Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Let's finish.

This is weird. Blogging is one of those things I'm supposed to want to do--but since I've gotten back to the states I just haven't wanted to write the final one. Hmm. Anyway, let's do one last update about my feelings now. I do love feelings.

1) America goes really fast. Like, really really fast. I'm amazed at how scheduled everything is. There are some parts of me that got really excited about this because I have the organized-teacher brain. On the other hand, it also made me really frustrated. We have to be places on time? There are time limits for things? People really care about that? Oops. Where's the time to sit and reflect? Oh yeah, we waste that.

2) I have a love/hate relationship with Walmart. I missed it so much in Africa but now when I go back I keep thinking, "We need all this stuff? Do we really? Why would I want that? Why would I even think about spending that much money on that thing?" I also missed the organization of Walmart, but since they've done remodeling, it just doesn't feel like home anymore.

3) I miss my kids. I miss their smiling faces.

4) People are really important. Africa taught me this in a big way. It amazes me that I've so easily reverted to American ways in regards to people. In Uganda, people talk for hours and I enjoyed those conversations. Here, I've started getting annoyed when conversations last over an hour. Actually, that's not completely true, but it's more true than I would like for it to be. I need to be African when it comes to people.

5) There are more bugs in America than in Uganda. And I just got my first sunburn of the summer--here. Yikes.

6) I miss the simplicity and lack of distractions. At the same time, I've really enjoyed having the ability to log into facebook multiple times a day just because I can.

7) Narcissism is a disease.

8) I went to Uganda thinking that God would show me more about a missional calling, or at least more about what he was going to do with my life. Nope. I know less now than I did before. God's funny that way.

9) How is my life changed? I'm not even sure that I know. I'm different than I was, I can feel it, but I really can't put it into words. At the same time, I'm also more like my old self than I would like to be. Does that make sense?

10) I've decided that I want to adopt. Children, that is. And some dogs. And maybe a husband--but I don't think you adopt those.

11) I feel like America puts everything into boxes and categories, including things that don't fit into boxes and categories. They even do it to God, which blows my mind. Africans don't do that because they realize that God is a big guy. You won't meet very many just-on-Sunday Christians there. Yes, many of them don't have their doctrine right, but they see God as someone who should be revered where many American Christians see themselves as the one who should be revered.

12) I think that I won't stop being homesick until I'm truly home.

13) CEREAL IS AMAZING.

14) The "muzungu" feeling hasn't worn off yet. I still feel like people are staring at me like they did in Uganda and they just don't say "muzungu". I realize that this isn't true (or maybe it is and I'm just more gorgeous than I thought) but I'm still incredibly self-conscious. For the first week I was back, I also had a fear of being in crowds. It was weird.

15) It's strange not to have to work for things. Getting things in America is easier than it should be, which is why we have a lot of spoiled people. I wasn't as annoyed with this until I came back and watched others whining about the most mundane things and being overly critical about things that don't really matter.

That's about all I can think of for now. Off to new adventures!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Dude, I'm Tired.

Last day in Uganda: Lunch with Boyetts. Successfully/accidentally locked myself in bathroom. Watched Madagascar. Packed. Ate a good meal. Jumped in a cab with Rachael, Josh, and a strange driver man.

Entebbe Airport: Huge long line. One hour delay. Loopy Rachael. Cranky Laura. Power outages. Very Africa.

Entebbe Flight: Watched Remember Me, got depressed, napped, watched Pocahontas, got considerably happier.

Amsterdam Airport: Followed Josh around. Bad move. More long lines. Rachael giggling uncontrollably.

Amsterdam Flight: Sat next to Rachael. Colored some pictures. Stared at an Ethiopian baby with HUUGE eyes. More uncontrollable laughter. I think at this point, ALL sense was gone...

Detroit Airport: OMG I CAN WEAR SHORTS NOW. MCDONALDS. AMERICA. AAAAHHHH.

Detroit Flight: Talked with a delightful man about his further delightful family. Kept making accidental references to Africa. Oops.

Atlanta Airport: Fought crowds to the baggage claim, where Grace was already leaning against a piece of my luggage.

With Grace: Listened to lots of loud music. Demanded to stop by Dairy Queen, where I finally got a blizzard. Had real salad for dinner. Wandered aimlessly around Target, amazed by its aroma. And now she's giving me more cooking lessons.

I plan on doing one more wrap up/this is what I learned blog, but considering the amount of sleep I'm running on, this will have to come in a week or so. America, however, is so far so good.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Bouncing on the Nile like Baby Moses

First order of business: I have not been bombed. I am, in fact, alive and uninjured. However, I am also in Kampala, the city where the bombs are. But we'll talk about this more later.

Let's go back to Sunday for a moment. I was kind of depressed, which is why that blog was short, but Sunday was definitely interesting. We went to the 7-hour-long ABIDE graduation, which was SEVEN HOURS LONG. Maybe you understand the message I'm trying to convey here. The great thing is--well, let's back up a second. On Saturday night, Rachael and I hung out with "mom and dad" in their room just for fun. We found a long-dead mouse in a computer bag and played dress-up with Kathy's closet. I decided that, just for kicks and giggles, I would wear Kathy's traditional Ugandan dress to the ceremony the next day. Fast forward back to that long ceremony I was just talking about. I was dressed in a long wrap skirt, poofy dress top, and large scarf/wrap thingy. I looked like a giant pink and gold cupcake. All the Americans laughed at me, but when we arrived at the ceremony, all my Ugandan friends gave me hugs and said, "Rora! You look SMART!" which means, "You are one smokin lady in that dress mmm-mmm!" The bigger the better here I suppose. Unfortunately it was VERY hot in that outfit and ants were crawling all up in my clothes. But in that time I read a book, wrote a card, and jounaled a lot. Seven hours. Seven.

Then I managed to break a poor Ugandan boy's heart. Rambo from Bible Baptist, who liked walking me home from church each Sunday, came to the house that evening wanting my picture. Then he didn't want to leave. It was really sad. He kept saying "I like you, I like you" and I kept saying "There are many nice girls in Uganda, many...I will pray you find one..." He was really sweet, but.....anyway....After he finally left I got a massive headache and missed the final World Cup game and was in an absolute haze as everyone was leaving and saying goodbye at 12:30 am.

Monday was really sad. Rachael and I actually had to say goodbye to Daddy Dale and Mama Kathy and there were some tears. I will dearly miss that family, they've meant more to me this summer than they know. We left with the ABIDE leaders for a long trip to Kampala around 11. This was after we heard about the bombs and watched some terrible footage on the news. Comforting, right? On the way up, some zebras crossed the road. First zebras I'd seen in Africa. We arrived at Red Chili guest house around seven, exhausted and covered in dust (gotta love dry season). Rachael and I went to the guest house's restaurant and waited an hour and a half for sandwiches. And we were extremely uncomfortable because there were so many white people in there--we felt really out of place and small. I'm turning into an African.

The next morning we woke up bright and early (I was slightly brighter and earlier than Rachael) to go white water rafting on the Nile. We hopped on the rafting company's bus, which came to pick us up at the guest house, and went on an hour and half ride to Jinja, the source of the Nile. Once again, we were surrounded by white people and I felt really out of place. The boys were bound and determined to do the "Wild" course, which was hilarious because we had three Ugandan guys with us who were not very accustomed to water. Oh my. We also had Laura Love, who is not in any way/shape/form a thrill seeker. Then we had Big J, our guide, who was not very sympathetic to anyone. On the first class 5 rapid we hit--yeah, that's the biggest class you can raft on short of death--one of our Ugandan guys and I went under. I was terrified out of my MIND. When both of us came up, he was laughing and I couldn't speak, which is funny because I'm the certified lifeguard and he's not a swimmer. On the second class five--the biggest rapid we hit--I opted to go on the safety boat because it wasn't supposed to tip. Nope, we went under. My thought right beforehand was "I would rather get a shot than do this"--and I hate shots. I have never been so scared....ever. I think I swallowed about a gallon of the Nile while trying to get air. When we went to lunch right after that, one of our Ugandan guys claimed that he had a headache. He found some guys to take him back to the bus and I tagged along (a chicken move, I know, but my heart was still pounding for a good thirty minutes after the last tip). Therefore, I spent the rest of the day with some Ugandans, had some really good conversation, and wasn't scared at all--except when we got chased by Ankole cows and I stepped knee deep in mud. I also tried my first jackfruit, which tasted like candy. When our rafting group finally got back, we found out that they hadn't tipped again all afternoon. Great.

That night Rachael had a great experience. I tease that she has the bladder the size of a walnut, and on the way back to Kampala she was desperate. The bus driver pulled over to the side of the road so people could "su-su" and she discovered that the Ugandan version of a rest stop equals squatting on the side of the road, no bushes, with cars whizzing by. Thank goodness I brought a skirt out to give her a bit of protection.

Today we left Red Chili and went to Matoke Inn, which is the AIM missions guest house. It feels a lot like a grandma's house and it's just nice to be able to sit and reflect. There were indeed three or four bombings in Kampala on Sunday and Monday, and we're just praying that they don't target the airport--that would be problematic. I'm planning on just staying in this house, so I'm not really worried about being involved in any violence while I'm here

Tomorrow we step on the plane, which I'm actually getting really sad about. I'm a little bit scared to go back to America because I've just started getting used to things here.

On the other hand, my promised bowls of cereal DO sound pretty nice.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Osibe gye, Mbarara

Let's keep this short and sweet because it's kind of sad. Today is my last day in Mbarara. On Thursday I said goodbye to all the kids at Bible Baptist and on Friday I said goodbye to my kids at Nkokonjeru. Yesterday I said goodbye to the marketplace (thank heavens) and today I said goodbye to the GETS girls. Tomorrow I will say goodbye to my family here--Daddy Dale and Mama Kathy and my little brothers--and I'm not sure how I'll keep it together then. Then again, I'll also say goodbye to all our rodents.
Tomorrow we're heading to Kampala (the capital city). On Tuesday we'll be rafting the Nile. Then we'll step onto the plane on Thursday.
At least I'll still have Rachael.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

It's Almost Time

It's kind of hard to believe that there are only eight days left for me in Uganda. On July 15th, I will be stepping on a plane and heading back to good old America. How do I feel about this? I'm not completely sure. Right now, I'm a little sad, but also seeing that it really is time to wrap things up. In fact, I've seen a few signs that tell me "it's time":

1) I've run out of interesting book to read to the kids at Nkokunjeru. A few more weeks there and they would be bored with me.

2) Joel and Jill Skinner left last weekend. That was just plain sad, because they are really fun people and it's just not the same without them here.

3) We slaughtered one of our pigs for Joel and Jill's going away feast. It's quieter without him.

4) The Ugandan family that lives on our compound just got a rooster that crows at 6:30 in the morning.

5) We found another rat in the kitchen.

6) I've been about pushed to my limit with "'Ay muzungu!" You'd think I'd be hardened to this, but I haven't. Because I'm a woman, whenever I hear a man say it I just feel like a piece of meat. Muzungu itself is related to a word meaning "wanderer" or "one who walks around in circles". I understand, though, that this is a common problem for missionaries in lots of other countries.

7) I have almost developed an addiction to coffee---not good.

8) The two discipleship programs Rachael and Josh have been working with are ending this week.

9) I'm running out of clothes. I've thrown out two or three shirts already and need to get rid of some others....

10) I finished up piano lessons today.

11) I'm having serious Disney withdrawals and there are roughly 80 notifications on facebook that have accrued over the last week that I can't look at.

So even though it's sad, I think this week is definitely feeling like a close. It's also been a pretty entertaining time. Really good things that have happened over the last week:


  • Rachael, Emily, and I have had some good quality time with our "family", the Hollenbecks. Dale said that I would be a really fun daughter (then went on to make fun of how I still like Disney princesses), has spent nights up talking with us, and said that he was really glad we were at his house. Micah, the oldest and hardest son to crack, has started actually taking interest/concern in us. Zach actually asked me to do homeschooling with him because he thought I was fun. 
  • I beat Micah at Settlers of Catan. 
  • I've had quite a few laughs at school. On Monday at Nkokunjeru, I gave the kids an assignment to write about their family, favorite things, and future dreams. One kid said "My favorite thing is teacher Laura and for me my future dream is to be a teacher like teacher Laura." Other kids talked about how much they liked mangoes and had future goals of going to America. On Tuesday, I was looking at Religious Education exams at Bible Baptist, and one kid wrote: "Q: What are commandments God has given us? A: Do not lie, do not bet, do not cut off your firiends head." Then a teacher broke out stickers in class and all the kids when CRAZY. Today, I read Aesop's Fables to the kids at Nkokunjeru and asked them to try to figure out the morals. I had answers such as "Don't hide your axe in the bush." and "Do not take off your jacket."
  • In the middle of church at Bible Baptist last Sunday they put a very familiar American song into the sound system. It was a bluegrass version of "I'll Fly Away"--banjo, twang, and all. It was hilarious. We had the entire church singing along--"I'll fry away, oh glory, I'll fry away...." One thing I LOVE about Bible Baptist services, though, is when the kids go up front and sing songs in Runyankole. It's really beautiful. 
  • I've spent a lot of time at the Boyetts' house over the last few weeks. This means internet, banana bread, coffee, and movies...oh yeah, and the missionaries. Actually, I've really really enjoyed getting to finally spend time with Mike and Susan. Mike is really intelligent (and an avid coffee drinker like my father) and Susan is one of the sweetest people I've ever met.
It's been a sweet, precious time. I thought the majority of my learning here would be about the culture, but I've found that my biggest lessons have come from the missionaries themselves. Missionary life here is a struggle in different ways than I thought it would be. It's the little things--being called muzungu, having people constantly in and out of their houses, not being able to go for Sunday drives, not having good movies to watch--that are the real struggle. It's day-to-day perseverance in a place where you are cut off from your native culture. It's a lot more than that, too, but this blog is long enough already. 

So next Friday, I plan on waving goodbye to matooke and posho and saying hello to Cap'n Crunch and brownies. Mmm mmm good.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Rwanda

I feel that the rat issue should be closed before any other subject is addressed: as of the day after my last blog, Rodnina was found in the laundry room, tailless and mysteriously headless. Where the head went, we are not sure, but at least one of our rats is officially dead and GONE.

Now I can talk about the last few days, which I spent in Rwanda. Rachael, Josh (the third intern here from Covenant), Jason (an intern who is here with AIM), and I decided to go to Rwanda with Dale for three days this week as a retreat/learning experience/why not kind of trip. It was a lovely six hour drive with our "chauffeur", Ben the Ugandan/Rwandan. I found that the farther south you go from Mbarara, the more hills appear. These hills are AMAZING. They are huge, rolling hills covered in tufts of green. By the time we reached the region of Kabale, I was just blown away, because not only had the hills gotten bigger, they were also cultivated with patches of fields all the way to the tip-top. I can't imagine what the calf muscles on those farmers look like.

Rwanda was even more beautiful, as it is actually called "The land of a thousand hills". It took us a while to get through the border, but when we did we immediately noticed a difference. Rwanda is a lot more organized than Uganda and the people there don't hassle you nearly as much. Plastic bags are not allowed there (they will actually take them away from you if you try to bring them into the country) so it's cleaner and smells better (no burning plastic trash). The roads are paved for the most part and the dirt roads are far smoother than the ones in Uganda. We stayed in Kigali, the capital city, and it was far cleaner than Mbarara. The boda drivers (as in motorcycle taxis, and they are called "motos" there) actually have helmets and even have helmets for the passengers, which you definitely don't find in Mbarara. The people even looked different, which I was not expecting. I came to the conclusions that Ugandans are just really hardcore, which is why they are left safe. Later I decided that this isn't really true at all.

We met some very nice missionaries, Fiona and Chris Turrely (I probably didn't spell that right, and I officially apologize), who gave us dinner and got us settled into a guest house. Then we got our first taste of the effects of the genocide as we watched a film called As We Forgive, which addressed how hard it is for the victims of the Rwandan genocide to forgive the perpetrators.

The next day we were hit full force by the reality of the genocide at the Kigali Memorial Center. In the beginning part of our tour, we walked through several memorial gardens, passed a wall of names, and walked around several mass graves--giant slabs of concrete that covered bodies beneath. Inside, we went through the stages of the genocide. Now I'll give you a history lesson: There had always been a rift between the two main tribes in Rwanda, the Hutus and the Tutsis. When colonization hit, the Europeans used this rift to their advantage, made connections with the Tutsi ruling class, and issued identification cards. After they left in the 1960's, the Hutu power took over and many of the Tutsis fled the country. There were several sporadic killings of Tutsis by Hutus until tension escalated in 1994, when the planned genocide began. From April to July, over a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus (which is a lot considering that there are were only eight or nine million in the population to begin with) were slaughtered by a trained Hutu army. Finally, the killers were taken down by the Rwandan Patriotic Force; some were arrested and others fled to neighboring countries. Cleaning operations seem to have been successful, but giving grief counseling to an entire nation of people who lost family members has been a very difficult task.

The hardest part of the memorial was realizing that these were real people. There was an exhibit with actual clothes, photos, and bones of people who had been killed. There were testimonies of survivors remembering those who had died. The last exhibit showed photos of children who had been killed. Underneath each picture there were plaques about the children--their favorite food, favorite game, personality traits, and the way they had been killed (machete in the head, thrown into a latrine, smashed into the wall, etc). With each picture, I was seeing faces of the children in my classes here in Mbarara and I was heartbroken. Afterwards we went to a church memorial. The priest of this church had hidden 5,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus inside and then run to the Hutu army, who came back and murdered everyone inside. The clothes of the victims were laid out on the pews, there were still some bloodstains on the wall, and outside were open mass graves that you could walk down into. By the time we were finished, I felt about twenty pounds heavier.

Lunch was an extreme contrast. We went to the first mall that I have seen since being in Africa, and I had my first frappuccino in a month and a half. There was even a huge supermarket there that looked like Walmart and had Backstreet Boys music playing over the intercom. Talk about cultural confusion. I heard a Casting Crowns song playing somewhere else and I kept thinking "We're still in Africa, right...?"
Since the genocide, there has been a huge increase in security, so walking around the city was actually really nice and hassle-free. The boys made sure that we went to dinner at a restaurant with a TV so that we could see the Spain vs. Portugal game *rolls eyes*.

On the way home the next day, we ran out of gas, waited for about half an hour for Ben to go to someone's house on a boda to see if they had some diesel fuel, and had a really interesting experience in someone's backyard pit latrine--but hey, this is Africa. I also had the strangest "I'm home" feeling when we reached Mbarara again.

So, my impression of Rwanda: clean, organized, and breathtakingly beautiful. Also broken and painted with sadness. Rachael and I realized that nearly everyone there who was our age or older had probably been drastically affected by the genocide, having lost someone, been related to a killer, or been betrayed by a neighbor. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in daily, palpable fear of someone coming after my family with a machete. I also can't imagine having just one member of my family brutally murdered, much less my entire immediate family. It makes me think about how precious life actually is.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

A Really Long Blog About Rats and Schoolchildren

I have two topics up for discussion today: critters and school. You would think these would be two different categories, but they definitely intertwine. Well, maybe not that much.

Let's begin with critters that have been in our home (and by "our home", I mean the Hollenbeck's house that me, Rachael, and Emily have now taken over). In our living room, we have some wicker furniture that isn't exactly new. After being here for a few weeks, Rachael noticed that bites were beginning to cover her arms where she had laid them on the furniture. And these weren't pretty, round mosquito bites. These were lumpy, nasty looking bites. Kathy thought that there may be some bugs in the furniture, so we decided to varnish it in hopes that the creatures would die. A few days after they were varnished, when we finally thought they were gone for good, Kathy started getting bitten. So yesterday we decided to take more action. Kathy and the boys sprayed about two cans of Doom all over the furniture. When they shook it out, literally hundreds of little black bugs fell out all over the floor. Rachael was only *slightly* grossed out.

Other than that, there aren't that many bugs here. Unfortunately, we still have rats, and yes, I meant that in plural. We're not sure where the rats are hiding, which means they're really good at it. Yesterday Kathy pulled all the innards out of the oven and found nothing but rat poo when she was hoping to find and destroy a nest. Today there was a run-in with Rodney in which Micah ended cutting the rat's tail off with the end of a broomstick, but he didn't actually kill Rodney (whom we might actually need to rename Rodnina). And as a tangent from rats in the house, I found a baby rat--little, tiny, pink baby rat--crawling across the dirt floor of one of my classrooms today. I don't know how it got there as there was no nest. I picked it up (really grossed Emily out) and threw it out, but it still didn't die! I'm becoming more and more amazed (and slightly disgusted) at the durability of these creatures.

Now that we're on the topic of school--kind of, I invite you to walk in my shoes for a moment. This week I've tried to do a lot more reflection and observation on the schools I'm working in. Something I've truly learned while being here is to observe carefully before passing judgment on certain practices, and that is what I'm trying to do in class rather than simply saying "Oh, this is really different, it must be bad". So close your eyes--well, don't do that, then you won't get anything out of this experience--and pretend that you have really curly hair, are dressed in a skirt, and are walking towards a concrete building that I fondly know as Nkokunjeru Primary School.

I look towards the white (and dirty) walls of the P5 classroom. The white iron-bar door is open, and I can see the children's faces through the barred windows of the classroom. I hear them whisper excitedly--"Teacha Rora, she's coming, Teacha..." I enter the classroom to look over about forty mischievously smiling faces. The teacher's desk is empty--I wonder where Joy is this time. Out for the whole day? Just the period? Will I have the entire hour and twenty minutes to myself? I say "Good morning, class." They reply "Good morning, teacha." "How are you?" "We are alright, thank you teacha." They look tired this morning, so I make them do a few stretches before sitting down. I pull out my book--today we are reading The Gruffalo. I have one of them read the title and ask if they have ever heard of this creature. They say no in unison. The kid on the front left row has a gaping hole in his crimson sweater, part of the school uniform. Teacher Joy shows up unexpectedly and sits in the teacher's desk as I begin. I read through the rhymes of the story (they are being exceptionally quiet today--is it because loud-mouthed Evas is gone or because their actual teacher is sitting in the classroom?) and stop at the end of every page to ask questions and see if they are keeping up. They answer the questions "yes" or "no" in unison. They are doing well today--is it because the teacher is here, the story is simple, or the plot of the story in involves a trick that makes it closer to their culture? By the time I finish with the story, the teacher needs to go over her own lesson and I don't have time to give them the assignment I was excited about, and the only creative assignment they might have for the whole year. Bummer. The newspaper-covered notebooks will have to be filled with more copied lessons, but at least today was easy. On other days I had the whole class to myself and it was hard. Every time I turned my back, kids changed seats and swapped notebooks. When they gave me the answers to their comprehension questions, all the answers were exactly the same. They whispered things about me in Runyankole and I heard the word "muzungu" passed around, even though they know my name. Those days are harder.

Now let me take you to my experience in a classroom at the Bible Baptist school--one that is actually very common in schools here. The P2 class was taking their midterm math exams today, as was the rest of the school. Teacher Cissy--who is actually a very nice lady--picked up her long switch. She began walking around the classroom looking at every test. She would pick through each one, find a fault, accuse the student loudly of something, either being lazy or copying or not thinking about what they were doing, and then switch them hard on the rear a few times. One little boy she grabbed by the arm and kept shouting, "What does it mean to 'take away'?? Don't you know it??" She switched him until tears came out of his eyes and he was too stunned to actually answer the question.

Let's examine these situations a little bit. Actually, I'll just go over things in the schools that I'm trying to weigh and judge:
  • Teachers either not coming to class, coming to class really late, or leaving a class alone. This would be a huge fault on the teacher in America, but these kids are a lot more indepenent than American kids. A lot of times, a teacher has to spend half the lesson copying large amounts of text onto the chalkboard and the rest of the lesson is spent letting the students copy the text in their notebooks and then reading the text over and over and over and over. Sometimes the teacher will just leave when there's nothing for her to do. Teacher Joy is very hit and miss, even though she's a really nice lady.
  • Schools having very few resources. American schools often complain about not having enough money for this or that, which can be legitimate, but these schools manage to scrape by with so little. They have blackboards (which can just be boards painted black), chalk, chunks of foam for erasers, a few old homemade posters here and there, desks, and concrete walls. The kids bring their own supplies which are a pen, ruler, compass, and really cheap notebooks. They have about one school uniform each. Actual schoolbooks are a rarity. AND YET--would money actually make much of a difference in this situation? I don't know. The kids at Bible Baptist are better educated, but have less books than the kids at Nkokunjeru. I actually think this has to do with smaller class size and having teachers that care more about them.
  • Creativity. Students never receive assignments that challenge them to think creatively. There are no art classes or creative writing projects. They learn the facts, the culture, the essentials. But how can they incorporate creative assignments when it takes so long--an hour and twenty minutes per class period per day, actually--for them to learn the necessary facts? Lessons are made up of repitition and memorization because the kids can't take books home, and even if they could, I doubt the lessons would change. Yet they still receive 60s and 70s on their exams.
  • Discipline. This is the biggest issue that I wrestle with because it has two sides. The traditional method of discipline in school in the past has been beating. This was recently banned, but it's still widely practiced even in the government schools. It's said that in Uganda if you don't beat a child, he won't turn out well, and in some ways I do have to agree with that. In the classes I've been in, the students have worked much more efficiently when a stick was out and would become lazy when it wasn't. But I'm really uncomfortable with tears and screaming in the classroom. Kids here are really tough, but I think that beating them makes them a lot more shy and soft spoken and doesn't train future leaders. I've been wracking my brain, but I've had the hardest time trying to come up with a better way of doing it. You can't have parent-teacher conferences. The principal is not going to deal with disobedient kids. Detention won't work because school doesn't get out til five and no teachers want to stick around after that. Making them work during breaks won't make the work turn out any better, and teachers aren't going to stick around during breaks to watch them then either. I'm still working on a cultural alternative, which is hard because the only thing that seems to work so far is fear.
There are a lot more in my journal, but those are the biggest ones. This week has not been easy in school, but I've been learning a lot. Honestly, there are things in both American and Ugandan classrooms that could be valuable for everyone to observe. For example--they do a lot of group recitation here and it actually works really well, but I haven't seen it much in American classrooms past second grade. They are also ridiculously resourceful. Trying to figure out how judge the best of both worlds, however, is the difficulty. I have to catch myself in thinking, "In America, we do it this way, and it's far more efficient..." because that isn't necessarily true. Teaching here is very cultural, and I have to respect that.

Oh no. Kathy just screamed in kitchen.

Rodnina must be back.

Ok, let's end this. Thanks for taking a moment to step in my shoes. The purpose of coming here was to learn--and now my head is full.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day!

Usually I have a theme for blogs already thought out before I write one, but I'm having a difficult time today. Hmm....theme of the week? Hey, Emily Mcgee got here. Emily is another intern. She's from Mississippi, has a really cute, fast Southern accent, and is my new roommate. She got here on Monday, so I've spent a lot of the week giving her a kind of orientation/dragging her around town with me. She doesn't mind being dragged.

We found a coffee shop on Wednesday and have already been twice because it's the closest thing here to a cute American coffee shop even though the only special drink is a cappucino. The owner actually asked us (mostly Emily because she has more coffee experiece) to come back and train her workers to make lattes and whatnot in exchange for a free drink. Welcome to Africa.

School's been a bit of a blur. On Wednesday, I read a story to my Nkokunjeru class that led to a discussion on contentment. This led to me saying that the only way to contentment is through God. This led to questions of "What is heaven? What is a soul? Do I have two bodies?" Wow. Ok. So on Friday I went back and read the story of creation and the Fall. I wanted to do the whole gospel, but figured that's a lot for one class period. Well, in the middle of the story, the big scary principal man walked into my class and stayed for the rest of the period. To top that off, my teacher never showed up, apparently she had a burial to go to and didn't warn me about it. Afterwards, he called me to his office and asked me to prepare a lesson plan for him to look at Monday. Here's the thing, though. My job lately has been just to read stories and ask questions, then let the teacher teach and I explained this to him. I'm still not sure what he wants because I don't think he really understood me. On Monday, then, I will prepare a "lesson plan" for a Max Lucado book about children of the king, which should be ok because religion is allowed in the classroom.

On the other hand, I took Emily to her first day at Bible Baptist school on Thursday and she had fun. We ended up subbing for a sick teacher and did a lesson on Ugandan Social Studies (which, obviously, we are clueless about). Then we played Simon Says and sang a Bible song. There's also a mzungu guy who just started volunteering there and when he saw us he acted as if he hadn't seen a woman in years. He was a little...um...weird and...creepy...

I feel like I've seen Crystal and the boys a lot this week. On Tuesday, I made chili for their dinner (my cooking/kitchen survival skills are much improving). Their housekeeper watched over my shoulder the whole time, and she doesn't speak much English, so I had a nice awkward time. I kept sending my mother mental messages: thank you for teaching me how to brown meat, thank you for teaching me how to brown meat....

I saw Alice in Wonderland for the first time this week. It was a bootlegged copy and we watched it with female university students who had never seen a real American movie before. That was quite an experience.

Happy Father's Day. We made cards for "Daddy Dale" Hollenbeck and I got to call my parents for the first time since I've been here. I do miss them just a smidge--but I think I may miss McDonald's more.

Now I'm going to publish this and get off so that Joel can get on and read it--even though I'm at his house right now. Thank the Lord for the wonderfully entertaining missionary team he put here. Have fun, Joel.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

It's all Greek to me...wait...

Alright, let's talk for a minute about possibly the most frustrating thing about missions, or short term missions at least:
LANGUAGE.
Our team began language learning with the good intention of being able to use it, but as I only have about five weeks left, I've gotten to the point where I almost don't want to try anymore. I know a couple greetings, numbers, and animal names and now all the words I learn congeal in my head because they sound so similar. I learned the word from "grandmother" today--I think--and it sounds almost exactly like the word for warthog. Coincidence? I hope so.

But really. Just about everyone here speaks English, but they don't usually speak it that well and you have to speak slowly and clearly with the hope that they catch most of your words. It's like speaking another language. I've learned that a lot of times if you want to have a conversation with someone here, you should let them talk, try to catch some words, and say "eh" a lot. It's a little scary when you take a boda too, because you can never be completely sure that they know where you want to go. That, and when they go over bumps you have the chance of falling off. Sometimes you actually do. Anyway...

As a tangent from complaining about language barriers, let's talk about what I did a lot with the kids this week: reading. My new plan at Nkokunjeru is to go twice a week and read a book to the kids/have a discussion or something. It's a new thing for them, because here teachers never read books aloud to the class, partly because they don't have books to read. Of course, you have to read really slowly and ask a lot of questions to make sure they're keeping up. This involves doing some retelling through acting, which I'm pretty *hem* gifted at. I've also started reading Robinson Crusoe to the P6 class at Bible Baptist, and they seem to have better listening comprehension.

Cereal. I love cereal. The cereal here isn't that good, but I eat simply based on the fact that it is cereal. Dale just bought six boxes of it to help satisfy my addiction. When I get home, one of my first plans of action is to have a giant bowl of Peanut Butter Crunch.

When you're in a foreign country, you find that the World Cup is a lot bigger deal than you thought it would be. I've watched some games since being here, and Ugandans get REALLY excited about football (and by football, I actually mean soccer, because everyone knows that the real football tournament is called the Superbowl and America wins that every year). Of course, English people do too. We had a viewing party last night for the USA vs. England game, and the two English folk on the team were "shattered" by the fact that we came to a draw.

Rodney Rat is STILL around. Last spotting was this afternoon. I think we should smoke him out, but Dale and Kathy mentioned something about that not being good for the house...

Oh, and another tangent to the language thing. I've decided to keep going to Bible Baptist for the duration of my stay. I'm the only white person there, and today most of the service was in Runyankole. Needless to say, I'm getting to know the Bible a lot better, simply because not being able to understand what they're saying makes me want to read some English.

Many of the women on the team have been really sinus-ey this week. Dale keeps talking about using a sinus rinse, which sounds gross. My dad would use the term "snot factory". I think this has something to do with the dry season finally being here. Dust, dust, dust....

Recently our pregnant team member, Crystal, has had to commit to complete bedrest because her baby isn't due for another five weeks and she doesn't want it slipping out too early. She also has two small boys to look after. Therefore, the other female members of the team have decided to step up in taking care of things around the house. Yesterday, Rachael and I underwent housewife training by making lasagna and tuna noodle casserole that could be frozen and heated up again after the baby actually comes. We ended with success, but it was quite a challenging adventure/ we completely wrecked the kitchen. A gas stove, unidentifiable ingredients, and no running water make quite a combination.

So, week = good. I felt like I grew in my relationship with Christ, which is ALWAYS good. The homesickness has also gone way down (though I did have a moment where I really missed my dad. Missing Father's Day is gonna be rough). I'm still not sure about a calling at this point, but I realize God doesn't exactly reveal things the way you expect him too. I'm not sure whether or not I want to go overseas long term. I don't know that I would want to do it in Africa. Either way, I'm learning a lot of good things and I'm open to possibilities. Of course, if I do go over long term, I'll work a little harder on learning the language--but I am getting pretty good at grunts and nods.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Sketchy

I really like the word sketchy. That's probably because it applies to so many different situations. For example, I rode a really sketchy camel this week. Now I'm in a really sketchy internet place. Sketchy as in no personal space. For a while there, some guy was reading my emails over my shoulder as he sat next to me arm-touching-arm. Ayayay. I mean, I like to snuggle, but usually I prefer snuggling with people I know or at least have been acquainted with. ANYWAY.

This week has involved a lot of time at the fair/trade show. I went on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Basically, any bit of shopping that I wanted to do is done. What's sad is that the best stuff there was made in Kenya. Kenyans are also really good at making you want to buy things. Fortunately, I've gotten pretty good at bargaining. One lady we met was named Rose. When I told her that my middle name is Rose, she embraced me and exclaimed that I was her "nameshake". Then she tried to get me to trade my sunglasses for a scarf. Many of the shopkeepers use the tactic of calling white people their brothers and sisters in order to make them want to buy things.

So I'm all stocked up.

Oh, and Christina and I rode a camel at the trade show. But I may have mentioned this already. There again, a very sketchy, ankle-biting camel. 

The rat problem is still around and wonderfully entertaining. On Thursday night, we found one in the dining room and tried to blockade it as Dale chased it with a broom. That was a failure. On Friday night, Rachael and I heard a bloodcurdling scream emanate from the kitchen as Kathy had re-found our malicious Rodney rat. Rachael grabbed her pocketknife and a plastic dagger and I got my panga (actually, it's Daniel's. shh, don't tell him about his wonderful new weapon). When we got to the kitchen, however, it has successfully been chased outside.

Six of our team left on Friday, which has been a little sad. Lydia our housekeeper cried when Christina gave her the final goodbye (oh yeah, and Lydia's basically the most awesome housekeeper ever). Rachael and I really weren't sure what to do with ourselves after everyone had gone. We went to movie night on Friday night at a missionary family's house and met some really clueless Canadian veterinary students. I'm sorry. Let me be nicer. Some Canadian vet students that I'm really glad weren't actually representing America. One of them didn't even know what a mosque was. Anyway, we watched Hitch and it was really strange when it ended, because it was like I'd gone to America for about an hour and a half.

On Saturday we had a pleasant pool party (yeah, alliteration) for Dade, one of the missionary kids. We even had a cookie cake and it was marvelous. After that, Rachael and I spent the evening with Crystal, helping her around the house. When the power went out, we put the boys to bed and watched a movie on her fully charged laptop. It was super.

Today I went to church at Bible Baptist, one of schools I teach at. There were about ten adults and forty children. I felt very tall. It was fun, though, because I actually knew the people I was at church with. Afterwards a guy named Rambo (he clarified for me: not Rainbow, but Rambo, like the movie guy) gave me a lift to a boda station on the back of his bicycle. I definitely got some air and clutched to the rickety back seat for dear life. Speaking of bodas, Rach and I found this really great boda guy. He's married, so he doesn't make marriage proposals. He even stopped on the side of the road to introduce us to his family. I definitely have his number and will be calling him in the future.

It's really nice to be starting to integrate into the community. Kids on the street know my name because I teach them in schools. On my way to church this morning, I got calls in the distance. "RORA!!" I would turn around and wave. It would be nice, though, if I could remember their names. One kid's named Timberlake. I do remember that. And  there's a Godwin. There's also about fifty Judiths and Ediths and Evases.

I saw army ants for the first time. They're super fierce.

This place is starting to feel like home, even with power outages and rats and sketchiness and really annoying people who call you "muzungu" everywhere you go. I think it starts when people know your name (even if they cant pronounce it right to save their lives. I don't know why I have the hardest name in the world to pronounce). I mean, there are all kinds of things to love about this place, and the number one thing is the people. The people who remember your name, who are genuine, who like to say "ndyaho" when you greet them with "agandi". The kids are my favorite, even if they're extremely blunt. Hugs and handshakes come in plenty.

Yay Uganda.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

No, I didn't give any cookies to any mice--one, because cookies don't exist here and two because if I had a cookie, I would be eating it. However, it is harvest season so the rodents are fleeing into our house. Three have been spotted this week--one in our bedroom last night right before sleepytime. Guess how much sleep I got last night...ugh...We named this one Henry. He was pretty cute, but I would prefer he were in a cage or dead.

This week has been exhausting and full of new experiences. On Monday, we had a party for Janessa's birthday. At 8, the power went out and suddenly I discovered that Uganda has about a zillion more stars than America. It was amazing. We found a glowworm. The boys also decided that it would be a good idea to try to slide down the hill on cardboard boxes. The next morning their bodies discovered that it wasn't.

On Tuesday I we went to the fair for the first time. Fair = trade show with some really sketchy rides. I got sick off the of the food, but it was fun. We went back today and I got a ton of really cool souvenirs and also learned how to bargain. Unfortunately, a lot of it was actually Kenyan stuff because Ugandans aren't very crafty...but I still got an egg with a map of the world etched on it for two dollars. Oh, and Christina and I rode a camel. It was the scariest thing I did today.

Yesterday our housekeeper taught us how to make chipatis, which are like fried tortillas. It was really fun and I burned myself with hot oil. Now I can fry anything. Last night we had seven people in the kitchen making dinner, which was really, really, really fun until Dale decided to break out the raw goat meat. I didn't stick around for that bloody mess. And speaking of bloody messes, we're going to kill one of the pigs soon and have a roast out in the yard. It's gonna be AWESOME.

Oh, and on Sunday I had a dance party in a tree. See, when I'm at school, I de-stress by having dance parties. So I was up in a tree listening to music and I really couldn't help myself. A few minutes later, I saw all seven little boys, Hollenbeck and Ugandan, sneak out into the yard in a line and hide behind the potato pile. Now they won't let me live it down.

School this week has been interesting. I think I'm going to try to cut down on it and switch the days I go to each school. At Nkokunjeru, the kids are really hilarious, but they are ready to push each of my buttons that doesn't understand Runyankole. I'm trying to learn all of their names. If anybody has ideas on how to keep a class quiet while you're grading their work, I'm up to hearing them. On girl wrote me a letter. The first three paragraphs were about how much she loved me and the last was asking for school fees. I just didn't know what to do with it.

At Bible Baptist, the kids are actually pretty similar though they push a lot less buttons. One of the kids made me a really cool ball of plastic bags. A P3 girl gave me a cookie and a P1 boy gave me a crumpled piece of roll. I had to eat it even though I had no idea where it had been. At the end of one P1 class, the kids were crowding around me and I tried to teach them some games. One little girl suddenly thrust her hand in my armpit and exclaimed, "It is water!!" *rolls eyes* They are really cute, though.

I have had two experiences with Ugandan tea. The first is really hot, oily milk. The second is a porridge that tastes a lot like cream of wheat.

I lied to a boda driver this week to avoid a marriage proposal, and I feel no guilt. As soon as he asked if I was married, I told him I had a boyfriend in the states. He still tried to sway me to take him as a Ugandan husband, but I told him my big, strong, tough boyfriend would be angry if I married an African man while I was away. Besides, the driver overpriced me. I'm not really a fan of riding bodas.

I was a little homesick until I took a nap yesterday. I dreamed that I went home and all the basketballs were deflated--so I couldn't play--, there was a new table in the kitchen, and my ex had moved in while I was away. Suddenly I don't really want to go home anymore.

I took Micah Hollenbeck's copy of the 7th Harry Potter book, so I'm actually really content here now.

My chacos are my new best friends. 

The 4 weekers leave tomorrow, which is sad, but it will lift a little stress. I'll soon have a room to myself for about a week, and then another short termer girl will get here and move in with me. Maybe by the time she's here, the mice will be gone. We'll see.

Osibe gye! --also know as "spend your day well"

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Teacha Rora

Well, hello world of computers. I've missed you.

Let's talk about this week for a second. It's been a big change since the week before it.

First of all, the homesickness has hit. I'm not going to sit here and whine about it because I know that I'm here for a purpose and that it's good I'm staying and learning more about the culture and so on and so forth. With that said, let me be honest. I really want to go to Walmart. I want to go see a movie. I want to hug my family. I want to see my roommate. I want to be able to speak English really fast. I want a bowl of coco puffs. I want to go to a church where I feel like I'm fully able to worship God. This is normal, but it's also a struggle. It's weird, too, because I'm not one to be really homesick. It may have something to do with culture shock, like some sort of retreat from the culture, I'm really not sure. Fortunately, the missionaries who have been here two, four, ten years still struggle with it so I'm not alone.

Now let's get onto the main theme of this week: teaching. School started and so has my main assignment. Just dub me "teacha rora", because that's what the children here call me (because the people here mix up their "l"s and "r"s. It's pretty funny, I'm not gonna lie).

So I work at two schools. The first is Nkokunjeru Primary, a public school in the neighborhood I live in. I teach/observe/pretty much just teach the P5 English class of roughly 30-40 students. AAH. I've never taught a class that big, especially to a classroom of children who don't have good English. Technically I'm supposed to be observing and helping the teacher with whatever she needs, but after the first day she gave me the book and the teacher's guide and I had to start planning lessons. My first day of teaching was actually really stressful. The kids were whispering to one another in Ruyankole [sidenote: I've seen the name of the language spelled two different ways. orunya kore and Runyankole. It's just stick with the latter] and I'm pretty sure they were making fun of me. That, and I was kind of sick. Right after I taught, I had to take tea with the other teachers and they made me drink almost all of it (Ugandan tea = hot milk with a slight tea flavor and they have really big mugs). Not a good day. The second day I taught was actually really fun. Then it broke my heart. I gave them a simple composition exercise, and while it was fun in class, the kid just really didn't get it. When I was grading afterwards, I found that many of them had written the same thing--aka copied the wrong answers off of one another--and they didn't know anything about paragraphs at all. They've been learning English since they were four. I wanted to cry.

My second teaching job is at Bible Baptist, a private Christian school. This is a lot different. The classes are only about ten pupils large, and I skip from grade to grade. Because of the small class size, the kids understand better and are easier to teach. They are also a lot more affectionate. The teachers there are actually really glad I'm there, unlike the teachers at Nkokunjeru, who don't care all that much. The headmaster is, like, REALLY REALLY glad that I'm there. Christina and Davey go too, and he just wants us to teach as much as possible. We even led chapel.

There are similarities between the schools, however. They both use the same teaching methods, which is basically rote memorization. Kids copy off of each other like crazy. There aren't enough books at all. Lots of the kids have aids. And I love all of those children.

It's hard.

On another note, I'm also learning about actual missionary life. That's hard too. Just to see that it's not a really huge adventure, but it's daily, grueling living sometimes. I knew this in my head, but it's different to see it. Yesterday I went to Matt and Crystal's house to help Crystal. They have two kids, one boy by blood and one boy by adoption. They are foster caring for a baby and Crystal is six months pregnant. She's home by herself a lot and can't lift anything heavy. Here's the catch: they don't have running water, and they have to bring all the water in with huge jerry cans. When Matt leaves for the weekend to do ministry, she has a hard time. Just before we got here, their house was almost broken into. They tried to adopt a baby in January, but a week or so after they brought her home, she died. Their adopted son is having attachment problems. She has to hang her mops out to dry on a line. I mean, there's all these things that would be a big deal in America, and she deals with it. It's life. Some of these people are my heroes because they don't mind being realistic about all this.

Seven weeks to go and I'm already exhausted. The power at home has been out pretty much all week and I really want to call my mom. There's a rat hiding somewhere in the house. The birds wake me up at 6:30 every morning. My allergies are driving me crazy. It's impossible to get rest from anything or anyone but Jesus here.

But he is good. He loves me. I need to love his people.

Have I mentioned that I'm ridiculously glad I'm here?

Thing I love most about Uganda: All you have to do is smile at someone and they'll give you a huge smile back. I think I have a gift for smiling and it's my favorite thing in the world.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Josh Crooks the Canadian Muzungu.

The fresh smells of Uganda: B.O. and burning trash. Mmm, mmm, makes me smile. Actually, Josh Crooks is sitting next to me and just criticized that comment. It really doesn't smell like that all the time, but it smells like that a lot. This is something my nose will have to become accustomed to.

However, physical contact is not a problem. They have a lot of that here too, and I'm perfectly fine with that. I was made to snuggle.

On Thursday, I used my first pit latrine. I also had my first cup of actual Ugandan tea, which is mostly hot milk. However, I like hot milk, so this is not a problem.  We went to a pastor's house out in a village, visited with him for a bit, explored a banana plantation, and met his mother. I now have a word to teach you. Muzeii = old person. It's respectful and really fun to say. We also ate a lot of bananas. I'm still not a huge fan of bananas, but seeing that they take up the majority of the food supply (actually, this isn't true, but sometimes it feels that way), I have to eat a lot of them.

That night, a lot of us went to youth group for a local Ugandan church and it was a BLAST. There were a ton of kids there and we played volleyball. I love volleyball. I like kids. This works out well. However, I did not eat the mitoke banana that was on my plate. Why? See above paragraph.

On Friday, we left for Queen Elizabeth National Park. I am now convinced that Uganda is the most beautiful country I've ever been to. The mountains are huge and everything is SO green. We got to ride on top of land rovers, which was pretty hardcore, but I did a lot of screaming and got cut by a prickle tree. Josh (mentioned earlier) kept me from flying off. We also got to walk to the edge of a cliff. Our hotel was really nice. Christina and I had a room/suite/little house all to ourselves overlooking Rift Valley, where the park was. However, nighttime brought a lot of spiders. And geckos. Both of which Christina is afraid of.

The next morning we got up at 5:30 in the morning to go on a lion hunt--minus the hunting part, or at least we only hunted with our eyes, not with guns--but didn't end up finding any. The ride, however, was fun. Christina, Josiah, and I shared a land rover. Josiah and I were as hyper as two-year-olds, and like obnoxious Americans, we listened to the Lion King soundtrack on the way into the park and he yelled at all the antelope we saw. He also kept me from flying off the vehicle. At 11, we went on a boat ride and got to see lkots of elephants (enjojo) and water buffalo (embogo) and crocodiles (gonya) and birds (I don't remember the word for those). Then we took a group nap--sort of. We finally went to get our lunch at a hotel nearby around 2, went back to our hotel to swim, and then went home exhausted. And really dusty.

Now to the homosexuality issue for those who are concerned: it's a big issue here and we've been talking a lot about it this week. American media makes it sound like American missionaries went over to Uganda and convinced all the people that homosexuals should be killed because they are an abomination against God. That is ridiculous. Homosexuality really didn't exist here until Ugandan youth started seeing it on American television. Understand, the structure of the culture here depends on the family unit. Homosexuality breaks down the family unit. That's why it's such a problem here. It's a cultural thing, not a church thing. It would be great if American media would present it in the correct light.

Josh Crooks is distracting me from writing anything else. He calls it "editing". I call it "tearing me down". Fortunately he's Canadian, so his English corrections don't really count.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Agandi, basebo na banyabo (how are you, ladies and gentlemen)

At the moment, I am sitting at the Boyett's house, watching the green, green trees waving in the sunshine as Susan makes lunch. I've been here a week and feel like it's already been a month.

The schedule's been pretty busy so far, so I'll only give you some snapshots.

On the way to church last Sunday (which, ps, was very lively and long) we drove past a boy who looked lost and was only wearing one shoe. The other foot was bandaged and he was carrying around a plastic blue bin. When Dale (Hollenbeck, the missionary team leader) took him to the hospital later, he discovered that the boy had escaped from the surgical ward around two in the morning. This boy had been out in the rain for eight hours. When Dale asked the nurse to clean him up, all she said was, "he knows where his bed is". Scariest part of this story: people knew this was going on. They saw him escape, he was in a public place--but nobody did anything about it. He could've died.

Another snapshot: on Monday, a few of us actually went to the surgical ward, mainly to work with the kids that were stuck in with the adults. When I first got there, I didn't think I could do it. I am AWFUL with hospitals, needles, whatever, and I was scared to death. But when I sat down on a hospital bed with some people to show them picture books, a crowd soon gathered. Many people there did not speak English, but were trying to teach us orunya kore. They were laughing, people were crowding at the windows to watch us. A woman howled in the background as she had open wounds cleaned, and we kept going.

The people here LOVE it when we speak to them in their own language, and our group is progressing quickly. I have the Ugandan kids and workers in our compound teach me words. Yesterday, two of the girls helped me read a children's book about a monkey in orunya kore. Oh, and they laughed...

I rode my first boda/motorcycle taxi yesterday. And yes, I wore a giant helmet. It was fun.

There is a boy on our compound named Happy. He is tiny--looks like he's four or five but he's really about eleven or twelve. He doesn't actually live there, but he lives close by. He's really smart and likes to put things together, but his family never sent him to school because they thought he was going to die--so what was the point? Therefore, the Hollenbecks pay his school fees. He's precious. Speaking of school, it's a HUGE deal here. A child = a retirement fund for parents. Mothers will even prostitute themselves to pay for their children to go to school.

Uganda is supposedly over 80% Christian, but has the highest rate of domestic violence in the world.

Wow.

I'm acclimating slowly. It's really starting to feel like home, especially as I get to know more kids. Tomorrow we're going to go visit a more rustic village outside the city. On Friday and Saturday, we're going to a gamepark. Woohoo!

Lunch is about ready, and I think Susan may be getting lonely....

Saturday, May 15, 2010

So Many Bananas

Alright, let's see how fast I can do this. Lunch is almost ready and monopoly is going on without me.

We did language learning today, so when I come home I'll be fully fluent in orunya kore....kind of. There are so many "n"s in this language it's not even funny. Everything I learned is already falling out of my head.

We also finished orientation and signed up for job assigments yesterday, which makes me ridiculously excited. Not only will I be doing some things at the school, I may get to go to the hospital to play with kids, work in the youth group, take part in a omens bible study, and maybe teach piano to some missionary kids. Along with language learning and reading five books and yada yada yada.

Yesterday we also went to the market. Very intimidating. The biggest impression left on me: a man lying facedown in the mud with his pants half off. At first I thought he was dead. I'll get used to this place...eventually.

Most interesting sight so far: the truck on the road in front of us had half a car in its trunk. Not only did it have this, but there were at least six men back there with it, one of whom was sitting in the front seat of the half-car, reading a newspaper. Then, of course, we were a car of mzungus following it, therfore everyone and their mother turned to look at the sight going down the road. It was basically an African circus parade.

However, it is normal to see a man riding down the road on a bike with ten banana bunches hanging off the sides--and banana bunches aren't small.

The puppies here are cuter than puppies at home

I'm adapting slowly, but it's coming. Sometimes I absolutely feel like I'm on an alien planet, and sometimes it feels just like home. I'm really glad, however, that there are nine children on our compound. Though it may take me a while to get used to being around Ugandans in general, my heart is already captured by the children.

Mukama Asiimwe = Praise the Lord, or something along those lines. The reply is Asiimwe Mononga. Or something along those lines.

I may go practice some more.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

I'M HERE!

I am alive. I am safe. Oh yeah, and I climbed a tree today.

So much has happened over the past couple days that it feels like I've been here for several weeks.

The plane rides were long and crazy...and I was ridiculously tired, making everything a lot more funny. Rachael was too, which is why she joked about "spotting Ay-rabs" when we went over the Sahara desert.

[ps.--the team is nine people: me, Rachael, Josh, Josiah, Davey, Christina, Katie, Lauren, and Janessa]

When we landed, I got scared. I think the fear carried over a few days because I was just so overwhelmed. We stayed at Dr. K's house for a night, which was about 45 minutes from the airport, and went on a six-hour van ride to Mbarara. We even stopped at the equator, which was two signs and a lot of shops. We also told a lot of stories and corny jokes. It was a...bumpy ride.

When we got to Mbarara, we ate dinner with the mission team here, which is actually pretty sizeable. I had my first fried grasshopper (tasted like crunchy bacon fat with sardines, and the tail got stuck in my teeth. I still get teased for that). Then Rachael, Christina, and I went back to the Hollenbeck's house where we will be staying for the rest of the time here (though Christina will leave after four weeks).

Today we slept in til...um, noon...that's twleve hours in one night.....and then we had team orientation with everyone at the house. Katie, Christina, and I got to go out on the town, which was a little bit scary, but I've got ten weeks to get used to it. Then Rachael and I made some new little friends--which leads back to me climbing a tree.

Random things:
  • I will gain weight here. The food is delicious. Except for grasshoppers.
  • There are a lot of cows here. There are also a lot of bananas. I have yet to do a banana-cow ratio.
  • Everything is green. Like, alien planet green. However, the dirt is red, both when it's on the ground and when it's covering me.
  • I have allergies here.
  • Mosquito nets look like clouds and make me feel like I have a canopy bed.
  • Did I mention that they have a lot of bananas here?
  • I want a flock of Ugandan children.
  • The traffic is crazy, but not as bad as it was in Ukraine. They drive on the left side of the road and honk a lot. 
  • Cereal is expensive. Fried tortillas, aka Chipati, is not. This is bad for the growth of my lower pooch-sack, also known as my baby belly, also known as Laura is growing in the wrong places.
  • We begin language training soon. I learned about seven words tonight from my new little friends.
  • I like the music better here.
  • The vision for this team--for the whole trip--is awesome.
  • Missionary life is surprisingly like and surprisingly unlike life at home.
  • I don't know how to spell the name of my neighborhood, but it is pronounced "N-coke-une-jero". This language is going to be hard to learn.
  • They used shillings here. 2,000 shillings equals...either ten cents or a dollar, I don't remember. Yay inflation!
  • I have been called "Mzungu" more times than I can count. This is the word for white person. They are not politcally correct here.
  • I will not be posting many pictures. The internet is expensive.
  • Ugandan people stare at you anywhere you go, but they are really friendly.
  • I expect daily marriage proposals.
  • And there's so much more....but I need to get off so everyone can go to bed.
  • Did I mention that I'm excited?!?!?!
  • Oh! They're watching The Office in the living room! BYE!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Goodbye...or maybe hello?

This will be my last blog post in the U.S. I hope that's ok with everybody.

How do I feel? Super excited, super nervous, and super tired. Oh yes, and I am sick of packing. I'm almost of the frame of mind to jump on the plane in a carboard box and Chacos. I am also a little bit sad. This week has been one giant I-am-growing-up-and-life-moves-on moment. Oh well.

The essentials have been packed. I have two packs of baby wipes, lots of hand sanitizer, three cans of bug spray, a deck of Uno cards, a coloring book, poptarts---and a few other things. I am ARMED.

Itinerary for the next few days:

  • Get to Covenant at 5:00 on Sunday afternoon. Sleep there.
  • Go to the Chattanooga airport at 5:30 am the next morning. 
  • Chattanooga to Atlanta: 8:35-9:40am
  • Atlanta to Detroit: 10:55am-1:00pm
  • Detroit to Amsterdam: 5:40pm-7:35am 
  • Now it's Tuesday
  • Amsterdam to Entebbe (Uganda): 10:40am-7:30pm 
  • Stay at Dr. K's house for the night. Talk to some important people. Sleep...maybe.
  • Now it's Wednesday
  • Leave Dr. K's house and drive down to Mbarara. We made it!
Basically, I plan on being a zombie until Thursday. 

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. This whole trip has definitely been ordained by God, I have no doubt about it. Yes, I am going to miss everyone, especially if this leads me on the road to long-term missions one day, but lately I've been learning more about how short life is. It's full of sweet moments, but they are only moments. People come and go no matter how much I love them--but it's ok. I'll spend eternity with most of those people anyway and then I'll say, "I was making a fuss over not spending the summer with you? Why??" This internship is a gift, not a burden. I am privileged to be a vessel for God. 

---As long as nobody asks me to eat bugs. Then I'm not privileged. 

For all those who are afraid of not hearing from me, no worries. I should be able to check the internet regularly (as in every couple days), update my blog, post pictures on facebook, etc. I plan on sharing this trip with everybody, so if you want to keep up with me, it won't be hard. 

Goodbye America! I will miss Krispy Kreme the most!

Friday, April 16, 2010

SOON

UGANDA.

I'm going there in...um...24 days. WAIT! Come again??? Yeah, 24 days. I actually just figured out it was that close. So many things are happening right now that I haven't thought about it all that much. This is a big deal.

What has happened since I last updated?
  • Airplane tickets were ordered. If I remember correctly, we will be flying out of Chattnooga at 8:35 am on May 10th. From there, we'll stop in Atlanta, Detroit, and Amsterdam, and finally get to Entebbe at 7:30 pm. on May 11th, from which we'll drive about 4 hours to Mbarara. Hoo boy.
  • I got my Yellow Fever and Typhoid shots. This time around, I didn't have a freak-out session when they put the needles in my arm, but it hurt for a couple days afterward. It was worth it, however, for the HUGE milkshake I got afterwards. 
  • I've been getting to know my teammates better in the last two weeks and I'm SO excited to be spending the summer with them! This is a great group!
  • I've been in touch with an intern did this last year, which has been a blessing because she doesn't mind my asking a million and one questions. She said that, while they told her she would be "observing" the classroom for the summer, on the second day of class the teacher handed her a piece of chalk and told her what time the kids were supposed to get out. Then she spent the rest of the summer teaching the class. There is a big possibility I will be doing this as well, because Africans love asking guests to teach.
  • I have just about all the clothes I need. I still have to figure out what's happening with shoes...we tried to buy Chacos, but there have been some sizing problems and the ones we bought hurt my feet. 
  • As far as learning goes: Dr. Ward gave us a lot of readings to do on culture, cross-cultural ministry, and the history of Christianity in Uganda. Fascinating stuff. I also had the opportunity to listen to a Ugandan man give the history of the war at Move for Uganda, a big fundraising event in Coolidge Park, which was awesome. And I discovered I will have to read approximately 5-6 books this summer, half of them before the end of May (yikes). I plan on owning those readings, though, because I'm basically the fastest reader I've ever met. Maybe.
  • Malaria medicine is a problem. It ends up that it's a lot more expensive than I thought it would be (no matter which type dad decides to prescribe) and it wasn't incorporated into the original budget.
  • I guess, naturally, the next point would be finances. I know that I need at least $500 or so more to fulfill the intended budget, as well as a few extra hundred dollars on top of that for my visa and medicine. I would like to ask for prayer in that area, that God would provide more money so that my parents won't have to strain so much to get me there. I would pay for it myself, but babysitting isn't exactly the highest paying job in the world...
  • Actually, I would just like to ask for prayer in general: for finances, the preparation of my heart, and so on. Honestly, it still hasn't quite hit me that this is coming--and coming fast. Dr. Ward wants us to find ten people who will pray for us daily while we are there. If anyone would like to dedicate to do this, I would greatly appreciate it and it would provide a greater partnership for you in the ministry that God will be doing through me this summer. Emphasis on God, because anything that happens there is His fault...I mean, providence.
  • WOOHOO!!
................TWENTY-FOUR DAYS!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Scary

What do you first think of when you first hear "Africa"?

Of course, this question is more for those who haven't been. Here were my first thoughts at the word "Africa":
-huts
-scary
-bugs
-scary
-different
-wild animals
-scary
-shots
-last place I ever want to go
-dirt. lots of dirt.
Then I signed up to spend a summer there. I like to keep myself unpredictable. Keeps me on my toes.

Really, though, what do I feel about this right now--about going to Africa? I'm not completely sure. I know I'm supposed to go, there is no question about that (unless God ABSOLUTELY stops me, in which case I really don't have a say). I know that I am severely excited as well. Last week, I spent time with some folks in a band from Malawi (another country in Africa) who came to campus with my hallmate's missionary father. They were so much fun, even with--no, especially because of--their cultural differences. I hear so many things about the wonder of the culture there, how friendly and relational the people are. I love the music, I love the dancing. I love hugging people, and I hear that they love that too.

But I'm also scared out of my mind. I hear about the culture, but I haven't experienced it. I will be completely out of my comfort zone. There is so much pain there--pain that I can hug, but I can't fix. Actually, I think that's the main thing. I'm afraid because I don't like facing situations that are out of my control, and that's what God is calling me to do.

A couple hours ago, I watched a video about malaria in Africa, particularly Northern Uganda, called "When the Night Comes". The statistics are absolutely astonishing. Over 2,000 children die from malaria A DAY. The world freaked out when 31 people died of swine flu in the span of a few weeks, but didn't notice when, during that time, tens of thousands of people died of malaria. The funny thing is, to prevent it, all that's needed is nets. Isolate one village with nets = killing malaria in that area. We used a similar method to kill it in America.

The video portrayed the death of a child in a hospital. It showed his mother, a woman who remained silent nearly the entire time. After they put the blanket over the baby, the mother started wandering around the hospital--lost and alone--until she found the exit.

It's one thing to watch a video like that from the perspective of someone who isn't going to be in contact with it, as an American who will stay safe in America. But I will be dealing with people who have experienced this--shoot, I will probably see some of it firsthand. Yes, I am a little bit scared. All I can do for these people is hug them, cry with them, and pray for them. I realize that God heals and it's His job to take care of them, but I know He is going to break me this summer.

I suppose, then, what I most need to do now is prepare to be broken and built up differently.

Ouch.

IN TERMS OF TRIP LOGISTICS:
-All I need now, in terms of funding, is $725, not including what I will need to buy before I go and things I may need to buy while I am there. But out of $4200, that isn't bad.
-We are buying airplane tickets this week.
-Soon, Dr. Ward will be giving us literature to read concerning the culture. We already had a lesson on greetings last Sunday during our weekly prayer time. We also had a three-hour lesson on evangelism last Friday.
-I need to make an appointment for shots in April. Shots are probably one of the most frightening things in the world, and I plan on rewarding myself with ice cream afterwards.
-Still need to buy: skirts, sunscreen, malaria medicine, and gifts for hosts. And maybe a few other things.

My biggest prayer now is that God would prepare me for this. Prepare me to be broken, to keep my eyes open, and to hear His voice while I am there. Who knows, this could turn into something long term.

Scary, right?

As Simba says in the The Lion King: "Danger? Hah! I walk on the wild side. I laugh in the face of danger--ha ha ha ha!"

47 more days.

Monday, March 15, 2010

At this point, I figured it was time for blog number two. 

The updates on the actual trip have been a bit slow because last week was spring break, meaning that very little has happened in the way of meeting/planning. However, my mom did give me details from the conversation she had with Dale Hollenbeck (one of the missionaries overseeing us in Mbarara) a few weeks ago. There are two schools that I may be working in, one that is within walking distance and the other that is--well, I'm not sure how far it is but it's an international school. This may mean the difference between my walking to school with kids and my riding to school on the back of a crazy-fast Ugandan motorcycle taxi. The interns will be receiving some specialized training from the Hollenbecks and Boyetts while we are there, meaning that they will be teaching us in evangelism, Bible orality (how to effectively tell Bible stories, the African way of evangelism), finances (not just missionary budget but also how to handle people on the streets who ask you for money), and other things, on top of mentoring us in our callings. WOW. There are two families that he is going to ask about keeping us for our culture-stay, and I'll let you know about them when I hear more. Also, as of today, it ends up that the short-term group will be coming with us to Mbarara as well, meaning that for the first 3-4 weeks there will be 10 of us Covenant kids there, not just the three interns.

Oh yes, and the best part of the trip: the possibility of swimming in hotel pools and Thursday volleyball nights! 
--JUST kidding. 

Over the last few weeks, I have been in awe at how much God has blessed me with the support of so many people. Every time I've received something in the mail--whether it be a financial gift or just a note saying "we love and support you"--I've felt overwhelming gratitude. God has provided so many people who WANT to be a part of what He's doing through me. Last Sunday, I spoke to my home church, Evergreen, about what's going on, and afterwards I had three people come up to talk to me about how excited they were. Then, today, I received a card in the mail with little messages and a 90-day devotional in it from folks in the church. The support is genuine, and I'm so excited to be sharing this trip!

Things that still need to happen:
-final thrift store shopping trip for teacher-type clothes
-yellow fever and typhoid shots (which are actually quite costly, meaning that my babysitting money for the next few weeks is going straight through a needle and into my arm.)

Two big prayer needs in Uganda:
-ongoing prayer for the invisible children crisis and the defeat of the LRA. For those who don't know, the LRA ("Lord's Resistance Army"), led by a man named Joseph Kony, is fighting to overthrow the government and abducts thousands of children to fight in their war. I would suggest going to youtube and looking up "Invisible Children documentary" to get more information. It's horrific.
-the current issue about the homosexual law that they are trying to pass there, which, if passed, will possibly mean death for those who are homosexual. 

8 more weeks everybody! Woohoo!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Let's begin....

Hello to all! I promised a trip blog, so here we are. The purpose of this blog is to keep everyone up-to-date during the whole process--preparation, actual trip, and afterwards--as well as where God may send me next.

First, I should probably flesh out EXACTLY what is going on here. To those of you who are still a bit clueless, I have been given an opportunity through Covenant this summer to go on a ten-week internship in Mbarara, Uganda. The main purpose of this internship is to learn more about missionary life, so two other interns and I will be hosted by two missionary families, the Hollenbecks and the Boyetts, who will mentor us. The plan is to spend the first week living with a Ugandan family for cultural acquisition and then spend the rest of the time in placements of our choice. I will probably be working in a school alongside/helping a Ugandan teacher in the classroom to learn more about education in a culture other than my own. But, no matter what I am assigned to do, I will be working with children, who are basically my favorite people in life.

I am really excited about this opportunity--but really scared at the same time. However, I suppose that is the place where God loves for His people to be. The only overseas experience I have had was a ten-day trip to Ukraine, which is slightly different from an internship in Uganda. I am about to spend 2 1/2 months in a country--on a continent--that I have no experience with whatsoever. Though we will be doing a lot of preparation work to learn about the culture, I will still be diving in headfirst.

On the flipside, this is definitely a call from God. Several events over the last few years have made me feel a pull to become a missionary overseas (as a teacher, because my major is elementary education, after all). However, before I actually try it, I want to get my feet wet to see if this is really a life call or just an exciting thought. Spending a summer completely immersed in a different culture may help with this.

So what is the status of the actual trip? Originally, the trip was supposed to include a group of eleven or so, all but three of whom (the other two interns and me) would be staying for only four weeks. However, there was a bump in the road and the trip had to be revised so that the four-weekers will actually be going to the capital city of Kampala while the three interns (that's me!) go to Mbarara on our own. As far as trip cost, I have raised $1,675 of the necessary $4,200, which is actually very cheap for a 2 1/2 month stay. I still have to get yellow fever and typhoid shots. I also need to go thrift-store shopping for cheap longer-than-the-knee length skirts, because that is the proper attire for women in Mbarara and I don't want to be mistaken for a prostitute.

The prayer needs at present are:

  • That God will keep the road clear for the trip to happen.
  • Adequate mental and spiritual preparation for those who are going and those who will be hosting us.
  • That the funds will be provided by April 1st.
I will be updating this blog soon with what God is teaching me during this unique preparation time. 

65 more days to go! Well, that is if I did my math correctly...