Let me tell you about my exciting adventures this weekend!
I know that many of you are excited to hear about the time I spent in Kampala at the national dance competition. It was sweet. We didn't get to see the whole program, but we did see a variety of different schools perform different catagories of selections. My favorite was the traditional dance. Let me tell you those girls can shake their hips!! A little funny part about my weekend was that it started early on Friday. Kiersten came home with me at about three to hang out with my family as they love her. She stayed to night and we did many fun things like clean our shoes, iron clothes, make juice, and cut pineapple. All the time cracking jokes with Stella. We are really getting close and she is already talking about how she is running away in December so as not to have to deal with me leaving! Shannon came home at about 10 with some girls from a missionary dinner. All five of us slept in the three beds in our room. It was fun.
Here is where the Ugandan view of time sets in. In the morning, we were to meet at eight to go the competition. I had talked Judith into coming. So at 7:45 when we to leave she still wasn't ready. I told the girls to go ahead, and Kiersten and I waited for Judith. We didn't end up leaving until about 9:00. Judith, Stella, and mama kept telling us that we were very patient girls and they really admired that. So once getting to Kampala, we had to catch a couple different taxi vans which required a little walking to the park. At one point we had about 15 little street children surrounding us asking for money until some very large kind man yelled something mean and they all ran away. (After hearing this story Papa Julius taught me Nvaka. It means go away and leave me alone.) When we entered taxi park I was overwhelmed. It is larger than a football field with taxi vans parked every two inches. What you do is wander around with people shouting at you trying to sell things until you find a van going to where you want to be going. When you do, you get on and wait for it to fill up. Interesting experience. Upon entering the park Judith told us to hold tight to our purses in front of our bodies. She is a very street smart sister!
Here comes the most exciting part of the weekend. We were walking from the dance competition to eat some supper. The road was a normal paved two lane road and was sloped downward. We were walking on the left side, as in Uganda you always walk with traffic. We were separated from the road by a curb-like thing. All of a sudden Judith jumped backward and Kiersten forward. I turned around and saw a boda-boda coming toward me at a rapid pace and the guy had lost control. I took one quick step forward and then was hit by the boda man as he fell off his bike and into me. To my left was a five foot wide and four foot deep ditch lined with cement. I flew towards the ditch and managed to catch myself on the other side, with my hands. My toes remanded on the near side. Kiersten rushed over to me and helped me out of the ditch while Judith started asking over and over if I was ok. As soon as I stood up the boda man rushed onto his bike and Judith rushed us across the street. I didn't really know what was going on. I had a hole in my capris and my knee was bleeding. My leg was all scratched up and my hip hurt pretty bad. Judith kept asking if I was ok and saying that if anything happened they were answerable to the US embassy. I assured her the government would not be knocking on her door. It was pretty scary. Worse for Kiersten because she saw it all happen and saw how serious it really was. I was more concerned about my pop.
That is where the title of my blog comes from. I was carrying my very favorite pop with me a the time. It is called fruity mirinda and it is fabulous. When the man knocked me over I was very intentional about holding up my pop as to not spill it and it was a success!! I only got a couple drops on my arms and face. The rest sure tasted good :). Kiersten jokes with me because the first thing I said when she asked if I was ok was that I said, 'OH MAN. I ripped my pants." I insisted that we didn't call Papa Julius because I knew he would immediatly drive to Kampala to pick us up. When I got home he kept shaking his head and saying, my poor daughter.
Today I had all my questions answered as to why the boda man rushed off and also why Judith made us hurry away from the scene. Here in Uganda the bigger man is always responsible. If you have the bigger vehicle it is your fault. Therefore the boda man knew he would have to compensate me. Not only that but if any people came they would beat him sometimes to the point of serious injury. And if you stick around such rukus you may become guilty or involved in the fight. Since I was a mzungu, there would be no mercy on the man and a very good possibility of us girls getting robbed or hurt in a fight. Thanks Judith for the save! Everyone be assured that I am totally ok, and was very thankful not to have been wearing a skirt because I would have lost all the skin on my leg!!
Well I have to walk home now, but hopefully I'll post again soon. Love you and miss you all.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Jinja
Hello all!
I know it has been quite the time since I have caught you up on all the workings of Africa! So I will do my best to give you a run down of events.
Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Jinja, the source of the Nile river. We met with two different missions organizations that are in place there. It was really fun to be able to listen to them talk. A guy named Spencer from the Church of Christ took us on a devotional tour of the town of Jinja which was really powerful. We started at the source of the river and tried to imagine how many people had been getting their life support from that river for thousands of miles and many years. We moved to a street that had once been called the Beverly Hills of Africa. Unfortunately it was inhabited by many Indians that were running the economy through business. During the reign of Idi Amin he made all Asians leave the country, not able to take anything with them. The houses were left and ransacked. The street is run down with ruins of beautiful architecture. Uganda’s economy has still not returned to what it once was. We also went to a hospital. It was hard to see the condition of health care. People sometimes must wait for months to even be seen by a doctor. It was hard to chew on and I felt very uncomfortable in the setting. As a group we were able to eat US food again at a restaurant and I loved every bite of it. We stayed at a beautiful resort right on Lake Victoria and I took a really long nap at Saturday afternoon, which felt glorious. On Sunday we went to a little Baptist church and this is where I got my blog title. The children sang three songs for us while dancing and one of them stated, “God’s love is like a mango, sweet and sweet.” I laughed because I know if such a song was sang in the American church or in one of my classes people would be too busy analyzing what theological meaning those words have and all enjoyment would be lost. Ok maybe I’m a little bitter! Just try having class with 20 college age students from all over the country and all from Bible schools. We spend the majority of our classes discussing questions like what is a missionary? What is missions? Goodness. It is enough to make a girl want to cry.
As far as how my family is doing, I’m trying to take pictures of them to add on to my blog, but that is tough going as they will never pose for me! We have a couple new additions to the family. Sometimes my 20 month old niece will live with us. Her name is faith and she is scared of me. She screams when I enter the room. A funny thing about child raising here is that children scream and get what they want. Faith has sugar in her milk every night. Along with Faith came Joann. She helps with all the housework and isn’t connected to my family directly, but I think she is about 11.
Lastly… I must tell you that it rains all the time here. One day last week I needed to use my umbrella to block to sun during chapel because it was so hot. Of course I forgot to bring it. About an hour later Kiersten and I had run to the bathroom and while we were inside it started DOWNPOURING. We tried to wait it out but had class in 15 minutes and by the time we made it class I could ring out my skirt. Of course I didn’t have my umbrella.
For anybody interested in my waterbottle situation… Kiersten had bought be a plastic disposable bottle from the store. I came home one day to find my host sister drinking from it. She decided she needed it because she was thirsty. There goes that one. The next day (Friday leaving for Jinja) I had another plastic waterbottle and had set it right next to my bag before going to tea. When I came back to board the bus our room was locked and my stuff was outside. No water bottle. Oh the life.
I know it has been quite the time since I have caught you up on all the workings of Africa! So I will do my best to give you a run down of events.
Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Jinja, the source of the Nile river. We met with two different missions organizations that are in place there. It was really fun to be able to listen to them talk. A guy named Spencer from the Church of Christ took us on a devotional tour of the town of Jinja which was really powerful. We started at the source of the river and tried to imagine how many people had been getting their life support from that river for thousands of miles and many years. We moved to a street that had once been called the Beverly Hills of Africa. Unfortunately it was inhabited by many Indians that were running the economy through business. During the reign of Idi Amin he made all Asians leave the country, not able to take anything with them. The houses were left and ransacked. The street is run down with ruins of beautiful architecture. Uganda’s economy has still not returned to what it once was. We also went to a hospital. It was hard to see the condition of health care. People sometimes must wait for months to even be seen by a doctor. It was hard to chew on and I felt very uncomfortable in the setting. As a group we were able to eat US food again at a restaurant and I loved every bite of it. We stayed at a beautiful resort right on Lake Victoria and I took a really long nap at Saturday afternoon, which felt glorious. On Sunday we went to a little Baptist church and this is where I got my blog title. The children sang three songs for us while dancing and one of them stated, “God’s love is like a mango, sweet and sweet.” I laughed because I know if such a song was sang in the American church or in one of my classes people would be too busy analyzing what theological meaning those words have and all enjoyment would be lost. Ok maybe I’m a little bitter! Just try having class with 20 college age students from all over the country and all from Bible schools. We spend the majority of our classes discussing questions like what is a missionary? What is missions? Goodness. It is enough to make a girl want to cry.
As far as how my family is doing, I’m trying to take pictures of them to add on to my blog, but that is tough going as they will never pose for me! We have a couple new additions to the family. Sometimes my 20 month old niece will live with us. Her name is faith and she is scared of me. She screams when I enter the room. A funny thing about child raising here is that children scream and get what they want. Faith has sugar in her milk every night. Along with Faith came Joann. She helps with all the housework and isn’t connected to my family directly, but I think she is about 11.
Lastly… I must tell you that it rains all the time here. One day last week I needed to use my umbrella to block to sun during chapel because it was so hot. Of course I forgot to bring it. About an hour later Kiersten and I had run to the bathroom and while we were inside it started DOWNPOURING. We tried to wait it out but had class in 15 minutes and by the time we made it class I could ring out my skirt. Of course I didn’t have my umbrella.
For anybody interested in my waterbottle situation… Kiersten had bought be a plastic disposable bottle from the store. I came home one day to find my host sister drinking from it. She decided she needed it because she was thirsty. There goes that one. The next day (Friday leaving for Jinja) I had another plastic waterbottle and had set it right next to my bag before going to tea. When I came back to board the bus our room was locked and my stuff was outside. No water bottle. Oh the life.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The Family Mukwanya
~I write this to you as Nakiganda Kjersten Joy Karlsgodt Mukwanya~
Last night Shannon and I asked Julius to give us Uganda names as most of the people in our group have been named by their families. So there it is! Here in Uganda one can have up to 12 names. Julius laughed as he told us that your parents give you a name and then your grandpa may or you chose one when you get older or anyone in the family may decide to tack another name on the list! So I became Nakiganda. It comes from the totem of the Mukwanya family... They have a few names to select from. There totem is that of the cheetah. It means someone who treasures and wishes to preserve culture, a nice person to meet, and an exciting person to live with! My sister Judith named me it because I keep asking her to teach me Luganda and take interest in how they live their lives! Mukwanya is the family surname which means organizer, which is good because my papa is a headmaster! I have now become part of a whole new family!The great thing about Uganda is they consider anyone in their clan to be family. Let me tell you about the people that live in my home. First, when our coordinator dropped us off at my home she said, "Oh man you guys got the crazy family!" To which I did a fist pump and exclaimed YES! The family consists of Papa Julius, Mama Edith, Jiajia, Stella, Difas, Mark, Judith, Simeon, Michael, and Rachel. Oh and Curly, Larry, Moe, and Erwin.
PAPA JULIUS- Wow this man makes me laugh. He is loud and jolly. Papa speaks very good english and has traveled in Europe and so often asks to compare Europe to America. He loves talking about my garden at home. One of the first things he said to us when we came is that God had given their family the opportunity to have two more children and they were excited to be able to have us in the family. Julius is always joking. Two of my favorite quotes from him are, "I could never be a Muslim. They have to fast during Ramadan. I would eat." and also, "If you don't eat the food in front of you when there are starving people in the world, Jesus will punch you in the face." This was after our discussion about how people in the world are anorexic. I was worried about meal times because they say in Uganda the males don't talk during meals. Julius chats the whole time!
MAMA EDITH- Mama is a nurse at Julius' school. The greatest thing about her is her laugh. She is always laughing. Especially when Julius tells a story. She totally surprised me one day by coming in and joining us during a spontanious dance party. She speaks english pretty well, although isn't very good at forming sentences. When I ask a question she doesn't understand she will scream, "JUDITH COME HERE! I don't understand this girl!" It makes me laugh. She is always making us eat, which is great. She says that women need to give birth to children and can't expect to do that if they are so skinny!
JAIJIA- My grandma. She doesn't speak english and sits on a mat and watches us. I love her. As soon as we met I felt a little connection. I learned how to say good night and hello so I can talk with her. She sometimes will surprise me with one or two english words. One day she was taking tea with us and poured her tea into a saucer to sip out of instead of the mug. I looked at her and started laughing. She looked back at me and laughed so hard she wasn't able to drink. I made her a bracelet and now she wears it. She also surprised me by taking place in a random dance party. She could shake her hips!! I great her everyday when I get home from school and try out my new Luganda words. It makes me miss my grandma!
MARK- the oldest biological son, he is Judith's twin and left for boarding school last week. He spoke great english and is 19 years old. He was very fun to be around as he takes after his father. Most nights him and the boys would watch a movie, or he would be out with friends as Judith says, "boys can never sit still for very long." I miss him at home and am waiting to go visit him at school!
JUDITH- my muganda wange. That means sister. Judith is the member of the family that we have the most contact with, at least that was before school started. She is Mark's twin so also 19. Right now she goes to school from 7-10 or so but will be done in October. We share a room and she taught us how to do everything. She is SO funny. One of my favorite things to do is tease her and she is constantly whining about me 'disturbing her' in a fun way. Her favorite thing to exclaim is, "You're serious??!!??" I save all my culture questions for Judith.
SIMEON- the last of the biological children. He is 13 and very quiet. I would ask him many questions to which I would usually get about one word answers. He was just starting to warm up to us when he also went to boarding school. Sad. His smile is to die for!
STELLA- a 23 year old cousin who I call my sister. Since Judith went to school I spend all my time with Stella. She is great. Sometimes she doesn't understand what we are saying but mostly understands. She loves to tease us. Stella does all the work during the day and will sometimes steal my shoes or shirts to clean them or iron them when I'm not looking. Yesterday she taught me to cut pineapple and couldn't get over how quick I learned. As if I've never used a knife. She is impressed by how much I can eat! :) Next year she is going away to be a teacher.
RACHEL- another cousin who was orphaned about six years ago. She is 14. Super quiet!! She doesn't usually eat with us and is not one to step forward. Sometimes she will bust a dance move. I will have to work on empowering her. First step is getting her to take tea with us. She also does all the work in the house.
MICHAEL and DIFAS- The boys who are still in the house. These two don't say much and aren't around often, but are both nice and don't speak a ton of english.
SHANNON- Shannon is my host sister from Delaware. We were both placed in the family. Lets just say we are very different and are learning as much from each other as from our family! She was raised in the suburbs and is into literature. She had never seen a chicken and isn't very fond of such things as the squatty potty or eating Ugandan food. But she is funny and we are able to have a lot of fun together!
LARRY, CURLY, MOE- our little kittens who just this day killed their first mouse. The family rejoiced while Shannon and I ran away. We named them as the family doesn't do such things.
ERWIN- the gecko that hangs out on the wall during tea. When we told Stella the name she thought it was hilarious!
There you go the Mukwanya household!!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Snapshots of Africa!!
I know some of you have wanted to see pictures, but this is the first time the internet has let me upload any! So I hope you enjoy a few of my favorites showing some of the event's I've talked about in my blog. I'll do my best to add pictures as we go along!
Trying on my hair.. They love people with curly hair! This is at the school for orphans in Rwanda.
These are the kids chasing our bus after we left... They were running!
Having fun at Lake Bunyoni after an intense week in Rwanda!
The Equator!!
Church where the genocide happened
Trying on my hair.. They love people with curly hair! This is at the school for orphans in Rwanda.
These are the kids chasing our bus after we left... They were running!
Having fun at Lake Bunyoni after an intense week in Rwanda!
The Equator!!
Church where the genocide happened
Sunday, September 14, 2008
A day in the life...
It occurred to me that some of you may be wondering what a normal day looks like in my life here in Uganda... So let me tell you!
First we wake up at about 6:45 or 7:00 to get ready for the day. Which means getting dressed and taking tea. (Of course going to the toilet after I change out of my nightgown) In Uganda they do not believe you can take tea without any food with it. So we make tea and I have bread and butter. The butter here is unbelievable! I love my tea time in the morning. Usually we look through the newspaper and find the biased articles about Obama and how the republican party is ruining the entire nation of the United States and how Obama is the new come savior. Of course we wait for papa Julius to bring us to school which is usually ten minutes after he told us to be ready. :) Then we drive to school.
Once at school I go to a variety of classes.. We have two sessions of each class a week. One is an hour and the other two. I struggle through the two hours classes. God didn't exactly give me a spirit that enjoys sitting still! I also have a very hard time during any class from 10:30-2:00 because it is so hot. The perks of my day are at 10:30 is campus-wide tea which is a fabulous idea! When I'm not in class I hang out in the IMME quarters (a small building for the people who live off campus). Lunch is at 1:00 and never fills me up. It seems that I'm always hungry here, but I eat so much food.
At 6:30 I have to be heading home. On the walk home there are many little children that run and wave as well as boda bodas that don't think they have to move if a person is walking. I have had to jump into the ditch numerous times. This always makes the locals laugh :) Once I get home we take tea again. Usually with some nuts or something. Then I sit around either doing homework, try to help with chores (which they never let me do until I ask about 20 times), watch TV (Ugandans LOVE tv), or have spontaneous dance parties. My jajia has even busted some moves!! I try picturing grammy Lorraine dancing and it makes me laugh every time! I have taught my family how to make friendship bracelets and they all love it! I'm hoping my mom will send some more thread as we are running out of colors :) (hint hint)
Supper is at about 10:00 and then we head to bed. There you have it! My life in Uganda. Each day is filled with much learning and laughter. Some comparisons to home:
-I'm SO thankful for where I was brought up. I feel like I had to do more work growing up than here which isn't the norm among my group. Julius tells me how many of his students have never seen a live chicken or gravel roads. Atwater is a lot like Africa! (So Connie you were right about the toilet conditions :)
- Just like home my dad is always the last to leave every function. You should have seen him try to leave church. Everywhere we go he knows people and strikes up conversations!
-I'm cursed in the water bottle area of life. I lost my nalgiene on the airplane, and have lost about three plastic bottles. Usually someone comes and throws it away. I bought a new one on Saturday in Kampala.. that is the only place I could find one. Then I dropped it and broke it as soon as I got home. :P It was full and I spilled my water. Gr.
Stay tuned for a description of my host family, weekend experiences, and church times :)
p.s. who is loveur2mom?
First we wake up at about 6:45 or 7:00 to get ready for the day. Which means getting dressed and taking tea. (Of course going to the toilet after I change out of my nightgown) In Uganda they do not believe you can take tea without any food with it. So we make tea and I have bread and butter. The butter here is unbelievable! I love my tea time in the morning. Usually we look through the newspaper and find the biased articles about Obama and how the republican party is ruining the entire nation of the United States and how Obama is the new come savior. Of course we wait for papa Julius to bring us to school which is usually ten minutes after he told us to be ready. :) Then we drive to school.
Once at school I go to a variety of classes.. We have two sessions of each class a week. One is an hour and the other two. I struggle through the two hours classes. God didn't exactly give me a spirit that enjoys sitting still! I also have a very hard time during any class from 10:30-2:00 because it is so hot. The perks of my day are at 10:30 is campus-wide tea which is a fabulous idea! When I'm not in class I hang out in the IMME quarters (a small building for the people who live off campus). Lunch is at 1:00 and never fills me up. It seems that I'm always hungry here, but I eat so much food.
At 6:30 I have to be heading home. On the walk home there are many little children that run and wave as well as boda bodas that don't think they have to move if a person is walking. I have had to jump into the ditch numerous times. This always makes the locals laugh :) Once I get home we take tea again. Usually with some nuts or something. Then I sit around either doing homework, try to help with chores (which they never let me do until I ask about 20 times), watch TV (Ugandans LOVE tv), or have spontaneous dance parties. My jajia has even busted some moves!! I try picturing grammy Lorraine dancing and it makes me laugh every time! I have taught my family how to make friendship bracelets and they all love it! I'm hoping my mom will send some more thread as we are running out of colors :) (hint hint)
Supper is at about 10:00 and then we head to bed. There you have it! My life in Uganda. Each day is filled with much learning and laughter. Some comparisons to home:
-I'm SO thankful for where I was brought up. I feel like I had to do more work growing up than here which isn't the norm among my group. Julius tells me how many of his students have never seen a live chicken or gravel roads. Atwater is a lot like Africa! (So Connie you were right about the toilet conditions :)
- Just like home my dad is always the last to leave every function. You should have seen him try to leave church. Everywhere we go he knows people and strikes up conversations!
-I'm cursed in the water bottle area of life. I lost my nalgiene on the airplane, and have lost about three plastic bottles. Usually someone comes and throws it away. I bought a new one on Saturday in Kampala.. that is the only place I could find one. Then I dropped it and broke it as soon as I got home. :P It was full and I spilled my water. Gr.
Stay tuned for a description of my host family, weekend experiences, and church times :)
p.s. who is loveur2mom?
Thursday, September 11, 2008
The Nightgown :s
Hello from the land of extreme heat and perpetual sweat.
Here is a post that I'm excited to write as I am sure many of you are wondering the different things that I have encountered in the culture department on my trip in Africa. You may be wondering why the title of the nightgown, and I think it is the perfect place to start in describing my preparation for the trip. We were told as a group to bring to Africa a conservative nightgown that covers your knees and shoulders, as we had no way of knowing what type of family we would be put in. So if you have any experience shopping for a thing like a nightgown you understand that they are impossible to come across in the US. So after much struggle I finally found a hideous nightgown made of blue silk and hideous lace. (it reminds me of something my mom would wear to bed:) Anyway, on my arrive to Uganda my host sister went to bed in shorts and a tank top. As I looked down at my nightgown I understood that I really wasn't prepared for this trip!! The other thing is it was too embarrassing to go outside to the sqautty potty in so I have to change before I leave the room!
To relate this to my trip:
THE LACE: There are many things that I am working on adjusting to culturally. I ended up cutting the lace off my nightgown. Also, people here drive on the left side of road. I forgot this fact until I was walking to the dining center and almost ran head into a woman walking to other way. I kept trying to step to the right only to realize she was stepping the same way. I'm getting better.
One thing I had no problem getting used to is tea time. We have tea and bread for breakfast, campus has a tea break at 10:30 am, and I get tea as soon as I get home from school with g-nuts. It is a fabulous time of the day, and is helping me adjust to the meal times (lunch at 1:00 and supper at 10:00-11:00 or whenever it is ready) I always feel hungry although the food portions are HUGE and full of carbs.
That leads me into food. I'm doing my best to enjoy the diet. I'm finding great ways to make the food good. Living with a family is great because we have a lot of variety and the cooking is good. We eat matoke every day which is a banana mash and the staple of Ugandan food. We also usually have rice. There is always a type of soup/broth stuff that when drenched all over the food makes everything pretty good. Also we have a lot of cabbage mixed with other things like greens (greens are anything that is green.. they have over 12 varieties but they aren't named) And the greatest thing every is the juice. Yum.
UNPREPARED: Just as I didn't have the right kind of nightgown there are somethings here that I just wasn't quite ready for. The first are the squatty potties. The first time I asked for the bathroom I was lead to the showers. You must ask for toilets. The most annoying thing is the lack of toilet paper. My worst squatty potty experience happened in Rwanda. We got lost and had been driving in the countryside for about six hours with a couple more to go. We stopped in random town at a church to see if we could use their toilet. I don't think the people in the town had every seen a white person. No joke the church was on a hill and we could see children running from miles away towards our bus. When I went into the bathroom it was a tiny hole with a chunk of grass and a nasty stench. There was poop on the ground and no wood steps to stand on. My favorite part was the lack of door. So the entire country side is running up to see us and I'm squatting with no door. Fabulous. The first time I saw a cockroach crawl out of the toilet I screamed. Luckily at my house they are quite clean, although I walked in on grandma once.
DEALING WITH IT: So my nightgown. I wear it every night and am beginning to embrace life with my nightgown. I even went the bathroom in it (I did wear a big sweater, my sister assures me soon I'll be running around in my underwear) There are some things here that I am learning to adjust to because that is the way it is. One of those is lines. Here there is no concept of a line. You will wait for 20 minutes and someone will come and cut in front of you without batting an eye. So after waiting at the water during lunch I started getting aggressive. Another is the concept of respect. If a Ugandan phone rings during anything, the person will answer it. Our pastor was even texting during his service! They leave speakers and class. They also will be really loud when you are sleeping with no concept of it disturbing you. Finally, they are never on time. Ever.
Lastly I'm learning to live with peoples reactions to me. Little kids come screaming and running when they see me shouting MZUNGO MZUNGO (which means white person) I have been asked for money countless times. Men here are really touchy and will hold your hand while talking. One guy today in the dining center talked with Kiersten and I for 15 minutes and had his arms around us the whole time and kissed us when he left. Guys also tend to shout things like, 'white women' or whistle or wink. Jeepers.
Well I'm running out of time. I could go on for hours. I'm heading to my first basketball practice today! Yay!
Here is a post that I'm excited to write as I am sure many of you are wondering the different things that I have encountered in the culture department on my trip in Africa. You may be wondering why the title of the nightgown, and I think it is the perfect place to start in describing my preparation for the trip. We were told as a group to bring to Africa a conservative nightgown that covers your knees and shoulders, as we had no way of knowing what type of family we would be put in. So if you have any experience shopping for a thing like a nightgown you understand that they are impossible to come across in the US. So after much struggle I finally found a hideous nightgown made of blue silk and hideous lace. (it reminds me of something my mom would wear to bed:) Anyway, on my arrive to Uganda my host sister went to bed in shorts and a tank top. As I looked down at my nightgown I understood that I really wasn't prepared for this trip!! The other thing is it was too embarrassing to go outside to the sqautty potty in so I have to change before I leave the room!
To relate this to my trip:
THE LACE: There are many things that I am working on adjusting to culturally. I ended up cutting the lace off my nightgown. Also, people here drive on the left side of road. I forgot this fact until I was walking to the dining center and almost ran head into a woman walking to other way. I kept trying to step to the right only to realize she was stepping the same way. I'm getting better.
One thing I had no problem getting used to is tea time. We have tea and bread for breakfast, campus has a tea break at 10:30 am, and I get tea as soon as I get home from school with g-nuts. It is a fabulous time of the day, and is helping me adjust to the meal times (lunch at 1:00 and supper at 10:00-11:00 or whenever it is ready) I always feel hungry although the food portions are HUGE and full of carbs.
That leads me into food. I'm doing my best to enjoy the diet. I'm finding great ways to make the food good. Living with a family is great because we have a lot of variety and the cooking is good. We eat matoke every day which is a banana mash and the staple of Ugandan food. We also usually have rice. There is always a type of soup/broth stuff that when drenched all over the food makes everything pretty good. Also we have a lot of cabbage mixed with other things like greens (greens are anything that is green.. they have over 12 varieties but they aren't named) And the greatest thing every is the juice. Yum.
UNPREPARED: Just as I didn't have the right kind of nightgown there are somethings here that I just wasn't quite ready for. The first are the squatty potties. The first time I asked for the bathroom I was lead to the showers. You must ask for toilets. The most annoying thing is the lack of toilet paper. My worst squatty potty experience happened in Rwanda. We got lost and had been driving in the countryside for about six hours with a couple more to go. We stopped in random town at a church to see if we could use their toilet. I don't think the people in the town had every seen a white person. No joke the church was on a hill and we could see children running from miles away towards our bus. When I went into the bathroom it was a tiny hole with a chunk of grass and a nasty stench. There was poop on the ground and no wood steps to stand on. My favorite part was the lack of door. So the entire country side is running up to see us and I'm squatting with no door. Fabulous. The first time I saw a cockroach crawl out of the toilet I screamed. Luckily at my house they are quite clean, although I walked in on grandma once.
DEALING WITH IT: So my nightgown. I wear it every night and am beginning to embrace life with my nightgown. I even went the bathroom in it (I did wear a big sweater, my sister assures me soon I'll be running around in my underwear) There are some things here that I am learning to adjust to because that is the way it is. One of those is lines. Here there is no concept of a line. You will wait for 20 minutes and someone will come and cut in front of you without batting an eye. So after waiting at the water during lunch I started getting aggressive. Another is the concept of respect. If a Ugandan phone rings during anything, the person will answer it. Our pastor was even texting during his service! They leave speakers and class. They also will be really loud when you are sleeping with no concept of it disturbing you. Finally, they are never on time. Ever.
Lastly I'm learning to live with peoples reactions to me. Little kids come screaming and running when they see me shouting MZUNGO MZUNGO (which means white person) I have been asked for money countless times. Men here are really touchy and will hold your hand while talking. One guy today in the dining center talked with Kiersten and I for 15 minutes and had his arms around us the whole time and kissed us when he left. Guys also tend to shout things like, 'white women' or whistle or wink. Jeepers.
Well I'm running out of time. I could go on for hours. I'm heading to my first basketball practice today! Yay!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Aslan, your bigger.
"Welcome child," he said.
"Aslan," said Lucy, "you're bigger."
"That's because you are older, little one," answered he.
"Not because you are?"
"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."
Hello all. I know that I have been out of touch with the world for two weeks now. Sorry about that. During that time I have done, seen, and experienced many new things. I think I will probably post a couple separate posts just to keep things under control.
This post will be focused on the Rwanda trip and what I learned and saw. The quote I started with is a theme that I felt during my time there. Everything I saw and heard pointed me toward a big God. I was amazed at his power. So give a run down on what we did... We packed into a van and drove for 13 hours or so to Rwanda. On the way we stopped at the Equator and in a couple towns to eat. Let me tell you, I don't like cities anymore in Africa than I do in the United States. The roads in Uganda are horrible and very dirty. On the other hand, in Rwanda they are nicer than in the US and they don't allow plastic or anything. We stayed on the hill where the East African Revival started and listened to a couple speakers on what that meant and how the church is responding to the genocide restoration.
We then went to a church in groups of five and had a member of our group preach and give a testimony and sing a song. The service was really long and contained a lot of dancing and singing. The people were so excited to have us there, but the little children were scared to come touch us. Unfortunately I didn't understand most of the service because it wasn't in my language. The thing that blew me away about meeting with the people talking about the church is that we are struggling with the same things in church in America and in Rwanda. I expected to come in seeing the way that we should be doing church, what I saw is that it is completely not perfect here. People still go to church as a cultural tradition, there are still rifts between the old and young generations over style of music and such. It was encouraging for me to see and made me excited to go home and worship at hope.
One of our big focuses while we were in Rwanda was the genocide. This is where God really came alive to me. We went to the Kigali national genocide museum. It is set up in such a way as to go through the entire genocide story, along with the role of the west in the whole thing. Then I went through all the genocides of the world followed by a room dedicated to children killed in the genocide. It was really hard and I totally wanted to cry. As I walked out there were memorial gardens around mass graves. They were so beautiful and a song by Kathryn Scott came through my head over and over. It is
"At the foot of the cross where grace and suffering meet,
you have shown me your love by the judgement you received.
And you've won my heart, yes you've won my heart.
Now I can trade these ashes in for beauty and wear forgiveness like a crown.
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy, I lay every burden down at the foot of the cross."
you have shown me your love by the judgement you received.
And you've won my heart, yes you've won my heart.
Now I can trade these ashes in for beauty and wear forgiveness like a crown.
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy, I lay every burden down at the foot of the cross."
I couldn't get over how God could create such beauty and forgiveness in the hearts of the people after so much pain and suffering. We got to listen to a Tootsie woman sit next to the man who killed her entire family and speak about true forgiveness only coming from the power of God. I was amazed. My God grew before my eyes.
Along with that we went to a couple memorials that had the bones and clothes of 10,000 people killed. It was very powerful.
On the ways of restoration, we visited businesses that are employing orphans or children heads of families or women sold into the sex trade. I strongly urge people to look into kingdom businesses and support such things. For example Cards for Rwanda.
On the last day we stayed at an amazing resort and reunited with the entire USP group to debrief and such. It was beautiful and fun. Ok I think that is about it for the Rwanda trip. Feel free to ask questions. I'll do my best to answer. Stay tuned for a post about my family as well as some cultural differences that stick out to me! Much love from Africa.
Along with that we went to a couple memorials that had the bones and clothes of 10,000 people killed. It was very powerful.
On the ways of restoration, we visited businesses that are employing orphans or children heads of families or women sold into the sex trade. I strongly urge people to look into kingdom businesses and support such things. For example Cards for Rwanda.
On the last day we stayed at an amazing resort and reunited with the entire USP group to debrief and such. It was beautiful and fun. Ok I think that is about it for the Rwanda trip. Feel free to ask questions. I'll do my best to answer. Stay tuned for a post about my family as well as some cultural differences that stick out to me! Much love from Africa.
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