Settling In

We are starting to fall into a routine here in Ndejje. We’ve finally settled into our place at the Ndejje Calm House and are learning (very slowly) to cook using a pot filled with coals as our oven. Up until today, most dinners have consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, mangoes, ground nuts, which taste and look like peanuts, and LOTS of bananas. I’d say average banana consumption for me is around six a day. Tonight, with Florence’s assistance, we are going to try to cook real Ugandan food for the first time: sweet potatoes with ground nut sauce, onions, and tomatoes.

Today was the first day that we ran games at break time. In Uganda, the long school break is in December and January. Hope school officially starts up again on February 1^st, but Hope has allowed students to come back a week early, if they want. There were about 11 kids at school today, so Stevie and I played a name game, tag, and, of course, some soccer with the kids for an hour. The kids were all very shy at first, but started screaming and having a great time once we started playing.

After break-time games, we decided to decorate the community center. We ran strings across the room and hung lots of the colorful socks donated by the Lee Mt. Vernon Soccer Club, arranging the socks in color combinations to represent the flags of the five nationalities represented at Hope School. I encourage my fellow UC architecture and interior designers to consider using socks in your next project!

Tonight, Stevie and I are going to play soccer on a field close to our home. I accidentally found the game last night when I was trying to find a place to run. Running on roads is not an option. First, the dirt roads are very uneven with ditches and potholes everywhere. Second, boda-bodas (motorcycle taxis), taxi vans, and cars race down the roads, and seem to speed up when ever they see a pedestrian. Third, and possibly the most deterring factor, is all of the attention I would get if I were jogging. Walking on the roads, Stevie and I already draw the attention of every child in town as they stop playing to chant “How are you Wazungu?” I can’t even imagine what kind of crazy looks and shouts I would get if I were jogging.

Anyway, I went to run around the soccer field last night and I found a bunch of guys in their 20s playing soccer. They asked me to play and I happily agreed to. Though they had a whole field, they played pick-up like you would play half-court basketball (there was only one goal, so you had to take the ball to mid-field once you won possession before you could attack.) You scored a goal by hitting the goal post, rather than scoring between the posts. These guys’ accuracy was phenomenal. Despite the pretty severe pitch of the field, rocks, potholes, knee-high grass in some areas, and dirt in others, these guys could nail the goal post from 15 and 20 yards out. Wow!

Tomorrow we will play games at Hope school with the kids, organize and decorate the community center some more, and play some more soccer. This weekend, maybe a rafting trip down the Nile?