My List of Firsts

This post is dedicated to the plethora of "firsts" I have had so far while living in my homestay. I have only been here five days and have had to re-learn how to wash my hands, take a shower, go to the bathroom, do laundry, greet people... etc, in the way Ugandan's do it.

For the first time, I:

1. Woke up to a rooster crowing
1. My homestay family lives on a farm with a billion chickens, goats, pigs (with cute piglets!), and a cow. I haven't gotten to milk the cow yet, but I've been promised that I will learn!
2. Went to the bathroom in a pit latrine. 
• My homestay does not have a toilet, only a communal pit latrine outside. It is actually not bad at all. At first I was afraid, but now it is just part of my routine and does not bother me at all. 
3. Wore a skirt for seven days straight
4. Washed my laundry by hand
• It is a rare luxury to have a washing machine here so everyone washes their clothes in a bucket and dries on a clothes line. I plan on posting a video of washing laundry because it is really cool and definitely a learned skill here.
5. Ate a jackfruit
• They're massive and delicious. I'm pretty upset they're impossible to find in the US because I've quickly become addicted.

6. Navigated Ugandan public transportation on my own.
• We take the public vans (called taxis) to and from school every day. 
7. Took a shower from a bucket
• There is not enough running water here to have a shower so we boil some water and mix it with cold water in a bucket to make warm water for a shower. I use a cup to pour the water over myself.
8. Watched a Phillipino TV show with both English and Lugandan voice-overs playing together. 
1. Literally the most confusing thing the first time I watched it. Not only did the actor's mouths not match the words because they were speaking Phillipino, and the original voiceover was in english, but the show was on the Lugandan channel so the english dubbing kept getting cut into with Lugandan dubbing to rush the Lugandan words in before the scene changed. It's pretty hilarious. It sounds awful and I wondered at first why they did not just put English or Lugandan subtitles instead. But then I remembered the low literacy levels Uganda unfortunately deals with.
9. Had a shot of vodka from a plastic pouch (sorry adults reading this).
• They serve shots of alcohol in little plastic pouches. It's great because you pay for one shot and get the equivalent of like three.

10. Met a presidential candidate!!!
• My program is incredibly well connected. Our directer is friends with one of Uganda's leading political figures (the president of their Democratic Party) and we went to his house for three hours today and he lectured us about the ethnic conflict Uganda has with the north and the south and the war the north experienced earlier this decade.
11. Had a clan and a Lugandan name. 
• My name in Luganda is Nachimoli, given to me by my host mother. Our family belongs to the Ffumbe clan. There are 52 Lugandan clans and each has an animal totem. Ours is something called a civet cat that I think is sort of like a badger.

That's it for now! Please email me or facebook me if you have any questions about my experience or would like me to write a blog post about anything in particular. My courses here are very comprehensive, from politics, to healthcare, to gender issues, and I would love to share what I have learned with you all!

Love, 

Maddie