Me, Myself... and 32 Other Trainees

In a few days, I'll have my own room for the first time in almost a month and a half! I've only had a few moments alone these past few weeks—when you live in a group of 33 people, there is always someone to talk to. If you're walking back to the dorms, someone else is going as well. Want to walk the 20 minutes it takes to get to the supermarket? I can guarantee you're not the only one who wants to go get yogurt. We've all had multiple roommates, and almost all of the girls have been living in the same dorm building together at both of the places we've lived so far. And not only are the walls thin, but the space over the door to each room is just a screen, so even if you're physically alone you can most likely hear someone else talking, haha! 

I've started waking up around 6 so that I can be in the dining hall around 6:45 and have time to drink my tea and eat my breakfast (a hard boiled egg, bread with margarine, and a banana) before most people are there. It's nice to sit quietly for a little while with the other people here who appreciate mornings. 

And then, at 7:30 (Uganda time, so 7:30ish, haha) we're all packed onto a bus to head to School Based Training and teach a classroom of 60+ students all morning!

Teaching my lovely P2 pupils

I'm surrounded by so many beautiful souls, and I've loved getting to know everyone. All who know me know that I am an extrovert (ENFP, to be more specific)... and that has been stretched to the limit here. But I have found a way to cope: I remind myself a few times every day that I will only be around this big group for a limited amount of time—we are all about to travel to different parts of the country. 

My language training group is small; there are only four of us. On Sunday we are headed to the East, while everyone else goes to their own regions—eight to the Central region, seven to the North, and so on. We won't be together again until the end of homestay, when we have a special workshop with our counterpart from site (the Ugandan teacher who will be working with us most closely), and then we will have Swearing In and become official Peace Corps Volunteers! After that we will part ways again, and meet up at our In Service Training (IST), which will be about three months after Swearing In. 

So, as overextended as my extroversion feels right now, I know that I will soon be missing these humans quite a bit. Luckily, our "burner phones" from Peace Corps allow us to call all of the other PCVs serving in our country for free! I'm grateful for anything that makes this easier, because the list of people in my life who I'm trying to "keep in touch" with is getting quite long... and I haven't even met my homestay family yet, or anyone at my future site! I love having so many wonderful people in my life, and I'm excited to meet so many more soon! 

On Saturday, our supervisor from our future site will travel here, to the Teacher's College we all currently live at, and there will be a brief workshop where we can get to know each other. On Sunday, we will leave with him/her and travel to our future site! I've heard it's about 6 hours to my site, by taxi (van that fits 14+ people) or coaster (large bus)—the main forms of public transportation here. We'll be there for three nights, but it's the break between terms, so we won't likely be able to meet many of our fellow teachers. 

After that, I will travel by myself to the town (also in the East) where the four of us will be learning Ateso. We will be living with homestay families while we do our intensive language training, and start the next chapter of this journey! 

I love these humans

Inside a taxi!

Getting down a jackfruit... our group gets into some random shenanagins :)