Easter and Finals and Hippos

• The internet has gone to crapsville lately, that is my excuse for the lack of blogs. No wait. I have a better excuse. Every night I bring my computer home and plan on writing a paper or a blog or doing some sort of homework. And every night one of my siblings takes my computer and plays Akon for 4 straight hours until the battery dies, or commits suicide due to Akon overexposure. That's a big problem among computers in Africa, Akon overexposure. Its tragic.
  
• I went on a safari last weekend and it was amazing! We camped in Murchison Falls national park. Hippos, warthogs and baboons were always wandering around our camp. We saw leopard tracks. We saw tons of giraffes and hippos and elephants. We had this van with a top that popped up and we could hang out the top while elephants walked right by us. SO COOL. It reminded me a lot of snorkeling. I could have gone back every weekend. We went on a game boat ride on afternoon down the Nile towards the falls. It was beautiful. The next morning we hiked around the top of the falls. It was exactly like when I was a kid and we used to hike around the national forest in New Hampshire, except this time we had an armed African following us around to keep away the hippos… We actually got in trouble with the guard because we ignored the signs and walked right up to the falls. Like sat on the edge and dangled our feet in the spray of the falls. Have I mentioned that I love Africa?
  
• Easter with my family was ridiculous and amusing. My host dad, who is never home, gave us a huge African guilt trip (African guilt is the WORST) about not being home on easter during the day. Well we got home for easter supper and we asked, do what did you do today? Nothing. Did you go to church? No, but we had soda! The big easter celebration that we missed was soda. Which admittedly is a big deal… but still. My mom had sent me a box filled with candy and easter eggs. I considered putting on an easter egg hunt for the neighbor kids, but then decided that an easter egg hunt in the dark for my teenage siblings would be a better use of resources, as in more candy for everyone. Hahaha. My siblings were hilarious searching for the eggs. 2 were hidden so well that they couldn't be found until the morning. The next day we died easter eggs, this was MUCH less popular than eggs full of candy. Who wants eggs full of eggs? Blech. The egg salad that I made was also NOT popular. As in looked at with disgust and not touched by anyone African.
  
• We had easter Monday off so I took the break to do a ton of chores that I have been needing to do. I was going to wash clothes, and bathe, and spend like an hour scrubbing all the dirt out of my feet. I ended up fetching a ton of water and helping Sarah do the entire family's laundry. We spent hours washing clothes (by hand) and chatting with each other. At one point she turned to me and asked, do you like talking like this? I was like ummm THIS is my favorite thing about living here! It was one of those perfectly mundane but yet perfectly wonderful days.
  
• This past weekend was spent studying for exams and hanging out with a good friend. Exams here are 3 hours long and people use the entire time! I finished first in my African Old Testament class. I used an hour and a half and then I stared out the window for a while. Then at like 2 hours I finally decided to be brave and stand up and turn my paper in. The professor smiled at me and said, "I knew you would be first." This morning I had a history of East Africa exam. It took an hour and twenty minutes and I wrote twelve pages! I have discovered that length and repeating yourself really bode well in African schooling.
  
• I have more to write but Suzan is stealing my computer. Will post again tomorrow.

I love the way you say good morning

I waited to write this post until I was not in the world's worst mood. And good thing I did because I woke up on the right side of the bed this morning and I feel like myself again. I thought I would be able to write about Rakai this week. We had an IMME trip there this past weekend. Fun Rakai facts… Rakai is in rural Uganda, 5 hours or more from the city. You can see Tanzania from it. It is thought to be the epicenter of the aids epidemic. HIV first appeared in the world in both Rakai and in somewhere in Zimbabwe at the same time in the 80's. The number of people infected with HIV in this area was over 30%. The infected rate is still higher than the rest of Uganda but it is now below 10% which is amazing. The point of our visit was to meet missionaries living in a rural community and see what their life was like and how they were responding to the needs of their community. I, unfortunately, spent the entire weekend sick in bed. So I didn't really see much of anything except the drive up and the drive back and the inside of the guesthouse bedroom. I had a fever and was incredibly dehydrated. I had to hold onto something while I walked because the world was spinning so much. So miserable. My contacts wouldn't stay in my eyes because I didn't have enough fluid in me. And my mouth dried up and stuck together. It sucked. Anyway if I had to get sick it was nice to do it in a place with a flush toilet and with all of my friends around. The weekend is a blur but I do remember one moment when a bunch of people were standing around my bed and saying things like "if you get better… I will download the next episode of Lost" or "If you die I will be very upset." Hahaha. Helpful!

As soon as we got back to Kampala we went to the doc and I am now getting better. Which is good because along with sickness I became extremely negative. Hating everything and everyone. On Monday my school had given me crackers and juice from Kampala because that was really all I could eat and I hadn't eaten anything all weekend. I told my siblings not to eat them because it was seriously all I could eat. I left the house for two hours on Monday and when I got home I found an empty juice container and a box with 3 crackers left. Too tired and much too defeated to confront anyone I went to lay down in my bed. I picked up my water bottle to take a sip and found that had been drunk as well. I sat on my bed and thought, "this is a low point." And then I wondered if my family was trying to kill me. Not ok. I hadn't been able to keep down any water since Friday and now I was finally ready to drink and there was not a drop of water in the house. It sounds ridiculous and funny now. My family is so strange I have to laugh. But I did NOT laugh at the time. The next day I got an incredibly well timed email of encouragement from Becky. I cried when I read the email which made my Ugandan friend very uncomfortable. Crying is not ok here unless someone dies. Becky thank you tons for the email, I needed it.

Right now I am sitting in my house, in the dark, listening to the giant rain drops on the tin roof. I love the rain but it seems even better today than most days. It is amazing what waking up on the right side of the bed will do. Today started good and got better. Before I left the house this morning I was at the edge of our property and my 20 yr old brother said to me, "hey, thanks for choosing to come to Africa." So sweet. This may have been influenced by the fact that I cooked him eggs Ugandan style for breakfast, and that I had let him watch like 8 straight hours worth of Lost on my computer (PTL for the extra battery). But I am going to choose to believe that none of those influenced his comment. He is just a sweet guy. I mean when he is not tripping me or lying to me or threatening to kick me out of the house. So sweet. Then later in the day I found that my siblings had opened the Post It note application on my computer and had left a note for me. Tonight I cooked an American meal. I made pasta with butter and tomatoes and parm cheese that I just received in a package. I bought honey at the store here and we had rolls with butter and honey. I think it was the best thing I have eaten in 3 months. But not the point. After the meal Sam whispered in my ear "I need to find an American so we can always eat this food." Then I had to forcibly take the honey away from Kevin so she wouldn't drink it. I think if she could she would just inject the sugar. J

At the beginning of the semester the school told us (students who are doing home stays) that our primary involvement is to be with our family. The students who live on campus can get involved in clubs and on campus activities, but we are to be with our families. I remember thinking it would be so dull. I worried that I had only brought one book to read for fun. What will I do with this Ugandan family every day??? Well it is not dull, not ever. It is frustrating, fun, strange, and confusing. I think if I spent every minute of every day with my family I would still never totally understand them. But every day I learn a little more about them and a little more about myself, a little more about how strange we all are and a little more about how the same we all are. I love how people are essentially people everywhere. To me that is Imago Dei, that thing that is the same in me and you and my Ugandan family. I have not yet opened that book I brought.

Thank you for your prayers. I appreciated them more this week than in any other so far. Everyone sounds stressed with school and work right now in America. So I am praying for you. Leaving for Safari tonight. Will write again next week. Happy Easter!