Oli otya? Gyendi! (“How are you? Good!” in Luganda)

So I re-read that last update and I’m sorry it was so crazy and
sounded like things were not so good.

Things are great and they get better every day!

All things in good time!

Also, I realize I am writing to many different readers who want to
know many different things. I going to try to put a heading above each
different thought/story so that if you are not interested in that sort
of thing you can skip over it. Like a lot of the details about what
the food is like or my bathroom, a lot of people do not want to know,
but I know my family does. So just skip through it!

Turns out I am using my little stove! Toast, eggs, spaghetti, boiling
my own water. Again, not necessary but I think it took some pressure
off of Mama jane. And it IS nice to not always eat their food.

For all who know about my dilemma with cutting my hair. . . great
decision! In fact I wish I would have cut it shorter! There is just no
need for it. Its just something else I have to worry about
cleaning—and my body is enough. It stays dirty so I just wear it in
bandanas 24/7.

My room:
Francis made more room in it for me. We put up my mosquito net that I
brought from the states and it is much better. I’m still not sure if I
was allergic to that other one or what, but my eyes are good now. I’ve
gotten used to the bugs. They stay away from my bed. As long as the
ghekos are away from me, I’m good. And as for the “mice” I was
hearing….I still don’t know. I mean I am pretty certain that is what
it is. So sleeping is not my favorite time. It would be okay if
it/they were not so LOUD! And of course, if I was certain they would
not come inside…

Bathroom:
The bucket in my room is my favorite. =) Who would have thought I
would ever say that? The outhouse could be worse, but it is probably
my least favorite place to be in this village. I just hate having to
empty the big bucket of water in the toilet and then go fill up the
bucket out of a huge dirty tub. Too much work. And the smell….and the
darkness….Bah, not worth it.

The Devotionals in the Morning and NIght
Around 6 30 an absolutely beautiful noise to the Lord is made! It is
just so natural for them. They simply love to sing and dance. And they
do it so stinkin well. Lots of praises to the Lord in Luganda. With
lots of clapping. And then a few English tunes in there like “I’m
trading my sorrows.” One of the older boys will play “drums” on an
empty bucket, which is just so cool to me. They all walk around the
living room/dining room while they sing, dance, and pray. They are
mostly in their own little worlds with their eyes closed sometimes,
unless they are looking at me of course. =) Then they all start
praying at the same time. It would have been a lot cooler if I could
understand them.

Tonight (Saturday night) they sang all the songs in English…I think
they were trying to include me more. I’m trying to jump into it more
and more, but I’ll need a little more time till I can throw myself in
unashamedly! Then we read a passage in English. Then someone
translates for the little ones. Then Mama jane asks questions. They
just started reading through the whole Bible, so we are in Exodus
right now.

I got up for the first time at 6:30 with them and joined, instead of
just listening from my room. Mama jane was sleeping in a bit too. She
gets up them up if they don’t wake up, but she went back to lay down
it seems. Peter, the oldest boy, led the bible discussion. It is so
interesting and beautiful to see these kids ranging from age 4-13
praising the Lord together, reading the bible together, and then
coming up with questions to ask each other. And there doesn’t seem to
be any rush. Even when it is 8:30 at night and they haven’t eatin
supper. They just take their time and seem to enjoy it.

Food:
First off, they eat late! It is weird to me. They eat breakfast
between 9-10 on holidays/weekends and earlier on school days. Lunch is
around 2-3 and dinner is at like 9:30! Mama jane asked me tonight when
we usually eat dinner and I said around 7. But I didn’t mean I needed
to do that here! Well she got my dinner out before everyone else at
like 8:30 tonight.

Last night something seriously smelt like burning marijuana….for
dinner. The smell of pot usually makes me gag and want to throw up.
Sorry, it just does. So you can imagine what my nose was telling my
stomach when the smell was in fact not coming from a joint but from
the food in front of me. I thought for sure it must be from the
“greens” but no, it seemed to be the beans! I made myself take 2 huge
bites of the greens (because I realized it was only me and mama eating
them so it must be special. Plus I know I need to take advantage of
anything green I can give my body.) Well my mouth simply does not like
the tastes of greens (“Dodo”) and never has. I have a feeling I’ll be
using the whole swallow-food-with-a-gulp-of-water-trick pretty often!
I have also never liked most beans. And we have these often. I just
try to eat as much as I can, mix it with rice, and use water. Turns
out, it looks like I’ll be going back to my picky days where all I
really want to eat is plain rice and extremely plain and bland posho.
Even when the stuff doesn’t taste that bad, there is still the thought
in the back of my mind, “remember an hour ago I saw the rice come out
of a back closet, not bagged, on an open tray where Bridget picked out
some of the “bad” things from it. And the beans—the 2 yr old and 7 yr
old rinsing them in a bucket with their hands then laying them out on
the cement slab.” I know cooking things gets rid of all the germs but
its still something my mind and eyes will just have to get used to.

Today I saw the pigs at the farm and I distinctly thought to myself,
“these are the most disgusting animals I have ever seen. I don’t know
if I ever want to eat pork again.” An hour later for lunch, Mama Jane
came in with a plate for me saying, “have you ever tried pork?”
Mmmmmmmmmm.

Africans can EAT. A lot. When I told Mama Jane I couldn’t eat all
that she had served me, she began telling me how Africans can eat so
much. “They say we can move mountains. You know, we have the faith to
move mountains…we put a mountain of food on our plate and we speak the
word, and its gone!” This made me laugh. It is true! They do make a
mountain of food on their plate. And I’m talking about the tiniest
child. And every child eats it all! And it is hardy food like rice,
beans, posho (flour and water.)

Tonight Mama asked if we eat fish with the bones in them in America. I
said no most of us do not. . .but my grandpa actually does. She said
“maybe he came to Africa and learned.” This made me laugh! Tell Bobba
he’s got something in common with these people.. . .actually Bobba
could live the best out here for sure.

I helped peel the bananas tonight! (it is hard for them to let me
serve so it’s a big deal when I get to do it! Also, these are cooking
bananas. They love these and eat them a lot. They are not like the
bananas we eat.) Sharif (10 yr old boy) made it look SOO easy. I
watched him do many of them. Finally, I asked if I could join. Dude,
who knew peeling the skin off this kind of bananas with a knife could
be so hard! I felt like I was learning to cook with Nanee and Bee but
I just couldn’t do it right! I told Mama that I want to learn how they
cook because my family really likes to cook so I want to be able to
tell them about it.

Tonight (Sunday) Mama told me to make spaghetti in my room. “We are
eating pork again tonight and even though you have only been eating a
very little bit, I think you do not need any more.” Haha! So she
noticed that I’ve only been eating a tiny bit of the pork! That is
good! Noodles and butter were a nice alternative tonight, but plain
noodles just does not taste like it did when I was a kid!

Hygiene
Its just too much work! That is why many Africans don’t do it! Ha…or
maybe that’s just why I don’t want to do much of it….but don’t worry,
all my Worriers, I am staying clean! The hand-sanitizer really is very
helpful cause it is basically all I’ve got most of the time.

It will just take my mind and eyes time to get used to the fact that
they never really wash their hands. They clean, play outside, pick up
dirt, and then eat. With their hands of course. And they are fine.
They do “bath” every night though which is more than the people in
other villages do.

It is interesting too because they mop the house every day. A rag and
soapy water, scrubbin those floors. And they clean the “toilets” every
day. They do a lot of “cleaning,” it is just different than ours.


Weather
Could not BE more perfect! Like seriously, if ever there is a place in
the world that has “perfect” weather, it is Uganda.
Sunday was the first rainy day. I just love watching and listening to
the rain fall on all the banana trees all around the house. So
peaceful.

The noises
There are only 2 noises that I could do without and one of those I
absolutely hate. The repetitive, like an alarm clock, bugs at night.
And the awful “mouse” noise. It is RIGHT above me every night and so
loud and it just sends chills through my body. I do hope I can get
used to it. But I am also praying it will just leave. =) So you can
pray for sleeeeeep.

But there are so many wonderful noises!! I simply love sitting in my
room and listening to the kids talk and play right out my window. I
love their voices. I love their laughter. I love the wind blowing the
banana leaves. I love the rain. I love the birds! I love the singing.
I love the make-shift drums. When walking around the village it is
common to hear at least one of the houses all singing praise songs
together. Someone will be on the drums and others will be singing. How
wonderful!

The kids
I will write a post about each one of them or something. Give them 2
days and they warm right up to you! They took me around and taught me
many games and much Luganda in the afternoon on the second day. It
just took me showing interest in learning from them and I was in! They
are absolutely wonderful. I am so glad I am living in their house!!

I have so many stories and observations about them and its only been 5
days. . . .

Mama Jane
We had a great conversation tonight about her story, about each of the
kids, about me, about God. It was so great! She is wonderful and I
think we will get much closer. It will just take time.

Story of the day
Sharif asked me today, “In America, is there a machine that brushes
your teeth for you?. . . In America, do you tell a machine that you
are hungry and then you go away, come back and then it makes food for
you?....In America, is there a machine that baths you?”
If you think about it, we kind of do have 2 of those things. =)

Prayer
The hardest thing is the language. It is just hard to do anything
because I am always unsure of everything. For instance, I never know
when it is okay for me to jump into conversation with a question
because, lets say there is silence—you would think that means I can
jump in—but what if it was just a pause in conversation and I totally
just interrupted! These are the things I think about. And then I just
feel bad always asking “what is everyone doing now?....and now?....and
now?” Soon enough I hope I will learn the routine and will not need
language! And I’m just going to need to get over myself and be bold
too. (I wrote this a few days ago, and as I keep saying, things get
better every day but I will always need prayer for this)