Instaqllment #9--Falling into a routine

Wednesday was my long day at school. Having gotten my bike back Tuesday night, I tried the ride in again this morning. I woke up at about 6:30 so that I could get ready and be out the door with plenty of time to get to school even if the bike broke again today. I ate another protein bar, passed on the bread as it was already moldy, took three trips to the pit latrine, and left for school. The ride took a little longer than 15 minutes, and I got to school fairly early. I reviewed the lesson plan for a while, and then it was off to class. Charles taught the first period, I taught the second and third period, and then Charles taught the final period of the day (periods are actually doubles—two 40 minute classes back-to-back). The first class that I taught went all right. There were several times when I do not think that I communicated quite clearly enough with the students, but they seemed to hang in there. The second class went much better except for the fact that it finally rained (Uganda has been in a three week dry spell—usually it comes sometime in July, but it was early this year—so everyone has been waiting for the rain). When it is raining very hard on a corrugated metal roof, it becomes very hard to speak and be heard. Luckily the rain only lasted for fifteen minutes or so, so I simply wrote the questions I would have asked or statements I would have made on the board. When students had an answer, I ran to them so they could tell me in my ear. The students got a kick out of it, and the lesson went well.

After having Posho and beans again for lunch, we were hoping that Harriet had cooked something different for dinner. She did—Cassava (like a potato—kind of, Boo—a green similar to but very different than spinach, and… BEANS!). A lack of showers and a diet that is heavily supplemented with beans (usually multiple times a day) leads to some interesting conversations about new and unique odors.

After dinner, Christine met us again and wanted to show us some more of the camp. Walter had stopped by, but wasn’t going to be able to come back that evening to show us around, so we went with Christine. We first went through the market that is behind the White House. Most of the vendors had already started packing up for the evening since it was a little late, and many had already left for the evening. We walked past tables with small red, yellow, and orange tomatoes and other various roots and beans. There were tables covered in little dried fish and flies, and others with smoked and raw tilapia (also covered in flies). While we were in the market, Robert—the manager of the White House—met up with us. After the market, we headed over to the police station to meet the Chief Criminal Investigations Deputy (CCID) for the camp. We said hello and introduced ourselves (I had actually met him the night before at the White House) got a quick tour of the office (a 10x20 foot room with a table a few chairs, and a few crates) and headed back for the evening. On the way, Robert asked if I wanted to play pool. I said sure, so we went to the establishment down from our hotel. We sat around for a while and talked with people, and eventually it was my turn to play. I joked a bit, played pretty poorly, and lost. As I was playing though, I noticed that people were slowly funneling into the place and that people had lined up outside the perimeter of the room we were in, and were staring in the windows. I probably had a crowd of one hundred people watching me.