Simon says touch your uncle.

so if anyone has the urge to watch a really bad Nigerian film that is translated (that's right, not dubbed... translated) into Luganda, then you should come to Uganda. :) I might have watched about 9 of them since I've been here, since watching TV is what Ugandan families are into, and what we did every night when I was at my homestay.... but I'm getting ahead of myself...

i realize that i haven't updated for a while. so let me start from.... a while ago:

Classes

Classes began on the 11th, so now i'm about to start my 4th week of classes! I'm taking Faith & Action in the Ugandan Context, Uganda Studies Practicum, African Literature, African Traditional Religions, and Christian Worldviews. The first two classes are taught by staff members of the USP (Uganda Studies Program), and the second two are taught by Ugandan professors. These first four classes are for USP students only, so they're small classes, but they're so interesting. The last class is a class offered and required for all students at Ugandan Christian University (UCU for short). Therefore, me and a few of my USP classmates are the only white people (or Mzungus) in the lecture of about 200 people. It's so far been a great class, and I'm enjoying the cultural experience of being in this Ugandan classroom.

* For my practicum class we are required to do 40 hours of service at a designated project site, among other things. During the explanation of the different practicum sites, all I could think about was God Cares... so after the class I asked if it was okay if I went to Kampala, to God Cares, to do my 40 hours of practicum, and my prof said yes!!! So basically, I am going to God Cares every Tuesday! :) This is such a blessing, I am so excited for this opportunity.

Homestay

For two weeks, we had to live with a family in the Mukono area. We were at our homes whenever we're not at school, and throughout the weekends. It was a challenging and yet rewarding experience. My family consisted of father (Christopher), mother (Florence), sister (Hilda- 9 years), brother (Topher- 6 years), sister (Cathy- 3 years) and brother (Cedric - 1 month). My homestay father was a teacher at a primary school, so our house was on the compound of the school. They were both very smart and spoke a lot of English, so it made the situation a little bit easier, however the cultural differences still made it pretty hard. There were a lot of awkward-ness, and a lot of things that I had to get used to: showering out of a bucket, an outside latrine (hole in the ground), supper at 10pm (matoke), etc. It was a lot of fun to have kids in the family... we played LOTS of cards.. (if anyone wants to know how to play Uno with real cards... i can teach you!) so we played cards... watched a LOT of really bad TV.. (Spanish shows called La Tormenta, dubbed in English; Nigerian films translatted into Luganda... ohh myy gooodnnesss; but if i am lucky, sometimes i come home from school and the kids are watching on The Christian Channel.. 44.. a disney movie!!!! I've gotten the pleasure of watching Beauty and the Beast and Sword and the Stone!!) But yeah.. its great fun getting to know this family. I'd say the biggest difficulty with my family was that the oldest child was 9. I wish there was one a little bit closer to my age, so that I know my role in the family if that makes sense? But other than that, they were great. :) However, I'm glad that the homestays are over and I'm back at the University!

Kampala Travelings

I know that a lot of you are interested in my interactions with those in Kampala that I love! So Tuesdays I have no class, so me and two of my friends (Becky and Gillian) came with me to Kampala to travel the taxis to go to Kampala! Sooo we took a taxi from Mukono to downtown Kampala... and then had to change taxis to take us to Kabalagala (where Pastor Dongo's church is). So it was funny because the taxi stop is RIGHT in front of Dongo's church! So we stopped by and i saw ISMAIL! He was I guess studying for upcoming exams! Oh it was so good to see him. We heard that other people were at God Cares (although school does not start yet until Feb.1, so the kids aren't there). So we walked over there.. its a pretty far walk... and as soon as we get there.. guess who drives up, but Pastor Richard! He is the Youth Pastor at pastor dongo's church! He is such a great guy! So we chatted with him for a while and then went up to Darren's apartment and saw Ezra and Glory Dongo along with some other guys.. (those of you who came with me last year might remember Regan??) So then we went back to church with Pastor RIchard, and as soon as we got there, it started POURING rain and hailing!!! it was such a good thing that he drove us!! or else we would be stuck in the hail!!! But yea so we stayed in the office and found out that Dongo was sleeping!! So he woke up and i got to talk to him! :) It was soo good to see him... those of you who know him can just imagine!! Then the rain stopped.. we went outside and i was surprised by none other than Stella! She heard that i was around so she stopped by.

Although I wasn't able to see a lot of people, it was soo good to see those that I was able to see. It felt like home just seeing them. I loved it soo much and am so excited for upcoming Tuesdays! :)

I also went to Kampala last Tuesday and met up with Darren at Cafe Java!!! Also so great to see him, and so excited to see more of him while I'm here!!! :)

THIS WEEKEND- RETREAT

So this weekend, those of us who live in the dorms went with Honours College to Jinja to a resort for a retreat!! We have been looking forward to this weekend for sooo long and it was even BETTER than i expected!!! We had SUCH a fun time getting to know each other.. i feel like we've become all a lot closer now. We played name games... relays... took a boat ride on the Nile... swam in the swimming pool... watched a movie... played cards... worshipped.. dinned together... talked... it was so much fun. I am absolutely LOVING the students here at Honours College.. i will update more about them later (this post is long enough)... But we just got back and now we're all sitting in the boys common room and watching Snow White and the seven dwarfs on channel 44!! :)

so those of you who made it this far get the best part of the post (in my opinion). The reason the post is called "Simon says touch your uncle." So one of the games we played is Simon Says. Our friend Segi was leading it and we were doing many things... jumping... bending... and such and then he shouts "SIMON SAYS TOUCH YOUR UNCLE" and holds his elbow!!!!!! hahaha. i nearly DIED laughing. i am laughing while posting this. hahaha. uncle? anyways... it was so funny, and i can't ever get enough of it. :)

thanks for making it here, i promise to start updating more often so that these posts can be better! love you all! thanks for reading!! i tried putting up pictures but they are taking forever to load. so if you're able to, check on them on facebook, i just posted a bunch of them! love you! :)

Made it!

Hi Friends! :)

Right now in Uganda it is Sunday at 4:43 pm, and I just wanted to check in and say that we made it here safely!

TRAVEL

Everything in terms of travel went pretty smoothly... until London that is. We (my whole group that I met in DC) got onto the airplane at Heathrow that was supposed to take us to Entebbe, Uganda. I was so tired that as soon as I sat down on my seat on the airplane, I was out. When I woke up, I looked around and saw that we were on the ground. I was so excited, I thought we made it to Uganda! However, my neighbor proceeded to tell me that we were still in Heathrow, and that we've been sitting here on the airplane for 3 hours. I guess the roads to the runway were caked in ice, and we were told by the engineers not to take off yet. We sat on the plane for another couple of hours until it took off, and finally brought us to Entebbe at approximately 2:30 am. :) Luckily all of our luggage made it here, and everyone got through customs with no problems.

ENTEBBE

For the first night, we stayed in Entebbe. It is about 2 hours from Entebbe to Mukono (where the University is), and since we arrived so late, it made more sense to stay in Entebbe for the night. So we all packed into the bus and drove about 10 minutes away from the airport to our destination. A convent. Who would have thought? It was real nice, and it was a nice place to sleep for the night. In the morning, we were delightly woken up to the sounds of the monkey birds right outside of our window. Although I would have liked to have been able to sleep a tad longer, the sounds made me feel at home. :)

KAMPALA

So then we began to make our journey towards Mukono. The only way to Mukono is through Kampala, the capital of Uganda, the city where I resided the previous three times that I have been to Uganda. It was so great to see familiar places and landmarks. We made a stop in Kampala, in Garden City, and exchanged some money, bought some necessities, and then boarded the bus back towards Mukono. Although it was so great to be in Kampala, it was also so painful to the heart. It brought back so many memories, and the only thing I wanted to do was go steal a little visit to God Cares.

MUKONO

Finally we made it to the University. We were dropped off at our dorms, mine is at the VERY top of campus.. almost like living in Page Hall again. The dorms are pretty nice. My room has a bunk bed and also just a regular bed, two closets, and a desk that splits down the middle. I will be sure to take a picture of all of this soon to give you all a visionary of the place. We had a couple of introductory lectures and then had dinner in the D.H. (dining hall?). Here we were able to make a couple of friends while sharing meals. It has been real fun to get to know the Ugandans that attend this school. However, classes do not start until tomorrow (Monday), and so many of them still have not moved in yet.

FIRST FULL DAY

On Saturday, we had breakfast and then another orientation class... and then registered for classes (btw Dad, I got all the classes I want!) and then we had free time. A couple of us ventured out to the outskirts of Mukono-town and were able to check out our surroundings. We got back, rested for a bit, and then later a few of us went back off campus and just walked around a residential neighborhood. It was sort of comforting to hear and see the neighborhood kids saying, "MZUNGU! How are youuuuu?" :) The rest of the day was casual... had dinner... showered... slept. :)

SABBATH

This morning I woke up real early. For some reason I have realized that I have a sleep problem when I come to Uganda. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I can never go back to sleep. I get so excited about being here, that sleeping is the last thing I want to do. So this morning I woke up around... 5/6 am and couldn't stop thinking about God Cares. It is hurting more than I thought to be here, so close, and yet not able to see those that I love. It's so funny to be in their time zone, though. I appreciate that. We went to church here at UCU (the University I am studying at... Uganda Christian University). They have two services every Sunday, so a few of us attended that this morning. It was real interesting and once again reminded me of KPC (Pastor Dongo's church in Kampala). Anyway, after church a few of us went "rolling" which means we went to get Rolexes. No.. we did not buy watches.. a Rolex is a type of food... think a cross between an omelette and a breakfast burrito. Then we came back and we're all blogging/journaling/reading a book we have to have done by class tomorrow! :)

OVERALL CONSENSUS

It's soo great to be back here in Uganda. I love every second of being here. The smells, the sounds, the people, the view.. everything. I can't wait to learn more about Uganda, the Lord, and myself while I am here. However, I just can't wait to see my loved ones! :)

Sorry this entry has been super long! Props if you made it all the way down here! :) Love you all and miss you all so much!