rural homestay

March 5, 2011

Rural Homestay

I just got back from my rural homestay.  It was probably one of the coolest experiences ever, and I think Ive learned more in these past couple of days than on this entire trip so far.  We got to spend some time in a village in the Rwenzori mountains.  David and I were paired together (as if we don’t spend enough time together commuting to school every day in Kampala, yet I think we were a great match and enjoyed the many games of paper scrabble we created over the past couple of days) and we were placed in a family with two parents who are both public school teachers with 3 children, Elton, Bennon, and Judith. Our advisors were warning us that our homes would most likely be dirt huts in the middle of nowhere, yet our home from the outside was nicer than I was expecting. While our home was on the nicer side (for Africa), inside there still was no electricity, no running water, no shower, no toilet.  Right next door there were dirt brick huts along with dirty but beautiful children running around all day because their parents cannot afford for them to go to school.  The past couple of days have been very challenging…especially at night when the rats came out and were running beneath our bedsL  That was not enjoyable.  Yet besides the rats, our family was the most welcoming and friendly people I think I have ever met.  They treated us like family right from the start.  

The food was another big challenge for me. The first afternoon when we arrived, our mother wanted us to see how the fish were going to be prepared for supper. Yah… I just about lost it.  She started cutting up the poor little fishy with the guts and gushy blood pouring out. Yayyyyy. I couldn’t help but freak out a little…thankfully my mother just laughed at me and was like ‘ahhh carol, you will love it, I promise you this ahahahah just wait for suppa’. (yah by the way, Ugandans cannot pronounce Carlee. Its impossible, they have no idea how to pronounce the ‘car’ part back in kampala, and here…they couldn’t pronounce Carlyn.  So basically I went by ‘Kali’, ‘Carol’, ‘Caroleen’ ‘Carl’, etc. and have gotten pretty used to just responding to anything.  And for the first 2 days here, the whole family was calling me Justine hahah because I accidently called Judith, the oldest daughter who is about 11 years old, Justine, and she thought I was introducing myself as Justine. It was all very confusing but I just went with it for awhile and thought maybe they just gave me a new name.  

Anyways, this blog entry is very scattered and all over the place, but back to food.  So yes, I ate another fishy head with just my hands. Had to pick around the eyeball and the bones. The meat was actually really really good, I just can’t get around the fact that it’s a fishy that I am eating.  Yet that wasn’t the worst part.  The next night was goat meat. The chewiest, fattest meat ever, served with the other yummy intestines and liver right in my bowl.  Yah, I really am starting to miss American food. 

David and I had to come up with a nice gift to bring our hostfamily. So of course, we buy a goat for them for only $100,000 shillings (approx. $50 US). They were so happy!! We named her Nala (but learned later its very bad luck to name goats in uganda, whoops) I can’t believe I bought a goat.  I was so nervous when we were served goat meat the following night, thinking it was our poor Nala. But thankfully it wasn’t…maybe her brother or somethingL so saddddd

Good food news: my family had the biggest avocado and guavo trees right in their backyard. I was in heaven being served avocado for lunch every day. And we learned how to make the most delicious passion fruit/orange juice that I am now obsessed with. 

The bathing situation was so enjoyable. It was just a bucket bath outside in the open next to the hole in the ground for a toilet, kinda covered by some stacks of mud bricks.  It was so lovely though to shower and look out at the huge mountains, it was breathtaking.  Very refreshing. Never would I have thought I would enjoy bathing in a bucket with cold water outside, but ive learned that you really can get used to new things after awhile. Only surprising part was the first day hearing snickers and giggles coming from one small hole in the bricks with little eyes peaking at me. The little 3 year old neighbor apparently wanted a look-see, I just about died.

Ahh there are so many things I want to write about. I don’t think I have enough time to write them all.  But besides these little details about the past couple of days, I had the best moment on this trip during this homestay…I have been feeling really discouraged about future plans and what I want to do after college, especially being here in Africa. I still just haven’t found that passion for something that really motivates me to work hard. Could I see myself here in the future? Do I want to apply for the peace corps? I’m almost a senior and I have no direction of where I want to go after graduation. Its been a little discouraging being around all of these other students who are so intelligent, so driven, and who know what they want in life.  At first I was so inspired by them, yet at the same time I feel so behind that I have no idea what I want.  Ive been feeling pretty low and lost not knowing what I want to do….yet I finally found some direction I think, or at least found something that I want to look into.  It happened when David and I were doing our research 2 days ago within the village about education.  Something about walking into those schools with 120 eager kids with only 1 teacher…I don’t know… I just really felt like becoming a teacher is now something I really want to do.  I just became so inspired by the teachers we talked with who barely get paid enough to survive yet continue to come each day to teach these poor children.  In just this village alone, so many families cannot afford for their children to go school… I just find that so heartbreaking. I take education for granted way too much…these children would do anything to learn and I complain about finishing a paper…while I have electricity, I have access to internet and these children have never even heard of a computer. I just couldn’t believe it, that there are these places all over the world that are often just forgotten about, yet these children are so bright and will never get the opportunity to get an education.  So maybe teaching, or working with education administration with the policies and funding, is something I want to look into. Peace Corps Aaron was explaining that the majority of undergrads entering the peace corps will be placed in schools to teach English, and that if I want to go to Africa, there is such a high need here that it will be easy to be placed somewhere here. So I don’t know…I still have no idea what I want to do, but I really did feel motivated after visiting these schools.

Now its back to crazy hot dusty dirty Kampala.