What Can I Say… I Like To Read

I like to read and I read a lot since I have a large amount of time where nothing is happening in Uganda.  Thankfully, people here in Fort Portal and the West like to read and want to learn to read so there are a lot of books around. Here is a list of books I have read so far (I will continue to update as the months go on) since arriving in June of 2014. Some have the dates I finished reading them – I’ve been working on reading one book a week. 

My goal is to read over 200 books by the time I leave in 2016. Only 178 left!

*A book you should read

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1. I Dreamed Of Africa – Kuki Gallmann
2. The Color Of Water – James McBride*
3. War Child – Emmanuel Jal
4. Tips of Ugandan Culture – Shirley Cathy Byakutaaga
5. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë*
6. Teaching English as a Second Language – David Chapman
7. The Basic Of American Politics – Gary Wasserman *
8. A Bend In The Road – Nicholas Sparks (4/9)
9. While England Sleeps – David Leavitt*
10. Human Rights Education (Reflection on Theory and Practice) – Fionnuala Waldron and Brain Ruane* (13/9)
11. Unravished – Hester Kaplan* (15/9)
12. Run – Ann Patchett*(20/9)
13. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak (27/9)
14. John Paul, The Great – Peggy Noonan
15. The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind – William Kamkwamba* (24/10)
16. The Lord Of The Flies - William Golding (26/10)
17.  Saw You're One Of Them - Uwem Akpan* (29/10)
18. Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
19. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding
20. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggerig Genius - Dave Eggers 
21. A Life Of Blessings - T Y Lee (25/12) 
22. The Vanished Man - Jeffery Deaver (27/12)

Things I See From My Front Porch

I am a big people watcher; even in the states I was always people watching. I love to see how people interact with other people throughout their daily lives. Ugandans have a very different way of interacting with each other, I have not yet found a way to be able to explain it. It is one of those things that you have to see in person and experience to understand. 

I have been very fortunate in my Peace Corps placement that I have a beautiful view from my front yard. 

From my front porch, I watch and smile and wave to people as they go by...

• I watch two butterflies playing tag with each other through the trees.
• I watch the plants grow. They grow very fast here in Uganda. (Photos of plants in yard)
• Angry words between a husband and a wife on the way to church.
• Laughter from Ugandans as bikes, motorcycles, trucks, and even people get stuck in the mood and as they work to push them out.
• The beautiful smiles, people express as they pass by and we greet each other in the local language. “Oraire Ota Abooki?..... Oraire kurungi Akiiki.”
• A prison inmate in his bright orange jump suit as he bikes along humming to himself. Yes a prison inmate – the Ugandan prison system is slightly different than United States system.
• A woman laughing at herself as she loses her shoe in the mud.  
• The storm clouds building from far away working their way across the fields and landscape until they reach me.
• Children playing make believe as motorcycle drivers with one tire and a stick driving back and forth, up and down the road. 
• A very over loaded motorcycle with Ebitooki and charcoal.
• A pair of Grey Parrots talking to each other as they fly overhead. 
• Birds in the trees; playing, feeding, fighting, and teasing each other.
• Bird feathers being carried on the wind.
• Laughter and conversation from the water pump up the road.
• What sounds like an airplane but is really only Black and White Casqued Hornbill gliding along.
• The sun rising and the sun setting over the tea plantation workers as they pick their way through miles and miles of tea plants.
• Laughter of children as they run along.
• A mother and children carrying jerrycans heading to the well. The children looking at you wide eyed when you greet them and the mothers laughing and encouraging them to answer back.
• Ladies dressed in their best heading to church.
• Secondary School Children walking buy in matching uniforms laughing and enjoying life.
• Children looking through the fence and calling my name.

 From my front porch, I watch the world go by.

An Earthquake And A Class

Written: 21/9/2014

The Front Of The House

We had an earthquake which was about a four on the rector scale and lasted about ten to fifteen seconds. It is my second one since being here. The first one was in Hoima a couple months back. The African plate is splitting into two so the ground needs to stretch out time to time. It was entertaining as we all stood in the front yard debating what the best thing to do… “should we run outside or do we hide under desks or in the doorways?” It is a free for all here in Uganda as the housing structures are not well made but after much debate we all agreed we would rather be outside away from the building in an event of a large earthquake because no doubt the house will have a hard time standing. Earthquakes sound like a large fighter jet or train making its way through the countryside. 

Well this week has been a lot of rain and when I say rain I mean a lot of rain. I have forgotten my umbrella and rain jacket a lot heading into work and I don’t need a shower at the end of the day anymore because of how wet I get walking/running back in the rain (don’t worry I still shower). We had hail one day and a large downdraft of cold air the rain was so cold it felt like frozen lake water in Minnesota in January.

Kyanyawara Primary School - Eve Teaching A Health Talk

I attended a couple classes at Kasiisi Primary school, a literacy circle and also a Primary 1 English class. I have been so jealous of the teachers here getting to teach and also those back home teaching in the schools. I love getting up in front of a class and teaching. It’s a lot of work and the Ugandan school system fails its students but the teachers are very different from the generation of teachers before them - They are more open with their students and now the system fails and tries to make it the best they can. I heard from three different schools when we were doing our health talks the exact word for word definition of Menstruation repeated by five different students from different schools…word for word these children memorize word for word definitions and you can ask them to define anything and they will answer it correctly but when it comes to asking them what that definition means most of the time they do not know what it means they only know the definition because that I what they need to learn for the tests.  

I will write more about the school system when I learn and observe more about it during my time here. It is very interesting and I am grateful for the US School system even with how messed up it is.