I knew I'd love it here when...

Hello everyone!! Oli Otya! I am so excited about this opportunity to be able to share with all of you some snapshots of what my experience is like over here. And I say snapshot because I will never quite be able to do it justice. Well, here we go....
I've named this post the way I did to give you a taste of the everyday life I'm living and share some of my favorite things about Uganda as well as maybe a few of the challenges.
I knew I'd love it here when on the way to the University after landing in Entebbe we were given something to eat called chapati! As many of you know I often follow where my taste buds lead and if it weren't for basketball I would be pleasantly plump :) Chapati is like a tortilla that will contain little bits of onions and almost has a meat flavor to it! I was hooked and couldn't wait for the next actual meal! Little did i know that I'd be waiting a lot for meals...the time for meals is more flexible here than what I'm used to you could say. Breakfast at 7, which for me consists of a piece of bread and tea, lunch at 1, which is often matoke, rice, and beans, and then supper is not until 9 or 10 normally!!!!!! Let's just say my stomach communicates with me a lot between lunch and supper. I love the suppers though! So scrumptious! Rice, beans, noodles, matoke, ground nuts, pineapple, and many other options depending on the night. It's best if it's all mixed. My host dad says matoke is the food of heaven and as an associate pastor I would assume that he might be in the know, but I'm not so sure about that. Although he does claim that we will also have ice cream and pigs-in-a-blanket there as well. Good news.
I knew I'd love it here when little kids will come running to you from all different directions to get a peek at you. They are fascinated by my white skin and long, blond hair. I find such joy in being able to bend down and look into their beautifully rich brown faces with their glowing white teeth smiling at me as they hold out their hands to hold. Everywhere I go I am greeted by the term mzungu, which simply means white person. We stopped in a town in Rwanda way up in the mountains when we got lost and we could hear that word echoing everywhere as kids and people came sprinting up the hill and along the paths to get to see us. My love for being with kids is easily satisfied here and God truly blessed me when I was placed with a host family where I have a 2 year old brother.
I knew I'd love it here when my desire to learn as much as I can was met with such enthusiasm from the people I asked questions of. I'm slowly learning some of the Luganda language and can say hello (oli otya), good morning (wasuzeotya), milk (amata), dance (zina), I am tired (nkoyae), beautiful (bulungi), as well as being able to count to ten and many other things. My family as well as some of my Ugandan friends are so willing to help me learn, but I think they have an ulterior motive as well. They will sound out the word for me and then spend the next 5 minutes laughing at my attempt to repeat it, but they tell me that I'm a quick learner and am doing quite well.
I knew I'd love it here when everytime I go to bathroom it's an adventure as to whether or not there will be toilet paper! Hahaha, it's funny to me to hear how excited our group will get if the bathroom we use has toilet paper or if we are blessed with a toilet seat!! I don't really mind the squatty potties that much. You gotta do what you gotta do, right?!? At my home we have a small square hole cut into some cement, but I'm a pretty good aimer. However, Kurty has been blessed with a larger hole with a helping ramp built in so funnel all your misfires back into the hole. Oh the things I get jealous about here!
I knew I'd love it here when I found out I was peeing in a skirt the wrong way! No one ever told me all you have to do is lift it up and pull down the underwear! Don't worry, I do not pull it down anymore. Hahaha. Wearing skirts everyday isn't bad. I kind of like looking nice, but the muscles in my legs used for crossing legs or keeping them together are quite sore and tired! I still love getting home and putting on capris after a full day in a skirt. But in this hot weather a skirt is quite breezy!
I knew I'd love it here when I got to have a dance party in the middle of church! In some ways here it is so much easier to go nuts for God in worship. Experiencing God in a new context is so exciting. I'll expand more on this later, but I am so glad I can go into this experience knowing God because everything is so enriched. It is great to have Kurty here as well as others to be able to share and talk about these things.
Ok, just a few last minute thoughts of some of the other joys I experience every day: I get to walk to school everyday and enjoy struggling up a massive hill, but also enjoying God's picturesque way of putting his world together. I love hand washing my clothes that are constantly covered in a film of the red dirt of Uganda because there is such a sense of accomplishment. I love that every late afternoon or early evening the sky clouds up after a stinkin' sweaty afternoon and cools off or often dumps a little rain on us. I like going to town to get a box of crackers for a buck or a tea cup for 50 cents and attempting to cross the street full of taxi's and boda-bodas (little motorcycles)...always an adventure!

Well, that's all I have for now. Still to come: my trip to Rwanda, my host family and life with them, and I'm going to a Ugandan wedding this weekend. Just more events on my grand adventure with my God in this life. I'm excited to see what he has in store around the next turn! Can't wait to share it with you all!

"Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious! Say to God, How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power..." -Psalm 66:1-3