Home and Away Again

My mom's wanted me to do "one last update" for a few weeks now. I'm leaving for jamaica in a few days and I was reading my former/future roommate's blog because she's already there, so I decided to finally post something. I don't know if it'll be an update or if it'll be my last post. I don't want Uganda to be over. I hope it continues to affect me. Maybe. It'd probably be easier if it didn't.

Life's been...good. And less not so good. But such is life, I guess. I spent the last two weeks at summer camp with my church's junior high and then high school ministry. It was pretty awesome. I was totally exhausted after and kinked out about 20 minutes after getting home from HS camp on Friday night...around 8 pm. It was totally awesome. I started doing respite care (like babysitting for kids with developmental disorders). It's good...and government funded so I get paid way more than I'd ever charge for babysitting. I'm a cheap babysitter, because I mostly just like doing it. My church did VBS a few weeks ago and that was fun. I was in charge of games for the preschoolers. The games are all related to the Bible lessons for each day so every day I was supposed to connect the game with the lesson...I forgot about that part quite often. Oops. But I figured it didn't matter that much anyways. The kids didn't listen all that much, but they did love the games. So did I.

Um...I haven't seen my best friends nearly as much as I want to. I re-addicted myself to The Sims. The person who's asked me the most about Uganda is my little sister's friend, who asked...weird/uninformed/unintelligent questions. I'm going to be on student leadership for women's discipleship at my school next year. I have a devotional published in a book. I miss Uganda. Anytime I think about or remember it. Mostly I try to stay distracted, which hasn'y been difficult the past few weeks because of how busy I've been. This upcoming week might be harder. I've heard that Jamaica is similar to Uganda in a lot of ways and different in a lot of ways too. It's probably a lot more different than I'm expecting.

I'm...okay. Mostly good. Still assimilating too much. Maybe I'll work on integrating soon.

I'm not going to do a "last post." I don't want to tie up loose ends. My loose ends aren't tied up. I hope they're not at least. Vaya con Dios.

Don't need to wait for the answers before you step out in faith

This may very well be my last blog entry from this side of the Atlantic. We're leaving really early Thursday morning, 5 am, and driving 10-13 hours south and west to Rwanda. We drive back to UCU on May 1st and then up to Entebbe the next day, to spend 3 days doing a debrief of our semester here. My days here are numbered. I have 8 days in Uganda, split by 10 days in Rwanda, remaining. I'm still not sure how exactly I feel about going home. I've spent 4 months here, with a group of students experiencing a lot of the same sort of things. I've been stretched and I've learned a lot and gradually become more comfortable here. Now I'm about to leap back into life at home, where not a lot has changed...except me. I don't really know how I'll react to being home, to people and...life. I feel like my whole way of thinking and processing has changed and the way I view the world and politics and...everything. I'm a little...nervous. Anxious. Panicky. I've heard from other people about returning home. I know that I'll be overwhelmed.
I also have no idea how to communicate any of what I've learned, about myself or the world or life or God. It's...I don't even know. I'll just wait and see. I can't predict everything now. It'll be alright. Vaya con Dios.

Higher, Jesus, higher

So...last summer I got a filling, between my back 2 teeth on the bottom of the right side of my mouth. It fell out while I was at Disneyland last semester. And...while I was flossing last night. I texted Phil, one of the USP interns and he made an appointment for me at a dentist in Kampala. I left UCU with Vincent, the USP driver, at 2 (and missed my class today, which was sad). I got there a half hour before my appointment and went in about a half hour after I was supposed to. It was okay though. I'd brought a book. Anyways, after I got in I asked if they have laughing gas. They did not. So I opted to get my filling re-done without anesthesia, because I HATE the shot. And when I got it re-filled before, he didn't drill or anything. Well...my dentist this time (Kathy) DID think it was necessary to drill, to reshape my cavity so it would hopefully stay in better. It hurt. Quite a lot. It was far different than any other dentist experience. I don't know exactly how.
Also, while Kathy was holding something to bring it to my mouth, whatever it was dripped straight into my eye. She told me that it's acidic, but wouldn't blind me. I rinsed my eye as best I could and after she finished my filling (a half hour or so later), I took out that contact because it was still burning. I rode home from Kampala and walked up to my dorm with only one contact. It as awesome. Then I rinsed the one (they'd given me a cup to put it in), took the other out, put on my glasses, and went to find dinner. I missed lunch so I was really hungry and wanted to reward myself. I got 2 rolexes, a brownie, and a soda (Fanta Passionfruit - which I will definitely miss). Now I am very full, my tooth is still sensitive, and my eye is almost done burning.
Overall, I'd say it was a fairly good day. Not the best overall, but dinner was delicious. I'm also going to watch an illegal movie (X-Men Origins: Wolverine - which isn't even in theaters yet). So my night will probably only get better. I have some popcorn in my room and will probably get another soda. AND I'll get to talk to Rusty. I hope.
I'm leaving for Rwanda in less than a week, on April 23rd. We drive back to UCU on May 1st and up to Entebbe on the 2nd. We'll be there for a couple days, debriefing and whatnot, and I fly out late on May 5th and get home in the afternoon on May 7th. It's coming up SO fast. I can't believe my time here is almost done. A lot of things here have become so familiar that it'll be very strange to come home again. The part of me that resists change is really nervous. I will be really glad to see people, especially my family. And Rusty, Becky, and Charlotte. May 7th will be happy; May 5th won't.
Thus far my summer plans are: Biola - May 14th-17th; Junior high camp - June 7-12 ; cruise w/ the family (maybe) - ; Jamaica - June 30-July 8. Other than that, I will be HOME. I'm excited.
Vaya con Dios.

Happy Birthday Zach!

In Ugandan time, it will be my little brother's 18th birthday in about an hour and a half. Crazy, right? It's still about noon on April 7th in the US, but whatever. I don't know his email or know if he even has one. I also don't think he reads this normally. However, I know that other family members do and they can pass along the message.

Happy birthday little brother! I can't believe you're so old. I hope you have an awesome day at Disneyland. I got you a sweet present, but you'll have to wait about a month for it. I miss you and I love you!

--Christine

They're forming an alliance.

We (30 of the 38 USPers) went on a safari this past weekend. It was at Queen Elizabeth National Park, which s on the western end of Uganda. Mukono is on the eastern end so we drove all the way across Uganda. It's only about the size of Uganda, but because of pothole roads and speed bumps every quarter mile, it took us 11 hours to get there. We took a faster way back, so it only took 10 hours. We stopped 2-3 times each way to get gas, have a bathroom break, let our engine cool down because it overheated, or take pictures at the equator and eat delicious food. We took a matatu (14 passenger van/taxi) there and back and used it for the safri-ing. This weekend, I spent about 30 hours in that matatu. The seats were not very comfortable either. The sleeping was pretty difficult. The safari was sweet. W saw a lot of elephants, pretty close to our van. We saw a lion, a leopard, a hyena, a hippo, mongooses, warthogs, kob, giant pterodactyl birds, and probably more that I'm forgetting. We camped and that was cool, except the ground was rocky and our stuff got a little wet. We brought our own food, so I had PB&J for most of our meals and various snacks. They made us dinner 1 night and that was fantastic. I got to talk to some of the others USPs and that was sweet. We had a campfire. There was a hippo about 100 feet away from me. I never want to ride in another matatu, but I probably will sometime this week and definitely will at some point before I leave.
This is our last week of normal classes. It's a little...stressing. After classes, we have finals week and then we go to Rwanda for 10 days. Then we have a few days of debrief and then I leave. A month from now, I'll be in Washington DC. It is crazy. I really want to see everyone at home, but I don't want to leave everyone here. I don't want to stop learning. I'm not counting down the days, although I do know how many are left. I'm glad to be here now and I'll be glad to be home soon. See you all soon. Vaya con Dios.

Echoes of Eden, reflections of what we were created for

Community worship this morning went really well. We opened with a description of USP – who we are and why we’re here, 4 songs (Days of Elijah, My Redeemer Lives, Still, Create in Me a Clean Heart), and some prayers. They like the long prayers. Then we had the drama to “In the End” by Linkin Park. The basic point of the skit is that it doesn’t matter how hard you try to master or conquer your sins, you have to let them go to get to Jesus. There’s two sinners and one finally lets go of the chains the demons use to hold them back. The other tries and struggles, but won’t just let go. At the end of the song, the demons pull her back and wrap the chains (or ropes in our case) around her more, then push her onto her knees and she fell over onto the ground. It’s really powerful. The audience clapped when Geoff (the first sinner) let go and got to Jesus. Our actors did amazing. Then we had a Scripture reading and message from Ephesians 5:18-23, about God’s redemption and his desire to bring us to Him and give us so much more.
We had some more prayers and then another skit-type deal. It was “Cardboard Testimonies.” On one side each person wrote a sin or something you struggle with and on the other, how God has redeemed you. Some of them were pride, lying, sexual immorality, peer pressure, etc. Mine said “I didn’t know that I am valuable…God has shown me my worth.” It was a little frightening to stand up there with the sign in front of me. Moreso that the other USP students would see, because I actually know and talk to them and maybe I don’t want them to know about my issues. I don’t know many UCU students so that wasn’t as big of a deal. We closed with ‘Amazing Grace.’ Afterwards, a woman came up and told me that she’s struggled with the same thing but I’m precious to God and He has an awesome plan for me. It was really cool.
Overall, it went really well. It was awesome. I’m very introspective or thoughtful or whatever sometimes, especially when I have a lot of time alone s I’ve been thinking a lot. Not really about a lot of specific things, just about…myself. My view of myself and of others and of God. So, you know…nothing serious. I really love the “Days of Elijah” song. It’s so…triumphant. I hadn’t heard it before I came here, although many of the other students have.
I have loved my time here. I’m learning a lot and sometimes the time alone is good. I really miss everyone at home and I want to see my family, my friends, junior highers, Rusty, Becky and Charlotte…but I’m leaving so soon. My time here just started. And it’s already ¾ over. In about a month and 4 days, I’m leaving Uganda. I don’t know if I’ll come back either. I hope I can. I hope I keep in touch with some of the girls here. I’m going to miss them once I leave.
God’s really amazing, you know?

Behold, he comes,
riding on a cloud,
shining like the sun,
at the trumpet call.
Left your voice;
it’s the year of Jubilee.
Out of Zion’s hill,
salvation comes.

Vaya con Dios.

I tried so hard and got so far

This is the first time I've been online since...Tuesday. So about a week. Our Internet was down. It was pretty frustrating. It was a lot worse for others than for me because they've had class registration stuff this week. I just want to talk to people at home. This week hasn't been too exciting. I've attended all my classes, gone to the daycare and Kampala twice, visited the kabaka's (king/cultural leader for a tribe) palace, seen one of Idi Amin's torture chambers, cried, sang, danced, eaten, slept, spent time with girls in my dorm and the other dorms, etc.
Every semester, USP plans and leads one community worship (chapel). Ours is tomorrow. We're singing 4 songs, doing a skit to "In the End" by Linkin Park, having a short message and doing cardboard testimonies. It's like...you put a sin or something you struggle with one on side and that God has healed you on the other. I'm singing as part of the chorus (along with basically everyone else) and doing a cardboard testimony. I was going to do the skit but couldn't make it to rehearsal. It looks really awesome though. If you're reading this and you're from Biola, Geoff and Michelle both have pretty major roles.
I really like the daycare. I like it even more when the real teachers aren't around. They expect the kids (about 1.5-4 years old)to act way older than they are, to sit properly and color in the lines and...whatever. I like just playing with them. That's more fun. They have some great names. There are kids like Jessie, Maggie, Martha, Matthew, Timothy, Elijah, Faith, Liza, and some funkier ones like Nyla (my favorite kid), Opio, Pascal, Persus (a girl, btw), and then some that are just...I don't know. There's Treasure and Future (brothers), Given, Praise, Agape, and I'm sure more that I don't remember. It's really cool.
I'm going on a safari this weekend. That's pretty sweet. This is my last full week of classes. That's sweet also. I think I'm done for now. Maybe I'll do some homework. Maybe not. Vaya con Dios.

Charity still doesn't know my name

I haven't written a blog in a while. But I feel like nothing's really happened. It's just...life. School, friends, meals...whatever. I've watched a lot of movies lately; I borrowed a bunch of Disney DVDs from Krista, one of the USP girls. She bought 5 DVDs in Kampala; each has about 5-12 movies on it. Uganda is quite illegal in their movie making. I haven't had a lot of homework. I missed a quiz because I skipped class. I haven't locked my keys in my room in a while. Me and Rusty had our year anniversary. It rained finally. I haven't gotten any mail. I applied for student ministry leadership at Biola. I watched Seven Pounds. I covered a lot of books at the children's library. I learned about Compassion, AIDS, debt, aid and trade, politics, colonialism, discipleship, myself, God, etc. I went to a concert-type deal. They sang Everyday and it about made my week. That's one of my longterm favorite worship songs. I have another new one; it's called Days of Elijah.
Time is passing way too fast. Our classes are officially done on April 8th. Then the next week we have finals. Then we leave for Rwanda on April 23rd. I have less than a months with the UCU students. In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm just getting comfortable and settled with the girls on my hall.
I'm still definitely enjoying my time and my experiences here, but a lot of the time I'm also ready to come home. I'm sick of being away from people. I want to just be with people and talk to them, not having to wait for emails which rarely, if ever, come or for the time here to match up with the time at home. I want good food. I want air conditioning.
My title refers to one of the friendliest guys here, Bob Charity. I think he recognizes my face, but still has no idea what my name is.
Vaya con Dios.

Should've thought twice before I let it all go

This past weekend, most of our group (26 total) went on our rafting trip. It was overall, an awesome weekend. Friday began with two classes, my two favorite classes. One because I like it and the other which is usually interesting, and rarely boring. Our bus to drive us to Jinja was supposed to get to UCU at 3, but arrived at about 5 instead. The driver had waited 45 minutes at another university before we called and redirected him. The drive was only about an hour and a half and I spent most of it quiet, not reading or listening to music or talking, mostly just looking out the window and being sleepy. Since our bus was so late, they gave us dinner for free. It was pretty delicious. I played Ultimate Spoons (like normal spoons but you put the spoons at a different table or on the ground far away-ish, in our case. Then you race to the spoons.) It was really fun. I wasn’t even the first one out. We talked and relaxed for the rest of the evening and I went to bed…at some point. Not too late, but not really early either.
I woke up spontaneously at about 7:45, got up and did some Bible reading. One of the guys was up playing an acoustic guitar that we’d brought and it was…really cool. A couple other people were up also and we were just sitting, mostly reading. No one was really talking. I was a really good time. We had breakfast at 9:30 or so, had a quick safety meeting in which none of us followed the suggested dress code guidelines, we got our lifejackets and helmets, got on the truck and left. It was about a 10-minute drive to the start of our journey. Then we split up into groups, were assigned a guide, and got into our rafts and on the Nile! Our group ended up in 4 groups and 4 of the guys came, so we made them split up. My group was me, Rochelle (my roommate), Joy, Naomi, Julianna, and Dave and our guide’s name was Peter. It was an excellent group.
The trip was an all day thing. We had lunch on the raft at a long, calm section and there were 12 major rapids, 8 before lunch and 4 after. The whole trip was grade 5. I don’t know the technicalities or qualifications, but rapids are given a grade. 1 is the easiest. 5 is pretty intense, with a good chance of raft tipping. 6, I think, is more dangerous and basically means there’s no chance of staying in. My group may have accidentally hit a grade 6, but I’ll get to that later. Our rapids ranged from 2-5. At least ½ of them were 4 or 5. After our training, we had a grade 3 waterfall. Our group went first on almost all of them, which was really cool because then we got to sit and watch everyone else come down. The first one was Bujagali Falls. The second one was called the 50/50 (chances of staying in the boat). We decided it should be the 80/20, because almost everyone flipped, including us. The waterfalls all had excellent names, which our guide shared with us. There’s the dead Dutchman and the dead French, named for people who’ve died on them. We didn’t do those; they’re grade 6. We went past one feeding into the Nile called the Ugly Sister. Some others were the Ribcage (I don’t remember which this one was or where the name came from) , the Flying Squirrel (good chance of falling/flying out of the raft), Silverback (most rafts flipped; not sure the significance of the name), and the Washing Machine (like a whirlpool, likely you’d lose your shorts).
There were more rapids before lunch, but only one was a grade 5. They were mostly calm and we only flipped on one of them. Flipping was not my favorite part, especially since my eyes were usually closed so I didn’t know when it was coming. One second I was holding tightly to my paddle and to the rope around the boat and the next I couldn’t breathe and water was pulling 5 different directions, none of which I wanted to go. I didn’t want to lose my contacts, so I kept my eyes closed underwater too. I always panicked at least a little and I think I tried to come up under the raft every time. Once I got to the surface, I was fine.
Lunch was Glucose Biscuits and pineapple. Delicious pineapple. After lunch were 4 intense rapids, 2 were class 4 and 4 were class 5. We made it through the first one okay, although we missed the cool, legit waterfall part. It was okay though. One group went down the waterfall backwards. However, we flipped on all of our last 3 waterfalls. The first one I got pulled under for a little bit, but got up pretty quickly and stayed close to the raft. Julianna put her paddle out and I grabbed it and came back in. When the guide flipped the boat back over, he would get on top of it and we would all hold on and stay close on one side. He flipped it over our heads as w ducked underwater. Us getting back on was, I’m sure, a very humorous experience for him every time. You had to hoist yourself up with the rope and straighten your arms. I could not do it. Someone helped me every time. The next one, our penultimate rapids, our raft flipped really slowly. I opened my eyes at one point and saw the raft flipping over. It was surreal. I managed to keep holding onto the rope, but I was upstream from the raft and the current was really strong and pulling me under, so I just let go of the raft and got swept pretty far out. They had kayakers who went down each set of rapids before us and rescued anyone who needed it. I got rescued by one of the guys and got into one of the other rafts for a couple minutes because mine was far away. To get back in, ours came up right next to the other one and I jumped/slid in. I jumped in, but the ground was wet, so I slid and fell on my butt. It was very graceful, I assure you. 2 other girls had gotten swept away, but not as far so they were back in our boat already.
There was a grade 6 rapid, but it’s really dangerous, so we, our guide, and our raft got out and walked around it. There was a calmer portion and then our last rapid began. It was a really long section of rapids and I think it’s so dangerous because there’s basically no chance of staying in for the first section and then you’d be stuck under for a long time because of the continuing rapids and current. We got back in and we were supposed to paddle past and go around one section of rapids (the Washing Machine, which our guide also called The Bad Place) and through a different section that was grade 3. We all thought we were paddling as hard as we could, but we got swept into The Bad Place. In the rapids, we all crouched in the raft, holding onto out paddle and the rope. We were crouched and my eyes were closed, but water was over me and all around me and I wasn’t really capable of thinking. I opened my eyes and saw that we were still surprisingly in the boat, but spinning crazily. hit myself in the chin with my paddle a couple times so I just let it go. Then all of a sudden I wasn’t in the raft and the current was pulling me under. I curled up to protect my appendages and prayed that I would reach the surface. I was under for a while but then I came up and got a couple breaths and ran into my guide, but then I was pulled down again. I opened my eyes and I couldn’t see light, but then I rose or got turned and I could see the sunlight through the water, but I couldn’t reach it. Everything was…suspended. It felt like a long time, but so short at the same time. It’s really hard to remember my thoughts, mostly because there weren’t many of them and they were very disjointed. I did consider for a couple seconds the possibility that I could not make it up. I fought to keep my mouth closed and not to inhale the water. I finally got past the strong current and got up to the surface and got a couple good breaths. I came up a few feet away from a kayaker who’d rescued Julianna too. I grabbed onto the back of his kayak and he took us to shore. We saw and met up with the rest of our group and clarified with our guide that we were not supposed to hit those rapids, that we had gone to The Bad Place that he’d warned us about. He told us that we had in fact.
We had to walk up a hill to get to the trucks, so by the time we got up there I was even more out of breath and really shaky. They had juice for us and water. I talked with a couple people from other boats and tried to keep from crying. It was just so intense and overwhelming. I wasn’t badly hurt, just shaken. I was one of the first ones to climb into the truck and I just sat, holding a water bottle to my chin or my jaw joints. I think hitting myself wrenched the muscles or tendons or whatever holding my lower jaw to the rest of my face. Whatever happened, it hurt. I also discovered later that I’d bruised my chin. One below my bottom lip and another on the underside of my chin. They look gnarly. We went to one of the campsites and had dinner and then were driven back to our hostel/campsite. Everyone was a lot quieter. We shared and compared stories and experiences and talked with the 3 girls who came for the weekend but didn’t come rafting. Some people walked to the Chinese restaurant down the road.
There was a guy who filmed the more intense rapids and made a video for us. I stayed up sitting and reading to watch it. It was awesome. It was cool to see what our boat actually did on a lot of the rapids and how it compared to my experience. It was also cool to see everyone else. Our boat flipped 4 times, which the most of any others in our group. The other flipped once, twice, and thrice. So we obviously won. I stayed up for a little while longer and then went to sleep.
I got up and red and prayed and journaled again on Sunday, then had breakfast, and then we were driven to another place for bungee jumping. To clarify, I did not bungee jump nor did I ever really have any intention of doing so. I watched everyone and took pictures for a few people. I was undecided initially but decided not to because it’s expensive and I didn’t really want to anyways. If I hadn’t done it today, I don’t think I will. More than half of us did though and it was cool. We jumped over a calm section of the river and most people asked to be dipped in. The guy could adjust the tension on the ropes so you didn’t hit it, so only your hands or face did, or so you went in to your waist. Then we went back to our campsite, had lunch, paid, and came back.
I don’t feel like I should be going back to class. The weekend was such a different experience from anything – so intense and overwhelming and awesome. I can’t imagine being stuck in history for 2 hours tomorrow morning. Or doing homework. I still don’t quite know what to say or how to describe it. I bought the DVD and I’m really glad that I did. If I remember, I’ll show people once I’m home. It’s great, especially the last rapid. Even watching the footage makes me a little nervous and frightened. I can still remember the rocking of our raft, the strain from paddling, the anxiety holding on and hoping we didn’t flip, the terror when I was sucked under. It's weird watching. Our raft went basically vertical but then back down. Joy managed to stay in and he filmed her for a while. It's weird watching and knowing that I was under the water. And watching the next group that went and knowing that I was somewhere in that river struggling for breath.
That last rapid, when I was sucked under, is the most terrifying experience I can remember ever having. I’m not usually big on using superlatives, but I think this one is true. I definitely prayed and thanked God after I got to the surface, when I got back on land, and many times that night and since then. It was amazing. I don’t think I’ll be too quick to go rafting again, but I wouldn’t trade the experience. It was an insane adrenaline rush, both when we paddled through a rapid and when we flipped – although I definitely preferred the former.
It’s strange that all of this is such a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I doubt that I’ll ever be back here and I don’t know anyone, besides other USP students, who have gone white water rafting on the Nile River. How awesome it that? Vaya con Dios.

I climb so high that I can't sleep at night

We’ve been learning recently about compassion and community, real community. Our current book (for Faith and Action) is Compassion, by Henri Nouwen, Donald. McNeill, and Douglas Morrison. It’s my favorite book so far this semester. This is combined with my personal reading, mainly Emma’s War – about the war and conflict in Sudan, and How Much is Enough – about materialism and our constant struggle and desire to have MORE. The three of them are mixing in my head along with countless other things I’ve learned or heard about or that I know. It’s a very jumbled mess in my head. Everything seems to be related, but I don’t know how and I don’t know how to reconcile everything. It’s also combined with my Bible reading. My sophomore and junior years of high school I did really well with the Bible reading and since then have been trying (largely unsuccessfully) to get back into the habit. I’ve been doing well this semester. Reading the prophets, I see over and over how God rebukes Israel for materialism and oppression of the poor. It’s really…powerful, I guess, reading it in light of learning about poverty and conflict n the world.
Compassion is divided into 3 sections, The Compassionate God, The Compassionate Life, and the Compassionate Way. The book starts off with redefining compassion. To be human does not mean that we are compassionate. Compassion, Biblical compassion, is far rarer. Our society is largely competitive and it is nearly impossible to show compassion to those whom you are in competition with. It’s easy to give money or something to those “less fortunate,” but far more difficult to actually strive to live in their shoes and equally difficult to show compassion to your “equals.” There’s so much good stuff in this book that I can’t try to pick out good portions because I love all of it so far. I haven’t read the last section yet. But I am looking forward to it.
I also wonder a lot about how I’ll be changed by Uganda and by everything. This program is designed to challenge us and to confront us with things we may rather not face. I’m learning a ton and I feel like I’m changing, but changes here – in this environment when many people are feeling the same things – is different than at home, where no one else has had this experience. I think that a lot of how I think has changed, my outlook and worldview and opinions, that my behavior has to change. We learned a while ago about telos and praxis, your goal or purpose and your beliefs and actions. I hope that even when I’m home, these 2 things match up. I don’t need all the stuff I have. And I definitely don’t need any more stuff. But what do I need? What can I live without? What are necessities versus luxuries? II do know that it’s still okay to indulge in luxuries sometimes, but it’s important to keep them from becoming necessities. And here, my luxuries are a pillow, a breeze, a toilet and toilet seat, toilet paper, a new skirt, etc. Once I get home, I need to create a budget and actually stick to it. I need to resist spending money just because I have it or just because my parents are willing to give it to me.
A few days ago, my mom emailed me about a friend of my dad’s who’s selling his car for pretty cheap. My parents would pay for it, but I’d have to pay for insurance and such when I get home. My first reaction was yes, I would like a car. But I thought about it before I replied. I don’t know what my income will be when I get home, or if I’ll have one. I don’t really need a car, because my parents each have one and I can almost always get rides from people. Yes, I still want the car and have been very tempted several times to email my mom back and tell her that, but I restrain myself. I don’t need it. I don’t know if or how my parents not spending money on the car will help me, but it will cause me to spend more of my income on insurance and gas and a parking permit. I still really like the idea of owning my own car, something I hadn’t thought I would have until after college really. But the desire to own one just to have it also feels a little sketchy.
I’m just trying to reconcile everything in my head and it’s not very easy. I wish it was. Vaya con Dios.

A few pictures from and past couple weeks

Lift your voice, it's the year of Jubilee

So...I'm back on-campus after our rural homestays and a weekend at Sipi Falls. I'll start...at the beginning-ish. We had our midterm on Friday morning. I studied for a little while on Thursday night, but mostly didn't study. The test was a little harder than I expected, but I think I did okay. We left basically right after the test and it was about...a 6 or 7-ish hour drive to the district we were going to, Soroti (Uganda's divided into districts, sort of like states but much different). We stayed for the night at Margaret's, a Ugandan woman who helps in the USP office and such. She's really cool. Most people stayed outside in tents, but I opted for the mattress on the concrete floor inside. We had a campfire that night and it was...amazing. It's very rare that we (USP) gets to hang out together and especially for it to be only us. I like hanging out with the UCU students definitely, but a few hours with Americans was nice. Anyways, we left in the morning to go to our houses. I was with Caroline an we were just down the road from Beau. Overall, my week was good. There were ups and definitely downs. I think I hit my low point of the semester so far, just frustrated with my family members and missing my real family at home and tired and not wanting to do what I had to do and disappointed and...such. And then I knocked my flashlight into the pit latrine. The hole's really really deep, which I could see because my flashlight was down at the bottom. It's still there, although the battery has probably died by now although it was still going when we left the next afternoon. We spent the weekend at Sipi Falls with some of the UCU/Honours College students. It was really good. I hiked down a mountain an then back up another one. In the pictures I took, it looks really intense.

Some general homestay notes:
-Our 'house' was made up of about 5 mud huts with thatched roofs, a cooking house, a latrine, and a couple bath houses. Caroline and I were in one with our 2 sisters, Sarah and Annette,.
-One of the first days, our brother came by and dropped off our nephew Shadrach, who's about a year old. He's adorable, even if he did cry when he saw us for the first couple days. We were friends by the end, due to my persistence if nothing else.
-There are a ton of stars. I seriously didn't know how many. The sky is so crowded here.
-We took evening walks with our papa most nights. They were cool. We went to the fish pond, a water tank on top of a huge hill, and to see the monkeys. The monkeys always had the wrong timing, so we only saw 1 or 2 once; we tried 3 times. Beau and his brothers usually came with us, because they lived so close. Beau told us that they wanted to marry us. Since I'm generally more reserved and quiet, they didn't bother me too much. Caroline, however, is much more friendly. She talked with them a lot, while I was pretty content to walk in silence. The last night when one of them tried to talk to me, I wasn't in a great mood so I shut him down when he asked if he could carry my water bottle.
-Our parents had 9 kids. The oldest died, we never really asked why/how. They were all in secondary school and only Sarah and the 2nd youngest boy, Andrew, were home. Sara's 23 and is in a nursing program somewhere. Schooling here is very different from in the US. Also, she's learning pretty basic stuff, a lot of which I know.
-We helped with chores a lot - we fetched water, hoed and weeded, washed dishes and clothes, swept, helped make simsim balls and chappati, herded and tied up the goats to graze, mingled (mixing flour and water to make posho. Caroline slaughtered a chicken; I documented. We went with our papa to herd the cattle to grazing once. We watched our sisters cook and saw how to make passionfruit juice, smear houses with cow dung, grind millet, and probably more.
-We had cows, goats, chickens, and pigs at our house.
-Hygiene is not the top concern of people here. Washing hands is basically rinsing them with water. It is totally okay to smear cow dung on the ground (it's used like cement), rinse your hands, and then make lunch.

I wrote in my journal every day while I was there, so there is a ton more I could write. Maybe later. I'm sick of writing about myself. Vaya con Dios.

Clouds in my coffee

After this week, I'll be halfway through my semester. In a couple weeks, I'll be halfway through my time in Africa. I don't really have anything to say or to comment on this fact, it's just weird to think about.
On Friday, I have a midterm for my Faith and Action class and right after that we leave for Soroti. Soroti is a more rural district or village where we'll be staying for a week with a family. UCU doesn't have a spring break, but we (USP) don't have any classes next week. I have pretty mixed feelings about our rural homestays. It'll be pretty good, but I'm a little nervous. I finished most of my homework for the week; I just have to study for my midterm on Friday. Tomorrow I only have my Lit class and we have presentations (my group went on Monday). I wrote a 6-page paper today in about 2 and a half hours. It's not very good, but oh well. I'll probably do pretty well. For the Ugandan grading system, an A is through an 84% and a B is down to about a 70%.
My head's really itchy. Pretty constantly. I'm supposed to be able to put oil stuff on my scalp and it'll be better. I'll probably put some in again tomorrow, or ask someone to do it for me. That'll be excellent.
That's all I have to say today. I won't have my computer at all next week. Pray for me this week, out in the village and such. Vaya con Dios.

It's the final countdown

So I have two pretty fantastic stories from today (Saturday). I’m going to start with the second one, because it’s fresher in my memory and more awesome. So around 4:15 or 4:30 I got back to the dorm (the first story is what I did today so just hold on). I got to my room, looked through my very ful purse for my keys and discovered that I did not have them. I called my roommate and she didn’t answer. I texted someone else and she told me that a bunch of girls, including my roommate are in Kampala today. I thought, oh great. They’re not going to be back for a few hours. Agatha, my friend across the hall, offered to let me nap on her bed, because I was really tired. I laid down for a little bit and ate some biscuits (cookies), because I didn’t get lunch today either. Tricia, Agatha’s roommate, told me that we should go down and talk to some of the guys and they would be able to break the lock. I didn’t want to break my lock, so I walked around to our window. Our windows have the window part which we usually leave open because it gets really hot otherwise and a screen, which latches from the inside. Coincidentally, I discovered that Rochelle’s window does not lock very securely and that it’s not too difficult to open my latch through there with a comb. Unfortunately, our windows also have bars. And since my keys weren’t on our desk where I thought they’d be, that was the end of that plan.
Agatha and I walked down to the boys’ dorm, Florence, and a couple UCU guys came with us intending to help break my lock. They tried to pick the lock with one of Rochelle’s bobby pins which I grabbed off our desk (I’m pretty intelligent, right?). That didn’t work, so we used Agatha’s butter knife to unscrew our latch. This unfortunately did not release the padlock so it was still holding the bolt in place. Then the 2 guys tried again to just break the lock with a couple stones. Our lock and our door are a little more beat up than they were before, but still no luck. The guys left and Viola, my neighbor, got there and took the screws out of the latch again (we had put them back in). By wiggling the door back and forth and bending some parts of the latch and bolt, we got my door open. Viola is pretty awesome. Then I put our latch and everything back on and unlocked the lock (my keys were on my desk chair). I was really impressed with myself.
But…back to this morning. I woke up at 6:20 and was ready to leave at 7. A couple days ago, Viola talked to someone she knows at a salon in town about getting my hair braided and agreed to take me down there this morning. We went to breakfast and then walked down to Mukono. Viola left me and I sat from about 7:30 until almost 4 getting twists put in my hair. They add fake hair when they do plaits (braids) or twists so I have about 4 or 5 times as much hair as I did this morning. I was really sick of sitting after a while and was almost crying when they put the last few braids again, because they have to do them tight so they were pulling at my hair pretty hard. And after 8 hours, my head got a little sensitive. The fake hair is stiffer than real hair and I’m still deciding how much I like it. I used the toilet in the chapel on the way back because I’d had a half liter of orange soda. It was delicious. I had 2 doughnuts and tea this morning and a few wafers while I was getting the twists, but that’s all I had. After I got back in my room, I had 2 plain biscuits with peanut butter and a few more wafers. They were tasty.
Now I may go take a nap. I have an hour until dinner and hopefully a date with Rusty afterwards. The Internet’s not working right now, so I may be online dating by the time I get this posted. I hope you all are doing awesome and had a good Valentine’s Day! Vaya con Dios.

A roller coaster kind of run

Last night, I watched Last King of Scotland at my professor's house with my Politics class. It was really intense and I don't know if I'll ever watch it again. Before the movie, we had dinner of spaghetti with sauce and meatballs and Parmesan cheese and salad with ranch dressing. And garlic bread and Coke. It was delicious. We had an intermission partway through and had coffee and apple cake. I'm starting to like coffee now. I might try to bring some home for people. I heard of a good place to get some whole beans.
But anyways...Last King of Scotland is about Idi Amin, a fairly well-known "president"/dictator here from 1970-1979. The story itself, about a young doctor who comes from Scotland and becomes Amin's personal physician, is fictional but the background is true. Basically, Amin was head of the military and overthrew the previous leader, Obote. The people were really happy because Obote was no good either, but Amin wasn't educated past about 3rd grade and was a little crazy. During the years he ruled, 300,000 Ugandans were killed, including quite a few of his advisers and one of his wives. One of the lines from the movie talks about how people in a lot of areas weren't even digging graves because there were so many bodies. The movie also talkes about how Britain backed Amin's rise to power. In class, we've talked about how the US and other Western nations will back stable regimes in Africa even if they're really oppressive. We give money to suit out own economic interests. The movie's rated R and there's some swearing and a couple graphic sex scenes and violence. It was really the last scenes that got to me. It was about the doctor, so the actual events weren't true, but thinking that people were tortured and mutilated and...I don't know. And Obote came back to power after Amin. He was in power until 1986 and he killed even more Ugandans than Amin did.
In class this week we've been learning and talking about poverty. That and then seeing Last King of Scotland is just...overwhelming. Some of the movie was shot in Entebbe airport, the airport we flew into. There was also stuff shot in Kampala. Watching it and thinking after, I was just thinking that I've been there. And seeing the people - how they dress and how they talk and the music and the dance - it's familiar. I can see people and think how true it is. I see guys with guns standing outside buildings here. True, it's not as many as during Amin's time, but there are still military guys here. It's still not really democracy. They're shutting down a bunch of TV and radio stations soon. They still don't have a lot of the things that I'm so accustomed to, like freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. We were talking in Politics one day about how amazing just a peaceful transfer of power is. In 206 Kenya had elections and members of the losing party started a riot and started killing members of the winning party - just normal people, killing their opponents and their neighbors. And then talking about poverty in Uganda, in Africa, or in the world. It's just...this is all so far outside what I know and what I can process. How horrible would it be to watch a child, to watch your own child, slowly die because they don't have enough food? Or they don't have the right food? Or of something preventable or treatable - like diarrhea or malaria?
So few have so much. It's not like there isn't enough food in the world; it's just that it's all concentrated in certain areas. Hunger isn't some insurmountable problem that can't ever be solved. Yes, Jesus said that the poor will always be with us, but how does that mean that we shouldn't try to help? How does anything else n Jesus' teaching imply that we shouldn't try to help? Also, I'm not saying that us randomly giving money is going to solve anything either. as I mentioned, the governments here are largely corrupt. Giving money to the guys in charge doesn't mean it's going to get to anyone who actually needs it. I've heard from a few people that Compassion is really good. The money goes right to the kids, to help them and their families, to train them in a trade and help them get out of poverty. It made me really happy that I chose a good organization to send my money to. I've been learning about a lot of other stuff related to this, but...it's really hard to explain.
A week after I get home, I'm going to Disneyland. I'm excited now, but I also know that it's going to be really overwhelming. It's weird to think about coming home, about how I'm going to be different or what I'm going to tell people when they ask how Africa was.
On a lighter note: there was a bee in my room today. It buzzed really loudly and flew by my head and I went out to the doorway/hallway. The girls across the hall came out to go and do something and laughed at me. Agatha told me that bees and good luck and that I'm going to have 5 visitors today. She visited once and Eseza came by with Robert (an adorable little redheadeed toddler boy) and said hi, so I guess that's 3. Agatha said she'd come by 5 times if no one else visited me.
Also, my flight information changed. KLM changed one of my flights home. My flight from Amsterdam to Entebbe is the same, but my flight from Amsterdam to DC is leaving 2 hours later, which means I need to change my connecting flights because 2 hours isn't enough time to go through customs, pick up my bags, recheck them, and go through security, as well as probably have to get to a different terminal. I'm not too excited.
I don't really have anything else to say, so I won't. Vaya con Dios.

You can't pull me down

I usually like using song lyrics or quotes from something as blog titles, no matter how little they have to do with the actual contents of what I'm writing. However, at the moment, the only song that inexplicably stuck in my head is "Makes Me Ill" by Nsync. I don't know why or how it's there, but it doesn't have any good blog titles hidden somewhere in the lyrics, especially since I only really know the chorus. In case you don't happen to know the song, here's the chorus: "It makes me ill, see you...(something)...love and attention at his will, You can't imagine how it makes me feel, to see you with him." I wish I could order a new song. Like a jukebox. In my head. That would be really nice at the moment. And I can't turn on my Windows Media Player or anything because it's 6:52 am and our walls are paper thin. We also have a window screen above our doors. It's actually just a screen, so if someone flushes the toilet down the hall or is having a normal volume conversation anywhere in the dorm, you can hear it. I'll work on thinking of a better song.

On Friday, me and 8 of the other USP girls and Debbie, who graduated from UCU and is now married to a former USP guy (crazy, right?), went into Kampala. We took a "taxi": a mini van with seats arranged to hold 14 people. It was 1500 shillings, which is about 75 cents. It took a little over an hour because of traffic and the cows in the road. We went to a craft fair which they have every Friday next to/on the train tracks. They sold almost everything: food, clothing, drums, instruments, knives, jewelry, batiks, and almost anything I would want to buy. I probably spent too much, but I got some awesome stuff for myself and for others. We were there for a couple hours and then we walked over to Garden City. On the first level of their parking garage is a little rrstaurant called New York Kitchen. They had pizza, pastas, salads, sandwiches, burgers, and delicious desserts. After we ordered, they brought us about 3 dishes of bagel chips and a tomato-y sauce. I had some Hawaiian pizza, a Fanta berry, and a strawbery milkshake. Most milkshakes and smoothies here are mush more liquid-y than in the US, but this one was real. After dinner, we went into Garden City and I changed some money. Then we went to a bowling alley, which also had pool tables and an arcade and "ice skating," which was not on actual ice. They did use ice skates though. I didn't bowl or play pool because I was really tired. I went back with a group of about 6 others (we'd met up with another group of USP and UCU students at New York Kitchen). The ride home took about 2 hours because it was rush hour and we had to take a detour.
Saruday and Sunday were both lazy days. It was our first weekend on campus since our very first weekend here, so it was nice to have free time. I did laundry, worked on a little homework, and...not much else. Today I have a really lame presentation for history, which we think is mostly because he doesn't want to teach. Oh well. Vaya con Dios.

Hallelujah.

We had a huge storm today. It was really intense. It started while I was eating lunch. The dining hall, in case I hadn't mentioned before, is an open pavilion. There aren't any walls, but there is a tin roof. In case you have never experienced it, rain is really loud on a tin roof. It sounded like hail. Anyways, it would rain really hard for a few minutes, then let up and drizzle for a few then start pouring again. I was at lunch with my friend Agatha and we went back up to the dorm during one of the drizzling periods. It started really pouring not long after we got up there. The stairs up to the dorm are concrete or whatnot, not we also walk through a few different grass/dirt paths and those were flooding and covered in big puddles. Agatha skipped her 2:00 lecture. It started lignthing and thundering also. The thunder was really loud. I knew it was coming every time because the lightning was only about 3 seconds beforehand, but I still jumped every time. I was sitting in our common room reading Things Fall Apart. I read it...4 years ago but remember very little, so I'm reading it again for African Lit. It's the first of 4 novels we're reading over the next month. We have a novel due every week, by authors from different regions of Africa. We're reading Things Fall Apart, Cry, the Beloved Country, A Grain of Wheat, and...something. I don't remember. We did poetry a couple weeks ago and we finish our short stories this week. All of the short stories were depressing and I'm guessing that the novels and plays (which is our final section) will be also.
My New Testament class is still boring; we have a study guide book and the professor just restates what's in there. I pay very little attention in that class. I think I've spent the past 2 weeks' classes writing letters. I like reading African literature, but I don't really the professor. Conversely, I've never really been too interested in politics, but I love that class. Our professor is really cool. My history professor is funny, but the class tends to be boring. I've written letters during that class and during lit also. F&A can be interesting sometimes, but sometimes it's not. I think it'll be better when we're on our next book, which we start reading next week. I had to read The Poisonwood Bible before I got here (I read most of it on the plane and finished it before our first class). Now we're reading Primal Vision by John Taylor. There are parts that are really interesting, but it's...very difficult to understand. I'm really glad we do discussion and whatnot. Mark (the USP director) taught our class about the book and he pulled quotes and made a study guide-type thing to help us with the reading. Basically, John Taylor (Bishop Taylor) was a Westerner (I'm not sure exactly where he was from) and he lived in Uganda for 20 or 30 years back in the 5s and 60s. Primal Vision is about African Christianity, what missionaries have done and what they should do. It talks about the importance of presence in African culture. It's a very people-oriented culture, not time oriented at all. It talks about conflicts between African Christianity and African traditional religions. It was not my favorite book, but I didn't hate it either. I don't really hate many books. I liked it better than most of the other students here. Our next book is Rich Christians in and Age of Hunger (Ron Sider) and our last 2 are Compassion (Henri Nouwen, et al) and Mere Discipleship (Lee Camp). Those ones look more interesting.
I ran out of toilet paper yesterday. I was going to go into Mukonotown today and buy some, but then it rained. I heard that they sell some at the canteen, so I'll probably head down there soon. I also wanted to get some more clothes and snacks in Mukono. I've only made it up for breakfast twice and lunch isn't until 1, so I'm hungry all afternoon. Maybe I'll go before/after dinner, which is at 7. Yeah...that sounds good. I'm done writing for today. Vaya con Dios!

Fingerprints

I got back from our retreat today. It was really fun. We went to Kingfisher Safari Resort near Jinja. It was about an hour and a half bus ride and I talked to Caroline, one of the other USP girls, for a while. She’s really cool. She’s one of the girls I’ve talked to more here.
At the resort, we were staying in little individual huts. I was in one of the smallest rooms, about half the size of most of the other people’s rooms with Patsy, a UCU girl. She was pretty funny. We hung out a lot on Friday night, but not a ton after that. On Friday…we had dinner, did name games, and chilled. I went swimming. It was a little cold. The resort was really pretty. It’s right on Lake Victoria and I took some really pretty pictures, which I probably won’t upload until I get home. On Saturday, we had a fantastic breakfast. I had an omelet, sausage, cereal, and coffee. We did some more bonding games and then just had free time until lunch, which was also delicious. Then we had free time and they offered boat trips to the source of the Nile. It was pretty sweet. I heard from Annie, one of the interns, that they know it’s the source because it used to be a waterfall, flowing from Lake Victoria right into the Nile. But they dammed the river, so now it’s just a really funky current, because of the change in depth, and no waterfall. There’s a little island there and a giant rock thing that I climbed on top of. It was sweet. I got ants all over my hands climbing down though because they were all over. I took a ton of pictures with Emily. Some are weird, but some turned out really cool. Emily’s really awesome also. I went swimming Saturday afternoon again. I wasn’t going to; I was just going to put my feet again, but then I gave in. I like swimming. A lot. We had dinner around 7 and then watched Akeelah and the Bee. It was good. I liked it. After the movie, I showered (with hot water!) and went back out and watched some of the USP students playing poker. I played a couple different solitaire games, then started playing with the deck of cards. They were of the states. The highest numbers were the states with the highest populations (the aces were California, New York, Texas, and Florida and the 2s were Wyoming, DC, Puerto Rico, and Vermont). Then I alphabetized them and then I laid them all out on the table to make a US map. It took a while, because the cards didn’t have the actual state’s name on them, just a little map in the center and the state bird, flower, tree, and name (i.e. The Grand Canyon State) on the 4 sides. I was impressed with myself. By then it was about midnight, so I went to bed.
This morning, I woke up for breakfast and then we had a worship service. It was awesome. I really enjoyed it. One of the UCU students gave a message which, I confess, I didn’t pay too much attention to. I couldn’t really hear him a lot of the time, plus I was distracted looking for things in my Bible, which I think is stall an admirable thing to do in a church-type setting, right? I had to check out of my room right after that, so I finished packing my bag and put it in Kelsey’s room, because she didn’t have to check out until later. Then I walked down to the lake, then back up and sat by the pool for a while. One of the guys, Tim and the other intern Phil were playing guitar so I sat near-ish them and listened. Then I laid out on a deck chair right next to the pool and put my feet in. I’m not really a big fan of tanning, and I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, so I didn’t really get much sun. It’s good; a lot of the girls sun burnt this weekend and I’m still good. It was really nice to dress casually and feel more normal and more “American.” I wore jeans all weekend and a few different t-shirts and even a tank top. I know; it’s scandalous. Overall, it was good. I got to know some of the other UCU and USP students better and I think I know all the UCU girls’ names. There are way more guys and they’re harder to distinguish from each other, so I haven’t tried too hard to learn theirs. There are some really cool USP and UCU students.
I think my favorite class so far is Intro to Ugandan Politics. I’m already looking forward to it and it’s on Tuesday. It makes my whole week better. Tomorrow I have a lot of classes. I have a couple or a few on Tuesday also, but I would stay in Politics for much longer than our one hour. The course content is really interesting and I really like our professor. She’s American and she’s been here for about 4 years. I’m also excited to start my service learning thing – working in the daycare on-campus – this or next week. I’ve been missing kids. There were a lot at my homestay, but it was overwhelming at times. They all wanted all of your attention and there were (as there always are) somewhat annoying, pushy kids. There were also adorable ones though, so it was good. It’s a little weird to be back on campus, because I haven’t spent the night here in a couple weeks. That’s all I have for today. Vaya con Dios.

My walk to school

This morning was my last walk to school. I have generally enjoyed my walk to school in the mornings. Emily and I wake up around 6:30 and then get ready and have tea so we can leave our house at around 7. It's about a 45-50 minute walk to school and in the mornings, especially when we walk through the neighborhood, is fairly quiet and peaceful. It's also been cloudy for the whole 2 weeks, which is really nice. Walking home, it's much busier, with boda-bodas, taxi vans, and big cargo trucks driving right by us as we walk alongside the road. In the evenings, there are also many more people out at roadside stands selling food or other products. I don't enjoy our walk home as much.

Tonight, Honours College is going on a retreat to Jinja. The IMME (Missions emphasis; living off-camps with a family all semester) did their trip last weekend and I heard from Michelle that the resort is nice, with running water and a pool. We also take a boat trip out to the source of the Nile. I'm pretty excited.

I bought a UCU shirt yesterday. It's really comfortable. It's really loose, which is kind of nice because I don't really have any loose, casual t-shirts here.

Last night was my last night on my homestay. It was...good. I'm not heartbroken to be leaving my family and I'm glad to be back on campus and able to sleep in my dorm room and do homework at night, but I'll definitely miss my brothers and the kids from our neighborhood. I will definitely not miss the insistence that I eat more or that "I haven't eaten." Last night, my host mom insisted that I hadn't eaten one meal in the whole 2 weeks there. I did eat. Or at least I tried to. True, Emily tried more on many nights, but I tried to fill my stomach every night.

2 nights ago, I was not feeling well at all and my stomach had not agreed with anything I'd eaten that day. We had fish for dinner, so the only thing I ate was a forkful of rice. They couldn't understand that I wasn't hungry. They offered my coffee and tea and were wondering that I was going to bed "with an empty stomach." I told them that I had a lot of water if I wanted anything and they didn't accept that as a reasonable source of food. It's just a very different thought process. They generally eat dinner at around 9 or 10, bathe, and then go to bed. It's weird because at home we're always told to eat small portions and don't eat right before bed because the focus is on not gaining weight, but here it's good to fill your stomach because there are a lot of people living in poverty and obesity isn't really an issue.

I finished my first essay yesterday. It's 6 pages long, about 1.5 spacing, about 12 point font. However, the pages here are an inch longer, so I did have to adjust the paper size on my document, which was weird. It's for my East African History class, about stateless societies in pre-colonial Africa. I don't know if it's very good. I really only had a couple points, but I elaborated on them a lot to fill the space. And then I put in some quotes that said basically the same thing as other quotes and then explained/rephrased my quotes. I hope I do well. We only have 2 essays in the class, so each is worth about 20% of our grade. There just wasn't really a lot of information available or a lot to say on the topic.

The academic system and teaching style is also a lot different style. Uganda was colonized by the British, so a lot of things ae very similar. People have English-type accents, they use British English, a lot of students go to boarding school, they drive on the other side of the road and whatnot. Their school is set up with 7 years of primary school (P1-P7), which goes through about 6th grade. Then the students take this horrifically intense exam for admittance into secondary school. The test is basically rote memorization of everything they're learned in a bunch of different subjects over the past 7 years. Secondary school in 6 years (Senior 1-Senior 6). In the middle of this, when students are about 16, they take O-levels - to find out if they're even eligible/qualified for university. After secondary school, they take A-levels (I think), to graduate. University is generally only 3 years, but they have 3 terms each year. I'm here for the January semester, which started about 3 weeks ago and goes through April. A Master's is also 3 years (I think). Studentsin University don't have majors, they have courses. It was confusing when UCU students would ask "what course are you in?" or "what course do you offer?" because I think of a class as a course, so I'm in multiple courses. I've got it down now and I totally understand most things. Most of the time at least.

Well, I'm going to go and shower before lunch, after which I'm getting smoothies from the canteen with Emily! Then I don't know what I'm doing. I stil need to pack and then we leave at 5 tonight (it's 12:30 now). I hope you all are doing well and if you have Yahoo, I'll be on Sunday night, US time. My username is dolphinfrk2002. I also finally got 13 random pictures us on photobucket. They're not captioned or anything, but they're there. Vaya con Dios!

Pictures from Tuesday, 27-1-09

A bag of rice. They were really hard to untie, in case you were wondering.


Me sorting and rinsing beans


Sharon (in the back), Leticia and Jerry, Patricia, Jolie, and Sifa.


Leticia, Linda, Fred, Jerry, and Patricia.


Our Ugandan family. In the back are our parents, Godfrey and Faith and Joel (our cousin?). In front is Enoch (our brother), Emily, me, and David (no idea what his actual relation is, but I call him our brother).


Ugandan burritos!


Our room, my bed is the one on the left


The other half of our room. Those pots sitting on the floor, those fell at off the fridge in the middle of the night. Big fun. Also terrifying.


Emily, David, and Enoch playing cards and waiting for rice to cook. Jerry's the kid standing and watching. He tries to be in every single picture anyone ever takes.In the background in the woman who braided our mama's hair. They were out there with us the whole time. Mama made us bring the stove over right by her so she could give us instructions better.

Not exactly like I anticipated

Last night, Emily and I made dinner for our family. It was pretty fun. We decided last week to make burritos, because rice and beans are pretty easy to acquire and chapatti is tasty and easy to find also. We also got cheese, onions and peppers (which Emily sautéed), and made guacamole.
We were both done with class and lunch and such at about 2, so we left campus then. We went by our father’s workplace and our little brother was there, so he came with us. Emily had gone with a friend from UCU earlier to buy the veggies and beans from the market, so we just went to the supermarket are got rice, cheese, and spices. I also bought candy bars, which were delicious. We got the chapattis from a vendor right around the corner from our house. The first step in making Ugandan burritos is to clean the beans. We had to sort through them and pick out any grass or small rocks, then put them in water to rinse. We then had to rinse them again and then put them in a pot and over a fire to cook for a few hours. We started on the rice next: put a bag and a half (which was way too much) into a pot with a bunch of water and some oil, salt, spices, and Tabasco sauce and put it over the charcoal “stove.” The stove was like a little pot with charcoal embers. It cooked a lot slower than the actual fire with the beans. We cooked and stirred and added stuff to the rice for a while. It was cool. Our brothers laughed at us a lot. When the rice was almost done cooking, Emily went inside to chop up the veggies in peace, because we were outside cooking for most of this and our mom and our brothers kept telling us what to do and whatnot. It was good, because we didn’t really know what we were doing, but also not the most fun thing ever. When the beans were done cooking, Enoch (our brother) brought out the beans and drained the sauce out of them (their beans look similar to baked beans, but taste a lot different). When we told him not to put the sauce back after they’d cooked over the charcoal stove and we’d added some onion to them, he looked at us like we were crazy. They were a petty similar texture to refried beans, which is what we were going for. After that stuff was done, Emily sautéed the veggies, I chopped up cheese, and we made guacamole. Then we had a break, then we had our tea with dinner, since dinner was ready early and tea wasn’t ready until late (about 8:30).
I think they liked it. They all thanked us a lot and loaded up on the food, which they always do. It was a little blander than I’m used to, but the rice here is usually bland. The sauce that we drained from the beans generally has all the flavor in it. It took us a long time to make our food, but it was a good afternoon. We took a bunch of pictures, of us preparing the food and of the food at various stages, and a couple pictures of our family. It hasn’t rained since 2 nights ago, when it poured for a long time, but it’s pretty cloudy out right now. It was really sunny yesterday when we were out making food. My contacts are faring well here now, better than they do at home.
Our homestays are done after tomorrow night; Friday we come to school and bring all of our stuff with us. Then we leave at 5 to go on Honours College Retreat! We’re going to Jinja, which is an hour or so north of Kampala (it’s on maps of Uganda). It’s the source of the Nile. We’re going to be staying in a resort there, which I heard has running water and a pool, so I’m pretty excited. And because I get to dress casually. That’ll be sweet. I like skirts, but not wearing them all the time. I hope you all are doing awesome at home or wherever. I would really love to hear from you although I may be slow in replying. I’m online at least a couple times a week, but that depends on the Internet and whatnot. I am, overall, enjoying Uganda although there are definitely ups and downs. I’ll be glad when I don’t have to walk uphill 45 minutes to school every day. Vaya con Dios.

Sunshine on rainy days

It's raining today. It was raining for my whole walk from my house to school. I was glad that I had my umbrella. I don't really have anything to say right now. I have a lot of things written down to tell you all about, but now I just want to look at the rain. I'll put a few pictures up. Vaya con Dios.

My Class Schedule

Monday:
-East African History (11-1)
-Contemporary Issues Seminar (2-3)
-African Literature (3-4)
-New Testament tutorial (5-7)

Tuesday:
-East African History (8:30-9:30)
-Intro to Ugandan Politics (9:30-10:30)
-Faith and Action (11-12)
-Community Worship (12-1)

Wednesday:
-New Testament (11-1)

Thursday:
-Community Worship (12-1)
-African Literature (2-4)

Friday:
-Intro to Ugandan Politics (8:30-10:30)
-Faith and Action (11-1)

Fearless, astonished, and amazed

Our Internet at school has been really funky, on and off randomly, lately. It’s a little annoying. But other than that, I’m doing well. I like almost all of my classes, I like my family more, and my homestay roommate is pretty awesome. We got rolexes this morning (it’s like a 1-egg omelet with onion and tomato rolled up in a chipatte). It was delicious. Last night we went to a graduation party at our uncle’s house. It was crazy. There were, I think, 3 or 4 university graduates and 4 business school graduates. It was really elaborate; all the girls attending were in really nice prom-like dresses. There was a cake for each group of graduates and a formal deal for them cutting the cake. There were about 200 people there, our host father said. There was also a huge line to present gifts. One of the graudates stodd to accept them all and they were piled really high on a table. Emily and I were sitting by ourselves, with our friend Kya’s host mom and sometimes with our host father. We each got a bottle of Coke and a small piece of cake. It was a little weird sitting by ourselves at this table when everyone else was sitting in chairs facing the graduates. We were in some sort of place of honor.
After a while, we went inside James’ house and ate dinner. It was cool. We watched the end of Obama’s inauguration, basically starting when some Reverend was praying. We got to eat normal sized portions; they didn’t even force huge amounts of food on us like they do normally. After we ate, we went back outside. The kids swarmed us again and I talked to my older host brother Samuel. Then our mom dragged us into a circle and we danced in a line of the women. It was pretty sweet. We went home around 8:30 or 9 and they basically told us we could/should go to bed. So we brushed our teeth and got into bed. I journaled for a little while and then finished reading Matthew. Emily got to talk to Andrew, her boyfriend. When we went to bed, the party was still going and we could hear the music pretty clearly from our house, which is probably…4 or 6 blocks from James’ house. The streets don’t run in a grid like Phoenix and we take little shortcut paths everywhere, so I have no idea what the real distance is, but far enough that the music had to be really loud to reach us. I think it also helps that there isn’t really any other noise pollution, so the one loud thing going on could be heard for a long ways.
Some other random notes on my homestay over the past few days:
-The food here is pretty up and down. We has pineapple with one meal, which was delicious. Yesterday after we got home from school, we had samusas (no ideas how it’s actually spelled, but that’s close to how it sounds) with our tea and this morning, like I mentioned, we had rolexes. A woman in the neighborhood (Mama Eddie) gave Emily and me each a sugarcane piece on Sunday and that was interesting. You peel off the outer shell, then basically chew on the sugar cane part. You chew to squeeze out the juice and then spit out the filament part. It’s weird, but it was pretty tasty. We also had fish, which was surprisingly not horrible. A lot of the meat tends to have a lot of fat on it, so it’s not tasty. Some other foods: jackfruit (it’s really sweet and the texture is really slimy), matoke (they take unripe/green bananas and cut them out of the peel then steam it in banana leaves. Some people like it, but I do not), posho, Irish potatoes (one of my favorite foods here).
-Do you remember when you went on field trips in elementary school and any time a semi-truck passed by, everyone tried to get the driver to honk? A lot of the time walking around here, I feel like the semitruck driver. The kids all yell mzungu at as anywhere we go and they say hi or hello or how are you and they love when we wave back or say something to them.
-There are a lot of kids that I see around my house, but there are a few that are super adorable. First, the baby Eric. He’s less than a year old and he likes Emily and me. He’s adorable. Next, Leticia and Linda. They’re about 2 or 3 and they’re scared or Emily and me. They love to run up near us and say hi mzungo!, then run away when we wave or say hi to them. Third, Fred and non-Fred. There’s a little boy (3 or 4) who lives near us and he’s really cute. He doesn’t know English, but he likes to sit next to me. I like him because he’s not crazy and swarming me all the time like a lot of the other kids. It’s nice. At the graduation last night, there was a little boy who was about the same age as Fred who looked like him. He was funny too. He kept looking over at Emily and I and would dance around when he saw Emily and me dancing. Of the older kids, there’s an adorable girl named Patricia (about 7) with braids, a girl named Sifa, who’s missing her 2 front teeth, and Emmy, who has a rounder face. There’s also Faith (10 or so), who lives with us. She doesn’t know a lot of English and she’s pretty shy, but really cute also. I took my sweatshirt to the graduation party last night, but didn’t end up wearing it. At one point, I put the hood over her head and then I got dragged into dancing and she put my sweatshirt on and wore it for a little while.
-Africans identify and distinguish between people differently than we do. Our host father mentioned seeing another girl in our group and I asked something about her hair. He didn’t know, but I mentioned that she’d been wearing a green shirt and skirt and he immediately knew. I think it’s because everyone has basically the same hair color and a lot of people, especially the guys and the kids don’t really have any hair. With the kids, that can make it difficult to distinguish gender, which always makes me feel bad.
Today Emily and I are going into town with our host father to get dresses made. On Sunday, we’re going to a family reunion-type deal. It’s going to be pretty cool. Then next weekend, we’re going to Jinja, the source of the Nile! I’m excited for that one. I’m going to sign off now, or at least stop typing. Vaya con Dios.

No weapon forged against me shall remain

My first purchase here: some shell earrings.


I also bought these sandals.


Right behind my dorm is Monkey Hill. Monkeys live there.


My friend Agatha who lives across the hall. She walked up to Monkey Hill with me.


This is me, on probably the first afternoon I left my hair down for any length of time.


The sun set as we walked back down Monkey Hill.


The view from the front porch of my dorm. To the right is Winfred Brown hall, to the left is Thelma Horsey, like a lounge/hangout-type deal, and straight down is Rachel Hal, one of the boys' dorms. The other boys' dorm, Florence, is below that.


Most of the USP on-campus girls.


Caroline with her soda bottle.


Our dance party in Thelma Horsey.


I never really know what to say, what I want people to know or what I want to remember about this time later on. I feel like I'll remember a lot, but I know that I probably won't. But there's so much going on, so much going through my head, so many things that are new or changing - it would take too much space and I don't have to patience to type out everything. I do write notes in my journal of things to include, so that I remember.
One of the side effects of my malaria medicine is vivid dreams. I was hoping to not have any of the negative side effects, but I've been having weird dreams for most of the last 5 or 6 nights. I have a lot of dreams every night and they're just...weird. They're a little closer to reality than my normal dreams so it generally takes me a little while to know that it's not real. The first night I had them, I had a dream that a tidal wave hit California. There was more to it, with escaping and some guys who I don't actually know dropped some sort of explosive into the ocean to start the tidal wave, but whatever. I woke up after it and later ha another dream that the tidal wave one was actually real. It's just bizarre.
I started my homestay on Saturday morning. I'm with Emily, who's from Maryland. She lives in the girls' dorm Sabiiti. Our house parents are Faith an Godfrey Bayinde. They have 5 kids, the oldest 4 are away in universities and the youngest is a 14-year old boy named Anok. There are a unch of kids in the neighborhood though and they really like Emily and I. They enjoy trying to teach us Lugandan and laughing when we try to say things. I wrote down a bunch of words in my journal. Our house does have electricity, but not running water. For our bathroom, we have a pit latrine. It's basically a hole in the ground. It's cement that we stand on and a rectangular hole in the ground that we squat over. It's very different. For our showers, they fill up a shallow basin/tub with water and take us out to the bathing room (like a stall with no door and 3 walls that go about up to my armpits). That's different also. I'm not sure what I think about my house parents. Faith just laughs at us a lot and Godfrey is pretty intimidating. I like the kids and one of their older sons Stanley was over yesterday and we talked with him for a while. We also got to talk to their oldest, Betty. She's an engineering major, like Emily. They were pretty cool. It was good to talk to someone here who's close to our own age. I am really glad that I'm with someone. I think I would be very overwhelmed if I was alone.
Our house is a few different buildings. The toilet/bathing room is separate - not far away, but not attached to the main house. Then there's the cooking house, and attached to that is what I think is where our parents sleep. In the main house, there's a living room, a dining room, the room where 2 girls, both named Faith, sleep (I don't know exactly how they're related but they're similar to maids, but are nieces or something), and our room. Our room has 1 really bright light bulb and no windows so it's really hot, all the time. Emily and I have to have mosquito nets. They basically look like a little tent that covers about the upper 2/3 of my body and they netting that drapes over to the end of my bed. Anok and another boy named David who lives there stay in a house across the street. Across the street, there's a bunch of banana trees and some chickens who wander around and a couple of pigs in cages.
We went to church yesterday and then sat around and rested alternately (which is basically what we did on Saturday too). I learned some clapping games from some of the girls, we played a board game for a while, and jumped rope. I had my camera out at one point and they all swarmed me. I put it away pretty quickly. Overall, it wasn't a bad weekend. I'm glad I'm with Emily - she's also in a relationship, so it's good to talk to her about different things. I don't know if I would have really gotten to talk to her if we weren't together in this. Someone nearby has a little baby named Eric and he's really cute. We liked holding him, but I think at some point he peed (they don't wear diapers), so that wasn't as awesome. I liked talking to Stanley and Betty, about Uganda and university and their government. It was really interesting. I like some of the kids too. I don't really like when they all crowd around us, but there are some really cute ones. Anok and David are funny. A couple of the younger kids (like 2 or 3) are really funny. They're scared of Emily and me, so they'll come up closer and wave at us and when we wave or say hi they laugh and run away. They like if I chase them, but not if I catch one of them. I am gad to be back at school. I think I might take a nap today. We don't have supper until about 9 or 10 and Emily and I basically go straight to sleep after that. I'll be glad to see other people from USP, other people my age and whatnot. I think that's all for today. There's a lot more I want to share, but maybe another day. Vaya con Dios.