Mwazuze mutyanno mazungus!

(good morning white people)

This is my first week with my homestay family.  I am living in the village of Lubowa in the Upper Bunamwaya Zone, located within the outskirts of the capital of Uganda, Kampala. So far it has been amazing. The village consists of small shacks, people living outside, rundown houses (where I live) and then reaaaaallly nice homes gated and locked up with high fences in between. Its interesting how diverse it is.  I have 4 brothers and sisters between the ages of 2-15 named Ishan,Vivian, Ryan, and Elaine (they have more children, but they are away at boarding school). My host mother, Jenna, is a civil servant for the Ministry of Education and my father, Hassan, owns Twinex Video (he named it after his twin sister who passed away at 14 of AIDS) which is a tiny DVD store in Kampala which tons of american movies (western influence is huuuuge, american music and movies are very popular here).  The family is very laid back which i didnt expect because we were warned during orientation week that there were certain traditions and rules we were to follow during our homestays, but my family is very chill. The only tradition I have noticed is that my siblings kneel/bow before my hostparents whenever they enter a room. I copied them after I noticed it and my mother just laughed and laughed at me and said I didn't have to do that. I think its a sign for respect? There are so many questions I want to ask, but it's a little difficult to ask because they don't speak English very well. They speak Luganda really fast...i think they are talking about me a lot haha but i can't understand what they are saying. I'm taking Luganda classes right now but I only know the basics.

My home has running water which I was very surprised about. But its only cold water. The shower is located outside. Cold water showers are the besssst, so refreshing after a long hot day here. The bathroom is located right next to the shower...the pit. Its basically just a hole in the ground. That's been really hard to get used to. And they don't have toilet paper or hand soap...they just dont use it. So I had to buy my own at the market. 

The commute to school is not bad at all! I get to commute with another student, David, to and from school which I am so happy about. I was afraid I would have to do it alone.  David is my 'cousin' who lives in the same village down the dirt road from me. I have to wake up at 6 every day for class and my parents take David and I out of the village and then we jump in a taxi for..the commute it about an hour and half there. On the way home, we take two taxis. One from class to the 'taxi park' (where hundreds of taxis are parked, coming and going with hundreds of busy people moving around trying to get to the right taxi). Once we get to the taxi park, we have to find the sign that leads us to our village. With the traffic, the commute home can take up to an hour-2hours. Joyyyy:)

I'm already a little sick of the food. It's the same everynight, but I told my mother that I love avacados so she had the servant, Justine, cut me up some for supper last night, sooo delicious.  It's interesting to me that we have a servant.  A lot of families here do. They help with laundry and prepare the food and watch the kids when the parents are working. Usually they are homeless on the streets, they come and work for these families and receive a small pay. Justine is so sweet, she doesn't speak any english but she always has tea ready for me when I come home from class. Fusion Brew is nothing compared to the African milk tea here. It's prepared with fresh ginger and is probably my favorite thing here so far. That along with fresh passionfruit/orange juice that Justine makes for supper every night.

I walked around the village the other night with my 15 year old sister Elaine. Lubowa is all dirt, bumpy, and veerrrrryyyyy hilly roads. They have chickens, dogs, cows, and goats, and turkeys running around randomly (if only their were elephants!). Something I'm going to have to get used to is how people show affection here. Elaine held my hand the entire walk around the village, hugging and grabbing my arm to lead me. It is totally normal for women to hold hands and men to hold hands here...which I find so interesting because homosexuality is forbidden here.

We are leaving for Rwanda and West Uganda on Sunday for about 3 weeks (i think a safari too?!)! I won't have internet during that time, but I will take a million pictures and post them and blog about it when I get back. We will be visiting the Rwandan genocide memorial in Kigali and visiting national parks and just traveling each day somewhere new so I'm really looking forward to that!

I am really loving it here, it still kinda feels like a dream. Its definitely a lot to get used to, the adjustment has been very difficult. I think I am still in culture shock mode, everything is still new and exciting. I think they have kept us extremely busy so I haven't had the chance to really get too homesick yet, but I think I am a little bit now. 'They' usually say after the 2nd week, things tend to get a little harder when youre studying abroad. I miss my family most of all. My host family is so close and loving which is awesome, but it makes me miss home.

I have Luganda class in 5 minutes now, learning the tenses. I feel like im in spanish class freshman year of high school again, learning the basics. Waabale!