Kapchorwa

We spent 7 days with a family in Kapchorwa, Uganda, which is on the slopes of Mount Elgon.
It was beautiful...
Here are some pictures.



This was my family. Lillian, Miria, Denise, and Felix.
Denise is another USP student that was my roommate for the week. Miria and Felix were the parents. They have 6 kids, all of whom are in school. Lillian graduated, but she was in a taxi accident a year or two ago and is still recovering, so now she's living at home. We also had a houseboy named Michael. They are Sabine. Michael was Gisu, I believe. Anyway, it was interesting living and being around people who were not Baganda. Hearing a different tribe's story was interesting also.



My evening routine. I would read in the sitting room by lantern-light. Or in the middle of the day when we weren't doing anything. Not extremely rural, as you can tell by the fancy chairs and covers. The latrine was fairly nice (they provided toilet paper for us), and we got hot water for bathing. And our beds were super comfortable. It didn't seem like we were living too primitavely for the week.



This is me in front of a waterfall. It was right next to our house/land. We lived in the most beautiful place I have ever been. The view was amazing. Unfortunately, pictures didn't really do it justice, nor could my camera even capture it. Awesome.




We picked coffee 2 of the days. Here's from the first day. We picked these coffee beans off the trees. Later in the week after they were de-husked, we got to grind it and roast it, and we drank the coffee we had picked. With the whole milk straight from the cow (it was boiled though), the coffee was pretty tasty.



Denise and I making chapati. Yum.


Other activities during the week included picking maize, helping to cook, eating, taking walks, having tea, and meeting a lot of people that were related or lived nearby. Or just passed us on the street and wanted to greet the mzungus.



The donkeys that carried the bags of maize down from the hills to our house. You can kind of see the view from our house in this picture. There was a cliff on the left and a cliff on the right, and straight ahead dropped down into a valley. You could see the plains stretching forever. The vastness of it all still amazes me.




Wednesday I took out my hair. My real hair fell out in clumps afterward. It was a fun day.



Really I just took this picture for you Mom. I passed this calf everyday, and he was adorable, but I guess he's a little camera shy or something, because he walked behind the tree when I brought out the camera. I liked him.

My two favorite times during the week:

One: being followed by 18 kids as we took a walk, then getting caught in the rain and singing songs with the kids in a little hut that sheltered us til the rain passed.



Our friends who LOVED the camera and were really energetic singers.



Me and the rain in the doorway of the hut.

Two: sitting on the edge of the cliff with Denise, Brian (another USP student who ended up on our land), Andrew (Brian's neighbor), and Lillian watching the sun set over the plains. Gorgeous.



This picture does not do it justice.

For debrief we went to Sipi Falls, which was nearby. It was relaxing, and fun to hear stories from everyone's week.



Hanna and I at Sipi Falls. She's awesome, and I love her.




Me on a big swing in front of Sipi Falls. The ground just dropped off in front of the swing, so you end up swinging over a big drop off. It's kind of scary, hence why I'm facing the other way. And not really swinging.


Overall, it was just a refreshing week. My family spoke English really well, and they were so hospitable. They were open for having conversations and answering questions about all sorts of things. The villagers that'd see us were impressed that mzungus could actually do physical work in the fields, but they were thankful all the same that we were helping. The community works together to get money (through selling some of their crops) to send their kids to school, so being a part of that was neat. It was a good week, but now it's back to schoolwork and the routine here in Mukono. I'm sure these last few weeks will just fly by with the papers and projects we have to do.

Have a wonderful week!!