About Me
Monday, April 28, 2008
A few days to go
Well we have started the debriefing process and the realization that I have to go back to the states is setting in. My time here has been amazing. I have learned so much, and the lord has pretty much rocked my world. I have realized how HUGE the lord is, and how SMALL I am. He has a plan for my life, and I patiently await what he has in store... it better be big because I don't think after this experience I can have a normal American life. I realize I will not be content unless my future job includes feeding and clothing those who need it... or at least being apart of the process.
I realize it has been hard being in Africa as a STUDENT... it was not the typical mission experience where you are "doing good" or have the "spiritual high". It was LIVING in Africa, and going to school. We were not changing things but mostly learning of things. It was hard to be in that position knowing there was so much to be done... but that was not what I went to do. Not that I sat around and did nothing... I am proud of the things I have done. Of helping the communities get sponsored...But I also learned that is was not me at all. I am literally one of the biggest sinners in the world... and it is only because of the Christ in me that any good could be done.... I also learned to wrestle with things.... to wrestle with poverty. I don't have a solution, but i am not ignoring it. How does one draw the line between causing dependency and giving to the poor? And how can we become OK with passing those in need on the street.
So many things i am going to have to continue to ponder and develop once i go home...
I am excited to come home and see JUST HOW MUCH the lord has rocked my life... I am also excited to see where the lord Leads me... HE is truly teaching me trust.... learning to Trust in him to lead me to what is next... because I am oblivious to the future.
This is a funny picture I saw on the road...IF ONLY AMERICANS HAD THIS WANT
Monday, April 21, 2008
Life Goes on....
One... There was a strike in the taxi park. The government decided that only new taxi's could run in the city. So all the old taxi's decided to strike, and they threw rocks and began a riot. There were fires, and people died. We were not allowed to go down town for a while...
Second... I learned that the only reason there is poverty is due to corruption in government. We have learned all the ways to eradicate it... and the only reason that it is not happening, is due to corruption.
Third... inspired by the office (the TV show)... we are having GO ED Olympics... the opening ceremonies started yesterday.... every one is way more into them they they should be!! haha.. there are consumes, events EVERY day.... etc... Bruce the man in charge of Go-Ed even wore a toga and had a torch run. We almost burnt ourselves. Then we went to eat at the Beijing restaurant down the street to kick start a fun week of events. I feel like I am at summer camp.
Fourth....Sam from Rwanda came to visit/work... so thats pretty exciting.
Well... time is rappin up... and its almost time to go home....
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Safari
Well... I had one of the most amazing weekends ever. We went to Queen Elizabeth's National Park on the way back to Uganda...We stayed in Hostels on the Game park (where Hippos would stalk our houses) We saw some of the most amazing animals in the world. I have never been so close to some of the most Majestic creatures ever. We went on 5 drives, and we saw Lions, Leopard, hogs, water buck, water buffalo, elephants, hippos, crocks, mongoose, and many more... it was one of the coolest things I have ever done, and also one of the most beautiful. It was humorous, because we went on these safaris on essentially a charter bus.... so on the way home today our bus over heated, probably because buses were not made to go offloading... but (TIA- this is Africa). So due to the over heating, it took us 12 hours to drive back to UGANDA.... so that was a little INTENSE To say the least. But we are now back in Uganda... back to the amazing cooks, and guards that i loved and missed. On the way here we stopped at the equator which was really cool. Did you know that on one hemisphere the water goes down one way, and on the other it goes the opposite... and ON the equator it goes STRAIT.... and this all can happen in a few feet... WEIRD huh....I am glad to be Back... but i do miss Rwanda...We did however go to the chao chao tonight, had the ice cream i craved, and visited the cat who lives in the grocery store... who is still alive and well, just a little smelly! It is nice to come back to somewhere I know... We also have a new addition to our "family"... there was a man from the embassy who went back home.. and left us his puppy!! so we have a new golden retriever named jack... we are very excited about him! he is Me and Leah's new running partner!!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Last night in Kigali...
Well... sadly... tonight is my last night in Kigali... I am going to miss it here... two months have FLOWN by... I have made so many friends... and met so many random people, had so many random experiences...I am actually really sad to leave... but I am sure I will enjoy my last month in Kampala... SERIOUSLY this semester is FLYING by and needs to slow down a little....
tonight... we are "kareoking" at the Mille Collines again... and this weekend.. SAFARI... we have a lot of fun things coming up.... but I am truly going to miss it here...
Good Bye Kigali... I hope we meet again
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
EASTER weekend!
Then Saturday morning we left for our trip, we went to Kubuye.. where we stayed in a hotel right on Lake Victoria... it was beautiful! one of the prettiest places ever! the Next morning (easter) we went to church where we sang (they really like the white people to prefrom here) And then after lunch we went on an adventure... we took a boat out on the lake and stopped at a few islands. The first one was Bat Island, and they dont call it that for no reason. There were thousands of Bats flying all around, it was INSAINE... i have never seen so many bats in my life. We hiked the mountian on that island and it was BEAUTIFUL.
Monday, March 17, 2008
The view from a court room and a mass grave
Yesterday we visited the Guchacha courts. It was an odd experience to be a few feet away from someone convicted of murdering. The court was a lot different then the courts in
This experience was also very frustrating. I was frustrated by the way the hearing was going. I was mad that it was all people saying what they thought, or heard. It was one person’s word against another, and I didn’t think that there was enough evidence to be putting people in jail, or to be sentencing people for something that they really don’t have enough to judge on. I also we amazed by the fact that it is fourteen years after the Genocide, and these people are just now getting a trial. I know that there are so many people accused of crimes, and that if they all went as long as they went yesterday there is no way that it could have been done in less time, but I think of the one man who was tried. He had already spent 12 years in jail, and he was pleading innocent. All evidence was what people said, or thought, nothing concrete. What if this man was innocent and 14 years later he had his trial, and with no evidence they set him free. 12 years of his life were wasted in jail because of what people said. Also, how concrete can evidence be after 14 years? These courts are good, and it is a good way to try to obtain justice, and I know that one court can’t do all the trials, but it seems almost ineffective. How can you know what people did 14 years ago by people differing stories? Do these people really want justice? Or do they just want to feel like the crime paid on their loved ones has been rectified. It was very interesting though, and neat to see the way the courts work here.
So then today we went to the Nyamata Memorial site. It was a very hard thing to see. I am reading a book right now called “A Time for Machetes”, which is about the killers of this area. A man goes and interviews them about the genocide, and talk about killing in this church, so going to this church where I heave been reading about what these men did was a little difficult. We walked up to this church, and they are doing a lot of re building and beautifying (i.e. planting flowers, making a path, etc) this building, which was a little nuts. It has already been 14 years, and they are just starting now to beatify this building. We walked into this church, the door way was blown in, and the man told us that that was how they got into the church by blowing out the door. There were tons of holes in the ceiling as well from the effects of the bomb. There was over 10,000 people hiding in this church, a place where they thought they could find refuge. It was a church, it was supposed to be a safe place, but even the house of God meant nothing to the killers of the genocide. Out of the 10,000 people, two children survived. There was gun holes all over the church, doors looked like they had been ripped open very harshly. When we walked in, to the left was a broken door, and inside was all the cloths of the people that died. I felt a little ever whelmed looking at this room full of cloths; it was almost from the ceiling to the floor, piles and piles of cloths. We then walked down stairs where there was a case of bones and skulls, as well as a grave at the bottom. The man told us, the woman in the grave was a woman who fell in a well, and because she fell in the well, it is the only in tact body that was not completely mutilated by a machete. He then took us outside to the mass graves. We were allowed to go into these graves. The first one was just coffins with many bones in each. The second one was bones. There was hundreds and hundreds of skulls, thousands of bones. From the ceiling to the floor on every wall there were bones. You could see the way these people died, holes in the skulls, faces completely missing, huge crushed places where the machete had blown. You could smell the death in that room. You could see the thousands of people who had died. There were just so many skulls, with no race, gender, age, just a human skull with teeth, skulls that were once humans hiding in a church thinking that they might be saved. I have seen skulls before, in science, or in a book, but always for learning purposes, bones given after the death for the sake of learning and research. These skulls in this mass grave were not given after the fact for the sake of learning. They were lives forcibly taken for no good reason and rest in a mass grave because there were too many deaths, and people were in too many pieces to have their own graves. This memorial was a little hard for me. It was more then just reading, and hearing people’s stories. I was in the church these people died in; I was in the grave these people will spend the rest of their existence in. So many lives were taken during the genocide. I still cannot understand how people could hate one another so much.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Dealing with Genocide
“Human nature is for man to be a killer” is what our tour guide told us today. We went to the genocide memorial today. It was an intense experience. To have been here for a month already and still in some ways be so ignorant of the things that have happened here. The memorial was more of a walk though, with pictures, videos, testimonies. Upstairs there was a little section of all the genocides that have gone on around the world. There have been so many, in Europe, Africa, and
(The pictures are of the mass graves and names of people killed in the Genocide taken outside of the Memorial, cameras were not allowed inside)
Saturday, March 1, 2008
as life continues in Rwanda....
It is officially month three…. On the culture shock scale… this is the month that you are a little sick of things… don’t get me wrong… I love being here… but things like… not being able to get places, walking everywhere…people seeing a price tag on my forehead…telling MUZNGU all the time… asking for money… OVER charging for everything… these are the things that today… I am a little sick of…. BUT… I still love it here and in no means ready to go home….so here is some news…I am officially an American movie star… well according to the man at burbon who I told…. I told him we were American movie stars and he believed me and told me if I brought in my movie or poster he would hang it up and promote it. Im pretty sure he gave us extra internet time due to our “status”. We brought our guard Alfonze with us to the coffee shop today… he thought it was great… It fun to have the tennessee people here all week! we did alot of hanging at burbon... exploring down town.... going out here is much different then at home... but it is still fun to have friends and pretend you are a normal 21 year old....I had an interesting week though. I went up north again… but this time with a short term team. I think I am convinced that short term teams are a waste of money. There was this team of 6 people… they kicked teachers out of their house so that they had a place to stay, and it seemed like FH was just trying to find something for them to do. They were only slowing down the process of building the house (which I helped build VIA hoeing and digging, and haling water…ect.) The Africans are much more effective then the Americans, and they can do it much faster. The funds they used to come could have built tons of houses in stead of one…but… what can ya do. So we ended up walking water up and down this hill carrying jugs water to make the bricks (also kind of a waste seeing as we had a car… but we walked it so it felt like they were doing something). The team was so gung ho about it too… they just wanted to go go go go go… do do do do do…no breaks…. They couldn’t just BE… they needed to be doing. I am sure they are going to hit a wall soon. They want to live rugged and African… they don’t want to wash their cloths, or have any kind of modern conveniences. When actuality… it is rude to be dirty, Rwandans are very clean, and there are people to wash their cloths, so not washing them is just being silly really. So all in all… I felt frustrated with this team… and the money and time they spent to come here…but at the same time these trips are reasons that people learn about poverty, what it means to own it….missions…. ect… trips can really change people and teach them more about who they are in Christ… But at the same time…. Is it a good thing for the community? It it a good use of money? It just seems silly to have people spend thousands of dollars to do something less effective, or walk water up and down a hill when a car could do it 10x faster… is it worth the things the few westerners that go learn??? I just don’t know… it was very strange to be on the other side of things though… to be the person who is living there, helping the short term team… I have been here for 2 months now… and
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Good Shephard Community Church and Mount Kibuye
Well, i have had quite the weekend... Friday was girls night... me and Jenny went to beckys house with cherle, and we did manicures and watched a cindarella story, and ate ice cream, and played with their puppy... who i fell in love with (pictured above)...Saturday i went hiking up Mount Kibuye, which was one of the most intense hikes of my life.... i am very sore today.... it was fun... lots of Africans accompanied us up the mountain... although i got a migraine on the way home and ended up throwing up in the car...no fun!! but i feel good this morning. Me and jenny went to good shephard community church (the one that Camelback Bible is funding the Project (the progress is shown on the 2nd picture.) the Edwards were there visiting, as well as mrs ryan who was my preschool teacher, so that was pretty fun! now we are at burbon, enjoying the best coffee in Rwanda and trying to relax for the comming weekend. Our friends from the Nile come in tomarrow, and julie comes to Visit on thursday, so it should be a fun week! (the top two pictures are of the Church, and the bottom two are from the hike which is of me, becky, sam, and jenny!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The north
Friday, February 15, 2008
Things in Rwanda are never Boring...
well... as my title says... things here are never boring! it has been quite the adventure the past few days....lets start with this morning and then move backwards.... there was an earthquake... it was from the congo (a 5.5)... so we just felt about 30 seconds of shaking... but still.. a little nuts... i have never experienced that before... So this morning we get on the Mutatu to go to work and it runs out of gas... the men get out and push us to a taxi stop we get out and a man gets us a special hire... now what happens in the special hire... we get in an accident... a huge truck with Africans that work for the American Embassy (ironically)
side swipes us... so we pull over.. we stand around of a very long time... and eventually we get to work... it was QUITE the experience....But this week i went to the north.. up by Gitirama... we went into communities and interviewed Cell leaders (leaders of the tribe)... church leaders...head masters... families.. and then the FH workers in the community... it was a very interesting job and i got alot of good pictures... it was a very harsh reality the lives some of these people were living...they walk an hour to get water.. and 3 hours to get to the Hospital... These realities became a little more real to us as well when a mother came running up to us asking us
If we would take her son who had just been severely burned by boiling water on his hear , head, and arm.. to the hospital... if we had not been there, the mother would have had to walk 3 hours to get her son to the hospital... it was crazy to see and think about.... The country is beautiful though... there is really nothing like the rural areas of Rwanda.. and these people have no idea that they have the most gorgeous view in the WORLD!! seriously one of the most beautiful places i have EVER been in my life... so a little about some of the pictures... the one on top is a lady we interviewed and she insisted on giving me 3 eggs... she was one of the cutest ladies ever
The children with me are children from one of the villages we went to... and then look carefully at the picture at the bottom with the Eye... if you look closely.. you can see me taking the picture in it... its a pretty Sweet Photo! :) So, valentines was last night... and an intern from last semester (sam) who got a job with FH in Rwanda invited me to go out with some of his friends... we went with a girl from Holland, a boy from Scotland, and an American that apparently knows Erick to a pizza place... it was alot of fun to get out of the house and do something fun... the pizza was also amazing... it has also been fun to get to know
Missionaries from the UK... like when we were in Guitirama we had dinner at two Englishmen's house.... it has been fun to see us all serving... but from different countries as well... it is fun to have friends ALL over the world!
Well... slowly i am getting used to Rwanda... it has been quite the adventure living here... i am looking forward to my project... i have been editing Photos, and working on templates all day... but the time has flown, and i hope i am able to compete this project before my practicum is over!!!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Visuals....
in secret thing.... humm....
and then....we got home and down town (where i am now) all by ourselves... 2 days!! 2 days and i
know how to get around... that is an amazing feeling... it took a good 2 weeks to get to know Kampala.... and we are now in the most amazing.. and most overpriced coffee shop ever! i love it... me and Jenny decided to make this our Sunday ritual.... tomorrow we start work... and Wednesday is my first trip out to a village to get pictures and stories... so that should be exciting!It really is beautiful here... and it is great to feel like i know how to get myself around here! The picture at the bottom is the picture from the hotel...It still is weird to think about the
Genocide.... i am excited to learn more about it... there are men that work on the streets wearing pink suits... these are men that have committed crimes during the Genocide... it is weird to see them and think of the realities that these men lived through and the crimes they committed... as well in church today they were talking about leaving the past and all the crime and war that happened and move forward to a future where that will never happen again... as beautiful and organized as this country is... it has so much pain and hurt underneath it...it will be neat to lean and see that more...
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Welcome to Rwanda...
i really like the people who have been showing us around... (becky and sam).. they were both interns last semester and got jobs...pretty rad.
I WENT TO Hotel Mill Collines today.... it is wierd to see the places i have seen in movies and hear about... this place was in a genocide... weird to thnk
things are so stable here it seems!
i really cannot even imagine a genocide here...
but we went around town as to try to get us aquainted... compared to Kampala it is cake :)
our guest house is pretty nice...not as nice as kampala... but you CANT beat the amazing view
i start work on....monday... so i am excited about that... the girl i am working with seems really cool! i am excited to get into it and start to see what it is like to work here... there are many trips planned too... so it will be a neat experience!
Hope God is blessing all of your lives! i will be praying for ya!
Monday, February 4, 2008
The Nile...
The most amazing experience of my life...probably one of the most intense things EVER... rafting down the nile.... the constant feeling like you are going to DIE.... the insane waves you didn't know people went down for fun! The crocodiles and snakes staring at you in your rubber raft... AHH! what an amazing experience! The trip was amazing... going down level 5 rapids.... every time you fell out you felt like you couldn't get air... you could not find the top... and then when u finally did... it sucked you right back under... you go down this one... where because of the damn... 90 percent of the water is going down this pass... it is a 5.5 rapid... after it you go to an island for lunch where they have a paramedic bandaging every one up because you WILL get hurt... we then went back out to this one pass that was too high to go down the waterfall... so we tried to go around it... but... did not make it... we fell down the waterfall and our boat got suck under the waterfall, another raft had to throw a line to us to pulls us out... i seriously thought that it was going to suck us under and we were all going to die... there were many other rapids... and flips.... times where i thought i might die....and then we came to the last rapid... it was called "the bad place"... 100% tipping...grade 6.... i decided i had enough tipping and wussed out...
it was AMAZING though... i loved it.... i rafted down the NILE...ahh.. AMAZING
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Frusterations
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Rural Visit
How can i write a blog about this weekend?? there is just so much information...We went to a house in the village and stayed with the Family... it was a broken family... not the traditional african family (a man with many wives) these were three generations of women who were rejected by their husbands and their kids. The brother of the middle lady came and stayed with us. His name was edward.. he was the person that showed us around the most... it is hard for me to digest everything i experienced. To live in poverty like that and then really understand and own the poverty i saw. Or to really understand the way they treat the women. They are basically glorified servants. They do dont come out when we eat... they spend all day cooking. They do not have the rights most do, and the only reason why i did was becuase i was white... that is a hard concept for me to come to grips with. So i guess i will just lay out the weekend.
We got there and immidietly were served food (matoke (smashed bananas), beef, and rice)... i am pretty sure i chewed on one piece of beef for a good 20 minutes... i almost threw up. HA... And then we went on a walk... saw there water well where they get all their water, we also went on a monkey hunt. After that we came back and had tea and bread. We then sat for a long time, and then we had dinner and went to bed. The next morning we woke up and had tea, and we went out and killed a chicken. We watched them pluck all the feathers off, and cut its throat. And then we picked potatoes for dinner, and got the yams. After that we went to a funeral. It was really weird being at a funeral that we didn't know who died. We also kinda stole the show because we were white. I felt a little weird about it. And then they had us eat inside because we were guests for the meal that proceeded. which was weird too, because only special guests got to do that. After that we came home and rested, and then went on a hike up a mountain. It was a really fun hike. There were aunt hills up their bigger then me (picture of me and edward standing on a hill is of us STANDING ON A AUNT HILL)... it was nuts. We then came back... had tea...and dinner... and then went to bed. This morning we went to church... which started 1 hour and 10 minutes late (welcome to Africa)... the matatus tried to rip us off (we ended up getting in one with 20 people!! WOW...they are supposed to fit 14) as well because we were white...After that we went back.. had lunch... gave presents.. received presents.. and then waited for the matatu to come... it took about an hour to finally get a matatu to pick us up... so now i am home... trying to process the poverty i was in... the dirt home... with a hole in the ground for a toilet... no electricity...no running water... i crazy experience that i would never take back... but one that i defiantly need to process...
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Feild Trip!
Today was a fun day! Field trip day! we went to the shrines of Martyrs. There was about 10 men who were trying to share Christ, and they were killed. They tortured them and then bound them up with sticks and burned them from the feet up (the picture here is of the shrine made of the men). They died singing praise songs. It is amazing what these men went through for the sake of the Gospel... should make us all wonder if we are that willing to go as far as death for the sake of the Gospel.
After that we went to these waterfalls. They were beautiful. We got to climb up to the top of them and then go around to all sides of it so we could see every angle! it was one of the most amazing views ever! God really is an amazing creator!! These waterfalls are more then just falls to the people though. They come and there are shrines all around the waterfall, and they give money and gifts to these shrines so that they can get power, good luck, or other gifts from the falls. People really believe in this stuff... There are Gods in almost everything, every natural thing (mountain, hill, waterfall, ect. ) is worshiped because it is believe to be a God. After that we walked around and visited with some of the people in the community. We also got stampeded by wild cows! ha...
When we were walking, me and leah went off by our selves, and we walked by this family. They all started at us, and when we walked back they all were hitting this one girl. So this girl came up to us, her chest was hanging out of her shirt, and she looked as if she might have had some sort of mental disability, it looked like she wanted to shake Leah's hand. But we were wrong. She grabbed leahs water bottle and started yelling MAMMA MAMMA... we we didn't know what to do...so we said ok... you cane have it, and ran away! haha... it was quite humorous, and also the first time i have gotten robbed (knock on wood)...
African culture is so interesting. And i love being able to see all the things we are learning about!
We go on Rural Visit this weekend and have a meeting tonight on what to expect! it should be fun to be living in a rural area and get to experience life as an african in a rural setting for a weekend!
This last picture was just something funny i saw at the mechanic. They love Saddam Husain here, so... here is a humorous picture for all of you :)
Monday, January 21, 2008
A Mzungu in Uganda....
Sunday i went to a pentecostal church. I was appalled by it. It was a church of about a thousand. they had more high tech technology then my church does. And to top it all off they are raising money to build a more western church with a coffee shop in front. In a country that 8% is using electricity, and that is suffering from poverty... a westernized church with a coffee shop is the last thing they need. It was also sad because it was completely a numbers game. They guilt ed the people the whole time to come to Christ using hell, and then guilt ed them to bring more people. I saw about 40 people claim to accept Christ. It breaks my heart that people come down here with good intentions and all they give these people is a church to go to.... this is not stopping poverty, spiritually or physically.
That night we went to a dance. It was a dinner theater type thing where we got to see dances from a lot of different cultures. It was really cool, and a complete contrast to the concert we went to the day before.
I am beginning to like some Ugandan food. Samosas are delicious, and so is Matoke (their banana dish).... although i still appreciate Graces cooking and look forward to her westernized cooking every night as lame as that is.
We started Economics today. We went to the university which was really cool to be in a university in Uganda. It was pretty interesting. We then went to about 7 different little businesses to see how the Majority of Ugandans get their money. Most of them are in the automotive industry. It is actually amazing what they do. They take beat up cars, and using very little tools, pound out all the bends, weld all the cracks, and paint the thing and it looks basically new. This provides a lot of income for the city of Uganda.
Ok last thing... we applied for our Practicums, the one i want is a job doing photography and getting stories to send back to the states to raise awareness and support to the communities in Rwanda. It sounds like a Rad Job, so pray that i would get it... and if Not that God would send me where he wants me!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
I have learned more in the past two days then i learned all last semester... i am exhausted from taking in a different culture... tons of information, getting to know different people, food, etc...But it is all so great! i really think it is going to be hard to leave! I am growing quite attached to my team, and i seriously love this culture and people!
Yesterday we did two really cool things... first we went to the tombs of the dead kings, also the biggest hut in the WORLD!... it seriously was a LEGIT hut... i would want to live in it! Our tour guide was the next inline to the throne, and he knew so much about the kinds, and all of the strange beliefs that when people die they are still alive.... They have the 85 wifes of the king still taking care of the tomb and no one is allowed past this line, because they believe you will disappear. It was an amazing experience.
After that we went to the US embassy and spent about 2 hours talking to a rep who had so much knowledge, i wish that i knew all that he knew about all of the things going on in our world!! i learned so much about conflicts going on, and all of the misplaced peoples, and what is going on to get them a home... it really is amazing, and it was really refreshing to hear someone in a political position who actually gives a rip about what is going on and trying to do something about it!
Today we Had religion again and learned about how most of Africa really believes in one God... they just believe that there are other deities that are closer to God so they pray to them so they can intercede on behalf of the person to Get to God.... Our teacher was telling us that we get caught up in the fact that they are wrong, and sometimes forget to look at their culture, and maybe like in Acts with the people with the unknown God, they do believe in God, they just don't know how to correctly worship him.... These are things missionaries need to bring to the people, instead of telling them that all their culture and religion is wrong... you need to be relate able, being all things to all people in order to minister effectively.... it is a really good concept to think about!
We have more Lugandan tonight... i am really picking up on the language i think... and it is fun to use it out side...
we are a little spoiled here in Uganda... almost everyone knows English...
but it is still fun to use Lugandan and have the people point and laugh at the Muzungu trying to speak Lugandan!
tomorrow we pick our practicum sights... Pray that the Lord would place me in the right place... a place where i can minister effectively, and just learn the Most!
I love and Miss you all!!
becca
(the picture is me and Leah.... she is pretty much amazing!)
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Taxi cabs and Orphanages
Oli Otya? (Hi how are you)
Our Assistant is teaching us to use the Mutatus (The taxi cabs). So we went on an adventure to the City where there is a taxi park with thousands of taxi's going to thousands of different places, and they want us to learn how to do this on our own! it is a little overwhelming, but i think i could get from our house to the Taxi park, downtown, and home. There are quite a few legit places in town, for coffee, and stuff... a little piece of home if we start missing it. I constantly feel like i am going to be hit by a Boda (motorcycle) or a Mutatu... they drive like crazy men, and we cross the street all the time and its like playing frogger, but we are the frogs. They are a little more gracious to us though becuase we are Muzungus (white men) which means we dont know the rules "Muzungu Muzungu". We stick out like sore thumbs.
Our First class today was on African religions. It was very interesting. unlike alot of cultures in Africa, Uganda actually praises and thinks Twins are a blessing. Our teacher, who actually wrote one of the books we are reading, and is a native Ugandan, is teaching us about how Christianity's has come to Uganda, and how in a lot of cases it has failed. It all comes back to not rejecting their culture and way of life and trading it for western Christianity, but embracing them and who they are, and bringing Jesus without being caught up in legalism.
After that we went to the Jordan House Orphanage. They were more then happy to see us, and all hugged us and gave us the tour around. There are about 25 kids to one room, and two bathrooms between all of the kids. They eat beans and chunky potatoes, and yet they were some of the happiest kids you would ever see. They sang us about 15 songs, and then begged us to sing back to them, which of course we were terrible at, because White people just cant sing and dance the way Africans can! we are pretty lame :)
We hope to continue a relationship with this orphanage the whole time we are here and just go back and love on these Children!
Tonight we have language class and then we go to bed early because we are visiting the tomb of the kings of Uganda to help us put images with the things we are learning in religion! so that should be a very interesting trip!I am really excited to really dig deap into these peoples lives and culture yet i feel like it is already going by so fast.