This is the waterfalls that we went to when we went on safari over Easter.

Time is flying by

So my time is coming to an end here in Mukono. We leave this Thursday at 5 am for a 13 some hours bus ride to Rwanda. It should be a good time. I heard the road are just a little bumpy so we shall see:) We are going to Bagali and a few other places along the way on our 10day trip. I'm really excited about going, I have always wanted to go to Rwanda and now I am. But on the other hand it means that these next 2days are the last that I get with my family and friends:( I've really come to love it here. At first it was really hard. I didn't know anyone and I was trying to get use to doing just about everything different; from eating dinner at 10 or 11 to brushing my teeth and wash my face out in the middle of the yard. Hahaha Now I'm use to all those things I forget sometimes how life is different from life in the States cause I feel so comfortable. I remember the first night laying in my bed under my mosquito net listening to hostel across the street playing super load music and people screaming( which at the time i thought it was a mob of people who were going to come and break into the house and take me...hahahaha) and thinking how the heck I was going to make it through 4 months of this!
Now I'm not ready to leave. I mean I really miss everyone back home but I'm going to miss everyone sooo much here too. Its like a double eged sword. I mean the loud music and the random person yelling outside doesn't phase me anymore. It's never quite here
So here are a few of the things that I'm going to really miss from my life here:
-the 6am Wasuzie otya wake up calls of my host dad before he goes off to work
- sitting drinking morning tea listening to the birds and watching the people walk by on the road.
-my walk to school
-watching the chicken jump on the roof of the kitchen
-helping cut up vegs for dinner
-watching La Tormenta with my host brother
-taking a bucket bath
-sitting in the kitchen when the power goes off with the family watching the fire and talking
- playing tag with Stuart and Kyongo
-all foods and the pineapple ginger juice that my family makes
and there is so much more. I wish that I could just stay a little longer or everone from home could just come here. That would be perfect:) well I hope everyone is doing well. See you in May. I think this will be my last post. I may or may not get a chance on the 30th to post about Rwanda.

This is a picture of the view from the hill that we climb in Rahki

Namuganga in Nabuti

I forgot to write about this before but I have a Luganda name that my host dad calls me all the time. Its Namuganga. I'm not sure what it means or what clan my family is from. Every time I ask I get a different answer so I'm not sure. All I know is that I share it with my host sister Matilda. And I found out yesterday that the name of the village that I live in is Nabuti. So I'm Namuganga Deborah and I live in Nabuti. Ha!
I've been sick this last weekend but I'm better for the most part just a little tried. Not sure what it was. It may have been from eating peanut butter balls or it may have been a bug? I not sure but its all over. All the same I went on the IMME trip and went to Rahki to the Kabaali community centre that is partially run by Canadians. They had some really neat projects that they do to help the community that are really creative. If you want to hear more about the trip just ask me when I get home. Which is soon.
I think that I will get to go on a safari this weekend with some of the other IMMEs it should be a fun time.
Happy Early Easter everyone!

Sorry I haven't had a very good update lately. I've been very busy. Things are going well, I've just had a lot going on.

As you saw from the picture I visited the Nile River - even got to touch it!

We had a chance to talk with a couple of missionaries last weekend while we were in Jinja. We also stayed in a place that had a hot shower and saw a cobra! Quite a weekend.

This coming weekend we will be visiting some other missionaries when we travel to Rahki. We are never really sure what will happen when we get there until we get there but I'm sure we will have a good time.

Hope to have some more stories for you later.

The source of the Nile-Napoleon bay, Kingfisher resort, Jinja.
I went here the weekend before last

This week...

So I'm past the half way point of being here in Africa. I feel so much more at home. I no longer fear for my life every time I walk on the street. I don't think twice any more about washing my underwear in my bath bucket after I'm done bathing.

It almost seems like I've always been waken up in the morning by the radio playing and my host dad coming in and asking how my night was before he heads off to work. I realized this last week after coming back from Kapchorwa how much at home I felt. I know what to expect in a lot of situation or maybe now I know not to have expectation for some things. Yet this knowing what to do and how to act doesn't mean that I still don't want to be home some days....

This week there wasn't anything to exciting that happened. But some good things that happened are:
1. Talking to Biz (my sister) on the phone an extra time. Very unexpected but just to make sure that I wasn't kill in the mudslide. hahaha
2. Making shadow puppets with my host nephews when the power went out. They love my head lamp. I wish that I could give it to them at the end but I don't think I'm allowed.
3. Looking up at the night sky and seeing so many stars! They were so bright too, cause every one in the village's power was out.
4. Went to Kampala and drinking some good African tea!
5. Went to talk to a Missionary that was in Somallia in the 50's and 60's. It was really neat to hear about his experiences. One of my favorite things he said was this: " the teeth may occasionally bite the tongue but that doesn't mean that they separate." I really like that.
6. This technically happened last week but I forgot to tell you about it.... Our campus had elections. It included big parades with bands and people walking on stilts! It was great! they even went off campus and the people in Baguju came out of their homes and down the streets to join the parade.
7. Last Saturday we also went to Jinja to learn about an AIDs/HIV support program. We went to a village so see one of their programs for giving people purpose and hope to live positively by doing communities farms. It was so neat! The family that headed up the farm for the clients in the area gave us passion fruit that they grew. It was my first time to eat passion fruit.

Something that I'm looking forward to is this weekend we are going to Jinja to talk to missionaries and to have some free time!!!! SO excited! I think we might go swimming and I think that there are going to be showers with hot water!!!!!!!!!! It will just be nice to hang out with other Americans and not have to worry about school work or other things that go along with living in another culture.

As always, thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Kapchorwa!!!!!!!!

This is the view from where we gathered this past Sunday for a worship service. I heard one Ugandan say that when you sit and look out at the view here you are sitting looking out at the future.hmm...I liked that. ( the picute was taken by jenna davis- my camera broke before I went so I didn't take it. But luckily I fixed it today.)
I had a great time there. I learned soooo much and did so many new things. Here is a list of them(not to mention I really loved my host family there!):
1.I smashed a big spider on the wall and watch in horror as tons of baby spiders came crawling out from under my shoe!
2. learned how to really wash clothes by hand in a bucket ( I have been doing it every week here but this was the first time that someone really showed me the correct way to do it.)
3.Learned how to cook matooke, posho, cabbage, and greens African style!!! and learned some Kupsabin words.
4. Sat on a cliff that over looked the valley below and an eagle( I think) swooped down into the valley and as it was flying down it's wing touched my foot!!!
5. drank sour milk!!! oh yah just about every night that I was there. Um lets just say it was sour and looked liked baby vomit with specks of ash in it. ( the ash was from a specific tree that they burned and stirred in the sour milk to kill the bacteria.)
6. Got rammed by the family's cow. I was fine only got some scratches.
7. "Fetched" water from the village tap.
8. Killed and help slaughter a chicken.
9. Then ate it's gizerd, an egg that hadn't been layed yet that was on the inside, and some other shady pieces of meat that had tendons or cartalige on them -not sure. I just chewed twice, smiled and swallow it as fast as I could. hahaha
10. Went on a 6 hour hike on the weekend though the hills to 3 of the water falls that were in the area
11. Then a group of us stood under one of the waterfalls on a giant rock and let the water from the falls come splashing down on us.
12. Took my first real hot shower since coming here to Uganda at the place that we stayed for the weekend by Sipi falls.! It was great to really wash all the soap out of my hair. ( as a side note I really don't mind bucket baths but it was really nice not to have to bend down to bath myself.)

I have alot of other stories about my family and other things that happen but don't have time to write them all down. So you will just have to ask me about them when I get home:)

Thanks for reading my blog and keeping me in your thoughts and prayers.
love
Debbi

How To Have a Party!

This Saturday I got to help my family cater a graduation party! It was so neat. Let me remind you that we don't use any electricity to cook food here. So no mixers, or ovens or stoves. Just fire.
They started cooking the matooke (a type of banana that is cooked for a really long time in bundles of banana leaves) on Friday. I was gone because I had a field trip then a missionary dinner so when I got home they were done cooking for the night. But when I got up in the morning the cooking had started up again.
The cooking started at 7 o'clock. I think I cut up like 50 plus tomatoes. Um yah they don't have counter or cutting boards. You just use your a knife and the two hands that God gave you. I cut up some eggplant but mostly tomatoes from like 7:40-11ish then everyone took a break for tea and escort (that's what they call food you eat with tea. its usually some form of bread.)
It was so crazy to look at the back yard! They had 9 outdoor stoves. Which were constructed of three stacks of brick spaced out evenly in order for dried tree branches to be placed in between and meet in the middle where they feed the fire.Then giant pots that were probably three feet in diameter and two feet tall sat on the bricks with food bubbling away on the inside. They made boiled and fried Irish potatoes, chicken in sauce that they call soup, beef in a soup, matooke, fried rice , plain rice, greens, cooked cabbage, chippatis (their flat bread),and g-nut sauce (its like a peanut sauce but its purple).
They made enough food for 200ish people! We cooked until around 12ish.
I got to ride in one of those big African trucks that the beds are long and have a metal frame of sorts that goes over the bed. Then the cab is really small. We put all the pots of food in the back to take to the party.
Then I got to serve food! They put me at the "high table" its where the nicer food is served for the special guest like the graduates and their family, and pastor and other important people get their food. They had another table for the less import people where they served the not as nice pieces of meat and chicken and they didn't have greens or cooked cabbage. I was at the end of the line serving and when people got to me they were really surprise to see a white girl serving them food.
Funny thing... they didn't have forks, so everyone just ate with their hands. It was fun. You just had to use your matooke which is little like really think yellow mashed potatoes to pick up your other food. They also don't have paper plates so after everyone was done eating we washed 200ish plates and everything else. Oh just as a little reminder, we don't have running water and we didn't have a kitchen to wash. They just used some of the big pots and filled them up with water. One was for washing and the other was for a rinse bucket. hahaha it took a couple of hours. There were three women who came and helped my family cook, they were all teachers but if they weren't there I don't think we could have done it.
I would have brought my camera but something is wrong with it :( and next week is my rural home stay in Kapchorwa which it suppose to be one of the most breathtaking places in all of Africa.
Well that's all for now. I hope everyone back home is enjoying the snow-hahaha

This is my favorite part of my walk to school. The picture doesn't do the reality justice

A little taste of Ohio in Uganda

So I made some buckeyes for my family last night. They really liked them I think they don’t say much but they ate like half of them last night! At first it was a little challenging to try to explain to my host mom what I wanted to make and how I was going to make them. She was really mystified that I wasn't going to need to use the charcoal stove to make them or that I wasn't going to have to roll them out on a chapatti (Ugandan flat bread) board? They took for every to make because halfway through dipping them into chocolate they started falling apart cause it was like 80 out and the refrigerator stopped working so I couldn't put back in to get cold again. I just started putting the chocolate on top. To make peanut butter balls with chocolate hats. My host dad and brother seemed to really like them. They were definitely worth making. Not to mentions I love eating themJ I told my host brother that we like to eat the buckeyes with milk. He responded by saying “no wonder Americans are fat.” Hahaha I told him, though, that we don’t eat these tasty treats everyday only once in a while. I think I might make salsa for them next if I can find some tortilla chips.

I haven’t been on any trips this week but on Friday we are going to a Buganda King’s tomb. And on Saturday I think I’m going to a pottery studio to learn to make ceramic from some locals. I’m really excited and I hope it works out.

A few pictures from this past weeks adventures

Trip to the Ssezibwa Falls with USP and UCU Students

The Market in Mukono

Merry Go Round Uganda Style

The Falls

USP and UCU students at Ssezibwa Falls

So I think I met Jesus this weekend. Let me clarify that I met a man so dedevoted to Christ and what it means to love people that if you looked past the physical person and time and looked at this man's passion for people you would see the gospel being played out. Oh I'm sure he is not perfect. He would probably attest to that fact. You just see Christ channeling through him. His name is Father Gerrie. He is probalby only in his late 20's maybe 30. He is one of the priests for the Luwerro diocese. He is in charge of the HIV ministry for the diocese. He came to talk to us on Saturday night about what he does and he told soooo many stories of people with HIV and then we got the chance to go to mass with him.
He told us stories of his work in the villages. One story he told was of a group of people with HIV who had been ostracized from their villages (which is the worst thing in African culture- to be ostracized or not allowed to be part of the communityr. Relationships are so valued. They have a saying "I am because we are") He was so sad that the people of the church had abondoned these people that he got down on his knees (a big sign of respect in Buganda culture) then he proceeded to wash their feet to show that he valued and respected them as humans. This is a very big thing in this culture because a priest is so respected and put so high up there for him to do that is such a big deal. He said that these men and women began to weep because it was the first time someone cared to see them as people and not just as a disease. He went on to say that one time in the airport in America some man saw that he had a tag that said HIV+ on his briefcase and got up and moved away. Father Gerrie was so upset about this. He said that when one member of the body of Christ has HIV then all the rest do. We are all part of one body; we all are affected (infected). He had so many other stories. So I will tell you them later.
The mass was awesome too. It was so neat! People were so welcoming and friendly. They sang so much during the service. They only used their voices and two drums. Even though I didn't understand a word of Luganda, it was the best church I've been to in Uganda. Ironically enough, but not surprising it was a one room school house out in rural Luweero. Wtih nothing but benches and a table wit a table cloth, two candles on plastic plates (not the disposable kind) and a crucifix.
I don't think you have to be Christian to see how Father Gerrie has affected this community and all the good that he has done. He desires all the praise he gets because the burden that he carries of the thinkgs has has seen and experienced is so immense. His congregation truely has big needs and he does what he can to help. Many people that he goes to minister don't have the basis necessities.
I have other stories from this trip, but yet again the clock is against me so we'll see what next week brings.
I think I might make buckeyes for my family this week. Oh yeah, I also went to some Sseziwaba Falls this week on Wed- check out the pictures on facebook. Super fun trip too. (I didn't really proof read this one so there might be been a few typos, but what's new :)).
Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers.
Debbi

Exerpts from a recent email from Deb

This week has been good. We are going to Luwerro to play
with some Compassion kids and talk with some missionaries in the area.
I really excited for the trip. Its our first trip!


As for church here.....um... not that great I have to say. I go to my
family's church to the English service. My host sister likes to sit in
the way back, last pew.



People sit down half way through songs and leave sometimes before the service is over or they show up half way through.
The things is that tons of people come but I think they come for
something to do or because everyone goes on Sunday and not necessarily because they really want to be there.



Its interesting. It not what I thought church was going to be like here. I'm going to try out some other churches here in February with some other USP students.

Weeraba! ( good bye in Luganda)
Love Debbi

Walking to Class

A lot of people have been asking some of the some of the same questions so I thought I would answer them here:
1. I get to school by the two feet that God gave me. If I take the short cut which is a little dirt path that goes back through some fields, pass some cute kids who sit on thier front slab( i guess you could call it) waving, saying "bye mzungu! Bye", and in between some houses to the a little gate at the side of campus that we use to go to monkey hill. It takes 15 mins. But if it rains or I feel like being run over by boda bodas (moterclyces that transport people places) I take the road that I live on down a bumpy red dirt road ( all roads by the way are dirt around here) to the main road to campus that is lined with street venters that sell anything from maze cooked over a caroal stove infront of you to a flank of beef that just hanging from thier shop wall. ( and when I mean "shop" I mean a hand crarfted box built out of spare boards that is big enough for two people to stand with their heads almost toughing the ceiling and a little room for them to turn around. the front part has a window with a shelf that is on the outside that they put thier goods that are for sale. An a door on one of the sides. There are tons of these that line side of the street. Some bigger, some smaller, some light pink, some light green ) This walk takes me 20ish mintues to get to school.
2. Classes.... So all but one of my classes I take with other USP Students. Its African Ethics and so far it has been really interesting. Then the USP cources are: Faith in Action, IMME Practicum, Politics Of East Africa and Religions of Africa. Well I just realized the time and I need to head home before it gets darks so I'll write more about classes next week. have a great weekend everyone:)

My First week

Today is my first day that I have had time to post something myself without the help of Mom (thanks). Life has been busy since arriving- just settling in and getting used to life here. Ugandans are very friendly and are quick to welcome you to the country.
Some details about life here:
My family that I lived with are Godfrey and Resty and right now two of their kids live with them Maria and Petter who are both in their 20's. Maria is the one that shows me how to do everything and the one that I usually ask if I need help or have a question. The family has a cow, some chickens, and goats.
My day usually starts at 5 am when my host dad gets up and turns on the radio. ( the house’s walls don't go all the way to the roof so you hear everything. kind of like the cabin except the floors are cement and the roof is metal.) Then I doze off until 6 when he comes to say good morning and good bye to Maria and me. I continue to doze until 7 when I get up and ready for school. They don't have indoor plumbing so the toilets are outside. But they are not just any kind of toilets they are "squaty potties" where you squat over a whole that is in the shade of a brick. It’s actually not that bad. They also don’t have shower so I take bath out of a bucket. My host mom makes me tea and gives me corn and bread for breakfast. I head off to school around 8 until 6:30. I’m not allowed to be outside after dark so I have to get home by 7. Then I usually take a bath and hang out with the family until 9 or 10 when we eat dinner then all go to bed. I like it here. It was hard at first but I’m getting setting in and getting the hang of things. I still have many more things to learn- two being Luanda (the language) and how to wash laundry by hand. Yay! I’m not sure how often I will be able to leave post but we shall see.

New Insights Into Life In Uganda

.......Things are very crazy just trying to get settle in and used to everything. It is a different world here. Everyone just moves at a slower pace. They walk slower, talk slower and they just chill.
One of the girls in my group heard someone say that "Americans may wear watches but it's the Africans that have time."
They are a culture that really focuses more on people and less on doing things or going places.... well I have to go-we are going on a scavenger hunt in Mukono at 5.

First Words from Uganda

Hey I'm here safe and got my host family on Saturday-friday your time.
They are very nice. My parents are Godfree and Reste (im not sure how
to spell them.) This is my fist day of class i'll try again when I get
my charger my battery is low. I'm good.
Debbi

(this is a copy and paste version of an email Debbi sent to me but thought those of you who are trying to follow her on the blog would enjoy hearing what she has to say about her first few days.)

And So She Begins Her Journey....

We (Bobbi, Bek, Deb) left home, for the airport, this morning at 7am. We had a small delay getting to the airport due to weather and traffic, but still made it in plenty of time to get through security and then we waited.

Deb's flight took off just a little later than planned, my guess is because of de-icing procedures, but she is in the air now (as of 11am)

Her back pack weighed in at just shy of 50lbs, her carry on was heavier than it looks and her purse... well packed to the top (her PB&J and carrots somewhere smashed in the middle of it all.)

If you want to track her flights she will be leaving Dulles on BA#216 @ 6:15pm. Eventually arriving in Entebble tomorrow evening. Please continue to pray for a safe and uneventful trip.

Welcome to my blog. I hope to keep you updated during my stay in Uganda.