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.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
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.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
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.
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.
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