The morning after the bombing Julie woke me up around 6 a.m. to say that her friends had called to tell her there was a terrorist attack. I struggled to get out from under the comfort of the mosquito net as my stomach instantly came to my throat. Everyone was strangely calm and I couldn’t seem to get a grasp on what was happening. I was in a state of shock that I have never experienced before. The directors went to the office to get news and Andy called his friend from home who shared some information off of the internet. Catherine (director) returned and gave us the first wave of horrifying news, an I.C. roadie who came early to visit friends in Kampala was killed...About 5 of us who were home sat in the living room while she relayed what she knew....The office was devastated, this is the first time I.C. has ever experienced this, and this is the first attack of this kind in the country. We sat in silence with tears running down our faces as Danielle closed the small meeting with a prayer. The silence after the prayer was also a feeling that I had never felt as the situation was not fully registering. Ugandan media is much different so as we approached Cafe Larem to update emails and check for articles online we were alos exposed instantly to the graphic front pages of newspapers that showed blood covered dead bodies still sitting in the plastic chairs that littered the outdoor area of the Ethiopian restaraunt. I waited until I knew it was 5 a.m. to call home...I did my best to sound calm and confident in my surroundings which was not a total lie beacause still, after hours, the intensity had not hit me. Elizabeth sent me a text message that night reading, “Mandy, I’m very very sorry for the sad incidence. Take heart!”
Tuesday when I woke up for school I began to feel uneasy about much of what had happened. Upon walking to catch a boda many people that morning greeted Julie and I by saying, “Good morning sister”. My boda driver talked the whole way to SSB and apologized over and over for the “stupid people”. He told me he wanted me in this country, he wanted me to know that the country wanted us here...After we got to school he began to drive away turning around and saying, “Again, Madam, I am very sorry”. This was difficult for me for many reasons; it made me realize how scared I really was, and it was heartwrenching to think that these beautiful, welcoming people felt the need to apologize for this tragedy. Elizabeth was surprised to see me at school but spent the day talking to me about the political and religious conflicts that she was aware of regarding Somalia. In the staff room the other teachers also apologized to me, though 2 of them had lost relatives in the attack. By Tuesday night I was able to release my feelings which basically menat I had my only mini meltdown since I’ve been here. I think we were all dealing with the situation in our own way and once I put my feelings on the table I felt as if I could move on and be grateful for the rest of my time here.
We have also been dealing with a new roommate in our room, a mouse. He stole my scarf a few weeks ago, brought it under my drawer in the closet (which has since been removed), chewed holes in it, and urinated on it...Nathan was perplexed at my reaction after he held it up and said, “You can still wear it...just wash it first.” Since then he has been waking us up in the middle of the night by scurrying across the floor and jumping on top of our bags. We reached our breaking point the other night...Julie flails around in her bed, “I hear the little bastard, he’s right by my bed.” All 6 of us shoot up in our beds armed with headlamps and start the search, of course he is nowhere to be seen. Twenty minutes later I saw my mosquito net moving slightly in the breeze (there is no breeze at all in our stale room, the air hangs heavy....But with sleep deprivation it was totally understandable to imagine the breeze)....Seconds later I felt him run across my legs, I kicked them fast enough to see him fly into the top of my net...I jumped/fell/tumbled through my sheets and mosquito net onto the floor yelling, “Oh my God, Oh my God, he’s on me”, followed by Julie letting out an obnoxious girl scream...Trisha, Kristen, Sarah, and Jenni got their lamps on quickly and within seconds we were all laughing hysterically. (It was 5:45 a.m.) Needless to say we realized he must go. He has stolen the biscuit bait, is not heavy enough for the trap, so we resorted to poison (As you all know this would normally be completely against my will....But he tried to sleep with me.)
Wednesday at school was amazing, by far the most fulfilling teaching day yet. Elizabeth and I taught “some/any” to the classes. I began with one of the active straegies ideas; I wrote the word English on the board and had them give me words beginning with each letter that reminded them of school. They loved it, and were amazing, listing, “education, novels, liturature, interogative”... We used American money as a visual aid when Elizabeth asked me if I had “some” money. I walked around the room with the bill as they asked questions such as, “Can I touch it? That is where Obama lives? How many schillings is that like?” I then assigned sentences for then to copy, changing “some” to “any”. I walked around and marked their books and began a new tradition, the high five. They had no idea what it was...I stuck my hand up to the first student who got all of the answers correct and he looked at me blankly. I said, “high five?” A student in the back said, “Touch her hand”. He did, and they laughed uncontrollably. For the rest of the time they ran up to me with their assignments waiting for their marks and high fives, they had it mastered by the end of class. We then worked on thumbs up, pound it, and of course the Acholi handshake. They finished quickly as the end of the class was devoted to their “American penpal letter assignemnt”. They are so eager to “make new friends” and “talk about Chicago”. They were told to write a practice letter for homework and bring it Thursday to have it marked for corrections, from then we would write the official letters. I couldn’t have dreamed that I would have been able to connect with them so well.
Thursday the students all brought their letters in....They blew me away...Many of them asked about Chicago, they described their family lives, and were thankful for being given the opportunity to "make pen pals with American students". The plan for next week: I am purchasing lined paper from the stationary store, they will make corrections and rewrite the letters officially. They will then use markers to creatively draw their names on a piece of paper. I will take a photo of each of them holding up their numbered name papers so that we can place a name to a face. As I was leaving school many of them ran after me and asked, "Madam Mandy, when will we see letters from Chicago?" Smiled the whole way home.
Thursday also marked my first date in Uganda...Ahhh, need I say more ?!?! The restaurant was called Bomah, kind of inside, kind of outside...Super cute, ambiance included a nice African rain followed by a full sky of stars...
The pictures shown are: The family+ patches Swasser (me, Andy, Julie, Nathan) after the matatu trip home looking real fresh....giraffe (obviously)...One of my classrooms+ Elizabeth...Acholi dancers...
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