Homestay!

I am currently on a two week home stay, where I am living with a Ugandan family in the town of Mukono, within walking distance of the university. I share a room in the house with another American USP student, and the family we are staying with is pretty big. There are five children, (Daphne, Desmond, David, Douglas, and Denise) their mother Rebecca, and Rebecca’s sister. Ananias, the father, is currently working in London, but frequently calls to check up on the family. There is a pretty consistent schedule in the household…everyone wakes up before eight, Mama or Daphne washes dishes from the night before, they walk to the market to purchase food from the market, start preparing lunch, and the boys or their aunt walk down to the well to fill up the jerrycans with clean water. They eat lunch around three, then wash dishes, prepare food for dinner and tea time, we have tea (with a snack) around 7:30 while watching the family’s favorite Spanish soap opera, then bathe the children with the water that just finished boiling. We finish cooking dinner and eat around 10 or 10:30 at night. Since yesterday, though, me and the other USP student Kristen have been going to class all day, so we don’t get home until around tea time. It is a 45 minute walk between home and campus through the town of MukonoThe children are all wonderful and a lot of fun. Daphne, who is 11 years old, is extremely intelligent and helps translate everything for us and teaches us how to wash our dishes in their special routine. She is leaving for boarding school next Monday though. Desmond (9) and David (5) are a handful, but are both super observant. Douglas is very rambunctious, and doesn’t really enjoy wearing clothes very often, and Denise is one of the calmest and quietest toddlers I have ever met. Yesterday, the family all sat down and watched the inauguration of Obama together (the local news station was airing CNN for it), and Douglas kept running around saying “obamaobamaobamaobamaobama”! Many Ugandans and other Africans I have met are very excited about our new president, for several reasons. In Uganda, there has been a long history of corrupt presidencies, and their current President Museveni has been in power for over 20 years. Also, Africa very rarely has a peaceful transfer of power, so America’s peaceful process of handing over control of the country is fascinating and inspiring to them. Another aspect is that there is a lot of tribal prejudices in this country, so they really understand the significance in the election of a black man in America.

The family has also been teaching us how to cook some traditional Ugandan foods, like matoke, posho, and japote (I probably spelled all of those wrong), over small charcoal stoves outside. The home consists of two buildings, the main house which has all the bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and a bathing room. Behind the house there is a small building with three rooms, a kitchen, a storage room, and a playroom. The latrines (a stall with a hole in the ground) are separate from the house too. That is a challenge in itself because every time I go, I pray to God to spare me from the cockroaches that live in there! Every chore that would traditionally be relatively simple in the U.S. is a long and drawn out processes with many steps. For example, at home, to take a bath you just step into the shower. Well, here, they have to walk down a hill to a well, fill a jerrycan with water, lug that back up the hill, boil it over a charcoal stove, carry it into the house, pour it into a basin, fill it with some cold water to even the temperature, then you just splash the water from the basin on you to wash. So, the day is very long, but it really makes you appreciate the final product when it takes so much work.

I also got my service project assignment this week, but it wasn’t my first choice, which was to work with Off-tu. I am now going to be serving on campus, either at the day care or the children’s library, so I am looking forward to starting that in two weeks. My classes are going very well, and I am finally feeling very comfortable in my schedule here. The Ugandan Honors College students at UCU are really accepting and are so friendly and helpful. I have gotten to know a couple of girls on my hall really well, like Viola, Trisha, and Agatha. I am very healthy and am enjoying the food here. Well, I am heading to lunch now (rice and beans again!).
I will try and post a photo on here tomorrow, when I have an hour or two to spare!