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.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
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 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.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
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.
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.
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