life in lugazi

Oli Otya! or, as the slightly more hip Ugandans would say, Jeballe!

Sorry it's been a little while since my last post - the power here is not the most reliable, and the internet was down somehow due to CHOGM... but now all that craziness is over and life in Lugazi is returning to normal: hot, buggy, and filled with adorable children chanting "how are you mzungu!?" over and over again

We've begun teaching at our placement and so far it is going very well. Valence wants us to focus on "fine art" (think mr dressup crafts), debate classes, and Physical Education - basically all the stuff that leaves a bit of room for the kids to be creative and have fun, so it's been a blast. It's amazing how good they are at painting and such when they've rarely (if ever) had access to these types of material before. Some of them come from the hardest backgrounds imaginable but all they seem to do in classes is smile and laugh, so it's a great experience for us too.
On the first day we had a "getting to know everyone" class with the P. 5 s and we asked them their name, how many brothers and sisters, and what they want to be when they grow up (which, by the way, is pretty much split between doctors and socce players) and many children in the half had upwards of 15 siblings, some had even lost count - polygamy is fairly common.
Our main form of transportation here is a taxi van built to hold 14, which are over-crowded on a regular basis to help the drivers combat rising gas prices. On the last count, there were 26 passengers in our 14-seater... I think by the end of this trip I will either be cured of my claustrophobia, or have jumped out one of the van windows. We ride on these taxis at least twice daily to get to our placements.

Lugazi is a lovely little village, but unfortunately its stores are somewhat lacking in the "Mzungu" food - not a chocolate bar or bag of oatmeal in sight and i'm down to my last serving!
Oh well, I'm starting to really like Beans and Posho, which is made from maize flour mixed with boiling water, a meal many people here eat 2 times a day as it is cheap and fills you up.

Well, the mosquitos are starting to come out so I should run for cover under my mosquito netting. Hopefully soon I will be posting some pictures of our trip so far!

Weraba!