A Week in Rural Uganda

For the rural home stays, we traveled to the Soroti district. The people there are members of the Teso tribe, while the people where I am at the university are from the Buganda tribe. The Teso people speak a different language, have different customs, and eat different food. The family I stayed with had 6 children the youngest was 15 but was at boarding school. Primarily, I spent my time with Toto (mom), Papa, Tata (grandmother), and two nephews. My Toto was a housewife and my Papa was a lecturer at the nearby university. Their homestead was comprised of 8 huts. (I am hesitant to use that term “hut” because they are really houses. The huts are circular structures cemented with cow dung and the roof is made out of thatched straw. However, they are in the middle of constructing a Western style house.) Each hut has a different purpose. One hut was the kitchen. Another was used to hold all the possessions. There was one that was more like a cabana and was the sitting area. Each person in the family had a hut, for example, Toto and Papa had a hut and the sons and the daughters had their respective huts. I spent my days shadowing Toto as I watched her in fascination. The amount of worked it took to do everything was overwhelming. The whole day revolved around food; either Toto was gathering food, preparing foodstuffs, cooking food, getting utensils/fire ready to cook/eat food, or eating food. I was frustrated because I wanted to help but I couldn’t really do much; I was completely incompetent. I primarily washed dishes and swept, but I still managed to do those chores wrong to some degree. I spent a lot of my time just sitting. We were warned about this but I refused to bring a book or isolate myself in my hut because I really wanted to engage in the culture. My day generally looked like this:
• 6:50 - They consistently woke me up at this time, which really amused me since they don’t use clocks.
• 8:30-10:30 – Toto and I went out into the garden, which really looked like a field, to pick sweet potatoes. I tried to use the hoe to dig them up but I kept cutting the sweet potatoes in half, so I was demoted to gathering the potatoes and putting them in the sack.
• 10:30-11 – Peeled sweet potatoes for tea time.
• 11-11:30 – Ate breakfast and washed dishes.
• 11:30-12 – I sat alone in the sitting room.
• 12-1:30 – Toto and I drank tea and ate sweet potatoes. Their sweet potatoes are so delicious; they are very sweet and white in color. The Teso people do not use utensils to eat their food so everything was eaten with our hands. It was easy to get used to but it was hard for me to touch the hot food! Tea time was my favorite time; Toto and I really engaged in great conversations about poverty, education, and other issues.
• 1:30-2 – We took a nap on the straw mats outside.
• 2-3:30 – Toto would prepare lunch and I would shell ground nuts. Ground nuts are essentially peanuts. They are an essential food used in sauces.
• 3:30/4 – Lunch
• 4-7 – I would make myself busy with either shelling more ground nuts, sweeping, doing dishes, but most times I would just sit. I did A LOT of thinking over my week.
• 7-8 – Evening tea time. Papa, the two nephews, and I gathered around the radio and had evening tea with usually more sweet potatoes. During this time there was a slight switch in my social role. Throughout my week I had been very confused on my social role as a part of the family because I was treated like a woman during the day, but in the evening I was treated like a man. I always sat and talked with the men while the women sat on the straw mat separated from the men.
• 8-10:30 – Dinner was never served at consistent times, but during this time I would bathe. After I was finished, we would eat dinner. Then I would go straight to bed.

I did not mention that throughout the day were many visitors. It was so great to witness the hospitality toward visitors. A person never left without being fed or offered water. Their generosity is something that I truly admired and wish to emulate in my life.

The week overall was wonderful. However, it was extremely challenging. The consistent alone, quiet time was very overwhelming and I was happy for the week to be over.

My time here in Uganda has probed so much self-reflection. When I thought I couldn’t go any further, rural home stays just brought me to another level. And we are now reading the book Compassion, which is proving to be quite challenging as well. There are so many things that I am learning about myself. My core values are being transformed and new values are emerging. I’m even more confused about the purpose of life than I think I have ever been. However, I have fallen deeper in love with Christ and I am in awe of God’s daily wonders. I wish I could articulate the emotions and thoughts I am experiencing but I am at a lack of words. Even though I am being so stretched I am overall incredibly at peace. It is evident that I am supposed to be here in Uganda right now.

I’ll blog soon.

Love,
Kristen