When it rains...

This morning around 4 am it POURED rain. The house I live in has a tin roof, and no ceiling, as is the case with most houses around here. The walls go up to the rafters, but after that it's all open, so you can hear what goes on in the entire house, and you can see the underside of the roof. Rain on a tin roof sounds nice and romantic, which I guess would be the case for a light shower. This morning, however, was probably the biggest downpour I have ever experienced. It was SO LOUD. So loud that I was actually kind of scared. It sounded like the el in Chicago when it roars by underground, making you momentarily deaf. Except this deafness lasted for about an hour. It sounded like what I think a tornado probably sounds like- I was terrified. I know it sounds weird to be scared of noise, or of rain for that matter, but I was seriously expecting the roof to crash down on us at any moment. I tried to drown my fears by listening to music, but even with it at maximum volume, I could only barely hear it. By the time the storm was over, it was about time for me to get up, so I felt a little grouchy today.

I have a new strategy for limiting my food intake. It goes like this: the first thing I take is a really big slice of pineapple, because it takes up a lot of space on my plate. Then, I take a half a sweet potato, and I cut it all up right away, which also takes up a lot of space. This sweet potato and pineapple combination fills up about 3/4 of my plate, leaving me with not much room for other things. Tonight I successfully politely refused both rice and matoke (mashed bananas), so I only (!) ate beef (today is Ugandan Independence Day!), some kind of potato-ish thing, cabbage, and butternut squash (plus the sweet potato and pineapple). The sweet potatoes here are my favorite- they're white, and really really good!

Training is going well... at times the things we will face as health educators seem overwhelming, but I have to remind myself that this is only Monday of the second week. The thing is, I have so many cultural lessons to learn before I can do my job appropriately and sensitively, and it feels like there is no way that these next 8 weeks could possibly be enough to even scratch the surface. Some of our sessions (the ones about AIDS and culture, mostly) are really intense. We go from shock to outrage to sadness to disbelief to how-the-hell-are-we-supposed-to-deal-with-this???

Can you imagine suggesting to people that their cultural beliefs are harmful? that they're "wrong"?