Sex Ed in Naggalama

Today is overcast with a bit of sun pocking through.

Ahh, the first official week in Naggalama, where I am working at my own schedule is over. This week was definitely out of the ordinary fantastic.

Firstly however, I must delve my two current frustrations. Now, it is most likely that I just need a shower and am just having a bad day, but I will delve anyways. To begin, being called “Mzungu, Muzungu” about 50 times a day is not all it’s cracked up to be. I am not completely enjoying it anymore. I know I am a Muzungu. I will be a Muzungu today, tomorrow and probably the day after that. I do recognize that there have only been about 9 volunteers (one of which was Ugandan, so 8 whites) in Naggalama, so it’s really exciting to kids their but it is always the same kids calling me and Yvonne that. All day, all the time. It’s not always nice to be pointed at because you’re different. Secondly, we have come back into Mukono for the night to use the internet. I feel as though I am going through some mini culture shock. One of the girls is really rich and brought her laptop (among other fine technology). There are also about 4 official residents at the guest house, which is in a city. They were watching LOST (season 2) as we came in, and then they were talking about things that to me seem (already) trivial. It was very tiring. Then they got mad because Yvonne and I decided to skip the Luganda lesson. This is frustrating because we only get the internet once a week, and have picked up a lot in the village… where as they just hang out all day and speak English. Plus this girl has bought so much cool stuff already, and I will be honest in saying I’m jealous that I can’t just dish out money to buy 3 drums that I would really really love to have and play with.

Okay, but that is all for ranting. Let’s follow the Ugandan spirit and be happy eh?

Firstly, my tan has come quite far. Ugandans are very funny. They say “Kali Bambi” (so sorry) when they feel bad for you. I will take off my watch and show my impressive watch tan but they don’t understand why my skin is changing and will say in the most sympathetic African voice “Kali Bambi.” It is sort of Canadian, and makes me laugh very much.
So Sunday, upon arrival to the guest house and after about 5 hours of the Ugandan game (a card game similar to UNO, but better) it began to rain. I was so excited, and so in the mood to get some beer from the gas station near by that to convince my unenthused roommate I put on her yellow poncho (which we have no deemed the condom suit) and my rainbow toque. This convinced her to put on my clear plastic poncho and her rainbow sweater as we set out to the gas station. It was a jolly good night. Here people drink everything with a straw. So I put my straw into my beer and of course, overflow of foam. Of course, I couldn’t think straight I was laughing so hard and Yvonne was yelling “drink it drink it!” which I did. In short, foam everywhere. Now our apartment smells like beer. It was good fun, but then the bottle broke by the end of the night. Here you must always return your bottles. Hmm… So I brought back the one good bottle and then told the gas station manager about the mishap with the other. He yelled, I paid. Needless to say, we will be getting our beer from somewhere else from now on.

The week was really great. I absolutely adore NDESE (this private school in a near by village called Nakifuma … pronounced Nachifuma). I teach reproductive health (three cheers for talking about sex all day!) and computer classes to the teachers. I really really love it. After a second long lesson on Thursday (as now I will be going twice a week… Monday and Thursday) I proposed the idea of a more creative kind of project. So basically, I will teach half a class and then the other half they can do creative stuff, something they don’t often do. The P7 class will perform skits in groups of 4 (there are about 50 students). The P6 class however is 90 students (one of which is… get this… 87, and is now my official hero as he only wanted to go back to school!) so they will simply write creative projects instead of presenting. However, they have never done skits so it might be an interesting process; oh well worth a go!

Suubi, the nursery school, is just fantastic. The kids are so funny. On Wednesday I had a nice shower, got nice and clean… hmm, mistake? I got to the school and was chased by about 60 dirty African kids under the age of 7 (who can run about as fast as me by the way). My newly cleaned t-shirt was covered in dirt and who knows what. I was also sweaty as hell and dirty as hell. Doesn’t help that kids here don’t have toilet paper so they pretty much just wipe and then wipe on the wall… if you know what I mean.

The Youth Group is especially great. We might get some money for them to get started on a bigger income generating project. Well, there is a Pig Farm another volunteer started, but when she left MUMYO sorta gave up on it. So now it is getting finished slowly. Turns out the man who owns the pigs is forcing MUMYO to take them. So we (Yvonne and I) told the youth that if they finished it then they could get some money. They are going to finish it by next Wednesday! Yay! And the Pig Farm is to make money for MUMYO so that they can finally finish the orphanage they also never finished. That way the 230 orphans in Naggalama will have a home and food, maybe even school!! This is the accomplishment of the week; and I will tell you more about the final product next week! Woop! Best of all however is that even the Muslims are going to work on the farm. It will be great to see Muslims and Christians working hand in hand to finish a pig farm for the greater good. Peace in a teamwork, it's a beautiful thing.

Yesterday there was a grasshopper with only one leg in my clothing. After much jumping and screaming I killed it. It then, in a final furry for life, jumped out into the air and back onto the ground behind my clothing sitting on my backpack. After some more freak out Yvonne and I pushed my backpack back and just decided to forget about it. That is when I picked up the book I had used to kill it and got grasshopper goop all over my hands. This made me jump across our little compound, grab onto the door and start fake crying to Yvonnes continuous also freak outs. Good fun. Good fun.

Oh and before i forget, i was proposed to! My boss at MUMYO (Lawrence) took off one of my bracelets and then proceded to put it back on me saying that in some tribes in the Buganda area that this means the man is proposing. Kind of awkward, but now i get to tell him to dress up and be around the office, since, you know, I am his fiance and all...

Enjoy the break to all those who have now stumbled upon this joyous time. Africa is great, I would take peeing in a hole in the ground and putting up with cockroaches the size of my hand over school in Canada any day.