Back in my day we walked 40 minutes to school in all types of weather... and it was up hill both ways!!

It has been less than 10 days since my last blog and oh boy there is so much to recap!!! So bear with me and I hope this makes sense.

First of all the internet is very fickle, so I'm lucky to get on once a week.


Alright where to begin....
This week is the first week of the Mukono home stays. I am paired with another USP student; it's nice to share laughs together, get freaked out about the cockroaches in the toilet, and to keep each other company on the 40 minute walk to school. The family is young with a mother, an aunt, a 11 yr old daughter, 9 yr old son, 5 yr old son, a 2 1/2 yr old son, and a 1 1/2 yr old niece. (The father has been living in London for the past 2 1/2 years. I think the plan is to eventually move everyone there. I have talked to him a couple of times on the phone). Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to engage in conversations about certain issues due to the language barrier. The mom and the aunt can speak a little English; the relationship I have with them is built on laughter, mainly from saying or doing stupid things. The daughter can speak it better but an 11 year old only knows so much. However, I have been learning a lot purely by observing. There is a lot but just to list a few: sanitation, upbringing of kids, the lack of consideration for quiet, etc.

This week the schedule has been:
• Get up at 6:20
• Drink tea and eat some bread with butter
• Head out for school around 7:20
• Get to school around 8
• After the school day we leave around 5:30/6
• When we get back we help out we help out with preparing for tea time. I have learned how to make some Ugandan classics. I am writing all the recipes down so I can share them with family and friends when I get back.
• Tea time is around 7:30. The tea isn’t actually tea. My family drinks this stuff called “Soya.” It’s really good. It tastes somewhere between hot chocolate and coffee. With tea we also have some type of snack.
• After tea I take a basin bath and perhaps journal, read, or play with the kids.
• Dinner isn’t until usually 10:30. I’m lucky if it is at 10. I’m usually really full from tea time so eating dinner is super hard. (My aunt when she was younger used to stuff the food she didn’t want to eat in her carpenter pants…. I wish I had carpenter pants.)
• I go to bed right after dinner between 11 and 12.

My classes are going well and I think are going to be very beneficial to better understand Africa.
East African History – Finally, I’m hearing the other side of the story! African history is increasingly complicated with numerous of tribes all with their distinct culture and language.
African Tradition Religions, Christianity, and Islam – There are some parts of the country that still practice African Traditional Religions. Learning about them is extremely interesting especially keeping in mind how some people still practice what in Western eyes look like barbaric practices (e.g. children sacrifices). In the class we’ll be doing field trips to get a practical look at some of things we are studying.
Understanding Ethics – In this class I am with hundreds of Ugandans. So I am first getting an authentic look at how college is for Ugandan students. Also, the class is all based on African ethics, which I know absolutely nothing about. Something interesting that the lecturer said in class, “Africa is not poor materially; it is poor morally.” So I’m really looking forward to the class as I believe it will help me understand the problems of Africa more fully.
Health and Wholeness – I’m also with Ugandans in this class. What’s interesting in this class is that we look at the health problems plaguing Africa ranging from malnutrition to diseases. Again, I will gain a more full understanding of Africa and its problems.

I will never complain about doing laundry again. I don’t even know how I can complain about doing laundry back home when all I have to do is push a button. I am completely incompetent when it comes to doing laundry here. It requires so much man power!!! You rub your hands raw! There’s a lot of scrubbing, rinsing, and twisting. I did my laundry for the first time by myself today. I thought I was doing it well. I had very soapy water, which by the way is really hard to get, and I was mimicking the hand motions of the other women washing their clothes. However, as I took my clothes off the line, I realized I failed to remove all of the dirt and get all the soap out. So my clothes are half clean and feel weird. At least they don’t smell bad. I still haven’t finished the laundry process though. When I get back to my room I need to iron everything. They recommended doing that because there is this fly that can lay eggs in your clothes and then the eggs will hatch in your skin. I don’t know how often that happens but I don’t want to test it out. So later I will be ironing with what looks like an iron from the 1940s.

Watching Obama’s inauguration was extremely interesting. First it’s Obama craziness over here. There is a catchy song about Obama and a club has changed its name to Obama club. Africa is ecstatic that the President of the U.S. is an Africa. Some people think that Obama will give more support to Africa others don’t expect anything from him. Regardless, listening to Obama’s speech with an African perspective was really eye-opening. I am slowly learning more about the African culture but the little that I know drastically contrasts Obama’s speech.

Overall, my Western views are being challenged in ways I could have never fathomed. I am very over stimulated but still engaged. At this exact moment, I am debating with some Ugandans about the death penalty. Praise God for bringing me here. I am being stretched, refined, and challenged. I have only been in Uganda for two weeks I can’t even imagine what my views will be in 4 months.