Today marks 173 days since we left the UK and exactly 175 until we land back in it.
oh oh oh
It's 9:30 on a Friday and I recently discovered that I hate teaching so instead of being at school I'm in an internet cafe in Hoima town. I'm joking - it's my day off: but I have come to the realisation that I will never want to be a teacher. Beginning of term scheming and lesson planning is killing me! I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of things eventually - I just need time to re-adjust from the holidays.
I am seriously enjoying being back at school though... The last two weeks since we started have gone so fast and for sure I was ready to end the holiday. On top of that I love my P5 class so much. Having said that they disturbed me so seriously the other day that I refused to mark their books and they got so annoyed at me. haha
It's not been long since I wrote but a lot has happened - We spent a week in Kampala, collected our life belongings from our old home and shifted them to our new one, we had meetings with schools in the areas and were invited to teach, we started teaching, Clara had her friend visit Hoima for the weekend and I got more friction burns from over-washing. Not really anything exciting but we're accepting the fact that we're just settleing nicely into Ugandan life and nothing IS that exciting anymore. That's not to say that we're taking it for granted, all I'm saying is you can't get too over exctied about handwashing and friction burns when it's already happened 4 times in your six short months.
The plans of moving straight into our new independant house fell through and after long discussions over whether we now spend the next six months looking for a new home or just settle we now find ourselves with the most wonderful host family we could ask for; Godfrey refers to us as his daughters and Janet is always so happy to see us, Monica, Grace, Freddie and Josh have truly taken us on like sisters and there's been no trouble settling in at all because they're all just such incredible open people. While we were looking forward to the independance of our own house, the relationship we're now building with this family who are surely becoming like our very own is worth more than any novelty of cooking for ourselves every night or making all of our own decisions. And of course there we still have serious independance, but as with any family compromises and considerations have to be taken. We're happy anyway and we're learning alot.
In other news we're gaining serious perspective on world news and views and have found ourselves in the centre of many debates over the newly passed homosexuality and pornography bill. I'm not really sure how much is being reported over there so in a brief brief summary the President of Uganda has just agreed to sign the bill criminalizing homosexuality in all forms and in the backbite the US are threatening to withdraw all aid.
If you're not here it's something you're going to see as very black and white; of course the bill is ridiculous and completley unworth loosing the support of the western world for... but it's seriously complicated. The view that homosexuality is so so unatural and damaging is something that Ugandan's literally seem to have ingrained in them - when you try and convince them otherwise it becomes very very clear that there's no way that they can believe anything other than what they've been brought up to know.
The general view is that the President has the forthcoming elections in mind and needs to keep his people happy but in the process of doing so hundreds of people will die; the countries promosing to cut all ties with Uganda are the ones who provide medication for malaria, HIV, the ones who staff hospitals AND the ones who run Watoto! I don't know what's going to happen to all of that but it scares me seriously!
Still it's something big to have such an inside view on something that's happening so far from my home life and I seriously cherish the views I've been given the oppertunity to look at.
They're also making it seriously illegal to dress inappropriatley which involves the possibility of arrest if found in a mini skirt! The MP's are saying they're eager to get back to traditional Ugandan culture which I think is fair enough but I fear even for future volunteers: our uniform talk was very easy, mostly long skirts, cover yourself etc. etc. but now it's going to involve the possibility of arrest in every piece of wrong-advise. haha, ooooh I don't know.
I know I said that I applied for uni but don't know if I told you that it was for International Relations and Global Development? Anyway it was, and it was mainly because of this stuff. I never found myself interested before but somehow having a front row seat to all of this has sparked my interest majorly. And I never even thought I'd go to uni; but this is a course I feel seriously up for.
Until April 25th now we're back into full time teaching and I fear that if I decide to write a blog it will only be detailing the everyday routine of waking, teaching, eating and sleeping. It's seriously NOT as dull as my lack of writing-imagination skills make it sound, in the evening we sit in the garden with the family and help to prepare supper on the charcoal stove, we go to the babies home and relax with our good friends but still it's every day normalities that we now feel so comfortable in in our life in Uganda. I think I'll venture somehow to spice up my life and then come and write a blog post about it but we'll see. There's a nice hill in Hoima, maybe I'll climb that for you. hahaha
Half way there... that's serious and I wish I had something insightful to say but I'm stuck for words. Before leaving literally my biggest fear was homesickness and while I get days where I'm like 'oh, I miss home'- it really hasn't hit me at all. I'm still enjoying every aspect of Uganda and now being six months in and truly settled it feels so good to feel like a resident and now a tourist. I can find my way around Kampala with out looking like a lost muzungu and know where to go to get what I need and it just feels nice because it has taken this long for it all to click. For sure I can't imagine my life without this year; I wouldn't have a clue who I was or where I was going and now I know. And I've gotten that in six months and there's still six more to go so who knows what else there is to discover.
The holiday just gone it was the right decision for me to stay and volunteer somewhere but I'm keen to travel in the next holidays now. (all the other volunteers photos made me jelous haha). No but really, six more months shows me that I've still got enough time to do all of the things I want to do and I know that I've used my time so far well. I just can't believe how fast it's all gone.
Hope the UK or wherever you're reading from is nice.
P.S Thought everyone would be interested to know that the previous blogpost with the 'gossip' on our project change got more views than any other blogpost I've ever written. I thought it was funny because no matter where everyone is in the world they still love gossip! haha, thanks for reading! Speak sooooon xxx
