Saturday afternoon I made my way over to Makerere University with the help of Jeff and found my new 'dorm room' for the week. I am staying with three other women from my program in a two room apartment. It is a very functional place with a small kitchen, living area and two rooms with two single beds in each. We also have internet via an ethernet cable so your computer must be plugged into the cable. This posed a small problem for four blogging/facebooking/student researchers so we reached out to our IT hero for help.
Darren, via skype, hurray for Darren and skype, helped me configure my computer into an ad hoc wireless internet server. All that means is that while my computer is plugged into the internet everyone else gets a wireless signal off of me. It was genius for us non-techies and has given us our own little internet cafe. We are thinking of selling the password to our cohort friends who didn't rent rooms with internet...
Yesterday afternoon we went on a walk of town, eventually finding our way to Garden City, no not Victoria, but the mall I visited with Christine last Thursday. I ate falafel for lunch in the food court. It was absolutely ridiculous. The East African experience is so vastly different from West Africa I am boggled how people can make generalisations about the African continent.
We weren't the brightest people choosing to walk in the heat of the day and I did not use enough sunscreen but it isn't the first time. I spent the evening visiting with students from our cohort as they arrived on campus and enjoyed the last hours of freedom before classes and our project here starts.
This morning is the first day of classes and I have that nervous feeling in my stomach. We have heard that the original plans for the next three weeks have been changed so none of us are too sure what to expect.
The past couple of days I have learned that foreign countries with foreign languages are definitely more fun than countries that speak English. I find that it is easier to connect with people in markets and on the street when you are speaking a different language. It makes the whole experience more challenging too. I am a borderline extrovert. Having spent two days in an estrogen packed apartment I am feeling the need for a little me space but again, this is part of the challenge.
Darren is my hero!
