how we felt before rafting the Nile! Thank God we all survived (and we only flipped our raft once and almost went over a waterfall once)

home sweet home in Kapchorwa. No electricity, no running water, but lots of quality family time

picking COFFEE!!!!

   so this is honestly how I felt about my African hair most of the time. Beautiful?...maybe. Way to massive....absolutely!!

so in this picture I am carrying 10 liters of water on my head, which of course sounds pretty impressive until you realize that my host mama is balancing about 20 liters with no hands!! I make a very wimpy African woman...don't know how they do it!

beautiful Uganda!! This is the mountainous country around Mt. Elgon. I miss Kapchorwa already

Short Term Missions Trips--- For What?

So our group of IMME students has really struggled with the idea of short term missions. Not only are short term missions trips not cost effective at all (financially) but they can do more harm then good. “Missions projects” can often be accomplished in a more sustainable and culturally sensitive way by locals instead of Americans. The money we spend on flights, hotels, and especially sight seeing, can do a lot more good in the local community. Not only that, but locals take more ownership of what they work for themselves, instead of things handed to them. Ownership is essential because the locals will 1) create something that actually works in their context (culturally or geographically), 2) have the means and motivation to maintain a house, pump etc. and 3) be empowered to serve themselves and their communities. When we go in to “serve” a community in the Majority World country, we are showing that our work and help is better then what they could do themselves. This creates a dependency that can hurt the community being served as they begin to wait for us to fix their poverty. And, let’s face it, as Americans we have “god-complexes.” We think that we can “save the world” because of our superior culture, education, citizenship, etc. Though we do not like to admit this, it becomes painfully evident when we enter a community and serve without first listening to the hearts and needs of the people there. It is very hard to be beneficial if we are helping outside of relationship.

            I am coming to believe more and more in relationship and empowerment. If we can build long-lasting partnerships, admit that building houses and leading VBS is not going to save a community, and practice “presence” instead of god-complexes, I think that we can do short term missions. At least, we can do them without too much damage. I feel like the best good that short terms can do is raise awareness among the people going and perhaps encourage the “target community” by showing solidarity. We can give our presence by listening and engaging in their lives. We can humble ourselves by living among those we wish to serve and learning how life works in their setting. I’m still not sure how short term missions can work for everyone’s benefit, but I also am so glad for the trips that I have gone on. For me they started a journey of seeking truth through cross-cultural settings and looking outside of my American bubble. Now I just have to figure out how to best express God’s love in the world through helping without causing further damage. Just some thoughts….

Rural Homestay in Kapchorwa, Uganda

        For about a week in the end of October, I lived in a rural village near Kapchorwa in Western Uganda. This is Sabiny land in the mountainous county near Mt. Elgon. The scenery was absolutely stunning with giant terraces of volcanic rock and the lush green of coffee and banana groves. I stayed with Rev. Moses Salimo, his wonderful wife Justine and their children: Isabel (age 6) and Ephraim (5 months). Their home is a mud house with a tin roof and they have a separate kitchen hut. We cooked matooke, rice and beans over a wood fire every evening and washed our dishes outside on a makeshift shelf. I loved living with no electricity and no plumbing. The nights were so quiet and family-focused and the stars shone so brightly there. During the day, I helped a lot with baby Ephraim. He was adorable but never wore a diaper so I got peed on multiple times a day! Having naked kids running around all the time was totally normal after awhile. It was so muddy there that to keep clean clothes on kids was practically impossible anyways. I also helped with some of the coffee production. I sat for hours sorting dried coffee beans with random neighborhood kids who all wanted to touch me and pet my crazy African hair. I loved harvesting dried corn and carrying water from the local well on my head. My jerry can was only 10 liters but it was still so hard to balance on my head. My Mama Justine carries 20 liters of water on her head every day without using her hands.

           I really enjoyed cooking with Justine and talking to Rev. Moses about church, coffee and local poverty. He also took me to visit extended family and close friends. One friend we visited did not even speak English but she was so excited to host me and made an entire meal in the middle of the afternoon for us. Hospitality in Uganda is amazing and always involves more food then one can eat. So much chapatti, Ugandan donuts and lots and lots of tea!

         Rev. Moses is a priest at the local Anglican Church but since he is not on salary with the church he is also a coffee farmer. He was so excited to show me his coffee “gardens” and to teach me all of the processes of picking, pulping, cleaning and drying coffee beans. By the end of the week we roasted the coffee and after pounding it, they mixed it with fresh, boiled milk. So so yummy and I really like pounded coffee because it is smoother then brewed coffee. Rev. Moses is part of coffee growers association with about 25 other community growers. They sell their specialty, organic coffee to Fair Traders from Denmark. Though this partnership is very beneficial for the community, they need other partners in order to expand their association to include more growers and have the funds to pay for school fees for their children. I really want can help connect this wonderful family to more consumers in the US who are interested in partnership and who will pay fair wages. Does anyone have any ideas on who I should talk to when I get back to the states?

        Anyways, I had a wonderful time in Kapchorwa and really connected well with my family! I learned a lot about what poverty is and is not. Being poor does not mean living in a hut or lacking electricity. Bucket showers and cooking over a fire is not poverty. I cannot define poverty, but I am more inclined to agree with the definition presented in the book When Helping Hurts.  Poverty is broken relationships with God, others, self and creation. According to this definition, my family in Kapchorwa is less poor then many Christians in middle class America. I cannot overlook their material poverty, but there is so much that I can learn from them and their rural community. This does a lot to kill the god-complex that I naturally have as a privileged American that I am supposed to “save Africa.” What a stupid assumption! The Africans are very capable of dreaming within their communities and helping themselves. Partnership has so much to offer both us and them. I really hope to continue my friendship with my host family and to learn more about how Christ is alive and working in their rural setting.

Circumcision Ceremony! No joke!

I had the ultimate African experience last Saturday and I’m still not exactly sure what all happened! For my religions class we had studied the rites of passage ceremonies of the Bagisu tribe in Eastern Uganda. So last weekend, to top off the learning experience, we traveled to the base of Mt. Elgon into a remote village… for a circumcision ceremony. This very public celebration is the initiation into manhood and must be performed by every boy if he is to be recognized by the tribe as a man and allowed to marry.

         Due to heavy rains in the morning, our bus could not take us along the last stretch of road, so we walked the last 2 miles to the home of the candidate. We made a Mzungu Mud Parade as we slipped along the road in the middle-of-nowhere Uganda, and the locals laughed at our desperate attempts to stay upright. Our road eventually turned into a cow path among banana groves and coffee plants as it climbed high into the mountain country. We finally arrived at the mud hut and were welcomed very warmly by a group of elders as more and more children and women arrived. The mountain view from outside the hut was absolutely stunning and surreal. We sat in a circle around the stem of a “sacred bush” and suddenly we heard excited shrieks as a stream of men came running up the hill toward us. In a crazy rush of excitement for the villagers and terror for us, the candidate(probably age 15sish) was pushed into the middle of our group and there and then he became a man. Not 10 feet from where I was standing. I could not watch, obviously, but it was quite the ceremony of drumming, dancing and what felt like absolute chaos. The boy could show no pain and took the whole thing every bravely. The community was so proud of him and it was just amazing that we were there to witness such an important moment in the life of him and his family.

          Afterwards we were herded back, down the slippery hill, falling and being caught in the red mud. In order to cross the streams we made mad leaps into the arms of however was on the opposite side, American or Ugandan. Once we made it to the main road a young girl (maybe 15) clasped my hand to stable me as we finished the walk back to our bus. Her help enabled me to take in the scenery of trumpet vines and scattered eucalyptus trees as the sunset bright red and orange. It was dusk by the time we were on our way back to the familiar land of pavement, electricity, and English. Now that we are back, at the University in Mukono, I still cannot believe what we have witnessed. I’m honestly not sure what to think about my experience in Bagisu rituals and village life. Craziness! And yet it actually happened!

living in our hut during the trip to Gulu in Northern Uganda with IMME . This was at ChildVoice International

messing around at home with family

yummm....matooke, g-nut sauce, fish and passionfruit juice. Typical dinner. Thankfully it tastes a little better then it looks!

Trip to Northern Uganda

Northern Uganda just recently became safely accessible according to the UN after years of being a war zone terrified by the army of Joseph Kony. Because of the recent peace, our IMME group was able to travel to Gulu for the purpose of studying the civil war and seeing what Christians are presently doing to help with rehabilitation. We saw three different groups presently working with the Acholi; ChildVoice International, Sankofa Café, and the Recreation Project.

        Fri. evening, as we approached Gulu, my group got into a really intense conversation about the war with the LRA and about spiritual warfare. As we bumped along a dark dirt road toward ChildVoice with tall brush surrounding our bus and heat lightning in the distance, the terrors of that civil war became more real to me. I had heard the stories of the LRA attacking from the bush and of children walking for hours in order to sleep in the cities for protection, and there I was along some of the same almost impassible roads. Let’s just say I was relieved to make it to the ChildVoice center and to be welcomed by the directors, the chaplain and the girls. This center is a rehabilitation program for child mothers who were in the bush with Kony’s army or became extremely vulnerable and abused in the IDP camps. The girls usually average from 13 to 18 and most have them have experienced at least a couple of the atrocities of the war. But they welcomed us so warmly with songs, and shrill, high pitched calls (which are actually signs of absolute joy) and an excellent chapatti dinner. You could just tell that that place was prayed over constantly and I could feel the power of the name of Christ every time the chaplain spoke it.

           That night I slept in a hammock strapped up in a mud hut with a thatched roof!! I actually slept very well until the rooster right outside my door woke me up at 6am the next morning. It was a beautiful and sunny and the landscape was bursting with green vitality under a bright blue sky. After breakfast, we got to meet the director of the program and hear more about the ministry and their joys and struggles. We also got a very helpful, informative session on political and social aspects of the war and the hopeful future of the Acholi tribe. They gave us a tour of where the girls and their little children (and in some cases little siblings) live, the school and the bakery. The program is about 1 and a half years and the girls go from being wild, hurt, uncontrollable individuals to capable, self-sufficient citizens who are trained to style hair, run a bakery or tailor. It is an amazing, intense ministry and I think I would love going back to live there as an intern sometime.

               After farewells at ChildVoice, we moved back to the town of Gulu for an American lunch at Sankofa cafe. True American pizza in the middle of Northern Uganda is heaven! The couple that run this café are graduates from Wheaton who worked with Samaritan’s Purse for a while and then decided to open a café in order to serve the expat community and give good work to local Ugandans. They are not supported from the States and have just recently been able to make a fair living from the café. They hope to eventually hand the business off to a national or someone who can manage their work better. I think their approach to development is very intriguing and, of course, the food was absolutely amazing!

        Our last stop was a ministry called the Recreation Project. They are a group of counselors and outdoor enthusiasts who are partnered with a group of Catholic nuns in Gulu to bring healing to children through fun. They currently have a small “forest” of obstacle courses and group building activities such as the impossible wall and trust fall. The hope is to give Acholi children a safe environment to play and learn about trust and community. The ministry will eventually run a kind of outdoor camp for local schools and a community building center for NGO groups. Again, it was a really great ministry and just another way of demonstration Christ’s hope and love in Northern Uganda. I was really blessed to observe all of these very different and important ministries. It reminded me about how significant it is that the body of Christ is so diversified and able to meet a great need in unique, effective ways. Though the Gulu area is so torn by this past war and thousands of people have become destitute and broken, God is still at work and there absolutely hope for the Acholi future. The hope is not in the presence of missionaries or NGOs in Uganda, but it is in Spirit of God over that land, over that people and over the earth. I pray that the Spirit will crush the very real powers of darkness and will put compassion and love into the hearts of the Ugandans and the International community for the poor and oppressed among us.

Things I Love most about Uganda!

1.       Dancing like crazy and cooking dinner over a charcoal stove with my host sister, Resty

2.       Fresh Pineapple, Bananas, and Passion fruit  juice

3.       Watching TV shows from the Philippines translated into English and then dubbed in Luganda

4.       Smiles and greetings from little kids in bright purple and pink uniforms on my long walk to school

5.       Being called “mzungu” all the time and getting tons of attention for being white (NOT!)

6.       Deep discussions with other IMMEs about God, mission, spiritual warfare and life in general

7.       Traveling to Rwanda and Northern Uganda—rural east Africa is absolutely Beautiful and the people are incredible

8.       Perfect warm sunny weather everyday!!

9.       Seeing goats and cows wandering through town (all of Uganda is a farm)

10.   Sliding around on dirt tennis courts

11.   Chapatti!!! (flat bread fried in lots of oil) yummmm…

12.   Hanging out with and hearing the stories of my crazy Ugandan and Kenyan friends here at UCU