Rural Visit: January 23-25, 2009

Hey Everyone!

Four other students and I went to a village called Iyolwa in a city called Tororo in Uganda, five hours from Kampala. This was an amazing and eye-opening experience for me. I didn't want to leave, the land was beautiful, the soil was rich, the crops were plentiful, but most importantly the people were amazing and happy. I, in my American perspective, saw them as “happy” because they were content, smiling, or made me think that all was ok.

As I was walking through the streets, I could not help but think of all the things that they are missing and wonder if they ache for these things or even think about them. Questions just flooded my mind as we were walking through the village. Things like bank or savings, health insurance??? All these questions, just raise issues that I definitely need to think more about and I truly believe this is only the beginning of a wealth of understanding about this culture.

How do these people work? How do they recover when they get sick or when a monsoon hits and the rain destroys their mud houses and their roads are washed away? They work the land and whatever they need for the day, they trade it with something they have. They don't make money, they don't have electricity; they simply get up before the day light and take full advantage of the light; working all day until the moon light shines on them.

I was constantly humbled the whole weekend as I realized how much poverty I had in my own life. How much I realized that I need God's grace to get me through each day. He protects these people, He sees every life in here, He satisfies their needs, but what is it that put me in a healthier, wealthier place in the world than them? Why am I so blessed? Some of these people never left their village, they had never seen a white person, and here I am studying for a semester, in Africa.

There was a world vision center in this village and we met a man that works for them. You would have thought that there would be Americans visiting this center at least frequently; this man was in his late sixties and we were the first white people he has ever met. That is crazy to me! I am still trying to figure things out, but all I know that is that I am very poor, my definition of poverty is different, and quite frankly I really have no idea what it is.

On a lighter note though, I will say that I had a blast there as well. I convinced some of the girls to let me help them wash dishes, after assuring them that I did indeed know how. They said, “But your hands are so soft!” They finally complied with my request.

While we were washing dishes, a few of the guys slaughtered a chicken a few meters away from our station. After they plucked and skinned it, I went over there and said, “Oh, now it looks like a chicken!” The minute it came out of my mouth, I regretted it! What a stupid, American, town girl response. To me, a chicken looks no different than a packaged, boneless, skinless, breast; there is so much preparation that I take for granted every time I buy a chicken. There were little things like that I kept saying all weekend that really made me feel foolish, like mentioning bug spray to one of the girls or when asked if I like pork, telling them the way that I cook it (pulled pork in the crock pot). They just politely left me to figure out for myself that these things sounded crazy to them.

Another quick comment about the visit. Since four of us were in the same bed, I didn't sleep the first night but it was entertaining lying in bed listening to all the animals running around the house. Crashes and scurrying, my imagination was going wild. I wasn't sure what it was but it was close and loud and I was a little concerned. In the morning I found out that they have rats.

The language was Jap, “Yoga” is what I learned to say to everyone passing by. It means, How are you? The animals, the sounds, the smells, all so vivid in my mind; I really hope it always stays with me. On Saturday we had a huge spread for lunch under a tree. So peaceful ,and then we ate Jack fruit which is sweet, sappy and huge. You cut it open and peel out the pits and peel off the skin so you can eat the fleshy part; it was not like anything I've ever tasted.

I'm sorry this one is long, but I hope that I was able to give you a little glimpse from far away.

Practicum Informational Day and Future Work Opportunities

Practicum is the second of the three legs of this amazing African cultural/educational experience. It is about four weeks in an area: either Rwanda, Uganda, or Ethiopia working with GOED staff and having some hands-on experience on your own or with one other student on field. Today was our informational day to hear about the practicum opportunities and decide which ones best fit our interests, experience, and interests. This was very informative, extremely interesting, but also nerve wracking because there are so many amazing opportunities. The ones I am considering are in Ethiopia or two in Rwanda. In Rwanda I would have the opportunity to work as an education assistant in an international school from preschool to high school. This diverse setting really interests me, as many of you know with the whole language thing. I think I am leaning more and more towards education as well. Who knows maybe I will go onto an education degree in an inter cultural setting. I was informed that often times there are no repeats of any certain country, every single student is from a different country and has a diverse cultural background. There is another opportunity to be an "Assistant Community Transformation Officer," I can see my dad smiling at this opportunity for me. This one is regarding a lot of stuff that I have been doing already with my major, including verbal and written communication. This has to with child development and helping FH assess the state of critical child development needs in communities where they work; also creating community transformation plans for communities. Either of these in Rwanda would be an awesome experience for me. There is an opportunity in Ethiopia that is basically Teaching English in either an elementary school or on the FH compounds.

I am so excited for this next part of my trip. I am in the process of deciding right now which ones to apply for and how to construct my CV/Resume to fit the jobs that I am interested in. Please pray for me as I decide and construct my learning objective as well as my resume; I want to be directed by God. I see these weeks (February 16-March 12) as an opportunity for God to direct me in any future work opportunities with education or working with children from a diverse community. I know that he is in control and no matter what job I am chosen for, I will learn tons. I am open to this experience and extremely excited. Thank you for your prayers and support as I continue this journey!

(Written on Monday, January 19, 2009)

I have been visiting an orphanage; these children really bless me. I want to just spend all my time there - it's amazing. I didn't realize how much I love kids! God is really giving me a heart to love them and serve them.

I saw a bunch of cultural dancing last night. This weekend I get to stay in a village with a family for three days. It will be different from the city that we are staying in now. It will be a "real African experience." Right now the city we are in is not much different than any other city in America; except that there is much more stuff, people, and cars, stuffed into a lot less space.

Love, Anna

(Written on Tuesday, January 13, 2009)

I am in Africa - it will be my third night tonight. All is well. I am still adjusting to the heat and to the sleep. I have thankfully been sleeping well.

We started classes today and it will be a lot of work. We are learning tons about African religion and culture. It was really cool that the professor gave us references to verses in the New Testament. When I looked them up later, I found that these were when Paul the Apostle brought the message of Christianity to Africa. They had an altar that was labeled on it, "To an Unknown God.” Paul said, “Men of Athens, this god you are worshiping is the God I am telling you about. He was not made by human hands, but is the creator of the universe.”
It was really neat. I have definitely heard this verse before but it was neat to hear it in its context and meet the very people it is talking about.

Earlier today I was going for a walk with one of my team members. While we were lost on a side road (it’s very easy to get lost but that’s all part of exploring a new community), we stumbled along a little tiny village with lots of kids. We asked them how to get back, and I was playing with the little boys as he was talking to the ladies. That was amazing. I just wanted to stay there with them - not go back to classes the next day. They were shouting, "Mazungoo mazungoo" which means "White people." It’s not rude; it is just what we are - and they loved seeing us. It was so worth getting lost and going on what ended up being an hour and a half walk.

It is difficult for me to get pictures, because I am not sure yet if it is rude to ask about taking pictures with them. I wish I could share more of my experience with you, but it is hard. There are so many interesting things so far that I cannot even keep them all in my mind.

I must go now and read my articles for class tomorrow. Please spread the word about what is going on to whoever would like to hear.

I just want to say that I have not been able to get to my blog site since I have been here. I am not having the internet I was expecting, so I am so sorry that I am not able to get on there. Maybe it will work soon, but for now I am just going to have to email whenever I can get it out. Even email only works every so often.I will talk to you soon hopefully.

Love, Anna

Sorry I haven't written yet since I have been in this lovely country of Uganda. Right away I want to say that I will definitely not be on the Internet that often if even at all. I will try to keep my parents at least updated about what I am doing. Unfortunately the Internet is not readily available; it is very slow and sometimes non existent. That is totally normal in Africa. I hope you continue to check for those random times that I am able to go on. I love and miss you all very much!!! I apologize in advance for any inconvenience that causes anyone. I will be journaling and keeping many things in my head here so as to report when I come home; if the internet thing does not work out.

Things are moving quite fast – even though I have only been away for one week. I arrived in Kampala, Uganda this past Sunday morning. We had two 9 hour overnight flights between Thursday night when we left phoenix and when we arrived. As you can probably imagine, we were all exhausted. I missed two nights of sleep and we were welcomed with a full day of activities when we arrived. I was running on adrenaline from the excitement of arriving for a few hours anyway, but I faded very quickly.

The next few days were orientation to the new culture – if that is something that you can ever get oriented too – but I was still exhausted because of the eleven hour time difference. We started our African Culture and Religion class and Post colonial African Literature courses Tuesday and Wednesday – which are going to be VERY interesting. They sang to us and performed some stories, riddles and tongue twisters in Lugandan and Kiswahili. It was very fun!

Many of you know that I have been looking forward to this trip for a very long time and therefore, even though I didn't want them, I had many expectation of what I thought it would be like. When I started to find out and experience what we would actually be doing I found out it was not at all what I expected. The trip is really what you make of it, we have free days to visit organizations and volunteer, learn new things and experience the life here; however it is not laid out or structured for us. It would be very easy to go to classes, do the reading, write the papers, and come home in four months without much difference than studying at home. I do not want this to happen. Please pray that I will have many opportunities and make the most of those opportunities.

It's also sixty degrees here. So warm that I went for a run this morning!

I am here now!

I have been in Phoenix, Arizona for the past two days. There are Palm Trees, and flat roofs - just like you see in the movies all we are missing are the cactus's.

My team and I (15 students from Houghton college in western NY and five from others) are anxiously awaiting our departure and three day travel to Entebe. We leave tonight at nine pm and are traveling for the next thirty hours following.