Just over a week has passed and in some ways it has flown in
but yet feels like the longest week of my life. After having been in Uganda in the summer, Joanna and I both felt
like we knew what to expect. However, this comfortable feeling soon evaporated
when we actually arrived on Ugandan soil.
‘Moving away from the comfort zone means we need to adapt to
something new, face challenges and cope.’ (Borbye and Riggs, 2010, p.56)
We arrived into Entebbe Airport on time at 12.40pm. After
going through security, visa, baggage reclaim and currency exchange, which felt
like a lifetime, we were delighted to see Mr James Jaala (Makerere University
Tutor) holding a sign saying ‘Joanna Armstrong and Karen Waddell’. A sense of relief
came over me as I think at the back of my mind I feared that no one would turn
up to pick us up but there he was smiling away.
James then brought us to Nana Hostels, which is going to be
our home for the next 3 months. We went in through the main door to be greeted
by the lovely Sedrax. Sedrax and
James both offered to carry our suitcases to the room which were extremely
thankful for as I don’t think Joanna or I could manage to carry a 30kg suitcase
up to the seventh floor. We then arrived at our room, M90, the last room on the
7th floor. We open the door to a dark, depressing, small room, with
no bed sheets or mosquito nets. It
was then that it hit Joanna and me that we were here for 12 weeks, not just a two-week
holiday. Fortunately, Sedrax brought us to the supermarket to buy bed sheets
and other essentials.
 |
| Our bedroom with lovely new pink sheets. |
Later that afternoon, we looked out of our balcony and
realised that we could see the start of a slum only a few 100 metres away from
us. For me this really put things into perspective and reminded me to ‘reflect
upon your present blessings of which every man has many’ (Charles Dickens,
1870) as a few hours ago we were complaining about having a dark, depressing
room while there is probably a family of 8 living in a small wooden shack just
a short distance away.
 |
| The view of the slum from our balcony. |
Throughout the week we have been trying to adjust to the
Ugandan lifestyle. For me, it has been very strange coming from Stranmillis
where all the students are like one big family to not knowing anyone. That is not to say that the people aren’t
friendly, but most of the time the conversation doesn’t go past ‘hello, how are
you?’ I have also found it strange adjusting to the relaxed, unorganised way of
life where days have nothing planned. In some ways this free time has given me
too much time to think about home but on the other hand, it has given me a
sense of freedom where we can just explore our area without feeling rushed or
on a timescale. I am now hoping that this relaxed feeling
will last for the rest of the trip.
References:
Borbye, L. Riggs, H.E. (2010) Out of the comfort zone: New ways to Teach, Learn and Assess, New
York, Morgan and Claypool Publishers.
Charles Dickens (1870) Speeches,
Letters and Sayings, England, Routledge.
No comments:
Post a Comment