better and better everyday...

So its amazing what a couple days can do. I now actually look forward to heading to my host family each evening after classes. I learned how to shred cabbage, I ironed closed for Maama Irene, I didnt get mad when baby Enoch peed on me. Things are looking up!

I also started taking my Luganda class, so I've been learning alot of converstation words, like thank you, hello, good bye, good night, etc. My family LOVES it! They appreciate any effort we make to learn the language or cultural norms. Maama Irene is so sweet and loves answering our questions.

It's interesting because Africans don't feel the need to always be talking, like Americans do. We are taught that its polite and good skill to be able to carry on petty chit chat conversation, and silence often makes us feel awkward. But Africans don't work that way. Theres something here called the "african presence." It refers to how its meaningful to africans just to be present with other people, especially those they care about. So sitting in the living room in silence is perfectly acceptable and actually often preferred. It's okay if theres nothing to say or talk about.

I've learned some other values that I like here also. There is an African saying that "a guest is NEVER a burden." Ugandans LOVE having people over or stopping by to visit. It's never considered a hassle and their doors are always open. Since Mzumba (Luganda for Reverand and what we call my host dad) is a pastor, he knows so many people. There are always guests in our house. Its so great and I've got to talk with so many neat people.

Family here is also sooo insanely important. You die for you family here. And extended family is just as important at your nuclear family. Actually, I don't even think the concept of nuclear family exists here. They call their nieces and nephews, sons and daughters and treat them as they would their own children. I found out that the little boy Timothy is just staying with my host family for the holidays. He will go back home when school starts up again. This is very common. Many children up to early adulthood will go stay with extended family for the holidays. They call them "holiday makers" and even thought technically they are visiting, they get treated as part of the family and are expected to work and contribute as such also.

Everytime Sarah and I arrive home in the evenings, Maama Irene greets us saying "Kulikayo, Kate! Kulikayo Sarah!" Literally translated, its something like "thank you for coming back safely" but it has the same connotations as "welcome back" We answer "Kaala, Maama" which is thank you, mother/elder woman. Ugandans thank people for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. its so funny. There are a ton of Luganda words for "thank you" that all get used for different purposes. They also say "sorry" are the time, like when you sneeze or if you trip or something. Even if they have nothing to do with what happens, they say sorry. Its so cute... and very polite. We should all take a lesson from the Ugandans.

There are many lessons to learn here. I'm beginning to really value their way of life. At first, it just frustrated me (ie that they didnt use diapers and Enock peed on me for the first time) but now I'm starting to understand the reasons and values behind how they live, and its just fascinating. I'm excited for all the things I am going to learn this semester!

This Saturday I'm headed to the "Source of the Nile" with my host family and another family. Its in Jinja in Uganda on Lake Victoria which actually is the source of the Nile River. I'm not quite sure what we do there or what it actually is, but I'm psyched to find out. Ill tell you all about it next week. Be well, and keep the prayers coming.

homestay!!!

Well, I’m alive! So that’s good. This weekend was unbelievable. I often need to sit back and remind myself that yes, I AM in Africa and this is my life right now!

We began our homestays on Saturday, where we live with a host family for two weeks. It might be a loooong two weeks. My general feelings are benevolent towards the whole experience, overall, but there certainly were times of serious frustration. Thankfully I am paired up with Sarah, another USP, which certainly helps out the situation.

Let’s begin with my host family… I am staying very near school at the home of Rev. Henry and Irene. We call Henry either Reverend or “Mzumba” which is Reverend in Lugandan. They are a young couple (prob around 25-30) with one chubby, precious six month old son, Enock. Also living in the house is Mzumba’s mother, JaJa Sarah (JaJa is grandmother) and his younger brother, Elijah. Elijah is 15 and reminds me so much of my brother, Mike. Careful Michael! I might replace you with an African brother! The couple also cares for their nephew, Timothy, a lively 5 year old who rattles off Lugandan at us even though he knows we don’t understand him. They also have live-in help. From what I can gather, its partially because Mzumba is a pastor and it’s also because they have a young child. The help’s name is Drosa. She is 18 years old and loads of fun. She does most of the cooking and cleaning, so we learn everything from her.

The family is very friendly and very kind, but Mama Irene is fairly quiet. Very often, long silences occur. We ask a lot of questions, but their English vocabulary isn’t anywhere close to as extensive as ours, so we often just give up because we don’t understand one another. Mzumba’s English is great, and he is very lively and outgoing, but he is not around that often. He has a course he is finishing up this week, and we barely saw him yesterday because he had to be at church all day.

Speaking of church, that was quite an experience! The Christian religion here is predominantly Anglican. So yesterday we attending the English service at the Anglican Church of Mukono where Mzumba pastors. It was great to watch him in action! I will talk about the church service is a future entry.

So we helped make dinner yesterday… what a fiasco! We started preparing for dinner at 4pm… but we don’t eat until about 9 o’clock. The meal schedule is most commonly 7am breakfast, 10am tea (bread or the similar is usually served) then a 2 or 3 pm lunch, 6 or 7 pm tea with some snack, and 9 or 10 o’clock dinner. It’s difficult to adjust to, especially since I usually want to be in bed by 10pm! But back to dinner… the staple food of Uganda is called “matooke” (ma-toke-ay). It basically mushed up banana, but it’s more of a bitter plantain than the sweet bananas we eat. So we had to peel these suckers… not so easy. Drosa gave Sarah and I these huge knives, and demonstrating the peeling once. She did it so quickly and graceful, and was left with a perfectly peeled banana. (you cant peel these things like our bananas- they are unripe, sappy, and have a tougher outside) Then she told us to do it. Sarah and I looked at each other, then made our pathetic attempts. Basically when I was done, barely any banana was left because I had peeled too much of it off. Plus, we were also going as slow as dirt compared to Drosa. However, after peeling about 15, I finally was getting the hang of it. Plus I have two weeks to perfect this wonderful skill.

We weren’t done yet, however. We then had to peel the Irish potatoes. This made me laugh because at Thanksgiving this year, Mom asked me to peel the potatoes. Long story short, I ended up in tears because I couldn’t figure out how to do it. Well, mom… I can now peel a potato! With a 6 inch knife too! Be proud!

There’s so much to say, there is no way I’ll ever be able to describe it to you. But here are a few more funny things… we pee in a “latrine” aka an outhouse with cement floors with a 3 by 6 whole in the cement where you go “squatty-potty” style. Good times. The six month old Enock… yeah he’s cute, but they rarely use diapers. So I’ve been peed on about 4 times now. Mama Irene gives us a shirt to put on our lap, but its goes right on through to our skirts. I was getting very frustrating about this after a while. Like put the kid in a diaper on the kid, will you please! And poop! Oh my gosh. They just take the baby, put him on the cement floor in squatting position, and let him poop on the floors. Then they wipe it up and that is that.

All in all- I’m starting to appreciate America much, much more. And to my dear family- I love you and trust me, I miss you. This host family can NEVER compare to you… even you Mikey, even you ;)

Oh, and to my dearly beloved extended family- i absolutely hate to do this to you, but the 34 comments on my last post makes my my blog incredibly slow and difficult for me to access. I'm sorry to break up all the fun, but let's save that space for comments to me. Since you all have blogger name now- you can write on your blogs! and then we can comment on yours! Please don't think I'm mean, it's just that the internet is very testy here and i need all the help i can get to access it. Love you all, and keep the funny comments coming!

homestays...

Tomorrow morning at 9am, we leave to go to our homestays. i will be staying with a family for two weeks in the area, while also walking back and forth to school for class. it should be a very unique experience. im kinda nervous, but i think it should be fine. look for posts all about it soon! probably monday or tuesday. be well!

My biggest adventure yet...

I’m never going to complain about having to do laundry again! I did my laundry for the first time today with the help of some Ugandan women in my hall. What a chore! We have to wash all our clothes by hand. It’s such a bummer because our clothes get about 10x’s more dirty here because of all the dirt and such… but then they also get about 10x’s LESS clean because of hand washing. According to the Ugandans, we are awful at washing our clothes. They let the clothes soak over night, then scrub each article on their knuckles, then wash it again, then rinse it about 3 times all with different buckets full of water. We do it outside in buckets because letting water run is wasteful. So after washing and rinsing thousands of times, we ring everything out and hang in on the line.

But it doesn’t end there. Beside the fact that our clothes are perpetually stretched out and very crispy from drying on the line, we also need to iron all our clothes. This is partially to look clean and nice, but it also to kill bugs. Yes bugs. There’s this silly fly called the Mango fly that can lay its eggs in your clothes. So to kill the larva and prevent them from crawling into your skin as you wear your clothes, we must also iron.

So since I have about zero mom skills and suck at being a girl, this is proving to be slightly challenging. I guess when I come home though, I will have a much greater appreciation for the appliances of the U.S!

Attack of the wild beasts...

Okay maybe not beasts... but close...

Now last night, we had quite a self-induced extravaganza. A handful of us girls were hanging out in one of the huts, when something large scurried by. Assuming it was a cockroach, we all got a little grossed out and started searching for ways to kill it. However, after it ran into the bathroom, we got a good look at the thing and realized it was a ridiculously GIGANTIC cricket! (About 3 inches long and 1 inch tall- thing cricket on steroids) Logically, we started screaming and jumping up onto the beds to escape the vicious beast. You probably heard us scream back in the states…

But see, the night before my hut (myself and 3 other girls) dealt with a bat flying around and squeaking all night long. We weren’t too happy about that. One girl, who has now earned the nickname “Brave Amanda” helped everyone relax about the bat and ran into the bathroom (out of the safety of her mosquito net fortress) to get another roommate earplugs so she could sleep. So because of her heroic performance the previous night, we instinctively started screaming for her to come next door to save us from the deadly cricket. So she shows up with a sneaker and her game face… however that game face quickly disappeared after she caught a glimpse of this thing. But her name is Brave Amanda for a reason… and that girl did exactly what we called her over to do! After a few stomp attempts and a little hopping around (from both Amanda and the cricket), the beast was finally squished in the floor.

Luckily, I caught some of this adventure on video. I’m pretty sure we will die laughing every time we watch this thing. Remind me to show it to you when I get home. You are sure to get a laugh!

the Ssese Islands...

Wow! What an amazing weekend! We ventured off to the Ssese Islands in middle of Lake Victoria to a quaint little beach “resort.” After a 2 hour van ride through the cities and a 3 hour ferry ride to the island, we finally arrived. Tired and gross, the staff eagerly greeted us with tea already served! (tea breaks are VERY important here) We then got taken to the Tahitian-looking huts where we stayed for the weekend.

Now about the island… words can hardly express the beauty these eyes have seen. The view from our huts into the lake was breathtaking, with the mountains in the background, perpetually covered by a foggy haze, making for an AMAZING sunset. The birdlife was so diverse and fascinating, along with some other creatures I will talk about in a second entry J .

The main source of survival on the Ssese Islands is fishing. So all around the shores are these small fishing villages. On Saturday, a village native called Thompson took us on a nature hike all over the islands, including through these villages. Brown, homemade huts made of branches and mud scattered the area, filled in by cloth lines, animal pens, and of course TONS of children. The excitement seen in these children’s eyes at the sight of us Mzungos is one that neither words nor pictures could capture. The men communed around a bamboo container filled with homemade alcohol made of millet. The all sipped out of the same container with these long bamboo shoots they used as straws. It was fairly comical by American standards.

We continued on our hike through the grassy fields and into the dense jungle in the middle of the island. Pretty much every time I looked up, I expected to see Tarzan swinging through the trees! Vivid green plants and trees surrounded us as we trekked through. Taking pictures of these the things I saw can barely capture the beauty. I think it is going to be difficult to express to you all what I’ve seen when I finally get home.

It stormed that first part of each day, but I think it may have been the first time I actually found rain beautiful. We spent our mornings in meetings and playing cards on our porches as the rain came down all around us. Saturday evening, the resort has traditional African dancers come in to give us quite a show!

Sunday we had our own church, and spent the afternoon laying out in the sun and reading our books for class. My roommate had us pause for a second as she joyfully reminded us that THIS is our semester! While our fellow college students are in class, freezing to death, and depressed b/c of gray stupid winter… WE are laying out on the beach! How fortunate we are!

We got up early this morning to start are trip back to school and finally got to exchange our money in Kampala. The Ugandans use “shillings” instead of dollars, and most of the money is in terms of thousands. One of our dollars is about 2000 shillings. A coke is 500 shillings, which costs us about 25 cents. So now we are all excited to go into town and buy chocolate and peanut butter b/c the cravings are nearly uncontrollable. (rice and beans just doesn’t cut it sometimes)

This week we finally start a regular schedule of classes and can begin some sort of routine here. I think we are all ready for this to happen. I’m proud to say that I survived my first week in Africa!

getting adjusted... i guess : /

hello everyone!

Well, each day here gets a little easier. We all seem to be adjusted better and better as each day passes.

I’m pretty homesick, but its tolerable. It’s just insane here. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s just that each day takes so much out of you b/c you have to always be on your toes… always learning the culture, always chatting with strangers, always being open to new things. It’s just so tiring.

There are a bunch of girls in my Uganda Studies Program group that like to run, so we've been getting up early in the mornings when it's still very cool to go running. We got up at 6:45 this morning (yes i somehow actually woke up that early) and went exploring. I went with my awesome roommate who is an Missionary's Kid from Hong Kong. She grew up in Taiwan and Hong Kong and goes to Bethel University in Minnesota. Shes great. I also went with Liz Monachello, a cross country runner from Messiah. Shes great too and lives in my dorm.

S0 anyway, our run. Wow. Talk about intense. Our campus is in the side of a hill, so you basically feel like you are running up hill like all the time. Theres just so way around it. No wonder athletes from Uganda are so good. So today we started off on this very steep incline to the top of what they call "Monkey Hill". And yes! We saw monkeys! They were just jumping in the trees above us as we ran. It was amazing. We followed a road into town, where of course we got stared at like we at 3 heads. One- they rarely see people running. Two- they rarely see girls running. Three- they NEVER see white girls running. They call us "mzungos" here, which means "light skinned." They yell it out to us when they see us on the streets, especially the children. They often run after us b/c they are just so fascinated by out white skin. Its pretty comical.

We got cell phones today! And you can call them!! You can go online they said to www.NobleCom.com and buy calling cards that are about 9 cents a minute! That’s not too shabby at all… this is the number…. You dial (011) then (256) then 78-251-4012. So its 011-256-78-251-4012. Go we will have to set up a time for you to call so I can make sure I have the phone on, have time, and that my roommate doesn’t have it b/c we share. So I think that’s great!!

I get up so early here!! I surprise myself sometimes. It's just that you get so much done in the mornings b/c its cool outside. Running any other time is brutal. Right now, its 9:30am and we are sitting the shade. Its about 75 in the shade. Talk about beautiful!! We go to bed around 10 or 11pm just because we get so worn out from the day. It's pretty neat though to get up early and have such a long day. I feel like i get alot accomplished.

I have my first class today at 11am, which is African Literature. We shall see how that goes. Well, the laptop is dying again. I must be off. Be well. I miss you all!

first few days...

Well here we are in Uganda!! It is currently 9:10 pm and a bunch of us are sitting in a lounge type place where you can access wireless internet.

Our group is outstanding! There are about 30 of us from all across the United States. Each person is so unique and comes from such a different background, but yet we are all united by our interest to be here in Africa. Its so great to be surrounded by people who think outside the box and crave to try something different.

We flew out of Dulles Int Airport in D.C. Our first flight was 6 1/2 hours to Amsterdam. It was sooo comfortable, with each seat having its own television and a TON of things to choose from to watch. Our second flight into Entebbe, Uganda was 7 1/2 hours. We were all quite disappointed to see that there were no TVs in the seats :( (spoiled Americans). But we made it!

We arrived in Entebbe around 9 pm on Saturday night (1 pm your time), waited an excessively long time for our Visas, and then headed to a convent to spend the night bc campus was about 1 1/2 away from the airport. Our first night in Africa was quite an adventure... a 3 inch cockroach in the bathroom, cold showers, sleeping under a mosquito nets, lizards all over the screens to our windows. Welcome to Africa, eh?!

We woke up early for breakfast, then had our own church service. It was amazing to watch our group come together as people stepped up to lead worship, play any song they knew on the guitar, or share a Bible passage that was on their hearts. We left for campus around 2pm, and took the 1 1/2 hour drive through the cities of Entebbe, Kampala, and into our town, Mukono. The University here is simply beautiful. Its so green and full of exotic plant life. Its basically built into the side of a hill and the view is breathtaking from our dorms...

Speaking of dorms... yeah it was quite a surprise when we got our room assignments. The dorms are the most simple thing you can imagine. Small, dirty, chipping paint, cold showers, toilets that only flush when they feel like it, no mirrors, no shelves. We just have a closet with one drawer in it. Everything we own is stuffed into it. It quite comical to see. Our bunk beds are short and small, and of course, we all have our mosquito nets for when we go to bed. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to waking up with that silly white net in your face.

This evening, we went into the town of Mukono. People who have traveled to Mexico say that it reminds them of cities there. There are people all over, motor bikes racing by, unregulated traffic, shops up and down the road with the craziest things... and then us... a trail of 30 white kids... the ONLY white kids mind you. Everyone finds us quite amusing and proceeds to stare us for extended periods of time. I guess you cant blame them. We stand out like sore thumbs.

Our cafeteria is oh so simple... rice, beans, potatoes at times, and a veggie if we are lucky. For breakfast this morning (at 7 am, good Lord that was early) we received two pieces of bread, one buttered, one not, and a cup of this liquid that took us all day to figure out what it was... turns out, they call it African tea. Its a combo of tea and fresh cows milk, served hot with a ton of sugar in it. It was sooo good!

We've met a handful of Ugandans... all of which are incredible friendly and helpful. They laugh at many of the questions we ask them, but never cease to answer them anyway. Chickens are running around all over, goats are tied to trees, monkeys scurry across the lawn in the mornings, and there are more kinda of birds than I've ever seen! And the stars... holy smokes, they are AMAZING! The sky is so clear that you can see every single one. And you only need to stare at the sky for about 15 seconds before seeing a shooting star. Its beautiful.

Okay- the laptop is starting to die. Please continue to check this and share the site with people i may not have directly contacted myself. Miss you all!

getting ready...

Here's where i will be journaling my time in Uganda. Check it often to see what I'm up to!