I've now been in Karamoja for two weeks... I'm finally starting to feel settled in here. My schedule's sorted out, I'm getting to know everyone, and the jet lag is gone. I'm off mefloquine (the malaria prophylaxis I was taking, which was giving me nightmares), taking doxycycline now. That should help.
Here's an average, weekday Day in the Life of an MK Teacher here in Nakaale :)
6:30AM -- I'm on the top bunk, right next to the window. The sun rises and at first the sky is grayish... I go in and out of sleep for a while, but when the sky starts turning pink and purple I know it's time to get up. It's really a beautiful view from my bunk... looking out over the savanna to the dim outline of mountains in the distance. I eat breakfast, make coffee and get ready for the day.
8:00 Literature(MWF)/Bible(T/Th) with Bobby and Anna Wright
8:45 World History with Bobby & Anna
9:45 Omnibus III (Great Books) with Maria Tricarico
10:30 Omnibus III with James Tricarico
11:45 Grammar/Vocab with Caleb Okken
12:00 lunch (rice and beans in the main house every weekday)
1:45 Heritage Studies (world history) with Mary and Kipsy Wright
Depending on the afternoon, I may go down to the clinic with Erika to visit our little Kenyan friends Faith, James and Stacey. Erika teaches Faith three days each week, and I'd like to go as often as I can just to play with the younger kids while she teaches. Erika and I sometimes need to prepare food to bring to dinner at someone's house (we have dinner invites 4 days/week right now), or we may need to make our own dinner. I try to prepare the next day's lessons in the afternoons, because in the evenings we're often visiting with people and it's nice to be able to socialize without having to leave right after dinner to get back to work. But when my reading load picks up I'll probably have to skip out pretty quickly after group dinners.
Some highlights of this week:
- There was a HUGE spider in our banda (hut). It was as big as my palm, hairy, fast, and we could see its eyes gleaming at us. NOT OKAY. I really, really, really hate spiders, so I mostly held the flashlight, moved the furniture and poked it to make it move around so that Erika could squish it with my shoe. It was epic.
We have a friendly little brown gecko who lives in our hut, and we like him because he eats bugs. I'm pretty sure if gecko and spider had ever brawled, spider would have won, which would be sad, because I like our gecko. But the spider has been conquered.
- I went to the town of Namalu on Tuesday. I bought some things at the store there (we call it WalMart... but its actually about the size of a small living room). We had samosas at a "restaurant" (they pulled two benches out of a shack for us to sit on, and served our samosas on a real plate). Samosas are deep-fried pastry things filled with beef and onions. So good. They made us a fresh batch so they were hot and safe to eat. An old woman with a terrible sore on her leg was begging from us and almost snatched Anna's wallet out of her hand. On the way home we ran over a huge black mamba in the road... but it was already dead.
- Priya the cat just ran into my banda, chased something, caught it, walked outside with it and ate it. What was that? A mouse? A gecko? I'm so confused. Uhh... thanks Priya.
- It has been raining like CRAZY here. This is supposed to be the start of dry season but it's been pouring rain for days. It's always overcast and it usually rains in the evening, but it's rained in the morning a couple times which is apparently very unusual here.
- Last night all the visitors (me, Erika, James, Johnny, Ruffin, Britney, Joe and Heather) went over to Jim and Jenny (Baumgardner) Knox's house, and Jim played his bagpipes for us. After the typical Scotland the Brave and Amazing Grace, he took requests. He had a kids book of easy bagpipe tunes... so he played Pop Goes the Weasle and La Cucaracha. HILARITY. Then we had some hilarious conversations after dinner about spanking in public schools (still happens in TX, apparently), various uses of cow dung, and the worst travel toilet experiences (one involved a pole to push pigs away). It was so fun.
Ok, I've got to go. This afternoon Erika and I have our first ngaKaramojong lesson with Rose, our laundry lady. That should be fun :)
I miss you all... hope all's well on the home front. I'd love to hear from you!
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