Power Thighs

            In America, it is scandalous to show too much cleavage, but in Uganda, it is scandalous to be showing your thighs.  A woman’s thighs are her “power.”  Obviously I knew this, which is why I spent endless hours searching for long skirts before I left.  Nevertheless, some of the other volunteers and I still managed to embarrass ourselves.  This week we went to a Primary Teachers College (PTC) in order to learn how they operate and get more practice teaching.  When we were not teaching, we hung out in the staff room and practice language or read.  On our second day there, one of the Peace Corps trainers, Ven, came up to us and whispered to us to uncross our legs.  We were all a little confused, but we did as we were told because Ven is Ugandan and knows all of the cultural customs.  She later told us that when we crossed our legs, our “Power” was showing.  Let me just say I did not think she was referring to my thighs, and I was mortified.  We were actually all a bit horrified, but then Ven clarified and told us part of our thighs were showing, and it was making the other teachers extremely uncomfortable.  They told Ven who had to relay the message to us.  It’s apparently culturally inappropriate for a woman to cross her legs here…who would have thought?  Lesson learned.  I’ll try not to show my power and not to cross my legs anymore.

            We went to the PTC on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and it was very…interesting.  First of all, the PTCs were outside of Kampala, so we had to leave really early to beat the morning traffic.  We had to be at the Training Center by 6:30am because that is when our transport left.  So I had to leave my house at 6am and it was pitch black outside!  It was not fun having to walk to school with a flashlight.  Also, it rained this week, so I was walking through mud (it's all dirt roads here).  Additionally, it took 2.5 hours to get to our PTC!  The first PTC was an hour away, but after we dropped off the first group, it took us another hour and a half to get to our PTC.  It was mainly due to all of the traffic, we would literally sit in the same spot for 15 minutes.  However, we were placed at Shimoni PTC, which is brand new and extremely nice – so we had that in our favor at least.  We were only at Shimoni for a half-day on Tuesday; we took a tour and met with teachers to discuss lesson plans.  I think we were actually on the bus for longer than we were at the PTC.  Wednesday I was supposed to teach a math lesson, but of course that fell through.  So I observed a few classes, and then just sat around studying language and read my book. 

            Thursday I was finally able to teach, and I taught two math classes.  It was intimidating to teach because the students were 18-22 years old, and I was supposed to teach them how to teach primary school math.  My lesson was about percentages and turning fractions into percents and vice versa.  The students did not actually remember how to do this, so I basically just taught the math lesson.  There were 70 students (yikes!), but overall it went really well.  They weren’t so keen to participate, but once they realized I wasn’t going to back down – a few brave souls started the trend of raising their hands.  During my second lesson it started to pour down rain: rain + vaulted tin roofs = extremely noisy.  I pretty much had to shout and write everything I said on the board.  After finishing the lesson, it was still pouring down rain, so none of us felt like leaving the classroom.  To pass the time, I told the students they could ask me any question they wanted about America or me, which was a lot of fun.  A few my favorite moments: 1. I was asked what the weather was like.  When I told them about the snow/freezing cold in Wisconsin, they could not believe it.  They asked me how people survive.  2. They asked how Uganda is treating me.  I told them how much I loved Uganda so far, and I was really excited to be here for two years.  I then said, “I also hear mzungu about 45 times a day, that gets annoying.  If you see a white person, don’t shout mzungu – go talk to them and introduce yourself”.  They could not stop laughing, but kept telling me it was not meant to be offensive.  I told them it would be like people shouting “Mu-Uganda” all the time if they came to America.  They found this hilarious, but also finally saw the point I was trying to make.  3. “We would like your Facebook and email.”  This was met with both cheers and laughter from the whole classroom.  I was not quite sure how to respond, as I did not want to give my information to 70 students nor was I sure if it was even appropriate.  I told them I was not going to give out my email, but if any of them could properly spell “Aubrey Marsh,” they were welcome to find and add me on Facebook.  So far, I have received no friend requests.  Overall, I got a lot of great questions and it was fun to tell them more about America. 

            I showed some photos I had of my family yesterday to Dan, Fred (another cousin who always hangs around here) and my mom.  Well, Dan never fails to say something amusing!  He looked at the first family photo and says, “Ay, your mom is too skinny!  She needs to come to Africa to learn to eat properly.”  He also said that Robyn and I were too small, but my dad looks “big and strong!” and we should try to take after him.  My host mom on the other hand said we looked “smart,” so that’s good!  My computer ran out of battery, so I wasn’t able to show them that many photos, but they are really looking forward to seeing more.   

            Next week we have language immersion, and I will be gone from Sunday-Thursday.  We are all going out to our regions with our language trainers to practice speaking.  I am really excited to go because I will get a general idea of where I will be living for the next two years.  I won’t be seeing my actual site, but it will still be nice to see the region I am in.  I’ll let you all know how it goes when I get back!