Bush Life

Top: Papa, Me, Alayna
Right: Gilbert-uncle/brother
Alayna-my sister :)























Bridget-my great niece



So, this post is way late, but life always busy here. As some of you know and others don't, I went for a week to live in the bush of Africa. Now, when I say bush I don't just mean some random area in Africa, I mean a literal home surrounded by bush and grass taller than me. I felt like I was in The Lion King on most occasions-(yes I did sing songs from the movie too). Half of our group went to a place in the mountains called Kapchorwa and the rest of us went to Soroti. I got place in Soroti with one of the coordinators of the program. His name is Stephen and was great to have for a papa. I was super nervous about going and honestly trying to find a way out of it, but in the end I am glad I had such an experience. Now, before I get into all the fun/crazy details, I'd like to say although I did not particularly like this rural home stay, I am thankful for my family and the different life I was able to experience.

Overview of Rural Life:

Life in the bush is quite quite different than life in other parts of Africa and definitely America. I was honestly scared out of my mind to go, because I thought people were gonna be running around naked or something and cutting chicken's heads off! Well, it was not that extreme once I actually got there, but there was a whole list of new struggles that I encountered. Ironically I did end up killing a rooster! And let me tell you, this was the biggest rooster I have ever seen. It was the saddest/most disgusting/most exciting thing of my life!! For dinner that night I didn't eat it though because I felt too bad and I did apologize to the rooster and Jesus.haha.

So, they didn't tell us until the morning of our home stays that we would need to learn another language, because theses people don't speak Luganda; they speak Ateso. GREAT! Just what I want to hear as I already don't want to go on this little excursion. Well, I got my cheat sheet and actually picked up Ateso quite fast. My papa taught me some phrases the first night that I would need to know to greet my elders, people at church, children, etc. He also told me that after tonight, (Saturday Oct. 23rd), that I was no longer a guest but a member of the family. Little did I know what that actually meant, but not to worry I found out real quick the next day! Sunday morning I had to iron some man's clothes for him as he was a guest at our house and apparently has no hands of his own(sarcasm). That was an interesting experience because I used what they call a box iron, which is a metal box shaped like an iron with hot coals in it that iron out your clothes. At church I had to kneel to every person who is significantly older than me, which turned out to be almost the entire congregation. The proper greeting is to say kneel while shaking their hand and saying "Yoga papa" or "Yoga toto." It means "Hi, father or Hi, mother." I felt so awkward doing this and wished I could just go home. I know it's not the worst thing in the world and that I need to respect their culture, but this was seriously a challenge for me. The best news I received all week was that I was going to get a "sister" from the program. One of the girls in our group was placed with a family, but there was a death at her host family the first night so she got to come live with us for the whole week. I have to say, thank Jesus for Alayna-my little 'sister' or I would not have survived my week! haha.

For the rest of the week, Alayna and I knelt our way through life while serving everyone we came into contact with. At some points I felt a little like a slave, except obviously not on a huge scale. I already have a hard time responding well to male authority figures and this just made it worse. Surprisingly Alayna has similar feelings, so we both felt annoyed by this experience. Our compound consisted of 4 huts which were inhabited by my 3 uncles and my papa. The house we had was for me, Alayna, my aunt/mama, niece, and great niece. Also, tata or grandma lived in a hut nearby. We had one last hut that was the kitchen hut and always filled with smoke so I tried never to enter it-we called it our charcoal hell. haha!

The rest of my week was a routine of waking up at the butt crack of dawn-literally. We would go to bed sweaty so most nights we had to sleep naked under 2 different mosquito nets, which was a task in itself, lol. Also, we got to go braless for the whole week!! Showing off your knees is more risque than showing your boobs-fun times. We also tried to go shoeless, but they didn't like that very much. Apparently American feet can't handle the earth-ha. If we weren't out of bed by 7 or 7:30am, they didn't like it. We would spend 3+ hours in the garden most days in the blazing heat before breakfast and showers. This was horrible, sweaty, and simply not fun. Breakfast was never at the same time, if it even happened at all. We always had milk tea, but food was random. We were required to take 2 baths a day and for those of you who know me know that even 1 a day is a bit too much for me, haha! So, sometimes we would lie and just go in the "shower" and take our shirts off or something and splash water around. Can't say it's one of my proudest moments, but it happened :) Afternoons we could rest for a bit, but it was too hot in the house to sleep, so we would just lay and sweat. If we layed outside, they would just stare at us or make us do something. Plus, we had cows, goats, turkeys, dogs, and every other animal running rampid on a daily basis. I did however get to milk some cows, which is a lot freaking harder than it looks(still fun). Evenings we had tea, supper, another bath, and helped with whatever chores there were. One of the fun parts of my stay was meeting my uncle/brother named Gilbert. He is only 19 and is technically my uncle but it's weird since he's younger than me so I call him my brother. He kept Alayna and I pretty occupied and turned out to be a lot of fun! When the end of the week came, I was sad to leave him and my niece Carro and her daughter Bridget, but I was a little happy to leave. It was an intense week of culture shock, but I am glad I got the opportunity. I realize this is not as detailed as it could be, but to recap the week would take way too long. This was my overall experience and it was a whole mix of emotions! I was definitely happy to be back to campus after all that.

For Saturday and Sunday (10-30 and 10-31), our program took us to Sipi Falls. We stayed at a resort there and got to hike into the mountains and see waterfalls. These waterfalls were amazing and I got to take a natural shower in one because we went to the base of it. I have to say this was one of the best experiences in Africa so far! There is nothing like standing under a waterfall and seeing a rainbow in the distance to really feel God. It was the perfect end to a not so perfect week.