Future Site Visit - Almost done w/ Training

Future Site Visit last week went as well as could be asked for. I left Luweero around 6:30 am with a mutatu (a van taxi) brimming with Muzungu’s (the local word for “white person”) and arrived in Kampala after some interesting and bumpy side roads to avoid traffic. A quick search through the bookstore for a Luganda-English dictionary (I was a bit miffed that I couldn’t find one) and a delicious and rare meal of mini-pizza were the only distractions on my way to the taxi park.

A big, flat, dirt lot, surrounded by small market stands, crammed with mutatu’s and people which at times will try and grab you to get into their taxis (regardless of where you actually want to go)—the taxi park can be a bit intimidating. Also, I’m really glad that I went to a big university because I gained some valuable “walking skills” there, namely “collision avoidance.” In a big crowd at UW you walk with purpose, you point your head in the direction you’re going, and must constantly adjust as you look at the flow of people around you on all sides. It’s important to have that skill in a taxi park where there’s not only people moving every which way, but also taxis navigating the throngs and impossibly small lanes.

Anyway, no real problems, I just pulled out some basic “Kayonza Stage eri wa?” [Where’s the Kayonza Stage?] and some “Saagala (amazzi, emere, omugaati, amawulire, etc…) ssebo” [I don’t want (water, food, bread, newspaper, etc.)] to all the vendors that circulate the park. After deflecting that for two hours—you often have to wait for a taxi to fill up before it leaves, there’s not a set schedule—it was smooth sailing to Kayonza.

Kayonza is a pretty small town about 24 km north of Kayunga on a bumpy dirt road (the district, like a county, has the same name). It has roughly the same environment as Luweero because it is only about 50 miles to the east and the thing I noticed most about it is how quiet and tranquil it is. The main road runs through the town, but when a mutatu drives by you can hear it when it is far down the road and draws your attention with all its noise. During the five days I was there I didn’t do too much beyond visit nearly 20 schools by bike, but at most there was nobody or maybe a teacher or two because it was in between terms. I also talked more with my counterpart and he was very nice in accommodating me in his house. Currently my house has a few problems (bats, no furniture, dirty walls, and massive spiders), but I should be able to iron them out in the first couple weeks or so. I also realized how spoiled I am here at the Mukiibi home where they have battery backup and I got to experience bathing, eating, and reading by lantern light because of how infrequently the electricity actually works. One night we also had tea outside by moonlight around 8:30, which was almost surreal and pretty friggin’ sweet.

Not much more to report there, except that I managed to get my cell phone stolen on the way back through Kampala (sorry to all those that didn’t even know I had it, I didn’t call the States because it’s so expensive, I was mostly using it to keep in contact with other PCT’s)– pretty big bummer, but I should get a new one soon and whoever wants the number should just let me know (I don’t want to post it here on public domain).

This week has dragged a bit because there’s just a lot of things to do, and my mind has been a little divided: we present our Qualifying Projects, must pass the Language Proficiency Interview, and dance / sing (and in my case, give a speech in Luganda) at the Homestay Thank You. As of today, the first one is thankfully done.

Next week, we’ll be in Kampala getting everything finalized before we’re sworn in and shipped out to our sites on Thursday (the 10th). That’s all for now.

Love & Stuff from the other side of the world,
Ryan (a.k.a. Migadde)

P.S. One problem I’m running into is where to put all my pictures. I’m starting to think I probably should’ve brought my computer as a place of storage and also so I can write these blog entries without having to pay for the internet time. If I get lucky, maybe I’ll find a computer with a CD-burner nearby Kayonza or at least in Kampala and I can start putting pictures on those (and I say “lucky” because I haven’t seen one yet).