#5 - May 21st 2007

Osiibye Otya? (How is your day going?)

For an hour today I played outside with one of our little Ugandan neighbors, Vicky. She speaks about as much English as I speak Luganda and therefore it was a very interesting test of our communication skills. We went through the English alphabet, colours, and numbers, and she laughed as I tried to pronounce some words in Luganda.

Here are some of the words I’ve learned (you can learn along with me!):

How are you? – Olyootya? à when pronounced, double vowels are prolonged

Thank you – Weebale (pronounced way-ba-leh)

Goodbye – Weeraba (pronounced way-la-ba à ‘r’s are pronounced like ‘l’s)

Pardon me? or Yes? – Wanji (pronounced wan-jee)

So there you go, your first lesson in Luganda! You can imagine how much I butchered those today.

The highlight of my day was going to visit the African Hearts boys. While Natalie discussed various projects Partnerships for Opportunity’s financing, I ventured off to talk to some of the boys. I spent a good deal of time with Matthias Mnlumba, a boy of maybe nineteen, who was quite inspirational. He began by asking me a lot of questions about my schooling, then some tougher questions such as who was my most favored African politician…my mistake for saying I knew something about African politics. I took the easy way out, “I recognize and respect the difficulties faced by the politicians of this region and would have to say that Koffi Annan for me represents a person in the political realm who’s heart was in the right place, but was faced with enormous, often insurmountable obstacles.” Matthias’ role model is Nelson Mandela, understandably, and although I have heard quite a bit about Mandela before, Matthias had a unique and inspiring position on him. Matthias gave me his e-mail address and I hope to be able to send you some of the things he has written; he is so eloquent and vibrant in his speech, and I read over some of the things in his notebook, which was also quite good. He has a determination and a drive to see change in Africa and believes his generation can and will be the ones to do it. This is coming from a boy who’s parents died when he was three, his uncle kicked him out when he was nine, and he lived on the streets of Kampala, alone, until just a couple of years ago when the African Hearts boys band welcomed him in and offered him some support.

While I’m standing there talking to different people, various boys will come up and shake my hand, say hello and ask me about my day. They shake hands much like teenagers do, and often continue holding my hand while we talk. One of the boys, Grace, whom I mentioned reminded me of my brother, asked if he could ‘push’ me home, which just means he’d accompany me home, so I pulled out my ipod and we listened to music and sang the whole way. We also had a really good chat about life in Uganda, and the differences between Uganda and Canada. Grace is studying to take the national exams in three months, and told me he studies Literature, Divinity, Physics, Chemistry, and History. While Grace and I were walking some Ugandans passed us and said something to me in Luganda that I didn’t understand, and Grace refused to tell me what they said, claiming it would upset me. Later he finally told me they had asked if I would marry them, apparently something a lot of Muzungus get asked, and that Grace thought was rude.

A rather uneventful night was followed by another adventurous day, as Natalie, Peter, Peter’s dad, and I set out for what was supposed to be a nice hour-long walk to a resort pool in lake-side town. This walk turned out to be four hours in 26 degree heat. I resemble a sun-dried tomato now, which is quite the opposite of pleasant. However, the pool was almost worth it; it is an Olympic-size pool surrounded by huge palm trees and green grass, with wooden lounging chairs all around, and servers to bring you whatever you wish. I felt more than a little spoiled. It was great to relax and read a book after the exhausting walk. The resort is actually where the Commonwealth Conference is being held in November, so the Queen of England will be staying there!

Thankfully we taxied home (which took about twenty minutes…maama nyabo!) and as I write this I have now had a good night’s rest and am about to head off to an orphan baby clinic. Will update you soon!

Weeraba!

Nicole