Soroti, Uganda & a series of FIRSTS :)

How many Americans can say they lived in an African village for a week?

Not very many :) But I can!

And it was a great week! At around 11am the coaster dropped me off in the middle of nowhere- literally. I had my backpack with 2 skirts, 2 shirts, a sleeping bag, mosquito net, jerry can, and a letter for my new family. And that was it for the next 8 days. I looked around and no joke this is what a saw; miles of weeds, 5 huts, chicken, cattle, turkey, a dog, a cat, a whole lot of dirt, some random bricks, a mango tree, and more weeds. And it was 90 degrees with the sun blazing on me- no shade to be found. Then a woman came out of one of the huts and walked towards me to greet me in her language, Ateso. She was mama for the week. Luckily, I had learned enough Ateso to introduce myself and follow her into the hut to put my stuff down. Hello Soroti, Uganda :)

My mama- which I actually called toto since that’s what it is in Ateso- was WONDERFUL! She spoke very little English and understood none; so needless to say, I spoke very little the entire week. I had a papa that spoke broken English and also understood very little English. I had a niece (Esther), two nephews (Aaron and Immanuel), one sister (Gladdis), one grandmother, and a few random men who were huntsmen that lived in my village. My toto and papa were the only ones who spoke English, so I was forced to learn Ateso as much as I could during that week. Luckily, Ateso is a very easy language to learn :) To say hello you say, “Yoga.” Funny, right? It was fun to be like “Yoga! Yoga Noi.” Multiple times a day. I got used to it tho :)

So those 8 days I lived like none other. There are no such things as mirrors in the bush- so I never saw myself for 8 days. They don’t have utensils, like forks, so I ate with my hands for every single meal. They consider our hands a “natural fork.” It was awesome haha. They also don’t believe in clocks. So I NEVER knew the time. Ever. It doesn’t sound so bad, but you begin to lose track of days and a sense of ANYTHING and feel like you do when you imagine being stranded on an island with nothing- I was lost half the time. I learned pretty quickly the patterns of the sun tho :) Which was cool. I bathed 3 times a day, at night when I’d bathe it’d be PITCH black with nothing shining on us but the moon and the stars and it was possibly one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. Who would have guessed there were SOOOOO many stars in the sky? It was like the Lion King or something- it was gorgeous. I actually felt like I was in Africa. I loooved it. I also learned to milk cows, slaughter chickens (yep, I chopped the head off of a chicken and even after I’d cut the head off I’d watch the body squirm for about 1 minute, it was sick), shell groundnuts, and cook EVERYTHING by fire. It was very enlightening. Oh & literally NO electricity or technology. At all. It was beautiful :)

I typically woke up at 7am, the last of everyone in the village to wake up. I’d bathe right away, then help sweep, which sweeping was moving around the dirt on the ground, weird concept but it did make the dirt look nicer so whatever haha. Then we’d make tea and roast groundnuts and eat them with HARD bread for breakfast. After breakfast I would spend the afternoon playing with my little nephew, Immanuel. He’s 2 years old and has all the energy in the world haha. He’s the most precious little boy ever and I looooved playing with him every day. Then toto would come get me and we’d make tea and roast some more groundnuts for “afternoon teatime” then I’d go play with Imma some more. Then lunch would be ready, which was ALWAYS millet bread (google this stuff, it’s sick), some sort of meat, and rice. I struggled, I’m not gonna lie. Eating was the hardest thing ever that week. I never eat meat, and that week I ate pork, beef, liver, chicken, and three types of fish. Needless to say, I have had enough meat for a lifetime. And when they serve you food, they give you A LOT. and they watch you eat it- so you gotta eat it all. Which is rough haha. After lunch I’d bathe Imma and put him to bed for a nap and then bathe as well. Then I’d go shell groundnuts with my toto for hours. Then eventually my papa would come home from work and listen to him talk while my toto did soooooo much work. Ester and Aaron would also come home from school and begin working right away as well. They’d serve us tea for “evening teatime” along with more groundnuts and bread. Then they’d cook us supper while my papa and I just SAT THERE IN SILENCE. Then eventually- when it was pitch black out already, we’d eat supper. Then I’d go and bathe and head to bed. There were spiders and all sorts of sick bugs all over my walls. And rats squealing all night long. No exaggeration.

And that happened every single day. Same routine every day- besides when we went to church on Sunday- which took TWO HOURS to walk to. Yep- closest church to us. We were literally in the middle of nowhere :)

But I LOVED it. I really did. I learned so much about Ugandans those 8 days and I felt so close to my toto, niece and nephews. I learned a lot in those silent moments, there were a lot of them. I was so blessed with free time each day to just journal, read the Bible and take in everything I was experiencing. There was one day that was really tough, I hated that my toto and the kids were always doing so much work while my papa was just served. It was like discrimination against women and child labor. I really hated it and struggled to really accept it. But then I was reading the book of Ezekiel- everyone should read it :) But it talks a lot about catastrophe and trying to make meaning of it- but at the end Ezekiel renames the city “Yahweh-Shammah” which means “God is there.” And when I read that- I felt this overwhelming peace from God. It was like He was telling me that despite the suffering and corruption that I sometimes notice in Uganda- “God is there.” and I really just need to trust that He knows what He’s doing and know that He’s in control. And that reaaaallly helped me the rest of the week. Sometimes it’s easy to think we’re the ones who fix things and really make a difference in the world, but that’s soooo wrong to think. It’s humbling to realize that God is there, God has always been there, and He’s not gonna leave us. He’s going to take care of us and everyone around us so it’s senseless for us to take credit for any good thing that happens here. So, as much as I wanted to try to help my toto and the children always working, God showed me that regardless, He would take care of them and never leave their sides :) And same goes for everyone- God could never overlook a single soul.

So my week in “the bush” was awesome. But I was soooo excited to be reunited with everyone from USP and my Ugandan friends after that week. We went to Kapchorwa and stayed on Mt. Elgon at Sipi Falls and did some hiking and went to the falls and also literally picked coffee beans and made our own coffee :) It was a great end to rural home stays. But nothing I’ve written really gives justice to my week. It truly was an incredible experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world and I LOOOOVE my Soroti family so much :)

And now we’re back at school :) And time is going way too fast and we have sooo little time left here that we’re all realizing how essential it is that we really embrace every single second that we’re here, cuz it’s all going to be over before we know it :(

But here are some really good scriptures that I journaled about while living in Soroti :)

Deuteronomy 7:9- “Know this- God, your God, is God indeed, a God you can depend upon. He keeps his covenant of loyal love with those who love him and observe his commandments for a thousand generations.” ß This was the verse we all really focused on before rural home stays since we were all really nervous about going!

John 14:18-20- “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father and you’re in me, and I’m in you.”

Deuteronomy 31:6- “Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; He won’t leave you.” :)

Ezekiel 48:35- “’Yahweh-Shammah’, meaning ‘God-is-there.’”

1 Corinthians 14:1- “Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it- because it does.”

1 Corinthians 13- “Love never gives up, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end. Love never dies.”

1 Peter 3:14-15- “Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are.”

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” Proverbs <3

Love you all! :) xoxoxo, Bethany

This is little Immanuel :) "reading my Bible" while I journaled. This happened every morning :) He's precious! I promise to upload pics on facebook eventually :)

White Waters- 150ft Plunge- Killing Chickens- & Other Memories in UGANDA :)

Well quite a bit has happened since I last blogged, it’s been so long since I last blogged! The month of February fleeewww by. It’s so crazy to think that I’ve already been in Africa for 2 months and I only have 2 more months left. Time is going way too fast :( I can’t imagine ever leaving this place..

So this past weekend was definitely the BEST weekend here! Friday night started off with babysitting some kids whose parents are expates here. It was a lot of fun cuz not only did we get HOMEMADE PIZZA- but we also got to take HOT SHOWERS. It was so amazing :) First hot shower in 2 months. And it was really interesting to talk t o the kids, they’re only 10 and 8 but they are super smart and it was just so different talking white kids who have grown up in Africa compared to babysitting American kids haha. It was a lot of fun :)

Then Saturday we headed to Jinja for WHITE WATER RAFTING and BUNGEE JUMPING! Ohhh my goodness. 25 of us USP students went and it was crazy. We started out on the Nile around 10am for our 20 mile rafting adventure. There were 8 of us on my raft and our guide Josh, who happened to be a Canadian. He was pretty entertaining and LOVED taking us thru the “wild” part of the rapids. There were 5 different rapids that we went thru and it was soooo crazy. It was my first time rafting ever so I was soo scared. We had practice drills before we actually reached the rapids and I was TERRIBLE at having the right techniques. For our practice flip I got stuck under the boat- not a great start. So when we hit our first rapid I was panicking. Luckily we made it thru without flipping :) Then on the second one, a level 3 rapid, our guide Josh thought it’d be fun to flip our raft on purpose, so in the middle of all this rushing white water we flipped and I have no idea what happened but I got thrown sooo far away from the raft and one of the guys on the kayaks had to come save me haha. It was terrifying cuz the rapids were sooo strong so I thought I’d never reach the top of the water, but I did and safely returned to the raft. I was the only one who got flung far away from the raft, of course haha. It was awesome tho and we reached some really calm water so we got to have some free time swimming in the water. I swam in the NILE RIVER in the month of FEBRUARY! It felt sooo good. Then we reached an island and had some lunch, which was lunch meat sandwiches and it was DELICIOUS. I’ve never liked lunch meat sandwiches in my life but after eating beans and rice nearly every day for 2 months, lunch meat sandwiches were heavenly. And not to mention they had cheese! Fyi- cheese is nearly impossible to find in Uganda. And it’s super expensive. So getting to have cheese is rare- and it was great :) Then we continued down the Nile. We hit another rapid pretty soon after that, a rapid that had a waterfall in the middle of it. We were going to try to go down the waterfall, but unfortunately our raft hit his HUGE rock and popped our raft in the middle of the rapid, which was really scary cuz we were deflating as all these huge rapids were pounding up against us, but Josh is an incredible guide and got us safely to the bottom of the rapid and we found some rocks to pull off to the side on and the safety boat saved us and we got a new raft :) So off we went again, rafting down the Nile :) We hit our second level 5 rapid and it was sooooo awesome! The rapids were HUGE and we were flying everywhere- but we didn’t flip :) Altho our guide did somehow get knocked off the raft so we panicked for a little not having our guide, but we found him soon enough :) Then we soon hit our last rapid which was unbelievably MASSIVE. Apparently a couple of years ago someone died trying to raft part of the rapid, so we dodged that area. But still we hit the level 5 part of the rapids- and we were hopeless. Within like 5 seconds this huge rapid hit us and off we flew. Every single one of us. And this was a looong rapid. So these rapids literally took me under the water for what seemed like eternity and I’m pretty sure I thought I was doomed. God made one powerful river. The Nile is wicked haha. It was fun but it took forever to get up from those rapids and just float down the river not knowing where ANYONE else was b/c we’d all been thrown really far from each other. Eventually I saw a body in the water and it was MB! I was sooo excited and finally we found the raft and were rescued from the massive rapids of the Nile. It was so amazing :) Around 5:30pm we ended our journey and we were all sooo exhausted, and not to mention pretty burnt. We got chapattis and kabobs for dinner and it was delicious. Then we headed back to the camp/resort and just hung out super late with everyone and had a great time. Not to mention I climbed in a kayak UPSIDE DOWN FROM THE CEILING. It was super random but apparently it’s tradition so I did it :)

Then Sunday morning we woke up- got some breakfast- then BUNGEE JUMPED! I can honestly say that getting ready to jump was the most scared I have EVER been. 150 feet above the Nile River is where I jumped from :) I jumped tandem with Marybeth which was the best decision ever b/c I really don’t know that I could have done it alone.  So we climbed the stairs which took quite a long time and got to the top of the platform. We decided to go second, Jake went first. He’s brave :) It was so scary watching him tho b/c literally all you have is this towel and rope tied around your feet and linked to the bungee. And this platform moved everytime anyone moved so I was scared to death that the platform was going to break off haha. After Jake went I’m not joking, I really wanted to chicken out. But MB and I sucked it up and walked to the platform to got all tied up. I think I was seriously shaking and asking a million questions just to make sure I wasn’t going to die jumping. After about 10 minutes of learning the correct way to jump and making sure we were tied tightly, we slowly “scooted” to the edge together b/c our feet were tied together so it was literally impossible to walk. Once we got to the edge I remember looking down and FREAKING out. MB looked at me and was like “Are we seriously doing this?” And I was like “yeeppp.” and then everyone yelled THREE TWO ONE BUNGEE!!! and we fell forward- 150 feet. And screamed the entire way down. And while hanging. And while getting untied. And while walking back afterwards. We were literally laughing and screaming the entire time. It was soooooooooo much fun and I would literally do it again in a heartbeat! :) It was such an adrenaline rush. I’m definitely an adrenaline rush junky :) It was great- everyone should do it :)

Sunday night I went home to my Ugandan family cuz I had missed them SO MUCH! MB & Angela went with me- we took 2 LIVE chickens home- which involved a 40 minute walk with 2 live chicken in their hands. I refused to carry them haha I hate chicken. Then we took the chicken out back and my papa taught us how to cut the head off. Literally just chopped the head off right in front of us. It was pretty sick- between the chicken crying and trying to get away, plucking the feathers off, chopping the neck off, lots of blood gushing out, then cutting the chicken open and taking out all the insides- I nearly barfed. I’m not good with that kind of stuff. Then Angela gladly took control of the second chicken and cut it’s head off. It was soo gross, again. We’ve got lots of good pictures and videos that we’ll upload asap :) My mama then cooked the chicken for us and we ate it for dinner. It was pretty good :)

Monday was a good day- nothing exciting tho. Oh except I got an article written about me in “The Standard” which is the UCU campus newspaper- and apparently it’s a big deal to get in it :) So yayy- that was exciting!

Today I taught my first lesson at Salama :) I taught science and took the kids on a “field trip” to some mango & jackfruit trees since we were learning about plants. The kids thought  it’d be fun to climb the tree so a few of them climbed up in the tree. Blind kids climbing a tree- seems super dangerous- right? I was freaking out so I was yelling at them to get down- but of course they wouldn’t listen to me. They dared me to climb up with them so naturally, I took the dare and climbed in the tree. They kids were laughing and screaming so loud, “Madame Bethany is in the tree!!! hahahahah” They thought it was hilarious. It was pretty funny tho- not gonna lie. Lesson learned- never underestimate blind kids. They’re brilliant.

And now I’m procrastinating homework. I have 4 papers due this week and I’m not looking forward to writing them. But then on Friday we head off for our rural homestays. 7 hours away from campus in the middle of NO WHERE alone. For 12 days with families we don’t know at all. Living in huts. Literally living like Africans. I’m really nervous but I’m also excited b/c I know how much I love my Ugandan family here in Mukono so I’m sure this next family will be just as great. It’s just going to be A LOT more “African” cuz we’re gonna have to do all the hard chores and we’re not sure if the families speak English yet or not. Sooo- I’m sure I’ll have lots to blog about when I get back. Not to mention we’ll have NO connection with anyone at all. Just me and my new Ugandan family for 12 days. So yeaaah. It’ll be interesting :) And after that we’re going to Sipi Falls- which is this beautiful waterfall on the border of Uganda and Kenya and we get to hike :) So it’ll be an amazing next week!

I guess I should start some homework- but I don’t want to finish my blog without saying how incredibly REAL God has been to me lately :) Just through nature, silence, interaction with my friends, journaling, prayer time, I feel soooo much closer to God than ever before :)

I love Africa- if you can’t tell :)

Love <3

Bethany Diane Joy