iri maber larema!
We just had our first Acholi class, and I’m feeling like I
might actually be in Africa! Its
strange how something so different from Litchfield, CT or Burlington, VT can
feel so natural to live in. I
arrived midday on Saturday and stayed the night in Kampala, but already that
seems like weeks ago. I’m starting
to remember the Uganda time; long days filled with so many things its hard to
keep track of what happened and when.
I had a bit of déjà vu on my way over. Same flight pattern as last time with
a12 hour layover. I was missing my
mazungu friends though when we didn’t get to venture out and take a tour of the
city in the middle of the night!
But with internet here and there, it wasn’t so bad. However, I decided to take a quick nap
at 5 am (their time) before my flight and woke up to a bright, busy
airport! My first thought was I
overslept and missed my flight. I
got up and ran to the screen to check the time, then realized my gate was not
even posted yet and I had only been asleep for 35 minutes… needless to say, I
did not try to nap after that.
Instead I enjoyed touring the terminal in the airport, probably walking
a few miles in total.
And a quick 4
hour (ish) flight later, I was arriving and Entabbe, shaking Erik;s hand, our
new AD. He is a local man from
Gulu town where we are mainly studying.
He is extremely friendly and made me feel very welcome. We waited for 2 other students to
arrive then headed toward the capital city. The first night was in there in Kampala. Only 4 of us arrived before 12, but
adventuring a little around our hotel turned out to be exiting. Kampala is a huge city that is so busy. Everyone seems so friendly and
helpful. When just asking for a
simple direction to a hotel that turned out to be only about a block away, the
two women were more than helpful, even offering us ideas of places to visit.
The next day when the group was all together, we packed up
for Gulu. Apparently dehydration
makes you vomit, so I had to get that out of my system before the 8 hour
trip. But hey, I wouldn’t feel
like I was traveling if I didn’t get sick. An Uganda time runs slow anyway, so I was feeling better long
before our departure at 12 (originally estimated for 9). The drive was great though! So scenic. We saw the White Nile at the border of the North and
South. Baboons like to hang out
there on a bridge that overlooks some beautiful waterfalls. Sorry I can’t offer a picture, but its
illegal to take them of this spot…
View from the balcony!
So now we are settling in Gulu. (I’m not really sure what to
write about in a blog or how to construct this so I’m sorry if it’s a little
disorganized). We are staying in a
hotel and my top-floor room has a balcony that overlooks this part of
Gulu. Right across the way are mud
huts with goats grazing and farm plots everywhere. Our first Acholi lesson was intense. We learned all sorts of greetings, 19
to be exact! Our teacher, Charles,
is really funny and you can tell he just loves what he does. Even if we butcherd our pronuncian he
would just laugh and tell us our effort makes him so happy! He also said we will know Acholi very
well by the end of the semester because it is a very easy language to pick up…
I don’t know about that but I’m definitely going to give it a try! However, I did
find myself wanting to ask questions in Spanish, maybe enough time hasn’t passed
between Guatemala and now, I hope I don’t get confused when talking to my
family! Who, by the way, I meet on
Thursday! I’m just too
excited. I love it here. I love Uganda. Our group is great. I
think this semester is going to be better than I can imagine right now.
Dong wu dong!
No comments:
Post a Comment