I survived my week in Kapchorwa!
It was absolutely beautiful there. Kapchorwa is in the eastern Ugandan mountains, so it is slightly cooler with a perfect breeze ALL the time! The people there speak a different language than they do in the rest of Uganda, and the lifestyle is very different too. There is no electricity, no running water, and chickens everywhere…which really isn’t that different from Mukono I guess. I lived with a family in a mud house for the week, and had to carry water on my head up a giant hill every day. Chickens walked in and out of the house all the time: one even lived under the table, and another day I walked into my room and found one on my bed! And to think I was scared of them before I came here! People live off of the Matoke, maize, and coffee they farm…and yes, I did learn how to pick, crack, and roast coffee beans! I also learned how to milk a cow, and tried to kill a chicken, but when I found out it was a slow and painful process rather than a quick chop, I just couldn’t do it! People were very surprised that we could do any work at all. When they saw me with a water can half the size of everyone else’s, they were very impressed and complemented my family on their “hard-working mzungu”.
It was really interesting to see the role of women there. It was very obvious that men are superior, and the women’s lives seemed to revolve around making food for their husbands and families. They are either picking, peeling, cooking, serving, or cleaning up. When their work is done, they go to bed. As a Westerner, this seemed like an extremely monotonous and unfulfilling lifestyle, but they are so happy and content with their work. Our teacher told us a story about a student who gave their family a potato peeler to make it go faster. But the wife of the family replied, “But then what do you do?” It’s funny because she is so right. When we finished working, we had nothing else to do but sit. So, needless to say, I had a lot of sitting and time to myself this week. I also learned the value of sitting in silence with others. Presence is so much more important to them than conversation. We also went on an adventure everyday to either a waterfall in the trees, or on top of the mountain with an incredible view…and a little farther down with some intense hiking we found a giant cave! On our first walk, we started out with a group of 6 people, but we progressively attracted every child in the village, and ended up with a group of 37. A few of the grandmothers scolded them for bothering us…but we just kept on going! So beautiful, and so fun!
On Friday we were picked up. My family and all the neighbors skipped to school for the occasion, and they sent me with three bags full of bananas! Our neighbor, Sophie, insisted on cooking breakfast for me and the two other USP students who lived near me. She woke up early and killed a chicken, made chapatti, peeled potatoes, and made passion fruit juice just for the three of us! We were definitely well fed! She only spoke Swahili and the local language, Kupsabini, but we were always greeted with a huge hug and smile, saying, “Chigaste Jesu!” (Praise the Lord), and she prayed one of the most powerful prayers I have ever heard when we left…even though I couldn’t understand it!
After our rural home stays, we stayed in a resort overlooking one of the waterfalls at Sipi Falls. It’s called a resort, but there was still no running water or electricity…but by this time I was very used to it! On Saturday we went on a 5-hour hike through three of the falls. The first one was an 83 meter ice cold waterfall…so naturally we waded to get as close as possible, but then the wind blew and I got hit by a huge wall of water! It was so cold we couldn’t move, so now I can cross standing under a waterfall off of my to-do list! They told us they’ve had students get hypothermia from it, but thank the Lord it was sunny out! That night seven of us girls decided to sleep on the very top of the mountain (which was owned by the resort), and it was almost absolutely perfect. We got all situated, looking at all the stars, and were excited to wake up to the sun rise, when a man with a shepherds hook-thing showed up out of no where and just sat there watching us! We communicated enough to learn that his name was Patrick, and he claimed to be watching his father’s land. He said it was fine if we slept there, but he didn’t have any intention of leaving anytime soon. That was creepy enough for us, and we booked it down the mountain as fast as we could! So...we almost had a perfect camping experience, until good ol’ Patrick came along and gave us the heebie-jeebies!
So that is the gist of my past week. It has been, by far, the most exciting, and has been a great learning experience. I wish I could explain more of it, but I’m still processing, trying to figure things out too! One thing on my mind is our perception of “the poor”. I think when we see a mud hut we automatically think poverty, but my family was well provided for, and definitely had everything they needed! Sure, there are poor among them, but their neighbors are so much better at providing for them than we (3rd party members) are. Once again, I’m confused at what my role as a Westerner is in all of it. I’m learning that material wealth does not determine quality of life…and these people are probably living life in its fullness much better than those of us who are slaves to our materialistic lifestyles.
So there you have it. Pictures are on my Facebook if you want to see, but my battery died only 2 days into it, and I had no way of recharging it! Thanks for reading! Love you all and I think of you all often! Probably more often than you think I do…all of us students have kind of hit the point where we would love nothing more than to spend a rainy day in Starbucks with our friends. =) But I know the rest of my time here will fly by, and then I will be home missing Africa.
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