While in Africa

While here I felt like there were some certain cultural things that I needed to do before I left. Here are those things and my experiences doing them.

1) eat Posho and beans (the typical low income dinner of Ugandans)
2) ride a Boda (motorcycle) to market
3) get a pair of tire flip flops that all the locals wear and literally walk a mile in their shoes
4) dig in a garden and plant something
5) go to a Ugandan church

Ok #1 let's begin with the food. Now in America low income people will eat spam and ramen noodles; here they eat Posho and beans. Posho is basically taking straight maze flower adding water and eating it. We asked our cook to make some and it literally tasted like stale glue, but here it is what they eat every day for dinner. The beans make it a little better but still I can't even imagine living on just that and without my mama's spaghetti. It is so eye opening to see how much good food we have in America and how blessed we are.

#2 was riding a Boda to market. A Boda is basically a motorcycle taxi that will take you wherever you want. I was too scared to ride one by myself for fear of getting lost in town or something so when our cook and housekeeper, Anette, went I asked if I could tag along. She let me and we rode the Boda together, 3 people, 1 long seat, interesting ride. I got very close to the driver because Anette put me in the middle, overall it wasn't too scary and I'm glad I got the experience below is a picture of me on the Boda when we got home. I had fun but I will not be doing that again!

#3 was to get a pair of flip flops made out of old tires, like all the local kids, and literally walk a mile in their shoes. Let me just say that in America I have fairly tough feet and run around barefooted all the time. Here I fail. Just walking to school and back my feet were bleeding and had multiple blisters. I'm hoping that I just need to break the shoes in so I'm gonna try to wear them more (with bandaids). I also have a new respect for how tough these kids are walking around with these tire shoes or no shoes at all. We Americans are so weak here!

The 4th thing on my Uganda Bucket List was to dig in a garden and plant something in it. When I saw all the people here working in their gardens the first Saturday we were there I decided that I wanted to help! The first Saturday that I had a friend to work with we spent the morning starting up a garden! They all laughed because I worked slow but hard. All the kids were so excited to see a mzungu doing the same work that they do! The first Saturday we took an area where there was tall grass (taller then me), trees, shrubs and lots of other fun plants and she said "here is where the garden will be. I thought she had to be kidding but then she took her hoe and showed me how to dig up trees and slash grass to clear the area. We got the younger kids picking up what we had knocked down and moving rocks, it was actually pretty fun! The next Saturday I went and she said "that is no good, too many rocks and animals already there, we start over." I thought that was great all that work to not even use the area! Oh well it's the fellowship that we had that really mattered! So we dug a new garden and it went a lot faster because it had previously been a garden anyway. It took us about half the time then we were ready to "plant" she just took some beans and threw them around and said "good." I was somewhat confused because our gardens are in lines and organized, then she explained to me that when she bought maze seed then we would plant it in rows and the maze and beans would intertwine, everywhere there wasn't maze there would be beans, pretty smart I suppose! Tomorrow morning we will be planting maze in rows and making the garden look like a real garden! I am super excited!

The last thing on my list was to go to a typical Ugandan church. Most of the Christian population here is catholic so we had a somewhat hard time finding a church that wasn't. Well we found one and I love it! Gulu Bible Community Church is amazing! They are a lot more high tech then any other places here, with microphones, speakers, a keyboard, and a drum set, but that isn't why I like it so much. It is so cool seeing people from all around the world worship the same God with the same passion but in a completely different language! GBCC has 3 morning services; 1 in English, 1 in English and Luo, and 1 in Swahili. We went to the English and Luo service and it was so cool worshiping in both languages at the same time. I have loved going to GBCC and tonight will be going to a Praise and Worship Service, I'm so excited! God is so big here in Gulu!

I think as Americans we have a tendency to see God as an American God, I know I always think that God speaks English and that He focus' on us so much that it is totally normal for us to claim Him . It has been so cool to see that God is working just as much here, across the world, as he is in America. What a hard concept to grasp, the God who wakes my mama and sisters up in Alabama also makes sure that Pamela Peace and her siblings have enough food to survive. Our God is so big and so great that it is impossible to understand! How can the God that cares about me so much also keep this whole big world of ours turning? Mind= blown! It has been such a blessing being here and how God has given us the opportunity to plant seeds in this community, I have loved it here and have definitely been changed for the better!

I miss my mama and can not wait to get home. Tomorrow (Saturday) is the June teams last day in Gulu, we will be leaving for a safari early Sunday morning then staying at the safari overnight. We will drive the rest of the way to Kampala on Monday morning then work with the Street Boys Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. We fly out of Entebbe late Tuesday evening then fly to Brussels, then Frankfurt, then Atlanta! We will be back home Wednesday evening. Please pray for safe travels for us 5 girls who are going home: Me, Jerica Pealor, Emma Jaggers, Kasey Tucker, and Laurel Schweers.