Ki Kati, Oli Otya?

IT skills in use in the office later that year.

 

(What's up, how are you?) It occurred to me yesterday that I should probably learn something about Uganda, what with going there and dating a Ugandan fella and all.

I trawled Wiki and learned all about the War of Independence, Idi Amin, Museveni, Obote, the Bush War, the Lord's Resistance Army and the demographics.

And, of course, the languages - of which there are about 40! So, which one does D speak? I did a quick Google search and came up with a common central Ugandan language - Luganda. I picked a couple of words and gave them a go. They worked lol 

D's right, Luganda is soooo much easier than Kinyarwanda. I want to try and get him to teach me, but it's tough. If people speak Luganda they mostly also speak English, so why bother? Well, I think it would be kind of cool. It's that or Swahili. Both are easier than Kinya, but Swahili is more widely spoken here... but not by D. lol The advantages of an in-house language tutor would be important. I'd rather change the language than the boyfriend ;)

We're both swinging into the holiday mood big-time today, but things always happen at the worst time. Today, the IT teacher told me that teaching Deaf people was a lot harder than teaching hearing people. He wanted more money for the preparation time. I patiently explained that funding doesn't work like that. We were granted the money for the original quote. Whereas I appreciate his efforts, I do find his attitude a little unsettling. Perfect thing to happen the day before I go on holiday :(

So, emergency meeting with colleague (who had to scrape me off the ceiling). We think we've got a Deaf guy, Emanuel, who was at JAM with me. He's a qualified IT guy, and also Deaf, which would help with the language issue. I reckon he's both capable and committed. Question is, can I get hold of him this evening and work it all out before I go to Uganda? 

Our current teacher has agreed to keep going for another week, but I'll be away when he finishes. *sigh* I've also notified VSO and said that I think we need to keep Betty (our interpreter) on. Although she won't need to interpreting anything in an all-Deaf environment, she's a valuable supervisor and would be helpful to Emanuel. It wouldn't be at all fair to cut the time she's already committed herself to.

Handed my office keys over to Betty this morning. I feel like I'm almost relaxed now lol Léon's on holiday too, in the run-up to the wedding. I received a load of parcels today - no arguments at the Post Office this time. Some wonderful clothes from home, and chocolate. The world is a wonderful place (thanks Aunty Jean!) :)

Can't wait to get away and spend some quality time with D. Shake the dust off my passport. Two more hours dealing with the IT issue, then I'm officially outta here!