Hello everyone! Sorry my weekly update is a little late in coming. I usually try to post over the weekend or on Monday, but our internet has been down for the past several days. It was frustrating for a little while, but then most of us realized how much more time we had to do other things when we weren’t glued to facebook…funny we come to Africa and the facebook trap still ensnares many of us. I try to limit my internet time to just checking email, facebook, and updating my blog, but it’s such a temptation to waste time online. So we had a break from the chains of the internet, but most of us were happy yesterday to put them back on. It’s good to be able to communicate with friends and family back home. Maybe I’ll be able to upload a few more pictures. I have fallen drastically behind on that, but the internet just doesn’t move fast enough.
Ok. So last week absolutely flew by. I really don’t remember any major happenings. Mostly I just attended class and hung out with my family. I made some no-bake cookies, read a good book, and began plans to direct a skit. The skit is for a worship service that our studies group is in charge of leading. It’s a campus wide service, so we’ll have an audience of several hundred people at least. I’m directing a skit to a song by Lincoln Park that I learned on a missions trip a few years ago. It’s interesting to be in the directors rather than the actors role, but I am enjoying it. We’ve had a meeting/rehearsal and are having another this week…so far so good. I think it’s going to go really well. Performance day is one week from yesterday! It’s an exciting opportunity to lead a campus worship service and minister to our fellow students.
This week the pace is beginning to pick up as far as school goes. I counted the days today and realized I only have 25 days before the school semester is finished and we leave for our Rwanda trip. That’s crazy! In that time, I have some 3-4 papers to write as well as several projects. I need to get kicking on some of these assignments, so I am going to try to get myself motivated this week to begin working towards finals. Maybe the internet needs to crash again…It’s hard to motivate myself to do school work when all I really want to do is hang out with my friends and family here. Time is short and I am realizing how much more important people are than homework, thought my profs might not accept that excuse. At any rate, finals week is stressful every semester, no matter where I am (Uganda or the US) and I always manage to get through it. It’s good to keep things in perspective
This past weekend was potentially my favorite class trip we have been on. We travelled about 2 hours to a town called Luweero. It’s a fairly rural area. The purpose of the trip was for us to speak with an Anglican Bishop, a Catholic Priest, and to see a ministry called Jesus Cares. The clergymen were amazing examples of what missions to one’s own people can look like. They love their people so much, and they suffer with them a great deal too, but the love of God is revealed all the more through this suffering. Luweero has a high percentage of the population affected by AIDS. Although I’ve been in Africa now for nearly 3 months, it’s been easy on the college campus to ignore the reality of AIDS. It’s not something that people talk about very much—it’s often a taboo topic, like everyone likes to pretend it doesn’t exist. There is still an issue of stigma, so even people with HIV-AIDS often try to hide their status.
The Bishop and the Priest both talked openly about the reality of poverty and AIDS in the area. When we asked Father Gerald, the priest, how he responded to so much pain and suffering, his response was simply “Sometimes there is nothing you can do; all I can offer is to be present with my people.” He’s so present with his people that he declined an offer to study for a masters degree in the US to continue working in the parish. That’s true love. I don’t know very many Ugandans that aren’t dying to make it to the US, and yet he would rather hold dying babies and preach at funeral services than leave his people for the opportunity of a lifetime. I have a lot to learn about true love and compassion.
Jesus Cares is a ministry for AIDS victims run by one Christian family. It’s two parents and their four children. The parents, who are both teachers, saw a need in their community and decided to meet it. They and their four children (all adults) each contribute 10% of their salary to the mission. They have 6 AIDS families that they care for currently. Three of them are single mother households (where the mothers and most children have AIDS), one is a family of AIDS orphans run by a grandmother, and two familiers are child-headed households where an older sibling cares for the younger. In the six familes there are 25 children, and 17 of them have AIDS. We traveled to a house on Saturday where we met with the family who runs the missions as well as the families they minister to. They invited children from the village to join us, so there was a total of around 80 children there. We couldn’t tell which children had AIDS and which didn’t, which I thought was excellent. Our sole purpose was to play with the kids. We divided into four teams called Alpha, Omega, Unity, and Peace. Each team had about 8 white students and 20 children on it. Then we played games in the yard for 3-4 hours. We did relay races and funny games. One of the adults marked points for the teams. My team was Peace (ironic considering my Luganda name means Peace) and we got second place, which was cool. We served lunch to the kids (it made me think of my cafeteria job at Milligan) and then the children on our teams taught us traditional songs and dances which we performed for each other. It was such a good day. Probably my best day in Uganda, just loving kids and acting like one myself.
On Saturday evening we were free for a bit and some friends and I went tree climbing. I haven't climbed a tree in years! It was a lot of fun. My friends were surprised I could climb so well--they said I climbed like a country girl, so I guess I did Kentucky and Tennessee some justice. I am one of the only southern girls in our group. After climbing, we found some strange green fruits on the ground--they were round and about the size and weight of a softball...then we found a stick about like a bat. So you can imagine what we did then. It was kind of like a homerun derby except when you hit the fruit really hard it busted everywhere. So we had a blast and mostly ended up covered in this bitter, sticky fruit juice.
Well…that’s about all of the exciting things about my recent days in Uganda. I’ll have another update for you soon. Prayer requests include: all of the students as our time winds down in Uganda and finals approach; our families who host us and that our remaining time with them would be blessed; my sister-in-law Prose who recently had a baby (Tendo Israel)—just for her and the baby’s health; this upcoming Sunday when I am teaching Sunday School to around fifty 7-9 year olds, that I will get my lesson worked out and God will help me relate it to them; that I find my Bible, which seems to be missing since this weekend. Thanks everyone!
--Danielle
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Weekend in Jinja: Rafting the Nile and Bungee Jumping
Hello Everyone!!
I hope you had an amazing weekend! My weekend was one of the best so far. The USP (Uganda Studies Program) students planned a white water rafting/bungee jumping trip to a town called Jinja (where we’ve visited before, but for class reasons). We left on Friday afternoon and went to a hostel in Jinja. It was surprisingly nice. The beds were comfy, the rooms weren’t too crowded, and we were practically the only group there. 26 students went on the trip. We were a mix of students staying in host families and students staying on campus, so it was a good opportunity to hang out with some people I haven’t really gotten to know this semester.
We arrived on Friday night and had dinner and hung out in the awesome bar/hang out/pool table room. Dinner was super good, and then we just chilled out. Chilling is a very American college student thing to do, especially when you live on campus, but living in a host family this semester hasn’t left very much time to just “chill” with my friends. It was really relaxing and liberating not to have to worry anything or anyone. Early Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast. It was toast, eggs, pineapple, watermelon…I was in heaven!
After breakfast we headed out to the Nile River to begin our day of rafting. We split up into groups of 5 and 6 and each group was sent to a raft and a guide. Our guide’s name was Paulo. He was a world championship kayaker and rafter, so quite the professional. This was comforting considering this was most of our first time white water rafting, and we were going on a grade 5 trip, which means we were starting at the highest level. Nothing like jumping right in. After some basic training, which consisted of learning some of the commands Paulo would be shouting at us and learning how to get back in the raft/help a friend get back into the raft, we were on our way. We conquered twelve rapids in all; several of them grade 4s and 5s, with a couple of grade ones and twos or threes. It was awesome and terrifying at the same time.
My raft flipped over on three out of the first four rapids. I got hit in the face with the paddle, thrown so far from the raft that I had to have a kayaker come and rescue me, and pushed under the water so far that I ran out of breath before I could surface. The worst flip we had some of my teammates landed on top of me and unintentionally held me under for a while. That was the only time I was seriously scared. Otherwise, it was a lot of a fun and I would definitely do it again, especially since I know what to expect now. Some of the more fun parts were when we successfully made it down a waterfall going backwards, without flipping over, and when Paulo had us all stand on the edges of the raft, bend our knees a bit, and hold onto each other while he steered us through a level two rapid—and we actually held our balance! He said we were one of a few groups who had ever succeeded in doing this. We also had the opportunity between rapids to swim in the Nile.
On Sunday we went bungee jumping. I didn’t think I was going to go initially because they tied the cord around your ankles, and I didn’t know how that would affect my knees, but then when we were getting ready to leave, I found out you could use a harness to jump and I could actually go. I raced up the platform and asked if I could still jump. The guys working the platform said yes and immediately began to hook me up. I hardly had time to think or psyche myself up (or out)…so maybe this was a good thing. When jumping with a harness, you have to take a running start and leap out from the platform as far as possible holding the cord in front of you…if you don’t leap far enough (or falter and fall) or if you let the cord go, you will get smacked in the face with the metal karabiner. I backed up to the corner of the platform, and then heard “3-2-1 BUNGEE!!!” On 1, I took off running, hit the edge of the platform, and pushed off into the air. The platform was over the Nile River. It was around 160 feet high. The best part by far was the initial running, jumping, and flying. The fall itself was so scary. It was like roller coaster times fifty. But I am glad to have the experience. I knew if I didn’t go after finding out about the harness that I would regret it forever.
So that was my sweet weekend. I would love to raft again, and think I could probably talk myself into jumping again in the future as well. Time here in Uganda is winding down. I just want it to go slower! This is week ten of 16. We are travelling on an Aids trip to Luweero (a town a couple of hours away) this weekend, so it will be a rough trip. Then the first weekend of April we are going on a weekend safari (like 8 hours away!). I only have 3-4 weekends left with my host family, which is hard to think about. I am just now starting to feel like a true part of the family, falling in love with all of the people, accepting them unconditionally and feeling the same kind of acceptance. It will be hard to leave them. At the end of April, we are going to spend 1-2 weeks in Rwanda studying the genocide and doing some work with some churches. Then it’s time for a couple of days of debrief before heading back to the States. I can’t believe I’m already more than halfway through the semester and these last weeks are coming so fast.
Alright. That’s all for now. Sorry I haven’t been able to load pictures for the past several weeks. Internet here just hasn’t been working very well. It takes forever just to write emails and post blogs and facebook picture uploader fails every time. If I don’t get them posted while I’m here, I’ll post a bunch when I get home in May so you can see them.
I hope you had an amazing weekend! My weekend was one of the best so far. The USP (Uganda Studies Program) students planned a white water rafting/bungee jumping trip to a town called Jinja (where we’ve visited before, but for class reasons). We left on Friday afternoon and went to a hostel in Jinja. It was surprisingly nice. The beds were comfy, the rooms weren’t too crowded, and we were practically the only group there. 26 students went on the trip. We were a mix of students staying in host families and students staying on campus, so it was a good opportunity to hang out with some people I haven’t really gotten to know this semester.
We arrived on Friday night and had dinner and hung out in the awesome bar/hang out/pool table room. Dinner was super good, and then we just chilled out. Chilling is a very American college student thing to do, especially when you live on campus, but living in a host family this semester hasn’t left very much time to just “chill” with my friends. It was really relaxing and liberating not to have to worry anything or anyone. Early Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast. It was toast, eggs, pineapple, watermelon…I was in heaven!
After breakfast we headed out to the Nile River to begin our day of rafting. We split up into groups of 5 and 6 and each group was sent to a raft and a guide. Our guide’s name was Paulo. He was a world championship kayaker and rafter, so quite the professional. This was comforting considering this was most of our first time white water rafting, and we were going on a grade 5 trip, which means we were starting at the highest level. Nothing like jumping right in. After some basic training, which consisted of learning some of the commands Paulo would be shouting at us and learning how to get back in the raft/help a friend get back into the raft, we were on our way. We conquered twelve rapids in all; several of them grade 4s and 5s, with a couple of grade ones and twos or threes. It was awesome and terrifying at the same time.
My raft flipped over on three out of the first four rapids. I got hit in the face with the paddle, thrown so far from the raft that I had to have a kayaker come and rescue me, and pushed under the water so far that I ran out of breath before I could surface. The worst flip we had some of my teammates landed on top of me and unintentionally held me under for a while. That was the only time I was seriously scared. Otherwise, it was a lot of a fun and I would definitely do it again, especially since I know what to expect now. Some of the more fun parts were when we successfully made it down a waterfall going backwards, without flipping over, and when Paulo had us all stand on the edges of the raft, bend our knees a bit, and hold onto each other while he steered us through a level two rapid—and we actually held our balance! He said we were one of a few groups who had ever succeeded in doing this. We also had the opportunity between rapids to swim in the Nile.
On Sunday we went bungee jumping. I didn’t think I was going to go initially because they tied the cord around your ankles, and I didn’t know how that would affect my knees, but then when we were getting ready to leave, I found out you could use a harness to jump and I could actually go. I raced up the platform and asked if I could still jump. The guys working the platform said yes and immediately began to hook me up. I hardly had time to think or psyche myself up (or out)…so maybe this was a good thing. When jumping with a harness, you have to take a running start and leap out from the platform as far as possible holding the cord in front of you…if you don’t leap far enough (or falter and fall) or if you let the cord go, you will get smacked in the face with the metal karabiner. I backed up to the corner of the platform, and then heard “3-2-1 BUNGEE!!!” On 1, I took off running, hit the edge of the platform, and pushed off into the air. The platform was over the Nile River. It was around 160 feet high. The best part by far was the initial running, jumping, and flying. The fall itself was so scary. It was like roller coaster times fifty. But I am glad to have the experience. I knew if I didn’t go after finding out about the harness that I would regret it forever.
So that was my sweet weekend. I would love to raft again, and think I could probably talk myself into jumping again in the future as well. Time here in Uganda is winding down. I just want it to go slower! This is week ten of 16. We are travelling on an Aids trip to Luweero (a town a couple of hours away) this weekend, so it will be a rough trip. Then the first weekend of April we are going on a weekend safari (like 8 hours away!). I only have 3-4 weekends left with my host family, which is hard to think about. I am just now starting to feel like a true part of the family, falling in love with all of the people, accepting them unconditionally and feeling the same kind of acceptance. It will be hard to leave them. At the end of April, we are going to spend 1-2 weeks in Rwanda studying the genocide and doing some work with some churches. Then it’s time for a couple of days of debrief before heading back to the States. I can’t believe I’m already more than halfway through the semester and these last weeks are coming so fast.
Alright. That’s all for now. Sorry I haven’t been able to load pictures for the past several weeks. Internet here just hasn’t been working very well. It takes forever just to write emails and post blogs and facebook picture uploader fails every time. If I don’t get them posted while I’m here, I’ll post a bunch when I get home in May so you can see them.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Family, Twists, and Pizza!
Hello to the other side of the world!! This is my weekly update. Straight to you from the papisan chair, IMME quarters, Mukono, Uganda. Harry Potter fans, I hope that makes you smile. It reminds me of the letters addressed to Harry in book 1. Ok, sorry. That was a random moment.
I am doing amazing. This is week 9 and I want everything to slow down. I am a little more than half way, and I just want to relish every last moment. Last week was a good week. No matter how stressed I get with school work, it always gets done, or it doesn’t, and it’s not that big of a deal, and no matter how much this is a “study” abroad program, the abroad part is still way cooler than the study part. I really love living here. Sometimes I miss home, but God has given me the gift of finding a home here as well. I LOVE my family here. Spending time with them this weekend, I was just amazed at how comfortable I felt with them, how right everything seemed, how much they have blessed me by including and accepting me. It’s not easy to welcome a stranger into your family, but a stranger who comes from the other side of the world culturally, and who has a different skin color, who doesn’t speak your native language…I just see the love of God radiating through my family here. The Kingdom is global, praise Jesus, and all of us have family everywhere.
This weekend I finally broke down and went and got my hair done. By this I mean I had extensions and twists put in—twists aren’t quite braids, but they look really similar. It took around 7.5 hours. A friend and I traveled into Kampala (closest city, and capital of Uganda) and went to a salon. It was a bit expensive, but supposedly I can keep the twists up to 2 months, and I don’t have to wash my hair. It’s a little sad because I have beautiful, long, healthy hair right now, and the twists will probably cause me to lose a few inches, but washing long hair without running water gets hard after a while. Basin/bucket baths just aren’t the same as showers. So I am probably just going to get over the fact this might ruin my real hair…and enjoy the extra 15-20 minutes of sleep in the morning and NEVER having to worry about my hair.
In Kampala, we ate at the New York Pizza Kitchen, about the closest thing to American food I have had since coming here. I had pizza with green peppers and onions on it, and bottled coke, a chocolate milk shake and my personal favorite: FRENCH FRIES WITH HEINZ KETCHUP. Life just can’t get much better than French fries and real ketchup. They have this stuff called top-up here, but it’s not the same. So it was a good dinner on Saturday night and I was certainly a glutton. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to go to that restaurant at least once more before going home.
On Sunday, my family took me into the city again. We were visiting my brother’s wife, who is in the hospital after just having had their third child—it’s a boy!—and he’s healthy and happy and one of his names is Israel…the other is very Ugandan and I can’t remember it at the moment. But we had a good visit. I mostly occupied the other two children, who came along. Emma is 2 and Sharon in 8. They’re adorable and excited about their new little brother, but lets face it: babies just aren’t that entertaining after a while So we colored and played with my camera while all of the big people talked and played with the baby. It was a good day.
This week is shaping up to be a good one. My big assignment is a paper due on Friday, but it’s about Islam, and thanks to Dr. Farmer’s History of Islam class I took sophomore year, I have it covered. Other than the paper, business as usual: lots of reading I probably won’t do…it’s a good thing I didn’t go to college some place that’s always warm and sunny—it’s hard to make myself do any work when all I want to do is be outside or hanging out with all of the friends I am making here.
Ok. Thanks for all of the prayers and support! Looking forward to seeing everyone at home this summer. I’ll be back sometime in mid May. Hope you all have a good week!
And PS: Time doesn't change in Uganda. So I am now seven hours ahead of Kentucky/TN, nine hours ahead of Idaho, and ten hours ahead of Washington/Cali.
I am doing amazing. This is week 9 and I want everything to slow down. I am a little more than half way, and I just want to relish every last moment. Last week was a good week. No matter how stressed I get with school work, it always gets done, or it doesn’t, and it’s not that big of a deal, and no matter how much this is a “study” abroad program, the abroad part is still way cooler than the study part. I really love living here. Sometimes I miss home, but God has given me the gift of finding a home here as well. I LOVE my family here. Spending time with them this weekend, I was just amazed at how comfortable I felt with them, how right everything seemed, how much they have blessed me by including and accepting me. It’s not easy to welcome a stranger into your family, but a stranger who comes from the other side of the world culturally, and who has a different skin color, who doesn’t speak your native language…I just see the love of God radiating through my family here. The Kingdom is global, praise Jesus, and all of us have family everywhere.
This weekend I finally broke down and went and got my hair done. By this I mean I had extensions and twists put in—twists aren’t quite braids, but they look really similar. It took around 7.5 hours. A friend and I traveled into Kampala (closest city, and capital of Uganda) and went to a salon. It was a bit expensive, but supposedly I can keep the twists up to 2 months, and I don’t have to wash my hair. It’s a little sad because I have beautiful, long, healthy hair right now, and the twists will probably cause me to lose a few inches, but washing long hair without running water gets hard after a while. Basin/bucket baths just aren’t the same as showers. So I am probably just going to get over the fact this might ruin my real hair…and enjoy the extra 15-20 minutes of sleep in the morning and NEVER having to worry about my hair.
In Kampala, we ate at the New York Pizza Kitchen, about the closest thing to American food I have had since coming here. I had pizza with green peppers and onions on it, and bottled coke, a chocolate milk shake and my personal favorite: FRENCH FRIES WITH HEINZ KETCHUP. Life just can’t get much better than French fries and real ketchup. They have this stuff called top-up here, but it’s not the same. So it was a good dinner on Saturday night and I was certainly a glutton. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to go to that restaurant at least once more before going home.
On Sunday, my family took me into the city again. We were visiting my brother’s wife, who is in the hospital after just having had their third child—it’s a boy!—and he’s healthy and happy and one of his names is Israel…the other is very Ugandan and I can’t remember it at the moment. But we had a good visit. I mostly occupied the other two children, who came along. Emma is 2 and Sharon in 8. They’re adorable and excited about their new little brother, but lets face it: babies just aren’t that entertaining after a while So we colored and played with my camera while all of the big people talked and played with the baby. It was a good day.
This week is shaping up to be a good one. My big assignment is a paper due on Friday, but it’s about Islam, and thanks to Dr. Farmer’s History of Islam class I took sophomore year, I have it covered. Other than the paper, business as usual: lots of reading I probably won’t do…it’s a good thing I didn’t go to college some place that’s always warm and sunny—it’s hard to make myself do any work when all I want to do is be outside or hanging out with all of the friends I am making here.
Ok. Thanks for all of the prayers and support! Looking forward to seeing everyone at home this summer. I’ll be back sometime in mid May. Hope you all have a good week!
And PS: Time doesn't change in Uganda. So I am now seven hours ahead of Kentucky/TN, nine hours ahead of Idaho, and ten hours ahead of Washington/Cali.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
A Week in Kapchorwa
I’ve been gone for around ten days now. I must admit, it’s good to be home, back with my family in Mukono, near the university. But it was a good week in Kapchorwa (I found out we were indeed going to Kapchorwa for the week, and not “Captura”). Kapchorwa is a rural region in east Uganda near the border with Kenya. It’s beautiful there. The point of the trip was to live the rural lifestyle for a week. So we were all placed in various host families to survive in the bush for a week, learning about the people and their culture. My family was from the Sabine tribe, and spoke Kopsabiny (potentially that’s spelled wrong). It was a difficult language to learn and I only picked up a few phrases. It was interesting to live with a different family after having had two months to adapt to my regular host family.
We left on a Friday for Kapchorwa, driving 6-7 hours before reaching our destination. They dropped us in our families on Friday night immediately. My family was Mama Miria, Papa Felix, and a sister Lillian. My parents had other children, but all were away at school. Lillian is their oldest child at 23 years old, but she is at home recovering from a bad car accident involving the notorious matatus (taxis that are like small minivans and carry up to 15-20 people). The matatu flipped over, killing all but 2 passengers, so my sister is quite the miracle. The accident was over a year ago, however, so it has been a long recovery. My family lives on a farm with chickens, cats, dogs, goats, and cows. They also have multiple pieces of land spread throughout the region where they grow bananas and matoke (in the banana family) as well as coffee and a few other things. Different families live on and take care of their various plots of land in exchange for food and school fees for their children. My family is considered quite rich in the region, because land and livestock are wealth.
Besides farming, my dad has a job in Kampala (the capital of Uganda, an hour from the university I attend) working as a security office for the President of the country! So he is in between the country and the city, but much prefers village life and is looking forward to a quiet retirement in Kapchorwa eventually. The cool thing is he will be going to Kampala soon, where it won’t be hard for me to visit, so I’m one of the few lucky students who will get to see their families again after the week long homestay.
I had a challenging week living in Kap. The way they live is very different from my Mukono life, let alone life in the US. The differences are hard to put into words. It’s really like two worlds. Life pretty much revolved around farming, receiving visitors, and paying visits. Often we would just sit quietly in the shade in the yard, not saying anything, just being present to one another. It’s hard not to be twiddling your thumbs (or biting your fingernails) in extreme boredom. Americans don’t know very well how to sit still. Sometimes visitors even came just to sit with us. We would drink milk tea (basically a lot of whole mile, straight from the cow, with a little bit of tea) and sometimes eat small sweet bananas. I spent a lot of time staring out at the landscape, watching the movements of the small and entertaining kitten who was around, and roving through all of the sociological differences between Kap and the US (I am doing my fieldwork while here…).
When we conversed, it was always fun. They would ask tons of questions beginning “In America, do you have…” and generally the answer was yes, but it’s different in some way. I assured them we do indeed have cats, dogs, cows, goats, farms, trees, and countless other everyday things in the US. Different worlds culturally, but same planet earth, and same humans created in God’s image, just with different skin colors. We talked about dowry, a tradition still much alive in Kap. In the old days, I would have been worth around 400 cows as an educated white woman. These days, I would go for 15-20. They were fascinated at how different marriage in the US is from their expectations. Female circumcision is only recently becoming less common—I found out my mom was circumcised, but not her children, and the government is trying to make the practice illegal all together because it can go very wrong and is often considered “mutilation.” But not everyone thinks it’s a bad thing, and it’s a longstanding tradition of their tribe that many old people are loathe to give up. One of the visiting men asked me what happens in America if a man touches a girl’s breast (yes, you read that right—I certainly had to ask if I heard right). Apparently back in the day in Kap it could start a clan war, and even now is considered a horrible offense. It’s rude in the US, but I haven’t heard of very many wars starting because a middle school boy stumbles and “unintentionally” grabs a girl…
I spent Friday night and Saturday with my family before becoming terribly sick on Sunday. During church I had to leave to vomit in the outhouse. I thought it was just because my family was seriously overfeeding me. For breakfast that day I had four pieces of bread, two bananas, two boiled eggs, two muffins, two slices of avocado, and two cups of milk tea, and every meal was much the same: me forcing myself to eat until I felt like throwing up, and then my mom exclaiming “Oh, but you have eaten very little.” Let me say, Ugandans certainly can hold their food. I wouldn’t recommend facing anyone here in an eating contest. At any rate, there I was, puking outside the church. Then came the diarrhea, and more vomiting. When the vomiting didn’t stop, I figured it was safe to assume it was something other than the food. After church (which began at 11 and ended at 2:30 and was a short service for them), they drove me home in our program van (puking out the window the whole way).
I was half carried to our yard, a short distance from the road through a matoke tree field. There I lay on a mattress in the shade of a tree, looking out across the landscape, and it could have been picturesque except for the vomiting and frequent trips to the outhouse part. I also had a bad fever. Just about that time four of my American friends and their host families decided to pay us an after-church visit (there’s a nice view of a waterfall from my family’s land they wanted to see). In the African tradition, they set up lawn chairs around my mattress, and about 15 people sat around to chat and watch me throw up. Even some of our chickens and dogs were interested, though more for the vomiting part (yummy) than the chatting. I was what I guess could be called “sick in style,” though sick in a very different way then I have ever been sick in the US. Here, it would be rude to leave a sick person alone.
My family took excellent care of me. Truly, I love the culture here and how well they care for one another. I’m coming to love community and communalism. It’s the love of Christ and the church in action. No one is ever left out. So being sick here (now twice) has given me a special appreciation for the African culture and family. My mom even pulled a mattress into my room and slept over, waking each time I began to be sick again. I vomited for around 12 hours, and had the fever for 48 or so. I didn’t become fully well again until Wednesday. And being well is always such a blessing after being sick. On Wednesday and Thursday my family took me out walking as much as possible (sometimes 6-8 miles at a time) to see their property and visit friends in the area. It was incredible! I loved every minute of our long walks, talking, enjoying the land, meeting random villagers. I took a ton of pictures, some of which I will post on facebook in the next few days for all to see.
Ok, this has really possibly been my longest post yet. I could say so much more, but will save you the time of reading it, and me of writing it. I better begin to do some homework…we are back to classes this week after a nice break, and have lots to do! I’m at the half-way point of my experience here. This is week 8 of around 16. Time is going by so fast and I am learning so much. I miss many of you from home. Thanks for praying and thinking of me!
We left on a Friday for Kapchorwa, driving 6-7 hours before reaching our destination. They dropped us in our families on Friday night immediately. My family was Mama Miria, Papa Felix, and a sister Lillian. My parents had other children, but all were away at school. Lillian is their oldest child at 23 years old, but she is at home recovering from a bad car accident involving the notorious matatus (taxis that are like small minivans and carry up to 15-20 people). The matatu flipped over, killing all but 2 passengers, so my sister is quite the miracle. The accident was over a year ago, however, so it has been a long recovery. My family lives on a farm with chickens, cats, dogs, goats, and cows. They also have multiple pieces of land spread throughout the region where they grow bananas and matoke (in the banana family) as well as coffee and a few other things. Different families live on and take care of their various plots of land in exchange for food and school fees for their children. My family is considered quite rich in the region, because land and livestock are wealth.
Besides farming, my dad has a job in Kampala (the capital of Uganda, an hour from the university I attend) working as a security office for the President of the country! So he is in between the country and the city, but much prefers village life and is looking forward to a quiet retirement in Kapchorwa eventually. The cool thing is he will be going to Kampala soon, where it won’t be hard for me to visit, so I’m one of the few lucky students who will get to see their families again after the week long homestay.
I had a challenging week living in Kap. The way they live is very different from my Mukono life, let alone life in the US. The differences are hard to put into words. It’s really like two worlds. Life pretty much revolved around farming, receiving visitors, and paying visits. Often we would just sit quietly in the shade in the yard, not saying anything, just being present to one another. It’s hard not to be twiddling your thumbs (or biting your fingernails) in extreme boredom. Americans don’t know very well how to sit still. Sometimes visitors even came just to sit with us. We would drink milk tea (basically a lot of whole mile, straight from the cow, with a little bit of tea) and sometimes eat small sweet bananas. I spent a lot of time staring out at the landscape, watching the movements of the small and entertaining kitten who was around, and roving through all of the sociological differences between Kap and the US (I am doing my fieldwork while here…).
When we conversed, it was always fun. They would ask tons of questions beginning “In America, do you have…” and generally the answer was yes, but it’s different in some way. I assured them we do indeed have cats, dogs, cows, goats, farms, trees, and countless other everyday things in the US. Different worlds culturally, but same planet earth, and same humans created in God’s image, just with different skin colors. We talked about dowry, a tradition still much alive in Kap. In the old days, I would have been worth around 400 cows as an educated white woman. These days, I would go for 15-20. They were fascinated at how different marriage in the US is from their expectations. Female circumcision is only recently becoming less common—I found out my mom was circumcised, but not her children, and the government is trying to make the practice illegal all together because it can go very wrong and is often considered “mutilation.” But not everyone thinks it’s a bad thing, and it’s a longstanding tradition of their tribe that many old people are loathe to give up. One of the visiting men asked me what happens in America if a man touches a girl’s breast (yes, you read that right—I certainly had to ask if I heard right). Apparently back in the day in Kap it could start a clan war, and even now is considered a horrible offense. It’s rude in the US, but I haven’t heard of very many wars starting because a middle school boy stumbles and “unintentionally” grabs a girl…
I spent Friday night and Saturday with my family before becoming terribly sick on Sunday. During church I had to leave to vomit in the outhouse. I thought it was just because my family was seriously overfeeding me. For breakfast that day I had four pieces of bread, two bananas, two boiled eggs, two muffins, two slices of avocado, and two cups of milk tea, and every meal was much the same: me forcing myself to eat until I felt like throwing up, and then my mom exclaiming “Oh, but you have eaten very little.” Let me say, Ugandans certainly can hold their food. I wouldn’t recommend facing anyone here in an eating contest. At any rate, there I was, puking outside the church. Then came the diarrhea, and more vomiting. When the vomiting didn’t stop, I figured it was safe to assume it was something other than the food. After church (which began at 11 and ended at 2:30 and was a short service for them), they drove me home in our program van (puking out the window the whole way).
I was half carried to our yard, a short distance from the road through a matoke tree field. There I lay on a mattress in the shade of a tree, looking out across the landscape, and it could have been picturesque except for the vomiting and frequent trips to the outhouse part. I also had a bad fever. Just about that time four of my American friends and their host families decided to pay us an after-church visit (there’s a nice view of a waterfall from my family’s land they wanted to see). In the African tradition, they set up lawn chairs around my mattress, and about 15 people sat around to chat and watch me throw up. Even some of our chickens and dogs were interested, though more for the vomiting part (yummy) than the chatting. I was what I guess could be called “sick in style,” though sick in a very different way then I have ever been sick in the US. Here, it would be rude to leave a sick person alone.
My family took excellent care of me. Truly, I love the culture here and how well they care for one another. I’m coming to love community and communalism. It’s the love of Christ and the church in action. No one is ever left out. So being sick here (now twice) has given me a special appreciation for the African culture and family. My mom even pulled a mattress into my room and slept over, waking each time I began to be sick again. I vomited for around 12 hours, and had the fever for 48 or so. I didn’t become fully well again until Wednesday. And being well is always such a blessing after being sick. On Wednesday and Thursday my family took me out walking as much as possible (sometimes 6-8 miles at a time) to see their property and visit friends in the area. It was incredible! I loved every minute of our long walks, talking, enjoying the land, meeting random villagers. I took a ton of pictures, some of which I will post on facebook in the next few days for all to see.
Ok, this has really possibly been my longest post yet. I could say so much more, but will save you the time of reading it, and me of writing it. I better begin to do some homework…we are back to classes this week after a nice break, and have lots to do! I’m at the half-way point of my experience here. This is week 8 of around 16. Time is going by so fast and I am learning so much. I miss many of you from home. Thanks for praying and thinking of me!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Crazy Week, Birds, and the Bush
Hello! I hope this finds you all doing well. This will be my last entry for a little while because I am leaving tomorrow to live with a family in Captura, a rural area of Uganda, for one week. These are called “rural homestays.” Each student in the Uganda is given the opportunity to spend a week in the bush experiencing the village lifestyle. I live in a village around the university, but it is not a rural village. Captura is a 7-8 hour drive away from the city into the hills. I’ve heard it’s beautiful, so I’ll probably take lots of pictures while I’m there. Most students will be placed alone in a family. This kind of makes me nervous. I live alone in a host family near the university, but I see my friends every day when I go to school. This will be one week by myself in a very new cultural setting. I am sure it will be challenging, but I also expect to learn a lot. And I think that is the important thing in just about any cross cultural setting—always go with the expectation of learning and growing. It’s impossible to leave unchanged.
We’ve been asked to take very little with us to Captura, because the families do not have many possessions. I am allowed a backpack…so I suppose it will be entertaining tonight when I try to pack a week worth of clothes, toiletries, mosquito/bug repellants as well as my rain boots, portable mosquito net, rain coat, Bible, and journal into my backpack. We’ll see how that works. It might take some magic. The rain gear is because at the end of the week, we are all going to be picked up and spend the weekend debriefing at Seepy Falls, a hiking resort. So I’ll have the opportunity to do some pretty cool hiking, but that means extra clothes (pants of some kind) and rain gear. We will not be allowed to wear trousers of any kind in the village. The modesty rules will be stricter: skirts have to go to the ankles, shoulders must be covered at all times, no visible tattoos, no dangly earrings, no makeup, sit with legs together (not crosses or apart) at all times…that’s a hard rule for me to follow. Being accustomed to sweat pants, I have the habit of sitting like a boy, legs wide apart gangster style, which is startling and rude here. Not to mention sometimes in long skirts you just need a bit of a breeze and it helps not to have to be squeezing your legs together the entire time. Haha.
Ok. That’s all beginning tomorrow. But here’s some news of the week. This week has been crazy stressful. This happens at least 2-3 weeks every semester it seems. All of the sudden everything is due at the same time and it’s crept up on the procrastinating student who suddenly has ten assignments and two days…ok, it hasn’t been that extreme, but close. I had a paper due on Tuesday, a paper and two presentations due today, and I have an exam tomorrow! It will be my first exam here in Uganda, so I have no idea what to expect. But with all of the other assignments, I haven’t had time to study until today…so that’s rough. But as the French say “c’est la vie.” That’s life. And the week is nearly finished, and we won’t be attending classes next week, so the rural homestays will be a chance to relax a bit. Sort of like a spring break, except instead of tanning on a beach I’ll be sleeping in a grass hut and squatting over holes to…
Sometimes I’m amazed at how well I’ve adjusted to the lifestyle here. I just don’t really have time or energy to freak out about things most Americans would freak out about—it’s desensitizing in a way. For instance, bugs and outhouses are just a part of my everyday here, along with the lack of toilet paper—and I don’t even flinch anymore when I pee on my foot/leg, which happens about every day. But lots of the things are the same here as well. African people are people too, just like us. There are cultural differences, sure, but people are people everywhere. We still eat three meals a day, live in houses, sleep in beds, go to college, put off assignments, hang out in the dorms on campus…they’ve encouraged us not to romanticize Africa in our blogging and messages home. I hope I haven’t done that. I hope reading my blog that you get some sense of the differences, some of the similarities, and that you are able to share in the lessons with me. God’s Kingdom is incredibly diverse. All people are created in his image and have unique things to contribute to the Kingdom.
So this is random. But I keep forgetting to mention it and it’s something sort of funny. Sitting in class the first couple of weeks, I thought I was going insane. I kept hearing this beeping noise. Beep, beep, beep. Were other people hearing it too? Where did it come from? I asked around and discovered that people did indeed hear it, and like me, were utterly distracted by it in class. It’s hard to focus in class here anyway, because the classrooms are practically open air and thus don’t shut out any sights, sounds, or noised from outside, but the beeping was especially aggravating. So we asked someone who’s lived here for a long time. The source of the mysterious beeping/ticking noise (this is a reference to a youtube video some of my friends might know of and enjoy)? A bird! Yes, that’s right. And while we don’t know its official name, and I’ve never been able to actually see it, we call it “The Catch Phrase Bird” because if you’ve ever played the game of Catch Phrase, that’s exactly what the bird sounds like. And there’s one camped out somewhere near my house right now as well…thank God for earplugs! If only I could find some way to block it out in class. And just once I want to see the bird.
We’ve been asked to take very little with us to Captura, because the families do not have many possessions. I am allowed a backpack…so I suppose it will be entertaining tonight when I try to pack a week worth of clothes, toiletries, mosquito/bug repellants as well as my rain boots, portable mosquito net, rain coat, Bible, and journal into my backpack. We’ll see how that works. It might take some magic. The rain gear is because at the end of the week, we are all going to be picked up and spend the weekend debriefing at Seepy Falls, a hiking resort. So I’ll have the opportunity to do some pretty cool hiking, but that means extra clothes (pants of some kind) and rain gear. We will not be allowed to wear trousers of any kind in the village. The modesty rules will be stricter: skirts have to go to the ankles, shoulders must be covered at all times, no visible tattoos, no dangly earrings, no makeup, sit with legs together (not crosses or apart) at all times…that’s a hard rule for me to follow. Being accustomed to sweat pants, I have the habit of sitting like a boy, legs wide apart gangster style, which is startling and rude here. Not to mention sometimes in long skirts you just need a bit of a breeze and it helps not to have to be squeezing your legs together the entire time. Haha.
Ok. That’s all beginning tomorrow. But here’s some news of the week. This week has been crazy stressful. This happens at least 2-3 weeks every semester it seems. All of the sudden everything is due at the same time and it’s crept up on the procrastinating student who suddenly has ten assignments and two days…ok, it hasn’t been that extreme, but close. I had a paper due on Tuesday, a paper and two presentations due today, and I have an exam tomorrow! It will be my first exam here in Uganda, so I have no idea what to expect. But with all of the other assignments, I haven’t had time to study until today…so that’s rough. But as the French say “c’est la vie.” That’s life. And the week is nearly finished, and we won’t be attending classes next week, so the rural homestays will be a chance to relax a bit. Sort of like a spring break, except instead of tanning on a beach I’ll be sleeping in a grass hut and squatting over holes to…
Sometimes I’m amazed at how well I’ve adjusted to the lifestyle here. I just don’t really have time or energy to freak out about things most Americans would freak out about—it’s desensitizing in a way. For instance, bugs and outhouses are just a part of my everyday here, along with the lack of toilet paper—and I don’t even flinch anymore when I pee on my foot/leg, which happens about every day. But lots of the things are the same here as well. African people are people too, just like us. There are cultural differences, sure, but people are people everywhere. We still eat three meals a day, live in houses, sleep in beds, go to college, put off assignments, hang out in the dorms on campus…they’ve encouraged us not to romanticize Africa in our blogging and messages home. I hope I haven’t done that. I hope reading my blog that you get some sense of the differences, some of the similarities, and that you are able to share in the lessons with me. God’s Kingdom is incredibly diverse. All people are created in his image and have unique things to contribute to the Kingdom.
So this is random. But I keep forgetting to mention it and it’s something sort of funny. Sitting in class the first couple of weeks, I thought I was going insane. I kept hearing this beeping noise. Beep, beep, beep. Were other people hearing it too? Where did it come from? I asked around and discovered that people did indeed hear it, and like me, were utterly distracted by it in class. It’s hard to focus in class here anyway, because the classrooms are practically open air and thus don’t shut out any sights, sounds, or noised from outside, but the beeping was especially aggravating. So we asked someone who’s lived here for a long time. The source of the mysterious beeping/ticking noise (this is a reference to a youtube video some of my friends might know of and enjoy)? A bird! Yes, that’s right. And while we don’t know its official name, and I’ve never been able to actually see it, we call it “The Catch Phrase Bird” because if you’ve ever played the game of Catch Phrase, that’s exactly what the bird sounds like. And there’s one camped out somewhere near my house right now as well…thank God for earplugs! If only I could find some way to block it out in class. And just once I want to see the bird.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Week 5
Hello amazing friends and family. I hope you all are doing well. I realized today it's been a while since I've sent out one of my mass emails, so here goes. I have, however posted on my blog in the past week, so you can check that out as well.
This is week 5 of my stay in Uganda. Every Friday, I tick another week off of my calendar and can't believe I've been here for so long already and how fast the time has gone!! In these five weeks, I've taken two weekend trips (Jinja and Rackai), done a lot of course work, including four presentations and a paper, made American and Ugandan friends, learned a little of the Luganda language, written a lot of sociology fieldwork journals for my degree at Milligan, become a part of a family, walked who knows how many miles, acquired love handles from waayy too much rice and bread, cooked nobake cookies for my family, had my eye-glasses stolen and miraculously returned, taken terrifying rides in matatus (Ugandan taxis), learned to love matoke (staple food made of mashed green bananas), handwashed my clothes three times, attended two Anglican church services each lasting 2.5 hours and in Luganda, learned to pee in a bucket without peeing on the floor, not learned to pee in the outhouse without peeing on my foot, made friends with our cow Kwagala (which means loved one or love)...besides a lot of other really fun and challenging stuff. Every morning I wake up and still can't believe I am in Africa and loving it here. I really have no complaints. Life here is different, but good.
I am absolutely in love with my family here. Mama Joyce, Ida, and I are becoming fast friends, sisters, family. It's really cool. And a guy named Dennis recently moved in with us, and he's cool as well. Sometimes communicating is tough because they all have to work in their second language, but we are getting by and beginning to know each other. I enjoy going to school and seeing all of my friends, but I look forward every night to returning home. I always get home just in time for tea and bread (quickly becoming two of my favorite things ever). We eat buttered white bread and take hot tea with lots of sugar. It can't be healthy, but it sure is good! It's been interesting being a commuter student for the first time ever. I commute on foot between university and home everyday. I enjoy the walking, even in the mud, because then I get to wear my awesome rain boots and go tromping through puddles and several inches of squishy mud. It's the rainy season here now until March I think, so it rains here everyday, sometimes all day, but the rain is beautiful in its own right, and we're still getting plenty of sunshine.
School is going really well. I am finally getting used to the amount of assignments we have due each week. Here, there aren't so many exams, but there are tons of papers, journals, and presentations. I have at least one, sometimes 2 presentations each week. It's a different education system. Now that I've got the hang of it, it isn't so stressful. I think my favoirte class is African Literature. It's been a long time since I've taken a lit class, so I am just enjoying the opportunity to read and discuss novels in class, and to write more creatively. Sometimes I feel like being a sociology major in college has killed my creative side and made me into more of a critical analysist--not that analyzing things isn't good, but I miss more creative writing and thinking. So here's my chance--and what better place to take African lit than in Africa with an African professor? And the prof is really great--he's an older eccentric guy absolutely in love with his students and teaching. I am excited for the oppportunity to get to know him. His name is Dr. Patrick Mukakanye. His last name is hard to pronounce, but I think I'm getting it down (Mook-a-con-yay).
This past weekend we travellled to a beautiful region of south western Uganda called Rakai. We were near a village called Kibaale (Chee-ball-ay). The area is right on the equator near the Uganda-Tanzania border. We took a hike up this hill/mountain thing, and it was gorgeous--from one side we could see Tanzania and from the other Uganda. We all got really sunburned in the process (forgetting we were on the equator and the malaria meds make us sun sensitive) but it was well worth it. Besides hiking, we visited a Canadian mission that was a school and medical clinic as well as a farm. It was neat to see how God is working in the region. Because I am a part of the group of students in the Intercultural Missions and Ministry Emphasis (IMME), I get to stay with my host family off campus and travel around to see different missions in Uganda. It's pretty cool. God is definitely working in my heart and confirming my calling and desire to go into long term missions after school is finished. I am learning a lot here.
I got a package from my Grandma Mira and Grandpa Joe yesterday, and it pretty much made my week. Lots of valentines goodies, and a teddy bear, as well as gifts for Mama Joyce (which she loved!). It was good to binge on some American candy and have a letter from home. Thanks also for all of the prayers and support everyone is giving me. I love hearing from you, talking to you, and the knowledge that I am thought of and prayed for is very encouraging and comforting. I am reminded that I am never alone, but am forever a part of the body of Christ, something so much bigger than me and my world!
Well, I think I'll hop off here. I was invited to tea this afternoon in the dorms with some Ugandan friends, and then I have orientation for our rural homestays. In a couple of weeks we'll be heading out to the bush to live with families in rural villages for one week. I am looking forward to the adventure and the week off of classes. I'll give all the details when I return! But for today, I just have to go to a really long, boring meeting about how not to killed in the bush...
Alright. Love you all.
--Danielle
This is week 5 of my stay in Uganda. Every Friday, I tick another week off of my calendar and can't believe I've been here for so long already and how fast the time has gone!! In these five weeks, I've taken two weekend trips (Jinja and Rackai), done a lot of course work, including four presentations and a paper, made American and Ugandan friends, learned a little of the Luganda language, written a lot of sociology fieldwork journals for my degree at Milligan, become a part of a family, walked who knows how many miles, acquired love handles from waayy too much rice and bread, cooked nobake cookies for my family, had my eye-glasses stolen and miraculously returned, taken terrifying rides in matatus (Ugandan taxis), learned to love matoke (staple food made of mashed green bananas), handwashed my clothes three times, attended two Anglican church services each lasting 2.5 hours and in Luganda, learned to pee in a bucket without peeing on the floor, not learned to pee in the outhouse without peeing on my foot, made friends with our cow Kwagala (which means loved one or love)...besides a lot of other really fun and challenging stuff. Every morning I wake up and still can't believe I am in Africa and loving it here. I really have no complaints. Life here is different, but good.
I am absolutely in love with my family here. Mama Joyce, Ida, and I are becoming fast friends, sisters, family. It's really cool. And a guy named Dennis recently moved in with us, and he's cool as well. Sometimes communicating is tough because they all have to work in their second language, but we are getting by and beginning to know each other. I enjoy going to school and seeing all of my friends, but I look forward every night to returning home. I always get home just in time for tea and bread (quickly becoming two of my favorite things ever). We eat buttered white bread and take hot tea with lots of sugar. It can't be healthy, but it sure is good! It's been interesting being a commuter student for the first time ever. I commute on foot between university and home everyday. I enjoy the walking, even in the mud, because then I get to wear my awesome rain boots and go tromping through puddles and several inches of squishy mud. It's the rainy season here now until March I think, so it rains here everyday, sometimes all day, but the rain is beautiful in its own right, and we're still getting plenty of sunshine.
School is going really well. I am finally getting used to the amount of assignments we have due each week. Here, there aren't so many exams, but there are tons of papers, journals, and presentations. I have at least one, sometimes 2 presentations each week. It's a different education system. Now that I've got the hang of it, it isn't so stressful. I think my favoirte class is African Literature. It's been a long time since I've taken a lit class, so I am just enjoying the opportunity to read and discuss novels in class, and to write more creatively. Sometimes I feel like being a sociology major in college has killed my creative side and made me into more of a critical analysist--not that analyzing things isn't good, but I miss more creative writing and thinking. So here's my chance--and what better place to take African lit than in Africa with an African professor? And the prof is really great--he's an older eccentric guy absolutely in love with his students and teaching. I am excited for the oppportunity to get to know him. His name is Dr. Patrick Mukakanye. His last name is hard to pronounce, but I think I'm getting it down (Mook-a-con-yay).
This past weekend we travellled to a beautiful region of south western Uganda called Rakai. We were near a village called Kibaale (Chee-ball-ay). The area is right on the equator near the Uganda-Tanzania border. We took a hike up this hill/mountain thing, and it was gorgeous--from one side we could see Tanzania and from the other Uganda. We all got really sunburned in the process (forgetting we were on the equator and the malaria meds make us sun sensitive) but it was well worth it. Besides hiking, we visited a Canadian mission that was a school and medical clinic as well as a farm. It was neat to see how God is working in the region. Because I am a part of the group of students in the Intercultural Missions and Ministry Emphasis (IMME), I get to stay with my host family off campus and travel around to see different missions in Uganda. It's pretty cool. God is definitely working in my heart and confirming my calling and desire to go into long term missions after school is finished. I am learning a lot here.
I got a package from my Grandma Mira and Grandpa Joe yesterday, and it pretty much made my week. Lots of valentines goodies, and a teddy bear, as well as gifts for Mama Joyce (which she loved!). It was good to binge on some American candy and have a letter from home. Thanks also for all of the prayers and support everyone is giving me. I love hearing from you, talking to you, and the knowledge that I am thought of and prayed for is very encouraging and comforting. I am reminded that I am never alone, but am forever a part of the body of Christ, something so much bigger than me and my world!
Well, I think I'll hop off here. I was invited to tea this afternoon in the dorms with some Ugandan friends, and then I have orientation for our rural homestays. In a couple of weeks we'll be heading out to the bush to live with families in rural villages for one week. I am looking forward to the adventure and the week off of classes. I'll give all the details when I return! But for today, I just have to go to a really long, boring meeting about how not to killed in the bush...
Alright. Love you all.
--Danielle
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Names, Laundry, and Matoke
So this will hopefully be a brief note including a few things I keep really wanting to say and then forgetting to. I have a few minutes, so I'll say them now.
Names in African are incredibly important. They are a part of who you are. You have a special relationship to your name whether it was given to you at birth or you were named later. Names are a part of your character. Mama Joyce chose a name for me recently: Mirembe. It means "peace." What a powerful name. It could mean so many things for me: I love peace, I am peace, I seek peace, and I am peacemaker...I could probably go on for a while. So I am proud of my name, because it reflects Mama Joyce's opinion of me, and because it challenges me to think peace in my everyday life. As Christians I think we are called to peace. What does that mean? Peaceful living with people around us, with nations around us, with nature..."Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Children of God" (Matthew 5:9).
Ok. So laundry. I was doing it the other day and when I am washing clothes by hand I kind of feel like I am in hell. It is SO MUCH work. And it hurts your back, and my knees, and your knuckles and palms get rubbed raw...and that stain still won't come out. And if you are a Mizungu, then you didn't learn to wash clothes by hand from the time of birth, so you suck at it to boot. So here's a comical picture of my African life for you: I was washing clothes, or trying to wash them, the other day. And I had been washing for some two hours, and it was only like ten pairs of underwear, a couple of skirts, and some shirts--in total, like 20 items of clothing. So I have been laboring, and I am kind of mad at the world, and I am soaking wet, and squatting African style (this is a unique style I am convinced) by my basin, and the guy who takes care of our cow and one of his friends show up. And his friend, who I've never met before thinks this is hysterical. I have this soaking wet towel, which weighs like 20 pounds, and I don't even know where to start scrubbing and washing, and I am wearing more water than the basin holds--so he starts teasing me. And I am so not in the mood. He's like "you don't wash!?" and the cow guy (who is named Francis and I really like) says "no, they have machines." And this brings another fit of laughter from his friend and a comment like "oh I forgot. Americans are rich and they machines, but in Africa, we use our hands and they are strong..." And so I try to laugh along, and then luckily they feel sorry enough for me to help me do the towel. I was talking to a good friend via the internet. And if he reads this, I hope he doesn't mind me quoting him. He's been reading a book recently that encourages each of us every day to do something we hate. Basically, to practice the discipline of doing not-so-fun things with the cheerful and faithful heart. And that really spoke to me. What a discipline to have. To be cheerful in all circumstances, and to intentionally do something every day to challenge your cheerfulness. So last night I did laundry. And I kept that in mind. And it went so much better.
So food. Can I please just say that I love the food here? And that is such a blessing in so many ways. Americans live to eat, but Africans pretty much just eat to live, so there isn't much variety. They have a staple food called Matoke made up of smashed green banannas or something--and at first, it seems tasteless--and they eat it almost every meal. But as far as food is concerned, I realize how important it is to accept the food of the culture you are in and to accept their hospitality. So I just eat whatever comes my way. So I have a lot of Matoke. And at first it was hard. And then I had a revelation this week: I REALLY like matoke. Yum, yum. I am pretty sure I Would miss it if we didn't have it with pretty much every lunch and dinner. It's a great mixer food, going well with rice and veggies and the different sauces and soups here...so I guess if you eat anything (or maybe almost anything) enough consecutive times, eventually you come to like it.
Ok...so that's all for now. And I'm sure I'll post this and then remember something else I wanted to say. But I'll just say it later. Love you all and hope God is blessing you like He is me.
Names in African are incredibly important. They are a part of who you are. You have a special relationship to your name whether it was given to you at birth or you were named later. Names are a part of your character. Mama Joyce chose a name for me recently: Mirembe. It means "peace." What a powerful name. It could mean so many things for me: I love peace, I am peace, I seek peace, and I am peacemaker...I could probably go on for a while. So I am proud of my name, because it reflects Mama Joyce's opinion of me, and because it challenges me to think peace in my everyday life. As Christians I think we are called to peace. What does that mean? Peaceful living with people around us, with nations around us, with nature..."Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Children of God" (Matthew 5:9).
Ok. So laundry. I was doing it the other day and when I am washing clothes by hand I kind of feel like I am in hell. It is SO MUCH work. And it hurts your back, and my knees, and your knuckles and palms get rubbed raw...and that stain still won't come out. And if you are a Mizungu, then you didn't learn to wash clothes by hand from the time of birth, so you suck at it to boot. So here's a comical picture of my African life for you: I was washing clothes, or trying to wash them, the other day. And I had been washing for some two hours, and it was only like ten pairs of underwear, a couple of skirts, and some shirts--in total, like 20 items of clothing. So I have been laboring, and I am kind of mad at the world, and I am soaking wet, and squatting African style (this is a unique style I am convinced) by my basin, and the guy who takes care of our cow and one of his friends show up. And his friend, who I've never met before thinks this is hysterical. I have this soaking wet towel, which weighs like 20 pounds, and I don't even know where to start scrubbing and washing, and I am wearing more water than the basin holds--so he starts teasing me. And I am so not in the mood. He's like "you don't wash!?" and the cow guy (who is named Francis and I really like) says "no, they have machines." And this brings another fit of laughter from his friend and a comment like "oh I forgot. Americans are rich and they machines, but in Africa, we use our hands and they are strong..." And so I try to laugh along, and then luckily they feel sorry enough for me to help me do the towel. I was talking to a good friend via the internet. And if he reads this, I hope he doesn't mind me quoting him. He's been reading a book recently that encourages each of us every day to do something we hate. Basically, to practice the discipline of doing not-so-fun things with the cheerful and faithful heart. And that really spoke to me. What a discipline to have. To be cheerful in all circumstances, and to intentionally do something every day to challenge your cheerfulness. So last night I did laundry. And I kept that in mind. And it went so much better.
So food. Can I please just say that I love the food here? And that is such a blessing in so many ways. Americans live to eat, but Africans pretty much just eat to live, so there isn't much variety. They have a staple food called Matoke made up of smashed green banannas or something--and at first, it seems tasteless--and they eat it almost every meal. But as far as food is concerned, I realize how important it is to accept the food of the culture you are in and to accept their hospitality. So I just eat whatever comes my way. So I have a lot of Matoke. And at first it was hard. And then I had a revelation this week: I REALLY like matoke. Yum, yum. I am pretty sure I Would miss it if we didn't have it with pretty much every lunch and dinner. It's a great mixer food, going well with rice and veggies and the different sauces and soups here...so I guess if you eat anything (or maybe almost anything) enough consecutive times, eventually you come to like it.
Ok...so that's all for now. And I'm sure I'll post this and then remember something else I wanted to say. But I'll just say it later. Love you all and hope God is blessing you like He is me.
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