Week 6- Magic Moments

While some weeks are very challenging, this week has been full of magic moments. Here are the highlights from my sixth week in Uganda!

1. Making Friends- As an extrovert one of the hardest parts of being here is not having friends to share my experience with. While many people here speak English as a second language, it is spoken with varying levels. I am learning Rutoro but at the moment the only one I can converse with is Leon! I spent three days this week traveling with the two Americans; Holly and Alice that I met at the guest house in Fort Portal. As fate would have it meeting them couldn’t have come at a better time for me and they were even here working on a similar conservation project though the OR Zoo.

2. Spending the night in a tree house- In Kibale National Park you can spend the night in a tree house that’s deep in the forest. Alice, Holly, and I decided to book it for one night. The tree house is very cool, you have to walk about 1/2 mile to get to it. It sits about 30 feet up in the air and over looks this beautiful clearing that elephants like to frequent. We didn't see any elephants but we did hear the most incredible sounds in the forest at night. It was such a an amazing experience.

3. The naming ceremony- There are two regions in this country that give pet names and there are only 12. On the night that I was to be given my pet name, we had a ceremonial meal of millet bread ( the only food here I don’t like), cassva, beef, matoke, beans and beer. The family preformed some songs and dances then all took turns suggesting names. They decided on Atenni for me which means snake goddess! The name then had to be blessed by a burst of laughter by everyone present (no I'm so not making this up). Evidently, the way this works if you respect someone than you call them by their pet name. I had people asking me if I had one yet- so I'm glad to be able to tell them yes now.

4. Getting trapped in the latrine- Uganda has two kinds of seasons, rainy and dry. Rainy season has officially started; so far it’s not so bad we just have one rainstorm a day. One evening, I went to the latrine and while I was there a huge rainstorm started with lighting, thunder and a strong downpour. I decided to stay in the latrine thinking it would pass. What I didn’t know was everyone in the house was watching me and laughing at me being trapped in the latrine. The storm wasn’t slowing down so Grace (one of the teenage girls) came and got me with an umbrella.

5. Calls and emails from home- I appreciate every email and phone call, it’s always great to hear from familiar voices.

6. Leon locking me in my banda- I had the door closed while I was changing and Leon didn’t like that as he was on the other side trying to get in. So using the outside lock he locked me in my house!! He couldn’t unlock it and was crying because he couldn’t get to me so I had to call out to his sister to come and unlock my house so I could get out!

7. Meeting people from all over the world- This week alone I’ve had meals with folks from with Switzerland, Oregon, Massachusetts, Austria, England, Germany, the Netherlands and of course Uganda. The family serves lunch to many the visitors who want to experience an authentic Ugandan meal so I have the opportunity to eat with visitors from all over the world here at “home”. When I go into Fort Portal and stay overnight at the guest house, I also meet the most fascinating people, the last two nights I was the only American at the table but we had 5 countries represented! In the last six weeks, I have met amazing people both Uganda’s trying hard to make their lives better and folks from all over the world working on a variety of development projects.

8. Having the wind in my hair-I’ve never thought of myself as the motorcycle ridding type but even I have to admit that there is something to having the wind in your hair as your going 40 miles an hour on these crazy dirt roads. My longest boda-boda ride so far has been about 25 mins and I loved it!

9. I’m on the Hollins website- Hollins has posted a short blurb about my work here and link to my blog on the alumnae accomplishment page- http://www.hollins.edu/alumnae/accomplishments.htm! I feel so very proud to have been included.