December has come...

Today is December 1st. How crazy is that? I honestly feel like it was last week that I flew into this new country on an airplane not 100 days ago. And I am honestly far from ready to leave.

Uganda is so different than anywhere I have ever lived before. In my mind I thought it would be about the same as Morocco. Although it does have similarities it itself is a whole other world.

Two weeks from today at about one in the morning I get on an airplane. I fly to Amsterdam, then to DC, and then to Atlanta.

I am excited to see my sister and my family. I cannot deny that, but I am far from ready to leave this beautiful country.

Everyday has not been easy. I hate cold showers, I hate that I am continually gaining weight from the food I eat, I hate how men hit on you because you are white, and I hate when I cannot understand the language.

Other than those fairly insignificant things I am far from ready to leave.

The community and simple living that has developed here is far from anything else I have ever experienced. When 32 people move to a 'foreign' country together they have no choice but bond together simply for survival.

The people I have met here amaze me. I have literally gained five sisters who are my family. And everyone else I love so much. All 32. Granted when you are all together you will get on each other's nerves now and then, but we really really love each other. We have all come together in a way I have seen few people do before. I honestly trust them all. I know if something was to happen they would be there for me. When I was in the US I always felt like I had maybe 2 or 3 friends that I could REALLY depend on at school. Why is that? Why can we not develop that kind of love, trust, and community in a college environment in the US?

I am not ready to come 'home' and I just felt I should tell everyone that now before I actually get back. I am not ready to leave the people I have here and simple living to go back to mass consumerism and a community I do not feel at home in. I am nervous about adjusting back to VFCC, and getting back in the midst of everything that the entails.

I know I can do it, I have before, but I am not ready to. Although I knew in the beginning that this was a semester event... I am not ready for it to be over.

I love it here.

Thanksgiving

Although I am in Uganda we did have Thanksgiving. All the ex-pats and USP students in the area got together.

We were in charge of the deserts. So Wednesday night me and four of my dear friends got together and made apple pies. It was so much fun!

Thursday we all got together to have dinner. There was so much food. We all ate SO much we felt sick and could barely stand. And then we watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It was so much fun.

Being here made me really see everything that I am truly thankful for.

First my family. Both immediate and extended they mean the world to me. They have always been there and been the most amazing blend of people and love that I have ever met. I love them so much.

Second my chance to come here. I love Uganda and I love Africa. I am far from ready to leave in two weeks and would love to stay here. I love my friends so much and the community we have developed. I love my five 'sisters', my family that I have gained here.

Third I am thankful for the life I got to live. It was not always easy and there were days that were not fun. But at the end of it I am so thankful to my parents for giving me a life like few others get.

Fourthly I am thankful for my friends everywhere. I love them all so much. We have our up and downs, but at the end of the day I would do anything for them. I could sit here and list off so many people that this includes but you know who you are... You mean the world to me.

Lastly I am thankful for Phil. He has been my best friend for a long time, and walked into my life at one of my worst moments and stood by me through everything.

(I would have liked to have made all this more extensive but I have somewhere to be. I love you all and I am excited to see people soon!)

Goodbye my dears.

Goodbyes are never easy and something I probably struggle with more than most people. I absolutely HATE leaving people and saying goodbye to pretty much anyone.

This past Tuesday was my last day at CHAIN. My practicum. Although parts of this, like the school, were easy to leave, leaving my kids was awful. I have come to love them so much, and walking away from those kids I have spent the last three months getting to know, and knowing that I will more than likely never see again was awful.

While were there Tuesday we mostly just played with the kids. We did have a time where we went over our assessments with Dorthy and talked to her about what we knew about CHAIN and what not. Oh in case anyone wanted to know CHAIN stands for Children Health Advocacy Initiative Network.

We went to devotions to tell the kids goodbyes, but our van pulls up before we even get to say goodbye. Since there was not time for everyone to talk Alayna said a few things about how we loved them and would miss them and how much we enjoyed our time with them this semester. Then we give a lot of them hugs and are on the verge of tears, when Becky shows up bleeding everywhere. The dog from an organization across the street is our dog’s ‘husband’ and attacked her when she was petting the CHAIN dog. She is having to get rabies shots and got stiches in her hand and knee. So if you could keep her in your prayers that would be great!

So even though becky stole the show… haha… we had a pretty good goodbye with our kids. I miss them so much and I hate that we had to leave them, and I do hope that the all do great things. They are such great kids. Please keep them in your prayers as well. They are so amazing.

Amazing Safari Adventure

Last Thursday a group of six of us headed off to a Safari. We took a taxi to Kampala and went to the Red Chili Hideaway where we stayed the night. We had dinner and some people played scrabble and then we went to bed. We stayed in a dormitory where the six of us stayed in bunk beds with other people in the opposite room and we all shared a bathroom. We got up at 7 the next day to eat our bread and peanut butter that we brought with us and went outside to be prepped. We got in our safari van and began the drive to Murchison Falls. About 2 hours into it we picked up two other people to add to our van. We ate lunch in Masindi and then headed out again. We got to our campsite – the Red Chili Rest Camp – in Murchison Falls National Park and got to spend the rest of the day hanging out.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing cards and eating a ton of beef jerky and amazing trail mix. We had a great dinner and went to bed super early. That night though we did get to see a hippo in our camp!

The next morning we got up at 5:45 am ate our bread and peanut butter, watched the sunrise, and got in our safari van. They had put the roof up and we drove down to the Nile .We crossed over on the ferry and then began our Safari!!

I expected to only get to see patches of animals here and there. We literally almost always had some sort of animal in sight. There were giraffes everywhere it was amazing.

On the land safari we saw pumbas, giraffes, aldabeasts, elephants, other deer gazelle looking things, buffalo, hippo, some birds, and a couple jackals.

At one point they let everyone get out of the van in case they need to pee, and so that we could get up closer to the hippos. While we were looking at them some fisher boys were paddling their boat towards them and they all started moving! Hippos are seriously HUGE. Then we got to see a momma hippo and her baby walking around. It was so cute!

At another point Alayna and I jumped off of the van (we were sitting in the front/back outside of the actual back) with the permission of our guide of course and tried to get closer to the giraffes. Obviously they were scared of us although I am not really sure why they are obviously way bigger than any of us are! But it was SO amazing to just like be in such a close proximity to such an incredible animal! We were basically running with them!

After our land safari we went back to our campsite and ate lunch and took naps in our crazy hot tents. About 1:30 we got up and got ready to go on our boat Safari. We drove down to the Nile and got on a boat. I sat up in the front so that I could take pictures the whole time!

It was not the most exciting thing ever, but we saw lots of crocodiles, hippos, and birds. On the way back we saw elephants down at the Nile. There was a whole herd, including two babies!! It was one of the coolest things everrrr!!

That night we hung out together talking and staying up late. Becky (my tent mate) and I decided to scare the others while they were in the bathroom. We climbed under their beds until they walked back in and grabbed their legs. Then all four of us went to the other tent to scare the last two. It was hilarious!

The next day before we had to head back we hiked up to Murchison Falls. It was one of the most beautiful sites here. It made me fall in love with Africa and Uganda even more. We hiked to a point where you just got soaked from the mist spraying up and then hiked all the way up to one of the falls where you literally could of just walked right in. It would have killed you in seconds though. It was so incredible powerful and beautiful. There was a constant rainbow over it, that was just so incredible to see.

Then we drove back. It was hands down one of the best weekends that I have had here. So so amazing!

You can see all my safari pictures on facebook by clicking this link - you do NOT have to have facebook to view them!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=245958&id=649925770&l=93b172eb95

Musana Camps!

This blog is late, I am way behind on them!

Last weekend my roommate Lindsay, Alayna, Grace, and I went to Musana Camps. It is run by Lindsay's old camp director and they are setting it up to run in Uganda.

It was really neat to visit. We spent Saturday night and all day Sunday there.

We got in fairly late Saturday night and helped them unload groceries and were met with beautiful homemade bread.

We stayed in safari tents on mattresses more comfortable than the ones we sleep on at school. We smushed our beds together and had so much fun together.

Sunday we got to tour the camp and Dave told us all about what was going on and what they wanted to do. We got to eat real food all weekend and swim in Lake Victoria.

Lake Victoria is pretty disgusting but it was still super fun! Lindsay and I got sick afterwards. We are not sure why but spent Monday sleeping, drinking Sprite, and eating crackers and were as good as new! It was a great weekend!

Is home really where your heart is?

I have been thinking about a lot of different things lately as my time here dwindles down. One is that I am not ready to leave Uganda in 5 weeks. Part of me is, in the sense that I miss my friends and family. In the same moment I am not ready to leave my friends here, to leave this amazing semester and country and continent that I love so much.

It is hard to explain all my feelings towards the matter. I realized it all yesterday though at my practicum. I was sitting with about 10 kids, one was HIV positive, about 5 were blind, and obviously all had been abandoned in some way, shape or form. As sarah just laid her head on my lap and we talked to them all, I felt so helpless like I could do nothing. And in that moment I realized how split up my heart truly is.

They say home is where your heart is but what if your heart is not in one place? Although I have not moved as much as some people have, I have moved a great deal. I also am someone who gets emotionally attached to people and places easily. I do not really know why, and my papa always told me that I needed to learn to control my emotions. Although as I have been growing up this has happened more, I am still someone who gets attached. Quickly, and I struggle with ever letting go.

I was born in Florida, then I moved to Indiana where I met friends for life. The Kirts will forever be my other family. Then I moved to northern France in the Alps, and the Southern France near Marseille. Then to Morocco. I lived in Georgia for the summers, and somehow ended up in Pennsylvania for school.

In each of those places I left a piece of me, of my heart. I fell in love over and over again and part of me will always be in those places. Now I am not saying that I am not 'whole' anymore, or that whoever I marry will not get all of my heart because that is not it at all.

Moving all around gave me many passions in life. I have this desire to change the world, even though realistically I know that I cannot. I have passions for so many things I do not know what on earth to do with my life.

All this to say that I love Africa, I love Uganda, and I am so very happy that I am here. I miss people yes, but I always miss someone - always. Also just that I think home is a relative term. Home is wherever I am in that moment. Home is my family and home is with the person who has my heart in a totally different way than anyone else ever will. Home is not a place where I grew up for 20 years of my life. Home is not a town, a city, or a country. Home is what you make it. Home is a feeling of belonging and a love for who you are with and where you are.

One of the best choices I have ever made for myself was to come here, and get away from everything for a semester. I absolutely love my life and I am so happy.

(I hope this all made some sense :)

A few pictures from this past week.

(The biggest fall at Sipi)
(Rainbow at Sipi Falls)
(Dead chicken feathers)
(Maize)
(Holding our baby chickens!
(Me and Peter and Kenneth)

All night long.

Tuesday night Alayna and I stayed the night at our practicum site - CHAIN. We have done this once before, but it is probably the most exciting thing of my life during the school week, so that is what I am gonna write about.

It was a very different two days than normal.

On Tuesday at practicum we first went over our assessments with Dorothy. I was a little confused as to some of the answers, but we talked for a long time about what we have done here, and what we will do. Even though we do not have a lot of time left it was good to understand what she saw in us, and what she wanted us to learn. I am not sure if it will all happen just because of the short amount of time left, and just because many times I feel like we are supposed to learn something or do something, but then never get to.

Some of the things that Dorothy said we had not ‘learned’ yet were things that I felt that I had asked to do, or tried to mention, but then I got sent to the school or to wash clothes. As much as I enjoyed the time with the mothers, I feel that I could have done what she wanted had she chosen to. It was encouraging to see how she thought I was succeeding though, and to just see her view of the work that I had done.

We then went and observed the children learning a new song to sing with their visitors. Both Margret and Denise were leading it. We had dinner with Brigit and David and got to talk some about the children and the home. We played American football with the kids afterwards for a while which was fun.

On Wednesday we went to staff devotions and then spent the majority of the day retyping profiles. We began the process on their computers, but it was taking a long time, and decided to use our own computers, and with two of us working on it we were able to get many done. We took a break to serve the children lunch, and then once we finished at the end of the day we played with the children for a while.

Updating the profiles was a little odd. All we really updated was their age, grade, and added their birth date. So it felt a little pointless. We retyped a good many of these, but that was pretty much it. It did feel like we were getting to do a little more social work so that was nice.

I now have a little over 130 hours, so I am going 10 hours next week and the next, and I will be done. I am ready to be done in some ways, so I am excited. I will miss the kids though, but it will be nice to be done.

Rural Homestays and Waterfalls

This past week was hands down one of the best of my life.

Last Friday we headed out to Soroti for rural home stays. I was in utter terror. I did not have the best Mukono home stay experience, but I was able to deal with it fine because I could come back to school during the day and see people. This however was going to be 24 hours a day, never leaving, constant African family immersion.

We drove the 5ish hours and got to Margret’s house. She works for our program and knows the families that we stay with, and tries to match us up. We stayed at her house the first night. We were going to camp out in tents and have a bonding fire. We set up all the tents, but it began pouring down torrential rain as soon as we finished raining. A few people had decided that their tents did not need to be staked down and we watched as the wind blew them across the yard. All of our stuff was in the tents, so I sprinted out to mine to grab all the stuff I could. I was drenched just going there and back. We spent the night playing mafia and hanging out.

During this time, they were deciding what families to put us with. I was praying that I would be paired. They made announcements and I was not. I ended up talking to the leaders and they told me they would talk to me in the morning about how I felt. So I talked to Margret and she told me that she knew I wanted to be paired, but that they placed me with this family because they thought I would really enjoy it. She told me that she could see something in me that I could not, and that she truly thought I do it. I decided to trust her.

I ended up being one of the first, and thankfully my friends Rachel and Matt, ended up being my neighbors. I met my family, which consists of my ‘mama’ and a lot of boys basically. It is so weird to go from being the oldest of three girls to being the youngest of at least five boys. I am not even sure how many brothers I had.

I had a really nice house. We had electricity which mostly no one in that area has, we had a maid – who I liked a lot and spent a lot of time with – and a boy that worked since my mama was 73 years old. I had my own room, and only my mama, the maid and I stayed in the house. The boys lived in two different not so nice houses in-between the house and the street. We bathed inside, had new latrines, and ate a dining room table. I had a pretty untraditional family as a whole.

The first day I shelled ground nuts (they are a lot like peanuts), learned how to herd goats, made g-nut sauce, and ate SO many oranges. My family has orange orchards and grows pretty much everything (sweet potatoes, maize, g-nuts, cassava, and more). We also took a walk to see the monkeys but because of the road getting wider and what not they are not around, but we did get to see Rachel and Matt which was fun. When I got home I got to see the chickens that my family is raising, and ate dinner super late (like 10!) had prayers and went to bed.

Day two was a Sunday, and my mama wanted me to go the English service at St. Marks, so I had to walk no joke – like two miles to church, and saw two other USP students. Church however was at 7 am, which means I had to get up at 6. When I got back though we had Chapati for breakfast which was awesome! I went and took a nap cause I was so tired, and my mama was at church at another place for the Atesso service. Then when she came back the people who started and run the Village2Village program (its really cool you should look it up!) and I got to talk to them for awhile which was extremely interesting. Then two of the brothers (Peter and Kenneth) and I took a hike up this huge hill. We saw the president’s old house, and just looked around. It was sooooo pretty to see! However, whoever created ankle length, wrap around skirts, really could not of planned for whoever wore them to have to hike up and down huge hills in the bush of Africa – just saying. When we went home we washed dishes for the second time and then got to roast corn. It is actually really good.

Day three I was sent with Peter and Simon to work in the garden…. Well that turned out to be me standing there while they hoed the garden. Peter would have me do one, but then he would go back and fix it. So I did a few, but he fixed all but two. Then we had breakfast – chaptai and boiled egg. I hate boiled eggs, but I ate that yolk cause Chapati was so worth it. Then Peter, Kenneth, and I walked to Kenneth’s families compound and sat in his hut for awhile then got the wheelbarrow to take home. I then hung out with Julius (another brother) until lunch at four.

So we are sitting there talking and Julius says do you know how to play cards, and I ask what game and he just gives me a blank stare and says cards. I do not really know how to respond at this point, so he explains ‘cards’ to me, and it is a game that sounds like go fish, so I am thinking this will be easy. It ends up being a weird form of uno that essentially made no sense. I also laughed when they told me that spades are called super, and clubs is called flowers.

Julius, Peter, Kenneth, (and Annette and Simon sometimes too) and I had a variety of interesting and strange conversations this week. Their favorite subjects were Obama and women so I am sure you can imagine. Julius and I had a talk about Obama where he kinda agreed with me, but then we were with everyone and all of a sudden his opinion changed. It was interesting. Someone said Obama is my hero, and I asked them why. Their answer he is African. I said actually he is not he is American. The response I get – NO he is from Kenya (I love when they think they know more about America than I do). I proceed to tell them that he is American, that he was born in America so it does not matter where his father is from because he CANNOT be president unless he is American. So I ask again, why is he your hero what did he do for you. The response I get… Uhhhh he is black… Really that is why he is your hero.. Cause he is black? We had to have this conversation and an extension of it way to many times.

Their other favorite talk to have was about white women versus black women. They liked to tell me that ONLY girls cheat – which is far from true - and that therefore they want white American (they could settle for European though…) because in their minds they are perfect. I will not even get into the details of this, but it made me a little sad that they view their world so harshly. So many of them want to move to America because, well in their own words it is heaven. I tried to explain that it is not heaven and that they should stay in their country, and just the value of culture and what you can do where you are, and your own women…. It was quite interesting.

The rest of the day I shelled more g-nuts, ate more oranges – I had like three a day, had dinner prayers, and went to bed.

Day four I learned how to make Chapati – I am basically a pro at rolling it now haha. I also went and visited the village2village site which was really neat to see. This was also the day that I got to kill a chicken. I enjoyed it way to much. So you know how most people will break its neck or chop it off? Well that is not what we did. I was told to stand on the feet and the wings, then I was told to hold the head up a certain way. I was then handed a not sharp knife and told to basically saw through the neck with it. I had blood splattered everywhere and halfway through the rooster was making noise and not happy at all, but I did finish and get it off. We then de-feathered and gutted it which was pretty neat too. And let me say it tasted SO good. I rolled more chapti later that night and we got them for dinner!

It gets dark here around 7, and for some reason the moon would not be out until like 10. When I was outside at about 8 or 9 the sky was so pretty. I saw more stars than I ever have in my life. I wish I could of captured it.

(Chicken gutting)

Dave five I was taught how to make mandaze – my favorite – took dried maize off of the cob forever – my hands were SO sore – and went to visit the fish farm. It was pretty interesting. They raise Tilapia and Catfish so I got to see them from eggs to however many months the biggest ones were. Then I hung out in the kitchen while we made dinner, and that was pretty much it!

Day six my allergies went wild. My family had a cat which I am allergic too, but I had been taking my allergy pill every morning and a Benadryl every night but after that many days my face just couldn’t take it anymore I guess and I could not stop sneezing. One of the interns brought me antihistamine, but all four of them did not help me, just gave me a bad headache. That day we met up with Matt, Rachel, and one of their brothers and went on a walk to the research center, which was quite interesting. It was started by white people but is now run by Ugandans. They have all sorts of plants and animals that they are trying to better basically, for example they developed a seedless orange tree. So that was pretty neat. Then I just hung out with my family had dinner, prayers, and went to bed.

Day seven was sadly my last day with my family .I made Mandaze with my mama, and we took some family pictures. I got picked up right after breakfast, I was sad to leave but really happy to see everyone. We then headed to Sepia Falls. All we really did that day was have a short debrief and hang out and get to finally talk to each other again. We all had such different experiences, and the IMME group was in a different city so it was good to get to hear everyone’s stories.

(My family)

Day eight was amazing. We took a hike to see two of the falls. The first one we went to was the biggest one. We could feel the mist on our way to it, and to see it was so beautiful. We were soaked just standing near it, but it was incredible to see.

We then hiked to the second falls. There were two waterfalls, and we came up from behind them in a cave and got to stand under them. I was freezing and soaked to the bone but it was BEYOND incredible. I felt like seeing these just showed me once again how big God really is. I mean there is not way something this beautiful was an accident, and just seeing how huge and powerful this water was, made me wonder how people could ever see something this amazing and not believe in God.

Later that day we got to go to a coffee plantation place and see the whole process of coffee from the bush to being roasted. I wrote a huge essay on this and I love coffee so It was pretty neat to see. We got to take part in the process and got to drink coffee at the end which was great too, since it was the first good coffee I have had since being here!

That was pretty much it. We hung out some more and came back the next day. I had an amazing week, I got to eat good food, interact with an incredible family and had one of the best weeks I have had since being here! I thought it was going to be awful, but turned out I could not have been more wrong. I loved it!

It was interesting though, that although this week was great it made me really miss my family and friends even more. I really love my family. Even though we all have our issues, and even though we do not always get along, they all mean the world to me. My family has been there with me and for me since day one, and even though I normally do not get to see them at this time, I would have had other people surrounding me that have become like family to me.

This year I am not going home for Christmas. I am spending it with my grandparents and wonderful aunt and uncle. I am super excited about this because I love them all dearly and I have not gotten to spend a Christmas with them in a long long time. However spending this whole week in a family, just made me truly realize how much I love and miss my family. My papa has always been someone that I can respect and love. He has taught me more than anyone, and even just being here in general I have realized how much I love him being my pastor and how weird it is to hear other people preach every week. My mommy is probably the most amazing woman on planet earth. I have never seen someone do so much. She loves people so much, and has always been at my papa's side helping him. My sisters and I did not always get along for some reason or another, but they are so dear to my heart. I love them both so so much.

I know that this may not all be about my homestay, but being a daughter and a sister to someone else just really made me miss my family so much. In many ways I feel as though I am ready to be done. We only have about five more weeks of classes though, and I am getting excited to see the end and get to see my family, and my friends again.

P.S. I am having issues uploading photos, so more pictures will come!

Rural Home Stay

This is just to let everyone know that I am leaving for rural home stays tomorrow so I will be out of touch with everyone for the next ten days!

Love and miss you all!!

For my family without facebook who wants to see my hair...

I chopped my hair off, and my family wanted to see it, and this is the easiest way to show everyone, sorry to everyone else!!!

Halftime.

So apparently today marks the halfway point of me being in Uganda. This could be wrong, but it is close enough. Today also means that I only have 57 days left.

This week has been stressful and crazy and there have been a lot of moments where I just wanted to go home. Between trying to schedule classes for school next semester and it being pretty unsuccessful, along with dealing with the thought of rural home stays coming up quite quickly has just been alot at once. I am ready for home stays to be over, and then things will get alot less stressful.

Friday I leave for 10 days. We drive up to Soroti and stay the night with one of our staff members family, and then we all get taken to a home stay. Truth be told I am not overly thrilled with this whole ordeal. I am not a person who loves doing things like this alone, which we were basically told the chances of getting paired were beyond unlikely.

I think it will be a great experience. We will live with this family for a week without leaving. We were told that we would basically be exhausted by the end from working in the garden and other such things. It should be interesting.

We go from Saturday to Friday, and then we go to Sepia Falls for the weekend which should be super fun.

I chopped my hair off last night, and two other girls shaved their head, it was crazy but super amusing. That is about all the excitement so far. I am going to my practicum today and tomorrow, and then Thursday we have a field trip for my African Traditional Religions class to a mosque, then friday we head out!

Rafting down the Nile River!

So this past Saturday a group of us decided to go rafting on the Nile. We went Grade 5. I have never been rafting before so I had no idea what to expect. We decided to do Grade 5 cause we figured, well we are already rafting on the Nile River, we might as well just go all out – so we did.

We got there and ate breakfast. Then we had to get in groups of seven and tell the man if we wanted to go mild or crazy. In the end this meant do you want your raft guide to flip you… We did not know it meant that. So Lindsey, Alayna, Leah, Becky, Grace, Jen, and I all yell CRAZY. The man completely in charge of everything must have thought that we were funny or something, cause he looks at us and then goes… You guys are with me! So we are super excited.

We start off last. As our guy was the main man, he had to make sure everyone else got out ok before his raft went. The whole day was a love - hate relationship with him. I got pushed off of the raft in the first five minutes that we were on it. He was teaching us how to ‘get down’ into the raft so that we would not fall out. So he used me as an example of what will happen if you do not get down fast enough. He tells me to fall out of the boat…. I say WHAT? And he just pushes me out, and then goes, why are you not holding on to the rope… Uhhhh…. It was funny. They he taught us – again using me how to pull each other up out of the water using our life vests. Our life vests were so so tight on us. They had to be so that we could pull each other out. We had helmets too – so no worries it was safe! Then we got taught what to do if we flipped. So we all held on the rope as out guide – Doug – flipped us over. Then he told us to get back in the boat… Not one of us could pull ourselves up, that is when we became useless he said haha.

After practicing how to paddle, fall out, pull each other out of the water, etc… We got to our first rapid. It was only a grade 2, but a taste of everything. We actually got told to jump out of the boat, and learned what to do if we were to fall out, we just floated down it with our legs up so that we would not get hit by rocks. The other thing to do is when you are under water to curl up in a ball in order to pop up faster. We rafted for 30 miles and had a lot of rapids. My raft got flipped twice, and I am pretty sure he did it to us on purpose, cause he never hit the water, but we were all drowning in Grade 5 rapids. They were fun, but it was crazy. In one of the rapids that we flipped in, I got stuck under the boat. The boat had been flipped but I was not in one of the parts where there was air, and waves were still hitting me. In my head I was sure I was going to drown in the Nile under this raft. I was able to crawl my way along the boat until I reached the surface. All my friends thought that I was like going to die, because my lips were blue from the cold and the life vest was so tight it was hard to get air. Alayna and I have laughed a lot about the first time we flipped, because we surface right next to each other holding on to the boat, barely able to get air, and all that I can say is I lost my paddle I lost my paddle, Alayna is like it’s OK.

For lunch we each got half of a pineapple and biscuits. It was so good. Then we kept rafting. There were a lot of flat parts where we just had to paddle and paddle. We are all SO sore today. One of the grade 5 rapids was CRAZY. Well they all were but this one especially. We had to go down this area with rocks and then we went down a 15-foot waterfall, our raft is 14 feet which means a vertical drop. He told us NOT to fall out unless we wanted to lose our life, and NOT to sit in the raft, only to be on your feet, unless you want, things I cannot write on here. We got stuck on the rocks so we had to bounce up and down and then on the waterfall you have to look off to the side so you do not smash your face into the person in front of you. Now, I am not a very heavy person, so as we go down I am looking off to the side to not get smashed and holding on the boat with everything I have, yet even still I practically fly forward, and body slammed poor Leah. Thankfully she was there though or I probably would have flown out. Our guide tapped my helmet and was told me he thought that I was going to fly out the front of the raft!

The other crazy rapid was at the end and was called ‘The Bad Place”. It was at the end of a Grade 6 rapid, which is one that could only be rafted by Kayaks. So we had to walk around part of it, and then get on at the end. All of the other groups went around the worst part in the middle and went down a still pretty decent sized rapid on the side. Our guide makes us paddle into the heart of this mass of waves and currents. It was INSANE. We are pretty sure that he just wanted to flip us. Cause we got out of it, and then he made us paddle BACK into it. Then he was mad that we did not flip.

The day was insane. We got called Team Estrogen by our guide all day, got loved and hated by our guide, got flipped over, went through crazy rapids and had one of the best days EVER. I am so glad I had the chance to do that. It is sad, because quite soon rafting on the Nile will be over, as they are building six dams on the river for hydroelectric power which is going to get rid of all but the last three rapids, which is quite sad. Therefore, I am super glad that I got to experience it now, before it ends. It was by far one of the most fun, and best days of my life.

Sleepover at my Practicum

So on Tuesday Alayna and I decided to stay the night at CHAIN in order to experience what happens in the evening, and to work on our hours.

On Tuesday we worked in the classroom P1 mostly observing the teacher. It was quite interesting however. Neither of us had ever been on that class, and there was a girl named Anna there that confused us. We took Dorthy and Brigit out to dinner tonight to talk about CHAIN, and learn more. We are normally there till about 6:15. So when Vincent (our bus driver) came to pick up the other girls, me, Alayna, our field instructor - Dorthy, and Brigit, all went out to eat. It turned out to be really good. We talked alot about the kids, and about Uganda in general. We also decided to ask them about this girl. When we were in the classroom with her, first off she looked quite old for P1. Then she was hitting the other children quite violently, pulled a girls skirt up cause she knew somehow that she was not wearing underwear, and just seemed quite off. Dorthy told us that she was 15 and had some severe mental disabilities. She apparently has a hard time working around other children, and will more than likely never finish school. We may get the chance to work with her one-on-one to see if that can help her progress at all. After dinner we came back to CHAIN and watched a movie with the kids. I borrowed Little Rascals from my roommate, and we were unsure how successful it would be, but the children loved it. All ages were there, and they thought it was the greatest thing ever, and laughed the whole time.

On Wednesday we got up early and helped the mothers. We swept and mopped the floors. Then we attended staff devotions. After that we went out to help Auntie Olivia with the laundry. We then took a break at tea time and walked with one of the child development interns into a village to get rollex. We had tea and talked to Dorthy.

We then served the children lunch and then went and had lunch with Dorthy. We spent some time discussing CHAIN, and Uganda and social work . Then we went down to the school. Dorthy had previously given Alayna a list of children for us to work with. We were able to meet with three. We basically just talked to them to understand their backgrounds. This was difficult to do as we felt as though we were slightly frightening to the children. Quite frankly I do not blame them, if someone came in and told me that the two white girls were in the office (we found out later that sometimes the kids get disciplined - spanked in that office) I would be scared too. One of the children also did not speak much English. The only one that did not look terrified was the blind child... We are going to talk to some more on Tuesday, we have two children that only go to the school and four that live at CHAIN I believe. We did tell them that they could talk to us whenever they needed someone to talk to, and that we wanted to just be friends and talk to them, so I am hoping that maybe as weeks go on the kids will trust us more. Yet at the same time, I know that in four weeks my hours will be over, and I am not sure that I have enough time to really do anything.

After we talked to the kids we spent some time talking to Dorthy about how it went, and she told us some more of their story, at least for the girl who spoke little English. I think she wants us to redo some of the profiles, to update them, so that should be interesting as well.

I cannot believe how close I am to done. I have gotten 92 of my 150 hours, and my time here is going by so quickly. Two months from yesterday I fly out and two months from today I will land in the United States. It is so crazy to me that it is going by so fast, that it is going to come to an end. I love it here, and in some ways I know that I will be ready to go back to the U.S. but I do love it here, and it will be hard to leave my kids at practicum along with all the people I have grown so close to here. This is such a different world than the one I live in in America, and I know that I am going to have culture shock. Even though we have not been here that long, life is so different. I am sure though that you will have to hear alot more about this when it comes close to the time that I have to leave, so I shall stop for now.

Tomorrow I am going rafting on the Nile, Grade 5 so that should be lots of fun!!!

The craziest weekend of my life.

This weekend was crazy. I had planned to write a bit about the Trade Fair before I talked about the circumcision. I still will, but after the past two days what happened at the trade fair, just seems like so much less of a big deal.

Right after class on Friday a group of us headed out to Kampala. There is a trade fair once a year with all sorts of fun stuff. I was able to get a lot of my presents for people. I still have some more I am working on for family, and a few more things I want for myself – of course haha – but I was able to get a lot of what I needed. Trying to get into the trade fair was insane. There were huge lines of people. It is an all week event, but apparently the President was there that day so it was even crazier than a normal day. People were pushing and shoving like crazy. This is a place where people really do not understand what I line means, and it becomes even more apparent as I was shoved everywhere. Trying to get through the doors was even worse. Our group was all shoved practically on top of each other and people we did not know. I thought at one point I was going to get torn in half as men were shoving past us and I was caught between a bar and air. I was being pulled in different directions.

We finally got in and the security guards wanted to take our cameras – and there was NO way I was giving these guys my camera. They finally got sick of us I think, and told us to go stand somewhere. So we did for about a second, then just left. We found out later from a Ugandan friend, they it was because the President was there so they did not want photos taken. We just kept them in our bags.

Shopping was a lot of fun. I would love to list all the cool things I got, but that would ruin Christmas! But we had a great time, and I am quite glad we got to go.

The rest of this weekend was… well an experience. Eight o’clock Saturday morning almost all of us loaded into our bus. It was field trip time for my African Traditional Religions class. I have to say, none of it really went as planned for them, or expected for us. And I am not going to go into detail about everything, because I do not feel as though it all needs to be said over my blog.

We drove about three hours and got to Mbale. We were shown to our various rooms, and the two bathrooms for all about 35 of us. Then we had tea. A speaker came to talk to us about circumcision, the African culture regarding it, and how Christianity now fits into it. He was a little hard to understand, but we got the gist of it all. They we had lunch, and got back in the bus to head out.

We had to drive about an hour to get to the site. My professor was worried, cause we were late, but since it had rained everything was delayed. However the rain also provided us with probably the most Africa experience ever, that many people were expecting their days to be like here.

We were in a VERY rural setting, and therefore, all dirt roads. Well, when it pours and pours and pours, dirt roads turn into mud roads, which also means our bus cannot drive down them. So we walked about 2 miles to get to our place in the mud. I have to say, that mud walk was probably the best part of the trip – maybe even of our time it Africa. It was insane but so much fun.

We were so gross. I ended up taking my shoes off cause I was sliding SO much. I could hardly walk. Then we had been told to wear skirts, so I am in a floor length skirt that I have now rolled up. We stopped after a little bit and our guide got someone to give us sugar cane. We must have been such a site. If you have never had sugar cane, you have to peel it before you eat it. But you have to use your teeth to pull the outer layer off, and they bit off pieces of sugar cane. And you do not actually eat the sugar cane. You basically bite and suck the juice out of it, then spit the rest of it out. It is so good though.

We had to of looked crazy. All the Africans were laughing and following us. Every time one of us fell they thought it was the funniest thing that they had ever seen. For at least an hour this went on. I can only imagine what 35 Mzungus looked like walking down the mud path ripping pieces of sugar cane and spitting them…

Then it got even better. We went off the dirt road into a weird like field/grass/dirt jungle something. I am not even sure. Then even better, we had to cross a bridge. Well not a bridge… The ‘bridge’ consisted of a two by four. And keep in mind, it is muddy and wet and gross. So the two by four is ALSO covered in mud. I was so thankful for one of my guy friends. I was like great I’m gonna die, and he just kept going its ok you can do it, until I got across. We went up and down hills, crossed another two by four – this one had ridges in it, that I tried to walk in to keep from falling.

We finally got to our destination. I finished eating my sugar cane, and I have mud up to my knees at this point, all over my skirt and hands. Then I am sticky from my wonderous sugar cane. A man came around with water and a bucket that we washed out hands in. My feet and shoes were so caked in mud, I could not of physically put my shoes back on if I had desired to.

I am not going to really talk about the circumcision a lot, just because I do not want to gross anyone out. If you want to know more, please just shoot me an email and I can explain their rituals and what happened that I saw as best I can to you.

The whole village was there though. It is really a community thing. And it only happens every two years, so the boys are about 15 when it happens, and it was what symbolizes their becoming a man. They cannot get married, until this happens, and apparently girls will not marry a ‘man’ if he is not circumcised, because in this culture it means that they are still a boy – forever. It is hard for me to really wrap my head around because if the boy flinches or moves he shames himself and his family for life. Everything about the entity of his life rests on this one event.

One funny story from it however – one of the girls had scratched her face not realizing that she had mud on her hand. So she had a big streak across her face. So then she put her hand on another girls face. The Africans in one of the lull periods thought that this was a great idea. So he decided that he should take mud off of his boot and touch us all to get mud on us. So I ended up with mud on my face, neck and chest. And it did not happen all at once. No, he put some on me then apparently that was not enough and needed to come add some to me. It was so crazy we were all such a mess.

That is all I am going to say for now. I am not sure what all would and would not e appropriate for this, so again, if you want to know more just send me an email and I’ll tell you the long version…

Well about this time, we are reaching sunset. Almost. So the trek back begins. However the probably 400 – at least – villagers are also walking back. The laughter at the white kids begins again as we all slip and slide. I only had to cross one bridge this time as we went around another by jumping the creek at a different part. It was such a crazy walk. I did make it the whole way without falling though.

On the walk back it began to rain. On a really bright side, we saw one of the prettiest sunsets ever. And it was pretty cool to see it and lightening all at once. Some of us got picked up by the van which may or may not of been a good choice. Riding back was literally like a theme park ride. Someone compared it to the Indiana Jones ride, which was pretty much perfect. It was too bad we did not have a jeep cause that would have made it all the more better. The roads were still muddy and a taxi was in front of us (taxis here are vans) swerving all around. He got stuck for a second so our driver sped past him. Have you ever hydroplaned on ice? Well, that is what this was like, but with mud. We were all over the road, it was SO crazy.

We got back to the bus safe and sound with so many great stories to tell. We drove our hour back to the place we were staying, all of us literally covered and caked in mud. When we got back it was pitch dark and we were shown to a spigot to rinse off our feet. Some of by that point did not even realize that it was raining from how wet we already were to the spigot drenching us. A few of us pretty much just stood there and washed everyone’s feet and legs since that seemed to be the most effective way to go about it. Then we sat and washed all the shoes, each of which took quite awhile as they were also caked in mud.

Our group leaders did apologize for some of the conditions of the day, as it is not really in the programs plan to have some of the stuff that happened happen. However, at the end of the day we all had a good time, at least on the walks, and it is an experience I will never forget. I am really glad we got to experience everything that happened. It really gave us a lot more exposure to African culture, and I feel like I learned a lot. It was a moment I will surely value, if only for the experiences we got from it.

44th day in Africa.

This week has been pretty busy thus far. My classes and practicum, have been taking up a lot of time, but it has been good.

So yesterday at my practicum they put me and the other social worker in a class of 60 kids to teach. Yes. 60. David told us to do something with them. We tried to ask him what he wanted us to do with them, I told him that we were not teachers, we were social workers, and all I got was a blank stare. Therefore, we went in there and played heads-up-7-up with them. For some reason although they like the game, they never quite seem to understand it. Then we decided to play hangman, which actually worked a lot better. After a few games of that (i.e. when David was done with lunch haha) David came back and taught them about dysentery and cholera.. Fun subjects.... Then we went and got to pick Guava which was a ton of fun! Then we joined the kids in their evening devotions then went home.

Today I went to my practicum at 8 like every Wednesday. I went to staff devotions and then I went down to the school and read to one of the blind teachers. The kids have exams this week, so they all have to be changed into braille for the blind children. So I read him the exams while he, by hand, wrote out each other the exams. I do not know how he does it so fast its amazing! He says he is going to teach me, so I am pretty excited about that! I ended up leaving practicum early, cause I was not feeling well. However, me and the other social worker are going to stay the night at CHAIN next Tuesday so that should be a lot of fun.

This weekend, for my African Traditional Religions class they are taking us to see a circumcision. Apparently only every 2 years does a class get to go, so we are lucky they said. It is not a baby circumcision though... It is like 18 year-old-adult-male circumcisions. So, if nothing else it should be a cultural experience...

Beautiful Children.

(The whole group that went)

So, on Saturday, I spent the day at my practicum. There was a special event going on in Kampala for three of the blind schools in Uganda. We got to CHAIN at about 8 am, and then headed to Kampala around 12. We got there at one, but most events had not yet begun.

There were performances from all three schools, and my kids did so good. I am so very proud of them. I love being able to see the way that they go about life, and succeed so much, despite their disability. Also to see the way that the kids who can see help the blind children. There is no discrimination between them and it is such a beautiful thing.

(Singing time)

There were several speakers, several who were blind, and then a British women. It was interesting. Then there was an 'auction' which is too weird to even describe, but they do NOT know what an auction is here.

That is really about the extent of the day. I was with my kids for about 11 hours, and dead tired by the end, but it was a great day to spend with them. My practicum is not the easiest, especially with the 'no social work' work that entails. However, days like that when I get to see my kids do so well in something, and be so happy... It is all worth it.

(My beautiful Bata, If only I could take her home with me....)

This week.

As time has gone on life has begun to basically fall more into a routine - mostly. My days consist of class and practicum.

Both of these are going pretty well. Classes are very different than what I am used to but that is always a learning experience.

Practicum honestly wears me out but I have gotten almost a 3rd of my hours, and tomorrow I am going to my site all day. There is a blind children's event in Kampala so I am going with them to the event. It should be lots of fun.

This week at my practicum I taught the kids a song that I had learned in daycare this summer. Then I worked in the sick bay for awhile. I worked a long time in the kitchen, cutting up food, serving food, picking and cutting up more food, picking through beans... Then I looked through some more profiles. It was a pretty good week!

This week has been busy, and I am tired, but I am loving Africa. This weekend I am going to the blind children's event and then to Kampala on Sunday. I got a new untreated mosquito net, so now that I do not have pesticides hanging in my face (I am allergic...) all night long, my allergy are much better. Not all gone, but so much better, and my eyes are not swollen anymore either!

Something I've learned.

Being in Uganda I have learned a lot. I feel as though perhaps parts of being here have not been as big of an adjustment for me as they are for others since I did live overseas so long, but there are no doubt still struggles. Even though I did live in Morocco, Uganda is a whole other world.

We talked about culture shock in my faith and action class yesterday. I do not think I have had any major culture shock, because I sort of knew what to expect. This does not mean that I love everything, but at least I was mentally prepared. Also, I think that since I have learned how to adapt in other cultures, it comes a little easier for me. At 12 years old I went from living in small town Bedford, Indiana having been only homeschooled, and in Catholic school, to a French public school. Then I went from that European life to being thrown into a Muslim country, going to an American school will all Moroccans. Then on Sunday's I went to church with pretty much all Sub-Saharan Africans.

My life has been a melange of everything. And I love it. And I truly believe that because I had to adjust to so many different cultures, coming here was easy in a sense.

At the same time, I can admit that despite my background of culture, I am still learning alot about people, and myself. Today I was handwashing my laundry and realized even a few small things. One, my clothes are never going to get good clean here, but that is ok. haha. Two, I will probably never take ANYTHING for granted again. Ever. Three, there are a number of things that used to drive me insane, that will likely never bother me again.

I feel so much more relaxed this past month or so than I have in a long time. Thankfully, I have a lot less work this semester. I was writing about 5 essays a week for Social Work back at Valley Forge, and here I do have a lot of reading and I am working over 15 hours a week at my practicum site, but I am so content.

There are a lot of difficulties being here. There are days that are hard, there are days that are easy. There are days that I am homesick for three different places, and there are days where I am just so in love with this place. Even on the days where I kinda want to go home, I love it here. I would not trade the four months that I get here for anything in the world.

The choice I made about a year ago to apply to the Uganda program, and the choice I made to come about 8 months ago, was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I have never traveled to live anywhere outside the United States without my family, and I really missed them being with me in a 'foreign country' at first. However, this is one of the best experiences of my life.

When I was applying I stressed myself out trying to figure out if I should come, but God pulled it all together perfectly, from application process to funds. Even here God has done so much in my life. In every way. When I finally decided to make the choices that were right for me beginning with Uganda and continuing with a number of other choices, that God showed me were right, my life has begun to fall together in ways I never imagined. There are still stresses in my life, and things that still have yet to fall into place, but I am finally learning to let go and trust God, and its making things so much better.

Jinja!

This weekend, Honors College, and USP, spent Saturday and Sunday in Jinja. We left at 8 on Saturday and thankfully the resort we stayed at is only an hour away. It was such a nice place.

The food there was amazing, which was great for me haha. We spent the time, pretty much just haning out and relaxing. We had some activities the first day as a group, then we went and saw the source of the Nile, and today we had church.

Seeing the source was quite fun, we climbed over rocks in the Nile to get to this giant rock. It was pretty fun. Then this morning some of us got up super early and watched the sunrise.

We came back pretty early today, but I had a great time. It was not super exciting, but it was a lot of fun to get to just eat good food, hang out, and relax.

Practicum, Last day at home, "The Shower Club"

(From my window at homestay - sunrise)

First things first, my practicum this week... Well, if nothing else it is interesting. I spent Tuesday washing clothes (squatting and by hand) and then playing with the school kids for about the last hour I was there. Wednesdays are my long days, I am there about 10 hours, and it will be a little more next week now that my home stays are over. I went through the blind children's profiles and talked with my field director for about two hours (there are not really any rules regarding confidentiality here). Then I took about an hour and a half walk around the entire area - all the gardens, up and down hills, jumped little rivers... I got a major workout haha. Then he showed us the pump for the water. We fed the pigs. Then I served lunch, and then went and had my own lunch. Then the other girl that is a social worker there came and we washed clothes again, and then learned how to milk a cow. There are pictures I just have to get them from her!!! Then we watered the garden. It was kinda funny, because the guy in charge of the garden kept telling us that if you did not water the cabbage it would die, but that if you did water it then it would grow back... I am sure he thought we must be completely clueless. Ha.

As for home stays, as hard as it was some days, it is probably one of the most memorable experiences of my time here, and my life. I will never forget these past two weeks. My time there ended well, I may not of gotten all my homework done last night, but I did have a good time with my family. I told them that I had not gotten the pictures printed out for them yet, but that I did have something else for them. I gave them two 'America' Old Navy shirts, earrings, two packs of silly bands, and a candle - all from the U.S. They were so excited. They were shocked that the candle had scent and were all passing it around smelling it. The kids and I sat on the floor and opened the silly bands. They loved them. The about 15 year old girl who helps around the house was playing with them too, and they were all fighting over who had the most, Betty was putting them on too, and the baby was grabbing at them. It was so funny.

We then watched some weird movie called something like Her Power... It had something to do with Tribal Sacrifices, and was in English but then dubbed over in Luganda, so you heard bits of English, but as it would start about 3 seconds later the Luganda would. It was.. interesting to say the least. We then ate dinner, ironically I ended up eating on the floor with everyone else, mainly cause I was already sitting there. It was just funny cause they usually have me sit at the couch. I stayed up till about 10:30 with them and then went to bed.

This morning was pretty normal, but Betty walked me to school with some of my stuff. I am gonna go back and visit to take my pictures, and since I love sugar cane I think one day Betty is gonna bring me some which is really fun!

(Mama, Vivian, Isaac, Betty, Arnold, Mama Vivian, Dorean)

As for the Shower Club... Well, you know how in the States on someone's birthday you give them spankings? Here they give you a... shower. Yesterday was one of the guys (Arissa) birthdays. As soon as I walked up the hill from home stays I see plotting. They had locked the poor boy in his room (there is a blot inside the room, and a padlock on the inside.) Once they had all their buckets full, they went inside and it took about 10 minutes but they dragged him out, and as you can see below, gave him a shower. It was QUITE entertaining!