Well I thought this week was going to slow down a bit since classes are over, but that is not the case! My time is still seems to fill up, and I still struggle getting this blog written! But here it goes:
Last Tuesday for street ministry Hudson and Julius took us to the Katanga Slum in Kampala. It’s the biggest slum in Uganda, and is where a couple of the Off Tu kids are from. We did our usual program with the kids at the school there, and then they took us for a walk to the center of the slum. The homes, or rather the pieces of wood and tin thrown together, were small, close together, and hardly an okay place to live. There was a stream of sewage that ran through it, just feet from the houses, with little planks of wood forming the path to walk over it…and in places little kids had to be lifted over it so they wouldn’t fall in. But the most heartbreaking part was the children. Many had big, swollen bellies, with no shoes and clothes that were barely fit. There was one child in particular who couldn’t have been older than 2 years old who was sitting on the ground with crusties and dirt all over his face, and had flies buzzing around his eyes. He just sat there, expressionless, with no reaction when I tried to play with him. Definitely not okay. But the cool part about it all was that there was still so much life and joy in the people there. The men were out playing soccer, and the kids were running around singing. It was a really great experience, but I wish I would have had more time there.
On Friday I went to Luwero with my class and we attended a service that acted out the different scenes of the crucifixion for Good Friday. We started out at a church, then proceeded to walk through the town in a big procession of a couple hundrend people, following the cross in the cold rain. After 4 hours of wet clothes, umbrellas getting stuck in my hair, and getting my toes stepped on, I was ready to be done. Did I mention it was all in Luganda? It was really cool to see all the denominations together though. There were Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, and others all participated in Good Friday together, and it was beautiful.
Friday evening I almost stepped on a snake…the first snake I’ve seen in Africa! The guys I was with freaked out and then picked up rocks and literally stoned it to death! My friend, Mulo picked it up after it was dead and kept it, then the next day we went to check it out. We decided it wasn’t poisonous, and took turns holding it by the tail. Then, in honor of Ashton’s birthday, Mulo climbed the mango tree by the path, and threw it at people as they walked by. SO FUNNY! People here are extra scared of snakes because you never know if they’re poisonous or not, so we got some pretty good reactions! Some people thought it was funny, but there were a few who looked pretty angry. Oops!
On Easter I went for church, or for prayers as they say here, and then accidentally spent most the day sleeping instead of writing my paper. Probably the most uneventful Easter of my life, but oh well! That evening we had cake to celebrate Ashton’s birthday with our friends Moshan, Tonny, and Emma.
Yesterday I went to Kampala to go to the craft market one last time. I had a jumbo iced coffee at the mall first, and it had quite the effect of me. I’ve never been so shakey or felt so funny from caffeine before! It must be because I rarely have it here. Then I had my first pepperoni pizza in over 3 months and it was ohh soo good! Then we went downtown to the Old Taxi Park, where it’s super crowded and crazy, and my friend Sarah got her necklace literally ripped off her neck. Then the guy who took it ran into the busy traffic and there was no way to get it back. I’m so thankful none of my things got taken in all my times of being there.
Yesterday evening we went to Off Tu and had a water balloon war. The only person who was dry was Ashton because she had a camera. It was so fun! Then we had some fun with the tattoos I got in my care package…they were so happy. Today is our last day of our internship, and I’m really really sad about it. It will be so sad to leave the kids and all the staff too. We have formed some really good relationships there, and it’s hard to say goodbye. So tonight we are spending the night there, and are planning on playing Twister, having a campfire with smores, and doing crafts. We talk about the termination process in social work a lot, so we’ve been preparing for this for a while now, but it will still be strange to think I could never see them again.
My favorite pair of shoes that I wear every day broke this week. It was almost tragic, until I took them to a shoe repairman sitting on the corner of the street right outside the gate and got them fixed for 1,000 shillings…the equivalent of 40 cents. Why don’t we have shoe repairmen on the streets in the U.S.?! So convenient!
So this is my last full week in Uganda before we got to Rwanda. I hate it!!! I’m trying to remember that there is a time for everything, and even though I won’t see most of my friends here ever again, I am blessed to have met them in the first place. With that, today is the exactly one-month-left–in-Africa mark. However, my flight home got pushed back 24 hours, which means there’s a good chance I won’t make it back for Corrie’s graduation. So I appreciate your prayers as we are trying to find different flights back…it’s something I really really don’t want to miss!
That’s all for this week! I just realized that I had my photo album locked on Facebook so I was the only one who could see it. It’s unlocked now, so feel free to check out all the pictures from my semester! There are a lot of them…so good luck! Thanks for your prayers!
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