How do you say that?

 We spent one day in orientation, and 3 days learning the language of Lugandan, which is the language most people in Kampala speak. Since no one from our team was actually going to be speaking Lugandan, we learned the skills to learn a new language. It is definitely different than the academic style I have learned before. We used tape recorders and spent a lot of time listening instead of writing anything down. It works much better for me! Wish I had done that in Spanish! We learned how to say hello, how are you, good morning, good afternoon, thank you, bye, and a few other simple words.

Language Learner Class and instructors- minus Katie who's taking the picture!

On our way to town to practice our Lugandan speaking!

Cute little one Carolyn and I met while talking on the street

Each day we spent an hour in town walking up and down streets saying hello to people. It was very interesting. What a difference it made to greet someone in their own language. I felt that a lot of people I approached (all women) had very somber faces but when we said hello in Lugandan, bam their face lit up, they smiled and greeted us back!

Once we told them we were out practicing their language they seemed very appreciative and wanted to help us learn more so they would continue speaking Lugandan but we would have to stop them and say “No no, that is all we know.” It was a fun experience to see how much a little effort can break the barrier between cultures.

More cute little kids (the one of the bottom left is King- he followed us!)

We were each blessed by a language teacher. Each of them were nationals to from Kampala. We used audio recorders to record the words and then were able to listen on our own to repeat and learn how to say it correctly. My language teacher’s name is Jessica. She is about my age. She has such a sweet spirit and she was SO patient with me! Lugandan is not easy. A couple cool things happened while working with Jessica. She has two boys and she said they were sick with a terrible cough. So we prayed  for them and the next day she said they were better because they went to school!! Then the last day I prayed for Jessica that God would provide her with a job and within two minutes a staff member at AIM asked her to be their language teacher on a regular basis! God is good!

My Language Teacher Jessica!

Rhona and I! She is wonderful, and helped us get around Kampala!