Week 4: Let the exams begin...

Location:Kampala
This week was pretty uneventful as far as travelling is concern BUT we did have two exams. The first exams are always the hardest because you don't know what to expect. Our Public Health professor tried to explain the grading system in Uganda which is very different from the grading in the states. According to him, no one ever gets an "A". Of course all of our jaws dropped but he explained that getting a "B" was really good. That seemed kind of lame but later we talked to Professor Stewart about it and she said she would handle the final grading. I don't know if I should be excited or frightened. After lots of hard studying we had the exam on Wednesday and it wasn't too bad. We all realized that we definitely over studied but I'd rather have that than have no idea how to answer the questions. On Friday we had our Luganda exam. That was a bit more stressful because the class is split in two and we are learning slightly different material. I haven't had a language exam since my junior year in high school!! There were so many things to remember, I didn't think I was going to make it, haha. Verbs, negations, food, dropping vowels, noun classes, numbers...woah! Luckily I had some friends to study with to help me recognize my weaknesses. As with the Public Health test, I think some of us over studied but there were definitely things I wasn't prepared for at all but that's ok. I know what I need to work on in the future. Sadly, Thursday was our last class with our Luganda teachers. In a few weeks we will have other teachers which I hear are excellent but I like my teacher. He is surprisingly nice once you get to know him. I remember the first day, I wondered if he smiled. Come the last week we had him smiling and laughing and I will miss it. Aside from the exams, I finally got my project figured out. I will be working with The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) and I am so excited. I will specifically be working with the their MDD group. In previous years it has been difficult for students to work with TASO but I am definitely one of the lucky ones. The work they are doing is so inspiring. Words cannot describe how happy I am to be working with them!!