DAY 5 - Monday July 10th
We had our first official Rootoro lesson today and it was so cool. Our teacher is the equivalent of an American instructor – repeats everything a million times (which is good), but also tells us three different ways to say the same thing. She is elderly (I think Sara said she was 72 but she didn’t look it, the people age so well here) with large round glasses and is very warm. She speaks very good English and of course knows her Rootoro down to the intricate conjunctions. God, I just realized how complex our language is. In Rootoro, there are many different words, but the sentences are much more simple and the greetings are shorter. We have a large poster board held up with bandaids on the wall so we can reference and practice.
We finally made it to town for an afternoon at the Internet café. It is a tiny room with five computers cramped together, so there is absolutely no privacy. The woman who runs the shop is also the equivalent of an American librarian – large glasses drooped on her eyes, always wearing a frown. Her favorite command is “wait.” The Internet is definitely slow, but not as slow as the dial up I grew up with in New Mexico so it’s not that bad. I keep getting lucky with the fastest one, which is great because I try to do so much at once. MySpacing in Africa is definitely the coolest. I caught up with the blog and emailed my parents – I miss them very much. It is so weird not being able to talk to them. Email is great but it is not the same. My brother wrote me a good chatty letter about the holiday but I haven’t heard from mom and dad. Not to many emails from friends but that’s because I barely sent out the first email announcing my arrival in Africa. Almost two hours later I had all I could take. My charge was 5700 shillings, or about $3. I told the woman to keep the change and she looked at me like I was crazy. Then I said “wabali” – thank you – and everyone in the café smiled and laughed. I hope that settles the VIP status when I return for many more hours.
Sara bought meat and cheese from Holland and she taught Betty how to make grilled cheese. She had never heard of it but was so excited to have a new thing to cook.
They were delicious, and a nice change from the avacados and potatoes. After lunch Betty was blown away when we told her in Rootoro she cooked the food very well and that it tasted good. We all were soooo tired and crashed out. I took a nap on the balcony with the sun burning down, but the sun went behind the clouds after about 10 minutes. It’s going to be tough to gage the sun, but I’ll get my African tan one way or another.
After a rest we went back into Ft. Portal to use the Internet again. When we got there the damn electricity had gone off. The generators were running, and the lady at the café informed us that the price had doubled again. We just said okay. I would have paid quadruple the 100 shillings a minute price.
It was good to get back in touch, although it’s so frustrating because there’s so much to do in a short amount of time on a slow connection cramped next to 5 other people.
I uploaded some pictures, read a bit of old news, tried to update the blog list and email as many people as I could. I only got 45 minutes and let Sara use my computer – poor thing had been having such bad luck with the computers, losing a long email to her sister and always getting the slowest connection. I walked outside with a tired brain. All the work I am used to doing in an entire day crammed in to 45 minutes. That’s definitely going to be a challenge.
I realized the time is driving me crazy. I have to get a watch. I tried to buy one at a shop but it was closed. We had stayed in town until dark this time, and when we got back to the house we had dinner by candlelight again. Rice and another one of Betty’s stew/medleys, this time with peas. Pretty good. The bananas were steaming in the tray. I like bananas, but as a snack, and I’m not digging the whole banana staple diet thing. It was good with this interesting peanut sauce though.
After dinner we pow-woed again and talked about tomorrow and the activities we are going to do in the school. I got really excited. We have the 200 kids and 2 hours starting on Thursday. My leadership kicked in and thought about all the cool stuff we could do – icebreakers, dancing, etc. We’re definitely going to rock out a music workshop. I can’t wait to play Shakira. And Bob Marley. And swing dance. The African kids are really going to get a kick out of us.
Man, I thought, I’m going to be able to put that I lead a workshop for 200+ African high school students in a rural village in Uganda. Now that’s what I call a good entry for my CV. The world isn’t going to be able to handle me after this trip.
What is it with the lame top 40 music from the 1990s? Tonight on the watchman’s radio was the Backstreet Boys, “Baby I’m Amazed By You.” I think it’s going to become another crazy African thing to log.
We finally made it to town for an afternoon at the Internet café. It is a tiny room with five computers cramped together, so there is absolutely no privacy. The woman who runs the shop is also the equivalent of an American librarian – large glasses drooped on her eyes, always wearing a frown. Her favorite command is “wait.” The Internet is definitely slow, but not as slow as the dial up I grew up with in New Mexico so it’s not that bad. I keep getting lucky with the fastest one, which is great because I try to do so much at once. MySpacing in Africa is definitely the coolest. I caught up with the blog and emailed my parents – I miss them very much. It is so weird not being able to talk to them. Email is great but it is not the same. My brother wrote me a good chatty letter about the holiday but I haven’t heard from mom and dad. Not to many emails from friends but that’s because I barely sent out the first email announcing my arrival in Africa. Almost two hours later I had all I could take. My charge was 5700 shillings, or about $3. I told the woman to keep the change and she looked at me like I was crazy. Then I said “wabali” – thank you – and everyone in the café smiled and laughed. I hope that settles the VIP status when I return for many more hours.
Sara bought meat and cheese from Holland and she taught Betty how to make grilled cheese. She had never heard of it but was so excited to have a new thing to cook.
They were delicious, and a nice change from the avacados and potatoes. After lunch Betty was blown away when we told her in Rootoro she cooked the food very well and that it tasted good. We all were soooo tired and crashed out. I took a nap on the balcony with the sun burning down, but the sun went behind the clouds after about 10 minutes. It’s going to be tough to gage the sun, but I’ll get my African tan one way or another.
After a rest we went back into Ft. Portal to use the Internet again. When we got there the damn electricity had gone off. The generators were running, and the lady at the café informed us that the price had doubled again. We just said okay. I would have paid quadruple the 100 shillings a minute price.
It was good to get back in touch, although it’s so frustrating because there’s so much to do in a short amount of time on a slow connection cramped next to 5 other people.
I uploaded some pictures, read a bit of old news, tried to update the blog list and email as many people as I could. I only got 45 minutes and let Sara use my computer – poor thing had been having such bad luck with the computers, losing a long email to her sister and always getting the slowest connection. I walked outside with a tired brain. All the work I am used to doing in an entire day crammed in to 45 minutes. That’s definitely going to be a challenge.
I realized the time is driving me crazy. I have to get a watch. I tried to buy one at a shop but it was closed. We had stayed in town until dark this time, and when we got back to the house we had dinner by candlelight again. Rice and another one of Betty’s stew/medleys, this time with peas. Pretty good. The bananas were steaming in the tray. I like bananas, but as a snack, and I’m not digging the whole banana staple diet thing. It was good with this interesting peanut sauce though.
After dinner we pow-woed again and talked about tomorrow and the activities we are going to do in the school. I got really excited. We have the 200 kids and 2 hours starting on Thursday. My leadership kicked in and thought about all the cool stuff we could do – icebreakers, dancing, etc. We’re definitely going to rock out a music workshop. I can’t wait to play Shakira. And Bob Marley. And swing dance. The African kids are really going to get a kick out of us.
Man, I thought, I’m going to be able to put that I lead a workshop for 200+ African high school students in a rural village in Uganda. Now that’s what I call a good entry for my CV. The world isn’t going to be able to handle me after this trip.
What is it with the lame top 40 music from the 1990s? Tonight on the watchman’s radio was the Backstreet Boys, “Baby I’m Amazed By You.” I think it’s going to become another crazy African thing to log.
posted by Jake McCook @ 6:47 PM
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