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.