One more month in Uganda

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Thank you to everyone for your feedback and encouraging words. I am definitely not a writer, so I hope my blogs begin to help you live this experience with me. I know I would not be here if it weren't for all of you. I am so grateful to have a community and family that accepts and supports me. It is what we all need. I am now at the Uganda Women COncern Ministry, and will basically spend my last month here. I am very happy to be here. It feels like my home. My host mom, Edith, is so nurturing and welcoming, and I feel like I get to live with my mentor in her home and place of work/passion/ministry. How amazing is that? She is constantly teaching me and sharing her life experiences with me and helping me to understand life from a Ugandan woman's perspective. What a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity. She has been around the world, met so many different people, and been a apart of so many different types of trainings/seminars/conferences. She is very worldly, yet so grounded in who she is and where she is from. I hope I am like her when I am her age (60, the same as my wonderful, amazing mother).

I spent the last 2 weeks traveling. I was in Kampala for 10 days, then back to Tororo for 6. Spent time with a friend (Cathi) I met there who is from Arizona. Pretty crazy to meet a friend in Uganda who is from America, but that is not uncommon at all. We went to a traditional introduction ceremony at her host families house on Saturday. Awesome to get to experience one of those. Could have been a wedding, but it's not. The event began about 2 pm, and went officially until after 9 pm. The day was filled with traditional dresses (called a gomas, I even wore one!), traditional dancing, and many speeches. On this day, the bride-to-be introduces her husband-to-be to her family, and the man presents the woman's family with the bride-price/dowry. This included 6 cows, 8 goats, chickens, cases of soda, tons of sugar, salt, fruit, baskets, matches, and other misc gifts. One of the big gifts was a small refrigerator! Very elaborate and traditional ceremony. Very expensive. Wish I could put pictures on here, but don't have the right technology with me.

One of the days, my friend and her friend (who is also from Arizona and just finishing her 3 month internship working in Zanzibar, Tanzania) and many of the family member's spent the day making a mexican lunch. It was awesome! So many people helped, and we made fresh salsa, guacamole, tortillas, refried beans and rice. It was made from very common ingredients here, but none of them have ever eaten them prepared this way. What a great day for us all. We cooked for easily 25+ people (most of which were children).

The next day, many of us hiked to the top of Tororo Rock. It is this huge, beautiful rock that sticks straight up in the air, basically all alone. It takes anywhere from 30-50 minutes (it took me 50 😊) to climb straight up to the top. It was a high point on this trip. It was great to climb it with many of the children (15-25 years old) from Cathi's family. Once at the top, the view of Tororo town was breathtaking. These views always remind me of model train sets, where everything is so detailed and little.

Needless to say, my time with Cathi and her family was some of the most fun and adventurous while here. Now I am happy to be back to the stability of Edith's home and the UWCM, and am really eager to see what I will learn during my time here. I miss you all so much, but know I am in good hands and being treated like part of the family. That's a crazy thing about Uganda culture- you are immediately accepted as family, and they love you and take care of you better than I take care of my own family. I am eager to be more like that when I get home!

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Comments

[Dano]

Yeah - another update from Deb
Always awesome to read your updates and about your experiences - but it was especially awesome to talk to you on Sunday! Its the traditional ceremonies that would be so fascinating to me - I am glad you got to experience that. I would love to see those pictures - I bet you have some good ones! Keep on holding your head up and doing the good work! Its probably getting tougher now that you see the light at the end of the tunnel, but just keep on hanging on and you will be home before you know it! And getting your ribs crushed in bear hugs from all the people here who miss you!