The PCV Visit

This week my language group went to Masindi district in the Mid-West. The goal was to experience the general routine and living conditions of current volunteers, and to immerse ourselves in our language (mine is called Runyoro-Rutoro, a Bantu language related to Swahili). The bus ride from Kampala to Masindi took around 3 hours, and while there were no chickens on the bus, we did make a stop about half-way in on the side of the road for a pee-break (which is why, ahem, women here wear skirts). The bus did play a NAZI concentration camp movie from the 60s with Alan Arkin, though it was dubbed into Luganda by one guy saying everyone's lines while the background noise is muted, a very common practice with movies here. And yes, it was bootleg.

My group of 4 stayed with 2 volunteers currently serving in the area. We had 2-hour language lessons in the morning, then managed to do several local activities, like meeting the LC1 (equivelant of the mayor), touring a nun-run health clinic (90% of their patients come in with malaria, and it costs about $1.25 - $10 to treat each case), toured a girls school, and met with the leader of a local microfinance NGO.

We also had to go to the market each day to both practice our language, and buy food for dinner. Dave is an excellent cook, so we made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, chili and corn bread, roasted peanuts, and sauteed green beans. Food was one of the highlights!

Also, on Friday morning, Will and I woke up at 5:30 and made our way up a hill. It took an hour, and considering that 6-foot tall elephant grass and biting ants were the worst encounters, it was well worth the adventure. (Oh, I also learned that some of Will's people back in the states have found this and have been reading this, so hello to you!).

A Day in the Life

Many people mentioned that they enjoy seeing photos... of me... in Africa. So, here is a brief "Day in the Life of Matt the PCT" of my life generally for the past four weeks:

Each morning, I wake up at 6:30, eat a breakfast usually of either white or pink porridge, bread, and instant coffee, then bike the 4 kilometers from my house to our training site. Most of this ride is downhill. Here is me on my Peace Corps standard issue Dunlop 12 speed, sporting a sleek opelescent helemet.

Language is from 8am - 12noon. My class has four members: me, Lauren, Dave, and Will. Here, our instructor is instructing us in our language hut:

After language we have tea for a well-deserved half-hour. Afterwards we have a tech session. On this particular day we were learning how to garden and compost. I can be seen dutifuly taking notes on proper dung rotation:

I even try my hand at digging our community garden:

Training is exhausting, and sometimes it's difficult to keep up with all the gossip. So, afterwards we usually get together to decompress and find out details of peoples' lives: We also play with the local kids, like this day when we got together with a current PCV and played soccer games. I played with the 3-year-olds because it best fit my age-group. Here, Sandi and Nicol stand in while I take a picture of the fun:
Finally, after a long day's work, I get to come home to my host family, usually watch a really bad Brazilian soap dubbed into English, eat my dinner, then crawl under my mosquito net and lay down to a long sleep full of mefloquin-induced dreams: