Saturday, March 26, 2011
Kilombera
If you want to make taco soup in Africa...
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| All the ingredients, minus the meat and a bell pepper that you find in the fridge. |
First you must find all the ingredients. There is no cumin in the kitchen at Amani, so you ask if they sell it here in the supermarket. No one seems to know...So you set out with a friend to find some. Fortunately, all the supermarkets around here seem to be run by Indian guys, so they have lots of good seasonings. The only kind of canned beans they have here, though, are baked beans...so you decide the soup can do without beans. You locate a can of corn, and look for some sort of substitute for retell, but all you can find is canned whole tomatoes, so they will have to do. But there is a plus, you find a nice frozen package of ground beef. You need onions, but they don't have those in the supermarket, just the regular market. So you walk outside and flag down a boda. Your friend tries yelling over the street noise to the boda drivers that you want to go to Amani, but you need to stop first at the market. After the boda driver nods his understanding, you hop on and off you go...straight to Amani. You try explaining to the boda man that you need to go to the market first. At this point, you realize that your very nice boda man understands little, if any, English. After convincing him to turn around and go towards the market, your friend passes on her boda and yells "I got the onions!" So you tell your rather confused boda driver that he can go back to Amani now. Once you finally arrive back at Amani, you are ready to assemble your ingredients and start cooking!
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| You don't have any corn bread or tortilla chips, but mama Josephine made some Chapatti earlier. |
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| Chopping the pepper and onions |
I'm sorry for the rather random order of these pictures, I was having trouble getting it to post right....Anyway, stay tuned, I want to try and make my own chapatti soon!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Sooo...I am finally getting around to answering some of these questions...
What was your first impression when you arrived in Africa?
Well, it was after dark when I arrived, so it was hard to get an accurate first impression. One thing that I thought was strange was when Christie stopped in Kampala at a "mall" type of place, there were guards with machine guns standing around to check your car for explosives when you drove in. Hmmmm... I'm not in America anymore! It was interesting (to say the least) driving through Kampala, because on the one side you have the almost "modern" parts of town, with the tall buildings and hotels and billboards, and then on the other side you have the slums with the mud huts, and trash everywhere, and red dirt covering everything.
How is Uganda similar to the US? How is it different?
Hmmm....I think I might have to get more pictures before I answer this one, lol. Some parts of Uganda are similar to the US, (like Jinja) and other parts are completely different. Since Jinja is more of a tourist town (because it's located on the source of the Nile) there are quite a few places in Jinja that are similar to the US. Everything is smaller, though. Like the shops. There are tons of little one-room shops crowded together on main street. For my family- you know that little bent-and-dent store in Magee? I think it's called Martha's? That's what ALL of the grocery stores here look like. Except most are smaller than that.
The things that are completely different- The small villages. You drive into the middle of nowhere, and then turn left into the jungle....And you find all these tiny villages with people going on about their daily lives, with no electricity...no running water... If you've seen Christie's pictures, than you have some idea of what it's like.
Why are there so many orphans in Uganda? What needs to happen to relieve this issue?
This is a tough one. There are a couple different reasons for there being so many orphans in Uganda. One reason is that there has been a war going on in Northern Uganda (and several other African countries) for about 23 years. You can learn more about the history of the war here- http://www.invisiblechildren.com/history-of-the-war Or you can just look up Joseph Kony and the LRA.
What was your first impression when you arrived in Africa?
Well, it was after dark when I arrived, so it was hard to get an accurate first impression. One thing that I thought was strange was when Christie stopped in Kampala at a "mall" type of place, there were guards with machine guns standing around to check your car for explosives when you drove in. Hmmmm... I'm not in America anymore! It was interesting (to say the least) driving through Kampala, because on the one side you have the almost "modern" parts of town, with the tall buildings and hotels and billboards, and then on the other side you have the slums with the mud huts, and trash everywhere, and red dirt covering everything.
How is Uganda similar to the US? How is it different?
Hmmm....I think I might have to get more pictures before I answer this one, lol. Some parts of Uganda are similar to the US, (like Jinja) and other parts are completely different. Since Jinja is more of a tourist town (because it's located on the source of the Nile) there are quite a few places in Jinja that are similar to the US. Everything is smaller, though. Like the shops. There are tons of little one-room shops crowded together on main street. For my family- you know that little bent-and-dent store in Magee? I think it's called Martha's? That's what ALL of the grocery stores here look like. Except most are smaller than that.
The things that are completely different- The small villages. You drive into the middle of nowhere, and then turn left into the jungle....And you find all these tiny villages with people going on about their daily lives, with no electricity...no running water... If you've seen Christie's pictures, than you have some idea of what it's like.
Why are there so many orphans in Uganda? What needs to happen to relieve this issue?
This is a tough one. There are a couple different reasons for there being so many orphans in Uganda. One reason is that there has been a war going on in Northern Uganda (and several other African countries) for about 23 years. You can learn more about the history of the war here- http://www.invisiblechildren.com/history-of-the-war Or you can just look up Joseph Kony and the LRA.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The other day on face book I asked if anyone had questions for me. I got a lot of good questions, which I will answer in a blog post soon, but for right now I just wanted to share this.
Today I went to the market for the first time. I have been to several of the small grocery stores in town, but I had not been to the market until today. I would have just posted this picture on face book...but I though it deserved it's own post. I asked her if I could take her picture and she nodded yes. She, of course, was very serious while I was taking it. Then when I was done her mom said "show her" so I did. I knelt down in front of her and showed her the picture and she broke out into the most beautiful grin...Africa is like that. It is easy to see the dirt and poverty that is on the outside...and you miss the beauty of what's on the inside. I hope you will all take a minute today to look past the skin of this world, to see more than a little girl sitting in the dirt, and see things the way Jesus sees them. Through the eyes of Love. In this world there will always be sorrow, and pain, and poverty, both physical and spiritual. We can choose to see only the sorrow and the pain of this world, or we can keep our gaze upon Christ, who makes all things new.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there you heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there you heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
A day at Amani
Hey! I though you all might be interested in what my day looks like here at Amani, so here you go:
I wake up usually between 7 and 7:30, eat breakfast, and then go downstairs with the kids at about 8:00, where I help clean up from breakfast and get the kids dressed and make sure everyone brushes their teeth.
At 8:30 we start preschool. There are eight kids in the preschool class. Me and a couple other Aunties teach preschool in the mornings.
10:00 is snack time! All the kids go get a glass of water and a snack. After snack time I help clean up, change diapers, and start the 2nd part of the morning.
From 10:30 until Lunch time I hang out with the toddlers. We play games, sing songs, and play outside if it's not raining. The preschoolers stay inside and do crafts with a couple of the other Aunties.
Around 12:15 everyone comes in and gets cleaned up for lunch. They all sit down and one of them will say a prayer (they pray before school and before snack time too) which usually goes something like this: "Hands together. Eyes closed. De-uhr Jesus, blessa our-a Aunties, blessa our-a food, blessa our-a mommies, blessa our-a vistahs, (visitors) blessa our-a Uncle Tim...." There a couple here that are adopting two of the kids, and since Mr. Tim is the only uncle visiting right now, the kids always pray for "Uncle Tim" or sometimes "Uncle daddy".
After everyone is through with lunch, usually around 12:45, I help get the kids down for a nap.
I eat lunch around 1:15 or 1:30. After lunch I have a break until 4:00.
At 4:00 we do different things on different days...Some days I have "outings" where I pick one of the kids and take him/her into town. We usually hang out at a restaurant called Ozzie's, and eat Chapati or a Cinnamon roll and drink some Fanta. Other days we do outside activities, or I help with laundry.
6:15 is dinner time. Three days a week I help with bed time, in which case I would stay downstairs with the kids until 7:00, and help get them in bed. If I am not helping with bed time, then at about 6:15 I go back upstairs and help the other volunteers with our dinner.
On Saturdays the volunteers do a project, like cleaning out closets or organizing the preschool supplies. We have off Saturday afternoon and Sunday. I go to church with the other volunteers on Sunday morning, and we have bible study on Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday night.
I wake up usually between 7 and 7:30, eat breakfast, and then go downstairs with the kids at about 8:00, where I help clean up from breakfast and get the kids dressed and make sure everyone brushes their teeth.
At 8:30 we start preschool. There are eight kids in the preschool class. Me and a couple other Aunties teach preschool in the mornings.
10:00 is snack time! All the kids go get a glass of water and a snack. After snack time I help clean up, change diapers, and start the 2nd part of the morning.
From 10:30 until Lunch time I hang out with the toddlers. We play games, sing songs, and play outside if it's not raining. The preschoolers stay inside and do crafts with a couple of the other Aunties.
Around 12:15 everyone comes in and gets cleaned up for lunch. They all sit down and one of them will say a prayer (they pray before school and before snack time too) which usually goes something like this: "Hands together. Eyes closed. De-uhr Jesus, blessa our-a Aunties, blessa our-a food, blessa our-a mommies, blessa our-a vistahs, (visitors) blessa our-a Uncle Tim...." There a couple here that are adopting two of the kids, and since Mr. Tim is the only uncle visiting right now, the kids always pray for "Uncle Tim" or sometimes "Uncle daddy".
After everyone is through with lunch, usually around 12:45, I help get the kids down for a nap.
I eat lunch around 1:15 or 1:30. After lunch I have a break until 4:00.
At 4:00 we do different things on different days...Some days I have "outings" where I pick one of the kids and take him/her into town. We usually hang out at a restaurant called Ozzie's, and eat Chapati or a Cinnamon roll and drink some Fanta. Other days we do outside activities, or I help with laundry.
6:15 is dinner time. Three days a week I help with bed time, in which case I would stay downstairs with the kids until 7:00, and help get them in bed. If I am not helping with bed time, then at about 6:15 I go back upstairs and help the other volunteers with our dinner.
On Saturdays the volunteers do a project, like cleaning out closets or organizing the preschool supplies. We have off Saturday afternoon and Sunday. I go to church with the other volunteers on Sunday morning, and we have bible study on Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday night.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Hello from Uganda!
Hi everyone! It is Saturday so I have now been in Uganda for 2 1/2 days. I have today off, and because of the time difference, none of my family is on facebook right now to chat with me. :( So I decided to blog instead. I guess I will start with a list of some of the things I have done since coming to Uganda-
1. In Uganda you drive on the left side of the road, but only when you want to. When George and Christie picked me up from the airport, George drove us back to Bugabo for the night. I couldn't quite figure out why he used his blinker so much. He said that in Uganda, you use you blinker when you are "not sure". I am not sure what that means, exactly.
2. When we got to Christie's house it was dark, so I didn't see much of the village, and we went to bed soon after we got there. Woke up the next morning to a beautiful African sunrise.
3. George drove me and Jessie the "back way" to Jinja the next morning. Which basically meant that half the kids we passed in the small villages had never seen a Mzungu (white person) before. I waved to just about everyone. It was so fun to have the kids wave back and yell "Mzungu!! Mzungu!!"
4. Arrived at Amani about 10am on Thursday. Helene (the volunteer coordinator) took me and Jessie into town so that we could exchange money.
5. Found out Thursday afternoon that my sweet little brother had given me a stomach bug...So I spent Thursday afternoon and most of Friday in bed.
6. By Friday evening, after sleeping most of the day, I was feeling much better. One of the other volunteers cooked supper, and then Helene surprised me with a Birthday cake! :)
So...I guess that is all...I plan on writing a more in depth post in the near future...For now I just wanted to give you all a quick update.
Much love from Africa,
Morgan
1. In Uganda you drive on the left side of the road, but only when you want to. When George and Christie picked me up from the airport, George drove us back to Bugabo for the night. I couldn't quite figure out why he used his blinker so much. He said that in Uganda, you use you blinker when you are "not sure". I am not sure what that means, exactly.
2. When we got to Christie's house it was dark, so I didn't see much of the village, and we went to bed soon after we got there. Woke up the next morning to a beautiful African sunrise.
3. George drove me and Jessie the "back way" to Jinja the next morning. Which basically meant that half the kids we passed in the small villages had never seen a Mzungu (white person) before. I waved to just about everyone. It was so fun to have the kids wave back and yell "Mzungu!! Mzungu!!"
4. Arrived at Amani about 10am on Thursday. Helene (the volunteer coordinator) took me and Jessie into town so that we could exchange money.
5. Found out Thursday afternoon that my sweet little brother had given me a stomach bug...So I spent Thursday afternoon and most of Friday in bed.
6. By Friday evening, after sleeping most of the day, I was feeling much better. One of the other volunteers cooked supper, and then Helene surprised me with a Birthday cake! :)
So...I guess that is all...I plan on writing a more in depth post in the near future...For now I just wanted to give you all a quick update.
Much love from Africa,
Morgan
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