a few more pictures

well... I just uploaded a few photos with captions from when I had some friends over to my house for lunch on our last day... I think it's pretty self-explanatory...

enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/JustinStruik/DinnerWithFriendsAtMyHouseOnOurLastDay?authkey=NDlYSzr2nOU#

Matooke

Hey Everyone,

This is a bit of strange post, but in my search to find out if plantains and Matooke are the same thing, I found this interesting article that explains in detail the importance and preparation of Matooke in Uganda. I know some of you were probably wondering what the heck it was, and I think this will help you understand, since it is kind of hard to explain...

http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/homepage.asp?ID=539

enjoy,
Justin

Home...

Hey Everyone...

I made it home yesterday... Safe and sound and a day later than planned... Our flight was late from Amsterdam and so we missed our flight out of D.C. It would have been close anyway.... but when we were late it wasn't even close... our flight got in ten minutes after our next flight was supposed to leave...

So we tried to go and get another flight, but the only one available was at Reagan(across town 40 minutes away) at 8PM , and it was 7PM when we worked this out... So, we grabbed a taxi and tried to make it... The guy had told us it was a Delta flight, but when we got there the lady said it was a Northwest flight, and NWA is in a different terminal, so we caught a bus down to the next terminal, but alas, we were too late... At this point we were tired a bit frustrated, but the NWA guy, Ben was super nice and helpful. He set us up with new flights leaving the next morning at 6:40AM to MN... Since it was a technical problem with the plane being late, they put us up in a local Hilton motel, and gave us vouchers for supper and breakfast... and we got a free shuttle to the airport... It was glorious... :)

I was able to get a good transfer flight to DSM and was home by 11:30 AM, only about 12 hours later than what I was originally supposed to, and a whole lot more rested...

So, anyways, I am home now, beginning to try to get my body to adjust back to my normal time... although my body thinks I'm still in Uganda.... ;) I'm really tired right now because it's the middle of the night there..

I've gotten most of my stuff unpacked and now it's just sorting through it all and trying to know where to put it... catching up on stuff from the last four months and trying to know where to start in telling stories...

Just like going to Uganda, the way things have been coming back different things have surprised me than what I expected. I had thought about things and different things that would surprise me, but a lot of what expected to surprise me hasn't and other things I hadn't expected, has... but that's all part of the process...

Anyways, I'm sure I'll have more to say later... if you have any questions you want to ask, just email me and maybe I can blog about it for everyone...

well... back to cleaning up...

Justin

In the Airport....

Well... We're in the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam.... I just bought 24 hours worth of Wireless connection because it made sense than just the 90 minutes... but it was 16 Euros which I think is like $32... OUCH, but oh well.... I just checked more email in like 15 minutes than it would have taken me to check the same amount in like an hour at UCU... It's kind of cold here, but not bad, there's no snow... the flight seemed to go fairly fast... which doesn't make me feel great... it is starting to feel like this whole thing is coming to an end way to fast... and I'm not ready for that...

Our flight doesn't leave till 1:20PM here, so we're going to be here for a while yet... We got in at 5:30AM....

Anyways... I think that's about all... most of you probably won't read this until I'm home... but oh well...

Justin

Finisheding....

I know I know... terrible grammar in my title, but that's pretty much where we're at, we're finished and finishing all at once. My classes are done, I think I did about as well as I could do, all things considered, but a lot of my grades are still out there, so maybe not ;) we'll have to wait and see...

Last night we had a farewell dinner including pretty much everyone who has done anything with USP... so there were a lot of people. It was fun... I had to give a speech, it went ok, it was just short.....

Today is our last day on campus... we're cleaning up everything and trying to turn stuff in... tonight is our last night... and then we leave and go to a convent for debrief tomorrow through Tuesday... Don't know if I'll have Internet, so don't count on email or posting...

I packed last night... it was strange, I didn't feel excited, or sad, or anything, I just packed, and it was the strangest thing ever... I'm wondering when it is going to set in that I'm leaving... and that I've actually been here 4 months. There were times when it felt like forever, but right now, I'm trying to remember what I did for the last 4 months... again... strange.

Well... I have a few more things to take care of... just wanted to give you all a little update...

Justin,

P.S. Jennie, I posted ;)

The Wedding

Hello Everyone,

So, this past weekend, one of my host-brothers, who doesn't actually live with us because he is older got married. I was able to go to this wedding, and will have much pictures and video to share with you when I get back... but until then, I will just tell you a bit about it.

Needless to say, weddings in Africa are just totally different from any American wedding. The wedding was supposed to start at 1PM, so we left the house at 12PM knowing that we wouldn't get there on time. No worries, weddings never start on time here, along with every other function. We have learned about time being centered around the event in Africa, and this was definitely a prime example. Basically the bride and groom just show up whenever they want to for the wedding, more the bride than the groom. I honestly don't understand why anyone would want to be late to their own wedding, but here that doesn't seem to matter...

Sooo... when we got to the wedding at 2PM because the traffic was bad, we were totally OK... nothing had started yet, the choir was just busy entertaining everyone.. and the sound man was busy trying to destroy all of our hearing(side note the only thing sound men know here is loud and louder, quality of the sound doesn't matter, just as long as it's loud, seriously... ) So, we sat and listened to the choir for a while until the Bride finally decided to show up at 3PM.... 2 hours after the supposed start time... The pastor was a bit peeved, which was a bit surprising, as he was hoping to be already heading to the reception by that time. The wedding finally started and parts of it were very similar to an American wedding, with the vows and such... it was just that they had so many of them. It seemed that they said the same thing 3 times, but again, repetition is the spice of life here. So, finally they were married, and we all had to go and congratulate them, and then they walked out of the church... very slowly, and took pictures... During this time we took off for the reception to wait for them. I had told our drive that we had that we would probably be done 6:30, however we didn't get to the reception till 6PM, so that was out the window.

Anyways... we waited for a while at the reception, they brought us Pop to drink, and the DJ's came and set up way too many large speakers for a small room. It is very interesting how they set up the reception. The wedding party is in the middle then on opposite sides they put the families of both the bride and the groom, kind of like a face-off of sorts... The direct families of the bride and the groom get to sit at a table on either side, so since I'm part of the family, I was there. They also have someone videotaping the entire wedding and taking pictures, so because I was at the front, I feel like I am going to be in a lot of photos and video of this wedding reception... hope they don't mind :) They videotaped us doing pretty much everything, sitting, drinking, eating, talking, pretty much everything.

Finally, the bride and groom showed up, and we all had to get up and get excited for them even though we were all super tired. My dad told me it would probably take them 5 minutes to walk from the door to the table.... and he was right. Everything that happens at the reception is done through dancing or super slow walking, there is nothing that is done with just plain walking... Once everything got started, there were like 8 different speakers they had planned to give words of encouragement to the bride and groom, which also took forever. My dad had to speak, which he wasn't even ready for, so he just made some stuff up and didn't talk very long, which was good. The emcee kept asking the DJ for "a very good number" and the DJ kept failing, which brought some humor to the night, but I feel like I was the only one who was laughing... at one point the emcee said "DJ, I have no idea what you are doing, I want a good number..."

They eventually served us food..and a lot of it.. .which was good, because we were hungry... Interestingly, they served the cake first, and the bride and groom go around and give a small piece to everyone at the reception, so you can imagine how long that took... The cake had 12 different parts, but we only ate a few of them... the rest were handed out as gifts to families and special guests....

Eventually, it was like 9PM, when we had planned to leave at 6:30 and we finally left. I was really tired, and slept part of the way home, but the traffic was thick and all the diesel smell made it hard to breathe, but somehow I slept... unintentionally.

One thing that I was particularly confused by was the seeming lack of excitement by family about the wedding... In the U.S. a family would not even think about missing a wedding, but half of my family couldn't even go because of transportation issues, and it didn't seem to bother them that much... Plus, at the wedding my family didn't seem all that excited, which I was also confused by, but maybe they just hide it well. All-in-all, it was an interesting experience and I definitely learned a lot, just not sure how to understand it all right now...

Well, I guess it's time for me to go home...
Hope all is well...

Justin

More Video!!!

Hello everyone,

Thanks to my brother, you can all view another video of my homestay. This is more of an outside tour of the house... since you have already seen the inside ;)

Note about video: When I say "east side of the house" I actually mean west.... I was a bit confused apparently :)




Enjoy!

Justin

A little bit of everything....

Hello Everyone,

Since I am struggling with knowing what to start on right now and since I will go home for lunch in about an hour I figured I would do a little blogging...

Hmmm.... what have I been up to lately.... Well... last weekend we went on a trip to Luweero, which I still don't know if it has one "e" or two, but oh well... On this trip it was mostly to get a first hand experience of working with AIDS orphans. Luweero is one of the places hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic in Uganda. We spent some time at a small place that a husband and wife had set up to serve people with AIDS. Basically, there story is: they used to work in Mukono at an orphanage there for many years... When he "retired" they decided to go back to Luweero and start something there to help people with AIDS. Mostly who they work with families that are directly affected by AIDS which mostly means families who have lost one or both parents due to AIDS and some or all of the children have it as well. Here in Uganda, even though they are one of the leading countries in dealing with AIDS there is still a lot of stigma associated with the disease. To give an example: One of the children in one of the families we spent time with was born without shoulder blades... so her mother brought the child to her mother because she didn't want it. The girl was seen as a sign of something bad in the family, a curse really , so the grandmother set the child out on the edge of the road hoping that a car would run the child over... Thankfully the girls sister would always go out and pull her away from the edge of the road, until someone finally came and took her into a family...

But, things like this happen all the time here, it really is sad. However, what is good news is there are many examples of people like who we worked with who have started places that care for these children and families. A lot of what they do is very basic, but necessary, and a big part of the basics is just showing these children and families love, because they do not get much of that. And that's basically what we went there to do... we played with the kids, ate lunch with them and learned a little about what this couple was doing...

Also part of the weekend was having two different speakers, a Anglican bishop, and Catholic Priest tell us about there work in the area and what their thoughts are about AIDS... Overall it was a good/interesting weekend, a little different flavor from our other trips...

On other notes, I have been struggling, along with everyone else, to regain motivation after our Rural homestays... yeah, I know it was a long time ago already, but that trip really sapped away the motivation... I have 4 papers and 2 presentations due within a 7-day period coming up shortly and have yet to start any of them... yay :( Everyone says I'll survive, but I'm not quite so convinced always... Plus, research here is really hard to do, because there aren't a lot of resources here, and power and the Internet are a little sketchy. Thanks to great librarians at Dordt though, I think I will survive... so, if you are a Dordt student reading this, first of all go thank the reference librarians who are so amazing, and second of all ask them for assistance because they are so amazing...

It really is amazing how our time is winding down here. Someone mentioned to me today that we only have two more weekends here, which is hard to imagine. Apparently, coming up this week is Thanksgiving, I know I'm terrible at dates, but when you live in a climate that basically never changes temperature beyond like a 5 degree shift it's hard to notice that time passes sometimes. We're going to be having a thanksgiving celebration/meal at our Directors house, which should be fun... maybe we'll have turkey :) but I doubt it... Mom, buy a really big one for Christmas... ;)

Umm... I have potential flight-time issues that I need to work out yet, but can't get a straight answer from anyone I talk to... basically I may miss my flight from D.C. to Minneapolis, or I may not... but it's going to be close either way... I just want to know what to do if I do miss it, but no one really seems to be able to tell me... grr...

Classes have been OK lately... for one class we are reading a really good book called "Mere Discipleship" by Lee Camp.... Basically it's an easier version of John Howard Yoder's "The Politics of Jesus" but still quite good. I would recommend to anyone interested but intimidated by Yoder...

I think that's about all... it's getting to the point here where it's kind of hard to know what to feel... I am really starting to feel at home here more than I have all semester, which probably makes sense, but I am really looking forward to being able to see you all again and be able to tell stories in person rather than through blogging and the occasional email...

OK, that's all, I'll see some of you in a few weeks...

Justin

How 'bout some more pictures

Hello,

Since I have been pretty pathetic at getting up actual stories in my blogs lately, I will just let my pictures tell the stories... enjoy...

I wish I had more from this trip, but this is what I have for now, I'll have to get more of what we actually did from others...

http://picasaweb.google.com/JustinStruik/Luwero?authkey=1MnGfIftDoI#

Video

Hello Everyone,

I know I haven't actually typed anything in a while, but this will probably make you happier anyways... This is one video that I took of my homestay here in Mukono. I have another that I will try to get up sometime, but you can thank my brother Kirk, for posting this on youtube for me...

Justin

More Pictures!

Update: If you have already looked at the pictures from my homestay, go look again, because I added some captions to help...

Hello Everyone,

Here is a link to some pictures from my Home here in Mukono, which is probably what you've been waiting for the whole semester. I also posted some up the other day of our Bwindi trip from way earlier in the semester... so you should be able to find them if you click around a bit... I am working on a couple video's too, but those are a bit more difficult... Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/JustinStruik/MukonoHomestay?authkey=fmRZNp6b4rE#

Justin

Picture update

Hello Everyone,

Here a couple links for some pictures that I have finally succeeded in putting up. I have the locations of the pictures, but nothing specific about them as that would take much more time than what I have. If you have any burning questions, though, feel free to ask...

Sipi Falls from this weekend:
http://picasaweb.google.com/JustinStruik/SipiFalls?authkey=DOkHwKhRngI

Jinja trip, from a while back in the semester:
http://picasaweb.google.com/JustinStruik/JinjaTrip?authkey=qvuXUJE73V4

Enjoy

Justin

Cow Dung: Penetrates, Stains, Seals

So, hopefully Minwax doesn't find this blog and sue me for copyright infringement, but I couldn't resist the title(Sorry to all of you out there who don't know wood stains).

Anyways, one of the most interesting things I experienced at my Rural Homestay was the smearing of cow dung on the mud floor of the kitchen hut. Believe it or not they actually used this to "clean" the floor. My mom started by mixing some ashes from our fire into a basin of water then went out to find a few fresh cow pies. She mixed the ash-water together with the cow dung until it was the consistency she wanted and then proceeded to smear it over the entire floor of our Kitchen house. She made sure I took pictures ;) and you can find them here, along with others from my homestay: http://picasaweb.google.com/JustinStruik/RuralHostFamilyHome?authkey=ubeYLmBg0FE

Apparently this process is done every week or two to keep the kitchen floor clean. My host-mom in Mukono was telling me last night that if it is not done, these nasty little flies that we have had on our chickens a few times come around, so this is done to prevent them. Anyways, that is just one little story I wanted to share about my Rural homestay, there is more to come later...

Justin

Circumcision

Hello Everyone,

Yes, that title says what you think it does, I have now officially seen a circumcision... and I'm not sure I could handle seeing it again... I won't give you all the details, but just a little bit of the story...

For my one class, African Traditional Religions, our teacher set up an opportunity for us to go and watch a traditional circumcision ceremony. Not many of the tribes here in Uganda still do circumcision, in fact, I think it is only four that do, but it is a very big deal to them. It symbolizes the moment of moving from boyhood to manhood and is a very long process.

The process leading up to the event lasts about a month, I believe, and culminates in a day-long ceremony at the end of which the candidate for circumcision gets circumcised. This is a really big deal, and many many people come to celebrate this... in all facets of what that word entails.

We started the process during the morning, learning about it from one of the locals who knows about it. Then we drove out about a half-hour to a village where it was taking place, and watched some of the preliminary things and then drove out toward the home where it would take place and waited for the procession to come. Side note: while we were waiting we got to see Mt. Elgon, which is quite significant for the people of the region, and it was absolutely gorgeous, so I will share pictures with you when I get back.

Anyways, when we heard the procession coming, we walked out to the house in front of them while everyone was hooping and hollering and running past us. It was quite the experience. Then we were able to see the actual circumcision and be a part of the party... all-in-all quite a full day... If you want to know more of the details, ask me sometime, but I'm not planning on too many requests ;)

But wait, that's not all! When we got back to the place we were staying that night we took in another important part of African culture: grieving...

Right next door to the place we were staying apparently someone had just died recently and the body was brought to the home at about 11PM for the grieving process to begin, and they don't grieve like we do in the U.S., perhaps I'll reflect on that more sometime.

Anyways, to grieve here, wailing is pretty much mandatory, because if you don't wail you are basically saying that you were responsible for the death of the person. So, there was much loud wailing all night long, which reverberated through the halls of the place we stayed, waking most of us fairly often... With this wailing, however, comes singing, because it is also a time of celebration of sorts... This would have been fine, except that the songs they were singing were all hymns that I know, except in a different language, so I found myself waking up in the night and subconsciously trying to remember the words and being frustrated when I couldn't... all-in-all a poor night of sleep... but an interesting weekend...

Justin

The Soccer Game

Update: Follow this link to see a few pictures from the soccer game. They are in no special order, and there will hopefully be more, but there are 8 you can see: http://picasaweb.google.com/JustinStruik/SoccerGame?authkey=wT9pruULPX8

Hello Everyone,

Last weekend, there was a FIFA World Cup Qualifying game between Uganda and Benin just a few minutes down the road at the National stadium in Uganda. Two of the brothers in my host-family who are still at home, LOVE soccer, as does pretty much everyone else in Africa, and no that is not an unfair generalization.

Anyways, there were several USP students going, so I thought I would ask my host brothers if they wanted to go and take them if they wanted to. Of course they did, so when Sunday afternoon came around, we ate a little early and took off for the stadium at around 1PM. People had told us we should get there early, so we did. We paid for the more expensive seats so we wouldn't have to stand the whole game and went in to get our seats. I'm not sure that we really needed to get their as early as we did, as the game started at 4PM and their was basically no one there ;)

We decided to pick front row seats so that no one would be able to stand in front of us and block our view... or so we thought. Apparently, at soccer games the front row is not the front row ;) If you want "front row" you have to sit on the railing that goes around the seats of the stadium. Thus several fans who thought that their support of the team was more important(and told everyone in our section that too) came and stood right in front of us and blew really loud horns and whistles the entire game.

Needless to say, the experience was very interesting. I never thought I would find myself at a Soccer game in Africa, let alone one for world cup qualifying. The fans were crazy, but surprisingly the stadium was only about half full, but that is likely people just not being able to afford the tickets or transportation to get there. At one time I thought we were going to tear gassed and at another I thought a fist-fight was going to break out next to me, but thankfully neither happened ;)

The good thing was Uganda won the game in dramatic comeback fashion, the bad thing was they failed to move on to the next round as they had not accumulated enough points in group play... this is a really big sore spot to a lot of Ugandans if you read any of the newspapers.

But, my brothers loved it and we had a good time.... if you ever find yourself with the opportunity to go to a game some day you should, just watch out for the crazy fans ;)

Justin

Barack Obama

Hello Everyone,

I know, a strange title to my blog, but let me explain...

One thing that I have quickly discovered here in Uganda, and Africa in general is if you want to make a friend fast, just say two words: "Barack Obama." Seriously, the people here love this man more than I think is healthy. If the whole of Africa got to vote in the U.S. election, Obama would win in a landslide, it wouldn't even be close. If you want to know what I mean, just do some searching for Uganda newspapers and look for headlines about the U.S. elections. I have not seen one good thing said about John McCain in any of the Newspapers and hardly one bad thing said about Obama. People from his hometown in Kenya have had pins, and shirts, and hats printed with his name on it... The other day, a man who had written a book that spoke against Obama was in Kenya and was detained by the police there for "not having a work permit."

So, if you don't like Obama and are vocal about it, I wouldn't recommend coming here, because you aren't going to make too many friends ;)

Justin

The Longest Ride...

Hello Everyone,

So, we just got back from four full days in Western Uganda where we stayed at Bwindi Impenetrable National forest. This is very close to the Congo, in fact, we were only a few minutes walk away at one point... and here they have silverback gorillas. Unfortunately, you have to pay a hefty price to take the trip to see the gorillas, so we didn't see any...

However, that was not really the reason that we went anyways. The real intent for the trip was to meat a doctor who worked in Bwindi doing medical missions while working closely with local healers. Unfortunately(this is a word you will see a lot in this post) he had to make a trip to Kampala to get some medicine or something while we were there, so he was unable to talk to us except for about 20 minutes informally right before we left. So, instead of spending some more time with him, we walked off into the hills to do the other thing that we came to do: build a mud house with a pygmie tribe. If you want to know more about the people we worked with and the doctor that we missed see: http://pygmies.net/ for more...

Building the house was quite an experience and hopefully some day I will be able to share a few pictures with you... When we arrived, which was about an hour walk up a mountain the frame had already been constructed and the tin roof was going on. We came and after some introductions, began helping tie bamboo sticks onto the frame polls with tree bark reads from a specific tree. This was quite a task and took a while to do. It was raining during this time, so it was good that the roof was on and most were kept from getting too wet. After completing this task, we stopped for a lunch break and then, thanks to the rain, we were able to help put a little mud on in the house. The bamboo we had tied on earlier provided the holding area for the mud. It would seem that the task of puttin mud into a house should be fairly easy, but it is surprisingly harder than what it seems it should be. There is quite a bit of specific process and skill that goes into building one of these houses that the Batwa people have much more of than I :) Anyways, it takes a ton of good mud to finish one of these houses, so we did not even come close to finishing, but it was nice to be able to at least help with the start. Interesting fact that I learned about finishing was that the outsided is often smeared with cow manure to provide a seal for the house... if this is done every year these homes can last over 40 years, which is impressive considering the materials used. As we concluded the day the people of the small village wanted to share a dance with us and invited us to join with them, but we were all pretty awful at it. I don't understand how they do some of the things they do when they dance, but they are just better at it than we are...

It was starting to get later, so we began the long trek back to Bus and then back to camp for a much needed rest and shower...

On Sunday we went to a village church that was some ways away. Due to the increased size in our group from a year ago we had to take a bus instead of a van and the bus cannot go some of the places that the van can. So, we again got out and trekked over 40 minutes up a mountain to where the church was located. The church service was long, which is typical, adn then we walked back to one of the members homes for lunch, which was also long, again... typical ;)

We finally got back to our camp at around 5 PM and rested until supper...

Now, some of you might be wondering why I have titled my blog as such, considering everything that I have writting thus far. Well, you're about to find out....

If any of you feel like looking up Bwindi on map you'll find that it is far Western Uganda, and on a good day it will take 12 hours to get there. In the morning when we were leaving Dr. Scott, the guy we were supposed to meet with showed up to say good-bye to us and some of our group started talking to him which delayed our start from 7AM to 7:30. I should note with this as well, that on this trip they had the guys stay in a tent, so we were up at 5:30 to pack up our tent in time to eat breakfast, so at this time, I had already been up for 2 hours. We finall hit the road... However, the road from Bwindi back to a paved road is very bumpy, rocky, and full of potholes. On a good day, it takes over 3 hours to traverse... Unfortunately this was not a good day... Average speed on this long section of road is about 20-30 mph at best... if it were only paved well, or at the least, smooth, we could make it in half the time. Part of the schedule for the trip was to stop at our driver, Vincent's, parents house for lunch, as he comes from the Western part of the Country, still on the bumpy road. We reached his house around 11AM, which in Africa is at least 3 hours from the typical lunch time, so we trekked down the hill to his house and were greeted with banana's and passion fruit juice until lunch was served. This was fine, but lunch was not served until about 12:30 and we were unable to leave until around 1PM. This is typical of Africa, but when you are trying to get home, not so good.... They were very hospitable people though and lunch was very good.

So, we're back on the road and getting jolted constantly.... FINALLY we reach a paved road, which they refer to as "tarmac" here, and the ride is better for a while. There are still potholes, but at least we can drive faster and for the most part the ride is smoother. For some reason, however, on this day EVERYONE had to go to the bathroom, but could never manage to have to go at the same time... so by the time we had reached tarmac, we had already stopped at least 4 times, it was so many I lost track... Then we had a few more bathroom "emergencies" on the tarmac which required more stopping.... Unfortanately that was fairly minor. When were about 20 miles from Mbarara, a fairly major town, we blew a left front tire on the bus, for the second time this trip... No big deal right? We just pull over and get out the spare and change it... However, this is Africa and it rains every day, and it decided that the time our tire blew was the time that it should start POURING... This was not a small mist, it was a torrential downpour for at least a half hour. There were four of us who got out to try to fix the tire and we were all completely soaked.

As is typical of vehicles we had a eency tweency little jack to try to change the tire of our large bus. As our driver said in his African accent "this jack is for a small car." To top it all off, because of the rain, a large puddle had formed under the bus, and the ground was incredibly muddy, so instead of the bus going up, the jack went down... Soooo... we had to trek off into a field to find large rocks to put under the jack so that it would actually lift the bus high enough to change the tire... Even with the rock, however, the jack didn't go high enough, so we had to find a bigger rock....

Finally after much messing around and playing in water and mud we were able to get the tire changed. Unfortunately this is not as good as it sounds as the rim was bent and we could not trust it to take us the 5+ hours yet back to Mukono. So, we drove slowly into Mbarara and stopped at a gas station to get the tube replaced on our good rim. This again took about an hour as had changing the tire in the rain, so 2 more hours down the tube(perhaps pun intended) I think it was about 5PM by this time, and we thought that if we did well we would be home by 10:30PM. Not so bad, right?

Well, doing well would be a gracious term... traffic was thick, the road was filled with potholes, we were all tired, and the headlights stopped working on a fairly random basis. Since you can't see at night without headlights we were forced to slow down considerably and pull over several times to fidgit with the lights so they would work. 10:30PM passed us by and we weren't even to Kampala yet, which is about 30-45 minutes from Mukono, at this point, I ate another banana and was happy that I had purchased muffin at the gas station ;)

Anyways, we finally got to Mukono at around Midnight, instead of 7PM, which was the original plan.... I was toward the end of being dropped off, so I didn't get home until 12:30.... My family had waited up and had just gone to bed, but they woke up for me, which was good..... Needless to say we were all completely exhausted, still are today and have tons of homework to do.... but that is the story, hope you made it through ;)

Justin


A little P.S. to fellow Cubs fans out there. I was just reading about their most recent demise again in playoffs, and I was completely bummed....again. The thing that frustrated me was that I feel like if I would have had the articles that were written about their poor playoff performance from last year almost the exact same words were used. I'm pretty sure their stats were almost the same exactly, which is sick... but I guess there's always next year....

Pictures!!

Hello Everyone,

So, I have made the progress of getting one picture uploaded to Picasa Web Albums and you can find the link to it below. I will try to keep adding more, slowly by slowly, and you can check back periodically for updates... Hopefully this is only the beginning... :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/JustinStruik/JinjaTrip?authkey=qvuXUJE73V4

Let me know if it doesn't work...

Justin

Shaking hands and holding on...

Hello Everyone,

So, another interesting story of something I have experienced here. Here in Uganda guys holding hands is OK. In fact it is quite common and no more than a sign of those two being very good friends.... It has none of the connotations it would in the U.S. It is as common as girls walking down the hall or sidewalk in high school and college and linking arms with one another. In fact, here, it seems to be more common that men hold hands than women, and I can't really remember the last time I saw girls holding hands here, or anything of the sort.

I think most of the guys on USP try to avoid it as it is just awkward, but shaking hands is quite common here in greeting and almost inevitably in the handshake the Ugandan you are shaking hands with just won't let go... So, you end up holding hands with them for as long as your conversation lasts... It was awkward the first time it happened to me, but after a few times I have gotten used to it, because in reality, the only people here who might stare are the students on USP and there aren't nearly as many of them as there are Ugandans. Strangely, this difference has been one of the easier ones for me to get used to...

Justin

Lines...

Probably one of the more difficult things to get used to since being here is how waiting in lines(or queues as they call them here).

Waiting in a line here is nothing like it is in the U.S. Pretty much it is a free for all for who can push themselves to the front... which seems completely baffling because in every other area of life Africans tend to be more friendly and courteous than Americans.... However whether it is waiting inline at customs to enter a country or in line for food at the Dining hall, manners don't seem to matter.... A few stories to illustrate my point...

When we were on our Rwanda trip all of us were waiting in line at customs to get our passports stamped... I was almost to the window, in fact, I was the next person in line.... out of nowhere this couple comes up and jumps right in front of me as if it didn't even matter that I was there.... thankfully, they had the wrong papers, so the immigration official made them go fill out the right ones...

The other day at the Dining hall during morning Tea Time, I was in line, kind of, more like in the mob of people, to try to get some donuts to eat with tea. I stood there for probably ten minutes watching people crowd around the canteen window holding money out trying to be the next person to get food, and I trying to bring myself to do it. I was already holding my cup of tea and was in no mood to get bumped into and have tea spilled all over me.... so I was trying to be patient. I was getting closer and there was one guy in front of, after he received his snack, I, trying to be polite, backed out of the way to let him get out and subsequently 4 people stepped in front of me.... yes 4.... needless to say, I had had enough at that point and just walked away.... Thankfully there was another person from USP who had successfully gotten a doughnut before and he graciously went up and fought the crowds and came back victorious...

I don't want you to get the picture that Africans are all rude snobs, because they are not, but this is just one thing that has completely baffled me since being here, and from what others who have been here for longer periods from the U.S. it baffles them too.

So, the next time you're in line somewhere and you're frustrated that it's long, just be thankful that you at least get to keep your spot in line and people don't come out of nowhere to take the spot(s) in front of you with no seeming shame at all....

Strange Connections

Hello Once again,

I wasn't sure if Two posts in one day was quite enough, so I thought I would go for one more ;)

Anyways, I thought I would share with you a strange connection that I found out about recently that will maybe help make the world a bit larger and smaller all at the same time...

Anyways, last semester I came to find out that there was a girl who stayed at host-home I am staying at who was from Iowa. I asked my family the name and they said Nicole. That was really no one I could think of that I knew from home, but I asked them last name, and they got out of a piece of paper that they had that said her name was "Nicole Craig" ..... still no connection in my mind.

However, last week, Phil, one of the interns here at USP gave me a letter for my family that Nicole had sent for them and asked me to deliver it. In a passing glance at the envelope I noticed that her address was Blue Grass, IA and a light-bulb went on in my head. Last semester, for spring break I went on a serve project with a girl from Dordt named Leah Wolthuizen who had a fiance' Joe Van Walbeek. Joe, I recalled, she had said, was from Blue Grass, IA. So, in my furious effort to make this connection, I emailed Joe and asked him if he knew who Nicole Craig was.... Quite awesomely, not only did he know who she was, Nicole's brother, had actually been part of Joe and Leah's wedding, as they have recently gotten married. I thought this was the coolest thing and told my host family about it, and they thought it was pretty neat too.

I just never thought that I would go to Uganda and end up making such an interesting connection back to Iowa, and even Dordt College.... go figure ;)

Justin

My Family

Hello Again,

I know I am getting aggressive having two posts in one day, but this one has been waiting a while.... hopefully I don't get burned for it in the homework department on this ;)

Anyways, for all of you who are interested, here are the names and ages of the people in my host family:

Dad: Bernard Etukoit: 55
Mom(Toto=Ateso name for mom): Betty Etukoit-52

Children from oldest to youngest:
Ariko Josephine Etukoit-32
Iribot Justine Etukoit-30
Kedi Stephen Etukoit-25
Atino Catherine Etukoit-25 (I'm assuming these last two must be twins, but I'm not sure, I haven't actually met them...
Aborilem Samuel Etukoit-19
Arwang Sarah Etukoit-17
Abarimo Joshua Etukoit-15
Iribot Kevin Etukoit-13

I asked Sarah to right this up for me before she left for school and when she gave it to me I was surprised and honored to find that she had added on more to the list:
Justin Struik Etukoit-21

So, now I am officially part of the family I guess...

A little explanation about the names. The first name given is their African name and the second is what they call their "Christian" name. From what I can tell so far, and what they have told me is that most go by their Christian name as it is easier to say, so I don't have to try to say their given name which would be very difficult :)

Also, one thing that is confusing to me is their last name, or, more properly, their family name. In this case it is Etukoit, but it does not work like our last names do. Basically when a man gets married he chooses a new last name for himself and his family, what that is based on I'm not exactly sure, but if I find out I will let you know... So, family names don't really carry on, it's new every generation. Plus the way they figure out their family trees is very different as the number of people involved is much more broad than what it is in our tradition. I asked them how it was that lineage was tracked, but I don't remember what they told me...

Anyways, that is my family and a little more, enjoy...

Justin

Birthdays in Uganda

Hello Everyone,

I think most of you probably knew that it was my birthday yesterday, so after experiencing a birthday in Uganda, I thought I would write a little about what it was like....

I didn't know if it is a thing to do, to go around and proclaim that it was my birthday to everyone, so I didn't say a lot, but it didn't take long for the word to get around once I did mention it. Somewhere along the line people here picked up the "Happy Birthday" song from some "mzungus"(white people) and they love to sing it. Also, the other people on the program love to sing it as well. So, in the course of the day I think I had Happy Birthday sung to me at least 5 times, twice in one class even. I think that is a personal record, which I guess is good considering it was my 21st birthday. No alcohol, but much singing ;)

Chicken is a sort of special treat around here, so when my host-family found out that it was my birthday they told me we were having chicken. Along with the chicken my host-mom made a very large meal of rice, matoke', fried potatoes, ground nut sauce(like peanuts), pineapple, and a few other dishes I am forgetting. It was quite a feast :)

One thing that came as a surprise to me however was the chicken gizzard. Apparently the gizzard is an honored part of the chicken here, and is reserved for either the head of the house, or the honored guest....and...that would be me ;) So, for the first time in my life I at chicken gizzard....the whole thing. To my surprise, it actually wasn't too bad, actually tasted like chicken, which was a surprise to me. That being said, I'm not sure I'll find the gumption to eat it again, but we'll see.

Another bonus was that my host-mom warmed some water for my bathing last night, which was glorious, and a great present within itself. She had meant to do it for me the night before, which I didn't know, and shivered through cool temps and cool water. The warm shower was only the 3rd one I have had since being here, I won't expect it too much, and rarely need it because it is usually warmer, but it was really awesome last night!

That was pretty much my experience, it was pretty cool, a little different than the U.S. but nice all-the-same.

Later,
Justin

First week of class

Well, a small update

My first week of classes is done, and I'm pretty glad about that. I am starting to get a better feel of how things run here, but I am still quite fuzzy and somewhat stressed, but really no more than I am any other semester. They say coming here is like starting college over as a freshmen again and I think they are right, just never thought I would do that again ;)

There has just been such a vast array of emotions since being here. I think it is true of all the students who are here. Sometimes it feels like home, sometimes it doesn't feel like anywhere, sometimes life seems calm and other times you feel so rushed you just want to run away. Overall I would rate my first two weeks here as a solid good. Not great and earth shattering and marvelous, but good, and I think that is OK.

Yesterday, we got to talk to the wife of the director for USP, who doesn't really do a lot with the program, but lives here and has been here for 5 years. One thing she reminded us of, in her words, was that we shouldn't try to be "cross-cultural super genies" sounds kind of corny, but she definitely has a point. I think whether we admit it or not, many of us came here to try to do many things such as, figure out a career path, help a bunch of orphans, hit it off with our families and the culture so great that we never want to leave... and the list could go on. But, as she noted, this isn't really reality, and she reminded us that it's OK to come here and just be. If none of the above things, or things that we thought would happen don't, we haven't failed. Whether we want to or not, being in this culture will change us, perhaps not always as we hoped, but it will. I think that is true for much of life, it is just more accentuated here.

I think this is kind of an important time of the semester right now, and we'll see if I am right. We're kind of at the point where we are getting past the 2-week serve project honeymoon period where everything is great and wonderful, and reality is setting in that we are part of this culture for 4 months. I think it will be a bit challenging for me and for most of us on the trip, but I think we will come through and will survive just fine. There is just so much to learn, sometimes I feel like a sponge that is already full of water but is trying to soak more up...

on another note, posting pictures seems to be quite close to an impossibility here, so perhaps I will email them to a few people and see how that goes. The rest of you will just have to wait ;)

well, it's 5:40 here, so I guess I should head back to my host family, bathe and see if I can help out with supper ;)

I guess a few prayer requests I might have: that we will be able to stay focused on our studies, but find a good balance between engaging the culture and engaging our studies. The rest of the students who aren't staying with families the whole semester just started their 2-week homestays and I get the feeling they are all quite nervous about it, so prayer there would be appreciated. Right now, I feel I am in a transition with my host-family of getting past the "get-to-Know-ya" conversations and into more things of daily living and it has been a bit of a struggle thus far, so any prayer there would be appreciated.

Hope all is well with all of you at home or wherever you are!

Justin

Huge Blog!

Hello Everyone,

This entry has the potential to be huge, but a lot of people have been emailing me, so I guess this is the best time to update... Stay strong, I know you'll have the endurance to get through it all ;)

Plane Ride: The trip here was good. Amazingly everyone showed up, and no one's luggage was misplaced. It was a long trip, but good, and I was glad to be here. I had never flown internationally before, and never on a plane bigger than a business commuter jet, so it was quite a nice ride. The seats were bigger, the food pretty good, and the hospitality of the KLM flight attendants was amazing. We got here at like 8PM Uganda time... it was dark here already(it gets dark at like 6:45) so it was hard to see much of the landscape and houses. They gave us some food on the bus to campus. We had these things that were called "chipotes"(I have no idea how to spell that) which are like tortillas except way better, and some bananas. They have many different kinds of banana's here, some like we have at home, and some really small ones that are like half as long as what we have.

One kind that we eat often is called "matoke" (pronounced: matokay) and this is often boiled or fried and either served as solid banana yet, or mashed and served inside the leaves of the plant(this is tradition). It seems like it might not taste very good, and some do not like it, but I find it quite edible and filling. Depending on how it is made, it really doesn't have a lot of taste, but often something is added to give it a little spice. We also often eat, potatoes(which are very buttered and tasty), beans, rice, cabbage, and a dish called "posho" which is white and made from corn-flour. It does not have a lot of taste, but if mixed with beans it provides a good amount of filling. For breakfast we usually just have bread, butter and eggs. The eggs are often mixed with onions and peppers, which is very good. Basically all are meals are just really big and you eat a lot, which is great, and necessary, since meal times are a long way apart.

Typical day and meal times(for Ugandans): up at 4-5AM, maybe eat breakfast and then head off to work somewhere. Come back around 11-noon and prepare lunch. Eat lunch at 1-2PM depending on how long it takes to cook. Then go back to work and work until 6-7. Then prepare supper and eat anywhere from 9-11. My host-family regularly eats at 9PM, but many others I have heard eat at 11PM. Tea times are mixed in between meal times to serve as a "snack" and they often make their tea with warm milk, which is very, very good. You should all try it sometime.

A little about my family and home: My home is just outside of campus, so it is a very short walk, 15 minutes at most. In fact I can see the campus from my home as it is just across the road from the south side of campus. My home is a brick home, and it has a separate kitchen house, and bathroom/shower area. Also, there is electrical wiring run inside the house, but no electricity running to the house, so that is a bit of an adjustment as well, but I am getting used to it. Another big adjustment is bathing out of a basin. I am definitely getting better at it, but the combination of cold water and trying to splash water on myself with my hands makes it difficult, but I am getting better. They gave us washcloths now, which makes everything immensely easier. The dorms on campus do have running water showers, but it is cold water only... really once you get used ot it, though, it's not that bad.

My family has 8 children in it of very differing ages. The youngest is about 10 I believe, and the oldest is 32, so, yeah, quite a disparity. I'll try to give you the ages and names of the ones I know, as the oldest are not at home anymore. The youngest is a boy named Joshua and I think he is like 10. The next is a girl named Kevin, and she is 13 I believe, getting ready for high school, and is somewhat nervous about that :) The next oldest is a girl named Sara who si 15 or 16 I believe. Then there is Sam, who is the boy I am sharing a bedroom with, and I think he is 19 maybe. The other older ones I do not know as well, but I know that 2 are married and one is not, but works as an engineer in Kampala as he is finishing his studies there as well.

The mother of my family, I believe is named Betty, but I'm not sure, as she has only told me to call her "Toto" which means "mom" or "aunt" in Ateso, which is their mother tongue, I'm not sure which one it actually is, but it's one of the two. There are 32 different languages spoken in Uganda, so every time you meet someone they probably know a different language, most people I have met know 5-6 different languages so it is difficult to get a grasp on any one. But, my whole family knows English, which is good; sometimes accents make it difficult to understand, but we work through it. My host-mom used to be a teacher in grade school, but now she works in their gardens and at home. Her husband is a teacher as well, and he is away at another tech school closer to where they are originally from. If you're interested in checking it out, I am in the Mukono region, and they are originally from Soroti, which is just to the north. They speak Luganda in Mukono, and Ateso in Soroti. Apparently before Uganda Christian University came into existence the campus that they are on used to be another University where my host-dad used to teach at. Then it closed down, and my family had live on campus, but then they built their house off-campus, and he found a job in Soroti, where he teaches now. Kind of interesting I thought.

I think that is a pretty good overview of my family.

The campus is quite beautiful here, as well as the countryside. It is very hilly here, with many trees, which wasn't what I was expecting but it is great. It is usually quite nice here temperature-wise. It gets a little warm sometimes in dress pants and long-sleeves, but there is always a nice breeze and it usually rains for a short time each day which cools it down nicely. The University has a pretty strict dress-code, so I am usually in dress clothes, which I am sure is a surprise to some of you who know me well ;)

They have a beautiful red dirt here that composes much of the roads and landscapes, much like the southern U.S. The roads are very bumpy, so I'm glad I don't have to ride down them much. They also drive on the left-hand side, which is the first time I have ever experienced that, and it was quite strange to say the least.

I think that's all I'll say for now.... Feel free to post questions if I forgot something you wanted to know. I have a huge Rwanda trip to blog about sometime, but I must try to do some homework now.... I will try to post more pictures later, but I'll add a few now to reward those who made it all the way to the end ;) Well, anyways, the electricity and Internet connection is not cooperating with my uploading, so I'll put pictures up later...

Peace,
Justin

I'm here

Hello everyone,

just a quick note before I go to class. I think I alot of you have been wondering if I am alive.... I am, it has been very busy, so I'll post longer later. Hope all is well....

Later...

Justin

Getting ready to go....

Hello Everyone,

I guess this is officially my first post of my trip to Uganda this semester. I have never really blogged before, so we'll see how this turns out, but it seems to be the easiest way to keep in touch with a lot of people at once.

I think most of you know the basic synopsis of what I am doing, but here it is, just to cover all my bases:
I will be spending my entire first semester (August 26-December 17) in the country of Uganda, Africa. Uganda is located right on the Equator towards the eastern side of Africa, but from what I hear it is beautiful weather there most of the time and beautiful landscape. I also hear that there is not near as much humidity in Uganda as there is in Iowa, so that will be a welcome change as well. Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile, is located on the southern side of Uganda and the Nile runs right through the eastern side of the country. I will probably have the opportunity to raft down the Nile, which, from what I am told, is quite an experience, so I'll see if I can snap a couple of pictures along the way as well.
The semester is not all fun and games, though. While there I will be a student of Uganda Christian University(http://www.ucu.ac.ug/). This is a newer University, only ten years old, but it already has more than 6,000 students, I believe. I will be taking 16 credits worth of classes including courses about African literature, politics, history, intro to missions, and a Faith and Action course where we will be doing more discussion of our time in Uganda and more things in the surrounding community.
There were two different emphases for me to pick from on this program and I chose the one known as the "Intercultural Missions and Ministry" emphasis. This emphasis is designed more for those who are looking at the possibility of full-time missions some day, which I am, so I felt that it would fit well, and hopefully help me to feel out whether this is what I am called to or not.
One major part of choosing this emphasis is living with a host family for the entire semester, rather than the typical two week time period of the regular emphasis. This should be a very challenging aspect of the program, but hopefully a very rewarding one as well. Along with this comes washing my clothes in a bucket which will also be a new experience, I'll try to send some pictures of that as well, I'm sure they should be quite laughable at first.
There are many more things I could say, but I think I've said enough for now, and I'll save the rest for later when I've actually experienced it and can tell the actual stories.

Feel free to leave comments and send emails throughout the semester. I can't guarantee and response to any of it as the Internet connection will probably be quite sketchy there, but hearing from you will be great anyways...

Until then....