i am a muzungu...

....meaning, when i walk down the street, i am constantly followed by cries of "muzungu! muzungu!" "muzungu" means white person (the subtext of which is rich person) or, essentially, anyone who is different in some way (whether through skin color, income, education, etc). our academic directors have explained (and you can see in the faces of most of the people who say it) that it is not (usually) meant in a mean or taunting way, it's merely meant to point out difference.

knowing that doesn't make it any easier, though.

from the moment i leave my hotel room in the morning, the knowledge of my difference, of how much i stand out, of the fact that everyone is staring at me as i walk down the street, never leaves my mind. no matter how much i get used to this place, i will always have that difference separating me from everyone and everything. it's exhausting, but i know that it's good for me. of course i've long been aware of my white privilege, of the fact that my skin color makes my life different than it otherwise would be. but here, i'm really forced to feel it and live it, to realize that for my entire life, i've very rarely had to think about how i'm going to be received based on the color of my skin. i was talking to another girl on the trip, and she said that sometimes she almost forgets that she's white because she feels so comfortable here. first of all, i call bull s***, because we've been here for less than a week and there's no way that's true. and second of all, if she actually does feel that or does come to feel that at some point, i cannot empathize with her, because i never forget my skin color and how it instantly marks me as different. i don't know which of us is right, or even if it's an issue of right and wrong. i think it's a good thing to be aware of difference, because it allows us to see how and why our lives are so different, but i suppose if my awareness of and anxiety about that difference prevents me from really getting comfortable here, that could be bad.

i suppose we'll see.

i meet my homestay family today, at 2 pm! i'm SO NERVOUS, but excited. apparently i have 4 siblings -- 3 brothers and 1 sister; 1 is between the ages of 13-16, 2 are between 16 and 18, and 1 is 18 and over. (and snichols, it's not the family your friend had because they've never hosted an s.i.t. student before). i'll let you know how it goes!

one last thing that i really wanted to include: there's a girl here who goes to wellesley and brought only j.crew and ralph lauren clothes. that's all i have to say about that.

love you all!!

no big deal, i just saw the president

so the other day we had the "drop off," which is apparently a major component of all s.i.t. programs and, in my opinion, is code for The Scariest and Most Overwhelming Thing You'll Ever Do in Your Life. basically it entails pairing up, being assigned a broad topic (ranging from Culture and Fashion, Trade and Commerce, Education, Healthcare, etc), and traveling around the city with your partner trying to find out as much info as possible on your topic. my partner and i got what was probably the scariest but also the most useful topic: the Old Taxi Park. you remember what i said about uganda's taxis? well the old taxi park is basically where most of them congregate to wait for passengers. we're talking a HUGE area crammed with hundreds of taxis and thousands of people yelling, selling things, running around, and speaking luganda. there's small signs posted above areas of taxis indicating the general destination of those taxis, but you pretty much have to know the most obvious landmark near your destination in order to even begin to know what taxi you should be looking for. here's a link to a photo of the taxi park: http://egoimagekenya.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/taxi-park1.jpg. multiply the chaos you sense from this picture times INFINITY.

now imagine being foreign, english-speaking, scared white girl trying to figure this situation out. yeah.

anyways. so my partner and i went there and decided to take a taxi to the s.i.t. resource center. we knew the general area where we should be going but had no idea where we would be getting off, when to pay, what to say when we wanted to get off, etc. i don't have a lot of time to go into detail, but suffice it to say, we survived and managed to get to the resource center and back without too much trouble. i'm not going to be humble here -- that was a FEAT and i am DAMN PROUD of myself. ;-)

so the president! we were there and started noticing a lot of people congregating, yelling, etc. then we started seeing signs saying that the owner of the taxi park is supporting museveni's next bid for presidency, and he was coming to thank him for his support. so.....there he was. the president. and we just happened to be there. some nice ugandans kind of explained what was going on, but mostly it was loud and chaotic and overwhelming and we didn't stay too long because we couldn't tell what he was saying and we didn't want to be caught in the middle of something potentially dangerous or controversial. my opinion of museveni aside, it was a pretty cool thing.

I. AM. HERE.

please excuse my crassness, but HOLY S*** I'M IN UGANDA. sorry it's taken so long to post; we've had very limited internet access and the small amount of time we have had has been with very. slow. computers. my smith email account isn't really working here, so for now i'm going to be using my very old aol account, surfrrosa@aol.com. but so far we've only been on computers in internet cafes, so i'm hoping once i'm on my own computer on the wireless at the s.i.t. resource center it will be better. also the internet cafe i'm at right now is playing only celine dion and it's AWESOME. right now "my heart will go on" is playing. just giving you some context.

ANYWAY. where do i even begin???? everything's pretty much been an overwhelming blur so far. we've done a tour of the city, eaten at some delicious restaurants, visited the s.i.t. resouce center where we'll be having our classes. the food has been delicious, but SO STARCHY. every meal basically consists of rice, beans, potatoes, matooke (mashed banana), and variations on these things. it's super good, but boy does it make you feel bloated. i'm worried about what's gonna happen when i'm with my homestay family and they're pushing more, more, more food on me! so far my stomach has been pretty stable (fingers crossed), but we'll see how long it stays that way....

yesterday we received a complete, day-to-day schedule for the rest of the semester, and it is JAM PACKED. all of the classes and lectures and excursions sound incredible. we'll be going to rwanda to visit some genocide memorial sites and a rwandan prison in a few weeks, and then we'll be visiting queen elizabeth national park where i'll finally get to see all of the "real" african animals! (so far it's pretty much been only lots of goats and cows) [p.s. jared -- they do have cows here and they do drink milk]. i'll try to post some pictures as soon as possible, probably when i have my own computer and wireless.

we also received our homestay family assignments yesterday. i'm going to be living with a mother and her children (i can't remember her name at the moment, or the area where i'll be living). mona, our driver, said he lives just a few houses down from where i'll be living and that he'll invite me over to dinner at his place to meet his HUGE family. mona says that i'll have a few brothers and sisters my age, which i'm really excited about, and also that my mother has a lot of chickens whose eggs i'll probably be helping to harvest. we'll meet up with our homestay families on sunday and go home with them then. mona says that my home isn't too far from the resource center, which is good. we have to take taxis to class every morning, which i'm incredibly nervous about doing for the first time. taxis here aren't like taxis in the u.s.; they're buses that pack in about 15 ppl or so. you meet the taxi at a taxi park that is SO overwhelming and (they tell us) is supposedly arranged in some sort of organized chaos that is understandable over time (i'm trying to believe them). driving here is CRAZY. there's pretty much no traffic lights, and driving is pretty much like a big game of chicken....whoever wimps out first lets the other person go. there's these little motorbikes called "boda bodas" that are another way of getting around -- much quicker, but MUCH more dangerous, and we're forbidden from riding on those. so anyway, we have to find the taxi that's going to near where we're headed, but because streets are often unmarked here and most ppl don't read maps, directions literally entail "turn left at the big tree/building/etc". it's going to be an experience.

kampala seems really big and crazy and overwhelming, but i'm told (i'm trusting you here, snichols) that it gets less overwhelming with time. apparently tomorrow they're going to be sending us off in groups to go around the city and try to find the best cell phone deals. (most ppl don't have cell phones yet, but thanks to snichols i do....i can't remember my number off the top of my head but i'm pretty sure snichols posted it in a comment on my first post). i'm terrifed and excited about it. i'll let you know how it goes.

okay, well my internet time is just about to expire. again, i'm not sure how often i'm going to be able to post, but i'll do my best. i miss you all!!!! please keep the comments coming....it makes me feel so happy to read them!!

london

i've arrived in london! 6 hours til my next flight. here's a quick rundown of the highs and lows of the first leg of my trip:

highs:
-british accents (you would've loved it, johnny)
-jurassic park
-leonard cohen's "live in london" album on the audio thingy
-sarah b.'s classical music mix
-dramamine
-sparkling mineral water in adorable little mini-cans

lows:
-MY SEAT WOULDN'T RECLINE WTF!?!?!?!?!?!? of course i had to get the only seat on the damn plane that wouldn't recline! the flight attendant came over and wrestled with it for 5 minutes and finally shrugged with a "sucks to be you" look on his face
-a group of very, very rowdy frenchpeople seated all around me
-some kind of weird chicken mash for dinner
-did i mention my seat wouldn't recline?

okay my limited purchased internet time is about to expire. love ya'll!!!! i'll update again as soon as possible!!

first post!

hello to my loyal blog readers! after receiving much harrassment, i've decided that i'm going to do a blog, after all. i'll try to post as many pictures as possible, as often as possible, and i apologize in advance if my posts are few and far between. i'll try my best!

i thought for my first post it would make sense to give you some basic information about my program.

my program is conducted by World Learning, a global non-profit organization that operates in more than 75 countries worldwide. S.I.T. Study Abroad is World Learning's international education program for undergrads. the program i'm doing is called Uganda: Development Studies. here is the website for my program, where you can find info about the program, my courses, my excursions, my program directors, etc.: http://www.sit.edu/studyabroad/ssa_ugd.htm. there will be about 40 students from other colleges in the u.s. participating in this program with me. we'll be in the same classes and going on the same excursions, but each student will live with a different family and will spend the last 6 weeks of the program conducting an independent research project (the Practicum) of their own design.

the boren scholarship [which i know i haven't done a good enough job explaining the difference between it and the s.i.t. program] is a scholarship i won which is administered by NSEP [National Security Education Program] and "focuses on geographic areas, languages, and fields of study that are critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad." so, basically, i applied along with thousands of other u.s. students and was awarded $10,000 to study in uganda. everyone applies to study in different places, so my application was specifically for me to do this s.i.t. program in uganda, but other people were awarded the scholarship to study in places all over the world. within 3 years of graduating from smith, i have to work for the government [dept of state, defense, or homeland security] for at lease 1 year as a condition of receiving the scholarship.



here's a short outline of my program schedule:
Week 1: orientation in Kampala and Jinja; visits to historical and cultural sites, including Sezibwa Falls and the source of the Nile River
Weeks 2 and 3: homestay; language and culture study; development studies seminar; field study seminar; NGO site visits; progressive preparations for the development practicum
Week 4: educational excursion to western Uganda and to Rwanda; visits to NGOs; Ankole culture study; visits to genocide memorial sites and to Queen Elizabeth National Park
Weeks 5 and 6: continued homestay, language study, development studies seminar, in-depth study, field visits, and progressive preparations for practicum
Week 7: educational excursion to eastern Uganda, including rural homestay
Week 8: continued homestay in Kampala, language study, development studies seminar, field study seminar, final preparations for practicum
Weeks 9-14: practicum period
Week 15: practicum paper presentations; semester evaluation; preparations to leave uganda

well i think that's gonna be all for tonight! sea world bright and early tomorrow morning with auntie cynthia, uncle dane and chessa!