Eat, Pray, Peace Corps: October 2014

During the application process, Peace Corps asks you to explain how you would feel about and handle the concept of living in a “fish bowl”. Your every movement is observed, no matter how many times people see you they will still stop and stare with a look of confusion or fascination on their face. I have been at my site now for about 2 months and I must say not a day goes by where I don’t get stares the second I step outside of my house. I cant really blame people though…all the sudden one day a muzungu they have never seen before comes to their community; a place where foreigners never pass through because its 30 minutes from the main tarmac road down a bumpy, windy, dirt road.

As I have been in my community longer, I’ve met many different people and faces are now becoming familiar….although remembering the names of those faces is challenging! Now when I step outside, there are less blank stares and more greetings of “how are you Kyomugisha!”. As people learn my name they stop using “muzungu”, which describes my skin color, and use my actual name (well Ugandan name I was given), Kyomugisha. I always greet any person I pass in my community with a simple ‘how are you?’ or ‘how have you spent the day?’ in the local language because not only are greetings VERY important in this culture, but I also want people to see I am making the effort to learn their language. They always respond very happily and with surprise!

I have started to take up running again because 1) I am increasing or getting fat as Ugandans put it (which is a compliment by the way!) 2) it makes me feel happy and 3) the scenery is absolutely beautiful out here! I thought I got a lot of stares just walking in my community, but running is a whole different story. All the children from the primary school run out to wave to me and stare. As I run down on the main dirt road children come running from every which way (how they spot me and where they come from, I have no clue!) to the road to watch the muzungu run by. Exercise is pretty non existent out here in my village because people do not want to decrease (lose weight) and they also spend their entire day working out in the fields, so going jogging is a foreign concept. Im not sure even with time will people be entirely used to seeing me run, but that’s ok!

Even something as simple as stepping outside my house to throw my trash in my trash pit, I am having to consciously think about my appearance. There are usually children outside on the grass playing or women sitting and talking after church, and I always seem to attract their attention. Its exhausting at times having to think about how I look, am I dressed appropriately? (not showing my knees or thighs- no shorts!). For the longest time I strayed away from wearing jeans (definitely cant wear them to work) in my community, and then I talked to my counterpart about wearing “trousers” as they say, and she said she has been so surprised I don’t wear them around! So, I have started wearing them sometimes, however, I mostly wear skirts and dresses to “fit in” somehow and respect the culture.

Overall, I love my community and it could not be a better fit for me and what I wanted out of my Peace Corps experience. There is truly a sense of community, everyone knows each other, helps one another and looks out for each other. So although I feel as though im living in a fish bowl most days, I am surrounded by this beauty and these cute, happy little people everyday…it doesn’t get much better than this!.......