Friday August 7th, 2009

Hi friends,

I haven’t been updating my blog aside from my supporter updates but hopefully I can change that. J Things are going well here…..Melissa and I work well together and I am really thankful that God planned for her to be here with me even though neither one of us had any idea until the last minute. It turns out that my main role here is tutoring, which is fine, but not one of my strong points as I don’t actually have a teaching degree. Melissa does, so that has helped a lot.

So, funny story. One day this past week Melissa and I went to the market on our own. We were quite proud of ourselves for buying carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, and eggs, all without getting overcharged (muzungu price). As we were leaving, Melissa decided to buy some beans. She got two different kinds. Yesterday, we decided it was time to do something with the beans. Melissa opened one bag and put them in the pot, then got the others out… we were surprised at how much they resembled peanuts, but added them to the pot anyway. A little while later Melissa was checking to see how the beans were going. She got a spoonful out and called me into the room. “Does this look like a peanut to you?” She split the small brown “bean” in half and we realized….yes… they were peanuts. So…we have created a new African delicacy. Melissa has named it “Beanut soup.” We have plans to finish cooking it, invite our African friends over, and tell them it is an American specialty. Check back later to find out how THAT goes.

In our defense, African peanuts (called groundnuts) really DO look a LOT like beans. And they sell them NEXT to the beans in the market.

When we first got here, with the team and all, Ugandan culture didn’t really seem all that different from American culture (aside from small stuff) but the longer I am here the bigger the difference seems. I bought a Lwo-English dictionary (Lwo is another word for the Acholi language) and the selection of words alone made me realize how completely different their world is. This book is for use in primary and secondary schools, so the selection of words are intended to be common, useful words. From only one page, we find the Lwo words for “restlessness, being mentally ill or weak-minded”, “ancestral shrine”, “I have charmed or hypnotized”, and “black magic.” I was unaware, until I got here, of how prominent witchdoctors still are. Occasionally we hear of children who were kidnapped and murdered for certain body parts that the witchdoctors use. Most of the children we meet in the camps (and even some in town) have their left ear pierced with a small twig in it. Supposedly, if you are pierced, then your body is no longer perfect and you are of no use to the witchdoctors. It’s discouraging to see how much fear and suspicion have a grip on so many lives here.

Today was our day off. Melissa and I started off by cleaning the house and straightening our rooms, then we came into town to meet with a friend and eat “lunch” (at 5 PM). Now we are finishing up here and plan to have an equally relaxing evening.

Thanks for reading J sorry this was short - more to come soon, hopefully.

Sarah