The past week has been full of memory making. I have settled into my routine and life is simple and great. Mornings are spent preparing for the day with hot milk tea and bread while examining my bug bites from the night before. I then walk down the red dirt road to the women’s centre with all of the women and the children heading to school. I have been spending my time at the centre cleaning and taking inventory of all the supplies and products to get an idea of our input and output.
After the day’s work, I head to the volleyball pitch (Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays) or to Bible Study or Fellowship (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) with my hospital and BDP friends from last year or I just go home to rest and read (Fridays). After the various evening activities, Barnabas and I prepare dinner and invite over whoever is around to eat with us. Dinner has been liver, chappati, pork, matoke, posho, noodles, or rice lately. Dinner here is always late and morning always seems to come so early, but that cold bucket of water for showering is guaranteed to wake you up!
Saturday was Denis and Eve’s wedding in Kihihi. It was pretty funny to have my hair all done up, high heels on, nails and makeup done, and be wearing silk dresses in Africa. The wedding was beautiful though and very fun. The party lasted well into Monday morning before everyone had to head back to work. Surprisingly wedding traditions here are very similar to those in America but just with an African touch… for instance the pre-wedding breakfast is served at 5am and is the intestines of the goats that were just slaughtered for the reception later in the day and they light fireworks off over the wedding party as you enter the reception which doesn’t sound very different… until you learn that they are lit under your feet by a car battery! I almost had a heart attack and the video of me running off in my high heals and dress trying not to step on chickens as the fireworks exploded can make anyone cry from laughing so hard. I was definitely the entertainment for the wedding… they really didn’t need to hire African dancers to come because there was me… the Mzungu in an African wedding.
The other important difference to note is that gifts come in the form of livestock so after the reception we had to carry the chickens, goats, and cows back to the “bridal suite” and then board them onto bus to head home. I was definitely exhausted by the time the partying ended early Monday morning and had to hold my eyes open at work.
This week I am only working a half-week at the centre and then heading to Kampala to attend Barnabas’ best friend’s wedding. It is on Saturday so we will be there for a long weekend, which will be nice.
Sutter Allen, undergraduate, Human Development, UC Davis
After the day’s work, I head to the volleyball pitch (Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays) or to Bible Study or Fellowship (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) with my hospital and BDP friends from last year or I just go home to rest and read (Fridays). After the various evening activities, Barnabas and I prepare dinner and invite over whoever is around to eat with us. Dinner has been liver, chappati, pork, matoke, posho, noodles, or rice lately. Dinner here is always late and morning always seems to come so early, but that cold bucket of water for showering is guaranteed to wake you up!
Saturday was Denis and Eve’s wedding in Kihihi. It was pretty funny to have my hair all done up, high heels on, nails and makeup done, and be wearing silk dresses in Africa. The wedding was beautiful though and very fun. The party lasted well into Monday morning before everyone had to head back to work. Surprisingly wedding traditions here are very similar to those in America but just with an African touch… for instance the pre-wedding breakfast is served at 5am and is the intestines of the goats that were just slaughtered for the reception later in the day and they light fireworks off over the wedding party as you enter the reception which doesn’t sound very different… until you learn that they are lit under your feet by a car battery! I almost had a heart attack and the video of me running off in my high heals and dress trying not to step on chickens as the fireworks exploded can make anyone cry from laughing so hard. I was definitely the entertainment for the wedding… they really didn’t need to hire African dancers to come because there was me… the Mzungu in an African wedding.
The other important difference to note is that gifts come in the form of livestock so after the reception we had to carry the chickens, goats, and cows back to the “bridal suite” and then board them onto bus to head home. I was definitely exhausted by the time the partying ended early Monday morning and had to hold my eyes open at work.
This week I am only working a half-week at the centre and then heading to Kampala to attend Barnabas’ best friend’s wedding. It is on Saturday so we will be there for a long weekend, which will be nice.
Sutter Allen, undergraduate, Human Development, UC Davis
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