Farewells

 Tuesday, I finished everything for my undergraduate degree. I have done all the presentations, turned in all the papers and taken all the tests. I'm amazed how quickly not only the four years have gone, but also how quick this semester has gone. I remember being picked up from the airport being sleep deprived and homesick for the first four nights. It's going to be hard to go through time zones and homesickness again.

Unfortunately, on Tuesday we found out that we will not being going to Rwanda. For those of you who don't follow the news Rwanda and Uganda are having some border issues. Nothing to be concerned about my safety but my program is going on the side of caution. Instead, we are going to Northern Uganda "to learn more about the history of northern Uganda and see and hear from some of the incredible efforts being done to rebuild individuals and communities after years of devastation and loss." I'm very excited to learn more about the history of the place that I have called home for four months.

On Tuesday, I went home to celebrate being free from being a student and also to "help" my family cook for the farewell dinner.  Tuesday night, I helped defeather one chicken while my brothers did like five or six each. I then helped wash out the inside of the chickens (30 chickens). I went to bed and I over slept, so I missed the whole butchering the pig thing. I'm not too upset about that for some reason (just so you know I woke up at like 7:30). The rest of the day, I helped take the garlic and grate it. I only got my finger once in the process so it's kind of a win. I then followed Alex around with whatever he was doing.

The farewell dinner is an event with lots of people and speeches. My family made incredible food and there was so much of it. There were over 250 people there. (28 students+ each student got 2 coworkers from their internship+ host families + staff). I was luck that I had another person interning at ROTOM so that I got to see four people from my practicum site. We got to celebrate that I got a certificate that says I completed a the Uganda Studies Program here at UCU and am now part of the alumni association. This is super cool since my supervisor graduated from UCU so it's like we're alumni together now.

My group of social workers (not everyone made it for the picture)

Supervisors and the supervised. ROTOM blessed both of us.

My ROTOM family

Babirye to my Nakato (It's a twin thing)

Today was my last day on UCU's campus as a student. The bus rolls out at 8:00 am and I'm going to miss this place.

Last Weekend in Uganda (As a USP student)

I am done with my internship- I ended with 409 hours. I learned so much through being here. I learned how to practice with clients through a translator, how to be okay with silence, how to connect with coworkers that are so very different from me, how to ask a million questions and still prove you are a competent social worker,  about power dynamics (being educated, white, a social worker) and how to try to balance the power I do have.  I also got to experience chickens sitting inside clients houses (I only got pecked once), dance parties with jjajja's, making a fool out of myself and being okay with it (I'm talking about the dance parties) and making relationships.

I finished all of my classes here at UCU, the only thing that I have left for my undergrad is a case study paper and presentation on Tuesday. It's super said to realize that my time is almost done. This week, I'm turning all of my stuff in and getting ready for our trip in Rwanda. We will be watching some educational movies and having orientation to prepare for it. We leave on Friday.

This past weekend, on Saturday I got to go to Kampala and do some last minute shopping with a good friend of mine. We took a taxi and accidentally got off on the wrong stop. Thankfully, Ugandan's are more than willing to give directions. We made it to craft Africa safe and sound. We were extremely impressive, we got all of our last minute shopping for people done and left in like two hours. We then went to Lugogo, which is a shopping mall. We went to a big super market than tends to have some American food and we found some American candy bars. We then stopped at Cafe Java's. It's a chain that I've mentioned before that has "white people" food (Ugandan's words, not mine). We treated ourselves to chicken alfredo and iced coffee. We got back at a decent time so I went home.

Alex taught me to make chapati, it's actually much easier than I thought. It's basically flour, water, salt and oil. You can add veggies in the mix: we added onions, peppers and carrots. It was super fun and I'm excited to make them at home for people to try. I stayed overnight and then went to church in the morning. After church, we were getting ready for the farewell dinner. There's going to be 300 some people there and my family is cooking for them. It's basically a way to say goodbye to our host families and people from our internships. So on Sunday, I helped dry plates and some 300 forks.

I did some planning for when my dad comes, we are going to have a full week! One of my favorite parts, is that ROTOM upon hearing my dad is coming offered to take him to a fellowship so he can actually experience what my internship was like. I originally was hesitant as I did not want to get in the way of the work that they are doing, but everyone was so excited! It will be a really fun time!

Final Stretch of USP

I'm filling out my timesheet for practicum and I have thirty hours left- on day one the goal of four hundred hours seemed insane. I'm looking at my calendar and realizing that I have my capstone, my end of semester paper, due in a week. I'm also realizing that my classmates have less than a month before they fly home to the United States. Huge shout out to my dad for coming and giving me extra time!

 My class schedule was a bit strange this week: on Monday I did not go to my internship site. Instead we had a social work class where we learned about the enneagram. This meant that I was done at 4 instead of 5:30. This does not sound like a super big deal, but when you have a curfew of seven, that extra hour and a half is really nice. I spent the afternoon with my friend where we found a place that sold milkshakes. The amount of syrup that they put in there is like a child's dream come true. It was a good way to spend the afternoon. Since we had extra time, we went to see if we could find some fabric to have my graduation dress made. (I'm arriving basically two full days before graduation and won't have time and/or energy for shopping). In Uganda, you can get clothes tailored to you. I didn't find the fabric that I wanted for my graduation dress, but I did find fabric for a skirt. I'm super excited that I get a skirt long enough, that has pockets and I paid only 30,000 shillings for. That's like $8.50.

The rest of the week was fun at my internship. I got to spend a lot of time with the jjajja's and they are the sweetest people ever. I'm forever amazed that when they start singing praise songs most of them get up and dance. Some of them need canes to get up, but that doesn't stop them from really praising the Lord.

Yesterday, I didn't have social work classes at 9:00 since we had class on Monday. This meant that I didn't have class until 3:30! I spent the morning sleeping in. I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've done that since I've been here. I got a call from Alex at like 10:30 asking if I was busy today. He asked me to bring my camera and help him because he just got hired to take photos at this entrepreneur "fair." So I spent the afternoon being a "professional photographer."  They gave me lunch which was way better than food I would get at the DH. I also got to learn a lot about what starting a business means here in Uganda. There were so many ideas and business types. I had to leave early for class, so I missed a large portion of the presentations, but it was a good day anyway.

I don't think I have anything else interesting to add, besides it's 26 days until my dad comes! We're going to have so much fun.

I don't know how to title all this randomness

This is another short post about the most random things.

Saturday, I got to go shopping and I bought some more African wear. I honestly have so much, but it is inexpensive clothing that I really love the colors of. I went with a friend and afterwards we went to get smoothies at shop we haven't tried before. It was so cold, which hit the spot, but it was much smaller (and more expensive) than the smoothie place here on campus.
That afternoon, I got to watch Alex play football (read soccer). In the States, I loved supporting my brothers playing soccer. It was fun to get a chance to do that again. It was even more fun when they won the game like 5-0.  It was even greater that I got to go home afterwards. All in all a good day. I went to bed way too late again, but time flies when you are having fun.
Sunday, I went to church and then just hung out. It rained a little bit so we had a nice indoor game of UNO. There was a really bad flash of lighting (that scared me a little bit) and I later learned that it hit one of our neighbors. The man died. It was a horrible thing to have happened, but it reminded me the amazingness (is that a word) of the Ugandan culture. Once the news was discovered, everyone sprang to action. Mom went over and started caring for the baby. Someone went to go rent chairs so that visitors had some where to sit. They needed this because the whole community will go over to pay respects and give condolences. They don't just send them a card in the mail, everyone walks over there and sits with them. It was also mentioned that my family would start cooking something so that visitors would have enough to eat. It was incredible to watch how much the community cares. It is a tragic event that I'm sure prayers would be appreciated for, but it was also just really cool to see a community come together.
Today started uneventful, I went to class at 8:30-10:30. I then went to morning tea (which needs to be thing when I get back). I went to my internship (I only have 9 full days left- WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS SEMESTER!!). I typed translations to the letters sent to the donors, I would definitely recommend getting a senior friend. These letters are too cute to handle. The day was good, I was waiting to go home when my day became slightly more exciting. I got left at my internship site and had to wait an extra hour. I came back a wee bit grumpy, but it's a good thing that I was left. I was planning on getting a rolex to make up for the rough ending, but I ran into some homestay students who wanted to get what's called an eggroll at local place. An eggroll is definitely not what you would think. It is a hard boiled egg that is surrounded by mashed potatoes and then fried.  I would recommend. The company made up for a rough end to the day. I also bought myself a Novida, so some sugar therapy was pretty great.

Late Nights

 This is a short post with not a whole lot of interesting happenings. I just feel the need to be actually caught up on my blog.

This past weekend, I made plans to have a movie night with my brother and in general just hang out with the family. Friday night, I got there and surprised my mom and all my brothers (accept the one who said lets have a movie night- I thought he told mom I was coming/he thought I told mom). This is where I know they love me, I basically just showed up unannounced and they were still excited. On Friday night, I got the invitation to join them at an expo in which they were showing their family business of the rabbit farming on Saturday. We left pretty early in the morning and I went to bed fairly early that same morning....I think I got like four hours of sleep.

I was secretary (wrote receipts for whatever someone bought) for all of fifteen minutes before everyone (myself included) realized that knowing Luganda would be of some help. Mostly I just hung out.  However, I did learn that g-nuts and p-nuts are the same thing thanks to a different stand at the expo. This was pretty life changing information.

At the end I met some kids and we did cartwheels in the field by our stand.  I got to hold some rabbits and hold kids, it was a afternoon well spent. We ended up leaving late for my curfew so after a few phone calls it was decided that I would spend the night again. The traffic on the ride back was not fun, mad props to my brother for having no road rage, I would have lost it. However, staying over night turned into another movie night, which lead to another late night. However, it was totally worth it.

On that note, I seem to have caught a cold. That might be partially because lack of sleep.

Regardless of the cold, I toughed it out and got off campus on Sunday with a couple friends and ended up meeting a couple more. I got sunburned and a cold all on the same day.  It was a pretty fun adventure full of lots of laughter. Thankfully the traffic wasn't as bad Sunday as it was on Saturday night and we made it home safe and sound.

Playing Tourist

At this point I've been in Uganda for basically two and a half months. We talk a lot in my Faith and Action class (the one that I get to take instead of Core 399 for my Dordt friends) about how we aren't here to be tourists and instead we are here to learn from the locals and really grow while we are here. That being said, the first weekend of March I got to play tourist and go on a safari! It was a really great time to get off campus and hang out with a bunch of different people. We left on Saturday morning at 6 am and drove to Murchison Falls, a national park in Uganda, to start our safari. The first thing we did was see the top of the falls.

 It is absolutely beautiful, even though it is dry season and wasn't at full force. After that we went down to the loading dock at the bottom and took a cruise on the Nile. We were running late (African time), but they waited for us. Unfortunately, we did miss lunch because we had to basically run straight onto the boat, but totally worth it. It was super cool to be on the Nile and see crocodiles, hippos, elephants, birds...basically a lot of nature.

bottom of the falls and my friend Sarah.

After the Nile cruise, (on which I took like 400 pictures of hippos), we were heading back on the bus to go on what's called a game drive. One of the girls in our group was carrying bananas and a baboon ran up to her and tried to steal them. Baboons are so much bigger than I thought.

The Baboon that stole the bananas.

We were all laughing about the strange event on the bus when a man with a gun came on the the bus. We all were kind of frozen for a minute, but he said he was our tour guide (named George) and the gun was for scaring away elephants if needed. We then went on our game drive.

We saw a lot of really cool things and George was a great tour guide with so much information. We went back to the hotel and had supper. I was taking a shower and the power went off mid-shower. If you don't understand the irony, reread the blog post on Sipi Falls. I was rooming with the same friend who got stuck with me.

We got up at 6 am again to go on a mini game drive before going home. We got back at 7ish on Sunday. We crammed a lot of things in that short amount of time, but it was very fun.

Sipi Falls & COFFEE

After homestays, we went directly to Sipi Falls.
We got there Friday night, it was basically debrief, eat some supper and catch up with everybody.  It was great after a challenging week. I got to hang out with some of the off campus students that I don't get to see much. I had a real bonding experience with one of the girls. Her name is Sarah. We were told that there was hot showers, which I haven't had since January 1. We were super pumped, grabbed our stuff and each took a stall. We were enjoying the water and we were mid-shampoo when the water turned off. We weren't sure if the water would turn back on, but at that point we were wet, naked and in a drafty shower. We just decided after standing around for awhile that the water wouldn't turn back on and therefore we just dealt with shampoo in our hair.

 It was okay that our hair was absolutely gross because the following day we got absolutely disgusting on a nine mile hike to see three waterfalls. In case you missed me saying it four or five times the last post:  I am seriously out of shape.  I made it though.

We had fun with the cameleon. We played in the waterfall (It was a very long hike in wet jeans, but 100% worth it!) We completed 9 miles.

The path had loose dirt and some Ugandan boys helped us down the path. While this wasn't me, it had definitely been me multiple times.

The view from the "hotel." It's labeled the first waterfall we went to and the third. The second could not be seen. However, I totally walked that far and didn't die.

After the hike, we had like five minutes to change out of wet clothes and grab money and then we went on a coffee tour and then I had two and a half cups of Ugandan coffee. It was super interesting to see the process in African versus the process I have seen used when I did a tour of Kansas City roastery. It is so much less complicated, scientific and less machines. However, it's still a pretty good cup of joe.

Coffee Plant

Baby Coffee Plants

After beating the coffee to get the good part of the bean you have to thrash it. We were not good at it but I don't have an expert pictures and this one was too fun not to share.

Before being roasted & After

Hand ground is best, right?