Life in the Mountains

It's Friday October 16th, 2015. All of the USP students and staff pile into vans to begin our 6 hour journey to Kapchorwa. We've left our watches behind and we are prepared for a time free and technology free week! We stop for one last bathroom break before we will be dropped off at our homes. I'm informed that I’ll be the first to be dropped. Somewhat nervous, somewhat excited I watch out the window as we near my home. The mountains are beautiful! We stop on a dirt road next to a small path that leads up the hill. My mom comes down the path to greet me and to help me with my bags. I wave goodbye to my fellow classmates and begin the walk up the path with my mom. It was muddy and slippery, or so I thought. I would soon learn that this is an easy path, hiking up a mountain in the rain is much more difficult. I'm mostly excited about my week ahead. I can't wait to make this beautiful place my home.

Home Sweet Home!

We arrive at the house! It's a beautiful home! Not what I was expecting for rural Uganda. Electricity, tile floor, the kitchen was even inside! This is not a typical home in this area. Several of my friend lived in mud houses. Mom begins to give me a tour of the house. I learn that she has 3 biological children, and she cares for 4 orphans. All of them are currently in boarding school and my dad works in Kampala, so he isn't home either. My mom is a midwife and is currently a student as well. It's just mom, my cousin Ritah (who was basically my little sister), and me! This is going to be fun! 

My room had a twin bed (where I slept) as well as a triple bunk bed, a large chair, and a small table. It was cozy! Our bathroom (shower) was a small, tile covered room with a small hole in the corner to drain the water. Showers were taken with buckets (bucket baths). We also had a sitting room, dinning room, and kitchen. Mom did all the cooking inside using charcoal stoves and a hot coil. There was another bathroom and 2 pit latrines (toilets) outside. After our house tour, mom took me on a garden tour. She has a huge garden in the backyard with coffee, passion fruits, pumpkins, bananas, beans, maize, egg plant, and I'm sure there is something I'm forgetting. It was amazing! 

The Coffee!!!

I was mostly intrigued by the coffee. It was like meeting a long lost friend! You know when you have a good friend, but you don't know anything about their family or where they come from? Then you go home with them for a weekend and meet their family and see where they live? It's like you have a better understanding of who they are and where they've been. That's what happened with me and coffee. I had no idea what a coffee plant even looked like, yet coffee has been a good friend of mine for several years now. I also learned the entire process of making coffee, but at the end of the week. We will come back to this wonderful topic of the coffee bean.

I was planning to sleep in on Saturday, but I had to get up to use the toilet. I thought sure it was around 6 or 6:30 so I went back into my room and did some devotions. Later in the day I asked my mom what time it was when I went outside to the latrine. She informed me that it was 8:30. This no watch thing was harder than expected! Later that day I also took a "short" nap while my mom showered... I woke up 2 hours later. We basically stayed home all day Saturday and just relaxed. I helped with dishes and made passion fruit juice, but other than that I read and just relaxed.

On Sunday we walked down the mountain to church. It was a long walk, but at least it was downhill and on a paved road. And the view was so beautiful!!! So many mountains. We walked for a long time until an elder from the church picked us up and drove us the rest of the way. The church was a very small, simple building. Everyone sat on benches. There were basically no decorations. I was the only white person in the church. There was always a curious child peeking at me. I was asked to introduce myself so mom and I both went up front. I greeted the congregation in Kupsabiny, the local language (thanks to my mom's short lesson before we went up). I just said who I am, where I'm from, and what I'm doing in Uganda. After church I sat and ate a snack that mom packed for me. As I sat and watched people leave I realized why the church had so few decorations. They had to take everything out of the church, even the clock of the wall! I think this is because there was really no way to securely lock up the church.

After church we began our way home with several stops on the way. We stopped to greet her friends and hear the local news and gossip at the police station. Then we stopped at another friends’ house where we were invited to stay for lunch. There was a reunion going on for all the women of the family. So we joined in and got to know this wonderful group of relatives. Turns out, Jessica is a common name throughout the family. So I fit right in! Some of them wanted to introduce me to some of the single men in the family because apparently some of the women have married white men, but there are no white women in the family. Also I already had the proper name. No worries though, I declined their offer.

After our lunch, we finished our walk up the mountain and arrived home around 6. The power went out after we had our tea so we ate supper in the kitchen with a lantern. We had liver for dinner!

Monday was cold and rainy. The power went out in the afternoon and stayed out until around midday on Tuesday. I made passion fruit juice in the morning and then spent the cold day reading, sleeping, and thinking.

Bless the rains down in Africa

Tuesday we went up to see mom’s coffee plantation!!! I was surrounded by so much coffee!! It was a pretty big, muddy hike to get there, but worth it! When we got back home I learned how to make passion fruit juice without electric. (I usually use a blender). It wasn’t too hard. Tuesday afternoon was one of my favorite days. We went to what my mom called the center so she could get her hair unplaited. We sat outside the small shops while a couple of the women helped her with her hair. That’s when it started to downpour! It was fun to watch people run for shelter and life stop because of the rain. Several children joined me on the bench I was sitting on under a small awning.

They looked at me and giggled. Then I noticed that they were trying to play with my hair. I let it down and little hands began to run through it. My mom translated for me what one of the little girls was saying. “I used to fear whites, but now I am sitting next to one and playing with her hair”. Doesn’t that just melt your heart?! But wait! The scene gets more interesting! This is when the drunk guy enters the picture. Of course he’s drawn to me because I’m the only white person in sight. He comes and greets me and thanks me for visiting. He sat next to me for a little but eventually someone made him leave. Later he came back and greeted me again. This happened several times so my mom asked him how many times he needed to greet me. Apparently he told my mom that I am his mother and that’s why he keeps coming back to me. I know! News to me too! It was hilarious and everyone around got a good laugh. When we went back home mom taught me how to make chapatti!!

Chapatti!

Wednesday we stayed home all day again.

Actually I got to meet my little brother, Morah! He had come home from boarding school because he had malaria. His cousin also came to assist him and just hang out with him. They literally just sat in the sitting room all day and stared at the TV. I was impressed with the cousin’s patience and willingness to suffer with. It was a true example of compassion. Morah was really sick on Wednesday, but by the time I left on Friday he was doing much better. I’m so glad I got to meet him and hang out with him.

Thursday morning mom, the cousin who’s name I fail to remember (sorry), and I went to one of the Sipi Falls!!! 

It was sooo beautiful. You know those parks for kids where everything is huge and it make the kid feel like an ant? That’s how I felt. It was so high and huge and magnificent!

Tea time with my little brother!

In the afternoon I hung out with Morah. We talked about the US and Uganda. We had tea together and watched Fast and Furious 7. I loved talking to him and getting to know him! Also he loved taking pictures!

Friday morning mom, Ritah, and I made a quick trip up to her cabbage farm. Two men from the village joined us along the way. The walk was very difficult. The paths were muddy from all the rain. I ended up doing more sliding than walking probably. I was thankful that one of the guys offered to help me! I would have fallen so much without him!

When we got back home I took a shower and then had to say goodbye to my family. The goodbyes were hard and I wasn’t ready to leave, but the time had come. Saying goodbye to Morah was probably the hardest because I felt like I was just getting to know him.

Then begins debrief! We were reunited with all of the USP staff and students at a little lodging area called the Crow’s Nest. We spent the weekend there and enjoyed a fantastic view of the falls. We shared our experiences with one another and, in my opinion, came together as a family more than we ever had before. On Saturday we hiked and we hiked and we hiked! Remember how I said the falls made me feel small because it was so tall? Well we went to the top!

And then of course we hiked back down the mountain and went to the bottom of the falls as well. When I went with my mom I noticed a tree at the top of the mountain that I loved! On Saturday when we were hiking we passed that tree!

See that tree all by itself? That's the one!

That’s when I realized that I was looking at the top of the same waterfall I had seen a couple days before. We also went behind another waterfall. The hike was beautiful, but very challenging. It was so muddy and it even rained for a while during our adventure. I didn’t die though! And the views made the pain very much worth it!

After around 5 hours of hiking I showered, changed clothes, and left again for a coffee tour! We went to a coffee plantation where we learned about the coffee itself. We learned about peeling it, drying it, pounding it, blowing the internal shell off, roasting it, and pounding some more. All without electricity! Then I had the freshest cup of coffee a girl could ever desire! It was so thick and rich. It was actually almost too much, but it was so good!

On Sunday we said farewell to Kapchorwa and had a safe journey back to Mukono!

I loved being a big sister!