Visiting Iyolwa

This weekend I traveled with three of my teammates to our friend Paul's childhood village, Iyolwa. Iyolwa is a rural village in Tororo, about five hours east of Kampala. We were shown wonderful hospitality from Paul's family and got to have a taste of what rural life in East Uganda is like.

Our travels began with a bumpy and adrenaline inducing matatu ride from Kampala to Tororo. When we first got to Kampala, we were told by our doctor to never, ever ride a matatu in the countryside. This weekend, I discovered the reason for his advice. Matatus in the countryside drive at least eighty-five miles an hour, regardless of the quality of the vehicle or road. Matatus in the countryside also pass one another at ninety-five miles an hour going around turns and on hills. I spent much of the ride clutching the window bar with white knuckles,praying there were no cars around this bend or over that hill. Eventually, I decided worrying wasn't going to help anything so I went to sleep after fervently praying to arrive safely in Tororo.

We did arrive eventually and were warmly welcomed into Paul's family's home. It was a six room cement house with a tin roof. It had no electricity or running water, so dinners were eaten by candle light and I experienced my first bucket bath. On Saturday Paul showed us around the family's fields, teaching us about planting and harvesting each plant. We saw cassava, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, sorgum, maize, and groundnuts.

The food we were served was pretty good. I was pretty nervous after hearing stories of past students having matooke shoved down their throats for half hour after being full, but our food experience was good. I was sooo glad that we didn't have matooke for once. Tororo's staple food is millet instead of matooke. It was nice to mix things up. I just could not eat the chicken we were served though. The girls in my group had to slaughter the chickens and I had to pluck the feathers. It was a pretty traumatizing experience. I slipped the chicken I was served under the table for the other girls to eat. They got back at me by passing all their avocado to me though, so I ended up with six pieces of avocado.

Church on Sunday was, as always, an interesting experience. The service was scheduled to begin at nine but didn't actually start until eleven. The music was so energetic and joyful; I am really falling in love with the music here. The assistant pastor gave a sermon then we were asked to introduce ourselves to the congregation. It is courtesy to share a song, so we sang "Come Thou Fount". After introductions, there was a time of testimony. A man got up and was speaking excitedly in Jap, so we couldn't understand him. But while he was talking, he came over to us Americans twice to shake our hands. Later, Paul told us this man had said he was so glad that he was saved because it meant he could fellowship with white people. It makes me so sad the way so many people here glorify white people. I just don't understand it at all. The pastor also went on and on about how excited he was to have whites in his congregation. I wish they saw us white people for what we are; we are the same as them, not better in any way. Well, after the testimonies, we though it was time to leave but apparently there was going to be a second sermon...haha

Visiting Paul's town was really great. It was so nice to escape the city for a little while. It was so nice to look out and see nothing but green, instead of the brown and gray of the city skyline. There's nothing like the smell of the air when everything is still all dewy and glistening in the morning sun. I feel so much more at home and at peace when there is nature around.

I left Iyolwa really hoping that my practicum would be somewhere rural. I will spend all of October in a new place, doing a full time practicum. I applied for a placement last week and we found out tonight where each of us will be going! I will be going to Mukono, where I will have a position doing research. I'm going to be doing interviews with people from a couple of communities to discover how Food for the Hungry is doing in meeting their goals. I will research the communities' needs and strengths and then formulate some suggestions on how Food for the Hungry can best be helping the communities. The research position was my top choice, so I am so, so excited about this opportunity. It's going to be so much fun.