Update 31

In Kampala so I thought I'd check in and let you know whats going on here. Last week I was at a language training for most of the week for the new language I am learning. We were tested yesterday on our proficiency so we'll see in a few days how fluent I really am when the results come back. Also met with the Daily Monitor last week and have posted an update on the school's blog (see previous post) about those developments.

Things are going extremely well here all in all. Miss you all as always, but still loving my life in Africa. Thank you (x 10) for the care packages. I received two in the last couple weeks. Thank you Bruce and Dolores and family for the box of snacks and the previous package of magazines. You should be receiving a letter soon, so check your box. The snacks were delicious, i definitely indulged myself for a good week on them. Also, mr thomas hetman. That was completely unexpected and awesome. I'm now on a steady diet of ranch sunflower seeds, beef jerky and time magazines. Hope you're having fun out west, be safe, keep an eye on jeege.

I'm drawing a blank on comedic relief for this post. As always, life here is consistently entertaining. My luganglish is steadily improving as I add more and more crazy ways the Ugandans use english words. A few examples:

"eh" - this not so much a word, more of a sound thats got about as many different uses as any four letter word. My favorite use is the amazed "eh". Example: watching the tour de france at our hotel at language training and the announcer says "they've got 15km's to go", "eh" "15km's on a bicycle" "eh"

"extend" - this ones has countless appropriate situations. the most useful is in the minibuses where 4 people are packed on to one bench on seats and the conductor tells them to "extend" so they can fit one more person in (btw, a bench is about the size of the backseat of a sedan)

"sorrry" - keeping with their exceptionally courteous nature, Ugandans will say "sorrry" for just about anything. ie: slipping on one of the dirt roads and almost falling, running into someone walking towards you as you try to figure out which side to pass them on, dropping a piece of food while your eating, or falling on your bum into a ditch on the side of the road (won't mention any names here)

"assist" - instead of the american "can i use your pen" this word gets plugged in some backwards way and it becomes "please assist me with your pen"

the list goes on...i'll add some more as i collect them.

Thats all for now, check the school blog for the newspaper updates. Love you all, thanks again for your packages and thoughts.

Love and miss you,
Eric