This is why I do what I do.

I know you all hear a lot about Masaka, but I do come here a lot... do a lot of work here... and have a very deep love for the people I know here.  So, more about Masaka.

Tonight, I am writing from the Mawanda's house.  I've never stayed here before... but because of my almost Jesus like wandering living situation, I was able to come and stay with this beautiful family for a night.  I will be sleeping in 6 different beds in 9 days this week! ... 5 of them are in a row. 

As much as I don't like carrying everything I own on my back, it does mean I get time with people I love, and am able to really invest in relationships. 

The last day has been inspiring beyond words.  I was encouraged by my mentor at Cornerstone, Alfred Edekasi, to collect stories from the places where we've run the 10 principles course.  So instead of focusing on work work work this week, I've decided to focus on people and relationships. 

These stories are blowing me away.  I will try to regularly post them, as well as putting them in some small booklet form or something... they are so inspiring and encouraging. 

As much as I'd like to write all of them here right now... I will just give you the best one...

"... before I did not have peace.  Now, I have peace"  Winfred...  She was sharing with me about how she use to be very reactive, it had damaged all of her relationships and she had no peace in her life.  But now, as she is striving to live more proactively, her relationships with others have been repaired, you can see a visable change in her face... and she now knows peace.

This is why I do what I do.


I've been in Masaka for over a week.  I was teaching at a youth program at a youth center called Delta which is run by one of my new best friends Fr. Michael... such a great person. 

The week long program went very well.  We had 50 participants, including 3 young men who are working as Cornerstone Veritas interns.  They loved the program and even helped me facilitate a little bit.  The week reminded me how much I love young people.  We had an awesome facilitating team... over 20 people worked together to make this thing.

I taught 5 session and helped with a night session as well.  It was a lot, but it was a good a lot.  We, the team, got up before 6 everyday!  And, I actually managed to get up every day!!  That is a miracle.

The week was especially deep for me, as I've been going through some personal challenges.  A few things happened which brought me to a new and positive place in my life.  I think a lot of it had to do with being in a really loving environment, consistantly for more than a few days... I really needed that constant love to help me to heal and be restored.

I spent last night with my family at HTCommunity and am now with the Mawandas... and my heart is continuing to be refreshed.   These people bless me more than I can fully express. 


Sometimes, you just need love and acceptance.   This is Masaka.

Christmas Part One: Christmas Eve

(this is the second time I’ve written this post… I lost it once, so I’m sorry if it’s not well written)

Christmas eve dawned an over cast day.  The morning proved wet and rainy, which made leaving on time to go to Carol’s was impossible.  I spent the morning packing and singing Christmas carols.  I left my house about midday.  I hadn’t been to Carol’s house before, but I followed her instructions.  I had to wait a long time for the right taxi, but finally it came and I communicated with the distracted conductor that where I needed to be let off.  We drove around at high speeds, until finally the driver looked and me and said “You get out here”.  I jumped out.

It feels like every trading center in Uganda looks the same.  Once you learn to find things in one, you feel comfortable in all.  Most people who are not African would be intimidated, and not understand how people can function in trading centers… but really it’s not hard at all.  I got out and stood with my things.  A boda pulled up quickly, and we haggled a price.

I arrived to the place Carol told me, and she came to meet me.  We walked down to her family’s beautiful house and compound.  She was in the middle of cooking, but set me up to wait in the family room.  I slowly met the children, her mom and eventually her wonderful Father, Papa Henry.  I was served tea in a very African style, and was kept company by strange boy band videos and the two youngest children. 

Carol knows that I hate sitting around.  So she allowed me to come and help cook!  This is incredibly rare in Uganda.  I felt really loved.  They have a traditional outdoor kitchen, which uses fire wood and charcoal for cooking.  I was given my own charcoal stove and the things I needed to make African Spaghetti… it’s pretty different from ours.  I had never used a charcoal stove before, but it was a success!  I learned a lot about how it’s impossible to keep anything clean… no wonder germs find their way everywhere. 

We ate lunch after cooking, I sat with Papa Henry and he proudly told me about his family.  It’s a sad situation:  He had a job for a long time with an Italian NGO.  Then the NGO lost funding, and so he lost his job.  None of the family member have paying employment.  While he worked at the NGO he was proactive, and started a chicken farm.  But right when he lost his job, the price of chicken feed went up.  Due to rampant dishonesty, the people selling the chicken feed started mixing the corn meal with sand, and other things which eventually kill the chickens… just to make extra money.  All of the 1000 chickens eventually died.  Now the family only has a small number of roosters, which they sell and eat.  They also have a small farm.  But this is the real face of 80% unemployment and the price of corruption and dishonesty.  Poverty is a lack of justice.

playing Snakes and Ladders

Dora

Then we had a family game.  I had brought snakes and ladders, almost everyone played except for Papa!  Even Mama Bernadette played and enjoyed herself.  I realized how family deprived I am, as I was part of a laughing, joking, joyful group that really love each other. I need more family. It was the highlight of Christmas Eve I think.  Jude, who is 10 year old and down syndrome, won the game!

Carol hoping...

Mama got really in to the game, and laughed constantly!

Then I rested for a little while, and went back to the kitchen.  More cooking, this time chips… which I didn’t do great at.  But oh well.  Cooking took a very long time, and a rooster lost its life at Carol’s hand!  I didn’t watch.  We had planned to eat before going to church, but there was no time.  We ran to get ready after finishing the food and then Carol, Dora (the one who follows Carol, she is super sweet!) and I got on bodas and went to the church.  I wore my orange kitenga to celebrate. 

Carol and our soon to be dinner

peak-a-boo while peeling potatoes with Jude

making chips :)

We cooked for so long it got dark... this is my charcoal stove at night.

Their son/brother works at Serena hotel, and gives the family bags of slippers!

We got there late, just during the first reading, but found comfortable seats.  The mass was in Luganda, but Carol is an excellent translator, so for the homily/sermon she filled me in.  The dancing was beautiful as they brought the gifts up to the front of the church.  Always the highlight of big feast days like Christmas.

The mass lasted from 8-9:40, not bad at all.  But I was tired and hungry and ready to speak English… when the announcements started.  I am not joking… they took a WHOLE hour.  I was Dying.  I actually pulled out my book and read while people endlessly talked. If you ever need to fill time, just give a Ugandan a microphone… oh.dear.god.

So by 11 pm we were out of the church, I was about ready to pop a lid.  We walked for a long ways, and I got a phone call while walking.  So I talked/listened to Sr. Linda talk to me while trying not to die walking on the pot holed and pitted shoulder of the road, dodging ankle breaking holes, people, cars, and motorcycles.  Yeah, it was fun.     

We got bodas, and went home.  As we walked from the road to the house, we looked at the stars and joked about being three queens… we loudly sang, or at least tried to sing, “We Three Kings” as we linked arms and tried not to fall on the rough road. 

We were greeted at home by the whole household.  The food was lukewarm… no microwaves remember.  We served up dinner and I set up to see if I could skype with my family.  It ended up being a huge family event which was great.  Carol’s whole family got to meet my family over skype!  It was such an awesome experience for all of us.

The whole family got to skype (not all in the photo)

Late night dinner after church

I headed to bed, tired but happy to be celebrating Christmas with a real family.

Christmas Part 2: Christmas Morning

I was awoken on Christmas morning at probably close to 5:30 AM (after sleeping at nearly 2 am) by one of Ugandan’s favorite Christmas songs being blared through the house.  Half the family was up.  For the next 2 hours, I went in and out of sleep.  I was glad that Carol wasn’t up, we got up at the same time.  

Just as I got out of bed, Papa told me he was leaving.  I threw on some proper clothes so that I could say goodbye to him before he went for his service at the outstation where he is in charge.  The morning was a bit slow.  I gave Carol her Christmas gift (a nice year planner) and she ran around the house, jumping up and down with excitement at this gift.  It’s amazing how far a small gift goes here.  When you don’t get gifts, receiving one is something huge.  Eventually we had breakfast together, and I gave a gift to the family…. Sugar and hot chocolate mix.  A very Ugandan gift.  I played a last game of Snake and Ladders with Jude to keep him occupied, and then rested a little while while everyone else got ready.

We went up to the main road, and I said goodbye to the beautiful family.  I jumped a taxi which took me all the way to Nakawa Market.  It was amazing to see how everything was open on Christmas and there were large numbers of people shopping!  Public transport was in full swing, and there were many cars on the road.  I got home about 10:30 and took a nap because I hadn’t slept much the night before.  Then I got up and started cooking for the rest of the day…

My internet decided not to work, so I only got to talk to Martha for a few short minutes.  

Christmas morning I was greeted by a small kitten outside my door

A present!

Me and the kids... ready to open

Jude excited about coco and sugar!

Dora, Tina and silly Carol reading their Christmas card from me!

Christmas Part 3: "The Homeless Boys"

Note:  There will be a lot over posts over the next week or so, because I want to catch up before the next few months get ahead of me! 

This is Christmas, backwards.

Christmas Sunset

When I was trying to figure out what I was doing for Christmas,  I discovered that the 2 guys I share an office with had no plans at all!  Slowly, over time, I discovered several other young men who had no where to go on Christmas.  To me, that is ridiculous.  So I made Christmas.  As I cooked on Christmas afternoon I had that weird song from The Nightmare before Christmas stuck in my head “Making Christmas, Making Christmas, Falala”

Having cooked the afternoon away, the boys (Javis and Denis) finally came to pick me up.  We piled food, a Christmas tree, lights, and random other things into their car and were off. We went to Wandegyre, where we met my friend Amani who didn’t have any Christmas plans.  Another guy, Isaac, met us in his car and we drove back to Javis and Denis’s place.  I had been there the week before, so I knew what kind of bachelor pad I was going into. 

Amani, Denis and I

Javis and Isaac

After scrapping together what random plates, cups, and silverware we could find, we ate and talked, listened to music, and danced.  I brought poppers which I occasionally set off.  The guys loved them, they had never seen them before. 

After dinner, Javis our DJ, had put on some slower music, which had a bit of a waltz beat.  So I told Javis I should teach him to waltz.  This turned into a general waltzing lesson for all 3 of the guys, which was great fun and a fantastic laugh.  They weren’t bad at all. 

Denis breaking out his moves

Waltz lessons!

Javis

Denis

Amani in motion

We played a small game of telephone Pictionary, which was sort of hard with 4 people.  But it still provided a few good laughs.  The guys were then ready to start the movie, but I had one last trick in my bag.  I gave each of them gifts.  Not anything big, just a personal card, mixed CD and some poppers for each of them, but they were all over the moon.  Denis told me, with a beautiful look on his face, that no friend of his had ever given a him a Christmas gift, he’d never gotten a gift on Christmas!  That sort of made up for the fact I didn’t get anything this year.  

The guys enjoying their gifts!

 After gifts we turned on Cowboys and Aliens, but were interrupted ½ an hour in by Counselor!  Counselor is one of my closest friends at Cornerstone, and was among the guys who told me he didn’t have anything to do on Christmas.  He came, and I gave him his gift and we talked for over an hour.  It was really good fun.

Then the guys wanted to take me back, because they didn’t want to be on the road late.  I was sad not to finish the movie, but knew it was for the best.

Counselor!!  Note:  In Uganda, holding hands is a sign of friendship, and is very common :)

The trip home was a terrible end to an ok Christmas.  Long story short… we spent an hour and a half with a police man, and it was not a pleasant experience.  The night did end with me driving for the first time in Uganda… Merry Christmas to me!  It was a sadly stressful way to part with the guys.  

Merry Christmas!

But my family is amazing.  We talked on Skype from 12:30 to 2 am (my time) and my dad and Hannah made me laugh a lot… I really love my family, and miss them a lot.  

Happy New Year! Welcome to 1980!

So my blog posts about the holidays will be backwards... :)

My New Years was saved by a last minute facebook post.  I saw that one of my white friends was going to be in Kampala for New Years, and I asked her what she was doing, which led to me getting myself invited to the small gathering of our “group” of white people.  There are about 30-40 young, white, expat development workers, most of whom are Christian who do things together.  Generally we meet weekly for dinner and some random discussion, but we also throw parties and celebrate holidays together sometimes.  Thanksgiving being the most notable.

I thought the whole crew was away, but on New Years Eve found out that a faithful few had returned from various Christmas travels.  It was a dinner party, I took dessert… which was a hit, thankfully. 

I was so grateful to be with my white friends on New Years.  I know that sounds strange, but we celebrate very differently than Ugandans do.  My sanity was not telling me that being in a big church for 9 hours, overnight, was going to be my best bet.  Many African spend New Years in church… which is cool.  I have nothing wrong with that, it just was not what I was up for.

The food was great.  The people and random things we did were very fun.  It’s a fantastically “safe” group of people… so just a lot of laughing and strange conversation.  Good strange. 

We decided that we wanted to watch the ball drop, but seeing as we are 8 hours ahead of New York, we knew that wasn’t really possible.  But Bethany and I put our heads together.  We decided to find the oldest ball drop video online and use that.  YouTube had a 1963-1964 video which we went with.  But right during the count down the internet stopped working , and for some reason jumped to the ball drop of 1979-1980.  So we saw that ball dropping, but they had no count down… so we were all rather confused.  Finally we just decided it was new years as a very bright colored (VERY 80’s) screen came up on the video saying 1980!

We all toasted our champagne and wished each other a very happy 1980.

The rest of the night consisted of very bored development practitioners trying to find fun things to do.  We did an online quiz to see if we could name all the Disney movies, and also all the countries of the world.  We did ok.  Then the 4 of us who were still around realized that none of us actually lived in the house where we were and that everyone who did had gone to bed/was in their room.  So we decided we should probably leave.

Finishing off the bottles of champagne, we decided it was not time to end this party.  It was me, Scott K, Scott A, and Bethany.  Both of the Scotts live in the neighborhood we were in.  Scott K had his car, so we went to his place (which is sssuuupppeerr nice).  Then, at 2 am, we started a game of Monopoly.   

Apparently there is strategy in Monopoly, and Scott K and Bethany apparently know this strategy.   I wasn’t really paying too much attention to actually winning.  Scott K killed us all. 

Then we wanted to get on the roof, to see if there were any fireworks.  But the roof was inaccessible.  However, the water tower was not.  Scott A and I went looking for other climbing options, and Scott K and Bethany went up the water tower.  I also checked out Scott K’s boy’s housing.  Most African compounds have a separate house for the young men/cousins/ random gate keepers/etc.  But no one is living in Scott’s right now, and I am thinking about moving in there if I have need.  It’s a nice place, a sitting room, small bedroom and very nice bath. Nice and private too.

Then I joined them on the water tower and told them the view wasn’t very good.  And because of the lack of view, we decided to go see my view, on top of my apartment.  So at about 3:30 we got in the car and drove the 5 minutes to my place, climbed the stairs to the roof and enjoyed the great view.  We eventually randomly started looking up bible verses about Justice, which proved an amusing conversation.

They headed out about 4:30 and I went to bed.  For just a moment I felt like I was back where I do fun, exciting and random things with people… which has generally not been my African experience.

At 10:15 on New Years Day I was woken up by the loudest music in the world.

What a great start to the new year.