Jinja pictures

One of the many monkeys that we saw on monkey hill.


The beautiful hut we stayed in at the resort in Jinja... it was AMAZING.


Ok... a really cheesy picture of me touching the nile :)


Several of us outside of the Source Cafe in Jinja. One of the teams of missionaries that we met started the cafe as a way of creating financial independence for the churches in Jinja. Its now under Ugandan leadership.


A taxi covered in chickens that we saw on our way to Jinja.

Visiting Jinja

I always have a problem with figuring out what all to tell you back at home. There's so much to say, but I have trouble putting it all in words, knowing that these mere symbols on a computer screen will never be able to convey it all accurately.

This weekend those of use who are on the missions track in the study abroad program took a weekend trip to Jinja, a town about an hour away. It was an amazing weekend, and it was just what I needed in a lot of ways. Program wise for the weekend we talked with two different missionary teams in Jinja, learning about their ministries and rejoicing in the work of the Lord. One of the missionaries also took us on a tour of Jinja on Saturday, showing us a lot of things that you wouldn't know about Jinja from just walking down a street with markets. I don't have time to tell a whole lot about it today, but hopefully I can tell you more when I am able to post pictures. Sunday night we were able to be visitors at New Life Missionary Baptist church. Not only was the service AMAZING-- three hours of joy and fellowship-- but it was great to talk to the leadership of the church after the service to see the ways that they are being a missional church in Jinja and the surrounding area. More than anything, that is what I am praying to see in Uganda the most... not that they would have to depend on foreign aid and Westerners, but that Godly Ugandan leaders would be raised up. It is already happening, and I pray there will be more and more in the future!

For the weekend we stayed at a place called Kingfisher Resort (which happened to be BEAUTIFUL and complete with a hot shower!!!!). Friday night was pretty chill, and after dinner with the missionaries several of us dug out the guitar and began worshiping in prayer and in song. The Spirit of the Lord fell, and we ended up worshiping long into the night. One of the coolest parts of the night is that God brought us together with a few individuals from a team of missionaries traveling with AIM. It was great to worship with them and to hear and share stories of the working of God in our lives. It is always a funny thing to meet other Americans over here... its like we share a strange but instant bond.

When we came back to school we all hung out on campus for a while before walking back home to be with our families. A few of us were feeling adventurous after a long bus ride, so we climbed up "monkey hill." From the top we could see all of Mukono, and it was beautiful! We also had a lot of fun searching for monkeys, who happened to find us on the way back down. We acted like ridiculous bazungu who had never seen a monkey before, taking tons of pictures and laughing every time they jumped or did something funny, but it was a great time. We loved the hill so much that we decided to come back the next day EARLY in the morning to try and watch the sunrise... which unfortunately ended up being a thunderstorm instead. It was still fun though, and we took some pretty sweet pictures that I'll put up another day. We are still determined to watch a sunrise one day...

Well I have to go... I have class in an hour, and then Laura and I are headed home early today to do our laundry. Thankfully the clouds and rain from this morning have cleared up so that they can dry! Pictures will come soon!

I meant to post these last time... I forgot

Pictures from the demonstration in Kampala

more pictures

(From bottom to top)
1. The view of Mukono on our walk home from school
2. Getting my hair plaited
3. Laundry!
4. Mama Robinah, my sister Rebecca, and I in our sitting room
5. Several of us in the IMME room on campus... showing how we feel about Matoke (Tori is the only one who likes it)

The inauguration of new things

It’s kind of funny that as the United States celebrated the historical event of the inauguration of the first African-American president, I was here. In Africa, celebrating it with African friends and family who I am nearly positive were far more excited about it all than my friends and family back home. Why is it that everyone here is so happy about Obama? Is it because of his policies? Is it just because he’s black? Why does it seem like the whole world is happy? Is it because the election of a minority shows that democracy truly exists in the US?

While we were in Kampala this weekend a few of us had our own opportunity to witness politics in action. Some of us got bored with the mall-like atmosphere of Garden City where we had gone to exchange money and find food (the pizza was great though!), so we decided to take a walk in the area. Just around the block was a huge demonstration. African Muslims flooded two blocks of the Kampala streets, walking, riding in Matatu (big vans that serve as taxis), and shouting. The roar of their voices seemed like it could have been heard for miles. They were holding banners made of sheets, but we couldn’t make out what they said, so we asked a few fellow onlookers who explained that they were protesting Uganda’s ties with Israel because of the conflict right now. Apparently Uganda has had close ties with Israel since independence.

The rest of our weekend was less surprising but no less interesting. On Saturday Silvia took Laura and I to a small salon to get our hair plaited. The women at the salon were really sweet, but they didn’t know very much English and spoke in Luganda the whole time. It took ALL day and hurt a lot, but it was totally worth it. It looks pretty sweet, and it will be so much nicer to take care of and deal with while I’m here. One of my Ugandan sisters, Rebecca is older and doesn’t live at home, but on Sunday after church she came over to the house and saw us with our new hair. She kept talking about how much she liked it, and Mama Robinah said, “Yes, what beautiful African daughters I have.” Haha. I liked that. Rebecca and Mama both agreed that we looked very “smart”, which here is a really nice compliment meaning you look good (well dressed, etc.)

Sunday after church we had our first experience of washing our clothes in buckets. We soaked them the night before, so it wasn’t nearly as hard as I was expecting it to be, but it definitely still took a while. My favorite part was later that day. USP staff warned us both verbally and in our handbooks that if you don’t iron our clothes we can have problems with bugs. Apparently these things called mango flies come and lay their eggs in your clothes while their damp, and then they later burrow under your skin because your skin is damper than the dry clothes. I guess ironing them kills the bugs. In order to look “smart” you can’t have wrinkles in your clothes, but that was a much smaller motivation to iron than preventing nasty flies from crawling under our skin. But the funny part was that while I was ironing Laura and I were talking to our sister Silvia who thought that the whole thing was hysterical. She had no idea what mango flies were, and had never had bugs under her skin from her clothes. “Your brothers never iron,” she said. Laura and I decided it was an attempt from the USP staff to make us iron our clothes and look smart. Haha. We all had a good laugh at it. We didn’t iron everything.

WARNING: the next paragraph may contain material not suitable for sensitive readers. (Just kidding. Kind of. If you’re really fond of roosters, don’t read this.)

Yesterday we went home early from campus because we were both done with classes by one and we wanted Mama and Silvia to teach us how to make some of the food. Much to our surprise, not only was our Mom, Silvia, and our brothers there to meet us, but also an old lady with a rooster. The lady didn’t speak any English, so we had to find out everything about her from our Mom, who called her “the stubborn old lady that she takes care of because she used to serve the church.” But really, the lady isn’t the main part of this story… it’s the rooster she brought. It was walking around the courtyard the whole time that we prepared dinner, and Laura and I kept commenting on how pretty the feathers were, taking an occasional picture. Our brother William came and said that it was time to slaughter the chicken. We thought that he meant one of the many other chickens that we have, but before we knew it he had scooped up the rooster with one hand and was sharpening a knife with the other. The rooster with beautiful feathers was sacrificed to our stomachs, and we have pictures in his memory. During dinner our mom kept saying, “how’s the rooster,” and “eat some more of the rooster.” Like we needed reminding.

But really, life here goes on just like life goes on anywhere else in the world—normally. True, the normal is relative to Ugandan normal, but as we slowly adapt it becomes normal for us too. Wearing skirts and dresses all the time, eating dinner at 10 instead of 6, drinking lots of tea, using Luganda greetings, walking everywhere, seeing tons of tropical birds, having the power go out, bathing with a bucket, worshiping and praying with our family every night, having kids follow you just to touch your skin… its all “normal,” and I am enjoying it all.

P.S. thanks for all your comments! I like hearing from you all!

My name is Nampebwa

Hello family and friends in the below zero weather :)
I wasn't actually going to write anything today, but I am trying to upload a picture to show you and it is taking a REALLY long time with the slow connection here, so I figured I may as well also type while I wait. Hopefully it works.

I am learning a lot while I am here, and I am taking a few classes as well. Most of what I learn comes from home, though. I have decided that Luganda is a really hard language. I don't know how successful I will actually be in learning much, but I love it anyway. Mama Robinah and Silvia are teaching us some really useful and fun phrases, though, so Laura and I like trying to remember and use them. So far our vocabulary only consists of things like how are you, I am fine, I am satisfied, thank you very much, good morning, good afternoon, sleep well, ok, and a few others. We have only been here a week, though, so maybe we will end up learning more than I think.

You might be interested in learning some about the food here. I had heard from other people who had come to Uganda that most of the food was bad, so I was a little scared, but it has been a lot better than I expected. At the bottom of the Ugandan food pyramid, in a food group all of its own is matoke, or steamed plantain mush. We eat it for both lunch and supper, and I'm sure you can imagine what it tastes like if you just think about it. It’s not horrible, but it is far from good. We cover it with beans, ground nut sauce, or on a rare occasion meat, all of which make it taste a little better. I had a revelation the other day in discovering exactly what G-nut sauce was. Silvia was explaining what they were, and all I could think was “I don’t think we have those.” She had me try some of the g-nuts when they were all mashed up, but before they were made into the sauce, and it tasted a lot like peanut butter. The next night Mama Robinah came home with a big box of g-nuts that were, in fact peanuts. Sadly, I think they only eat them boiled, which is definitely not my favorite way to eat peanuts, but I was definitely excited to realize what g-nuts were! We also eat a lot of rice, which like the matoke is much better with something on it. Then there is posho, which has no flavor at all and is a little hard, spongy cube of something like cornmeal. Tea time has become one of our favorite parts of the day (thank you British influence!), and anytime in Uganda can be tea time. We always take tea at breakfast, when we come home from school, and several of us try to go to tea time in the dining hall during the day in the afternoon. It is kind of strange drinking hot tea when it is so hot here, but a lot of us still really look forward to it. The fruit here is also delicious, and we feel like we just got a million dollars when we get some fresh pineapple, a banana, or a mango with a meal. Last night instead of tea Mama Robinah gave us jackfruit to try. It was by far the most unique fruit I have eaten, but we really liked it!

Our walk to school is about 30-40 minutes, although this morning we discovered that we can make it in about 25 because we walked much faster. Most of it is uphill coming in the mornings, and we have realized that walking slower has its definite advantages. In general, though, we love the walk. On campus all of us living with families have two little rooms with lockers to keep our laptops, books, etc. so we do not always have to bring them home. Yesterday morning I forgot my key, though, so as soon as I got here I turned around and walked back home. That made for a long day of walking in shoes that weren’t good for my feet, and today I have HUGE blisters all over them. Ouch! I am really hoping they heal soon because if definitely hurts to walk, and walking here is absolutely unavoidable.

The last few nights have been great with our family. This post is getting really long, so I won’t say too much, but I will say that I know God put Laura and I in exactly the family where he wanted us to be. The last two nights in a row we have had worship and prayer with several in the family, and I am so encouraged by their passionate love of the Lord. Last night Mama Robinah also gave us our “clan” names. I can’t think of the name of the clan right now (it’s written down at home), but the name that she gave me is Nampebwa. Laura is Nakiriowa, and we both feel like having new names has made us a real part of the family.

We have an exciting weekend ahead of us. On Fridays we only have one class, Faith and Action, and after class most of us are going to Kampala to exchange money and look around. We’ve been looking forward to it all week. Laura and I are also really excited about tomorrow because Silvia is taking us to get our hair done! I’ll be sure and try to post more pictures next week.

- Nampebwa

Pictures!

hello bazungu

Oli otya? (How are you)
My blog post yesterday was pretty short, so I thought I would let you all know a little more of how life has been the last four days. In a few words... its been great!

Uganda is beautiful. The people are beautiful, Mukono is beautiful, the university is beautiful, and even the red dirt is beautiful... although it really isn't when it gets all over everything. And while I wouldn't lie to you all to say that I loved everything about it here, I will definitely say I like a lot.

My family is wonderful. I haven't exactly figured out how many people are really in my family because Ugandan homes are very open. People come in and out all the time. Its a lot of fun that way because you get to meet a lot of people, but it does make it hard to figure out what is going on. Even out of the people living in my house I have no idea who is really family. Mama Robina just always says, "this is another one of your brothers" or "this is another one of your sisters." The people that I have actually gotten to know are William, Peter, Robert, Jeffery, and my sister Silvia, but I think there are at least several others. A lot of our time is spent with our sister Silvia, who I would guess is about 16. She is reserved, like many Ugandan women, but she is great to have around. I am really looking forward to getting to know her more. A lot of Ugandans go to boarding school, and I was really sad when she said that her holiday ended at the beginning of February, but I was happy when she showed us how close her school was to our house and said that she lives at home and walks. All of the boys are also older, so there are no little kids in the house, but there are definitely plenty of kids in the streets who smile, wave, follow you, and scream "muzungu, muzungu" in the streets. The other day Laura and I played with a bunch of them in the street while we were waiting for Silvia to get done with a meeting. My favorite part is when they ramble off things in Luganda like we know what they are talking about.

I should go because this blog post is only helping me procrastinate longer on my paper thats due tomorrow (my mind is not in this whole school thing quite yet). After I finish my paper we're headed off for a scavenger hunt in Mukono before walking back home for time with my family, supper, and bed.

p.s. bazungu= the plural of muzungu, or white person :)

welcome to uganda

I only have about 10 minutes, so this will have to be a very quick update, but I wanted to let you all know what was going on. We got to Entebbe, Uganda by about 10 on Friday, and after making it through customs we piled onto one of USU's buses to drive the hour or so to the university. After a night in the guest house on campus, the other 14 or so IMME students and I got dropped off at our host families. Living with my family has been great. I don't have time to tell you all about them, but I will say that I was shocked at how nice the house was. We don't have running water, but we do have electricity, and I share my room with another IMME student, Laura, who is from California.

Classes started today, and I have already had three, with one more this afternoon, and then another orientation meeting before I walk back home. The Ugandan professors are all great, and I think I will enjoy all of the classes.

Sorry I don't have more time, but I'll let you know more later!

Its actually happening

Well, this is it. I'm actually packed. I'm actually ready. I'm actually leaving. My day starts early tomorrow, around 5, so I figured I would say a last good-bye (sadly, an electronic good-bye will have to work for all of you that I didn't get to see!) before I pack up my laptop along with everything else. The next time you hear from me... I will be half-way around the world, soaking up some equator-sun and beginning another great adventure :)

Happy New Year!

Last night we celebrated the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. Its crazy how fast a year goes by. More than a year ago I was starting to think and pray about studying abroad in Uganda, and now it is only one week away. I know this week will also go fast and before I know it I'll be sitting on a plane flying across the Atlantic.

(Which, if anyone is interested, my flights look like this:
Depart: Indianapolis, IN 10:11 AM/ Arrive: Washington, DC 11:43 AM
Depart: Washington, DC 6:00 PM/ Arrive: Amsterdam 7:30 AM
Depart: Amsterdam 11:00 AM/ Arrive: Entebbe, Uganda 9:00 PM
Hurray for 2 full days of flying!)

But until then, I am packing and unpacking and repacking again, trying to figure out what I am planning on bringing that I really don't need at all. The plan is to fit it all into one 50 lb suitcase... hopefully it works out!