Rafting through Uganda

Its been a while! Sorry for the delay, the internet is sketchy at times but mostly I’m busy enjoying my time here and forget to sit down and write it all down.

Here are some highlights from the last couple of weeks:

I went white water rafting and bungee jumping on the Nile River with my friends and it was a blast! I have never seen rapids so big nor did I think I would be rafting through them. Our guide was named Roberto and he really took care of the crew. On the calm parts of the river we were able to get out and swim with the current, it was so cool! I only saw like 2 or 3 crocs while I was swimming and I think they are friendly in Uganda anyway….

Bungee jumping was truly wild. My good friend Kayla and I went together. This was nice because we both had someone to squeeze on to. We went first, so we had no idea what to expect. The guys secured us up and told us to start inching towards the edge….having your toes on the edge of a bungee tower knowing you are going to jump off any second is quite the feeling. So they counted to three and I am pretty sure we jumped. It went by amazingly fast, and Kayla and I had a chance to chat while we were hanging upside down over the Nile River…good times!

Bungee Jumping!

Things are awesome at St. Peters CDC where I am doing my internship! In the past week we have been doing village health inspections where we go around our town, Lugazi and look at the hygiene and sanitation of each of our client’s homes. At first it was really hard for me to tell what a clean home was here in Uganda because the homes look so different. Most of the homes are 1 or 2 rooms. They will have a curtain separating the living space and sleeping space and most often people cook outside. The floors and walls are usually made of cement and the roof is made of metal. At first glance, it can look dirty but clean is clean anywhere in the world. If the floors are swept, things are in order, the dishes are done, there is a properly placed latrine (bathroom) around the home, it’s legit! Many of the homes we visit do struggle with hygiene because of a lack of resources, education or emotional distress.

A couple of weeks ago, I lead a class and showed 6 mothers and 1 father how to make bread using the wood fired oven we have at our site. I was seriously nervous because I had never used a wood fired oven, but after a little bit of research and a lot of prayer, things went really well! We mixed the ingredients, kneaded the dough, let it rise and baked it up! The caregivers were able to take home a few loaves of bread to their families, so now they can start a mega-bakery and take over the world.

Benita and I on a home visit!

I honestly have grown to love my internship so much! The people there are just amazing and I love the message we send to our caregivers. Most of mothers and children we serve are going through vulnerable times in their lives. Many of the mothers do have husbands, but they are absent, abusive or unfaithful so they look to each other and their community for support. I have learned that the African woman is strong. Even where there are many things working against them such as poverty, oppression and lack of education, they still prosper and come together as one. I have seen it with my own two eyes! I am so thankful for the time I have spent at St. Peters, and seriously cannot believe I only have 3 weeks left…time flies!

Uganda Christian University hosts a lot of international students. Most of them come from different countries around Africa, so to celebrate all of the different cultures, last week was International Student Week. My Uganda besties (Kayla, Kerri and Jordyn) and I sort of got put in charge of cooking for the day where everyone tasted each other’s food. We wanted to go all American so we made Mac and Cheese and Dirt Cups (pudding, fake Oreos and gummy bears). When we arrived with our dish, our presence was being announced over the PA system and people swarmed our tent. The next 15 minutes was seriously crazy as we were dishing out Mac and Cheese like it was our jobs…After everything calmed down we were able to try foods from Kenya, Nigeria, and Sudan. We ended the day with dancing, a whole lot of pictures with people we don’t know in front of the American flag and just hanging out with our fellow students.

I only have 1 month left, and its crazy! 2 weeks left on campus, and then we head to Rwanda for 10 days and back to Entebbe, where I first met Uganda 3 months ago.

Happy Easter to all, He is risen!!

Cherotich Katie Green

Cherotich Katie Green...my new village name! This week I stayed in a rural village of Uganda called Kapchorwra. It was beautiful! I know I have said that about all of Uganda, but I really mean it this time. The air was literally pure. I was surrounded by green, cows, and coffee plants. The family I stayed with didn't have electricity and they totally rocked that lifestyle out! I’m considering going electricity free when I get back to America just to make a statement.

I spent the week exploring the hills and mountains, participating in household chores like washing dishes, peeling matooke (unripe bananas….seriously sticky!), fetching water, and walking to go get passion fruit. I also spent a lot of time sitting drinking tea and wondering how I got so lucky.

I've got a log on my head, but don't call me a log head.

Some of the moments this week when I asked myself “Is this real life?”: When I was walking through the banana plantations of Africa with a machete hacking down banana leaves, every morning when I would go to bathe and go outside instead of inside, when I was sawing the head off of a chicken, carrying water on my head and having tons of little Ugandan kids following me laughing at me because their jerry can was double the size of mine, sitting on a rock under a waterfall on top of a mountain, wondering if I was going to fall through the pit latrine (outdoor bathroom ) and have to yell for someone to pull me out of a pile of shit..

This week really just confirmed my theory that life is just a series of communities. Sometimes they last for a lifetime, sometimes a year or semester or a week. Kapchorwra was my community this week and they really made me feel like home.

This is how fast I can run in 2 seconds.

I met so many people and it was awesome. There were many times when I would just end up having tea or a meal with someone random.. a friend of the family who heard there was a visitor, someone who invited us over, or just  someone who happen to  be walking to the forest too.

This is my rural village family!! Patrick, Joy, Immaculate, Karen and Esther. Immaculate was 20 and who I hung out with most of the time. She took me around town, climbing mountains, hanging out with people and running random errands. She rocks! Immaculate has a daughter Esther, and she is a really great Mom. Esther always wanted to be doing what Mom was doing including work with the machete…I never thought I would see a 2 year old more confident with a knife than I am.

This is host family! Patrick, Joy, Immaculate, Esther, and Karen.

Patrick seriously loved my head lamp. I would catch him playing with it whenever I had it out
one night he just straight up put it on! I loved it.

Both of my host parents were teachers and I was able to visit both of their schools…it was sweet! I loved meeting the teachers of Uganda and see what they are all about. I’m going to be straight up…Ugandan teachers are over worked and underpaid. My host Mom had almost 100 kids in her class and was with one other teacher…what a powerful lady!

This is one of the classes I spoke to about the US of A!

At one of the schools I went around to different classrooms and the kids asked me questions about America. It was great! They asked questions like: Do you also dig in America? What do you eat? Where is Obama from? Is it hilly in America? Are there poor people in America? How old are you? When are you going to be married? What crops do you grow? Can you sing us a song? I had a lot of fun answering the questions.

This was my posse for the week. They followed me around, and really just wanted to hang out!

This week made me love, appreciate and miss my family back home. You guys are so much a part of this journey! I wish you could have been there this week when I was surrounded by 50 or 60 Ugandan kids and they all asked for your names because they wanted to know my family! I told them I have a Dad named Bruce (and they all yelled BRUCEEEEEE!)  a Mom named Stacey (STACEYYYY), a sister named Megan (MEGANNNNN) and a Brother named Brian (BRIANNNN!)  You are here. Because these beautiful people consider me family, you now have family here in Africa who are praying for us! There are so many people who want to meet you and love you already. My host family from this week greets you, sends blessings to you and asked me to thank you for producing me.

Nice time!

Livin' the Mukono Life

Yesterday marked one month since I boarded the plane in Chicago. One month since I was eating Chili's with Mom, Dad and Alison, one month ago I had to wear my gloves outside because of the cold, and one month ago- I literally had no idea what the Uganda had in store for me. I have been so blessed thus far and am totally lovin' life!

For the past two weeks I have been staying with a family in the town of Mukono. I got to experience what home life is like for the average Ugandan! I was placed with the best family ever and seriously had a blast. In the matter of a day or two I felt like a part of the family and even helped with the household chores (Or they flattered me into thinking I was helping haha).

Some things my family laughed at me about: The way I cut tomatoes like I need a cutting board, my lack of skill when it comes to peeling potatoes with a dull knife, my hands being soft like a baby's bottom which means I can't pick up hot things off of the stove, onions making me cry, how I befriended the dogs (people usually don't keep dogs as pets here), how I got lost on my way home from school my third day after I had made it there just fine the previous night and even that same morning, when I called a bun a roll (bread), and the fact that I needed to use a cup to bathe (most Ugandans are able to cup their hands in a perfectly aerodynamic way to achieve a prime bathing experience).
My family includes my host mom Sara, my dad who we called Dad-dee (Daddy), my brothers Alan and Sula and sisters, Nanja and Brianna. Each of them are very cool people and were so fun to spend time with!

Nanja!

This is Nanja! She showed me a lot of what I learned in the home and was constantly serving me and making sure I was as comfortable as possible. Nanja is deaf, so it has been a cool experience figuring out how to communicate with her. I have learned the basics like food, school, bath, dishes, tea, telephone, and mosquitoes, but mostly we communicated by pointing, thumbs up and down and facial expressions. I have been seriously amazed by Nanja. She is such a hard worker, always seems to be in the right place at the right time and seriously has the most beautiful spirit. One of the nights Nanja was able to stay on campus with me and we hung out, bought street food for dinner and she made dance videos on my computer (one was like 11 minutes long...the girl loves to dance!) it was fun.
My host mom Sara is just another great example of what being a great mom is all about. A lot like my own Mom back in America, Sara is down to earth, willing to laugh and is a very talented cook! I was constantly amazed how she was able to use the same 10 ingredients at pretty much every meal and make it delicious every time. The labor and time that goes into cooking here in Uganda is wild. There is no such thing as meals in 30 minutes or less.

My host Mom and I hanging out in the kitchen!

 On Thursday night I decided to cook my family an "American" meal. I was seriously nervous because my family uses a coal stove and I was feeling under prepared but I decided to rock it out anyway! I decided I would make guacamole as an appetizer (crushed avocado, tomato, salt, onion, garlic and the lemon/lime thing they have here) and spaghetti for dinner. The guacamole turned out really well. Tortilla chips are not common here, so I just served it with potato chips and they really liked it! The spaghetti was sort of another story. I used store bought tomato paste, and tried to make a sauce out of it by adding some other veggies and water. I found out later that I should have added sugar to counter the bitter taste, but that's not how it went when I cooked. The taste of the sauce was not enjoyable but my host family ate it anyway, the boys even took seconds! I love to cook, so it was painful serving something that was not up to par, but so is life!
I honestly loved just doing life with my host family. Hanging out, cooking, peeling, cleaning, watching TV, talking, dancing, and even just sitting. I feel so blessed to have had this experience and am definitely going to be spending time with them throughout the semester. Now I am back on campus living the UCU life!

Alan enjoying some guacamole!

Last night we went to see Judith Barbirye (popular gospel artist) with some of our friends from USP and my co-worker from my internship, Lydia! We showed up at the concert at 7, but found out it didn't start until 10 so we just had a few hours of quality time dancing, playing pool and drinking coke from a glass bottle. Concerts in Uganda commonly last until 1 or 2 in the morning, so we had to leave before Judith came on but it was a chill night hangin' on a rooftop with good friends under the stars in Uganda.

Seminar of a Lifetime!

Have you even been to a seminar in America? They can be very informative and helpful but are not always the most exciting thing. They probably have everything planned out to a tee. The keynote speaker, the band (if there is one),  the individual who is going to dismiss everyone for lunch, what time lunch is, and chances are they will begin within ten minutes of the projected start time.

That’s not how it goes here. I just got back from the Child Protection and Safety Seminar and for all of you math majors out there, Uganda Seminars > American Seminars.

This seminar was full of dance, praise, laughter, genuine people, and issues both prominent and important to the community. I knew things were going well when we did a dancing train around the conference room as our post-lunch energizer.

It was a three day seminar, so the first day, it was decided who would do what. The group decided who the facilitator (or MC) would be each day, who would be the time keeper, the band, who would be the scribe and who would keep track of when tea and meals were ready. They didn’t stress about these things before hand but instead trusted that people would utilize the gifts God has given and just let it be, baby! It was really refreshing. I think when we slow down it becomes easier to appreciate the beauty in the people and places around us.

If you are a social work student studying abroad, this is basically a dream come true. As I mentioned in my last blog, St. Peters, (not St. Andrews haha) the sight I am working at is a branch of Compassion International. So this seminar was a group of about 70 Compassion workers from around our area who are currently working in Child Protection.

 I went with three other American USP students, and we were able to see the core issues of child abuse from the workers themselves. Whether it be lack of reporting in the community, trouble within the system or even just a lack of understanding from the parents, many of the issues were universal and things we deal with in the United States.

Some of the topics covered in the seminar were: the effects of child abuse, international instruments available to Uganda regarding the protection of children, biblical foundations of child protection, child protection from a police officer’s perspective, responding to abuse, preventing child abuse and the role of parenting in the prevention of child abuse.

The best part of the seminar was all of the great people who welcomed us. Today marks two weeks since I left the airport in America and since I have arrived I have been warmly welcomed by so many people!

My new friend Grace sat next to me on the first day and took me in. She is truly beautiful and has one of the greatest smiles. She would explain things to me when they were hard for me to understand, laugh with me and shared with me her passion for protecting children in the community. It was sad to say goodbye, but hopefully I can visit her Compassion sight sometime this semester! Thank you Grace for sharing tea, lunch and life with me!

The next two weeks I will be staying with a host family in Mukono. Its been great so far! Stay tuned J

Greetings from Uganda!

The air is fresh, the pineapple is sweet and the grass is greener than I could have ever imagined. I have arrived to Uganda safely and I feel honored to be able to make this place my home for the next four months.

My plane ride was good. I lost the motion sickness wrist bands my parents gave me I had so I tried to sleep a majority of the ride (don’t worry Mom and Dad I found them yesterday in my bag!) It was fun maneuvering the different airports knowing my final destination was Africa! It was long but the classiness of Brussels Airline really made up for any time lost.

For those of you who do not know, I am doing my senior social work internship through the Uganda Studies Program in the city of Mukono, Uganda. I will be here for the next four months trying to figure out the culture, making Ugandan friends and hopefully rocking out my internship! I am staying at Uganda Christian University living in the dorms, so I will get that legit Ugandan college experience everyone dreams of when they are young.

I have been here for four days and I really have been in awe the whole time. I have seen so many new things in the past four days, its quite amazing. The culture is different here and will take some adjusting to but the heart of Uganda is pure, genuine and warm.

Our first full day here we were in Entebbe staying at a nunnery. We decided to go exploring and see what local life was like. We walked around the village and saw kids, huts, cows, and beautiful people. Many of the locals waved to us after we waved first. The kids were not shy so they would yell “Muzungu!”  and wave to us. Muzungu has a few meanings; it could be just white person, rich white person, or dumb white person. Really, I have fit under all three categories at some point in time. We spent time with some of the kids for quite a while and when it was time to go we held hands with them and carried their water jugs back to their home. I loved them.

I found out my internship yesterday and I am beyond excited! I will be working with a site called St. Peters (I still have to get the full name haha) which is a branch of Compassion International. I will be working in the Child Survival branch in the before and after care of pregnant women in the community. My first day is tomorrow; I’m feeling excited/nervous/curious and straight up blessed to be working with this population.

It is mango season in Uganda!! I had never tried a TRULY fresh mango, so yesterday I went with a group of USP students to go looking for mangos after class. When we were standing by the mango tree probably looking lost and confused, trying to figure out what mangos we could eat. We met a local guy walking by who told us we were welcome to the mangos. He then asked the people who were shaking the branches to share their mangos, they did and they were delicious! So sweet, right off the tree and full of flavor. One of the students later told us that only the weird people on campus eat the mangos off the tree….so I probably will buy my mangos from the market from now on.

I can now see why people love Africa so much. I can understand why Alison talks about Uganda in 65-80% of her conversations. I can see the heartbreak, poverty, and hurt which is countered by the hope and inspiration of the people. Right now I understand so little, if anything about this country, but I am looking forward to what kind of adventures come my way.