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?

Rural Homestays

March 1 (three days ago) marks two months since I left for Uganda. I have been here for two months and falling in love with Uganda (and the people) a little more everyday. I've been slacking so I'll catch you up. 

I was in Rural Uganda for 7 days living with a family.

We had about a six hour drive in that I spent with a majority of off-campus students. It was a great time to get to know people that I don't get to see very often. The van ride was full of Heads-up, laughter and ice cream we bought at a gas station (and shared with very tiny wooden spoons).


That week, I learned how to work incredibly hard. Ugandan women might be the strongest people I know. This past week, I was up before the sun every single day (I left my watch behind, I'm trying to truly embrace "African Time.") My host mom, Toto Helen, wanted me to learn everything in a week. I think we might have gotten close.

Some background to this experience. I was living in Serere, Uganda. I put in my last post that I would be staying in Soroti. I was wrong- Toto Helen told me that it has only been it's own district for about a year. My Ugandan geography/history education is a bit behind :) They speak a different tribal language than is spoken in the central region (where I am now).  They speak Ateso, if you want to greet in this language you say "yoga." That is about the extent of my Ateso. I lived on a compound- communal living is huge here. My two brothers and my uncle each had their own structure and my two sisters (19 and 10) had their own structure. I lived in a different structure with my host mother (fun fact she is a twin mother and was beyond excited to here I was a twin).

I was dropped off Saturday at probably around 10 or so. We got straight to work washing the dishes. This sounds like an easy enough task, until you realize there is no running water. You have to haul water in jerry cans to where ever you want to do dishes. This is a job. Ugandan's really dont have a need for a traditional gym. The bore hole  (where you get water) pump is basically a rowing machine. I felt it for the next couple of days let me tell you. After you get water from the bore hole you have to push the jerry cans in a wheel barrow over many bumps.

House that I lived in.

Always welcomed with open arms.

On Tuesday, my brother (21) took me on a hike. I am out of shape (you will hear this at least 3 or four more times in this blog post....but I seriously need to start exercising and start eating less chapati and Rolex). We first went to a farm that was raising fish in a pond (and other random animals) We then went up this steep hill. I was breathing so heavy, but I made it. It was cool to see the landscape and get out of the compound for a bit. We took a detour on the way back and he showed me the prisoners gardens. The prisoners are used for manual labor in Uganda, so if you don't want to do something you hire prisoners. I asked Dan more questions on where the money goes and who gets it but he wasn't really sure. It was an interesting thing to see- they wear yellow shirts and shorts and are very rarely accompanied by guards. It was unsettling for me at first, but Dan assured me the punishment only gets worse  if they escape. I decided not to thing about it too much but rather just trust him.

I forget what day it was, but Toto Helen and I played a little bit of dress up while I was there. I was dressed in the two different types of gomesi (the traditional African wear- ps. don't judge my spelling I very rarely see Luganda written out).

This picture and the picture below are both the traditional style of dress. 

In general, I did a lot of cooking with my mom. I got to explore the gardens and see what they all planted. Also I did a lot of house chores and basically did whatever they were doing or what they would do on a normal day. 

This is sorghum. You must beat it with a stick and then thrash it in order to use it.

This photo is most definitely staged. I was so bad at thrashing. She took my picture and took over....which is definitely a good thing!

I learned a lot during homestays. It was a really long week in which I learned that I was not cut out to be an Ugandan housewife in rural Uganda (though I did have a couple guys imply they would love to marry me so I could stay there- I politely declined).  I'm all blogged out- but I'll soon post about my trip to Sipi Falls and my safari!

I couldn't figure out how to take a picture of the stars well. However, they were beautiful. Absolutely no light pollution what so ever. However I'm afraid you'll have to be okay with this picture of the moon.