I went public!

Due to the difficulty of accessing my blog, even by those whom I've invited, I've decided to just make it public.  The last entry I posted was while I was still living at homestay in Lweza.  I've now moved and somewhat settled into my new home on Wanyange hill in Jinja district.  Between then and now, I've finished training, sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and temporarily said goodbye to my cohort of PCTs (until I see them again in three months).  However, I'm so close to the Jinja-Iganga road that traveling and visiting my Busoga friends isn't so difficult, especially Maggie, who is posted at the PTC down the road some 20 minutes. 

Here's a little anecdote that, after relaying to a friend back home, I realized I should expand a bit more on.  This was from last Monday.  " The closest borehole to me is dry because a pipe broke by the road, so I had to send a boda driver today to get me two jerrycans of water, and with that I had to do as much laundry as I had time for (which wasn't much). I then mopped my front porch with the leftover water, and saved a basin of the rest, just because I can't stand just tossing it."

Boda driver = Motorcycle taxi driver.  Wikipedia describes the history well: "The boda-boda taxis are part of the African bicycle culture; they started in the 1960s and 1970s and are still spreading from their origin on the Kenyan - Ugandan border to other regions. The name originated from a need to transport people across the "no-mans-land" between the border posts without the paperwork involved with using motor vehicles crossing the international border. This started in southern border crossing town of Busia (Uganda), where there is over half a mile between the gates, and quickly spread to the northern border town of Malaba (Kenya). The bicycle owners would shout out boda-boda (border-to-border) to potential customers - not to be confused with poda-poda, which is a form of shared taxi in Sierra Leone."
     There are two kinds of bodas in Uganda, one is a bicycle boda, and the other is a motorcycle boda.  They are now also called "Pikki-pikki," a name disconnecting the motorcycle taxi from it's somewhat questionable past.  

Jerry cans= Big plastic jugs that, in the beginning of their life hold things like cooking oil, paint or petrol, but are then washed out (really well) and used for fetching water.  The big jerrycans are 20 liters, but there are smaller varieties, which are much easier to carry.  The question I'd like to know is, where does it get it's name?  I've so far been surviving with just two Jerry cans, which is enough because my borehole is one house down. 

Borehole = Again, I like Wiki's description, "A borehole is the generalized term for any narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water or other liquid (such as petroleum) or gases (such as natural gas), as part of a geotechnical investigation, environmental site assessment, mineral exploration, temperature measurement or as a pilot hole for installing piers or underground utilities. Boreholes used as water wells are described in more depth in that article."  So, the borehole I refer to here is the water well type borehole.  It just looks like a pipe with a tap coming out of the ground.  I pay 100 shillings to Mama Tagaba and I get 20 liters of water.

And so, if my little story didn't make sense at first, re-read it with this new information.  :)  

In other news, I find myself to be much busier than I had anticipated.  I thought the school break would be just that--a break--but it's far from it.  I find that being busy is better than being bored.  I offered my help in marking exams from this last term, a task I have yet to complete.  Additionally, I need to plan my scheme of work for next term's classes (thank goodness I'm only beginning with Year Twos, and I have an extra couple of weeks before the Year Ones return). And then, I also signed on to go to the P5 workshop--which I do not anticipate to be very intensive, allowing me time to plan.  Also--that will be fun because I'll get to hang with Maggie a bit at her site.  So, there's that.  And then there's the consistent and slow collecting of supplies to be comfortable in my home.  I like that I have the luxury of buying things gradually, especially because I'm so close to Jinja, but at the same time once I buy something that I had really needed, I don't appreciate it enough before I think of the next thing I desperately need.

This is life for now, and I'll post again soon!  :)  As far as pictures, refer to my facebook account for now...Blogger takes time to upload pictures....