A Farewell to Arms

Well hello again. I hope this day is finding you all well, and enjoying life. I've been busy showing the trainees who are staying with me around my site and village, and showing them the ropes of life at a secondary school in the middle of nowhere. I think they've been enjoying it, and Spencer has been showing them around the trails and hills near my house, so they are pleased to be escorted by such a fine guide. I recently had my first rat in the house in a long time, it chewed a hole through the bread that I had just bought because silly me, I left it out thinking it would be fine since I hadn't seen a rat in over a month. I think I know the reason for their long disappearance, and will relate the story shortly, but am completely bamboozled by their sudden re-entrance into my life. Oh well, I guess that's how it goes.

So I had been away from site for a few days, probably for some training or other, I can't recall the exact circumstances, but at any rate I was coming home from a short time away, but longer than a weekend. I walked into my house as usual, checking on everything important, opening windows, finding Spencer and putting his collar back on, checking to see if the water was working, and last but not least, checking the rat trap. To my great surprise, it was empty. It was not however still set, something had made the bar spring closed. And I could immediately tell something had at one time been under that bar, but escaped. The reason I could tell is the mess, there was grey fur everywhere, stuck to the bar and piles of it next to the trap. I was confused by this, but figured a rat had been trapped and somehow freed itself. I only figured out how it freed itself after walking into my bathroom and seeing a completely free and lonely front leg of a rat. I put two and two together, as I am a math teacher currently, and realized the rat had chewed it's own arm off to escape the certain death of my broom handle. I removed the discombobulated limb from my bathroom with a plastic bag over my hand and went about my business. Apparently the 3 legged soldier warned all of his friends, because they were afraid to enter my house for a while afterward. Unfortunately the fear has faded, and I've got to think of some new cruel and unusual punishment to keep them away. If you think of anything, please feel free to let me know.

Other than that, life goes on. We saw President Museveni today as he was making a tour of the villages where elections will shortly be held, so I'm away from home for a bit. Not sure exactly when I'll get to return, but by the time I do, I'll have Casey with me! Hopefully Kampala stays secure and no more riots stop me from getting to pick her up from the airport! Anyway, that's all for now, so keep on truckin.

cheers

Just Dance

Well hello again my lovelies. I hope all is well with you, and I suppose it's time for yet another blog. I've been teaching for a couple of weeks now, and getting to know my students. Bright-eyed and straight from primary school, they have a terrible time deciphering what I'm talking about with my crazy American accent, but they're coming around. By the end of the term they'll have it down, and then I'll be going back to America and they'll have to get used to a Ugandan math teacher again! Oh well, I think it'll be good for them. We're beginning midterms this week and we'll see how much of what I've been saying has sunk in when I grade the papers. Could be interesting.

Other than that, my group had our final farewell COS (close of service) party a few weekends ago, and what a time it was. We rented out a place in Old Kampala and had Ethiopian food, which was of course delicious. Some of our number put together a slide show of pictures of the group from our arrival in Philly up to the present. Two years! I can hardly believe it. No tears yet, although I've still got a few months to go, so we'll see when the time comes. And after the slide show the real fun began, and we danced the night away. The Dance Triumverate, (me, Thomas, and Zach, shoutout to you I know you're reading this) showed everybody up with our stellar dance moves. I'm of course the leader of our trio, but that goes without saying considering how good I am at shaking it. Mackenzie, Holly and I even performed our dance to Lady Gaga's Just Dance for a very delighted audience, to rave reviews. All in all, I think the night was very successful, despite being very sad to say goodbye to many people.

On a happier note, two training volunteers are going to come visit me for some instruction, I'm very wise you know, and will stay with me for two weeks learning the ways of the Jedi (and by that I mean secondary education, Megan style). While I feel my tutelage will be a very important part of these new volunteers training, who knows how they'll feel. I guess we'll wait and see, mwahahahahahahahaha

cheers