So, I have been in Uganda, Africa for a little over two weeks, in that time; I haven’t had the privilege to see the entire site, but I have moved my things into my little hut, I have watched babies, I have eaten matoke, g nut sauce, chipatti, and posho.
learned maybe ten “Luganda” phrases, held countless children with no other hope than the basic necessities they are provided by orphanages, made a new friend, read three books, written a few blogs that I am by far not ready to post and been forever changed by what I have seen. My time here has been really life altering. All that I know is that I’m not sure what I think yet. I feel like that is ok, what I have seen of Uganda (which is a very small portion) is beautiful and horrible all at the same time. It is fun and frustrating, joyful and depressing and everything in between. Ok, now I will talk about the parts that don’t make me cry and maybe I will move on to the other things, that I really think everyone should know, but I’m not ready to share.
My hut…is a round structure, that has a roof made of aluminum siding, it is separated into two rooms, one serves as a small sitting room, with a couch and two chairs, the other is our bedroom… I have a roommate.
Our hut has a “Bathroom” where there is a drain in the corner of a small room outside of our hut, enclosed by a wood door.
Our Latrine, is a closet sized room with a hole in the cement, where we do our most important business, we have lovingly named it the embassy.
My hut is one of 6 huts that form a semi circle around the main dining room finished by the large kitchen where all of our food is prepared by native Ugandan ladies all day. The dining room also serves as the classroom for the people I came here to serve. The Segners live in a house up the hill, two bedrooms, one full bathroom, kitchen, living room, patio…*sigh* its lovely, and I get to enjoy the full bathroom during the day J
I have recently acquired a roommate, named Speciosa, she is a young Ugandan woman. Who works at the Musana camps ministry that is affiliated with New hope. She is funny and sweet, and I like her a lot. Happy to have a roommate. Because I don’t like to be on my own, and my first night, I came in to a hut with several varieties of spider, lizards and two dead bats…needless to say, I was afraid and slept maybe an hour. Then special came and we cleaned together and made our little hut feel more like home, it has been wonderful since then. My brilliant roommate also has brought solar powered lights and a battery, so when the power is out, as it is a little while every day, we always have light and a radio playing. I am so thankful for her.
The Segner kids have been struggling, since we got here, to find their sleep schedule, with sickness, with the food, with getting to know me, but these are all things that they will grow into with time. So I am in charge, for only half of the day, of Karson, who is a 7 year old who looks like he is ten, and is a sweet brother, he makes friends fast and loves to be outside. Everett, is 5 he draws me pictures every day, and today he caught me using one as a bookmark in my bible and smiled, he is also smart, I caught him doing a secret code game in his coloring book without even needing any help or prompting. Hadlee is 3 she is a little girly girl, when we got on the bus she asked me how the door closed by itself, probably expecting a technical answer, had wide eyes when I responded that it MUST have been by magic. Within ten minutes, she told me that she loved me, haha. Pierce is the toe headed baby boy, he is so darling, and smiley, he is the baby for sure, loves to be attached to mom or dad, we also find him running to the Ugandan strangers and grabbing their legs, they always pick him up and hold him by the armpits and smile. He loves it.
Kari and Jason are Texans, they are very kind, and considerate, have opened their home to me whenever they can and. …well …. They are moving indefinitely to Africa to start a medical clinic for orphans and pregnant women, so they are “those” kind of people, the good kind.
The compound where we live is HUGE, as I said earlier I have made a friend, someone who I would say is not my roommate or my superior or another person simply living on property. Her name is Betty, she is on staff here, our hospitality coordinator, which means she can answer just about any question we have, and she hands out the ration of toilet paper…so…I know how to pick em’ ha!
She has invited me to her hut, which we have recently deemed her mansion and we joke regularly that we will visit one another, but “how will I find you?”, I ask, to which she replies “I’ll be in the basement swimming in the pool”. I tell her that, “I’ll be out back by the stables” when she needs me. She has been a WEALTH of knowledge from pointing me to the clinic to showing me how to wash my underwear. We have had a movie night, complete with popcorn, we have laughed and joked, shared countless stories, swung on the swings, she even walked me to meet her “family” which is one of the family groups on the property, my friend betty grew up in this place, on this property, worked hard, went to college and came back to serve here on staff. I’m sure I will have wild stories to share about her. But or now, she is my new friend.
I have lived for a week in a radius of about 500 feet. I have been to Kiwoko (chi-woko) with a small band of students, but mainly I walk to the Segners and back to my hut three to four times a day. So not much action, but lots has happened.
I attended church on Sunday morning, 3 hours, worship was 3 English songs and three Luganda songs, I liked the Ugandan ones more. Then a message from the regional coordinator who oversees the ministries happenings, and all of the other sites that are affiliated, (including a special education school, a home for reformed child soldiers, a camp ground on lake Victoria, a radio station and a vocational school down the road for young adults). He spoke about the difference between belief and faith. That we are willing to say that we believe that God can carry us, but not willing to let him actually carry us through this life. There were many long greetings and goodbyes after then late lunch and naps.
Our week has been, lot of learning and there will be more soon, but I think this is enough for now. Thanks for reading, please subscribe by e-mail , so you can keep up.
Love
Rachael
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