Yay, no mud falls since!! Haha. Well first, thanks to everyone for the birthday greetings!! My bday here was great. My homestay siblings were so cute and woke up to throw confetti (that the made haha) on me then before I went to school the parents sung happy birthday to me. At school, I heard Amazalibwa Amalungi (happy bday) I couple more times, had cake in class and after class stayed in town to go out with friends that night. Overall, it was a great bday!!
Saturday we went to Baha’i temple which turned out to be walking distance from my house. It was pretty awesome if not just for the fact that there’s only one on every continent so to think the one in Africa is 20 minutes away was pretty awesome. That afternoon I tacked the daunting task of laundry. Oh my gosh, it was an afternoon affair. First of all, 4 whatever reason my fam doesn’t use detergent which left me with a bar of soap to wash clothes. I was hoping they’d wash for me, as I heard may be a possibility from other students but instead they gave me a bucket and stool. Haha! I did finally finish washing sometime later but my new plan is to wash every couple days to avoid doing that much hand washing ever again. I guess it’s no big deal to them to wash all day because they have nothing else to do, but goodness gracious that was something that I have no desire to do again. I know that it constituted as a work out!
Anyways, Sunday evening after hanging out with fam and friends around, I decided that I wanted to make an American dish for them especially before the other sister left for school the next day. So we went to the local supermarket and I had all these ideas of what I’d make. Spaghetti was at the top of the list but the store had no sauce, then it was mac n cheese but this country just isn’t big on chz so couldn’t find that either, then there was always the option of baking something but then there wasn’t an oven I could use. Haha. So yeah, by the end of it I decided on pancakes, banana pancakes. But here’s the catch…So we all know, that the kitchen is not a place that I’ve spent much time. Let alone to make any food from scratch. The little cooking I do at home involves ingredients that either come in a box or simply using an oven. So now I’m trying to guess how to make these pancakes, and of course have no recipe, measuring cup and just guessed which ingredients would make good pancakes. Well evidently I did learn a lil cooking skills somewhere along the ling because they turned out pretty good. Of course making pancakes on one little charcoal stove took FOREVER but it was a good experience. Now I see why we don’t eat dinner until 10 pm every night. Everything takes twice as long here. The pan would either be too hot so we’d put ash on it to cool it down but then itd be too cool and the pancakes wouldn’t cook. It was just too funny. To say the least had a few that were a lil overcooked but it was all good. Then after I finally mastered the heat part the next challenge was flipping them. Now I’m used to working with spatulas but of course all we had were forks. Surprisingly though only one fell!! J It was all just too funny! They did enjoy them though so it was all worth it!
Oh yeah, being black with braids in Uganda allows me to blend in quite well. Today someone even asked which tribe I was! Sometimes I enjoy blending in because its just less drama but then other times I’m a little jealous of my white classmates. Haha. They get to meet so many random people just because people approach them out of curiosity but I just blend in and no one has a clue that im a foreigner til I talk. People will speak to me in lugandan sometimes or if they come by the house they will just think im a cousin. Haha, but my classmates will tell their fams about us just nonchalantly and their families are so excited to meet black Americans! So apparently we’re a hot commodity here once we’re discovered! Its all just hilarious!!
But the sucky side to be American here is the constant request for money and sponsorships. Last week my homestay dad asked me for a loan to pay the kids’ school fees and it just put me in an awkward situation. Of course, I don’t have the money to loan (which I’d never see again) him but it was just that I felt compelled to do something and felt guilty. I’m sure this will happen ten thousand more times while im here but for it to happen right in my home was surprising considering that my fam has hosted 9 other students and knows the deal. But to say the least, if you know anyone who’d want to sponsor a child in Africa, no need to wait for the tv commercials. Feel free to let me know and we can work something out. Guess this is the non glorious side about being here… somehow you have to develop a balance being charitable and desensitizing yourself. How much help to offer and when, has been the issue but thankfully I’m here with 26 other students so we all are going through it together. Then our advisors and teachers, who are all locals, are awesome so we get great advisements but still it’s just a sucky position to be put it. The little babies that are just sitting on the sidewalk (by the way I have yet 2 fig out where they come from and go, being so young) holding their hands out, or the kids that follow you and tug at you and you want to give them something but at the same time cant. Arggh! But that’s why I’m here studying development studies, to find out how to improve and under this problem from the bottom up… however to not end on a sad note, I saw monkeys yesterday on my way home. Well I think they were monkeys at least. My lil brother had no idea what I was talking about, but I know I saw monkeys which made my day! :-) By the way, there probably won’t be any updates until next week because we will heading to Rwanda this weekend!! Yay!! So keep me in your prayers and check back sometime around the end of next week for more amazing stories!! :-)
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