Memories

A year ago today, I stepped on a plane and left my family, knowing it would be at least a year before I would see them again, if not two or more. I honestly took a huge step of faith in God that this wasn't going to be the biggest mistake of my life, that He would protect me and help me grow in Him. He has pulled through in unexpected ways.

My dad posted a picture of him, my mom, and me (my sister was sick with mono at the time) at the airport just before I left. With it was this prayer. (Fair warning: It very well might make you cry.)

Heavenly Father,

It is now time for my little girl off to depart for what will be the adventure of her life. It’s been an amazing process, this parenthood thing…it seems like it was just yesterday that she was born, and I blinked and she was going to school, then blinked again and she was graduating from high school, and then going away to college, and then graduating from college, …and now she is leaving my protection for the next 27 months.

When she was a baby we dedicated her to You. She has grown up in, and is still in, the midst of Your presence and blessings. She is my child, and blessedly and assuredly Yours. It is now time to fully commend her to You, for her safety and protection, for blessings to continue to be poured out into her life, and for her to bless people from her unselfish and giving heart.

I pray that you place your angels all about my little girl…one in front, one on the left, one to the rear, one to the right, and one on each corner around her, to shield her from anything visible and invisible, obvious and not, that no harm from the evil one may be able to come near her.

I pray for your traveling mercies. Bless her and all who are involved in her travels.

When she reaches her new land:

I pray that you have a family prepared to receive her, that she can bless them as they bless her.

I pray that you have a church prepared for to receive her, so she has a new church family to bond with.

I pray that learning the new language and culture come naturally and easily.

I pray that adjusting to the new culture and position go smoothly, with no bumps in the road, and that all in authority give support and assistance where and when needed.

I pray for “peace that passes all understanding,” that no anxiety remains, that joy is found in all avenues taken, that time passes quickly, and that homesickness will be an afterthought.

I pray for your will to be made known to her plainly as she tries to follow Your plan for her life.

Watch over my little girl who has grown into a beautiful and powerful young woman in You. I so look forward to when you bring her back to us.

It is in Jesus’ mighty name that I pray these things…

Amen, and Amen.

I read this in the airport, waiting for my plane to depart, tears streaming down my face even harder than they had been while going through security. I can't quite articulate how hard it was to leave my family, to see my dad crying on that day because of my departure. My mom cried the whole week before. I can't quite articulate how much I rely on these two people who brought me into this world even though I'm 23, almost 24, and living on a completely different continent. Our weekly phone calls are a serious part of what keeps me sane.

God has done amazing things for me in this past year. Growing hurts, it really does, but I'm so glad I followed Him. The bumps in the road may not have been what I wanted, but they were good for me. He may not have answered all of my requests in the way I thought they would be answered, but they all have come through. They didn't always come through in my time, but His timing is perfect. He is challenging me to become bolder in Him, to know scripture solidly so that I can reach the lost, and of course to trust Him in His perfect timing even though I can't see everything as far out as I want to. He wants me to know Him in the same way He knows me, even if that means not going to church and rather just studying His Word. He's taught me that living in the moment has its place so much more than I ever realized. Now I'm just trying to figure out the balance of that and planning.... :P

I have met amazing people here. I have become more of an adult here (although I refuse to grow old as old as I get). I have learned to really roll with the punches of life, to trust that everything is going to be okay. I've learned that introvert nights are not only okay but necessary. I've learned to preserve through everything because so often things come together just after I would have normally thrown in the towel.

But I still have so much to learn. God is still stretching me, still teaching me things. He always will. As much as I hate growing pains, I love the outcome. I can't wait to see where I am a year from now!!

Growing Up

 I woke up this morning in my typical way. Actually, it was a bit worse than normal. The chickens woke me up at 7:00 pm, and I could hardly open my eyes until 7:40 am. By the time I got out of bed, it was 8:10 am. I knew I needed to bathe, but I also knew I didn’t have any pressing reason to be at school until tea at 11:00 am. After my bath, I took the time to wash my feet because I’ve been in Kyenjojo a lot recently, which is much dustier than Fort Poral, and I was ready to head to school by about 10:00 am. When I looked in the mirror as I was brushing my teeth, though, I saw something new: I look like an adult.

This weekend, I directed a one-day camp for the PCTs and some students in Kyenjojo. I signed up for this responsibility, excited to be able to try something new and also because it didn’t sound like it would be tooooooo much work. It turned out to be more work than I thought but still manageable. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as I know everyone involved did. The PCTs taught the students about HIV/STIs and budgeting and savings, and I brought my youth with me who went to YTT as well as the ones who attended YTT with another PCV. They facilitated sessions on Leadership and Gender along with a couple of PCTs who wanted some extra practice facilitating. Everyone did a wonderful job facilitating, and the students learned so much! I even got to teach some Team Building exercises to lead into the leadership session. It was easier than I expected to release control to all twelve facilitators even though I’ve never seen them facilitate before.

Get to know you in English

Get to know you in Rutooro

Practicing Rutooro

Budgeting and Saving

What business could you open if you saved 10,000 =/ per week?

Human knot!

Hovering...stick?

Do you trust the driver?

GROUP PHOTO!

The whole day ran behind schedule in proper Ugandan fashion, and I seemed to be the only American who was completely unbothered by it. I had not been able to properly reflect on my growth in that aspect before then, but I remember internally freaking out about our mini-camp running behind schedule. I had gotten to the point that it no longer made me angry, but I was still annoyed that we were so far behind schedule. On Saturday, though, I inherently knew that it was more important for learning to happen than for us to remain on schedule. Although this has been an ideology of mine for years, I have had difficulty acting on it until now. I did not interfere except on the prompting of others to move the schedule along. As long as people are learning, the schedule can go jump off a roof.

Maybe I shouldn’t make this post about me. Maybe I should focus on the participants and on the facilitators. But today I am proud of myself in a way I have never been proud of myself before. I am growing in myself and in God while I am here. Never have I loved myself like I do now. Never have I studied the Word like I do now. Never have I felt closer to God or closer to my true life’s purpose. Never have I taken on a huge project like this and not even stressed out about things not coming together until the day before the camp. (We were still working with the caterer on the morning of the event….) Never before have I been able to lead an event without micromanaging, truly just checking in and following up instead of wanting to know every single step. Never before have I been such an … adult.

Sure, there are days when I hole up in my house and refuse to come out because of something petty. There will always be days like that. Along the same vein, there will always be days like today when I wear a wrinkly shirt to work and pretend it’s supposed to be like that. (I cannot stand irons!) Today, though, I feel like I have accomplished the next step towards feeling comfortable in my adult skin. If I can put together this mini-camp (with SO MUCH help from my language trainers), what is next?

New Blog Authors!!

I recently watched this AMAZING TED Talk by a Nigerian woman named Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It talked of how a single story is harmful. Specifically, she gave many examples from her own life of how the Western world’s single story of “the country of Africa” is harmful to the entire continent. Please, please, take the 20 minutes to watch this discussion. It may very well change your view on the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

One of my favorite quotes from this video is this: “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” Our stereotypes of “poor Africa” are incomplete. It is exactly 1/3 of my job to bring Uganda back home to America, to show the wonderful people of my beautiful country the amazing truth of Uganda, the truth behind the lives of the people here. Unfortunately, I am not necessarily the best person to do that. As much as my worldview has changed in the last seven months, being abroad will never, no matter how long I am away, completely strip away my America-colored glasses.

Thanks to a wonderful presentation by our Diversity Committee at IST, I have adopted an idea. I want to host guest authors on my blog. I am going to give the students and staff of my college the opportunity to tell you all what Uganda is like, from their own perspective. Before I do this, though, I want some information from you. What questions do you have about Uganda, about Africa? (Also, for my international readers, please don’t think this is limited to those in America.) Do you want to know what their daily lives are like? What about their cultures interests you? The possibilities are endless. Even if you have political questions, you’re welcome to ask them. I am unlikely to post them publicly, but I will gladly email the answers to you.

So post below or email me at bethanyinuganda@gmail.com if you would like to submit questions, and soon I will open up my blog to my students and colleagues! 

Love Redefined

So I have something to admit to you. I have fallen in love. His name is Austin, and he’s just over a year old. His parents are absolutely my best Ugandan friends, and he is mine. My baby. My Austin.

Things weren’t always so peachy with Austin, though. At first, he was very afraid of me. Having just turned 1, I wasn’t surprised. Babies at this age are very, very attached to their primary care givers, for Austin, his mom. He hardly wanted to leave her lap. He wouldn’t let me touch him, let alone hold him, and he was very obviously cautious of me. “He is afraid of your hair,” I was told. For some reason, Ugandans seem to think babies are afraid of European hair. Not our skin color, our hair.

Imagine you are a baby. Your whole live, that one whole year of life, you have only seen people who are dark-skinned. Sure, there is a bit of variation in the tone, but they are all dark. Logically, people are supposed to be dark. Then, one day, this light-skinned thing comes around. They can’t be a person because people are dark. But the thing talks and walks and moves like a person. Maybe something is wrong with them. They’re not dark. Now the light-skinned thing is trying hold you, trying to comfort you like mom does. It’s just not right. You begin to cry, afraid for your life…. Or at least that’s how I imagine a baby’s mind works.

So as you can imagine, I was expecting for Austin to be wary of me. It didn’t hurt my feelings when he didn’t want to be held; I understood. Over the first two months I was living in Fort Portal, we got to know each other. He and his mom would come over, and we would play cards or talk. He went with us to the market each week. Although he wasn’t talking yet, he actually seemed to understand when I spoke to him. (His parents are from completely different parts of the country, so they’re raising him with English.) Through time, he became comfortable enough to sit in my lap and play with me, but always with mom right there. By the time Easter rolled around, I was very sad to say goodbye to my man. I didn’t even know if he would remember me after a four-day weekend, considering we had seen each other almost every day for the last two months.

He fell asleep with that capati in his mouth
a few minutes later, the cutie.

When I came home from Easter, wearied from the long trip to Masindi, I spent the night alone, making my absence a whole five days. When I went to greet him and his family, his face absolutely lit up, and mine too. Not only did he recognize me, but he refused to sit with his mom, demanding to be held by me. It was easily one of the best days of the year so far. Shortly after this reunion, Austin and his mom went for a trip to Lira in northern Uganda. In theory, this would only be a few weeks, but nearly two months later, they’re about to return. I’m very, very excited about the return of my baby, to see how he has grown and matured. His dad tells me he’s walking on his own now and almost talking. I can’t wait to get a hug and see how it’s been!

Colors are not "gendered" in Uganda!
Pink is for everyone!

Pen Pals

So Peace Corps has this program called World Wise Schools in which you choose a classroom (or are assigned one if you prefer), and you are basically pen pals with that classroom in America. This can be executed in different ways, and I'll keep you all posted on how it works out. I already have a classroom chosen, though.

I will be keeping up with a teacher who is still very, very important to me. She was my gifted teacher through elementary school, and I still visit her at least once per semester. Of all the teachers I've had in my 17 years of school, she was the only one I invited to my going away party, she's that special. (And she taught me no two sentences [in a paragraph] start with the same word, just like in this blog post!)

Today I had the privilege of  talking one of the classes I will be pen pals with throughout my service. (Classes because of the structure of our gifted program. I'll be pen pals with K-6.) These kids used to be my kids when I was an A+ tutor in high school, and it was great to see them again. Most of all, though, it was great to share a little bit of Uganda with them and answer a WHOLE LOT of questions. Seriously, these kids probably asked me 100 questions over the hour and 15 minutes I was there.


So to my favorite classroom in the world: I am so excited that I am going to be able to share my experience with you. Keep the questions coming; I love answering them. Oh, and don't forget that Uganda is a country, not a state, and Africa is a continent, not a country. :)

One Month?!

I can hardly believe this day exists. I am leaving in one month. I will be in Uganda a month from Sunday. How is this possible?

Currently, I'm sitting on the dorm room floor of one of my friends, making my last visit to Kirksville before I leave. The day I got here, today, is one month from when I'll leave for Philadelphia and the day I leave, Sunday, is one month from when I'll be in Uganda for the first time. Everything is surreal right now.

Realistically, I'm closing in on everything. When I get home on Sunday, I will have a little less than a month to finish up buying everything, getting things settled with my phone, arranging personal property insurance... Oh, and y'know, packing. The more stuff I buy, the more I doubt that I'm going to be able to fit my entire life in two suitcases, at least not being able to have space for the food that everyone keeps telling me to bring. But that battle is going to be fought in a few weeks.

Speaking of, I have a busy schedule coming up! Well, busier than normal at least. I have a going away party being thrown for me up here on Friday, then next week I'm throwing myself a going away party, then the next week I'm going to a concert and then a wedding reception for my roommate...and then I leave.....

In case you can't tell, I can't quite grasp that I'm leaving in a month.

On the bright side, we got an email about PST! I was hoping for a staging email, but this email told us that we will be arriving in Uganda on November 11, then taking a 3 hour bus ride to our first training location. We have to turn in site bids on November 13, then we find out where our sites will be November 14! On the 15th, we will get a tour of Kampala, something I'm actually super excited about.

From November 30-December 11, we will be living at Shimoni Core Primary Teachers’ College doing Teachers' Bootcamp, learning how to do our jobs! Then from December 13-15 we have site visits!! (SO EXCITED) The last stint of PST is our homestay from December 19-January 17. The last week of PST is back in Kampala, with swearing-in on January 21, 2016!! (MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!) I can't wait to travel Uganda, see all there is to see, learn how to do my job, learn a new language or two,

Excited and terrified. Some of my best experiences in life have begun like this, most of them even. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm ready, but see I don't honestly think you can ever be ready for something so big in your life. I think Hugh can take this one away.

Languages

I feel like this quite is truly the heart of Peace Corps. Right now, I'm working with kids, speaking their language. It is preparing me for my service in many ways, mostly by trying my patience and stretching my appreciation for a life that is not technology centered. However, it is preparing me in another way. I am learning to interact with the completely different culture of these kids, both from the fact that they are kids and from their backgrounds. As exhausting as this job is, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to learn more from these kids than they will ever learn from me,the opportunity to experience a whole different culture from only two hours from home. Soon, I'll be a whole continent away...!