porch children, football, matooke

A lot of random things have happened over the past few weeks that I really don't want to forget, even though are very small and may not actually sound that exciting. But have been part of my wonderful experience, so I thought I would write about it!

My favorite thing about the past two weeks has been coloring with the kids in my neighborhood. Of course, all of the kids know who I am, since I am the funny "muzungu" that lives next door. So they started showing up on my porch every afternoon, and it is really hard to shooo them away even though I think Maama Gertrude doesn't like them hanging around too much. So one day I just brought them some things to do, since they literally have no toys to play with (although they are pretty innovative with coming up with games and making play cars from old jerry can bottles). Anyway, I have been bringing them some paper and crayons almost everyday for the past two weeks. At first they didn't know what to do with them; I don't think they are used to having resources like that. But after a few days, they got the hang of it and started drawing pictures of everything they could think of. They would draw a picture of like maybe a house or a pineapple, and then I would show them how to write the word. It was like a little primary school write on my porch and it was awesome! Except they always bring their baby brothers and sisters (since even though the kids are like five, they have to take care of their siblings);but the babies always pee and poop on the porch, and I have to clean it up!

I still love them though, they are sooo cute. If maama gertrude is on the porch and they are afraid she will yell at them, they just come to my window and whisper and then we hold our primary school classes through the window. They always say "Colleennnnaa, assist me with your paper!" or "Colleeennnaa, assist me with your biscweeeetts (biscuits)!" One time a kid just said "give me your paper," and the rest shouted at them because they said that was rude. And in you are wondering, they add an "a" at the end of my name, because every single word in Luganda ends in a vowel. It's so cute, like in class the students call me "madamuuu" instead of madam.

I have also been having fun because I have been watching and playing soccer! The towns play each other, and everyone comes to watch. Its pretty cool, they are pretty baller at soccer. Even the primary school I work at had a field day where all of the kids played soccer against the other schools. They were like middle school age, but they could probably have beated a high school team in the US. At the end of one of the games, some of my friends asked me if I play soccer. They didn't believe that a girl could be tough, so I went and took two penalty kicks in front of everyone and they were both AWESOME and they both went in. Everyone thought that was sooo funny! But then I actually played with them one day, and I did absolutely horribly. That's when I remembered that I hate soccer, and I hate being bad at certain sports. It makes me really mad since I think I am really competitive when it comes to beating people, especially guys.

I have also had fun hanging around with other people in my town, like my friend Dorothy. Her family has taken me in, and they are like my Katosi family. I have been eating dinner with them almost every night lately, and then we always talk about life. Dorothy wants to come to the united states to work, and I think she would be wonderful for that (her major is microfinance, how cool is that!!). Dorothy's brother Elijah has not gone to university yet, because their family cannot afford it. He has worked so hard for the past few years, and he is about to start his own business, which I admire so so much. He told me about his childhood dream too, to build a garden with a lot of flowers, fruit, and pretty trees (flowers are VERY uncommon in Uganda, so this made me happy!) He asked me what he should plant for me, and I said blue flowers and sweet potatoes! and I told him I would be checking to make sure they are there the next time I come to Uganda. Anyway, every night after dinner we have been watching my season of Fresh Prince that I brought. They absolutely LOVE it, and so do I. God, I love Fresh Prince.

I have also hung out with my friend peter and his family lately too (it has been lonely since Avery left!). One day I went to his house, and he had cooked me literally a feast of matooke (steamed bananas)and g-nut sauce. My favorite! I think i might have lost some weight, because LITERALLY all they eat here are bananas. Many different forms of bananas; regular ones, steamed ones, roasted ones, ones with sauce, ones in cake, etc etc. Anyway, Peter's mom got all dressed up and had a photographer come over to take our pictures. It was literally the cutest thing I have ever seen. Then Peter showed me his photo album, which was really cool. Except that after he pointed to pretty much every person, he said "oh, they have died." He said one of his friends died because a witch killed him with a spell. Apparently he was brought to the hospital, but the doctors couldn't find what was wrong with him, and then he died. I told peter that people in the US would not believe that spell had killed him, but I he is a university educated man, and he still truly believes it. I guess you never know, it could have happened! But you should have seen the look on his face when I told him that aliens and vampires do not really exist, that they are just in movies. He was so surprised and sort of mad because he said that americans had been lying to him and that it was neocolonialism. I told him that some people do actually believe in aliens, but that mostly movies were just for fun.

All of this has been so much fun! But it has also been sad, because I have known that I have to leave sooo soon! I was trying to think of how I can describe Katosi to people once I get home, but I don't know if that will really be possible! I guess the main area of the village is sort of like an African version of Franklin street, where everyone walks and there are so many shops (most of which sell the exact same things, haha) and people just going about their business (also children under one years old crawling around anywhere they want)! But the dirt-road franklin street is also mixed with a farm and a jungle. Like there are random cows, pigs, and chickens wandering around the street, even without someone herding them. The cows hang out on the street corner where the two roads intersect, just chilling all day and then apparently finding their way home at night. weird. Then if you take ten steps off of the main road, you are in the middle of the hilly grassland/jungle with monkeys and such. But there are still houses and people scattered everywhere. Its strange, but I love it; it has really become my home. It took awhile to get there; looking back, the first few weeks were harder than I had thought at the time. But I really know how much I am going to miss it.