I AM DONE!!

            I am finished with training that is.  I cannot believe that I have been in Uganda for over two months already.  I am so happy that training is over with and I can finally start working.  This week we will be in Kampala to finish up some last minute things.  We get to visit the embassy, go shopping, have a workshop with our counterpart and then we are sworn in on Thursday.  We leave for our sites on Friday, which is going to be interesting considering all of the stuff I have!  I had my language exam last Thursday and I passed!!  I took it a day early because the guy giving the exam was testing two different language groups.  The test went way better than my practice exam, which was nice.  I did run into one slight problem during the exam.  The tester asked me what activities I liked to do during my free time.  One of the activities I said was play soccer – clearly not true, but I knew how to say it in Lugwere.  Well instead of asking about the other activities I listed, he asked me questions about soccer.  He asked me what my favorite team was and all I could think was, “Oh crap, do I even know any soccer teams?”  I said the LA Galaxy because it was the first thing to come to mind.  Then he asked why.  This is when I decided to get creative.  I proceeded to talk about David Beckham and how I thought he was good looking and I wanted to marry him.  He could not stop laughing, and I think he finally realized I don’t know anything about soccer. 

            We had a home stay thank you for all of our families on Saturday.  Each language group had to prepare a ten-minute and a five-minute presentation.  People did a whole range of things: taught the Macarena, chicken dance, electric slide, while others sang songs in their language.  A few people talked about what states they were from and had a power point presentation.  Now of course CRAB (Caroline, Ryan, Aubrey and Bethany) did not take this seriously, and went in a different direction.  I came up with the idea of doing “summer camp skits” for our ten-minute presentation.  Our first skit was called the “shoe psychic.”  I’m not sure how many of you remember this skit, but it goes pretty much like this: Caroline was the shoe psychic.  She smelled each of our shoes, and then tell us our “future.”  Things like you’re going to be rich, live until you're 100, etc.  With Kenneth she said, “You are about to pass four students on a very important language exam”.  Well, after that we called up Kevin (another volunteer) to try out the shoe psychic.  He took off his shoe, Caroline smelled it, and said, “You are about to go on a very long journey.”  She threw it to me, and I then proceeded to chuck it as far as I could outside of the conference hall.  Pretty brilliant if you ask me, and the Ugandans seemed to think so too.  Our second skit was called “Captain of the Ship.”  Ryan was the captain, and I ran up to him yelling, “Captain, a ship is coming!” 

Ryan: “How many guns and how many men?”

Me: “20 guns and 20 men”

Ryan: “Bring me my red sweater so they won’t see me bleed.”

Bethany followed next, and the scene proceeded the same way, except she said “50 men and 50 guns”.  He still asked for his red sweater so they wouldn’t see him bleed.  Caroline went last, but it went like this:

Caroline: “Captain a ship is coming!”

Ryan: “How many guns and how many men?”

Caroline: “100 guys and 100 men.”

Ryan: “Mmmm…bring me my brown pants.”

I mean, really, we should be in show biz – I think our performances were Oscar worthy.  How we managed to actually keep straight faces is beyond me.  People laughed, so that was good!  I still can’t believe we performed these in front of our host families.  For the five-minute presentation we introduced ourselves in Lugwere and then we individually thanked our families.  Bethany then read a speech that Kenneth wrote, but cracked up laughing the whole time.  The rest of us didn’t help either because we were snorting trying to contain ourselves.  The speech started with “When you touch a rock, you touch the past.  When you touch a flower, you touch the present.  And when you touch a child, you touch the future.”  Not our finest moment on stage because we couldn’t take it seriously…whoops! 

            I am really sad to be leaving my home stay.  My host mom has showered me with gifts: a dress, a mat for my house, a battery powered lamp, hot sauce (she knows I put it on everything here!) and tea.  I guess it’s safe to say that she is going to miss me too.  I have just been hanging out with the family today; I even went to church at 6:30 am!!!  My mom asked me to go because it’s Palm Sunday, and I felt bad turning her down.  It was packed in the church, and of course I was the only white person.  I was stared at the whole time and I didn’t know what was going on because it was in Luganda.  The singing was really pretty though, so that kept me entertained. 

            I have to attempt to pack up my things now.  I wrote this blog post in an attempt to procrastinate, even though I had no news!  I am not sure how my Internet service will be at site, so it may be a while before my next post.