My Sunday and today: hot cornflakes, muzungo pokers, and crispy grasshoppers

So much to say, all I can say is that I love this change in pace, and the beauty of having a truly relaxing Sunday.  After a great morning service, I was able to talk to my Ugandan dad who loves traveling and gardening and hear all about his adventures and work, play soccer with my 12 year old cousin and be beat in a goalie contest, roll more chapateis (torteias) with my sister and mom, and take a beautifully refreshing nap.  My sister also got a package with American candy in it which she generously shared with all.  I got my first Hershey bar in a week, delicious as ever, and then drank my afternoon tea with peanuts.  I haven’t quite figured out how tea helps my sweatiness after a game of soccer, but it definitely is a delight to take tea every day, as I am a tea-lover!!  I also tried for the first time cornflakes with hot milk - it truly transforms the taste into something wholly different!  Add sugar, and its even better:)  Dinner was around 9 pm as usual, which consisted of the chapateis, beans, chicken with very flavorful sauce, and matoke.  Special papaya juice was served as well which they had made in the afternoon – delicious!  (Though they of course thought it was quite normal and was not as excited as I was about itJ) After dinner, I was able to sit in the girls room for a while and just chat, look at more pictures and listen to songs, one being, “You don’t know you beautiful.”  Then it was bed time, time to get under my mosquito net and fall asleep to music and singing going on somewhere outside – party, church, who knowsJ 

Today was my first day of classes – had bread, tea, and a banana for breakfast before taking my ten minute walk to school amid bota-botas swerving in and out of crazy cars on the left side of the road (yah they drive on the left here).  Had Faith and Action today, in which after talking about how Christ has been brought to Africa in a very western way, I was posed with the question, “If Christ were to appear as the answer to the questions that Africans are asking, what would He look like?”  I’m not quite sure, but am looking forward to talk to my family tonight and see what they think.  I also went into town today and was successful at many things: at crossing an insane two-way street, bargaining for passion fruit, finding my way through an alley full of police men to reach the post office, not tripping too many times on the road, and not getting too many comments of "Muzungo" (white man) as I walked with my friend, the only other white person on the street.  However, I was unsuccessful at avoiding the Muzungo poker, a man dressed in rags who laughs and pokes any white person who walks by.  It was quite surprising, and as he approached us and poked me with laughter  my first thought was my brother's advice - RUN.  This running looked rather foolish and was filled with much laughter as well, making us stand out even more as silly americans, but we had escaped, and it sure did give me a story and the ability to say, I was poked by the crazy Muzungo poker.   

If you’ve read this far in my blog, I am impressed – I tend to right in long bursts, which pretty much result in a great length of words, but I will hopefully try to work on that and write less more often.  But, I think I can blame my Ugandan brother for that, for he told me to write in more detail and go deeper, and that necessarily follows with a very long post, so I am sorryJ 

Tomorrow I will have African Christian Theology in the morning and then will be off to my practicum site – Off Tu.  I will be in the city of Kampala, working with street kids and I think evangelizing in some way.  I am a bit nervous and know this will be out of my comfort zone, but am also a bit excited to see what it will be like!  Love you all and thanks for reading!

Oh, and as I speak, I just ate a crispy grasshopper.  Tasted awefully like...a cheetoh with eyes?