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.