Headed to Haiti May 11-June 16

[In Jewish culture] to be touched by an unclean person is to become unclean yourself. Yet nearly every time Jesus healed someone, he touched them… Jesus, if you will, ‘reversed the flow.’ Instead of the person’s touch making Jesus unclean, Jesus’s touch made the person clean. And it is a beautiful thing to be touched by someone when disease and sin has withheld that from you. ~Sean Gladding, The Story of God, the Story of Us.

My dear friends,

As you know, I have been in school to be a Physician Assistant for almost 2 years now, with the anticipation of graduating at the end of July! Since August, I have been doing clinical rotations, which have taken me to so many different settings, including serving among the thousands of homeless living on the streets of Skid Row in LA. The Lord is taking me to all sorts of places, teaching me to love and care for all varieties of people.

The adventure is far from over as I prepare to head to Haiti for 6 weeks with the Christian NGO Global Partners as a short-term missionary to learn and to serve at their hospital. Living missionally is how Jesus loved and how He has called us to live and for me, this plays out in the world of medicine. In 2012, I went to Haiti for one week on a medical trip that solidified my heart in medical ministry so firmly that God has used it to carry me through some of the extra tough times in PA school. Now, He’s called me back for a little bit longer and I am both incredibly excited and downright nervous for what He has in store!

I need your support. Jesus asks us to give up the limits we put on ourselves so He can work the limitless and I don’t think I’ll ever stop having to learn this! I cannot do this on my own. I need your support, your encouragement, your prayers, and however the Lord might lead you- I need your donations. This time in Haiti will cost me $3000. By the enemy’s schemes, this was almost enough for me to justify backing out, but time and again the Lord is faithful and teaches me that His will has no limits. By His power and grace, I applied and received a scholarship for $1000 from my university! I was speechless and in tears at the blessings of my Father! One-third of my cost has been covered and it is without a doubt by the hand of the Lord telling me that I am meant to be in Haiti for these 6 weeks and that He is sending me directly by the encouragement of others!

So here I am, needing you right now. So far, I’ve been so blessed and raised another $1100. I need to raise the remaining $900 by April 12th at the latest- exactly one month before I leave. Would you please be praying for peace and direction while I prepare, that others be blessed in their giving, and if and by what means you are called to support me? Truly, every dollar will help! You are more than welcome you give directly to me, however, if you would like to give via a card, head on over to globalpartnersonline.org/partners/give and scroll to the bottom where it says GENERAL GIVING. Under that, you can put in my specific fund number: WM08-1095 along with my name in the description (This option is also tax-deductible!)

FINALLY, I also need 50 people to dedicate as prayer partners while I’m gone! Please consider signing up to do this- go to globalpartnersonline.org/partner/give/missionaries and you’ll find my name under Brindley. Click on my name and you should find a link (scroll to the bottom if you’re using the mobile site) to MAKE A PLEDGE.

I can’t thank you enough for your support and encouragement!

my last trip to Haiti with the Haiti Endowment Fund setting up makeshift clinics in churches

my last trip to Haiti with the Haiti Endowment Fund setting up makeshift clinics in churches

Thoughts on skid row, pt 3

After three weeks at the clinic, one thing that has been both eye-opening and wonderful is the personality of the patients that come in. Of course, people are coming in because they have a medical problem (for the most part), and that can make any person grumpy. Personally, I do not do sick well. I have friends who have been suffering in pain for years and they have truly had to fight a powerful fight just to have a life and keep up relationships. It is incredibly tough to get through illness, especially when you don’t have a strong community, and particularly one who is praying consistently for you and encouraging you.

Now try stripping that, while having pain or a chronic illness, and then not having a roof over your head, or more than five possessions to call your own, when you’ll get your next meal, how you’re going to pay to keep the water on in your apartment for your wife and five kids when the gas and electricity have already been cut… it’s certainly enough to make anyone jaded and impersonable.

And yet, while some patients coming in don’t have the greatest attitudes, the vast majority are verbally open, willing to listen and do what needs to be done for their health and life as a whole, many are thankful and encouraged by prayer, and some are just downright happy- cracking jokes and all. In so many there is a spirit of hope around them, so much personality!

This really made me think about my presumptions coming down into Skid Row. Since Biblical times, there’s been an air of dehumanizing the homeless and poor, of separating the “us” and the “them”. A thinking that they’re littered with drugs, addiction, mental illness, poor choices, laziness, or that they’re just faking it to make a couple bucks. An idea that they did this to themselves, so I don’t need to feel bad for them. That is called dehumanization. It happens in war and it happens on the street. The second we start thinking we’re better than someone else, we separate ourselves and literally view them as less than human. Friends, Jesus came to heal and save the broken, the sick, the weary, the sinners; not the healthy or the ones who think they’re making it just fine “on their own”.

There are already many patients I could tell you about, but how about this one:

A new patient to the clinic, a man in his 40s or 50s, can’t work due to chronic back pain, has been separated from his wife for 2 years- she stayed in the house and he took to the streets. He’s currently living in a hotel/transitional housing building in Skid Row. He had so many complaints because it had been so long since he’d been to the doctor that we actually had to cut him off and ask that we address some at his follow up visit because there simply wasn’t time.

Aside from physical complaints, he was also there for a mental health referral due to depression. This man has no community, no support system, and not a lot of hope. Of course he has depression! And yet he wasn’t completely down on himself. I was able to tell him about New City church in LA, walking distance from where he lives, and though he wasn’t a believer and had never been to church, he was genuinely excited. When I asked if he had a Bible or if he wanted one, I had the amazing privilege of being able to hand him one. Again he was grateful and excited, and when I stepped out and came back in a few minutes later, he was sitting there reading it! And then I got to pray over him… what?! When I was praying, God gave me the word Balance (which now I use with other patients as well). There was an imbalance in his body that he is having all these symptoms. There’s an imbalance in his heart and mind from years of trials. And only God alone is going to work on him to restore that balance. He wasn’t healed in that moment, but I’m trusting that the Lord will bring that healing in time. Can He do it on His own? Of course. Might He use the community present at New City and medicine provided from the clinic? I certainly hope so. Physical and spiritual healing take time and much of the time God uses his Church, his ready and willing Body, to bring that about.

So enough of this us and them thing. This man encouraged me as much as I, him. I had people pour into my life to bring me back to Jesus when I was lost and broken, and I don’t think they thought less of me for it. And who knows what plans the Lord has for this man, or anyone else we may see sitting on a street corner or sleeping behind a shopping cart. We forget sometimes that each individual has a story. A reason why they came to be in the situation they’re in. And for goodness sake, Jesus said they are more deserving of the kingdom than “we.”

But what about the loo?

I am a firm believer that tough times make us stronger, God will not give us more than we can handle (when we give it to Him and let Him be our strength), and that doors will be shut when they need to be shut, open when He wants them walked through. In other words, even when the sky is falling, I want to understand and appreciate the reasons why. Much easier said than done when I’ve never dealt with the prison of mental illness, the ravages of drug addiction or the dehumanization of living on the streets.

We encountered a woman while walking into the clinic at 6:30 am, half an hour before the doors officially opened. She nervously asked if there was a bathroom she could use. After all, the sun was just coming up and no shops were open yet. I still don’t know the protocols of the shelters, like the LA Mission just 20 feet away, but apparently that was not an option for her. We told her we couldn’t let her use ours until the clinic was open, and walked inside. Now, I think it is very important to have solid boundaries such as that when working in a setting like this, especially when the burnout rate is so high and it’s not uncommon to have your services be taken advantage of. But it is hard to be in a situation like that, where the request is perfectly understandable, and have to say no. So it got me thinking about a major problem on the streets- – the bathroom problem. The smell of urine is particularly noticeable in the morning and I have learned to watch my step lest someone’s midnight relief becomes friends with my shoe.

There it is. I have yet to research the options for the home-less and toilet-less, but that’s a major problem noticeable after a few days spent in the community. Combined with the poor nutrition and hygiene options for those with a concrete mattress, it makes sense we see a lot of patients with mixtures of constipation, diarrhea, nausea and the like. I have honestly never thought about what women struggle with when they hit that time of the month, every single month.

But there’s a positive spin right? Did I not say I do that? Find the few drops left in the glass? What could be positive about not knowing when you’ll have the chance to use a real toilet? Well, maybe, just maybe that’s the last straw for someone on the streets. Granted, there are plenty of reasons to hate living on the streets, but maybe this is the one that someone just can’t take and it’s the one thing to really push them to seek help to find housing or get off drugs. Maybe they were so downtrodden that they had lost hope and couldn’t imagine someone wanting to help them but this is just that one thing to make them think, ‘I am alive, I am human, and I deserve the decency of a bathroom when I need it.’ Am I stretching it? Probably. Are there more issues with living on the street than not having a closed door to do your business? More than the hairs on my head to be sure. Does this mean we should let the problem persist to encourage people getting off the street? Well, this pacifist thinks you might deserve a slap in the face for thinking a thought like that…. Of course not! It’s a problem that could heartily use a remedy, but maybe there was one person out there who faced that moment and it changed everything. Or maybe my glass half full is a bit of a mirage.

The Trenches

{I apologize ahead of time to all my word savvy friends… I fear this may make your grammar twitch worse, but please do try to read this as though I was talking to you over coffee (or tea, as it were), and not writing an essay for review. Run-on sentences and starting sentences with conjunctions are some of my favorite things to do.}

Anyways, here was my Week One reflection from working at LACHC in Skid Row (Los Angeles Christian Health Center):

Just as a person may become more beautiful (or less, on occasion) as you get to know their personality, so the case has been after being at this clinic for a week. Going from expectations I didn’t know I had, to entering the doors and getting the tour on day one, to walking out slightly more confident at the end of day five, is always a whirlwind on a new rotation but particularly in a setting like this, in a new city as well. But as intimidating as day one always is, I was so pleased that despite the age of the front door, the trash on the roads, or the occasional smell of urine that wafts as the wind picks up along the sidewalk, I could walk out feeling like I was in a beautiful place right where I was meant to be.

Some of the things I was excited about being stretched in through coming into this place were praying with and for patients, working in the heart of one of the largest homeless populations in our country, and really just learning how a system like this can run, and run efficiently. What I didn’t necessarily plan on encountering was the general positivity among the staff. In every other clinical setting I’ve been in, there was almost a daily issue with a stressed out, begrudged employee of any and all rankings who was complaining about the management, the way things were being run, annoyances with coworkers, etc. While I understand that the life and work of Joshua House is not by any means without stressful situations, there is a general air of care, peace and respect between everyone working here. It is definitely a choice to work and serve here, and to many it’s a calling placed on their hearts by the Lord. If someone truly doesn’t want to work here, they won’t. Having such a Christ centered mission at the heart of an establishment truly radiates that kind of determination and noticeably changes the atmosphere compared to other clinics I’ve encountered. This is in large part what makes the understated facade of the building appear more beautiful with each passing day.

As I work more with patients, I am looking forward to starting to learn what it means to connect caring for their physical ailments with their spiritual well-being. In doing so, I am believing that this will stretch me to really remember to see my patients not just as a physical problem to be cured, or not just as another homeless or impoverished person, but as children of God and my brothers and sisters in that. Over the years I feel my empathy has been replaced by a steadily growing apathy that started to protect my heart and has since removed me more than I would like from connecting with the love the Lord feels for his children in every corner of the earth, both light and dark. I’m looking forward to the ways God is going shape me and hopefully use me for others while I’m here!

From Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea

Welcome to the hipster town of Israel: Tel Aviv. Thank goodness it was raining today- I didn’t feel so bad for not looking trendy haha.

 

Well friends, here I am- finally a free day with internet 🙂

I went on the Jesus Trail jesustrail.com and hiked all the way from Nazareth (Jesus’s hometown) to Cana (where He turned water into wine, and yes, we did share a bottle of wine there) and stayed the first night, after much rain and mud along our 10 miles in an eco goat farm. We slept in a big dome-shaped tent with a furnace and it was amazing, though my legs felt like jello in the morning and I thought I might need a cane– nothing advil couldn’t fix though!

Day two of the trail took us from the goat farm through some Kibutzim (which are kind of like Israel’s communist farm towns- pretty cool, but not a good place if you’re trying to find some snacks since they don’t really deal with $). It took us through some amazing fields too- I was so happy. If you’ve seen “Everything is Illuminated”- I felt like I was driving through the fields there minus the sunflowers. The sky was bright blue and the fields were bright green- it was amazing. We also went up through the Horns of Hattin where Sultan Salah ah-Din defeated the French Crusaders in an epic battle in the 12th Century. And when we couldn’t find the trail to get down, we just scaled the side of the hill (or mountain as I like to call it) and minus the thorns and mud on the way down, it was well worth it. That night we stayed in cabins at Moshav Arbel ( a moshav is similar to a Kibutz).

Day three took us to the cliffs of Arbel  which have one of the most beautiful views of the Sea of Galilee. You can see Tiberias, Magdal, Capernaum, even all the way out to Mount Hermon and its snow! From there we scaled the face of these cliffs- which was even more intense than the day before let me tell you! This one had metal handles drilled into the side so people had something do grab onto like a ladder for part of the way- it was awesome and super windy. Once at the bottom, we hiked a bit of a ways more and found some lunch from where half the group took a taxi over to Tiberias and the rest of us trecked on another 10 or 12 kilometers to Capernaum- successfully completing the Jesus Trail in 3 days!

Tiberias was a bit of a shock for us since it’s a super Westernized city and we’ve mostly been traveling the Arab world. But I suppose it was refreshing too- especially being by the Sea. While we were there, we explored the Magdal excavations where Mary Magdalene was from, Capernaum where Peter’s home was, and the Church of the Beatitudes where Jesus most likely preached the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7.  Bruce, my professor, jokes that if Jesus didn’t preach there, he should have- it’s so beautiful! Needless to say, we spent a lot of time in the Gospels and the Bible in general and it was so so wonderful. To be seeing and exploring these places has been such a blessing!

After that, we went up through Golan Heights and explored some waterfalls and Nimrod’s Fortress (a crusader castle on a hill that was engulfed in fog- so amazing), and up to the very tip of Israel such that you could see borders with Lebanon. And the past few days we’ve made our way over to the coast, had lunch on the Mediterranean and watched the sunset with a failed attempt at a group pyramid in front of it for picture’s sake, but alas. And last night we rolled into Tel Aviv, a pretty cool city in Israel. I went on a walk tour this morning with a friend of one of our leaders who’s from Whales and has been in Israel the last 9 years. He had some great insight into Israeli life here all that. Can you believe it though, not 20 minutes into our walk, we were going through an open market and all of a sudden it started hailing out of no where for a good 5 minutes. It was so funny, we could only laugh. (I was definitely wearing my rainbows Haha- and it rained all day!)

Anyways, here I am. Tomorrow we’re going to explore Jaffa a bit, head to Ramla where the book “The Lemon Tree” gets its name (and if you’re interested in the conflict here or just want to read a novel- that book is amazing! I highly recommend it).  And we’re staying in Jerusalem again for a couple of nights- it’ll be nice to be somewhere familiar for a few nights after so much traveling.

And again, no more Egypt but I’m sure whatever the alternative is, it’ll be wonderful. I’m not worried.

Alright, if you’ve read this far, you must really love me 😉

I love you all and I hope life is grand!

Blessings and love,

Alyssa

Oh little town of Nazareth

Just a quick update so I don’t fall behind.

First of all, I don’t know how much you’ve been hearing about the riots going on in Cairo right now, but it’s getting a bit more intense than people expected. Well, I have 2 more weeks in Israel before we’re scheduled to head to Egypt so, fingers crossed, things will calm down a bit to let us in.  If things still seem dangerous, that means no Pyramids on the 15th, but instead we’ll stay in Sinai where we’ll be for a few days anyways. I suppose I don’t mind some extra time lounging around the Red Sea (especially after we do a sunrise hike up Mt. Sinai on the 14th- sweating myself to the ground on Valentine’s day), but I’ll be super bummed if we don’t get to go to Cairo… but whatever we do, know that Bruce Fisk (our professor) only has our best interest in mind and so trust that we’ll be safe.

 

Other than that, Nazareth has been great- we had a free day today filled with rain but beautiful nonetheless. Getting here was a little difficult since we had to pass through a checkpoint on our way as we crossed over from the West Bank to Israel- the only problem was that it was on Friday, which is the start of Shabat for Jews and they closed the gate at 1:30 in the afternoon, so when Matt’s (one of our leaders) Hebrew and our American women charm didn’t win them over, we had to drive 2 hours out of the way to get through a different checkpoint that was open. BUT, stopping at the Palestinian Fairtrade Organic Olive Oil factory was SOOO worth it.  It’s called Canaan Fairtrade and what they’re doing is awesome. They said they ship and they have a website but I haven’t figured that out yet.

We also stopped at a refugee camp along the way that’s doing a really cool, progressive thing with theatre. It’s called the Freedom Theater and they have a website too. It’s such a good way for people and especially youth who are growing up in hostile settings like this to get their emotions out through acting  and also feel like they’re able to give something back themselves.

 

Tomorrow we head down the Jesus Trail and believe it or not there’s a possibility of snow! We’re hiking 10 miles a day for 3 days from here to Tiberias and then we get to spend a day at the Sea of Galilee.

 

Alright friends and folk,

I love you and I appreciate you keeping up with my adventures. I hope all is well at home.

 

Always,
Alyssa

Life of Brine

Hey everyone- it’s been a while hasn’t it?

I’m sorry about that- we haven’t had much internet, or time, and since I’ve been borrowing computers, that doesn’t leave me much time to sit down and tell you all about my experiences so far. Where to start?

 

I think I left off on one of the first days I was in Jerusalem. We did so much every day- there’s so much to tell.

Did I tell you about the main focuses of our trip? The whole thing revolves around TRAVEL, MARGINALITY, and PEACE & CONFLICT.

These apply to both the present situations of the land and the ancient history- and there is so much to do with both.  Even archeology here is political.

There’s so much to add to all of this but let me just tell you the places I’ve been going and some of the people I’ve talked to and met.

Jerusalem: We stayed there until the 20th and during that time we did a sunrise hike up Masada (the snake path as Josephus refers to it) near the bottom of the dead sea. It’s a major archeological site from King Herod’s time. In that same day, we went and swam in the dead sea (hence the name: Life of Brine. I thought that was pretty witty, especially since I’ve begun to understand soo many Life of Brian quotes) and went to some waterfalls. We also toured Silwan, aka the City of David, in East Jerusalem and hiked “down into hell”- or rather, where Judas supposedly hung himself. We met with an Israeli Jewish woman and Palestinian man who are members of an organization called “Combatants for Peace” and an Australian Israeli woman who works for ICHAD (IsraeliCommittee Against House Demolitions), and so many others. We also went to the Holocaust museum there which was pretty intense. You can tell that it’s still so present here in a lot of people’s minds. The place we stayed in the Old City was called the Ecce Home Convent and we could see the Dome of the Rock (we were right next to it it felt like) from the balcony. We’ll be going back there in a few weeks for a couple days.

 

from Jerusalem we stayed at a place called the Tent of Nations which is a Palestinian farm in the “seam” zone between the armistice green line of 1949 (general line between Israel and Palestine that Israel doesn’t acknowledge) and the Separation Wall (aka Security Barrier, Fence, the Wall, the Apartheid Wall, Israel’s border). Basically no man’s land for a Palestinian but they’re trying to make it work. We planted grape vines there, had a bonfire and slept in caves.

 

Bethlehem: We did homestays with Christian Palestinian families which was so wonderful- for 3 nights. The total traveling we’ve been doing is very small. Bethlehem is only about 6 miles from Jerusalem, but most Palestinians aren’t allowed to go (even if they worked there in the past) unless they have a special permit (of which there are random checks in the city all the time- not to us though, since we’re white). Anyways, we met students from the Bible College there, went to the Church of the Nativity which sits over the cave where Jesus was most likely born (awesome), and met a man (Sami Awad) who works for Holy Land Trust which is a Palestinian run Non-violent Protest group.  While there, we visited Hebron which has the tombs of the Patriarchs, a site which was overshadowed by the tension between Palestians and Israeli Settlers and Military.

 

Jericho: then we headed down 1200ft. below sea-level to Jericho and stayed at an eco park for the night. The day was a bit dulled for me since I’ve been sick for the past week, and my ears have been plugged, so as we descended the pressure in my head was almost unbearable and it stopped hurting when we got there, but I spent the day feeling like I was wearing earplugs- no fun at all. That night my professor prayed for me and I felt 99x better in the morning. I could hear!! Wooo. But while we were there, we took cable cars up to the Mount of Temptations, where they believe Jesus spent his 40 days.

 

Ramallah: then we visited Ramallah and stayed in Bir Zeit for the night (a little bit outside of Ramallah). R is a city that’s the most liberal of Palestinian places, where most of Fatah is centered. We got to hang out with some students from Bir Zeit University and tour the campus. It was really cool getting to talk to them a little bit.

Ari’el: on our way to Nablus yesterday, we stopped for a few hours and toured the Israeli Settlement/City of Ari’el, smack dab in the middle of Israel and the northern part of the West Bank (or Samaria as our Jewish guide, Avi, referred to it), originally built for “security” because of it’s strategic location, but now holds 19,000 settlers and 12,000 students at the university. It was very interesting to hear Avi’s perspective of the situation, if somewhat clouded.

Nablus: here I am! We stayed here last night and toured the city. This was a place where a lot fighting and civilian deaths during the 2nd Intifada. It’s really cool to be here and last night we visited a Turkish Bath, just to see it and ended up hanging out, smoking hookah, and being a part of a Palestinian TV show. That was entertaining to say the least.

We’re here for one more night and then head off to Nazareth for 3 nights, Galillee for 4 nights, Golan Heights, Banias, Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Negev, and on February 12th, say goodbye to Israel and head into Egypt for a few days!

So far, the most common things in my life, food wise, are tea (with a lot of sugar), pita and hummus (every single meal) and falafel.

 

So there you go- quick update to Alyssa’s life the past few weeks. 🙂

Jerusalem!

I can’t believe it’s only the 4th full day in the Middle East. CRAZY. After Amman, we went to a camp called “Friend of the Earth, Middle East”. So cool. They deal with water issues and work with the community to reflourish some of the land- you would never guess you were in the desert in some of the places they’ve worked on- and they start with simply putting up fences to prevent overgrazing by local Bedouin sheep herds. So, as we walked around, we got to go into a Bedouin tent and have tea with the woman there…..Best thing ever! And she put in a lot of sugar, which according to my cousin David, is a great sign of being welcome there.
Then we packed up and left the camp and travelled to the Jordan river, to the most probably baptismal site of Jesus, since that’s where they know John the Baptist (talked about in the Gospels, in Matthew and Mark) worked most. It’s also near where, in 2 Kings 2, Elisha witnesses Elijah being taken up to heaven, and then Jesus in the Gospels compares John to Elijah- oh my goodness, I was so blown away by being there. I was near tears as we were reading the Bible, sitting next to the, well, once mighty Jordan river (there’s not much left of it and I definitely wouldn’t swim in the water that’s there).
But then we went to the border and crossed over into Israel last night and now I’m sitting here in a convent in the Muslim quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem (the old city meaning we’re within the Ottoman gates) and when I go up to the roof I can see all of the old city, with the Dome of the Rock literally right there practically next to us, and the Mount of Olives to the left…… Oh my goodness- we explored the city a bit this afternoon and all met up at the Western/Wailing Wall and went up onto the Temple Mount where the Dome of the Rock sits. 2 of the Egyptian girls in our group wrapped their heads with scarves like hijabs and pretended to be Muslim and got to go inside the mosque- I’m so jealous of them and their dark skin and Arabic. haha

Oh the hummus and the pita- I haven’t gone one meal without pita so far and I don’t even mind.

I’m sorry I don’t have pictures to upload, since I don’t have my computer, I’ve been borrowing. I’m also typing really fast and not covering as much as I’d like to about the conflict and everything.  If you have any questions at all, please feel free to comment and ask and I’ll respond to them if I have any idea.

 

We’re here at this convent for a whole week which is fantastic. It’s cold but amazing aside from that. If I ever come back to Jerusalem, which I feel is highly likely, this is where I’ll stay.  My goodness the history here is just phenomenal. I miss home and those of you I love, but I’m so truly happy to be learning here and traveling as a student and a pilgrim.

 

Okay, I should go.

Shalom!

A new adventure begins!

Hi everyone-

First of all, I don’t know how to change my title from “African” so that’s just going to be how it is.

I got to Paris exactly one week ago and have been having a great time. I was sick for a couple of days but I’m getting better- just taking it easy. I did push myself a bit and we made it over to Notre Dame yesterday, which was just magnificent. My goodness, this land is so beautiful.  We got up early yesterday and went to the MuseĂŠ d’oray and since we’re so far north in the middle of winter, the sun doesn’t rise until around 8:30, but, can you believe it- it was clear out! The only clouds in the sky were from airplanes and they were pink with the sun. It was so beautiful, but boy was it cold haha. By noon though it was overcast again. Still beautiful though, just cold 🙂

 

I can’t wait until I’m learning more! I’ll update when I can. I fly to Amman, Jordan on Sunday!

Kampala, Thanksgiving, Water Rafting

Kampala

Oh Kampala- big, ugly birds, crazy taxi parks, overwhelming Awino market and men calling out “Sista, sista, how is Obama?”  or “Mzungu, come, have a look!”  Garden City (essentially a mall overlooking a golf course, with a really good Indian restaurant) and Thousand Cups coffee have been the places most frequented by me.  Ciao Ciao’s, the Italian gelato place right down the street offers a heaping scoop of magic for 1000 Ugandan shillings (thankfully, that’s basically 54 cents.  Which will I miss more: chapatti the food or the kitten we adopted? African tea or Stoneys (best ginger soda ever)? The accent or the styles?  Will I miss being called mzungu? Probably not, but it’s nice that it’s not uncommon for everyone to wave as you drive or walk down a street.  Will I miss taking doxy every night or making sure my bed net is secure? Nope.  Am I sad to leave in less than 2 weeks now? Yes I am, but I’m also excited to see my mom, my brother, my grandma, my man, his family and all of my friends at home and at school.

As for Kampala the city I’ll be leaving, it’s really big and bustling.  The first weekend here, we went and saw “Ndere Toupe Dancers” which was a performance of all different styles of Ugandan dance.  Some move their hips and pound on gourds, while some shake their chest and play the drums.  That was also my first experience with a large number or mzungus (white people) other than my group and you may be surprised to find that I was very overwhelmed and felt awkward and out of place.  It’s better now because when we went rafting, which I’ll talk more about in a bit, there were even more mzungus and I was fine, possibly because people were from all over the world.

Anyways- the classes I’ve been taking have been pretty interesting.  I’m studying African Literature and African Traditional Culture and Religion.  It’s been really fast paced, with each class 3 days a week for 2 and ½ hours each, but I suppose it was tougher in Rwanda.  For out Lit class, we’ve read: Things Fall Apart, The River Between, Death and the King’s Horseman, Song of Lawino, So Long a Letter, Nervous Conditions, and Disgrace.  It’s interesting how all of these books really bring about the traditional cultures and struggles of different African tribes, and how it so clearly connects with out Culture and Religion class. For that one, we’ve visited the tombs of 4 of the kings of Buganda (one of the tribes in Uganda as well as the shrines of the Ugandan Christian Martyrs.  Both field trips, so to speak, were really interesting.  After the shrines, we also went to a waterfall in Mukono district (just next to Kampala) that was quite beautiful.

Our house here is on the same compound as the FH office and it has an amazingly beautiful backyard such that you don’t feel like you’re in Africa, except when Simon the monkey comes to hang out with us, or a big crane or toucan or hawk struts its stuff around the yard.  If you walk down the street to La Patisserie, a really nice coffee shop, on Sunday, you’ll see someone leading his cows, with their huge horns, across the traffic in the street. Here, the big homes are mixed in with the shanties and the slums.  At times I feel at home, and at times, especially at night when I see the kids on the street, I ache and think of “Slumdog Millionaire” and how real that really is.  The streets are quite a bit dirtier than those of Kigali- mostly with trash, but Museveni has actually begun a push on a “Ban against dust”.  We’ll see how that works out.  In terms of the dear Baganda president of Uganda, I know the North (places like Kitgum, where I’m headed this weekend, and Gulu and Pader) doesn’t like him, the East (Mbale and Kapchorwa) doesn’t like him, but it seems people in Mukono and Kampala, where his Buganda tribe resides, he is ever so loved.  There’s even rumor that either US or UN troops had Joseph Coney surrounded in Sudan, and called in Museveni to arrest him and he either never came, or let him go. Whether that’s true or not, it’s no wonder the Acoli and other tribes of the north hate him- it seems he only cares for the Baganda and himself. (Again, Buganda is a tribe of many in Uganda.  Colonialism created the country lines, so people still identify themselves by their clan first, tribe second, country third).

Okay- enough of politics.

I forgot to mention earlier- I’m going to miss the fruit here. The giant avocados from which 1 could make guacamole for 10 people.  The delicious, abundant, magnificent mangoes.  The perfect little bananas that are just the right size for a snack.  Oh and the delicious pineapple that no other will ever quite measure up to. (And Erica- you’d better take that as a challenge- just fly me out to Hawaii and I’ll tell you what I think ;P ).

Alright, back on track-

Thanksgiving was great fun and we even entertained guests. Luckily- there was plenty of food for 35 (though my green bean casserole left nothing over- that was a hit that I was proud of).  It wasn’t the same as being at home, and we all felt it, but it was a good meal nonetheless. Now, are you ready for the kicker? Wednesday morning we had two live turkeys tied next to the house.  Wednesday afternoon, before I headed up to class, I watched as one of their heads was sliced off. If you’re going to eat meat, you’ve got to be willing to watch it die.  I didn’t watch the second one, and I’m going to return to being a vegetarian when I go back home.

Water rafting was Amazing, can I just say!  It’s definitely not something I would normally do, as adventurous as I like to think of myself, but I’m super glad I went. There was no time to think- we got on the bus at 7:30 in the morning, drove to Jinja where the New Zealand run company is set, right on the Nile. As soon as we put our stuff away, we were given directions to suit up and head to the water- life vest and helmet on, paddle in hand. We got in and set off. Did some practice drills- the rapids we went through were classes 3, 4, and 5, mostly 5.  We walked around the class 6 and when I asked our guide what made it a class 6, he just said, “Death.” We flipped once- and therefore bought the video and pictures- both of which I still need to put on my computer, so maybe you’ll just have to see those in person.

Okay- sorry it’s delayed but there’s the update!!! I’ll try to do another one after I go to Kitgum, which will be this weekend.

I love and miss each one of you and can’t wait to see you, talk to you, and hug you when I get back!

Oh- and I forgot to mention- my hair is now back to normal. It had a good run of 6 weeks, plus a day of being really crimped, which was fun, but now I’m all back to my normal hair.

K- that’s all :] Until next time!