njagala omwana eno!

[I love the children here!]

Last week was orientation with the 10 other interns. We learned about sustainable development and went on a few excursions. On Friday we moved into our host families. The first time I met my host dad, he played 90's music videos and started dancing around the room. Then when I moved in, he had a videoman to document my move-in. Before dinner every night my family watches a Spanish soap opera dubbed in English, "Second Chance." I have a sister my age, Helen, 3 little boy cousins who live with us and are very adorable, and a house girl. I also have 6 older sisters that are out of the house. I'm having a good time exchanging culture with Helen, and finding that we have a lot in common.

The past few days I have gone outside to play with my cousins and learn Luganda, and in no time about 20 more kids will be crowded around to watch the "muzungu" (white person) and help her with Luganda. On Saturday and took out my camera and they had so much fun posing for over 100 photos and then looking at them and bursting into laughter at seeing themselves on my camera.

I started work at Kyabakuza Primary School Monday, and have enjoyed observing the ways of the school and meeting the many students. I walked into a classroom today to observe, not realizing the teacher wasn't here today, and the kids started having a debate on whether it was better to live in a town or village. It was such a cool thing to see, and I could really see how much community had formed within this class of 50 kids. Then I got up and told them about America, in which they were very interested and intrigued. Pretty soon they were all out od their seats and crowded around me, asking me many questions.

They are feeding me well, too. The food is all starch: pasta, potato, rice, amatooke (it's bananas but it's basically mashed potatoes). And walking through the village, all the kids are yelling "Bye muzungu, how are you?!" They all want to know me and hold my hand. The kids here are adorable!

I'll have to upload pictures another day, but I am not lacking!