BANANGE!

Banange is an exclamation of surprise, similar to our use of “Oh my goodness!” or “Really?!” in Luganda.   So… Really? I haven’t blogged since when?! BANANGE!!

Well, I hope this post finds you well.  Since I’ve last chatted, I’ve been up to a lot here in sunny Uganda, including visiting quite a few NGOs (non-governmental organizations), such as: Noah’s Ark—an orphanage, Invisible Children (yes, the famous/ infamous creators of the Kony 2012 videos for those of you who are facebook savvy), and Amaziman Ministries (founded by the author of the book, Kisses from Katie).

Here’s a little run-down of my impressions/ experiences at these places.  I visited Noah’s Ark on International Women’s Day (March 8^th) because as a national holiday, hospice was running on ‘on-call’ capacity and only the most critical patients were seen so I wasn’t needed.  So, I went with some other students to Noah’s Ark since orphanages run full-time regardless of holidays!  It was so much fun for me because I spent most of my time there with the infants, and if you know me well, you know I’m a sucker for babies!  Seriously, I think my dream job would be holding and caring for babies!  So, I had a blessed and refreshing time there with some gorgeous and loving babies.

Later on, about a week later, I visited Invisible Children with some fellow social work majors.  We were able to speak with one of the mentors as well as a staff member from the finance office. At the office in Kampala where we were, they deal with coordination and logistics for the other sites in Uganda as well as overseeing the mentorship of the 255 university students sponsored by the organization. Those students are mostly from the north (areas most affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army-LRA) who had been living with financial difficulties and would be unable to afford tuition for university. We asked Robert, the mentor we were speaking with, about his interaction with the new Kony video that has had a lot of recent media attention. He gave his personal opinion, mostly, emphasizing that it is important to remember that Kony is still terrorizing places in Africa even though he has left Uganda and it is important to be reminded of this. There had been some controversy throughout the country here because the film traumatized people in the northern parts of Uganda. He agreed that it may have that affect but it is still important for those people to be able to talk about the trauma they experienced to initiate and improve healing. Furthermore, we talked about advocacy in Uganda and how we, as American college students, know more about the organization than most college students in Uganda. He agreed with that and said more could be done to advocate in Uganda but that there were more barriers to advocacy, especially technology. It was really helpful to talk to him to be able to process the complexity of the issue that had been so prevalent in the media around that time. For the sake of controversy, even though all the fuss has mostly died down by now, I’m not going to express any opinions about the video or this agency specifically. If you are interested in either supporting the organization and their work, I only ask that you ensure you are informed about the situation. Healing is still needed in Uganda for the terror enacted by the LRA.

The other NGO we visited was Amaziman Ministries, a ministry in near Jinja, about an hour away from us in Mukono. At the Saturday outreach that we visited, we interacted with a lot of the children who are sponsored by the ministry. They come for a worship service, lunch and fellowship with each other and the staff. The team of staff also visits schools and works to provide lunches and sponsorship for the children. I am always encouraged by the NGOs wherein most of the staff is Ugandan even when the founder/ director is not. In the case of this ministry, the community is obviously healthier and more productive than it had been before the ministry started, and the children were very lively and loving! Here are a few pics of their bright, shining faces =)

Other than visiting NGOs, we’ve been up to other fun things, too, such as seeing an Ndere Troupe Dance.  This is also kind of an NGO because it’s a group that works to preserve the arts of Uganda by training young people in traditional dance and then performing a few nights a week.  The fees they charge for the shows go to support lots of kiddos and pay their school fees. Below are a few pics! It was a fun night and a good bonding time for those of us that went =)

Another fun weekend was spent at Sesee Island!  About 10 of us left campus midmorning on a Friday night and travelled to Entebbe where we caught the once daily ferry to the island (about a 3 hour ferry trip!). We stayed at a rustic little camp run by a German couple and their great dane.  The island was beautiful and it was a very relaxing weekend (despite the not-so-restful 2 nights of ‘sleep’ in our little ‘dorm’ due to a few critters!).  The island was beautiful though and it was nice to get away from typical quiet weekends on campus.

I hope all is well, and I will be posting again soon as I search for ways to procrastinate on my end of semester assignments (senioritis is at its best right now!).

Be blessed,

Ruth

A beautiful family in a beautiful place

Hello family, friends and followers!

It’s been a while and I’m so thankful for your continued support. I pray this post finds you well and continually seeking God in your life. Please, please, please let me know how things are for you! I’m beginning to feel so disconnected from everyone back home… what’s been going on?!

Well, I figured you were all anxious for a post about my time in beautiful Kapchorwa where I spent ten days from February 17^th-26^th. I will start this by saying that I love mountains even more than I did before and I didn’t even think that was possible! The mountains here in Uganda are beautiful and the weather in the part of the country we were in (to the east, near Kenya) was gorgeous. A few nights I fell asleep to the sound of rain falling on our tin roof, and it was so peaceful!

My family was such a blessing. They are quite revolutionary for typical villagers as my host mom is a politician representing her district and serving the community with special attention to women’s issues. Even before she was elected she worked to empower women to be able to make a living to support themselves independently from their husbands so that if they were widowed, which is likely, they would be able to survive. In addition to being a supportive husband, my host dad is a farmer, which is quite typical in the village. He grows coffee, onions, and matooke and they raise chickens and cows as well. They are also very active in their church and are very involved in the community. They have 7 children, 1 in university, 2 who are away at boarding school, 3 little girls who live at home and go to primary school close by and an 8-month old son! They are quite the bustling family and we lived in very close proximity to most of both parents’ siblings.

Momma and baby Levi on our way to the waterfall!

So, I learned a lot from being in Kapchorwa for the week: how to carry water in a big, yellow jug on my head, how to peel matooke, how to sweep a dirt yard (no, this isn’t a joke), that when someone visits and you slaughter a chicken for them they must eat the chicken’s stomach (I learned that one by experience, and no, MY stomach did not agree!), that making plans in Kapchorwa is silly and meetings never start ‘on time’, how to drink lots of tea and soda, how to entertain baby Levi (with my camera, usually) and how to be a child again, because my family was very protective of me!!  It’s a good lesson to learn, though, and it’s such a blessing to let people love on and take care of you =)

Matooke peeling station

Runaway hen and chicks!

Fanta, the universal way to be hospitable =)

After we were picked up on Friday, the 24^th, we were reunited with the rest of the group and we had a debrief session that evening, went on a hike to see the waterfalls on Saturday (I saw 2 out of 3 of them, they were beautiful), and on Sunday we had a worship service together before heading back to Mukono.

Reunited with beautiful friends in a beautiful place!

Waterfall beauty

In other news, it finally rained here in Mukono while we were gone and it has been TONS cooler ever since and it rains every few days which keeps it a lot cooler. There’s lots of other news to share including the fact that the internet has been very unstable for a few weeks and I have been very busy! I’ll post again soon with more about the past few weeks and the next five weeks here at UCU (time is flying by!)!

Be blessed,

Ruth

"But I trust in your unfailing love"

Hello Again!

Just a quick update… the past 2 weeks have been busy!  I’ve been adjusting back into life on campus, going to hospice 3 days a week, attending my 2 am class at Messiah once a week, eating lots of rice and beans, and just overall enjoying the company of the people I’m surrounded by!

God has truly been blessing me through the gift of the people here.  We are a family and the relationships I’m building are enriching my life in ways I didn’t know were imaginable!  God truly is faithful.  One of my favorite psalms that I’ve been reminded of recently is Psalm 13.  At the beginning, the psalmist is questioning God about how long the suffering would last and begging and pleading with God for an end to the spiritually ‘dry’ period.  But, in verse 5-6, it says, “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me.”  So, amidst the suffering and questions, the fullness of God’s love is realized, his salvation rejoiced in!  While I’m sure adjusting to a new culture and dealing with the unfamiliar is not even comparable to the struggles that the psalmist was going through, I am definitely dealing with questions… questions about my life, questions about the world, questions about God.  But, at the end of the day, all I can say is, “But I trust in your unfailing love.”  And the most powerful testimony to God’s unfailing love is the people he has placed around me to support me when I am far, far away from my regular support system!

As I sit and reflect on the past few weeks, I am excited for the future!  We are preparing to leave in just a few hours for Kapchorwa, Uganda which is in the eastern part of the country.  There we will be living in villages with host families for a week and then spending next weekend (the 24^th-26^th) on a debrief retreat together at Sipi Falls (don’t quote me on the spelling).  I am looking forward to the break from campus life and to the beauty and simplicity of a different way of life.  The only electronic item I’m bringing (aside from my cell phone for emergencies) is my camera, so I hope to share another corner of beautiful creation with you via some pictures when we get back!

I am so thankful for your prayers and continued support, I would love to hear about how you’re doing and what God is teaching you so feel free to comment or e-mail me! I’ll post again sometime after February 26^th… I believe according to my schedule that I owe you a post on birds (I know it sounds strange, but the birds here are pretty awesome)!

Be blessed my friends =)

Ruth

Hospice Africa Uganda among other things

Hello again faithful readers!

So this weekend I went to Jinja, a town on the shore of Lake Victoria, and the town is located right at the source of the NILE! It was beautiful and I had both a relaxing and exciting weekend with the other students… it was a great time to get to know everyone better and have some time away from campus!

Nile river

View from the bus on our way to the camp where we stayed

One of the monkey friends at our camp that jumped on our metal roof all night! At least they're cute, right? ;)

So that was one exciting weekend, and don't worry, I took a billion photos of the monkeys, not just one! Anyway, as you have all been anticipating (maybe?), the rest of this post is about my field placement at Hospice Africa Uganda. So, we’ll begin with a little introduction to hospice. Hospice is holistic care for those suffering from long-term illnesses. Hospice Africa Uganda generally serves those with cancer and provides palliative care for patients with AIDS; however, AIDS patients are generally in and out of care often as they tend to improve and then worsen as the cycle of AIDS goes. Some patients even have both AIDS and cancer. Generally, when I thought of hospice before working with the agency, I assumed that all patients would be near-death. However, many are stable but in need of pain and symptom management. Pain can be multi-faceted, and stems from physical pain to psychological, social,  or spiritual pain, so a part of hospice’s focus is on meeting the range of needs and relieving other types of pain, which is what makes their care holistic.

With that intro in mind, I have yet to have experienced a ‘typical day’ in hospice… this is Africa, of course! I typically leave campus around 7am, arrive at Hospice around 8:30, spend the day there or on home visits or doing other things, and leave between 4 and 5 and I’m back before 7! They’re long days, but I can only go 3 days per week due to my faith and action class. So while there, I generally see patients with a nurse or doctor and sometimes the social worker as well. Patients are seen in three ways: home visits for more critical patients, at the clinic, or at outreaches where many patients come to receive care and have their meds refilled. There is also a ‘day-care’ on Tuesdays at the clinic which patients are referred to if they have a higher level of social need. There patients can interact with each other and carers are given a break for time to themselves. I have been a part of the day care the past few weeks simply by interacting with patients and chatting with those that speak English (or using a volunteer as an interpreter for those that don’t!). I also have a few patients on my case load that I am working to find resources for or that have been counseled by others and need follow-up on the situations they were counseled on (ie, family matters, money concerns, etc.)… overall, though, my job is LEARNER! There’s so much to take in and understand about the illnesses and conditions of patients, family structures in Uganda, poverty, the role of social workers, the role of NGO’s, etc… and I’m doing my best to take it all in!

I’m also hoping to get involved with an advocacy project or fundraising project. Patients are not required to pay for services or meds, but are given the opportunity if they can afford it. Therefore, everything at hospice is supported by donors and there are Hospice Africa sites in the UK, Ireland and the USA that help with funding. Hospice was started by a woman from the UK in 1993… I’m currently reading her book so I’ll be able to tell you even more about her, her vision, and hospice in general once I’ve finished it!

On a somewhat unrelated note, lately, there’s been a ton running through my head about my future, as in what I’ll be doing the next few years (or at least just the next year!) as I prepare to graduate in May. God is teaching me so many things about people and the world and I’m doing my best to keep my mind and heart open. I ask that you pray with me as I also pray about and make decisions for the future!

Sorry this is a long post, but I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your support and interest in me! I would love to hear from you, too! Also, feel free to ask me more questions about Uganda and what I’m doing here if you have them, and please let me know if I can pray for you for anything =)

Be blessed =)

Ruth

Home stays have come and gone!

I interrupt my own list of anticipated post topics to bring you a host family post!

So, last Saturday morning (21 January), terrified and excited, we loaded into vans with a backpack, a sleeping bag, a mosquito net, and a plastic jug of about 10L of water to head to our host families’ homes for the next 2 weeks. We had been prepped on how we may need to take splash baths and use latrines outside, live without electricity, share a room with multiple people and eat lots of matoke. In just a few minutes, there I stood in front of a huge house with a few smiling faces to greet me and carry my stuff in. The family I’m with is so gracious and kind and honestly very American! They’ve travelled to America before for business affairs and they have family in Boston (I’ve never even been to Boston!). Both of my host parents work in the medical field for NGO’s at a hospital in Kampala, so they have about an hour commute everyday. In addition, the children all go to school in Kampala, they are 10, 8 and 5 (the older 2 are girls, youngest is a boy!). They are adorable, speak more polite English than I, and just finished their last week of holiday so they have been in relax mode until this week when they went back and switched into busy mode!

The first week with them was great, after I got home in the evenings I would hang out with the kids, either watching tv or playing, and then we usually ate dinner around 9:30 or 10, which is pretty common for Ugandans. This past weekend was a lot of fun too, we did some chores but mostly hung out, played with clay, made paper beads (see pic below) and hung out with family. Then this week got very busy as they went back to school. They leave at about 6 am, so they were leaving as I woke up! And everyone got home around 7 pm, including me. They have a maid who does the cooking and cleaning, and my host mother’s cousin, in her last year of high school, also lives with them to help with chores and with looking after the kiddos.

Paper beads!! Not finished though, they need to be dipped in varnish, but we didn't have any.

Angel! Age 10 =)

Jed, Age 5 (note the missing teeth, haha)

Bella, Age 8.... all 3 love to smile!

So, it’s a busy and lively household and I learned to make some fun food, play new card games, and I drank lots of tea! I’m excited to have a family close by to visit throughout the rest of my time here. Being in a home is definitely relaxing, God always provides us with what we need, and I was definitely in need of a family connection. I had been very worried about the experience before I met the family but I was quickly put at ease and I already miss them now that I’m back on campus!

This weekend I’ll be doing very fun things in Jinja that I will tell you all about on Monday, in addition to a post about my internship sometime this coming week as well! It’s bedtime here in Africa, so peace out dear friends!

Be blessed,

Ruth

Classes and such at UCU

Hey team!

I know this post is RIGHT after the previous one, but we are leaving campus for the weekend to move in with the host families we will live with for the next 2 weeks so I won’t be using my computer or the internet again until Monday when I come to campus for class. I've been typing up posts whenever I have the chance so I can include you in all the crzainess going on here!

So, I'll fill you in on classes here. As most of you know the main purpose of my semester in Uganda is my 450-hour senior field placement for social work, which accounts for 12 credits for the semester. I’m also taking a 3 credit seminar class at Messiah. So, on Wednesday nights (or, more accurately, Thursday mornings) I will be entering a digital classroom and participating in the seminar class real time with my classmates in PA via this lovely invention called the internet. The class is from 6-9 pm EST, so it’s from 2-5 am Uganda time! Praise the Lord for instant coffee and electric kettles =) So, I’ve already started my placement at Hospice Africa Uganda, which you will hear more about in another post, and the seminar class will start this week… prayers for alertness on Thursdays are appreciated! Also, every other Friday, the junior and senior level social work students meet with the MSW social worker on staff with USP for supervision time and to share what we're all experiencing in our placement.

In addition, all Uganda Studies Program students, regardless of emphasis (I am social work emphasis) must take a course called Faith and Action in the Ugandan Context here on UCU's campus (Uganda Christian University). For this 4-credit class, we are studying some things in the classroom setting such as Christianity and Culture and Christian Responses to Poverty, but most of the class is experiential. These experiences include living on campus with Ugandans, home stays with Ugandans, travel to other places in Uganda and Rwanda, etc. So, it ties in what we are experiencing with some readings and a lot of discussions as a class and as smaller groups. So far I've really enjoyed the class but it requires a lot of time outside of class reading so it gets stressful sometimes! There are also a few writing assignments later in the semester that will help to tie it all together. This class meets on Mondays and Fridays, which limits the amount of time I go to my placement, but you'll hear all about that soon!

Have a good weekend friends! As I mentioned in the last post I am going to meet my host family soon... prayers appreciated and more updates to come!

Ruth

p.s. sorry there are no pictures! Enjoy the ones from the previous post =)

Ins and outs of daily life in Uganda

Well hello again!

So, it’s been a really long week, as weeks tend to be these days. I’ve had a few emotional ups and downs, I seem to have forgotten how exhausting and taxing adjustments can be! So, a lot of the adjusting that has to happen in a new country is simple stuff that has nothing to do with the people or the culture, but just pertains to daily life, the topic of this post as promised =)

To begin, I’m staying in a dorm room with 3 other people. The rooms are significantly smaller than American dorm rooms. There are 2 sets of bunk beds, 2 wardrobes (each with 2 shelves at the bottom), 4 cubes/shelves on the walls (2 on each side of the room) and 2 desks. Oddly, a partial wall divides the room, making it feel like 2 SUPER small rooms. Despite the tight, close quarters, I love my roommates  =) They are fellow USP (Uganda Studies Program)ers from various universities in the states and we are bonding quickly in this itty-bitty room!

<><>

<> 

So, the red and green basins are leaning on the half wall, and the wardrobe for our side is at the foot of our bunk bed. Then, the other side of the room mirrors this one. I sleep on the bottom bunk =)

Beautiful roommies! Making me laugh, per usual =)

The rest of our floor is Ugandan students, some of whom have become good friends to us already =) There are other USP girls on other floors of our building, one guy in the men’s dorm rooming with Ugandans, and then about 25 students living with host families in the nearby town of Mukono. Next week, all of us on campus will be living with host families too, but only for 2 weeks instead of all semester. We have hall bathrooms in the dorms equipped with cold showers! These showers are welcome after a hot day, so I’ve quickly changed my morning shower habits into evening ones since it’s usually pretty chilly in the morning! Some girls have electric kettles in their rooms and they heat water and then carry it in a basin to the bathrooms and take warm splash baths… ingenious! We bought a kettle for our room, so maybe one of these days I’ll try it out. For now we’ll keep using our kettle for instant coffee!!

That brings me to food. The dining hall is close by on campus and it is like a huge pavilion filled with picnic-style tables. It’s so nice to eat out in the open =) and in the morning we’re usually joined by happy chirping birds, but I’ll get to them in another post!

Afternoon teatime with some friends =) (it's always teatime in Africa!) And, this is just a small portion of the huge hall, but you get the general idea.

As for meals, breakfast consists of bread and hot milk or hot tea, with an occasional hard-boiled egg (I think Tuesday is egg day). Lunches and dinners are usually rice or matoke or posha with beans or peas or g-nut sauce and some kind of cabbage or greens and either sweet or irish (regular) potatoes… aka, A LOT of food, especially starches! So, matoke is made from boiling a fruit that is like a banana but before it is ripened and then they’re mashed. The texture is similar to mashed potatoes but the flavor is a little more unique! Posha is made from corn meal and kind of looks like cornbread but the texture isn’t like bread at all and it doesn’t have much flavor. Rice, matoke and posha are the main staples in Uganda. O, and g-nut sauce is made from ground nuts (same as peanuts!) that are somehow cooked into a yummy sauce that’s really good with rice. There’s also occasionally some beef or pork with lunch or dinner, and sometimes there’s pineapple! I enjoy the food, but it gets monotonous sometimes and I feel a bit depleted of nutrients. I have ventured into town to buy more fruit and veggies which helps to supplement the meals a lot. Also, we’ve discovered rolex, a street food made from chopati (kinda like a flour tortilla) wrapped around an omelet, and it costs less than $1 and is super filling! So sometimes we opt out of dining hall meals =) I’m interested to see what kind of food we’ll get at host stays next week!

Mmmmm... fresh pineapple!

The last daily life thing to tell you all about is laundry =) So, there’s a fenced in area near our building where there are about a dozen clothes lines and 3 or 4 spigots. There, on a typical morning you find lots of people scrubbing away at their clothes and hanging them on the lines! Last week one of my Ugandan friends helped me learn the laundry process… you have to wash twice and then rinse twice (so it takes about 4 wash basins) It’s about a 2 hour event depending on the amount of clothes you wash. Drying takes a good part of the day, but the sun is pretty hot so its quicker than you might expect. It was definitely an experience and it makes me put off laundry even more than I would in America because it’s so time consuming. However, I do love being able to be outside for all of these activities, eating, laundry, etc. because we can hear all the noisy birds… and, wait for it… monkeys, while we scrub away our frustrations with the red dirt that stains our clothes!

Sorry it's dark, but this is the washing area... where I spent about 2+ hours yesterday, but now I have clean clothes!

That's all for now, but over the next few posts I’ll tell you about the other things that have been filling my time such as my classes I'm taking and my placement, because I’m sure you’re all wondering what on earth I do all day!

Thanks for reading and have a lovely weekend =) I’m meeting my host family in a few hours (I’m super nervous!) so sometime next week I’ll fill you in on home life!

Be blessed,

Ruth