Home-Stays and Such

Today is hot. One of those days that as soon as you walk outside the sun feels like an oven on your exposed skin. I’ll take this over winter, but it makes me just want to lay out with the smell of salt and the sound of the ocean in the background. The smells here are instead of red dust, burning garbage, whatever is cooking on the street and other bodies. This is Mukono.

Classes at UCU have been really great so far. I’m enjoying them immensely as it’s challenging my perspective on culture, religion and life in general. Just being here has been challenging my perspective on life... In classes, we’ve been discussing things from our own personal expectations to the African mindset of politics, religion, family, etc. The (good) conversations I’ve had with most of the Ugandans have also revolved around these issues. It seems like there is a genuine interest in social change, and the students on campus really seem to be striving for social justice started from within.  Some people are hopeful that the next generation of leaders will bring about the change that everyone desires, while others are skeptical and cynical. It’s pretty interesting once you realize that people are the same everywhere. Our skin color and living situations may be different, but kids are kids, students are students, parents are parents – even here in Uganda.

This past weekend, those of us who are living on campus got taken to stay at local homes for two weeks. During this time, we will be part of a local family while attending classes during the week. Other than all being within 50 minutes walking distance, these families are as different from one another as possible. Some of these homes are very western with very “modern” families, while others are what most Americans would probably call a “typical” African home. I’m in a “typical” home. On our compound is a main house with a dining room (used loosely), living room, three bedrooms and a bath room (not a bathroom, a bath room – a small room with a drain). There is another building that has the kitchen (loosely), a room to hold the chicks (I’ll explain in a minute), a storage room and I believe another bedroom. Another building houses the latrine (probably my least favorite part). There are two buildings for the chickens and another for the watchman. My family consists of Mama Ruth, her husband Ronald (I think), her children Ivan (20-22?), Joan (17), Sarah (14-15?), and Hannah (6). Also living with us is Aaron (2), her nephew, and the watchman, who is Emmanuel (I think). She also has two children who no longer live with us, Richard, the doctor, and Irene the teacher. I may be meeting them sometime next weekend. Mama Ruth raises chickens and sells the eggs, I think she has between 200-300 chickens; each chicken house is the size of the main house. Ronald is a mechanic. Ivan goes to University for business and helps with the chickens and the cows (Oh, we have 2 cows: Sarah, named after the daughter, and Isaac, Sarah’s son), Joan and Sarah are both in high school and Hannah is in primary school. Oh, they gave me a new name too, Nasali (is NOT pronounced nasal-y, fyi).

My host family has been so wonderful in trying to incorporate me and make me feel welcome in their home. I am so appreciative, but the transition has not been easy. I thought I was pretty adaptable, but apparently not as much as I expected. I am trying to learn though, they showed me how they cook, I got to peel sweet potatoes and matoke without a peeler, and I’ve been able to help with dishes. Other than that, I feel very out of place considering my skin is a different color (which I think scares Aaron), I can’t speak the language and I have no idea what’s going on most of the time. Mama Ruth and I were talking about how in America, we rely on machines for everything. Our kitchens have machines to cook, wash dishes, store food. We do laundry with machines, most people vacuum instead of sweep. Our showers run when we turn them on without our thinking twice about it AND they give us whatever temperature we want! Side-note: I did get to have a hot bath yesterday; it was pretty wonderful, even if it was out of a bucket! Dumping the warm water over my head felt SO good J Ok, so even in the past few days, going without has made me realize how much of who I am is dependent on that. How much my happiness is dependent on my comfort. Which pretty much makes me a total jerk. The people who have been living with families the entire semester have said that the awkwardness goes away, so I’m counting on that, but for right now the adjustment is more difficult than I would like to endure. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures of my family and our house later this week.

Fun fact: The border of Kenya and Tanzania (look it up) has a “blip” in it because Queen Victoria wanted to gift Mt. Kilimanjaro to her nephew. Who cares about the people already living there, right?!