I arrived how many days ago? Perhaps 7 or 9, 30 or 10... Each day bleeds with the one to precede it. Instead I mark time with lessons learned. Day 1: Uganda in the flesh Day 2: Food 101, matoke, beans and rice, Fanta if its extra hot Day 3: Old taxi park? New taxi park? I want to go to Bu-zi-ga...Day 5: There might be friends for me here yet.
I have stepped out of home and covered my eyes with foreignness. I left a deep sense of home, one that grants language, culture, food, and sound, second nature if not first. I exchanged it for a place which is acontextual and coupled with confusion. Slowly, like a babe, I am attaching memory markers to things that once represented only colors or sounds. Streets, faces, greetings, spices (okay, spices are a bit rare, I mean, I'm not exactly in India). Taxis you pay no more than 1,000 sh and water from a plastic bottle. Details you cannot imagine until it becomes part of how you live. This is what my first steps look like. And as I move forward, I have so soon forgotten the rest of what I thought I'd miss. Well... except for cake, I still miss cake.
As I climb this latter of newness, I must admit, there is an underlying consistency that has defined my fist week. Though each day is different, all thus far carry certain qualities: The clear pronunciation that seeps from every English word spoken with Ugandan tongues, the heat that blankets the body with a sticky sweat and the way it smells sweet and earthy when scrunched against bodies in a taxi, the constant gasoline coated air that flows black out of trucks and vans, and finally, the ever present knowledge that I am not only white, I am Muzungu-- a foreigner in simple translation, though the intricacies of its meaning still revealing themselves to me. No doubt, as I walk down the street I hear this from scooter drivers, "Muzungu, Muzungu." A song of sirens, perhaps not. But just as inescapable in nature.
I arrived in Uganda to work for Educate! Official intern as writer, webmaster, and Changemaker Association organizer. In fact, this is but one of two blogs for which I will contribute, the second can be found at www.experienceeducate.org. In addition to all I have mapped above, Educate! is what Uganda has been to me so far. My social network is the mentors who teach our curriculum, the girls who run the office, the French intern living at the house. My activities revolve around the students we work with, the schools they attend, and the community members we find so inspiring. To understand Educate! is an instant ticket to my heart-space and eagerly welcomed with every part of me. I invite you all to explore our work, ask questions, critique us, support us, I think about Educate-things always, so the more you know the easy our convo's and insights will flow.
Okay all you nameless cyber world readers. I love you all!
