The Beauty of Kobwin, Part 3

I should have added to the end of my last post that the family parents of the first family group are going to be coming to Kasana (our main center, where I live) for the Institute of Childcare and Family from January to May of next year. We will be classmates since I am also taking the Institute during that time. Now that I know them a bit, I am eagerly looking forward to this upcoming opportunity to grow in relationship with them!!  :)

Monday morning marked the beginning of our last full day in Kobwin, at least for this trip. The manager had announced at church that the students needed to come to the school at 7:30 on Monday morning to do a project with me. Unfortunately, not all of the day students were at church….so we mostly just had the students who live on site.

But other than that it went pretty well. It took a lot longer than we were expecting (three hours), partly because the students were having so much fun coloring and drawing after they had done the writing bit! Also because students didn’t all come right at 7:30, they kind of trickled in over the first couple hours. Thankfully we had enough papers and colored pencils to keep everyone occupied!

I had simply written a couple basic examples. Other than telling the children to put their name, age, class, prayer requests, and signature, I really didn’t give much instruction. Later that week, as I read through the kids’ requests, I was mostly impressed. Sure, I chuckled at a couple (“I want to be the next Obama”), but there were also some that showed the students’ positive character (“Please pray that I would have a forgiving heart”). There were also some that included bits of Spanish, since we recently had our first ever team from Mexico and they spent most of their trip at Kobwin.

Once the last student had finished, Constance took me on a tour of the property there. She was taking some pictures of the community outside for comparison. It was interesting to see a few houses and learn a bit more about Ugandan culture in that area. For example, there are lots of large gray rocks in that area, and the people there use them to dry potatoes and things like that as a method of preserving food.

{Side note – since Kobwin is in a different part of the country, the people are mostly of a different tribe and thus speak a different language. I kept wanting to use my small bits of Luganda, and then remembering that the people there may not understand it because they speak Ateso instead (or sometimes also)!}

By then it was only 11 or so, but already so so hot that we gave up on our walk, even though we had only gone part of the way around the property. That was one of the unfortunate parts about Kobwin….it is much hotter there than at Kasana, so activity becomes much less enticing pretty early in the day.

{Kasana will be warmer these next couple months than it has been, though, because we’re now entering one of the dry seasons. I got back towards the beginning of the rainy season, and there have been a few times where it has felt down right cold here at Kasana! But really that means it was “only” 60 degrees or so…..}

Later that afternoon I went and did a quick email check for the first time in five days, then played a couple games with some of the kids. First we tried doing dominoes, but we only had a double sixes set and we had about eight players. So it didn’t work too well. Then we played cards for a while, until a football {soccer} game started and most of the students wanted to join that {when thinking about Kobwin, it doesn’t seem right to call them “kids” or “children,” because so many of them are in their late teens or early twenties! So I end up calling them “students” instead, even in non-school contexts.}

My three young friends from Friday then wanted to take me up on top of the rocks right behind Constance’s house. A couple of the youngest staff kids decided to tag along, and my guides didn’t want them to come, saying “they’re going to cry!” I had been up on the rocks just a bit on Saturday, and so knew to watch out for 1) thorns and 2) cow paddies. But I was looking forward to being led up to the top, since I had just kind of wandered around. I figured I could help the little ones if needed.

Well, the wind started picking up…..sure sign of a storm blowing in. We tried to go up the way the boys knew, but the two youngest ones were scared…it involved climbing up onto one rock and then immediately scooting through a narrow space from another rock on top in order to get higher. I couldn’t quite figure out how to get up the rock, even though I was definitely the tallest in the group. {Wearing a skirt and flip flops is a convenient excuse, right?} The little girl proceeded to cry a bit, so I called everybody back and helped the little ones down.

We tried going up another way, but it was too overgrown to really get onto the top. The littlest boy cried somewhere along there too, so the guide’s prediction proved correct! We had seen that the sky was getting dark, though, and when we started feeling a few raindrops I said that we had to get down before it poured on us. So down we went, none the worse for the little adventure.

The storm took longer to really come in than I thought it would, but my word, it really did POUR when it came! So the temperature was quite a bit cooler in the evening than it had been in the late morning. There were a couple girls in Constance’s house when I got back, so we shut the windows (to keep the rain coming in) and then used solar battery lanterns (because there’s no power there) to see enough to play cards (since we couldn’t hear one another talk because of the rain pounding on the roof!). It was a fun day :)

Then that evening, we three muzungus (Lugandan term for white foreigners) went to the second family group for devotions and dinner. And this family mother fed us a small feast! She makes me chuckle even as I think back about it – she is definitely the mothering type!! She kept urging us “You eat! Be free! Drink your tea!” And she insisted on sending me away with some homemade peanut butter, the best I’ve ever had!

Both of the sets of family parents were just so welcoming and so ready to open their homes, hearts, and families to include us. It was a special time getting to know some of the special members of our extended spiritual family!!! They accepted me and loved me and encouraged me, even in a short few days. I was definitely blessed, and I look forward to seeing them again whether here at Kasana or on future trips to Kobwin!

The next day we left Kobwin by 6 a.m., and in Kampala I bid farewell to Constance and the others and headed to the mall to print pictures, then on to public to go home on my own. It all worked out, thankfully, and I was back home to Kasana by about 7 that evening. {Constance needed to take a young boy to Entebbe--south of Kampala--for a surgery. Keep him in your prayers, please! He has now had a second surgery, and is in a cast for a while.}

The Food of Uganda!

Guess what? I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while but have been putting it off…now that I’m fixing to leave in just a few days, I reckon I better get it written….or it may never happen!

So here goes: a post about the typical Ugandan food I have experienced.

The Institute kitchen staff has done a marvelous job of feeding us, especially considering that they’re trying to provide for people from at least two primary cultures…and actually even more than that because of the several cultures represented within Uganda!

Breakfast

Some things that would be typical in America too – oatmeal, bread/toast (the latter when the power’s on!), scrambled or hard-boiled eggs, bananas (see below). Occasional treats are “baked oatmeal” (more like an oatmeal bread) and banana bread.

We also sometimes have sausages (that don’t taste like American sausages) or fried salami. But there are also a couple things that are not American: rice porridge and (a couple times) millet porridge, and a high importance of having tea made from hot milk. The kids who live here eat maize porridge for breakfast, and it’s just made of the same type of cornmeal that is used in posho (see below).

Lunch

Our meals—especially lunches—have followed a pretty regular menu, so that’s the easiest way for me to think of everything I’ve had. Every lunch/dinner also includes some sort of vegetable (usually cooked or raw cabbage, avocados/guacamole, or sometimes eggplant) and a fruit (pineapple, mango, papaya, watermelon, or some combination of the above. Passion fruit once or twice, I think).

The soup/sauce is always served over the carbohydrate. And all the food is hot, which combined with the warm temperatures can sometimes make simply eating a meal cause one to sweat!

Monday lunch: Steamed rice, posho, beans.

Tuesday lunch: Sweet potatoes/yams and lentil soup. (Second favorite J)

Wednesday lunch: Steamed rice, matoke, g-nut sauce, vegetable soup with beef.

Thursday lunch: Chapatis, rice/boiled Irish, beans. (Personal favorite!)

Friday lunch: Steamed rice/posho/spaghetti (two of the three), lentil soup.

So…a lot of those are probably new foods that you’re scratching your head at…….here’s my attempt at an explanation of each J

Posho is a staple here (the kids who live at Kasana eat posho and beans at both lunch and dinner every day). It is made from ground maize (like cornmeal—but white instead of yellow like sweet corn), mixed with water, and cooked so that it’s a very stiff—well, I was going to say mush…but the consistency is not anything like mush. There’s not really anything good to compare it to….  {A month later and I finally figured it out: the closest thing here to posho is really thick grits.}

The sweet potatoes and yams here are not much like American sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes here are white, though the shape is longer and skinnier rather than round. I enjoy the taste and texture of those ones. The yams (if I have this right) are white with purple streaks. They are a much starchier texture and don’t have a whole lot of taste. I don’t prefer those ones…

All of the soups listed above (minus the g-nut one) include carrots/bell papers/onion and sometimes tomatoes, zucchini or eggplant.

Matooke is a special kind of bananas (most like plantains) boiled in a very particular way, then mashed, I assume…because it kind of has the consistency of mashed potatoes—though more sticky.

Here’s a good place to briefly mention the types of bananas here. They have at least four types, possibly more! And I don’t remember all the local names for them, so I apologize. My favorite are the small sweet bananas that we usually have at breakfast (maybe called finger bananas or something like that in the States?). Then there are what I consider “regular bananas” – but I’ve been told they’re still different than typical American bananas. Matooke bananas are the third. The fourth type is a pink-ish banana that they’ve served us a couple times at lunch. Steamed in the peel, they are sweet & pretty yummy in small quantities!

G-nut sauce is kind of made from peanut butter (peanuts here are referred to as g-nuts). But it’s somehow watered down so that it’s a runny, protein-packed sauce. Served over the matooke, but it’s good over rice too.

Early on they also served us yummy pumpkin squash as one of the staples on a weekly basis. I really liked it….but evidently others didn’t like it enough because they quit serving it L

Chapatis are basically a really super thick flour tortilla, including shredded carrot and onion mixed in the dough. More like a half-way point between tortillas and flatbread, if that makes sense. So whenever we have them it’s almost like a Mexican meal!

Boiled Irish is simply boiled potatoes. But what are considered “regular” potatoes in America are called Irish here!

The lentil soup is yummy. It reminds me of my mom’s split pea soup, except for it’s made with orange lentils rather than green and is less runny.

Dinner

The evening/weekend meals can sometimes tend to be a bit more Western. We still nearly always have a carb and some sort of sauce to go over it, as well as the vegetables/fruits listed above. Some of the regulars are spaghetti and ground beef/tomato sauce, rice and chicken soup (big pieces of boiled chicken + veggies & broth), fried rice (with lots of yummy veggies and chicken or scrambled eggs), and a repeat of the Thursday lunch (YAY!).

We’ve also had things like pasta salad, and a couple of times have been treated to an {iceberg} lettuce side salad! I’m always pretty excited about the latter – I’ve really missed a good robust green salad here. It’s going to be my first meal when I get back to the States…that and ice cream! ;)

Miscellaneous

The sweet things are pretty much restricted to breakfast (we go through a jar of Nutella in a day or maybe two, and people add sugar to both porridge and tea!), fruit, and birthday cakes….so no regular dessert here! Thus I have gotten into the habit of maintaining a chocolate stash to occasionally satisfy my sweet tooth. Oh, and the ice cream here tends to be more like either frozen cool whip (fake dairy) or slushy/snow cone-ish (more like sherbet rather than being creamy).

Thankfully they have soda (soft drinks) here. The first week I was really craving one, even though I’m not a habitual drinker of them back home. I think that was probably my sweet tooth talking, and my desire to have something cold in the heat! So yeah – Coke, Pepsi, Mt. Dew, and Fanta are all available here. A unique one is “Krest” that is basically a fizzy lemonade that’s bitter instead of sweet. They also have this amazing one called “Stoney” (think a really strong ginger ale). Hmm…I’ll have to try to smuggle one or two home so my family can taste it!

I haven’t had traditional snacks here as much….but I do know a few. Mendazis (no idea if I spelled that right…) are a little bit like donuts—more dense but just as fried and unhealthy! The taste reminds me of funnel cake. They also have things like popcorn (which I haven’t gotten to enjoy nearly as often as I wish!) and they eat g-nuts plain too. Since the British are the ones who colonized here, “biscuits” (think a type of crispy cookie that are only lightly sweetened) are widely available. They also eat sim sim (sesame seeds) by themselves and a snack that looks like (but doesn’t taste like) sesame sticks. Jackfruit and mangoes are also common snacks in the family groups. Jackfruit...I don't know what to compare it to. The taste reminds me of dried bananas. I need to take a picture of it.....

Street food is the Ugandan version of fast food (I don’t think McDonalds has reached here yet…..). Chapatis are common street food, as are mendazis (I think) and an empanada-type food filled with chick peas. Chips (steak-cut French fries for you Americans), fried eggs, rotisserie chicken with cooked cabbage, roasted maize, and pineapple by the fourth and with the stem still on are also available. There are also “Rolexes” – chapatis with a fried egg and sliced tomato rolled up inside!

So yeah….I think that about covers it! Hope you enjoyed this “tour”/cultural lesson J

Spring Break Edition of YKYLiCUW

A continuation of the previous post, specifically about this past weekend's adventures!

~~The rainy weather makes puddles in the capital's street that are a deep orange color.

~~You are not a fan of taxi parks. Especially when, as in this case, it's just hundreds of taxi vans parked closely together and bumper to bumper....there's barely space to walk between! Plus the continuing rain doesn't help.

~~A couple boxes of chicks and at least one rooster accompany you on the boat ride.

~~Said boat ride takes nearly four hours!

~~You are annoyed by said rain, (and very thankful that the boat has a tarp over it!) until the sun begins to break through the clouds and you get to see a rainbow!!!

~~A short drive from the island jetty brings you to the small beach hotel where you will spend the night.

~~You eat dinner and go to bed listening to the crash of the waves on the lake shore.

~~But before you go to bed, you take your first running water shower in 10 weeks!! And with hot water too!! You’re surprised at how much water you get in your eyes….but maybe that was just from this particular shower head.

~~Trying to figure out a bathroom door that doesn’t want to stay shut, how to make a round mosquito net work with a four-postered bed, and overly-squishy pillows make you miss your banda bed back “home.”

~~You awake to take a long birding walk along the shore, and love every moment.

~~A few steps away from the sandy beach, and you find yourself in thick trees.

~~You sit on a bench swing back at the hotel’s beach doing nothing except listening to the waves, watching the birds, and thinking about how you could do this always…..but life doesn’t work like that… :/

~~One of the hotel staff comes and talks to you for a while, and you learn more about Ugandan culture. Including the fact that this gal thought she would never be of a high enough “level” to have a conversation with a muzungu….

~~There’s a super playful (half-grown) puppy running around the grounds that you quickly nickname “Floppy” because of his over-sized ears ;-)

~~As you eat lunch, you watch a large-ish lizard (I think he must have been nearly two feet, including the tail!) eat his lunch….I think a dragon fly?...on a nearby walkway.

~~You take tons of photos and videos……mostly of birds, I must admit ;)

~~You’re fixing to go sit on another bench to journal, when you suddenly see a monkey! And later, you realize there is a whole troop of monkeys in the woods very nearby…..probably close to a dozen!

~~As you watch the monkeys groom one another and pick food off the trees, it seems so very familiar. You’ve seen it before….in nature movies. Then you remember that this isn’t a nature movie, that you’re standing there watching live, wild monkeys in person. Wow!

~~You try to use the Internet to just check email and Facebook (yes, I’m an addict….) but it’s too slow and you give up.

~~You eat fish for dinner….fish that in the morning had been swimming around in the lake! Thanks to the fishing skills of the young couple who knew about this beautiful island and let you tag along.

~~The next morning, you get a bike and enjoy a long ride….pushing it up the hill, riding through the town, and out to a secluded spot overlooking part of the island coast. You’re thankful to be wearing capris for all that rather than a skirt!

~~During your ride, everyone from little kids to older folks is excited to see you. The little kids yell “hi!” and “bye!” and it seems to make their day when you say hi back. And the older ones holler “muzungu, what are you doing??” or “where are you going?”….to which you don’t answer, because the one is obvious and the other you don’t know for sure…

~~You spend the next three hours sitting in one place, meditating on God’s Word and worshipping Him. It is a beautiful time, and reminds you of times you’ve done the same in other places around the world. You are thankful that God is the same always and everywhere!!! (for more on this, check out the post on my other blog)

~~When you ride back down the steep hill you came up, you don’t pedal from the time you leave the town to the time you’re on the hotel road. Instead, you’re squeezing the brakes almost non-stop. You’re thankful they’re in good working condition!!!

~~You enjoy playing games with the folks you came with, and wading in the lake, and just relaxing and recharging J

~~A couple times, African guys come over and try to strike up a conversation. You’re not interested, so you keep responses short.

~~You hope to take another last hot shower……..but the hot water does not come out. After dinner you try again, take half of a cold shower and then the hot water comes!

~~Your room’s trash can displays the results of your “drinking addiction” – it is FULL of WATER bottles! ;-) Since tap water is not safe to drink, you must buy bottled water from the hotel restaurant. Every time you go you ask for at least one bottle….sometimes three…..

~~You wake up at 2 a.m. from a dream of going for a walk with one of your best college friends, wishing that you really could. You listen to the rain that is pouring down, and go back to sleep…..to have a very odd dream, probably thanks to the malaria med side effects :P

~~Morning comes, and with it the end of your time on the beautiful island. You hope you’ll be back.

~~The boat ride back is super choppy. You grab the bench in front of you and close your eyes often for the middle hour of the ride. Thankfully the motion sickness doesn’t fully make its way to the point of nausea.

~~You distract yourself by watching the antics of the full-grown chickens trying to escape the handmade rough, wooden crates they’re being transported in.

~~A little over three hours later, you’re very glad to be back on solid ground.

~~Another three hours later, you arrive back at your banda. One of the Institute girls has just gotten back from her school day and greets you with an excited “Auntie!!!” and an enthusiastic hug.

~~Everyone is glad to see you again, and after dinner the wee two-year-old is begging for a piggy back ride, as always. It’s good to be home J

You Know You’re Living in Central Uganda When…..

I’ll probably add to this as I go, but here are some fun tidbits about life here :) The bottom few are from a status I posted on Facebook nearly a month ago. All of these are from my personal experience, and are not meant to make any blanket statement about Ugandan/African culture. I’ll try to be sure these are fair & balanced ;-)

~~You’ve gone through a can of DOOM in each of the two months you’ve been here. The first was mostly on roaches, this second has been mostly on ants…..
~~You get to hear it easily when your neighbors are singing praise & worship in the evening—and be encouraged by it!
~~Seeing lizards of at least four different types is a nearly daily occurrence! And tons of new bird species, all beautiful :D And bats, sometimes even during the daytime.
~~You witness thousands of ants “migrating” (at least moving houses), and notice how many different sizes & types there are! {I got a video of it – I’ll have to try to post it so y’all can see. Pretty fascinating, but I’m kind of scared I’m going to dream of ants tonight….}
~~Rain suddenly becomes a whole lot more important than it ever did in the States! {See this blog post by the family I’m here with. I’ve got one rolling around in my head too, but it has yet to be composed.}
~~You’re happy when laundry “only” takes two solid hours of constant involvement.
~~You realize that you’re getting used to showering by cup & basin—so thankful for our electric kettle to heat water (when the power is on)! Morning showers (BRR!) call for two!
~~Trees along the road wear makeup during the dry season (the roads are dirt out here in the bush, and the red soil ends up coating the plants!)
~~Your blister count in a month and a half is up to four. (This is simply because I have soft American hands – three came from helping with shelling/slashing at the family I’m connected to.)
~~You catch yourself staring at your reflection in a shop mirror for several seconds…..because it’s the most you’ve seen of yourself in the past week! (we only have a small round hand mirror in our hut…)
~~You’re surrounded by people who love & care about you – and who will check in with you and pray for you. I am so blessed by the intentionality & community here!

~~~~~~~~~~

~~The smallest things make you sweat. Like making your bed. Or sitting on the couch (especially with a computer in your lap). Even a couple hours after dark, with the windows open!
~~You get excited about a car ride, because it might be the one point you get to feel the AC. And when the daily weather is a broken record "hot & sunny" most of the time, that's important. {Rainy season will be here soon, and then the weather will not be as dry/hot.}
~~You have a slight sunburn/fresh tan on your shoulders from a mid-day walk {and a few times of doing laundry} when it's JANUARY, and your new friends from MN & SD are talking about -36 degree weather and huge snow drifts.
~~Your bed time is sometimes determined by what time the Internet decides to quit working. {ie, the night when I copied this off of FB and was going to post it on my blog. Internet quit, so I’m just going to go to bed and do this another time!}
~~You're learning to be thankful for a result when you flip the light switch....because it seems like often as not over the past week, the power has been out. {On Sunday, power went out at about 3:30 and stayed out until Tuesday night. Even the solar-powered battery for the dining hall ran out of juice!}
~~You go to dinner and get "attacked" by an adorable 2-year-old whose smile stands out in his dark face. And where you are greeted by a handshake or hug from nearly every person in the room.
~~When you know, deep down inside, that you are where you're supposed to be. No matter how rough the day has been, no matter how tempting it is to go back to the easier life.
~~When you're learning to pray in and walk by faith. When you're reminded that God didn't bring you here for nothing. That He's got a purpose & a plan, and that He's going to teach you AND use you. No matter what.

{I needed the reminder of those last couple. God is good, ALWAYS :)}