life update

tonight is the last night with my host family. the evening will include a concert with my host dad... should be very very interesting :) tomorrow our practicum begins and everyone in the group is moving away. i am staying in kampala and there are about ten of us who will be living in a hostel near makerere university (including caleb who is going to be working with the anglican church here in kampala, learning about development through the church). so for the next six weeks i am going to be researching the relationship of policy between japan and uganda. japan has a really big presence here and a lot of money coming in to fund development. i am interested in the effectiveness of this aid and what the advantages are to direct bilateral aid rather than multilateral (for example the UN or World Bank). i have a meeting with JICA (the organization that heads all the projects) this monday morning. unfortunately this meeting should have taken place awhile ago, it has been difficult to make contact and so i dont have a specific picture of what my research will look like and what the opportunities through JICA are. so please be praying for favor :)
it will be so wonderful to live inside the city and to live on our own. i am feeling some fatigue from the daily commute and the mice and/or rats that i come across at home. the ugandan men also become waring. something about always feeling like a spectacle and constantly being commented on.
the next six weeks will be really fun as all of our friends will be all over then country so we will get to travel to all the amazing party of this country :)
book i am reading: the white man's burden by william easterly about how development does not happen by all the great plans that so many organizations have (millennium development goals) because there is no accountability and the west comes in and gives the poor what the west has decided they need, not what the poor actually need. of course he does not have all the answers on all to solve world poverty either but it certainly is an interesting perspective.
life here is wonderful. we have been here for two months now and are settling into kampala. there are good parts and there are bad parts but it is such a fun adventure.

Eastern Uganda

For four days my friend Erin and I lived in a rural homestay in Eastern Uganda. In a place with no water, no electricity, and no paved roads for miles it was the quietest I have been in a long time. Our time was spent doing research on gender roles in school age children but also a lot of time reading, napping, sitting, and eating very good food. Everyone in the village where we lived were peasants as lived by subsistence farming. Our family had cows, goats, rabbits, pigeons, chickens, and a very cute kitten. The family had eight children which is about average for rural families. The stars were unbelievable. As I sat outside in quiet after a full day of... not much I recognized how different my life was at that moment then it so often is at school. I was not exhausted, wasn't over committed, and was not running from one thing to the next. I was amazed at how different lives people can lead. I felt privileged to get to be part of both.
Here is another thought... the family that I was living with had enough food to feed their family, a primary school for all children to go to school, and a a few bicycles for transportation. And the village seemed to peaceful, content, and most people truly seemed so happy. So maybe all the development we always are talking about and entrepreneurs, electricity, commercial farming, all the things people often push that a simple way of life is what people want. People should not be denied rights of access but maybe it shouldn't be forced upon people either, a standard that we think is best for people. ...Something to ponder
Our week was also spent at Sippi falls where we stayed in these cabins on a mountain and hiked up to the most beautiful. Two mornings we even woke up to pancakes! Sitting on the porch with coffee and my bible I was reminded of the goodness of God, how big he is and how beautiful his creation, and also for how much he cares for me and all that he is doing.
So Blessed :)

today is your day, tomorrow will be theirs

i met the most beautiful people today. i sat and talked with refugees from sudan, congo, and somolia. they told me their stories. it was like the things i have read in books, seen on the news, or talked about. but for these people it was their story.
one man was a teacher in the congo. his students were taken by the rebels to be made child soldiers. when he tried to protest he was kidnapped and tortured. he has been in uganda since 2008 but has not heard from his wife or children, he may never see them again. here in uganda he carries bricks for construction workers as his only option.
my heart broke as a woman told me about being raped. i wanted to weep but she did not even shed a tear. another man remembers watching his parents being kidnapped. they fled the village for fear of being killed by the rebels.
i cried with a 19 year old girl from somalia. her eldest brother was killed and her mom was unable to come to uganda with her father and younger brothers. she told me that she was studying law here in uganda at the islamic university. she needed $5 in order to take her examination. since she could not pay the fee she had to drop out of school.
i told her that i was going to university, she told me to please use it. she asked me what i was going to do, what was it that i wanted now that i had seen what i have seen. i told her that i wished that the opportunities i had could be the same other people had... all the while knowing that is impossible and having absolutely no idea why i can pay $32,000 for school and she does not get to pay the $5 for her exam. she asked me what i thought when i saw teenagers on the street. and then said a proverb and she told me it mean that "today you have, today is your day but tomorrow they will have, tomorrow will be theirs"

i am reminded many many time from people that i come from "the land of opportunity" that they too want to come to america. but the thing is i dont know why america was made to have so much opportunity and even more i cant know why i get to be from there, or why my skin is white, or why even in america i am given so many more opportunities than people around me. i am blessed, i know that. but i guess i wont ever quite know why, i just know that with it i need to do something.