ebirowoozo bingi! (many thoughts!)

To express stress in Luganda, you say, "Nina ebirowoozo bingi" which literally translates to, "I have many thoughts." This week that seems like a particularly apt description for me - I'm stressed for sure, and that stress is connected to the sheer number of things I'm trying to keep track of. Day in Africa is a big one but there's a whole lot else on my mind right now and I'm definitely feeling the pressure of it all. (Just ask Kaden who happened to see me on Friday as I was kind of tearing my hair out!)

This week, I managed my Luganda pretty well in spite of all the the stress/thoughts/things to do. Yet I still fell a bit short of my Omuzannyo goal, with 70 points. This week gave me the chance to practice a lot of my favorite little tips and tricks for getting stuff done during busy times and when traveling. I tried to mentally frame Luganda as a welcome diversion from other work rather than another item on my to-do list. I listened to Luganda on the road as I drove back from a funny little family gathering in Wisconsin Dells over the weekend. And I did a good amount of Quizlet practice in bed before joining the family for breakfast, to ensure I got at least a little work in.

All in all, I feel good that Luganda remained a priority for me this week, especially in the context of so much. Here's what it looked like day by day:

Monday: Lesson with Simon, 100 Quizlet words
Tuesday: Read 1 Bukedde article, brief Twitter exchange, 100 Quizlet words
Wednesday: 10 minutes watching a video, 100 Quizlet words
Thursday: 20 minutes deep listening, lesson with Simon
Friday: 30 minutes working on emotion wheel, 100 Quizlet words, read 1 children's book
Saturday: 100 Quizlet words
Sunday: 100 Quizlet words, worked on proverbs for 10 minutes, 25 minutes of deep listening

There were also two fun, minor, little events this week that reflect the kind of advanced-level proficiency I am aiming for and give me hope that it will come. The first was an exchange on Twitter with a Ugandan that I follow, who'd asked for a translation of a Luganda word (densite). I actually knew the word and was the first to respond to her query, and that felt pretty good! (It means identity card, in case you're curious!) The second was, while listening to a children's story that I found online, I caught a proverb. It was super fun to recognize not only the words themselves, but the whole proverb, and also to know its meaning!

Looking ahead to this week, I'm not sure if it'll be possible for me to reach my goal of 80 points. I'm still meeting with Simon twice. I'm not going to put too much pressure on the Luganda this week, mostly for self-preservation, but I am going to try to at least tough the language every day, as is my practice. We shall see what comes of these many thoughts and all this stress. Wish me luck!

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