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!