sharing Luganda with others

This week was a bit of an odd one, since I left Madison and my "routine" from Thursday-Monday to visit my mom in Florida and celebrate a birthday milestone. Making the weekend even more special, my grandma is currently there and my sister flew in from Detroit as a surprise. While I was excited about all the sun, sand, and Everglades I knew the weekend would have in store, I was pretty nervous about keeping up with my work, given that this semester is tough enough as it is.

Luckily, I found some chunks of time to get in some study. I reserved my flights for extended periods of reading, which meant that any time over the weekend I had free I could use for Luganda (which I did).

Additionally, I discovered a new trick - rather than think of studying as a reason to steal away, think about it as an opportunity for sharing. (This will obviously work better in some contexts than in others...) Yesterday morning when I told my mom I was going to go into another room to listen to the radio and do some lesson work, she told me I didn't need to do that. I realized that she wanted to hear the radio, to get a taste of what Luganda sounded like. So I stayed where I was and listened to the radio while I worked. Every once in a while mom would say, "I just heard them say Uganda!" or, "The interviewer says 'Mmmm' a lot," or "Did they just mention Coke?" Each time it gave me an opportunity to listen even more carefully and explain what was going on. Grandma would chime in, about every 5 minutes, "LAUREN! What are they talking about now?" Goodness, getting a narrative out of radio conversations is still difficult, but I did my best.

It was fun to bring my family in, and nice to see their interest. And certainly helped me practice some of my skills a bit!
Bringing these guys into the Luganda-learning fold!

Apart from my weekend of fun, the week prior was a pretty typical week.
Tuesday: About an hour of lesson work, some Quizlet, and my meeting with Simon
Wednesday: Translation of a story, session with Simon
Thursday: Watched 10 minutes of the Jesus film, read a newspaper article, and did some Quizlet work
Friday: Quizlet
Saturday: Quizlet
Sunday: Read 3 newspaper articles, listened to Luganda music, Quizlet
Monday: 1 hour of translating some readings Simon sent me, listened to Radio Simba and gave explanations of grammar, vocabulary, and did some general translating

My lesson with Simon this morning was cancelled due to a power outage in Kampala, so I'm anxious to see how the week ahead shapes up. I'm hosting friends this coming weekend but have already warned them I won't be able to join them in all their adventures. So, while the week will likely be similarly as stressful as last week, I've set expectations so that I can get away when I need. AND - new people around means more people to share Luganda with! :)

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