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Wednesday 18 December 2013

Mission Accomplished

Tackle a dubious plate of Mexican refried beans?

Check.

Finish the mural in the classroom?

Check.


Meet Mrs. Orr again, Christmas shop for the babies, relish matooke one last time at a send-off lunch, go to Quality to get one last batch of jackfruit to eat on the roof, learn Ugandan craft skill, attend Sunday School party and face paint for hours on end, try to pack up for departure somewhere in between...

Check, check, check.




So the last three days in Uganda had come. They weren't about to go without every single minute being used to the fullest! For tales of the last adventures this time in Uganda, please click Read More...

Friday 13 December 2013

A Fire-Seared Market and a Giant Banana Suit

 
"Muzungu!" "Sister!" "China!"
 
No matter which way I turned while walking along the blackened ground of the market deep in the belly of Kampala, I'd feel a sharp tug at my arm and hear myself being addressed in one of these three ways.
 
"Do I look Chinese to you?" I asked Precious, a friend who had interpreted for me back at children's ministry with the team from Seattle in October. "No," she shook her head, "they are just calling you that to make fun." Ok then. This was definitely not your average tourist-trap market. In fact, unlike at the larger western grocery stores and malls, here not another muzungu could be seen--nor could I imagine seeing one. No, this place was the real deal: chicken crates, strings of gourds, livers and kidneys hanging up in the butchery booths, surges of people pushing in from every direction... And here I found myself standing smack in the middle of it all!
 
(Don't miss the rest! Please click "Read More.")
 

Wednesday 11 December 2013

The Last Week Begins

Between decorating for a wedding, standing behind a serving table dishing out chipatis (flat bread), getting stuck in a Kampala traffic jam after a five-hour church function, painting wall-sized murals in the Baby House classroom, spelunking through the most extraordinary market I've ever experienced and finding banana costumes quite unexpectedly... Wow. The first few days of my last week in Africa have been so full, I won't be able to document them all on one post, will I?

Let's start with the first items on that list...



(Please click "Read More" to continue)

Saturday 7 December 2013

Life in Africa

 
 


Reading Psalms, drinking tea and chatting on the roof
with Alyssa one last time
A feeling of change is coming over the flow of life here. With the end of the Bible School semester came the end of some key elements in the routine of my African life: things like sitting in world religions class, walking to morning prayer at the church, and going on adventures with the Albertan students.

They left for Canada a few days ago--but not before getting in a few last experiences such as riding a boda to Quality or eating jackfruit on the roof at sunrise! Before they left we had one last dinner together with them and some of our Ugandan friends. We had great fun introducing them to such activities as making s'mores with candles, eating Canadian food - like meatballs and cheese, and generally consuming large amounts of sugar.




Edith teaching me how to prepare a jackfruit
I bought on the way home from Bugono on Sunday


The little yellow things that look like
 suction cups on an octopus's tentacles
(or at least they look like that to ME) are
 what you eat, after removing a seed inside.














Now the Ugandan students are beginning to go home to their villages for the holidays one by one as well, but I'm enjoying spending as much time as possible with them in the meantime! One of the ways I've found to spend time with friends from the school is by making friendship bracelets around the lunch table after posho. (At least back before lunch stopped being served yesterday. That's one more thing missing from the way of life I've grown to love!)

I always have to grin at the fun on people's faces as they start weaving, and their triumph as they master a new pattern! They can use the bracelets as a way to remember their Canadian friend, as a skill to teach to others, or even as a source of extra income. Meanwhile, I enjoy hanging out with and learning from them as I'm able to sit there and ask all sorts of questions about Ugandan culture. It's a great set-up!



One of my best bracelet-making friends, Adella, let me in on a grand excursion into Kampala with another friend, Charity, on Friday. When we stepped off the taxi and onto the street, that same wonderful feeling of entering the living, breathing, urban cacophony sent a spark of adrenaline through my veins. Here I was again, squeezing between bumpers, ducking under taxi mirrors, side-stepping bodas...I don't think I'll ever get bored of navigating the maze with moving walls that makes up a Kampala street!


A slice of the view overlooking
the taxi park we walked through
Clothes shopping in Kampala: still an adventure!




















We ducked into the upper room of a restaurant, where we waited, weaving bracelets until Adella's family came to meet us. They bought us all lunch, prayed together with us, and exhibited such warmth that by the time we stepped back out onto the street my heart felt full and blessed for their friendship.

 
After saying goodbye to them, we continued walking through a beautiful part of town among huge new hotels, high-rises and government buildings. Adela showed me all the best little cafes to eat at, which made me wish I had a whole day to spend just restaurant hopping among all the tiny hidden gems in town. Continuing back towards the taxi park, we came into the busier part of the city to search for some clothing items. As we turned a corner and stepped onto the downtown street, the scene I saw spread before me just about knocked the wind out of me! There, stretching into the distance ahead of us, the road sloped down into an incredible sea of people. It filled the entire valley--just this pulsating mass of traffic and humanity and merchandise all tangled up together on the street; a billion different heads bobbing in a haze of dust, exhaust and light from the lowering sun. It was a breathtaking sight, and I was walking into it!




Wednesday 4 December 2013

Return to the Nile


“Four and ½ hours of sleep,” I thought, glancing at the green glow of my digital watch as we arose while the moon still hung above Kampala’s night-lit hills. Yet having come in from the Introduction Ceremony at midnight only a few hours before, and now getting up at 5:00 AM to head off to ministry for 6:00, I felt thankful for every snore I’d managed to breathe in between.

 
As we hiked downhill in time for an unfamiliar van to pull into the parking lot, I saw more on the horizon than the orange streaks of light which now stretched above us. I could see the edge of a new adventure dawning too.


















 
 
(To continue, please click "Read More.")

Monday 2 December 2013

The Introduction Ceremony: as Cultural as it Gets!


It was 5:00AM when two phone alarms vanquished the silence in our dorm room and thrust us into one of the most intriguingly African days I’ve experienced yet. What was on today’s agenda? Drive to a district beyond Jinja (where I spent 15 hours connected to an IV for malaria treatment, remember?) and participate in a traditional Ugandan introduction ceremony—the ceremony where a soon-to-be groom brings a dowry to the bride’s side of the family. Traditional costumes, music and dancing, mountains of food, and processions involving goats, cows and chickens are all part of the day’s package.

What role we were supposed to play in the event we had no idea, which is probably a good thing for me! If I had known beforehand what participation in such an occasion would entail I would have taken more pains to panic thoroughly enough ahead of time. But let me start at the beginning…
(To access the whole story, a good deal of cultural notes, and a pile of pictures,
please be sure to click "Read More.")