Life in Uganda: Update Three

It’s not every morning that a 10 year old Ugandan boy walks into your room holding a machete and exclaims, “let’s go to the jungle!” And so into the jungle we went, with Kabite, our trusty guide, because we were not about to miss this opportunity. We spent the night before watching The Lion King, so much of our time trekking around was spent singing “Hakuna Matata.” Kabite even gave us “slashing” lessons with the machete and was fairly satisfied with our performance. It’s moments like this that seem like a happy dream, something you only imagine but didn’t think you would ever get to experience.  

Because school is still on holiday, we have spent the last few days filled with lots of preparation, cleaning, and hanging out. The tribal dance night was a big success, and our friends embraced the Macarena and Electric Slide with much gusto. We decided we are just not wired like the Africans, and our attempts at the hip and booty shaking were pretty laughable. I was more successful at a calypso number, but I think only young kids do that dance. So, I’ll be a big hit at the next kindergarten dance party I attend!

It’s been a big adjustment to living life here, but things are starting to feel more “normal.” I no longer take running water or power for granted, but everything is much less shocking in week two. I’m thankful for my rural upbringing. hanging laundry on the line, jungle gardening with the locals, and even chasing pigs back to their pen is less foreign. The property is on 150 acres of jungle land, which makes for a great place for star-gazing, taking walks and playing capture the flag at night. During the game it was so dark that I followed a few fireflies, thinking they were people and almost ran right into a giant spider web. But I’m thankful to be out in the country and not it the crazy, crazy city of Kampala.

This is taking community living to a whole new level, as one of the families has 15-20 high school and college students who live with them during their school breaks, and there are constant people around. I thought I had experienced a lot living in the dorms for all of those years, but this is different and is putting my own selfishness and expectations about what I deserve to the test. It’s been good for me learn again the basic lessons of sharing and thankfulness for what I have, admitting that I am not as into sharing my space with dozens of people as I thought. But I am learning to see the joy in it as well, that in community we learn much about ourselves and much about the character of God.

Next week we will be doing teacher training and preparing for some new curriculum for the last term of the year. I’ll write more next week as I learn more about my role, but for now it looks like I’ll be helping assist in a classroom as well as help with one of the families during the week.