A Village Reunion...

I spent this past weekend in the village with Dr. Moses and his family. He has two adorable little girls named Mercy (5) and Joy (2) and his wife Christine who is very pregnant with their third child. We were in Christine’s village about an hour away from Soroti for something like a family reunion. They speak Kumam in those parts so I was learning language number five or so of this trip (plus a few words from some other languages). We had a great time, but as usual I have some stories to bring out of the time. I was the only Mzungu there of maybe about 60 people… I’m getting used to these ratios these days with Dr. Val out of the country. And it will only be exaggerated more as of tomorrow when I go up to Kangole where a total of… ummm… ZERO other mzungus stay :-P Luckily, Dr. Moses has even been to the USA, so it’s not too hard to communicate – at least he’s around to help me when needed (until tomorrow :-P)! I have discovered more and more how much I LOVE learning other languages, though. It makes everyone SO happy when you can even say a word in their language – just the effort is a huge deal to them. So if you make an attempt (even if feeble :-P) to know the language then they love you even more than they did to begin with! So my Kumam vocabulary may be small – hardly in the double digits probably, but it’s amazing how often you can use the same word if that’s the only one you know :-P

So… on to the food stories I think. As usual, we got a late start when we intended to get to the village in the afternoon. We ended up getting there after dark – maybe around 8:00. After greeting the family members we moved into the house to have dinner and get some tea or the like. I went outside to bathe due to the fact that Joy had “susued” – don’t know how to spell that word – all over my lap. To explain briefly… around here, we don’t exactly use diapers for our babies. They just kinda go when they gotta go… on your lap or not. So I was a bit damp and smelly (Omi, that skirt doesn’t quite smell like you anymore :-P) and decided to bathe before dinner so I could change first. Afterwards… I was not aware that meal #1 was an appetizer to meal #2, but of course I was not allowed to end there and had quite the excess of food. After dinner was the real adventure, though. Now you know how bad that glass of milk was for me… I do have to say that was actually worse than this, but that’s only because that time I had to drink the whole thing… this time I was “just tasting”. In other words, I was expected to drink the whole thing and they were probably disappointed that I didn’t, but it was a bit more conducive to giving in and I just had to do so considering throwing up would probably have been more insulting. So this little refresher is called “Bongo”, which they translate as “sour milk”. Pretty self-explanatory… basically what they do is take a bunch of milk –fresh from the cow most the time – and they put it in a jerrican to let it sit for a whiiiile and then shake it. Once it is the right amount of chunkiness, they pour it into a glass, add some sugar and serve! Pretty simple… feel free to try it at home. As I took my first (and almost last) sip, the texture was by far the worst part. There’s the watery aspect that runs over your tongue initially. Then there’s the grainy part that comes next… and then the chunks that you almost have to chew or just swallow like a pill. I think I went for the latter. It was quite an experience. I think I will eat pretty much anything I find in the US, and I think I’ll even like it at this point. It’s funny… I even like fish now. If you know me, that’s just CRAZY, but I’m usually happy when I see that’s what is for dinner because… what are my other possibilities?!! Definitely safer than MANY options. So my horizons are broadening every day :-P
The next morning was another one of my favorites here. A GIGANTIC plate of liver and posho! When liver is served for dinner it’s one thing… I can almost handle it, though it’s still not exactly my first choice. But… breakfast?!! Oh my goodness. That was literally more liver than I’ve ever eaten “at a go”… and then she added another scoop (except maybe the still-horrifying experience of leberkaese in Germany – crunchiness included… still don’t know why there were little hard parts). All I have to say is… what happened to roasted ground-nuts or a boiled egg?!!
That day (Saturday) was the day of the reunion. Dr. Moses’ family is from a village not so far away (though pretty far when everyone’s coming on foot or by bicycle) and there were many relatives joining us at the house. It’s pretty cool because the tradition here is that the in-laws aren’t allowed to interact with each other. I’ve been told it’s sort of a respect thing but that still doesn’t make any sense to me based on the rest of this culture. Dr. Moses is ‘not allowed’ by the culture to greet his in-laws – not even a handshake let alone a hug; and Christine should be the same with her in-laws. But, this is cool, because this is the only family I’ve seen do this… since they come from a Christian home, the parents have decided that they don’t think that’s right. Christine’s mother was speaking to the group and brought Dr. Moses up and shook his hand to make the point. You can tell it’s still a bit hard for the fathers – they still hesitate automatically, but they have decided it’s okay and even they greet each other.
The reunion was an interesting concept… I wasn’t sure what to expect initially – I didn’t even know who was coming or what was going on. All the communication is usually in Kumam and they often don’t realize that by the end I’ve gotten nothing out of the conversation :-P (hmmmm sounds like some certain Spanish-speaking friends of mine… :-P) So I just go with it as time goes on and usually I figure things out by the end (more like ‘at the end’)! There was a huge “tent” set up… with two tarp(olin)s attached to trees and covering an area. So on Saturday we spent the morning blowing up lots of balloons, setting up chairs and decorating the place (with briiight clashing colors of course). People started arriving around 12 or 1:00. There was a small choir from the local church who was there – all dressed in blue looking uniform and with two really cool locally made drums and an udungu which looks a bit like a small harp but I think sounds a bit like a banjo… lol, I dunno :-P Anyway, lots of family then arrived as well as some pastors and even some government leaders or candidates there to campaign (at a family reunion! Isn’t that crazy?!!) (I think some were family and some weren’t). So essentially the entire day was spent with each person introducing themselves and their family. One of the men would stand up front and call to the people from his clan. They would introduce themselves and their wife/husband and children, sometimes speak for a few minutes (sometimes more than a few minutes) and then sit down. Some people, I’m pretty sure, ended up introducing themselves multiple times… I don’t know what they were saying because it was all Kumam but that lasted a total of literally about four or five hours. Every once in a while the choir would sing a song. They sang for a bit in the beginning and danced and things and that was awesome. Then in between clans they would sometimes sing a song. We ate “lunch” at about 6:00 and then people mostly sat around and chatted. They had a generator there (Christine’s family stays in Entebbe and works from there… they’re doing pretty well financially compared to most the people in the village, so this celebration was quite elaborate comparatively) so there was a small TV playing a Nigerian comedy in front of the whole group of people. The kids were all sitting on the floor before it watching intently. (TV is SUCH an exciting thing for them… and even the adults)
They had slaughtered a cow in the morning for the gathering, so we ate boiled meat, fried meat, lots of internal organs and things, and some fish along with our Kworn (same as Atapa if I’ve mentioned that… it’s a sticky sticky starch made of millet and cassava flour), posho and rice. Of course, all eaten with your fingers (well… hands.). I went easy on myself because I wasn’t being watched so intently by anyone besides Dr. Moses and he’s more understanding of the American diet than anyone here, so I actually managed to avoid the innards… until dinner. Since lunch was at 6:00, that means dinner was at about 10:00. I knew it would happen and I thought about escaping to go to sleep, but I knew that I was just kidding myself because they would only wake me up to go eat dinner (I’m not even kidding). So I stayed up until I was served my dinner. Earlier in the day I had gone over to check out the cow slaughtering deal and encountered the rinsing of the omasum. Oh so appetizing. I thought about how I may have to eat some of that… by the end of the rinsing, it was close to just as green/brown as when it started – it’s hard to get between all the folds of the omasum – the cow’s third stomach compartment that can be identified by folds that make it look like a book. So I was not surprised at dinner to find some reticulum on my plate. I’m not sure what’s better… reticulum or omasum… but I don’t think it makes so much of a difference. The reticulum is identified by the honeycomb raised pattern on the inside. Every meal I take around here has become less of an ordeal, though, even if the cuisine is just as questionable. I tried my reticulum… hid some under my leftover rice… then drank my third bottle of soda I was “encouraged” to take (with no actual choice). Almost routine now!
Breakfast on Sunday was quite a relief. They actually made popcorn in the morning, which I’ve never seen them do, and it was SO good!!! Breakfast consisted of a boiled egg and some bread along with dry tea so that was completely do-able. I played with the babies for a while and then some of us went off to church. Christine stayed around because Joy hadn’t exactly slept the night before… meaning the four (five if the baby in Christine’s belly counts) of us who were sharing two twin-sized mattresses pushed together on the floor didn’t exactly sleep much, either. (Except Mercy seems to be used to her sister screaming by now). So she stayed back to rest while I walked with a few local family members, Mercy, Joy and Judith – a girl who helps take care of the kids. The church was “just near” by African standards, so maybe a 20 minute walk… with Joy very attached to me, I carried her while memorizing the twisting path through the village. I led the way on the walk home to see if I’d make it and our “guide” was very impressed that I didn’t get lost!
Church was really nice. It took place in a building with mud walls and a grass-thatched roof – the walls were painted with some pictures of Jesus and some unidentifiable figures (by the mzungu eye at least). I “got to” sit up front so they could all watch me (try not to doze off) the entire time :-P (I was “praying”, right Niells/Mr. D?! :-P) because it was such a big exciting thing to have a mzungu there. After introducing myself, I sat down and Joy slept on my lap while one of the sons of the family preached. He spoke in English which was really nice :-) with a translator into Kumam. After the preaching we had some singing and the Pastor called people up for if they needed prayer. It was neat because I’ve actually been surprised that I haven’t seen more of that kind of thing - people really praying with the Spirit and praying for healing and things like that. In Honduras we saw a LOT of that… it was a more “spiritual” culture in general – partially shown in all the witchcraft and things like that. So since that’s so prevalent here, I expected to see it more even in the churches. I have seen a bit… definitely more than in America, but not nearly as much as we experienced in Honduras. So it was nice to see people really praying in the Spirit and trusting God to heal even. After the service, I “talked” to a few people… by that I mean, used my three Kumam phrases and made everyone laugh, and then we headed back to the home. Once we reached, Moses and I went into the town to bring back the chairs that were rented from the Catholic mission there. I met the priest and had an entertaining chat about Connecticut and NYC because he had been there. I also discovered he’d been to Germany! That was neat… I attempted to speak German with him but was sad to find out he didn’t know any :-P We had a good time, though. After returning, we headed back to Soroti over the nonexistent roads, crammed in the back seat with four adults and three children – not unusual!
It really was a great time. Christine’s parents are amazing… her mom especially was SO funny. She started dragging me by my hand one time and brought me over to the cooking area. There was a gigantic pot there where a lady was “mingling” posho and she shoved me towards her to take over the job… she wanted me to learn to mingle. I grabbed the gigantic mingling spoon and made my feeble effort to do it as the 20 or so people surrounding were hysterical laughing (along with me :-P). After about 30 seconds or probably less, I ran away yelling about how I didn’t want to burn it and ruin the whole pot of posho and made the lady take over again. So it was extremely entertaining… she also told me I was going to come back to the village… that I would marry someone from the family - when I asked her who she said she would show me the next day, so we’ll see what happens. She planned out my whole life! Lol

So I made many new friends as usual! I really enjoy being in the villages… in the middle of the bush, no electricity or running water, etc… so I’m also looking forward to going up to Kangole :-)


Next point… point of prayer I guess. I had told you all I would find out about vet school this month. It turns out that I heard from Cornell and I won’t find out the final decision until possibly April at the latest. I was put on the alternate list… so basically God wants to keep testing my trust in Him! Haha. I know that He will work everything out… no matter which way that goes. I’m definitely still praying that a spot opens up but I do see that He’s working… sometimes He wants to make it so we just have to follow Him step by step. It’s funny because I had sort of two vague alternative plans… to go to school or to work for a year. And either one was okay… of course I would prefer school, but I’d be fine with working for a year as well. But I had never thought that there could be an in between. I had figured once I go the decision I could start planning my summer – looking into where to work if that was the case, etc, etc… But sometimes God likes to take that control away I think :-P There is now no option… I can’t plan anything! And I think that’s where He wants me for now… just doing what I’m doing and not worrying about the rest. Trusting that He will open doors and close them as they come. So please keep the final decision in prayer and pray that I can continue to just blindly follow God, knowing He’s got the future figured out and His plan is best!!

As much as I love it here I get more and more excited every day to come home and see you guys! Love you LOTS.

And NIELLY hurry up and get to Africaaaa already!!!!!! I can’t wait to see you on the other side of the WORLD :-D

Heidi