webale

That's Lugandan for "thank you." And I do mean thank you for keeping up with me, staying in touch, being supportive. . .

I realized about a week ago that I've been volunteering at the hospital for two months, and I've been too shy to try to get to know the Ugandan guards a bit. All of the people who guard our facilities (they check ID cards before we go into places where people congregate, such as the chow halls, the gym, and the hospital, and they search the Iraqi visitors) are from Uganda.

Why Uganda? I asked one of the guards because the Americans I asked couldn't give me good answers. The guy, John, told me that there are three reasons. One, after 9/11 happened, the Ugandans showed that they were allies to the US. Two, unlike some other African countries, one of the primary languages spoken there is English. (In the Congo, for example, they speak French.)

And three, all men are required to get military training, and they are very well trained. And I think he said the female guards have all had police training.

Because I hang out at the hospital, and there are always two guards on the doors leading into the ER, I see them every day. They rotate around the various doors at the hospital, so I see a variety ofo them. I decided I needed to get over my shyness and get on with it.

At first I just chatted briefly. Then I decided I wanted to learn a little of the language. They love it when someone wants to learn their language! I supposed I'd be the same way.

Every day they teach me a few words. John wrote a few down for me the first day. And yesterday Wilber demanded a larger sheet of paper so he could write down the numbers one through ten and still have space for more.

Today another -- I don't know his name yet -- told me he is a good teacher and will work with me a little every day.

Soon I'll post some pictures of my new friends. They're bright and funny, but it's obvious that you wouldn't want to challenge their authority either. (I'll try to remember to post a story about that later -- the story doesn't involve me!) They seem very peaceful, level headed and even tempered. They are definitely adding another facet to my time here.

More soon. . .