First day in Masaka

On Monday, I walked to downtown Masaka with my host mom and then continued on to FSD. We had a Luganda lesson in the morning and then discussed Ugandan history and politics before having lunch and taking a walking tour of Masaka. Luganda isn’t too difficult so far but there are just lots of new words to learn. My host family seems eager to help me so I hope I’ll pick it up quickly. We continued with the rest of orientation the same way and learned about grant writing, doing our needs assessments, and how to formulate our work plans.

Masaka Town proper has two main streets that are crowded with small shops and a some more smaller peripheral streets. It is probably the size of downtown Aldergrove. It has a market, a bakery, a few cafes, many restaurants, and just general stores. The streets don’t have too many cars but they are flooded with motorcycle taxis (boda bodas) so crossing is still a hazard. Add in the fact that they (somewhat) adhere to British driving rules, I continue to look the wrong way when crossing. The weather so far has been quite good, with cool mornings and only a little rain.

After returning home most days this week, I spend time with my host siblings. I had a good chat with my host sister, Feli, about her school. She told me that at their schools here, if they make a mistake, they are beaten on the bum with a stick. If they fail an exam, each teacher takes a turn hitting them. She was surprised that it doesn’t happen in Canada. She also was telling me (quite nonchalantly) about some students at a nearby school committing suicide due to exam stress. She later told me that they had been very excited to hear that they would be hosting a foreigner but they had been expecting me on the 15th for some reason so by the 22nd when I actually arrived, they didn’t think I was coming anymore! She is a really smart girl and her English is excellent. I look forward to having more chats with her. Tendo, the little boy, cannot speak English very well yet but he can understand somewhat. When I first arrived he was very nervous around me but the next day he greeted me when I came home and later grabbed a book and sat on the couch, showing me the pictures and the words he knows (all nouns). He pointed and looked questioningly at me at the pictures he didn’t know so I taught him those words. I was nervous about living with children but so far it has been great!