Luganda ease and grilled cheese

This is gonna be pretty short because I am exhaaaaausted but I am getting pretty behind in my blogging and if I don't start catching up, I will never find time to write a long update on everything.

Last thursday, friday, and saturday were pretty boring. Why? Because on saturday we had our ACTFL test in Luganda, and spent the entire 2 days before that cramming. Theoretically, in 3 weeks I learned about 150 words and 5 tenses in a language that is spoken in approximately 15 square miles of the entire earth. I would put the actual stats slightly lower, but I do know enough to barely get by/ win people over because at least I am trying.

Sunday, my biggest accomplishment was finally making grilled cheese for my family. I want to make sure they like cheese before I go to the trouble of making a whole meal. There had a been a lot of confusion over the past few days, as my family is not really familiar with the concept of sandwiches or food that cannot be an entire meal. I ended up describing it as an alternative to a roll when taking tea. I taught my host mom how to make one using the chapatti pan over coals and she loved it. Then she took over and made the rest-- side note: women here are very protective over their kitchen as their domain, mostly because they have so little power everywhere else-- anyways, I bought real butter. (as opposed to Blue Band fat spread that does not need refrigeration) for this endeavor, and used a slightly above average amount on the first one because I wanted to make sure they would like it, so on the rest my mom ending up using a ridiculous amount of butter. Anyways, 5 sandwiches, 10 slices of cheese, and a stick and a half of butter later we had some pretty awesome grilled cheese. It was a nice little bonding thing.

Oh, and also yesterday was my dad's birthday (happy birthday dad!! MLL) and so I put my host dad on the phone with him for a while, which my host dad got a huge kick out of. Pretty much any of my friends are invited to come visit and stay with them, by the way. Also, if I decide to stay here they will give me a little land on which to build a house upcountry. So tempting:-) maybe I just won't come home... I really am starting to really find my stride here and feel more and more connected with Uganda every day.
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