Typical Wednesday and Thursday

Regular Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday started out as a regular day in Uganda. I was woken up by my 10 roommates around 6:30. For some unknown reason they like to get up early and sit around and chat. I managed to stay in bed until around 8 though. I took an ice cold shower for about 1 minute and managed to find some clothes that were not terribly covered with dirt and dust (today is laundry day for the guys, so I will have “clean” clothes for tomorrow.)

I then took the short walk to Katharina’s restaurant for breakfast all by myself. When I walk from the hotel to the restaurant it is like I am a celebrity walking down the red carpet. I have kids running up screaming “Ryan” “Munu” (white person) or “Obama.” It was a lot of fun for the first month, but it is getting a little annoying now and I find myself shimmying along the wall so nobody sees me. I am sure I look ridiculous, but it is a huge pain to re-wash your hands at the restaurant. I don’t mind so much on the way home, but I try to avoid everyone on my walk there.
Anyway, I had delicious pineapple, an egg, chapatti, and a really tasty “doughnut”, it might have been the best breakfast yet. Also the coffee here is really good, and I have a really difficult time starting the day without it.

After breakfast I went back home and got ready for school. I got my bag and my wallet, and of course my sunglasses and hat for the Boda Boda ride. I took about 15 steps out of my place and about 6 Boda Boda drivers were in my face in a matter of seconds. I choose the one that looked like he would drive the fastest because I was a little late, and off we went. I made probably the worst choice of all time because not only was he THE SLOWEST Boda Boda driver of all time, he went in the complete wrong direction and it took about 30 minutes to get to work. It was a beautiful ride through an area I have never been in before (which is a little frightening to think about) but, I was kind of in a rush and this was not the best day to get lost. He eventually got me to school. I was covered with dirt, a half hour late, and wearing the most wrinkled shirt in Uganda. However, when I walked in the teacher’s room everyone was thrilled to see me and nobody even questioned why I was late or looked like I had just rolled around in the mud and crawled to work. In fact, my teacher was not even there yet. Time in Uganda is VERY casual. It is more like “class might start around 8:30, if you can get there, that would be great, if not, we’ll just start a little later.” This is hilarious because it seems like no matter what time class starts, it always ends at the same time.

So, after rushing to work and panicking because I was late, more time passes and my teacher does not even show up. My only class for the day had been canceled. Now what?
I found my other teacher (Tonny)and planned with him for the next day (Thursday), we actually did a lot of work, and it was well worth my time coming in for the day. I stayed for tea time (a daily occurrence, which involves some delicious tea and something like little fried dough balls.) It is my favorite time of the day, and 100 times better than lunch.

I ended up leaving school after tea time and headed to pick up my shorts at the fabric place that I was at yesterday. Let me just tell you that they are the most hysterical shorts I have ever seen in my life. The girls I was with specifically told the lady that I did not want pleats, I guess my shorts have as lot of pleats in them (that is what they tell me) and they are SKIN TIGHT. They are hilarious and I can’t wait to wear them around when I get home to the States. I also got a matching shirt made which is definitely wearable, although the buttons are a little uneven. Oh well, for ten dollars I got shorts and a shirt custom made and I am sure the laughter that I will bring to people’s faces when I wear them will be worth the ten dollars.

After the fabric lady I went to Café Larem which as always was filled with Munu. We all know everyone there because we are all there on a daily basis. If we are not there to use the internet, we are there to have an ice coffee, read, or have some of the only ice cream in Gulu (which they just started making last week.) Some of the group 1 girls were there and some of my buddies from group 2 and we decided to go to the Green Tavern for a while because we might not have a chance to hang out again because they leave Saturday morning. I, of course, failed to remind them that we had trivia night on Thursday and let them think that this might be the last time we would all hang out.

Kate, Apolo (our Acholi/British friend) and I went first, and not long after did Lisa from group 1 pull up on her Boda Boda. We were quickly joined by Lisa (group 2), Matt, Annie, Abbie, Lauren, and Obie (Apolo’s brother.) We stayed for a couple hours and enjoyed each others company. The group 1 girls had to go home for their last meeting and instead of coming to the hotel for dinner the 7 of us got into Apolo’s car and headed to an amazing Chinese restaurant. The food took a LONG time to order and come out, but when it did I was very happy with our decision to drive here. I ordered the sweet and sour chicken and it was just as good as it is in the States. It is such a big deal when we find places with food we love here because we get the same food over and over again everyday and it is so exciting to get something normal.

Anyway, apparently we came back loud because the next morning everyone yelled at us, but we had a fun night. Thankfully Tonny was at school to plan with today because if he was not there and we did not plan, I would have felt like I did not accomplish anything today. I feel like we are now planned for most of the next two weeks and we can now use our time together for things other than planning.

Thursday
I woke up Thursday listening to people complaining about how loud we were last night. Everyone can hear everything in this place and unless we crawled in on or hands and knees, they would have heard us. I am sure they were not trying their hardest not to wake us up either, but this is all expected when you live with 17 strangers from around the country for a month and a half.

Everyone was completely over everything very quickly because when I walked out of my room I was wearing my brand new outfit of tight pleated shorts and matching button down shirt. Everyone busted out in hysterics and if there was anyone that was not awake, they were awake now. Everyone ran into their room and got their cameras and took pictures of my Huckleberry Fin outfit. Everyone begged and pleaded with me to wear the outfit out today and to trivia night tonight, but I decided against it. I get enough stars simply walking around as a munu, I do not need to draw any more attention to myself. I told them I MIGHT wear it tonight to trivia night because basically everyone there is a munu, and they all know me anyway and won’t think anything of it.

After my fashion show I went to school in normal clothes. I taught with Tonny today and the topic was the causes and effects of British use of indirect rule in East Africa. Can you believe that I am teaching this stuff and actually know what I am talking about?

Tonny introduced indirect rule and some advantages of indirect rule. I then stepped in created a cause and effect chart with the boys. Once again, using visual aids can really help the students see things in a different way. I put the chart on the board (only breaking the flimsy chalk one time this time) and had the students all come up with 3-4 causes for indirect rule being put into use in East Africa. I then had them get into groups and share their answers, and followed that by having students come up to the board and share their work with the class. This is not something that is commonly done in Uganda in the first boy I asked to come to the board seemed unsure and almost nervous, as if it was not alright for him to do. He was probably thinking “does this white man know that we don’t do this in Uganda,” or “I better not get in trouble for this.”

After the first boy successfully wrote his answer on the board and explained it, the rest of the boys were all eager to have their turn. I obviously could not have all the students come up, but I will be sure to choose new boys next time we use the board.

Morris (the boy whose parents died) came and talked to me after class and I explained to him that I would help him figure out where the IC office is so he can get a scholarship form. He wanted to have my phone number so he could call me but I am not sure of what the procedure is on that, so I told him I did not know my number (which I don’t.) I told him that next week we would get together and figure out when is a good time to go to the IC office. He is such a good kid and I hope that it will be easy for him to get these forms and be accepted for the scholarship program.
As I was walking back to the teachers room after talking with Morris, another kid walked up to me and handed me a letter. I did not recognize him, but he obviously knew who I was. I said thank you, and that I would read the letter later. I knew what kind of letter it was going to be because a few of my friends here have already gotten one. It is not the type of letter you want to read in front of the kid that gives it to you. I will call the boy “Bobby.”This is a very common letter that us teachers have been receiving here in Gulu. The stories are very heart-wrenching, but we unfortunately have to remind these poor kids that we are help to help educated them and we cannot hand out money to everyone that asks. It is VERY different from them begging for money. They sincerely want to be our friends and tell us their life stories. They want us to know them and they want to know us. Here is the letter that “Bobby” handed me:

“Dear Brian, (many people here call me Brian because they do not have R’s)
It’s a pleasure to have this chance to communicate to you in this letter. I am a Ugandan by nationality, Acholi by tribe, and a boy of 16 years old.

I am studying in the school mentioned above (he wrote Sir Samuel Baker at the top in a heading), this year I’m in Senior two East (the equivalent of about 9th grade.)
So Brian, I am an orphan. Both of my parents were killed by L.R.A. in 2004 when they were weeding cassava in the village. And they left us five in this world. Now as I am talking, my grandfather who is a peasant farmer is the one taking care of us.
And our problems now are:

School fees. The school which I am studying in is very expensive not only expensive but also a boarding school which needs a lot of requirements which disturbs my grandfather to get it all for me. Due to this fees problem, I keep on paying part payment and they always send me away from the school to go and bring the balance remained. This one make me to stay at home looking for money while missing a lot from school.

Our grandfather always sells me food he harvested from the garden for buying clothes, medicine, and paying our school fees. This leads to famine outbreak at our home. So now, I am requesting you kindly if possible to help me paying my school fees.
I will be gladfull if you put my request under your consideration.
Thank you sincerely,”
“Bobby”

As you can see, it is very difficult to not go to our wallets and help these kids out. But, there must be some sort of procedure these kids have to go through. It sucks, but that is the way things have to work in order to ensure sustainability.
I will keep you all posted as to what happens with these two kids. Hopefully they can both get into the scholarship program, which will ease at least some of their many burdens.

Shifting gears, Kate, Lisa, Sharon and I met some of the teachers we work with at Da Pub around 5 (with Michael and his teacher, Matt, and Big John). It has kind of become a weekly thing, and it is great to hang out with these guys outside of school. They are a blast to hang out with and time always goes by so quick. We unfortunately had to leave them at 7 to go to dinner with the rest of the group, but we made plans for the same time next week.

Finally, Thursday night took us back to Bambu and the last trivia night for group 1. We all did what we promised to do on that first trivia night and dabbled in the bottle of white mischief. It was, as always, a blast, and this week even Tonny, my teacher, met us out. Michelle, Jo, John and I did terrible AGAIN, but I don’t even go for the trivia anymore, it is more for the people there.

Group 3 even made an appearance and then once we cleaned Bambu out, we went to Boma. Michelle and I had a treacherous walk there, but we arrived safely and were there for quite a while. We even left before the rest of group 3 which is unheard of. Like the gentleman I am, I made sure that Michelle got back to the IC house safe and sound, and took the lonely Boda Boda ride back to Katharina’s. I am not sure how much she handed the Boda Boda driver to get me home, but it was the fastest Boda Boda driver in all of Gulu and I reached home in under 2 minutes. I should have gotten his number to take me to school every morning so I don’t have another ride like yesterday morning.

OK, I am sick of writing because I am typing this at Kope Café and there are flys on every part of my body right now and it is taking forever to type because I have to keep stopping to swat them away.

I will post soon about the Safari this weekend.
Wanen (goodbye) for now
Ryan