Nyiga Okwogera Luganda (I am learning to speak Luganda)

Here’s a little about my family and I written in Luganda. Enjoy and try to appreciate what I’ve learned in about two weeks time. Hope everyone had a great holiday! Happy New Year.

Ammanya gange nze Olivia Smith. Nava New Boston, NH mu America. Kumpine ME, MA, ne VT. Naye kati mbeera Mityana mu Uganda ne mu amakaga Sebwatto. Nkolanga munakyewa mu Peace Corps nga musomesa ne nsomesa abaana okusoma.

My names are Olivia Smith. I have come from New Boston, NH in America near Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont. But now I am staying in Mityana, Uganda with the Sebwatto family. I work as a volunteer in the Peace Corps as a teacher and I teach children to read.

Mu America Nnina taata ne maama. Maama wange errinya lye ye Joanne. Ava NH. Maama wange muwanika. Taata wange errinya lye ye Jeff. Ava ME, naye kati abeera NH. Akola nga yinginya. Nnina omulala baganda bange babirri ne mwanyinaze omu. Nze Nakato. Muganda wange babirye errinya lye ye Michelle. Michelle musawo. Muganda wange omulala errinya lye ye Alex. Asoma mu New England University mu ME. Ayagala okuba musawo. Mwanyinaze errinya lye ye Zack. Asoma ssomero lya Hooksett Memorial mu sinyia ya mukaaga.

In America I have a father and a mother. My mother’s name is Joanne. She comes from New Hampshire. My mom works as an accountant. My father’s name is Jeff. He comes from Maine, but now he lives in NH. He works as an engineer. I also have two sisters and one brother. I am the second born twin. My twin sister’s name is Michelle. She works as a nurse. My other sister’s name is Alex. She studies at NEU in Maine. She wishes to be a Physician’s Assistant. My brother’s name is Zack. He studies at Hookseet Memorial school in sixth grade.

Nnina mukwano gwange ye Brian. Ava Stonington, CT, kumpine RI mu America. Naye kati abeera Milford mu NH. Akolanga omuwanika wa Fidelity Investments mu Merrimack, NH. Nmwagala nyo.

I have a friend, his name is Brian. He comes from Stonington, CT near Rhode Island in America. But now he lives in Milford, NH. He works with money at Fidelity in Merrimack, NH. I love him very much.

Nsoma Luganda. Weebale ku osoma kyange blog! Sula bulungi

I am studying Luganda. Thank you for reading my blog! Spend the night well.

Sidenote: letters are always welcome. If you send one, be sure to write your most creative religious sayings and quotes on the envelope to ensure no one looks through it/decorates the post office wall with your beautiful letters and pictures! ;)

Future Site Visit: The positives and negatives of being a PCV at a site that is new to PC

            I'm going to be incredibly honest in this blog post. I had my first real low since being in country during this time and I feel it's important to share. Last week, our entire cohort was divided into our different regions (Central-my region, Southwest, East, North, West, and West Nile). From this morning on, we would all be separated until the swearing in ceremony coming up on January 22! It was tough for all of us. Goodbyes are never easy; especially when they’re coming from friends we’ve all made over the last five weeks we’ve been in country training together. Reality definitely set in for me when I said my goodbyes and loaded into the SUV. The thought that I wouldn’t see anyone in the group for more than a few days at a time from now on was to foreign to me. We created comfort zones and support networks with each other. For this reason and many others, my Future Site visit (FSV) was quite an emotional roller coaster. It started on an uphill climb when our cars traveling to the southwest region got to stop at the equator. Naturally we took lots of photos and stood in two places at once…I mean how cool is that, not many people get to say they've lived in both hemispheres.

            I arrived at my site shortly after the stop at the equator. It was both incredibly scary and exciting at the same time. I was greeted at my school’s gate by about 20 students and four of the teachers I’ll be working with over the next two years. They were playing the drums, singing, and smiling from ear to ear. In that moment I felt so incredibly lucky. I knew some people would show up at their sites with no one there to greet them.  The teachers and students took my bags from me-- I learned this is because it’s incredibly impolite to be seen with a guest who is holding their own bags (and also because they think white people are weaker than them)—I was ushered into the office and given break tea which consisted of Tea masala and two pieces of white bread. Shortly after I was given my food, I learned that my supervisor had no idea what Peace Corps was, let alone that I was a Peace Corps Volunteer coming to stay with them for two years. This was the first red flag. In my head I was thinking, “How did you sign up to take on a volunteer without knowing what the organization does?!” but out loud I tried to briefly explain all of the amazing things PC does in countries all over the world.  Following this conversation, I was given a tour of the school and finally shown my home. I live on campus with the rest of the teachers. I’m lucky to have a real toilet, not a pit latrine, INSIDE my home and not far away from the house. I have two pretty big rooms, one with my bed and desk, and the other with my water tank and living area (hopefully some furniture to come!)

 After the tour of the school I was off to meet about 20 people in the town who consisted of the Chief of Police, the LC1 (Local Consulate—this man has a guy talk for him, and not because he can’t speak English, just because he can), a priest who studied in Scranton, PA for two years that has great English, five former and current teachers, and many others whom I don’t quite remember at this point. Needless to say I was exhausted, but the day wasn’t over yet. My counterpart and I paused for lunch around two. Let me tell you something about African meals… they are HUGE. People think Americans have huge portion sizes, but they’ve got nothing on Africa. I must take a picture sometime. On my plate was three small fried irish potatoes, a cup and a half of white rice, a cup and a half of matooke, a chicken leg, and what Africans call “salad”, which is about a half a cup of thinly sliced cabbage and two slices of plum tomatoes. Africans are obsessed with carbs and they eat, on average, three meals plus two break teas a day. Following lunch I walked the town even more to meet some other locals, bathed and watched the news with the teachers at my school then had dinner around eight. Finally got into my bed at 10:30 and woke up to do the same thing for the next two and a half days.

   I struggled a bit during FSV because I had no downtime aside from when I was sleeping, and even that was interrupted by the constant ring of my neighbors cell phone and her radio on full volume, not to mention the rooster crowing beginning around 4am. On top of this, I kept hearing “We’re so happy to have an American at our school” as opposed to “We’re so happy to have YOU at our school”. All three days I heard their interesting views of America and was asked about whether or not another American volunteer would replace me when I leave in two years (sheesh can you let me stay for a while before you already start thinking about another person?) While my future coworkers, supervisor, and counterpart were so excited to have me there, I began wondering if they were only really excited to say they know an American, and that they’re going to get to keep her for two years. This is when my downward spiral began. I didn’t truly feel appreciated, I just felt like a product they were testing out. I wasn’t Olivia, the teacher who works hard to help her kids and others, I was just “the American”; the American who they’ve put on their timetable as the P4 teacher for the entire year even though Peace Corps doesn’t allow that. No matter how much I tried to explain this, they didn’t get it. The only thing helping me not acknowledge my thoughts of quitting and returning home was the fact that I would be back with some of my cohort members for four weeks of language training and homestay at the end of FSV. In my heart I knew I couldn’t give up. I had to persevere and work through language training so that maybe my coworkers would respect me on another level if I could speak with them in their local language. The weight was lifted off my shoulders after I debriefed with friends and language trainers and settled into my first night with my homestay family (more on them in a future blog post!). I’m feeling MUCH better this week and am so excited to share what I’ve been learning in class!

Here’s to a great holiday vacation (our first actual break since arriving in country), incredible next four weeks until swearing in, and a positive return to my Site. Missing you all at home. Happy Holidays!

'Tis the Season

           The idea of a Ugandan Christmas is something I’ve been trying to get used to since I knew my cohort was leaving in November. It's my first Christmas away from home and all of my loved ones. I have been putting this idea off in my mind because for a while it’s been a sad thought. Over the last month since I’ve been in Uganda, I’ve made some truly incredible friends. From the very beginning our trainers have been calling us a family. At first, this was just a nice idea and thing for them to say to us. A sentiment meant to make us feel whole together. However, in my mind, family is a bond that grows over time. It doesn’t just form instantly upon arriving at a hotel to begin the next chapter of our lives. Family is a home for your heart. Family is irreplaceable and completely unique. Yes, family can be broken, but it can also be put back together again.

           The latter is something I feel all 37 of the trainees and I (maybe just me—don’t want to generalize too much) have felt since arriving in Philadelphia for staging back in November. In small ways we have broken our families up as we committed to 27 months of service with the Peace Corps. As long as we are gone, our families are not whole. I have struggled with this since arriving in country. But, as the last month passed, our trainers’ notion that we are a family has become truer as each day passes. We’ve been labeled the “clingy” group (as every cohort has a label apparently). At first I hated that word, clingy. To me clingy is a bad thing, but in our cohort it really means supportive. Being shoved in close quarters with 37 strangers with some of the same end goals in mind, it’s hard not to be supportive. Though we are slowly realizing that our group as a whole is unique in this way (We are one of the first cohorts in a long time that, by this point in training, hasn’t lost someone who has chosen to go home for one reason or another). I feel blessed to be going through this experience with these talented and passionate people who I know will back me up every step of the way. I know it is not by accident that we were put here together, which is why, slowly but surely, our family has been forming.

           Our Peace Corps family, like our family at home, is *irreplaceable and completely unique, it is a bond that will continue to grow, not only over the next 26 months we have left in this beautiful country, but long after we’ve come back home as well. Our family that we are creating here together is becoming a home for our Peace Corps hearts. I hate to already be thinking about when this family will be broken apart. Yet it’s comforting to know that no matter how far apart I am from my family at home or my Peace Corps family, it is bonded again by the love and support that is shared by every individual involved.

          An example of this family bond was experienced by some of us last night. We have been staying at a Primary Teacher’s College in Kira (pronounced Cheera). The students here are tired and at the very end of their school year, but they still have a zest for learning and life that is unmatched by any students I know. After a long year, they still took the time to sing Christmas carols with a small group of us last night. I’d been sick all week long with some food borne illness, yet I felt so uplifted by this experience with the students. The holidays are a time for families to come together. This year, I have the opportunity to become closer to my Peace Corps family, while also sharing this connectedness and uniqueness with my family at home. 

I love you all, Happy Holidays :) Pictures and some videos to come!