So on Sunday, we woke up, had some millet porridge, and walked a while to church. Church was okay. It was all in Ateso language, so I never really knew what was going on. There were SO many children there, all free to just run around as they pleased. At one point a jet flew overhead, and I think pretty much every single kid ran out in the middle of the church service to go see it. I couldn’t help but laugh. After church, I helped make some lunch and learned to make passion fruit juice from scratch. Do we have passion fruits in America? If we do, I’ll definitely make you some juice! It’s sooo good! Later in the day, we walked to a woman’s compound who sold a lot of produce that she grew herself. Again, this woman thanked me profusely for coming to Uganda and visiting her home. It’s so difficult to deal with these situations, because in reality, I am the one that is SO thankful for them hosting me. So I just thanked her back for having me as much as I could. Tough situation. She showed me her lemon tree, and gave us a ton. I finally saw how pineapples grow (so strange) and then she sent us on our way with three 10ft long reeds of sugar cane! I LOVE sugar cane. Hopefully I can find some in America to show you all and teach you how to suck the juice out of it. It’s so fun to eat!

The next day, everyone was at school except for little Aaron, myself, and Mommy Florence. In the morning, we went out to the fields and I learned how to dig in the garden. Pretty serious work. I dug up cassava, carried it back, then learned how to peel it. Later, we went out again, and I learned to cut down “speargrass” with a sickle, this hooked shaped sharp tool. They harvest speargrass to use for the roofs of their huts. I spent the afternoon sitting and talking with Florence about marriage and family in the village, then went and rested and wrote in my journal. Whenever it gets hot after lunchtime, they would always make us go rest. I’m not complaining because lord knows I needed it, but its funny that they knew we’d be tired.

Okay so Monday night was my big night!! It was the night they were serving me chicken, a sign of honoring your guests here in Uganda because chicken meat is the most rare and expensive. The first step of this process was catching the chicken. This was hysterical! Catching a chicken is NOT very easy. So Daddy Peter, Monica, and myself ran all over the yard chasing the chicken we picked out until it got tired and we cornered it. Then Monica caught it, carried it around and played with it for a while, then it was time… time for the slaughter. They offered to let me do it… and how to you pass up such an opportunity?! I just HAD to. So first Doreen helped me start plucking out the neck feather. Then I put one foot on the chickens feet, and the other on its wings… and Doreen told me to just start cutting off its head. It was the craziest thing because the chicken just laid there and let me murder it. I don’t get it, but whatever. I’m glad it didn’t start freaking out. So anyway, the knife, as most knives are here, was SO dull. So I got about halfway through the neck and into the bone and then I started to freak out a little. I started yelling “Mommy help me! Come over here and do it! Ahhh. Help me” all while laughing. Everyone in my family started hysterically laughing, as did I. So Florence came over and finished off the job for me, all while making fun of me for getting scared.

So then we ripped the rest of the feathers out, roasted it over a fire to burn off the really small feather, then I watched Florence gut the thing. Yummy. She cut it into pieces and started cooking it. An hour later, we were eating it! Talk about fresh! I had the honor of eating the chicken’s gizzard, which is served to the guest or person you killed the chicken for. It’s incredibly rude not to eat it, so I ate it without giving any thought to it. It wasn’t so bad.

That night was so beautiful. It got dark and I saw more stars than I’ve ever seen in my whole life. About an hour later, an almost full moon came up, illuminating the whole compound. It’s amazing how much light the moon gives, when it’s pitch black all around you. And I would take my baths outside in the little grass room thing with a gas-lit lantern underneath all the stars and moon. It was just so beautiful.

After these few days with them, I realized how much their simple lives just make sense. They pee anywhere and everywhere- and why not? It’s a human need and it just goes into the ground so why use the latrine? They eat with their hands because silverware is expensive and pretty much pointless for the food they eat. They nap at the hottest part of the day because it’s too hot to do anything else, but they get up with the sun so they can get work done while it’s still cool and not waste daylight. They bathe twice a day, if not three times, because its hot, dirty, sweaty, and deodorant is too expensive. They work hard in the garden so that their family has food to eat everyday. Like everything has a purpose and a reason, and it’s all just so simple. This Friday in my Faith & Action class, we are learning about ideas for simple living, trying to integrate the things we’ve seen here and make a difference in our own living habits. I’m really looking forward to this class because I’m just craving ways to take home everything that I’ve learned here.

For visuals for all the things I’ve done… go to this link… http://messiah.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020673&l=aced7&id=55300263

Enjoy!