THINGS I'M LEARNING...

-Patience with the unreliability of the library system while still expected to be a good student.
-How to adhere to "African time" when it doesn't actually work to my advantage (because when it does work to my advantage- you know i love that i can be 5 minutes late to class because my prof will probably be 10 minutes late!!)
-Patience with technology, since it basically doesn't work
-Lack of privacy/independence on my home stay
-How to walk slower, or stroll- if you will, so as not to look like an idiot amongst all the strollers and also so i don't sweat like a pig!! baha.
-Patience with the first year women's soccer team when about 5 people show up for practices and our first game was played against 9 year old boys without shoes. How is that for frustrating?
-How to learn-inside and outside the classroom
-Adapting to the blatant and unapologetic stares that my pasty white skin attracts (it's not all that exciting anymore... but so be it)
-How to be a MINORITY!!
-How to relieve myself in a pit latrine (my good friend THE SQUATTY POTTY) because i definitely had some aiming troubles at first! bahaha- too much information??
-Sleeping on top of a 3 decker bunk bed with two A.D.D. children underneath me who squirm for 30 minutes before falling asleep! God Bless 'Em :)
-Checking for cockroaches before i bathe.
-Peeling matoke and squishing ground nuts into that purple sauce i told you about earlier
-Hand washing clothes
-Trying to understand the accent (difficult at times)
-Speaking Luganda and get laughed at for my poor attempts!!
-Feeling like sometimes i have all the stigma of Western flaws embedded in the color of my skin and desperately trying to prove that that is NOT who i am.
-Having to prove to my neighbor boy that i'm a footballer. Because before i showed him pictures, he thought i was too fat to run...haha funny story now- not so funny at the time.
-Shoveling down INSANE amounts of matoke (squishy, hot, banana goo) and sweet potatoes at 10 pm,,, all with a smile on my face. (i'm starting to taste matoke in my sleeeep!!:)
-How to make Chapatis with my African mother
-Falling asleep to the sound of howling dogs and unidentifiable insects flying around my mosquito net....
-Random power outages pretty much every day
-Not letting little setbacks and unreliability ruin my day
-Generosity
-Seeing trash everywhere like you wouldn't believe and randomly smelling poop at any given moment
-Trying not to be so stubborn in a country of very stubborn people! It's a difficult task, my friends.
-That adaptation is synonymous with STRUGGLE/RESISTANCE...and that sometimes i have to let go.


oh yes...and so much more....

blessings from Mukono!!

lauren. s .peffley