I have been here in Mbale a grand total of one month and, let me just say, I love it here. Sure, there are tough times and moments where I wonder if this is where I should be. But over all I really enjoy it here. This can be tough and can really stretch me as a person but I know its right. I know I should be here. But enough about me. You want to hear about Uganda. So here are some of the things that have happened since we’ve been together last. (Although I am the main character in most of these stories so I’m afraid it’s still about me).
First things first, I pulled a no-hander all the way from home to work on the Boda… Oh yeah (If your confused, see blog number 3 titled I’ve Been Here Two Days And…
Ok, story number (the thing about the Boda was just a little factoid, not a story), have I told you about Zed? Well one morning, he blinking nicked my Chapatti!!! That’s right. He stole what was rightfully mine! And I was looking forward to that Chapatti. Zed is a cat, by the way. He lives with us at the house where I’m staying and he enjoys chapattis very much. I think I mentioned about chapattis before. Well if not, just know they are a heavenly nutriment (food). Anyways, this cat Zed (why? Zed… I’ll wait for a few seconds for you to get that one……….. And now to explain to the Americans. In Britain, and other places around the world, the letter z is pronounced zed. This was, apparently, why zed got its name, because when you ask why, the answer is zed. X, why, Zed. See? Anyways.) This cat is a tough cat. Not unlike one of the streetwise cats you find in classic Disney movies. And he is also a cool cat, but not the day he nicked my chapatti. What happened was, me and Dave were supposed to share the last chapatti. Zed, however, wanted his piece of the pie and the trouble with cats is they have cat-like reflexes (logically). So, as Dave put my half of the chapatti down, Zed jumped up and blinking took my piece. (Sorry, I use the word blinking a lot). And he didn’t even finish it. He just left a part of it on the floor to taunt me. Well I was furious. No, actually I wasn’t. We had a good laugh over it. Zed gets into a lot of mischief when it comes to breakfast time and he is always trying to outsmart us humans to get food. I must say though that, after that day, I have been on top alert and he hasn’t been able to outsmart me. Even when he sneaks out from under the couch to try and take us by surprise (true story).
Story number two. (Heads up, this is a long one). The Rain. Oh man. So I think I already told you about the rain over here and how it rains most days. Well two days ago it definitely graced us with its presence again. I was coaching football with one of the schools that I am working with and the field was about a 20 minute walk from the school (there isn’t much open land here so we h to travel pretty far). Anyways, this is the day and the hour in which it decides to chuck it down. Typical. So I’m coaching the football and the clouds begin to roll in. We all saw it. I was praying “don’t let it rain during practice.” You know what I should have prayed? “Don’t let it rain till I get back to where I work.” We ended practice and a drop landed on my head. We have to move. So we start walking and it increases slightly but not enough to affect our progress. There is one part of the journey where there are no houses and we have to walk through the fields. Luckily for us, (luckily being in the relative sense of the word) the heavens open up right before we hit that point. So we raced towards the last house that was there. This house was under construction (but luckily, again being relative, the roof was fully completed) and the guys building it let us stay there. They were amused to see a Mzungu (white person) running to escape the rain. It was kinda fun waiting there because there were wooden poles that ran across to allow planks to be elevated so the men could work on painting the ceiling. It was fun because we had to navigate our way around.
So there we are, looking out at the rain, wondering when it’ll stop. I’m worrying about getting back and if people would have left and a bunch of other petty thoughts. Then, as I looked out, it was as if God just said, “Quit worrying and enjoy the view.” And he had good reason to say that. It was amazing! As soon as I looked past the worries of the rain I saw how incredible it was. The mountain was in the distance, with the clouds surrounding it, and between it and us were miles of greenery, trees, and a couple mud houses here and there. There was also a small pile of rocks right in front of the house due to the construction. And the rain only made this picture more incredible. I can picture it now. It was amazing. So I stopped worrying and starting enjoying the moment. It was magnificent. Simple, yet beautiful. So the rain finally quieted down and we headed back; it was still raining, just softer. The walk back was also fun because the path was muddy in places and it was like a puzzle, trying to figure out where to go. Also, there was a river of rain water running down the path (this path, mind you, is about two feet wide, without the river) so we had to navigate around it. The whole experience was amazing. And completely worth getting a little wet. (Here comes the philosophical part) I think we as humans are afraid of getting a little wet from the rain, and it’s because of that, that we never fully realize the amazingness of what’s around. The rain casts a different light on everything that’s around and, in order to see that, we need to quit worrying, and be ready to go out and see that for ourselves. (Sorry but that’s really what I felt as I reflected on that experience so I decided to put it in there).
And lastly, a little anecdote. This is a true story. My friends friend had a nighttime security guard who came up to him one morning after work and told him that he had a dream last night telling him that harm would come to the family…
… Ironic seen as the one man who was supposed to be protecting the family during the night was asleep during the night…
Ok so I have more stories but it would get quite long if I shared them all so I decided to just try and pick out the best. I hope you enjoyed them. I will see you again soon. Au revoir
P.S I just want to give a second shout out to my now eleven fans. I see you.
No comments:
Post a Comment