May
17
On being Foreign
Posted by: Natasha Chiang | May 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment
It was our second day at the community library today. So far we’ve had meetings with the head librarian and two board members, and determined which projects we will be heading for this summer. I will be in charge of coordinating four inter- district events designed to promote reading, writing, speech- making, and debate skills. We’ve realized that there is a lot of flexibility in this placement– we are in charge of drafting our plans and also to implement them. We are learning much more in this flexible environment, applying our planning skills and exploring new areas of management and leadership.
At home there are five children who stay on the homestead, who come greet us with hugs every day we are back from work. The family is also extremely generous, always making sure we are well fed, that we’ve got the very best, and that we feel at home. Each morning we go for a jog at 6AM, at which time most families have already been up and finished in their gardens. They all greet us as we go by, and we get to practice our newly acquired Lunyole words as we pass by them. Here, everyone says ‘kojeyo’ (hello! how are you), to which one would reply, ‘huliyo! kojeyo?’. Literally everyone does this whenever they meet someone even within earshot. It’s a really friendly culture, I am in love with the people’s kind hearts here..
Besides the kind atmosphere here, it is also very apparent how much love students have for learning here. There is something about the family structures here that has raised extremely obedient and hardworking, rearing children who rarely complain and are always eager to learn or teach.
Even with all these positive impressions I have of this village, this afternoon I felt a twinge of unease that I realize was always there… I have been more stressed out than I’ve acknowledged. The stress is definitely from the stares we get everyday, some friendly, some naive, others more distrustful of us than others. I’ve filled up so many pages of my journal. I haven’t gotten to type up any of my thoughts and records these couple days because power has been down in our compound.
I am living in a small house with three rooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. It is in the village of Mugulu beside the village of Busolwe, both in the district of Butaleja beside the district of Mbale. I am starting to form mental maps of where I am in Uganda.
The dirt roads are extremely bumpy. We bike to work, so I get to tone my legs every day for 40 minutes to and from our compound.