!

I saw this bamboo fence while walking around the neighborhood. I thought it was well made, very pretty, and a welcome relief to all of the barb wire strung up around here. 

Ugangan cake... Can you tell from the picture how horrible it was?!!! Hard and dry. That was the worst cake I have ever eaten. We went to a wedding and there was one if these cakes on every table. The Ugandan guests seemed to be enjoying them. It was only the table of American guest that were unable to choke it down. 

This was a fountain at the hotel we stopped at before the wedding. A monkey spitting water! The bride and groom actually got pictures taken by the fountain. Now that's class!

I'll finish with a beautiful pineapple plant. There are two kinds of pineapples here; the one found in our US grocery stores and a smaller, sweeter one. The fruits are the only saving grace for me as far as food is concerned. I will have to do a blog entry at some point on what the locals eat. Hint... Don't come to Uganda for the food! You will be crying for home by the week's end. 

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone had a memorable celebration.

Danielle's home stay is the house were we held our celebration. They had the cutest baby goats! 

I had a very memorable day. The volunteers here in Kyenjojo and I got together for an American meal. Of course we were limited by what we were able to find at the market, so our American meal consisted of guacamole, potato salad, and beef stew. It was all very delicious even if it was not hotdogs and apple pie. There are no chips here either, so we ate our guacamole with carrot sticks. I have two years to figure out how to turn yellow corn meal into tortilla chips. Send recipes!

After our meal, we went for a walk through the countryside and found a herd of cows. As we walked closer, I realized that the cows were not in a fenced pasture, they were free to roam anywhere they pleased. I asked the others, "is anyone concerned that there is no fence separating us from the cows?" They all said "na" and we kept walking.  Well, sure enough, not five minutes later one of the cows thought we had gone far enough and commenced loudly mooing... a very angry mooing. A few more steps and we pushed too far, the cow came after us. We promptly turned around and briskly walked back the way we came. The cow followed us, angrily mooing, at a slow trot. There was a tree line and a tea field beside the trail we were following, so our escape plan, if the cow got too close, was to run into the bushes or climb a tree. The guys farthest behind kept saying "don't run, he's still coming, don't run". It was terrifying and hilarious all at the same time. Eventually the cow stopped, we had walked beyond his territory, and he went back to the others in the herd. Hahaha, how many Americans can say they got chased by an African cow on Independence Day?!

Enjoy the pictures. I miss you all. 

An African cow - check out those horns! This is not the cow that chased us, but it's the same type. This one was wondering through the field near my home stay house. I asked one of the girls if the owner worried about losing him and she said no, he would find him. Weird, this thing was just tromping through everyone's property. 

Here I am at the market. Very primitive; no fancy tents or advertisements, no delicacies or homemade treats, and no ready-made, prepackaged food, just piles of produce set up on make-shift stands. 

These are shops that line the main road in Kyenjojo. They have everything you could need, maybe not everything you want, but I'm doing just fine. Running water and a refrigerator would be nice, but that's not going to happen in this town. 

Homestay

Here are a the first few pictures of my homestay family. They are not glamorous, quite poor actually. The father is a pastor and the mother works at the orphanage founded by the church. They have many children living in their house that are also orphans. They say they just cannot turn anyone away, they are all God's children. I am having a hard time remembering all their names, especially the one with names that are not common to me (i.e. not American names, ones I cannot pronounce or even try to spell).

The yard. The wooden structure to the left is the kitchen, the cement structure in the middle is the bath house and pit latrine. No running water, when I say bath house, I mean room with a slanted floor and a hole to the outside at the bottom of the slant. We take a bucket of water, a cup, and all of our shower essentials into the room and "bath". It works and I am clean, I even have one of the girls heat water for me so I can have a warm bucket bath!

As you can see from the picture, we have dogs and chickens in the yard. I wish we had grass, when it rains, the dirt get very slick.

The front of the house. There are only three rooms inside, a sitting room in the middle, my bedroom to the right, and the parent's bedroom to the left. The children sleep on the other side of the house that has a different entranceway, it's like a duplex. I'm still not sure how many children they are housing on the other side. New face seem to appear each day, and like I said, I cannot remember most of the names, I feel terrible asking all the time then not understanding what they've just told me! Ugandans are very soft spoken and the children are very shy with me.

Here I am asking one of the girls how to pronounce a word in Rotooro. They all seem to find it funny that I am trying to learn their language. They speak very good English, but I need to pass my language courses so I'm studying. Looks like the potatoes and rice are already adding to my midsection!

Here is Omega (on the left) and Sharon, both nine years old. Omega is their youngest biological child; Sharon is one of the orphans they've taken into their home. They are very sweet and have been a tremendous help getting me settled into their way of life and making me feel welcomed.

Lots more pictures to come. I must get ready for school now... not that my brain can take in any more information!