The USP Gang

When I thought of spending a semester in Uganda with a Ugandan family I didn't think about how I would have the chance to form relationships with other American students.  I have been extremely blessed to journey alongside these amazing Godly students this past semester.  They have challenged me, loved me, laughed with me and taught me about Jesus and the ways of his kingdom. 

I'm so thankful for all of you. 

Bottom:  Amanda (the bringer of smiles- a lover of life), Elizabeth (the anthropologist- lover of cultures/peoples), Meredith (my childhood friend- one I feel free to adventure with)

Middle:  Abigail (one who listened to all my heart wonderings and shared hers with me) 

Top:  Reina (the political activist- the passionate justice bringer)

The awesome backpacking crew! We hiked Mt. Elgon together.  

Well, some of us are still on the ground and yes, Ashton has her head between her knees, but I still like the picture :)

The rafting crew!

Singing in Chapel at Uganda Christian University

Getting hyped for bungee jumping

Not quite everybody...but pretty close... 30 out of 43 of us.

I love you guys...thanks for making this semester incredible.

FOOD!!

A lot of people have asked me about food here, so I thought I would throw up a couple pictures so that you have an idea of what has been filling my stomach for the past 3 months. 

This is certainly the picture to start with.  There will be a variety of foods shown in the pictures to follow, but I can always count on eating rice, beans, posho (the white stuff pictured here...essentially tasteless and nutritionless, but filling) or matoke (cooked bananas that taste similar to mashed potatoes).

Here is an example of matoke with simsim sauce (prepared on my rural homestay) and a small piece of beef in the bottom left corner.  Simsim is a seed that can be eaten by itself as a side for a cup of tea or mashed into a sauce.

Cassava (a major food source for my rural homestay family) is grown, dried, stored and cooked for a variety of dishes.  These pieces can also be ground into flour to make a food called millet (their bread substitute and also used in porridge or the local beer).

Beans and cassava

Uganda has a lot of different types of bananas including these small, sweet bananas.

Uganda has some delicious fruits...this papaya (called popo) was grown at the home of my rural homestay family.  One morning I saw two monkeys stealing one of the papayas!

This giant fruit is called Jack fruit...my second favorite after pineapple.  Its yellow and full of seeds.

This is roasted maiz (corn)- a common Ugandan snack.

Auntie frying chapti, arguably the most common Ugandan snack.  Used for a variety of foods including a wrap with a fried egg, tomato and onions (called a rolex) one of my favorites.

Sugar cane is also eaten as a snack here.  You bite into the stick on the left and suck all the sugary water out.  When you have finished it looks like the stick on the right which you throw away.

Maria preparing traditional greens.  They have a pretty strong bitter taste...I'm not a huge fan of these.

Any guesses on this food?  I wasn't sure either...:) These are cow intestines.

These little fishies are put in a sauce and served over matoke, posho, or noodles.

A meal of chicken, rice, greens and tilapia.  A meal served on our trip to Jinja.

A special meal prepared by one of our American professors.  Chapti with beans, eggs and guacamole.  Pineapple, apples, coffee cake and and fresh fruit juice.

A new arrival...

When I arrived in Uganda I met very pregnant Harriet who told me that the baby would be born sometime during my stay. At the end of January Harriet began to feel labor pains. Having already given birth to two daughters, the family assumed that Harriet knew that the baby was coming. They stayed at the hospital for a few days and then returned home. The doctor told her to come back in a week. When the labor pains did not return in a week Harriet decided not to go to the hospital. It ended up being another month before she would return. The picture below shows Harriet and Shillow watching out the window for the vehicle that would drive Harriet to the hospital.

Harriet's ride to the hospital...a motorcycle on an incredibly bumpy African road...what a woman!

While her Mom was at the hospital I caught Eriana tenderly playing with her new baby doll (a gift from my mom in the States :)  She must be wondering what the new baby will be like.

My Mama and Harriet stayed at the hospital for a week and eventually Harriet needed to have a c-section. After many long days she brought Angel into the world.

So far, she mainly does the normal baby routine of crying, eating and sleeping.  I love to watch her older sisters interact with her and to listen to Harriet sing to her. Yesterday I saw her smile for the first time.

We are all glad to have baby Angel around...

Now a grandmother of 3

The proud husband and daddy

Maria and baby Angel

A few introductions...

This is JoAnn.  She is a first year Uganda Christian University student and my closest Ugandan friend on campus.   She is the oldest child in her family and has been sponsored by compassion since she was five years old.  We have New Testament together and also go to chapel and lunch together from time to time.  JoAnn’s English is superb and I have really enjoyed learning about Uganda from her.

This is Tayo (left) and Maria (right) .  They have been living with us for a little over a month now and help Mama with dishes, cooking, cleaning, etc.  Maria is 14 and is in Senior 1 (equivalent 7^th or 8^th grade) so she works when she gets home from school (she is a very hard worker).  She enjoys singing, dancing and playing football (soccer).  She thinks and I quote that, ‘girls have bad manners’ so she prefers to spend time with boys. :)  One of my favorite things about her is the uncontrollable, buckled over laughter that often comes over her.  Tayo is the primary help at home and is also a very hard worker and a great cook :)  She doesn’t really speak English so we often just relate through the things we ‘do’ together or speak to each other through Maria.  Even though there is a fairly significant age gap between them they have a LOT of fun together and sometimes I get the pleasure of joining in too.  The other night we had a dance party around the dining room table…its a lot of fun to be with them.

These four have a very special place in my heart. Kasanvo Yamiro is the boy in the back.  His sister Hachim Margara is on the left.  His sister Zituna Kakawana is on the right.  And baby sister Fiyma Kange is down in front.  On my first several walks home from school these children would come to the edge of their lawn and wave at me yelling, “bye mzungu!” and I would simply wave back.   Then one day I decided to venture across the street to say hello.  They didn’t know any English besides ‘how are you’ and I didn’t know any Luganda except ‘oli otya’ so after shaking hands and smiling at each other for a few moments I told them bye and that I would see them again.  I began to stop and say hi every time I walked home.  Sometimes I brought a piece of candy or a small bag of g-nuts, but most of the time I just stopped to say hello, give three handshakes, a hug to the baby and tell them that I would see them again.  Then one day I brought a book with me and I took the liberty of going to their porch and ‘reading’ to them…mostly we just looked at the pictures and made animal noises and they taught me the animals in Luganda.  I did this for a few more times and then one day Mom also came out to say hello.  Since then things have escalated and I have now met many members of the family and have stayed to sit for 50 minutes at a time.  Its been awesome to see what four children saying hello to me on my walk home has done to build relationships.

 We don’t speak the same language (even the mom does not really know English and of course I’m not too good on my end with Luganda either!) or come from the same culture or see the world in the same way, or have similar backgrounds, but that doesn’t need to stop us from enjoying one another.  I’m learning (slowly) that just ‘being’ with people is not a means to an end, but an end in its own right and that ‘being’ together doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to ‘do’ anything.  I’m learning about love and hospitality from this family who have welcomed me and loved me even though we hardly know each other. 

The Journey of a Few Bundles of String…

Yesterday at my practicum site while I sat braiding bracelets with children I had fun thinking about the journey that the string we were using had been on. I'm not sure where the string began, but I'm guessing somewhere in a factory. A few days before Christmas it journeyed from my sister's hands into my Christmas stocking. On January 5th the string found its way into my suitcase and since then has traveled to Washington DC, the Netherlands, Entebbe, Jinja, Soroti, Kampala and Mukono. Yesterday it found its way into the hands of a group of children who are recovering from or continually under-going various health issues/surgeries. I would like to introduce them to you...

This is Procey sporting the necklace that she made. When Procey came to Acheru (Afaayo Children's Health Education and Rehabilitation Unit) she was paralyzed from the waist down. Her condition is not permanent because of a spinal cord injury or something like that but is more of (from what I can understand) an issue with her muscles that, if taken care of properly, has the possibility to be reversed or at least improved. She spends her days in a wheel chair and every few weeks has her legs re-casted. She can now sense when she needs to go to the restroom so progress is being made! Praise the Lord.

This is Damoli sporting the necklace that she made with the string. This picture does not even come close to capturing the bubbly joy of this little girl. She often has a huge smile on her face, is spunky and even a little ornery. Damoli got an infection and developed ulcers on her arm. She was neglected by her family and the doctors say that when she arrived at Acheru her arm looked like a piece of raw meat. She has since had surgery to move skin from her thigh onto her arm. She needs to have the arm dressed daily, but is recovering and will later undergo another surgery to straighten her arm.

Braiding her bracelet on the left is Rebecca.  Rebecca got in an accident and lost a large section of bone on her right leg.  She has since gone reconstructive surgery and the doctors hope that because she is still young her bones will grow together and heal properly.  In the mean time she walks with crutches and is supported by the contraption pictured below.  Rebecca is currently in P3 (equivalent to 2^nd grade) due to her various surgeries and working to catch up in her schooling. 

I don’t know all of their stories…I’m hoping to get to know each one in the days to come, but here are a few more pictures…

Harriet (left), Rachel (middle) and Sarah (right)

My dear friend Liz teaching Robina how to braid

Procey, Damoli, Harriet...having fun with the camera

"That's how we do it"...more on rural homestays

After a 6 hour bus ride we arrived in Soroti, Uganda at Margaret's house (a staff member for USP and one of the nicest ladies I know) for the evening.  Her home also serves as a boarding house for more than 50 children who attend the nearby school started by Margaret and her husband Samuel.  The evening consisted of a delicious supper and lots of games and dancing with the children. 
In the morning I was dropped off at a compound where I would be spending the next 6 days. I was greeted by an energetic, smiling woman that I would soon refer to as Toto (mama in Ateso) Helen.   Toto was committed to teaching me about Africa and African ways beginning and ending each task or story with the phrase, "That's how we do it."

Unfortunately, there is way too much to include all that went down over those 6 days (I wrote over 80 pages in my journal), but I will try to give some highlights from my journal...

Saturday (arrival day): "I'm sitting in the shade trying to take in these new surroundings.  Mama said, 'today you rest, tomorrow you can work.' All around is beautiful land and animals: goats, a calf, ducks and ducklings, many chickens and chicks, one sheep and this really crazy looking bird called a guinea fowl plus some cattle.  There are 5 mud huts with dirt floors and grass roofs, two buildings with concrete floors (I was the guest and therefore got to sleep in one of these) and of course the latrines." 

Here is one of the mud huts...the blue basins are used for bathing and the yellow jerricans are used for transporting water.

Sunday (day 2): I attended the English service at my church with my brothers Sam and Kenneth and my niece Brenda.  We left on foot as the sun was rising in order to make it in time.  After church, Sam and Kenneth took me to see the town from the top of a large hill...what a beautiful view! 

That night Sam took me to the swamp where the family collects water.  This was one of my favorite places on my homestay.  It is a community water source and so many people are together collecting water.  This place really opened up the story of Jesus and the woman at the well in a new way to me.  After collecting water I carried the 10 L jerrican back on my head....or tried to anyway...not easy!

Sam told me about killing a cobra one time that he came to collect water... scary stuff, eh?

Monday (day 3): "Today is Monday, I can't even remember the date (which is kinda nice- I also don't wear my watch when I am here).  Mama woke me up again this morning to a beautiful sunrise- oh how I love morning and evening here."

This day consisted of lots of chores and 'that's how we do it' from Mama.  She showed me how to take the cows for grazing...



She showed me how to sift millet flour...

Mama and I were both completey white after this job...covered in flour that is :)

She showed me how to cook various things with firewood...

Monday night we had fish for dinner which would normally be fine, but Mama handed me the WHOLE fish.  I looked at it for awhile and then said, "Mama, I don't really know how to eat this."  She laughed and began helping me to remove the fins and the scales (I was thankful I didn't have to eat that part), but then she handed me the head saying, "we eat all of this."  She meant it too because I watched as she sank her teeth into it chewing the teeth, skull, eyes and brain.  I wasn't quite as brave as Mama and I did remove the skull bones, but I did manage to eat the rest...although I must confess that I swallowed those eyes as quickly as I could! After supper Mama and I sat out on the porch.  She said, "this is the time for sitting and telling stories" and she proceeded to do so.  I love listening to her.

Tuesday (day 4): Today was a challenge physically.  I had pretty bad allergies (swollen and teary eyes, runny nose, etc) and had a little bit of a fever.  I experienced a lot of love from Mama who took good care of me.  In the afternoon I started to feel a bit better and Mama continued teaching me.

She showed me how to make paste out of nuts...

She showed me how to prepare their traditional greens...



Wednesday (day 5): I took some allergy medicine, got plenty of sleep and felt much better today.  We ate a delicious breakfast of tea, g-nuts, sweet bananas (they are really small) and pumpkin.  Breakfast was followed by dung collecting...yep you read correctly, dung collecting.  The 'mud' houses are actually dung and the walls are brick, but are also covered by dung.  After pouring a bunch of water over the fresh dung that we had collected (to make it go farther and easier to spread) we knelt to smear the kitchen floor and walls. 

Mama also taught me a song in Ateso on this day.  We had a blast singing together.  Later this afternoon the first rain of the rainy season came.  It started slowly, but quickly began to pour, even sending down hail at one point.  The kitchen roof got a hole in it as a result, but otherwise things were good and the thirsty ground quickly drank it in.  Before bed, my family took me outside to see the stars.  The rain had made the night sky a bit darker and with no city lights hazing the view the stars looked INCREDIBLE.  Its hard to describe their beauty- I don't think I have ever seen so many stars.

Thursday (day 6): My final day with my family. 

In the afternoon Mama walked up to me holding a pretty red and yellow chicken.  She said, "this one is yours, but since you can't take it back with you to America we will eat it together!"  Slaughtering a chicken is one of the greatest ways to honor a guest in this culture.  I felt so honored.  Mama laughed at all of my reactions...

That night the whole family feasted together... the meal is one of my favorite memories...it was so great to be eating a big meal with a big family...

Friday (day 7):  This was a day of prayers and promises to see one another again...if not on this earth then in heaven.  I will never forget my time with this family.