Watch this video!!!

I know this will probably put you on overload... two posts in one night. I know, crazy right? I had to post this though! One of the guys in our group, Marvin Roxas, is extremely talented and creative. He put together this video of our time at Kulika, so now you can see a little of what life was like for us there! Pay attention to the girls washing clothes, and you will see a familiar face!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwFrfl5ZT1Y&feature=youtu.be

I hope you enjoy! If you think about it, leave a comment youtube for Marvin telling him how awesome he is. It's the truth.  Miss you all!

XOXO

My Month of Moments...

Friends and Family!

I need to ask for your forgiveness for taking so long to post.  I feel like I have left you in limbo for the past month, but the truth is, I steal internet from the Peace Corps when I can get it. This means all 43 volunteers and a random assortment of trainers all duke it out for internet- internet that has no guarantee of working for more than a minute at a time and when you get kicked off, the battle ensues again. We fight tooth and nail. 

Honestly, I am thankful to be able to have any at all! I hope you can be thankful for my internet tonight as I share a little of my Ugandan life.

Let me start from the beginning. I cried a lot. When I say a lot, I mean I could have flooded half of North America had I been there. My mom, dad, Jackson, and Carter dropped me off at the airport in Evansville, Indiana and I had three strangers give me tissues. One lady patted my back awkwardly. I loved her for the three seconds she was touching me. I boarded a plane and headed to Chicago to catch my next flight to Philadelphia for my stateside training. Everyone who knows me should know that I am terrified of being late (Thank you Tom Ackerman, you time Nazi). That coupled with the fact that my plane was the last flight to arrive of all the soon to be volunteers and the fact that I had to find my own way to the hotel, ensured that I said yes when one of the other trainees asked if he could wait for me and share the same shuttle. His name is Andre. We are polar opposites. I knew instantly we would be great friends.

We arrived just in time to drop our bags off and go to the first meeting. Everyone was so bubbly and excited. I was internally debating whether I was doing the right thing. This leads to me finding my next great friend.  We were standing in line for the ATM and while everyone was chatting excitedly, I blurted out, "Is anyone else on the verge of tears." Madison piped up, we shared our first hug, and the rest is history. After we had our 7 hour session, we all headed out on the town to have our last dinner in America. Oh American food... how diverse, how tasty, how I miss you...

The plane ride over was LONG. We had a stop in Brussels and here my favorite travel moment happened.  Our layover started early in the morning and the terminal that we would be flying out of didn't open until later. The people there were awesome and directed us all to a waiting area for a shuttle that would take us there. We all stretched out, laying on the floor or walking around to keep the blood flowing until we could get to our terminal. Mind you, we all just met 2 days before. A girl named Amanda, who is a certified yoga instructor, was near me and started doing some stretches. As soon as she started, a boy named Josh walked by and said, 

       "Oh yeah, Sarah, getting the yoga!"

I was almost 100% positive that her name was Amanda so I said,

       "Your name is Amanda, right?"

It was. The kicker is there are no Sarah's in our group. At all. We mocked Josh incessantly and to this day he still calls her Sarah sometimes. Some people never learn... Amanda is great friend number 3.

I have to stop talking about great friends, because I would have to tell you literally everyone's name. These people are amazing beyond amazing. I am constantly reminded of true beauty and kindness as I watch them interact with each other and the people of Uganda. I will never be able to express to them how much this has meant to me in my month here. The saying "the people make the place" has been proven time and time again to me in my life and this is no exception.

Now, all of these amazing people and I arrived at the airport close to 1 in the morning here. The Peace Corps staff was waiting for us (I hugged every one of them) and we loaded onto buses. We traveled over dirt road for 2 more hours to a training center called Kulika. We settled into rooms and our stay there began. Here we sat through hours and hours of sessions which covered topics like safety and security, medical information, and blah blah blah. It is all really important and I could bore you with acronym after acronym, but I love you and I refuse to do that to you. Volunteers, that have been in country for a while, coupled with the education and training staff to prepare us for the months to come. They did wonderfully. Kulika will always be dear to my heart. As my first home in Uganda, it became a place where I studied the quirks of my new friends, adjusted to new food, and learned about the heart of the agency I had decided to join.

Kulika also spoiled us a bit. It is an organic farm that cultivated all its own food. The sleeping quarters were nice, there were toilets, and there was always running water. This dream land couldn't last, however, because soon we packed up all of our stuff. We sent most of it to a storage bin provided by the Peace Corps and packed only what we thought was essential for our next three months. I have four skirts, four dress shirts, a pair of workout capris, and two t-shirts. To those of you who say that this is plenty... I challenge you to do your laundry in a bucket by hand in the morning before you leave for work. In theory, you could do a little each day but the problem becomes rain. "What if it rains?", you ask. If it rains you step back and reassess. Do my dirty clothes really smell that bad? Did the rain leave that faint mildew smell on my clothes or can I leave them out one more day and wear them when they are dry? Do I truly need to wash them again? You're welcome for giving you a glimpse into the mind of a Peace Corps Uganda Volunteer.

We took our much lighter loads with us to a school called Shimoni Core Primary Teacher's College. This would be our residence for the next two weeks. Prior to leaving Kulika, we had found out what our role would be during our time here. Our group had two options:

       1) work at a Primay Teacher's College (PTC) as a tutor (professor) alongside Ugandan tutors to                       help promote literacy within the classroom as a Teacher Trainer (TT).

       2) work at a Primary School as a Literacy Specialist (LS).

The people here quickly found out I loved children and seeing how Primary School is roughly equivalent to 1st-7th grade in the states, I was assigned to be a Literacy Specialist in a school called Canon Apollo Primary School near a town called Fort Portal. This is where I will be going in January and living for the following 2 years! Our group is the second group with which Peace Corps Uganda has tried implementing a method called grouping. This means that they send more than one volunteer to a site to promote growth. A man from San Diego (Whoot, whoot, Momma!) named Mike will be working at the Core Primary Teacher's College (CPTC) in Canon Apollo. My school is the demonstration school that collaborates with it so that in their second year, students can do their school practice (student teaching). My great friend Madison, whom I mentioned earlier, will be working at another school 1 kilometer away that Mike's college also sends students to for school practice. Madison and I get to be roomies and I am pumped. We are taking donations for decorating our soon to be house. Just kidding... but seriously.

That may all be confusing. If you have more questions, please post them because I would love to clarify... when I have internet. 

At Shimoni, the school we went to after Kulika, we had two weeks of our very own school practice. Those who would be Teacher Trainers stayed at the college and taught classes. Those of us who were Literacy Specialists loaded up on a bus and went to Kira Primary School, making our own attempts at teaching! Teaching is HARD. I learned to lesson plan, decipher the Ugandan curriculum, implement training into a classroom, and work with Ugandan teachers. My first week, I did all of this with a class of about 85 students. This class was a P6 (Primary 6) class. The second week I only had about 45 and they were P3.  They are the little guys.  In Uganda, they do not teach in English until P4, so this was an added challenge, but it is the reality of this kind of classroom setting. It's beautiful when it goes right and WWIII when it goes wrong. Overall I loved it. I said I hated it each day, but looking back I loved it. I also had the best roommates ever here. I posted a picture to Facebook, so you can see Amanda and Madison. The other girl, who I haven't mentioned yet, is Linda and she is hilarious. These girls have been my support as I have learned to love the pit latrine, perfected a bucket bath, and braved the nights with my mosquito net. Life is so new and interesting here in Uganda. It changes from site to site. I know it is hard to picture when you haven't seen it but I will try and post pictures of my time at Shimoni and Kira soon!

Now that our 2 weeks of teaching are done, we are getting a 3 day crash course in the language we will be speaking in our regions for the next 2 years. We have five separate languages being taught to different groups of us, but Uganda as a whole has even more. Tuesday is the day we go for our future site visits. I will spend 3 days in Canon Apollo, meeting the people I will be working for and seeing my house for the first time! 

Mike, Madison, and I will then pack up again and head to Hoima for a 4 weeks of intensive language training. During this time, I will live with a Ugandan family who will help me practice the language and learn how to live daily life in Uganda. If you think about it, please pray for the people who will be housing me. It is extremely gracious of them to open their home and invite me in, so I would love to have some prayers of blessing sent their way. 

After home stay, we will travel somewhere near the capital, Kampala, for a supervisor's workshop and then our swearing in as official Peace Corps Volunteers! I am so excited, nervous, uncertain, thankful... so many emotions have coursed through me in this last month. I am sure they will continue to do so. I keep saying that Uganda is all about the moments. Days are never bad or good. It's in the moments. When I feel like I need to come home, I step back and remind myself that the moment will pass and soon I am able to remember the moments with the smiles of the students and the laughter of my new friends.

As I wrap this post up, I challenge you to look at your life in moments. Cherish the beautiful ones, but also appreciate the bad ones, because they make the toothy smile of a P3 student that much more special. With that being said, continue to follow along. Ask questions. I will do my best to answer them as I get internet. Until then, know that I am sending you lots of love from Uganda!

XOXO