Mama Joy and her daughter preparing meat in the kitchen...im not sure what that is but i think its goat. the floors are dirt so they set the food on banana leaves to keep it from getting dirty. there's no such thing here as trimming the fat off of meat...you just cut it up and put it in the pot. And our kitchen...the mud fire stove where all the food is prepared.

my house at my rural homestay. the main house; kitchen house and boys hut; my room (you can see three of the four walls in the picture...very small); the living room

my host parents for the week, patrick and joy. they are wonderful! i spent most of my week with joy...her name suits her...shes always got a smile on her face and is just precious

i am cherotich

so i spent last week in kapchorwa. it was absolutely incredible. it took a couple hours for the IMME van to manuver around the hilly dirt roads to drop each of us off. we even popped a tire and had to just pray that God would keep us all safe for the rest of the drive. i stayed with a couple named patrick and joy both of whom are teachers in addition to their farm work, growing bananas and coffee. i lived in a little mud house in the middle of the banana plantation, not a city in sight. i cant really explain it but there is a healing property about being in the middle of nature like that. i dont know exactly how to put words to it but i could feel my heart being mended while i was there. i felt so broken and numb and apathetic for the last year but being here has helped restore me to the melody i recognize...or at least something that resembles what i remember. it was great to go for hours and hours without saying any words...just thinking and journaling. one of my favorite things to do was get up early and sit on the cliff, writing in my journal and looking out over the valley...i could hear the birds and the muslim call the prayer echoing from the valley...it was beautiful! i loved just sitting and talking with mama joy. her faith was so every present. she recognized that everything they had was a blessing from God. i asked her one day..."do people in africa ever ask the question 'does God exist'?" and she replied..."well there are some that are curious...but mostly...God exists in africa". wow...i wish that it was so easy in america to have that kind of simple faith. to just believe...no questions. in a way i think it is important to question God and faith... but sometimes i meet people here and i envy the peace they have. meeting with the people there constantly reminded me of the verse "be still and KNOW that I am God". just be still and KNOW...you're never going to totally figure it out...so just be still and know. easier said and done of course. anyway...the church service there was also quite an experience. the only instruemnts were various wood and animaly hide drums and a tambourine. the offering was the thing that struck me the most...in kapchorwa people have very little money and since they dont make any kind of regular profit its difficult to tithe ten percent...so instead people just bring whatever they have...eggs, milk, vegetables etc and the clergy auctions them off during the offering time. all the money then goes to the offering plate. it was great! and i also got to go to the school where mama joy works...there were about 70 students per teacher and they all sat squashed together on long benches behind narrow tables...each student did not have their own desk as they do in the states. neither were there enough books for each student...their only personal school supplies were a small notebook and one pencil. anyway..it was a great experience and the kids loved me bieng there! i walked into the classroom and caused an uproar. ok...well this is long enough so ill stop here. hopefully ill have some time to update you this week.

protect the girl child

so im leaving for my rural homestay today and ill be gone for ten days...figured you all might want something to read between now and then since i wont have internet access during that time and wont be able to post anything.

the other day one of the USP girls was with her host sister and saw a sign that said "protect the girl child". she asked her sister what it meant and her sister proceeded to explain: apparently it is common thought here in africa that girls have difficulty with self control and self governance. they are therefore prone to 'forgetting' that they are supposed to remain chaste and will use their sexuality to seduce men in order to manipulate them and get what they want. thus, they must have people in their lives to protect them and to remind them of remaining chatste. i think that this hints that the burden of stopping sexually transmitted diseases is largely placed on women and their learning to control their promiscuity. of course coming from america i, and the other USP students, find this kind of thought outrageous. i am by no means a feminist but i do not believe that women are in any way inferior to men, especially not intellectually.

however, i am encouraged that my host family goes against the grain in regards to this common thought. my host father said that he made a decision when he was very young that he would never abuse his wife. he and edith seem to have a very healthy relationship (although marriage relationships do not look the way they do in the states). ive asked my siblings and cousins if this is true and they confirmed it saying that julius and edith are happily married (it seems rare that the women is content in the relationship). i have great respect for julius because he advocates for women in the community. his family is very progressive in this respect...both of his daughters are just as educated as his sons. he believes that women deserve respect and that they should respect themselves and learn to think for themselves. he feels that education is an important part of this process. educated women are much more independent and have high self esteem...and their status within the community goes up if they are educated. his niece claire was telling me that, as the head master of mukon high school, he strongly supports the girls. he encourages them to respect themselves by dressing modestly and will not tolerate boys "disturbing" girls. his daughters and nieces have clearly benefited from this attitude. judie (my sister), alice (the oldest sister in our family) and stella (my cousin who stays at our house most of the time) are some of the most confident ugandan women i have met. they have goals and dreams of their own and know how to speak their mind. claire told me that she will not marry someone who does not respect her. education of women decreases birth rates by delaying marriage and making women aware of family planning (ie: if you dont have the money to support 7 children....you shouldnt have 7 children!).

my brother brian (he is the oldest son in our family...about 20...very well educated and very much like his father) said that it is not enough to only educate women...men must be educated as well. they must be raised to believe that their women are valuable and deserving of respect. he told me that just because a woman is educated and does not want to have a lot of children, she does not have the authority to make that decision on her own...her husband will make it for her.

i hope that the the influence of men like julius and brian will encourage other men in the community to change their way of thinking. meanwhile, i am glad that there are men like them that will join with the women of uganda as they strive for equality in their communities.

imme rooms...we have this little building with two VERY tiny rooms for us imme kids to hang out in and do our homework since we dont have dorm rooms.

isaac working; me and ema; isaac and ema. i love these kids! they arent staying with us anymore because they had to start school but there dad stopped by yesterday and said he would bring them to visit on weekends.