MATOKE!

Today “going with the flow” lead me to an afternoon better than I could have imagined!

Cat had planned earlier in the week to go to church with Josephine, our Ugandan friend. I was of course along for the ride but as of Saturday afternoon we were still pretty unsure of what exactly our plans were. It can be pretty difficult to make plans over the phone…language barriers (or maybe I should say accent barriers...) become an even bigger problem when you can’t see the person you’re talking to!  Josephine had told Cat we would be going to Watoto East.

     In Kampala there are four Watoto churches; East, West, South, and Central. There’s also a Watoto North up in Gulu. They have a really great ministry and a lot of the AIM people go to one of them; typically the one they live closest to. You can check out what they do a little more at www.watotochurch.org.

            Anyways, Cat and I are really close to Watoto West, which means Watoto East is completely across town therefore really far away, especially when you take a taxi there! We were confused about why she wanted to go to the East church but decided it would be fine and we’d go anyways. We met down the road at eight and began the commute. Josephine had told Cat we’d be taking taxis so we both wore long skirts thinking we wouldn’t be riding any bodas….wrong. Well, I suppose I was bound to ride side saddle at some point! It wasn’t as difficult as I thought though, a pleasant surprise! We got to church at about 9:20 and waited for the ten o’clock service to start.
The worship was great…if anyone reading this was in church in Hastings the Sunday before I left, Steve was right, they know how to worship in Africa!! =]

Josephine wanted us to meet her mom so after church we walked to her village. Cat fell in a ditch on the way..no big deal, now her knees just match her shins. It was a long (and super dusty!) walk but it was so worth it! After we met her mom Josephine gave us each a soda and some bread and we just chilled at her house for a while. I was really grateful for the opportunity to see life in the village as opposed to the city. One of my favorite things about it was that all the neighbors were out behind the house just kind of hanging out together. The kids were climbing the trees and a few of the women were working on some chores but they were talking too and seemed to be enjoying each other! It was a great atmosphere. =]

We were headed back into town after that when all of a sudden Josephine had the taxi stop and we all piled out again. She told us she really wanted us to meet her cousin’s sister, Pamela. Cat and I were a little confused because we really hadn’t expected any home visits, let alone two, but we weren’t about to turn down another opportunity to get to know Josephine and her family better! Another walk ensued, this one much less dusty! Soon enough we were sitting on a bed in a cute little room of a hostel that Pamela and her roommate Lydia share. They’re both near my age and they go to University in Kampala. They were friendly and the conversation was nice..but also pretty typical. You know, the usual questions and pleasantries and what not. That didn’t last long though…they said something about us visiting Josephine’s house and I was like, “Yeah! She gave us soda and everything, it was super nice!” and both Pamela and Lydia seemed completely surprised and started talking to Josephine really fast in Lugandan. Before Cat or I knew what was going on they had decided they were making us lunch! Apparently they couldn’t believe Josephine hadn’t served us matoke (I’ll explain what that is a bit later) and took it upon themselves to do just that. The truth is, Josephine had tried to serve us lunch but Cat was supposed to be home by three so we had told her it wasn’t necessary and she gave us the soda instead.

Lydia was out the door and back just a few minutes later with some grocery bags from the little stand down the road. I had a blast watching her pull stuff from the bag. It was like Mary Poppins, there was no end to the fresh fruits and vegetables she had bought!

They told us they were making us matoke with g-nut sauce. The dish is called Katogo. She had this strange looking lump that she put in a bowl with hot water and handed to Josephine. That was the g-nut; its ground up peanuts that they turn into a sauce. Then she pulled out this huge bunch of matoke. It looks exactly like bananas except its green and its everywhere here! She started peeling them faster than I’ll ever be able to peel anything! Cat joined her and while they were working on that Pamela peeled some mangoes for all of us to share. Once the matoke was all peeled and was in a pot Lydia added water and put it on their little heater thing to boil. She started chopping tomatoes and onions next and Pamela started making juice. She had a strainer over a pitcher and put two passion fruits and four oranges in it. Then she added some water and sugar. The juice was amazing! Next she sliced up an avocado and “set the table”. I put it in quotes because we all sat on the floor while we ate! We still all had placemats and everything else though, it was so fun! By the time that was done the matoke was ready so they drained it and added the tomatoes, onions, and sauce.

Lydia dished up two plates and set them in front of Cat and I…and we just stared. The portion was HUGE! I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish it but I didn’t know what to say. Apparently I didn’t need to say anything; the look on our faces said it all. The three of them just burst into laughter and started talking about how Ugandans eat huge portions and how mizungos would never be able to eat all that they had given us! They cut the portion down then said flat out, “you don’t know what to do now, do you?” They were right! They said that you peel a section of the avocado into the bowl then eat it with the matoke. We did, and we loved it!! It was easily the best Ugandan food I’ve had so far!

We had great conversation the whole time we ate; they told us all the different things we should try while we’re here and all the different places we should try to visit. They continually laughed at all my questions though I didn’t mind because once they stopped laughing they always answered me anyways.

We made plans to meet again next Sunday for lunch then hang out afterwards since we didn’t have time today (as it turned out we didn’t get home until after four!).

The entire time we were there I felt SO blessed by the three of them. They provided an entire meal for us and didn’t seem bothered by it in the least!  I feel so lucky to have met them and I really hope I’ll get to spend a lot more time with them while I’m here!!

I told Josephine that since they’re making us lunch twice I have to make them all lunch at least once (so if you have any good ideas of some “American” food I can make them, let me know!!).

Besides the awesome company, there are some perks to having a Ugandan friend; on the way home Josephine showed me the best place to get nail polish along with a whole handful of other little “tricks” I would have never learned otherwise!

I really just can’t get over how amazing my day turned out to be. As we headed out in the morning I was thinking; trip across town, church, trip back home, nap. I never did get to take a nap, but I would gladly trade a nap for what I got to experience any day!!

Pictures from Week One! (the full album is on my facebook)

The view from just outside my gate. This little road leads down to a bigger one where we can find a boda or taxi.

Cat and I outside the gate!

This is one of the girls from Dawn. She's the happiest child I've ever met (though I suppose this picture doesn't show that very well...this might be the calmest I've seen her!)

In a taxi

Ice Cream!!! The green was pistachio (so good!) and the orange was mango (not good..this and the yogurt I talked about are what finally convinced me that only real mangos are good!)

Me on a boda!! This guy was Jospehine's friend and he got such a kick out of me wanting a picture on the boda!

Pamela and I with some delicious mango

Matoke!

Fresh fruit juice (passion and orange), avacado, and matoke with g nut sauce

Cat, Pamela, Lydia, Jospehine, Me!

a little friend Cat and I found in the hallway =]

My first (real) weekend in Uganda!!

Good news, I now have internet at home!!

That means you'll hear from me much more often, excited?! ;]

Friday was a public holiday, Martyr's Day, so we didn't have to go in to Mukisa. Instead we had a "tourist" day!
It started at twenty after seven when I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep! The dogs weren't barking, the annoying bird wasn't making noise; I just couldn't fall back asleep. I ended up being quite pleased though because I took it to mean I was finally over jet-lag!

I was excited to try some mango flavored yogurt I bought at Nakuumat (a big grocery store downtown) but I soon discovered the only mango flavored things I like are REAL mangoes! It was really quite terrible! I'll have to see if Cat or Florence wants it because I don't think I'll be able to bear it!

Once we were up and ready to go we got a boda into town where we had planned to meet Rachel and Carolyn (other AIM short-termers). We had a few errands to run at Garden City (buying internet!!!) then we headed to "Friday Market". There are markets all over town all week long but on Friday there's a really big one downtown. There are all sorts of crafts and souvenirs that you can buy and tons of mizungos roaming around. I felt like I was going crazy because there are SO many beautiful things to buy, I couldn't decide! Something I really like about the market is that things really are handmade; you can see them making it! It’s cool to see the drums and baskets being made.

Once we were done with the market we got two bodas and were supposed to go to the old taxi park. I don't know if I've explained this already in a previous post but there are two taxi parks in Kampala, the old and the new. The taxi park is a really big area with a million taxis jammed into it; the perfect place to get your toes ran over! I mean it though; it's absolutely insane how many vans there are in one place! There’s sort of a system to it all but it sure doesn't seem like it...there are no lines on the ground to follow or anything like that! I feel like I’m making it sound so terrible but it’s actually quite handy, you can get a taxi to nearly anywhere in Kampala and the surrounding area at the taxi park. You just walk in and ask around about the place you’re looking to go then they point in a general direction so you walk that way and eventually ask someone else until you get to the right place! (If you really know what you’re doing you don’t have to ask around but that hasn’t happened for me yet!) Anyways, our bodas got separated so Rachel and I ended up at the new taxi park while Carolyn and Cat were at the old one. Soon enough we found each other though (thank goodness for cell phones!) and found a taxi to Masaka which was the direction of the equator.

The taxis won’t leave the park until they’re full so we ended up sitting for quite a while. I consider time spent sitting in the taxi park “window shopping time”. Normal window shopping involves walking to different stores and looking at all the things you can buy through the windows, but taxi park window shopping is much easier…you just sit back and relax in the taxi and an endless stream of things to purchase just flows right by the window. People sell everything in the Taxi Park; watches, sunglasses, ice cream, grasshoppers, blankets, even French to English dictionaries! We all bought an ice cream while we waited. Once the van was full we headed out, the trip took about an hour and a half.

We took our pictures at the monuments (you’ll see that in some of them we were joined by some of the children from a nearby shop, so cute!) and walked through some of the shops then had lunch. The tables that were used for lunch were big African drums, very cool looking!

We had been invited for pizza back in Kampala but by the time we were home we were too tired to go out again so Cat and I bought a pineapple from the market and had that while we watched a movie with Florence and her sisters.
 
Saturday morning I got up early to run. It was my second run since I’ve been here and it went much better than the first. (The first was terrible, I tried to go in the evening and it was hot and dusty, not a good idea!) I ran up on the roads behind where we live...I mentioned before that Kampala is really hilly though I didn’t fully realize it until I was running! I had been running about six minutes when it occurred to me that I had been steadily going downhill. There’s hardly a way to avoid the long uphills though so I just kept going. During part of my run a little girl joined me, she was adorable! Later I was joined by a guy that looked just a little older than me. We ran together just a little bit and he talked to me the whole time! He was training for some upcoming competitions in Jinja and was a 400 meter runner.

I had orientation at ten over at the guesthouse that I originally stayed in. It was my first time traveling alone!! Everything went smoothly and the orientation was really helpful. One of the biggest things I took away from it was the importance of setting goals for my time here. I don’t want to get to August 15^th and think back on my time here and realize I never allowed myself to grow. I’ve really got to take some time to think about and pray about what goals to set. I want to avoid setting up expectations of myself and others though, that’s not the point of goals.

After orientation I took a taxi into town (again, by myself…yay!) and met up with Cat, Beth, and Julie at an art festival. It was my first time meeting Beth and Julie and I realized right away how great they are! A while before I left I was given Julie and Beth’s blogs so when I met them I kind of felt like I knew them already!
 
Something else exciting happened on Saturday…I think I finally found “my” boda driver! You can get a boda pretty much anywhere but it’s recommended that you find one you trust that you can use regularly. A lot of the other AIM girls have at least one or two that they’ll call to take them home after dinner or to church or other things like that. I’ve been on the lookout but I’ve had pretty high expectations so hadn’t found anyone until now. My criteria (in order of importance!!): drives carefully, knows the city (or doesn’t mind stopping and asking for directions!!), charges a fair price, understands and speaks English well enough that if I call and ask for a ride he’ll understand where to pick me up!

For church today we went to Watoto East. It’s all the way across town but we went with Josephine, a Ugandan friend we’ve made. Basically, this was the best afternoon I could have imagined. I’ll post about it another day though because Cat and I are going to watch a movie!

Until next time…

All my love,

Molly

My first days of work

On Sunday I was picked up from the guesthouse by Karen and Greg, employees of AIM. Cat was with them, I was SO excited to finally meet her! She's from Northern Ireland and is graduating from Queen Margaret's University this summer. She studied physiotherapy and Mukisa was her final placement. Everyone here studies physiotherapy, when I say I'm studying physical therapy they look at me like they've never heard of it before!! I'm not really sure what the differences are except that Cat only had to go through four years of school and the Ugandan Physiotherapists only had three while I have seven including four years of undergrad.
We went to University Community Fellowship Church (UCF) after having gone to a nice little cafe called Cafe Pap for "pre-church coffee". Though I had fresh mango juice instead of coffee...with the heat here coffee just never sounds good to me. When we sat down I was completely shocked to see that a few rows in front of us was the Spring Arbor cross cultural group!! I had really been hoping to cross paths with them while they were in Kampala so this was perfect. A few of them noticed me during the service..actually it was pretty funny when they did because they always looked so surprised to see me but it was during a church service so they couldn't really do anything about it. As soon as the service was over we were all able to visit though! It turns out Karen and Professor Varland know some of the same AIM people so they talked for a long time while I was able to talk to some of the people I know from school. We went to lunch at Cafe Javas after church then Karen and Greg dropped Cat and I off at Florence's house. It was strange to see them drive away, I had mixed emotions. I had a little time to see the house (pictures will come, I promise!!) and put my suitcases in our room then Cat and I headed down the road to do some shopping. Breakfast and lunch are provided at work but I'm responsible for dinner. I bought some rice, yogurt, and fresh fruit. I LOVE being able to buy fruit from the markets, it's a fun atmosphere and the fruit is really inexpensive. Once we dropped our stuff off we walked to Mukisa; it's about a ten minute walk from home. I fell in love as soon as I saw it! The main building has a small kitchen, a sitting room, bathroom, therapy room, classroom, office, and music therapy room.. There's another smaller building with a craft shop (the mother's learn to make crafts and are able to sell them to Mukisa to earn an income) an office for the Physiotherapists, and a vocational classroom. There is a small shed and another small building where a tailoring class takes place for the mothers. As much as I loved it I was so anxious to see it with all the children and mother's there!
We went to bed early Sunday (I have been SO exhausted!) and had to get up at 6:30. Don't worry though, I only have to get up that early once a week! Every Monday I'll be working at Dawn from 8 to 5. It's a daycare and therapy center for children with special needs. It's pretty far from home so we either ride with Florence if she's going or get a boda there. I found Dawn to be very overwhelming but also very rewarding. Monday there were about 15 to 20 children there with different things such as cerebral palsy, autism, down syndrome, and hydrocephalus. Some need more attention than others but basically you don't sit down all day!
Tuesdays through Fridays I'll be at Mukisa. It's the same type of children but the mothers come with them. They are able to attend the therapy sessions so they can learn how to help their children and how to build relationships with them. After therapy they can go to the vocational or tailoring class or work on crafts to sell. They also help clean the buildings, do cooking, and watch after their children. The atmosphere at Mukisa is opposite that at Dawn; it's very calm and structured. I'll work there from nine to 4:30 each day.
So far I've been shadowing Cat as she does therapy with the children. I'm hoping to shadow the other therapists as well to see what they do. I feel like I've already learned a lot; the therapy they do with these children is a lot of stuff I haven't learned about in classes yet.
The mission of Mukisa is to support and empower families who have children with special needs. They want the families to know that their children are special and can be loved like any other child. It's a really beautiful thing they\re doing and I feel so blessed to be a part of it.


I really do have so much more to say but I'm about out of time...I don't have internet at home so I'm at the internet cafe. It's between Mukisa and home, which is handy, but it costs each time so I don't know how often I'll update.

I suppose for now I'll just say that I already have stories to share...one involves falling off a boda. It was scary, but I'm fine! Actually, now that it's over I have a hard time not laughing when I tell the story!
I love you all, thank you for the prayers! I need them every day, whether to get over little illnesses or survive a boda ride during rush hour!! Pray for the children I get to work with too, and their families. They are beautiful children who have more joy than I could have imagined! =]


All my love, from Kampala,

Molly

Learning to swim...or something like that

You know how sometimes when a person doesn't know how to swim someone decides to throw them in the deep end?
That was my day, and I LOVED it!

I woke up before my alarm to the sound of African music coming from somewhere nearby. It was a fun way to wake up on my first full day here!! I had a peaceful morning with lots of time to get ready, have breakfast, and do devotions.
At noon we picked up the pace quite a bit though! Faith, a Kenyan who's lived in Uganda for a while, and Rachel, another short-termer working with AIM, came by the guesthouse to pick me up. We took a boda down to the main road (Entebbe Road) then got on a taxi headed into the city. The taxis are big vans that hold 12 people and they are everywhere!!  I asked Faith how she knew the taxi was going into Kampala..she laughed and said "I guess I just knew". Apparently if a taxi is on Entebbe Road and is pointed in the direction of town, that's where it's going! Good to know! =]

Once we got into town we walked up some different streets and Faith pointed out various places to me. There are different landmarks that are good to know in Kampala whether you're meeting someone or just trying to get around. We went to the post office and a book store before we started getting thirsty and hungry. We got on another taxi that was supposed to drop us off at Jinja Road but for some reason or other it kept going...when it finally stopped we got out and got on another boda and headed for Garden City.

Garden City is a big shopping area. It has a bunch of stores and food places in it and it's very modern looking. I was actually really surprised, it basically looks like a mall back home. We went to the food court for lunch and though it looks like a food court back home it was really different!! We found a table and sat down and within seconds we had a bunch of people around us giving us menus. Instead of going up to the place you want to eat at and ordering, they bring the menu to you then when you choose a place the waiter from that restaurant serves you. It was really quite amusing because we had about six different menus in front of us and we had no idea what we wanted...if you look at one thing for too long the waiter from that restaurant will start to think you're going to order it and if you don't look at one menu at all the waiter will open it up for you and basically start reading different things to you!! It was a bit overwhelming but like I said, also amusing. We ended up all ordering some sort of chicken wrap from a Lebanese restaurant that turned out to be delicious!

After lunch we stopped at a pharmacy so I could get some stuff for my sore throat then Faith had to leave. Rachel and I went across the street to another shopping center called The Oasis. She showed me around there a bit then we went to a little coffee shop where a lot of mizungos (white people) go. As we were walking towards the coffee shop a group of men carrying guns was walking through the parking lot. All of the people outside the coffee shop and a bunch of people in the parking lot were gathered watching them. I was concerned, but only for a second; we just kept walking and went into the shop. We never heard what happened and by the time we left you couldn't tell there had even been a crowd. (Don't worry! I was totally fine...besides, if there was a reason to worry I wouldn't write about it in here!!!)
I was really grateful for the time at the coffee shop because I was able to ask Rachel lots of questions about life in Kampala; she's been here since January so she was super helpful!

On the boda ride back I felt like I was going to absolutely burst with excitement! I was sitting on the back of this little motorcycle zipping around Kampala...can't you just picture it?! There were a few places where when you looked around you could see a really beautiful view of the city; it's very hilly so when you're up on a hill you feel like you can see everything! I wish I could have taken a video or something so you all could see it here...actually I wish you could all just come ride a boda for yourself because they are so much fun!!!

So anyways, that was my experience of being thrown headfirst into a foreign city without knowing a thing! I think I did pretty well; especially because I had Faith and Rachel there to show me how things are done!
For now though it's time to let the mosquito net down, put in my earplugs to drown out the barking dogs, and get some sleep!

->if you thought riding in the back of a big red truck was cool, just wait till you get to ride a boda! =]

Just had to take a picture since I spent so long there!

Soon after landing in Entebbe!

Liliane, the wonderful lady I sat next to on the plane

=]

I made it!

I sat in front of the big screens that direct you to the gate staring at the Entebbe flight. It had been on the screen for about an hour but no gate was listed yet. I was enjoying my second helping of yogurt and granola (which tastes even better in London than it does back home!). Well over half of the flights for the evening had been cancelled due to weather but Entebbe still looked promising. Just as I was finishing up my yogurt it popped up; gate B42! I had plenty of time to get there but I still hurried. The flight went smoothly; I was asleep before we even took off! Thankfully there was a wonderful lady sitting mext to me who woke me up for dinner! She even saved my dessert for me when I fell asleep before getting to it! She had exciting plans for her trip to Uganda and we talked quite a bit as we had breakfast before landing. She gave me lots of advice about living in a foreign country and she told me that she would wait at the airport until I found my taxi driver. I was so thankful for all her help! I have a picture that I'll put up once I get my laptop working.

I found my driver really easily thanks to the big sign that said "Molly Smith"! It was exciting to see my own name on a sign like that...sometimes I still can't believe I get to do this!
I have no idea how long the ride to the guesthouse was; I was so busy trying to see everything that I paid no attention to time. It looks a lot like the bigger cities I've been to in Haiti and Jamaica, though it's certainly distinct in some ways.
The guesthouse is perfect. Its small but very nice and very comfortable. I have pictures of my room that I'll put up later. (I love my room!! It's so pretty!) I've been able to talk to the couple that's running it for the weekend a little bit which has been really fun; they have a beautiful little girl that is quite entertaining! I love listening to conversations about life here and the work they and the other missionaries do.

After I got here I met with Karen, the short-term coordinator, to talk about some different things. I got my own cell phone and filled out some paperwork. Then I got to go on my first boda ride!! A boda is kind of like a motorcycle. You sit on the back behind the driver and hang on to the seat under you. Karen and I both rode on the same one, three people on one bike! She said sometimes you'll see even more than that piled on one boda. We went to the grocery store down the road from the guesthouse; it was much more modern than I had anticipated and you could find just about anything there! She showed me all the different fruit I'll be able to buy; mangoes, pineapple, oranges (which are green here, it's very strange looking!), avacados, bananas, and a few others that I can't remember right now! She bought me a mango which I'm very much looking forward to! I was able to use the ATM after that and bought some airtime for my phone with the Ugandan money I got out. She said that I'll be using the Ugandan money here all the time rather than my card so I'll have to get used to talking in the thousands and hundred thousands when I'm buying things. For example, I spent 20,000 on the airtime today; sounds like a TON but really it was only about 8 dollars.
Karen then treated me to fresh mango/pineapple juice from a coffee shop and we talked a little more about what I would be doing here. She explained that I'll be living with Florence; a Ugandan woman who is the director of Mukisa. Currently a girl named Cat lives with her. She's lived there for about two months and will be leaving in two weeks. Karen said that Cat will be able to teach me basically everything I'll need to know while I'm here, how to get around, how much to pay for different things, stuff like that. I'll get to meet her on Sunday and I'm definitely looking forward to it! I'm grateful that our stays here overlap so she can fill me in on everything!

When we got back to the guesthouse we had lunch then I had time to relax until dinner. I called my mom and Garrick for a little bit which was such a nice surprise because none of us thought that we'd be able to talk while I was here!! I took a much needed nap before dinner but woke up more exhausted than I was before I fell asleep!

Speaking of being exhausted, I still am! I'm going to shower then head to bed for the night! =] My first night in Uganda!! =]