Peace Corps/Posh Corps

In PC Zambia (where I was almost invited), volunteers live in nearly identical houses. They are typically mud huts built by the community in preparation for a PCV. Their program requires the entire community to be involved in preparing for a PCV. Because of this, there is little if any jealousy among volunteers. If there’s no variation, then what is there to be jealous of? In PCUG, though, we have housing provided by our partner schools or organizations. This leads to a wide variation among houses of volunteers and sometimes to jealousy. For me, I have nothing to be jealous of. I am living Posh Corps.

I have talked a bit about my house, but I would like to elaborate on this. With the addition of hot water, my house could be an American-standard two-bedroom duplex. In America it wouldn’t be much, but here it’s one of the best houses I’ve seen. My school allows me to live here for free, provided I pay for my own electricity. I have yet to get an electricity bill, but I have heard from other PCVs not to expect to pay much. When I moved in, there was enough furniture for every room in the house; the only exception being one of my beds in the spare bedroom needed a mattress. I am currently borrowing one from the school and I also switched my old mattress on my bed for a new one that doesn’t hurt my back.

I am allowed to use the college car almost whenever I need to. My school does not charge me for this, though other PTCs do, and the car will take me anywhere around Fort Portal. The only exception to this is I have limited access on weekends for obvious reasons. I’ve become good friends with one of the drivers and am on my way to becoming good friends with another, that’s how often I take this car.

On campus, I have access to wifi, leading to the blog posts I’ve been able to put up and the Instagram photos as well. It also reduces the amount of data I need to buy each month, leading to savings.

Around Uganda, teachers and tutors should expect to be fed lunch when they are working. Though there are a few exceptions, this is the norm. The typical meal is posho (Corn flour and water boiled to a gelatinous mass…  You get used to it.) and beans. Here, we get poshso, beans, and matooke every day for lunch and dinner (although I and the other women [or men with wives] on campus eat dinner at home). Breakfast is bananas, break, and tea, a common breakfast, and we are given bananas and tea for two break teas, one in the morning, one in the evening. Tuesday is market day, and so we get meat, something that is nearly unheard of around Uganda.

I could go on and on about how privileged I am, even in Uganda. My champion (point person/supervisor from Peace Corps) and one of our PCVL (PCV Leaders) who was also one of my trainers came to visit me this week, and they both commented on how amazing my site is. PCVL even said this is the nicest PTC in all of Uganda…at least that he’s seen. Now I just have to figure out how to work this privilege for the best.