Sarah in Uganda

We have arrived in our new home and everything has been going great so far! I’m currently staring out at the gorgeous green, lush countryside (despite it being the dry season currently) while typing up this blog post.

 Elliot and I had the best layover we could have hoped for. We had 10 hours in Cairo so we left the airport and explored the Great Pyramids!

It was the perfect way to pass the time in between our two flights. We arrived in Kampala around 5am the next morning and decided to stay up and watch the sunrise. The best part of watching the sunrise, was not actually that, but instead experiencing Kampala awakening around us.

We watched as kids began to walk to school (at around 6am), adults walked to work, and the number of taxis and boda bodas (motorcycle

taxis) offering us rides increased. It was a great introduction to the city to say the least! Since the Equator runs through the middle of Uganda, the sunrise was way different than anything either of us had seen. Instead of a slow gradual, pink awakening of the sky that I am used to al home, it was all of a sudden bright. We’ve noticed the same thing at dusk here but in reverse. Once it starts getting dark you better grab your flashlight or you’ll be stumbling around in pitch black in about 5 minutes.

 We spent about a day and a half in Kampala before heading to Ddegeya Village.  The architectural design team and two first year med students from Chicago Medical School are here with us. Lots of mzungus  (the Luganda word for white person) for the kids to stare at and a great welcoming party for Elliot and me!

 Yesterday we had our first Luganda lessons. Definitely going to be pretty hard to learn but I have to remember that it was only our first lesson and by hearing the language all around me everyday I will eventually begin to pick it up. Every time we would start running through lists of nouns to pronounce my brain would automatically bounce to my Italian pronunciations even though clearly Luganda is not at all related to Italian. I think that my brain has just associated any new language with Italian since that’s the only other one I’ve tried to learn. By the end of the lesson I was able to keep the Italian out of my pronunciations but I am sure it is something that will continue to pop up in my brain every now and then.  I did manage to figure out a few key phrases, like hello, how are you?, ok/you’re welcome, thank you, and goodbye.  I had a bit of trouble keeping thank you and goodbye straight.  Later that evening, as the kids were scattering to go home, I started saying “Weebale!” “Weebale!” feeling very proud of myself for all of the Luganda I had picked up in one day. About two hours later when everyone was thanking the cook, Susan, for dinner I suddenly realized I had been yelling thank you after the kids rather than goodbye (which is actually weeraba, in case you want to pick up some Luganda to use at home). Which also explains the extra confused looks the kids were giving the new mzungu as they headed home. Oops! At least I have it straight now!