Happy weekend to all! We have almost made it through our first week in Uganda and everyday we feel a little more comfortable about our new surroundings! Matt and I have both had two full days of work. We are learning our new jobs quickly!
Matt works at Subi Village in Watoto’s Production Unit on the West side of Kampala – we live on the East side of Kampala – therefore transportation is proving to be a challenge! Matt is on the road by 6:30am, at work from 8-5 and then gets home around 7pm. It’s a long day. He takes a Matatu – a 14 passenger Ugandan taxi. He is learning his route with help from a local named Richard, who also works at the Production Unit. Matatu’s stop at certain stages, similar to a Canadian bus. The trip is long, hot and squishy! This is the cheapest form of transportation and truly a Ugandan experience. The locals are impressed and think he is crazy for taking the Matatu’s to and from work work. I will never take these without Matt. On his first day, walking from one taxi park to another, many local grabbed at Matt’s backpack. Luckily Matt is a big guy!
At work, Matt has been learning how the shop runs. He worked along side another Ugandan man named Rashid the last two days learning the ropes! Matt’s boss, a man from Ohio, told Matt that as he sees ways to improve speed and efficiency that he could make it happen. Besides Matt’s boss, his boss’ wife, and the head of the mechanics department, he works with all locals. The locals speak Lugandan to each other, which is a local language. Matt is trying to pick up on this! Lunch for Matt has beans and porcha (excuse my Ugandan spelling – it’s all wrong!). At lunch he plays checkers and scrabble with the men – both games are very popular here.
I have spent two days with the babies and it is exhausting. The other volunteers say that after the first week you get use to the pace and the children. I have spent a couple of days with the 9-12 month olds. There are 12 kids this age. They wake up at 7, are changed, fed, bathed, play, fed again and then are napping by noon. At 3, we get them up, give them a snack, play, have supper at 5, bathe at 6, have milk at 6:30 and go to bed by 7. It’s amazing how much faster I am getting even after two days. I can feed three babies at once. We run 12 kids through the bath, diaper and dress them in sleepers in about 30 min. The kids are beautiful and I am trying very hard to put names to faces. The first day I learned who they were by what they were wearing and then we changed them all and I had to relearnJ. I think that by next week I will be in with the preemies, although I feel somewhat attached to my other kids already! I wish you all could see where I get to work. 75 babies in one place really is a sight to see!
Last night we went out on the town after work. Most of the volunteers at the babies home, another local and us headed out to a restaurant call MnPorcha. It is a beautiful patio/restaurant attached to a local hotel complete with a live local band. It was great! They had little lounging areas with pillows and couches. The band had about 10 people in it and was fantastic! It was a very fun night!
I think that’s about it for now. Internet here is costly and SLOW so we will try to blog at least once a week minimum. We will also try at some point to upload photos onto our facebook for you to look at, but again the internet is SLOWJ.
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