Hello all! It's been a while.
First off everything in Mukono is going very well. My Luganda class has ended so now I have more time to relax, do homework, and go to my internship at the Mukono Health Clinic. Speaking of which, I have only been there twice so far and I am just doing office type stuff for the HIV/AIDS program. I hope to do more as I go more often. More on that later hopefully.
Before I get into my rural home stay I have to share my host parents reactions when I reminded them I was leaving for 9 days.
(6 days before I left)
Me: "Mama, remember that I am leaving on Friday for Soroti for 10 days."
Mama: "Heh! 10 days! That is too long! Two days is all you need. You go there, spend the night, and come back. And I will not let you dig. You cannot dig. And if there is anything you don't want to do just pretend that you are ill."
(A few days later)
Me: "So you know that I am leaving on Friday for Soroti for 10 days, right?"
Papa: "Good. You need the experience. You need to learn a different way of doing life. You will learn a lot. But if there's anything you don't feel like doing just pretend that you are ill. And please do not do more than you can manage. We don't want you coming home with bruises, blisters, and cuts all over your body."
I have great host parents. = )
If I had to sum up my rural home stay in one word it would be: necessary. But more on that in a moment.
We drove 7 hours from Mukono to Soroti on Friday. When we got there we stayed at our home stay coordinator's house for the first night. Her and her husband (who happens to be my Religions lecturer) are building a school and are boarding 50 students. We pitched tents and some people stayed in huts. I stayed in a tent. It felt like camping. We also met the 50 students. They were so nice and well mannered. We taught them some American games and they taught us so Ugandan games. It was so much fun. Except that one of my sandals broke, I will have to get that fixed soon.
Then the next morning we all loaded up to be dropped off at our homes for the week.
My family lived off the main road, but the path to get to my house was really long. It took quite a while to get there. When I arrived I met my host dad, Opolot John (Opolot is his culture name and John is his Christian name). He has two wives. One is named Florence and she was the one that stayed there the whole time. The other wife (he never told me her Christian name and I can't remember her culture name) is a nurse at the hospital and only comes by the house once in a while to visit. My host dad has 18 children. I am still thinking that there are more because the numbers weren't adding up to 18. 12 of them live in Kampala (capital city), 7 of his sons live at the house in their own huts, and their youngest daughter, who is 9 or 10, lived with us. He probably has 20+ grandchildren. There are also graves on his property (it's culture to have graves on one's property). One grave is his father, two are daughters, one is a son, and two are brothers. They all died of natural illness. My host day is in in early 80's and my host mom was probably in her 70's. They were a lovely couple and I wished that my host mom spoke more English because I think I would have really great conversations with her.
This was a hard experience for me. The reasons were because it is dry season which means there is absolutely NO work to do. So I just sat around all day and talked with my host dad from time to time. I don't do well with just sitting around doing doing. The other reason was I was completely isolated. I never left the property because I had no reason to and I didn't see anyone outside of my family for the whole week. I do not do well with isolation unless I choose to be isolated. If it forced on me, I break down. And I did cry on Sunday because I didn't know what else to do.
What also made it frustrating was the fact that I had the same conversation about food and tea with my host dad every night. I apparently never ate enough for them. I always ate enough to where I knew I would be satisfied and would not be starving until the next morning, but it apparently was never enough for them.
This is what the conversation was like:
"Take more food."
"No, thank you. I am fine. I promise."
"You eat very little."
"I know, but I know that I am satisfied."
For those of you who know me know that I hate tea. I decided to not be rude and refuse tea. So I drank it twice everyday. Even though it was milk tea which isn't as bad, it was still horrible. Another thing that I found out was, if I drink tea before bed I will be up all night. I discovered this the first night living with my Mukono family. So I would only take half a cup each time. That was never enough either.
"Take more tea."
"No, I can't. If I do I will be up all night."
There was one night where I had a full cup of tea because I didn't like the millet porrige/tea thing (look it up if you are curious what it is). I was up all night because of the tea. My host day asked me how my night was the next morning and I told him it was awful because of the tea. Then he understood. But then he continued to tell me to drink more tea, so I'm wondering if he really did understand.
Even though it was a rough experience it needed to happen. It was revealed to me that I am truly a stubborn person and need to let it go. I also had a lot of time to spend with the Lord each day which was so refreshing. And I realized that I could not do that week on my own strength. I needed the Lord a lot that week. Which is something I need to keep in mind always.
The Lord knew what I needed. And I am grateful for the experience. As hard as it was, it needed to happen to me and I hope to be different and act different after it.
There were some good things though. I got to do a little bit of work. I got to separate little tiny rocks from the rice (REALLY tedious job), pound ground nuts (basically peanuts), grind beans, shell ground nuts and dig for sweet potatoes (so I broke my Mukono Mama's rule, oh well). Those were great things and I'm happy that I got to do something besides sit around and do nothing.
I also ate with my hands for every meal. It was a bit tricky with beans and sauce, but I managed. I also had to bathe with a basin with COLD water instead of a bucket with warm water. I decided that I like bathing with a bucket better. But other than that, the experience was a lot like my home stay in Mukono. There was not much to adapt to.
After the week we all met in Kapchorwa which is where the other students stayed for the week. We went to Sipi Falls which are really beautiful. I went on a 5 hour hike to see all three of the falls. It was hard because the sun was beating down and it was a lot of up hill and down hill with really loose dirt so I fell a few times. It also didn't help that I ran out of water half way through the hike and couldn't get more. It was still a lot of fun, I'm glad I did it.
But I did get lost on the way back to the campsite we were staying. What happened was, I had to stop and rest within the last five minutes of the hike (didn't know we were that close) because I was really dehydrated and needed to rest. I let everyone go in front of me. When I was ready I got up and started walking again. I was thinking that the rest of the group wasn't that far a head of me because when I got to the top of the hill I saw a group of white people. I started following them and then within a few minutes I realized they weren't my group. So I asked a random Ugandan man how to get to the camp site I was staying at. He told me I was going the wrong way. We turned around and he took me all the way to the campsite. Such a nice man. I drank plenty of water when I got back so now I'm fine.
The next day was Sunday and we had a worship service on top of one of the hills. It was hard to get up because I was still sore from the hike, but the view was beautiful. Great time of worship and people giving their testimonies. Then we all walked down the hill and had breakfast and packed up and left for Mukono. Made it there safely.
I got back to my home and was greeted by my Mama and sister Jemi. My Papa was in Kampala. I still have yet to see him.
But that is all to report on. I am now ready for the second half of the semester. I'm told that the second half goes by a lot faster than the first half. So that means I will be home before you know it!!
I miss you all very much and cannot wait to see all of you soon!!
Prayer Requests:
To be present here
To continue being productive in homework
Safety and good health
be Blessed All!
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