Life in Uganda

Matoke (mah-toke-eh). “The food of the heaven.” And dinner and lunch every day. Its basically green bananas (unripe kindof but I think they are different somehow) mashed up and cooked for a long time. It’s yellow/brown and mushy. Weird flavor, but I have discovered that it’s WAY more tolerable with some kind of sauce on it. The ground nut sauce is one of the best…its purple and grainy. The food here really is good though, I’m thankful that I haven’t really had any problems finding things I can eat. My family is super good about my wheat allergy which I am so so grateful for. For dinner every night we usually have rice, cabbage, Irish potatoes, matoke, and some kind of meat in stew-like sauce. Thankfully Ugandans like their food cooked well, so we don’t have to worry about health stuff really. We have lots of tea…which can be black or mimick (evaporated milk we think...which I am officially afraid of because sometimes its really clumpy and scary!). This morning for breakfast we had tea, scrambled eggs, and popcorn.

We have lunch at school – which is rice, beans, matoke, and posha (corn flour and water – made into a sponge-like flavorless cake). Its good, but the nutritionist inside me is hurting for some fruits and veggies. Also, breakfast is small, and dinner isn’t until 9 or 10 at night…so somehow they get all their calories from two meals. And yes, I am hungry ALL the time. But adjusting slowly.

Every thing takes more effort here. Thus, I find myself pretty exhausted at the end of each day. Its funny when my sisters notice we are tired. They say, “You look tired. You may rest for some minutes.” So nice.

Everyone walks slowly. Which is nice, actually. Makes you sweat less since it’s so hot here. Oh and they walk on the opposite side...and drive on the opposite side...still do a double take everytime I see a car with noone in the "driver's seat". Haha...I'm such an American.

People are way dressed up for school rather than casual sweatshirts and sweats - which I actually really like. Though I do feel bad for the guys all wearing dress shoes, slacks, and long sleeved dress shirts. Bummer...

Ugandans also seem to be much blunter than we are in America. It’s a compliment to be told you are looking fat and my host sister yesterday told me she wanted my big hips! :)

We learned that our mother is at school all week – she is at nursing school in Kamplala and they can’t afford to get her home during the week. She will be back Friday night. Its sad she's gone but nice because the kids are much more open with us when their parents aren't around.

Classes are quite the rude awakening. I’m feeling right now like it’s so unfair to expect us to be able to sit and read and do assignments when we are still trying to figure out the things of daily life like using the squatty potty and bathing. But, alas, we are here for school. Just another thing that will take some adjusting to.

Quote from my daily devotional that just fit so well with what’s been going down here:

“He removes from my life everything that would make me earthbound, self-dependent, or experience-centered.”

I’m looking forward to waking up in the morning looking forward to God’s call and plan for the day rather than dreading the long process of getting ready in the morning. Not dreading really…I don’t know. The sunrise was beautiful this morning...red and magnificent as I was bathing…which was refreshing.

We are making some headway with our family. Some neighborhood girls came over last night and we had fun sitting out on the porch with them playing cards and taking pictures. Uganda won the football game last night against Kenya! Very exciting! We have asked the Reverend a good amount of questions and last night after dinner he even asked us if we had any questions from the day so we sat and chatted a while.

Musumba’s one rule for the house is this: you must pray before going to bed. We usually pray as a family after dinner, but he said if we don’t, we need to do it ourselves. So cool. The first night he prayed for us, and for our families back home...I almost cried. So heartfelt and compassionate.

The USP students are really cool – I’m looking forward to getting to know them better. Already had some quality conversations about stuff. Please keep us all in your prayers as we adjust to life in Uganda…