Dearest familia y amigos,
Week four in Uganda has been a real tornado. It was the first full week with the volunteers and man alive, I am just tickled pink with how cool my team is. Each one of them is bringing a specific skill or talent that we are working to pair a project with. We spent the past week taking them to meet all of our partners and it was very fun to watch them experience the cultural differences and "shock" factors of the town and surrounding villages. The first few days they all had their cameras out and were taking pictures of EVERYTHING. We had to remind them that we are going to be staying here for three months, and that there would be plenty of times for them to take pictures of the dirt, street, that bush, food, etc. ha ha.
Just to get things going on our first day working we took them to St. Stephens (a primary school) to paint a giant mural/political map of the world. Go read my blog to see the before and after pictures of that. It turned out SO good. Many of the community members are very excited about it. The principal of the school received so many calls from parents of the children commenting on how excited they were for it. Tuesday we went up to the Zion Community Clinic (the village on top of the mountain). We are toying around with the idea of adding to the medical clinic... with a maternity ward. This will be our big team project. There is such a need for it, but we just have to work out the details and see if we fundraise and make it happen.
Something really funny about adjusting here is the language. Everyone (for the most part) speaks some English. But it is SO hard to understand. The way they speak is so simplified. They find a way of only using 3-4 words and a sentence were I would normally use 8-10). I am starting to talk like them, and am worried that once I get home I will have forgotten how to regularly communicate. Whoops.
Another funny thing is that everywhere we go EVERYONE wants to feed us. So this past week we have been fed so much. But like... not good food. It's like weird chicken stew or Fanta. Or Matoke (smashed green banana). yummmm. We all try and eat a little because if we don't they will be offended. Also they have NO sense of time here. You schedule an appointment for 12:00 and they wont show up until 3:00... you have to schedule everything three hours ahead of when you actually want it to start to actually get people there when you want them.
I keep seeing Elder Halladay around town and at church. It is so weird. Today at church we were both in Sunday School together and making some valuable contributions/thoughts towards the lessons. I felt really proud of us. We're both here doing good things and it's because of the good parents we have/families we have.
This past weekend we went to hike to a waterfall called Sipi Falls. It was one hour (by taxi) away from Mbale. We CRAMMED into this small taxi and made it to the prettiest mountain village that I've seen yet. The view was beautiful and the air was so clean. Something I don't like is that people are always trying to take advantage of us because we are white. They hike up the prices by more than half because they think we can pay it. I would do it too if I were them, but it doesn't stop it from being annoying.
So the weekend was fun. Church today was GREAT. I loved it. Next week I am going to be teaching The Plan of Salvation in relief society. I'm a bit nervous, but excited to plan the lesson and teach these women that I already love so much.
I'll end with one cool story from today.
There is a guy here named Matt that has come to work as an intern/doctor for 1 month in a nearby hospital. He is from Wisconsin.
Over the past few weeks we have become close friends. Through various instances he has been able to see that we don't drink, swear, go to church on Sunday... etc. Anyways he has had some questions about the gospel but nothing much.Today after church we were sitting and talking about normal things and he started asking me about being mormon and what we believe. It was a good conversation. At the end I asked him if he wanted a Book of Mormon and he said yes. So I gave him one and left a little note inside.
It was just one more instance to add into the bucket of ways Heavenly Father has helped me feel and know that it was okay that I decided to stay home and not serve a mission. He has blessed me with so many opportunities to serve and share what I know to be true. Even though I didn't go to Wisconsin, he brought someone from Wisconsin to me... haha.
I still love every day here. It has been the biggest blessing in my life to have this opportunity. Hope all is good at home.
Ray
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