The Meat of the Goat

Tonight a bunch of us went over to Jim and Jenny's for dinner. They made an enchilada-type dish -- it was completely delicious -- and once we were all halfway through it and praising their cooking, Jim revealed that it was "the meat of the goat." I've had several goat dinners here. It's pretty good, mostly like beef; the taste is a bit different and I don't love it plain, but mixed with other things (especially taco seasoning) you don't even notice the difference.

Our friend Moses from the clinic and his two younger siblings joined us for dinner, then watched the movie The Avengers with us. It was quite a hit! They LOVED the Hulk, especially the part near the end where he's bashing Loki on the ground like a ragdoll. They kept showing close-ups of the Hulk screaming and flexing his muscles, and Moses would laugh and say bas!! Enough!! His younger sister, who's still in elementary school, spent much of the evening peaking out from behind a pillow, but she was obviously enjoying it just as much as her brothers. At one point we paused the film for a minute, and explained that America doesn't actually look like that (we don't all live in houses like Stark Towers) and we don't all have that technology in our homes.... funny what idea people must have of America when they've only seen the ritzy side of things in action movies.

We assured them that this first film made enough money that they'll surely make a second Avengers, and we'll be sure to watch it with these guys.

Another film we think they'll like is Cool Runnings... looking forward to the next movie night!

You know you're in Karamoja when...

... you are walking up to watch an edonga (jump/dance) at a wedding, and an old woman grabs your hand and speaks in completely unintelligible ngaKarimojong while dragging you, against your will, towards the circle.

Martha and I were at the wedding of two mzungu (white) friends who live and work as missionaries in another part of Karamoja -- they decided to have three ceremonies, a traditional Karimojong wedding, a wedding ritual that's part of the tradition of the Samburu tribe in Kenya (where Val used to work), and a traditional Western style Christian wedding. We arrived between weddings one and two, and as we were trying to find the location of the Kenyan ceremony, we got pulled towards the edonga. One woman dragged Martha towards the circle to jump. Martha jumped a few times and seemed to enjoy it.  I hung back; I did NOT want to jump (I've done it before, but I felt weird about it this time because there were no other young women jumping) but I also was losing sight of Martha so I kept inching closer; I didn't want to lose her.

Then the akimat (old woman) arrived, and she wouldn't take no for an answer. She grabbed my hand and started pulling me. I found Martha and pleaded with her, "please don't make me go in the circle!" Martha told the woman I was just a visitor and I was shy, but she didn't care. She kept pulling me up to the edge of the circle. At this point I knew there was no point resisting. There were basically no women jumping. If there had been I wouldn't have felt so weird about it.

The akimat was far to old to actually jump, so she just gripped my hand and swayed back and forth in time. Apparently I was just supposed to know when to jump (the men in the circle chant, and there are appropriate times when the women are supposed to jump, I guess to kind of emphasize what's just been said in the story.) If you don't understand Karimojong fluently and you don't know the story and the pattern, you're guaranteed to fail. When I've jumped before, I've always been holding the hand of a teenage girl who will squeeze my hand just before the right moment, so I'm prepared, and then she'll jump with me, show me how it's done. But the akimat wasn't really helping me out so I just tried to guess when to jump, and I was usually wrong. This caused no small amount of laughter from the people standing around me.

Then it got worse. Grandma decided this wasn't good enough. She pulled me INTO the circle (women don't go in the circle!) where a few men were jumping and chanting. There were at least 100 Karimojong watching, maybe more. I was so embarrassed. So now I have all the young warrior men with the feathers in their caps grinning at me while the akimat continues to try to force me to jump. She kept saying, "Iyeni iyong" -- "you know".. I kept saying, "Emam! Emam! Ngayeni ayong!" but she didn't care. This continued for a couple minutes, with the men about twenty feet away jumping, and me and the akimat standing awkwardly, sorta jumping/swaying/yelling at each other.

Well, this was becoming quite the show, so then the men who had been jumping stopped and went to the edge of the circle, so only the akimat and I were inside the circle. They kept chanting and I kept messing up the timing of the jumps. Finally I gave up and kept trying to pull away, but grandma had a strong grip and so she stood there swaying and I just stood still and refused to keep jumping, and laughed awkwardly at myself, and stared at all the young Karimojong women on the edge of the circle with pleading eyes -- please, get me out of this mess!! But they just stared back and grinned. Finally I said "temokin" -- finished -- quite firmly to the akimat, and we left.

I was mortified, of course, and so thankful that no one I knew was watching (besides Martha, but she was so bombarded by women who were amazed that she could speak ngaKarimojong that I don't think she knew what was going on!). I was kind of upset about it because it was completely embarrassing, but when I caught up with Leah at the ceremony she told me not to worry about it; just think about it in a positive way. Serious field cred. Not everyone can say they jumped with an akimat in the middle of a huge Karimojong edonga. And as horribly awkward as it was, it was strangely fun, too. But I can say that only in retrospect :)

Day 13: a wonderful kind of exhaustion

What a fun day! I'm completely wiped out, but in the best way possible.

The Tricarico family is back!!!

We had a welcome home dinner for them. The compound workers, especially Joyce and Lucy, were SO EXCITED to have them back, and were shocked to see how much Jamie and Josh grew during furlough. I could hear Pastor Al's laugh from the car before I could see him, which made me super happy immediately. I'm sure they're completely jetlagged, but they were good sports tonight and we had a great reunion.

I taught my usual schedule this morning, then had to empty out my fridge and scrub it clean -- it's being shifted to the visitor kitchen. I don't really need a fridge here in my little kitchen, I can just use the fridge Erika and Leah share in the Missionary Associate (MA) kitchen banda on the main compound. My kitchen/schoolroom feels so much bigger with the fridge and propane tank out of there!

Before lunch I did the reading  (from Jerry Bridges book Respectable Sins) for our women's Bible study, which meets in my banda at 3:30 on Thursday afternoons. I did a bit more school prep as well. Then I dashed off for rice and beans and headed down to the clinic with Erika to pick up the Kyalo kids for their afternoon school time. Poor James is sick, so only Faith and Stacey came today. The Tricaricos arrived just after we walked back from the clinic, so we greeted for a few minutes. Then Faith went off to class with Erika, and I took Stacey (4 years old) and Jacob Okken (5) to my banda to do some work with numbers -- addition with fun flash cards, and a dominoes game that involves lots of counting, which they LOVE.

Around 2:00, the two of them went to the Okkens house to play outside. I took a fifteen minute power nap, then went to the MA kitchen to start making a big batch of naan (Indian flatbread) for dinner. I left it to rise and went back to my banda for Bible study.

The field right behind us was burning (don't worry, we have a firebreak!) and the smoke and ash were so thick in the air that I had to close my door and windows during the study so we wouldn't get smoked out. It still smells smokey in here, six hours later.

As soon as Bible study was over at 4:30, I went back to work making naan. With Leah's help, I managed to finish just at 6:00. Naan is so delicious that it's totally worth the time and effort to make it (making it for 25 people is just a lot of work!). We had Indian food for dinner -- Indian is my FAVORITE now, we have it all the time because there are enough Indian people working in Uganda that the ingredients are easy to get.

After dinner we just chatted and enjoyed each other's company. It's so great having the T's back!

Tomorrow will be a very blogworthy day -- I'm going to a traditional Karimojong wedding in a place called Nakayot, a "Peace Village" about 1 1/2 hours from here. Martha, Jesse, Leah, Erika and I are going. I'll try to take lots of pictures -- I'm hoping they'll wear the real traditional clothing (leopard skins, feathers, leather skirts, etc).

Right now I have to prep to give some tests tomorrow, then SLEEP!

Hope you're all well, I'd love to hear from you ~Emily

Day 12: Getting Back to Normal...

....Meaning, the Tricaricos are coming back tomorrow! Once they're here we'll have the whole Mission here, intact, for at least a few months. I'm excited to be teaching Geography and Omnibus II to Jamie and Josh, and of course getting back into the barbeque and bocce Saturday night routine.

It'll be so great to have this place humming at full capacity again, and I'm ready to jump into Omnibus (a Great Books course). We're studying early church history and the medieval period, which I LOVE, so I'm super psyched about this. I'm not ashamed to admit that I read the Great Books for fun (I was working my way through Plato and the Greek tragedies when I was working as a nanny in Rochester), and I really love ancient/medieval history, so this is right up my alley. Last year I was a bit out of my comfort zone teaching modern literature and history, but I feel totally confident with the material we're going to be covering this semester. First off, The Church History by Eusebius. Epic.

Day 11: The B-I-B-L-E

The internet's being spotty and I'm not sure how long this connection will last, so I'll make this quick. I started a new Bible reading plan a couple weeks back that I LOVE, so I thought I'd share it with you. In the past I've avoided the read-in-multiple-places-every-day plans.... I always felt stressed out by them. Not sure why.

This plan (called Professor Grant Horner's Bible Reading System -- sounds terrifying, I know!) has you reading one chapter from TEN different books everyday. I've never attempted anything like this -- but so far I'm loving it because it gives you the big picture of how all the different parts of Scripture fit together. You're not really "supposed to" write anything down as you go, but I've chosen to write down one key verse from each chapter, which I can later use as a guide for prayer. It's been fantastic. I highly recommend it. You can find an online PDF (which I was never able to open, but I stumbled upon this on someone else's website, where the basic contents of the PDF were shared, as far as I can tell). I found out about this through Tim Challies website.

So give it a try, see what you think, let me know.... or just stick it in your back pocket for when you need to try something different.

Day 10: Seriously Cheesy Music!

Today was a pretty great, average day. The Wright kids are currently studying the Age of Absolutism and we just read about the transition from baroque to classical music, so I busted out my Grove City College CivArts music and played them some Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven and Haydn. [This was decidedly NOT cheesy music.]

Then we had to leave my banda and go to the Wright's house to finish school, and the kids twisted my arm into letting them play Kenny G quietly in the background. There were no words and it wasn't distracting so I let them. Mary and Kipsy have acquired a serious love of cheesy 80s and 90s music (much of which I know from my childhood, so I love that they're into it! Such a blast to the past). The amount of Kenny G, Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, and Boys2Men pumping out of their boombox (YES, boombox) speakers is pretty much astounding. I absolutely love it. At one point Aaron Neville came on, and I totally remember his songs from when I was little... I went crazy with happiness and told them about the time we painted the upstairs of my old city house in Rochester and listened to Aaron Neville and Stevie Wonder the whole time. I recognize so many of the songs that I'll start singing along without realizing it, and we all bust a gut laughing.

Surprisingly enough, Ugandans apparently LOVE Celine Dion. As in, big tough Ugandan men totally dig her music. They play it everywhere, especially "My Heart Will Go On." Funny what parts of American pop culture filter down to us in East Africa! 

Day 9: Epol asimokok! Ito!

Last week, Rose taught me the ngaKarimojong word for spider, asimokok. "Big spider" is epol asimokok.

 Today I thought I'd share a picture, taken by Dr. Jim Knox, of a spider that's happily building a massive web just next to the pit latrines at the clinic. 

Jim knows I'm not exactly what you'd call a fan of spiders, and he kept nagging me to take a look at it. Finally one day I went over and took a glance... it's terrifying. It's huge. Thankfully every time I've walked by and looked at it it's been still.... if I ever see it moving I'll probably lose one of my nine lives. 

But in a way it's terribly beautiful as well. 

Days 7 & 8: Nakaale Primary School

The internet hasn't been cooperating with me for the past couple days (we're not exactly moving at Roadrunner speed here) and by the time anything was beginning to load, my computer battery gave up the ghost. Since we use solar power, I can't charge my computer at night, unless I want us to lose our lights till 8AM the next day (which is a bummer when you wake up with the sun like me and live in a dark hut).

So anyways, to make up for a couple missed days, let me try to post a few Nakaale Primary School pictures for you. During the school year, Martha Wright and I, along with the Wright kids and our translator Lokwii Paul (Omena) visit this school every Thursday morning to teach basic literacy, numeracy and a Bible story.

Day 6: Serve. Proclaim. Disciple.

All day I've had a flurry of emails talking about this summer's RP Mission team coming to Karamoja. I'm really looking forward to being the team leader and showing some new friends around this place I call home. We're still working out the details: the official dates the team will be here (we're aiming for a 6-week trip) and how many will be on the team. Sounds like we're pretty sure we have four already, possibly seven or eight.

I really enjoy leading mission teams. I've only done it twice (White Lake 2006 and 2012) -- both times were really challenging but rewarding experiences. I'd say this past summer I worked with the best mission team I've ever been on, and would rate it the best mission trip experience I've ever had. Our team really clicked, we had so much fun together, we encouraged each other, genuinely enjoyed each other's company, and were constantly pointing each other back to Christ. I was a few years older than most of my teammates -- I was 24, most of them were around 19 -- and many of my teammates had just made the switch from camper to counselor. It was so encouraging to see a new generation rising up to serve the church.

I like the "mother hen" aspect of being a team leader. I love showing people around, encouraging them, trying to keep spirits up, helping such an eclectic group of people not just get along for six weeks, but become friends and truly approach things as a team. I've still got a lot to learn; I made plenty of mistakes at White Lake. I decided from the start that I wanted to lead by example, so I worked hard, whether that meant gathering firewood, cooking, cleaning, planning lessons, or taking over cabins and activities. My teammates were wonderful and they jumped right in alongside me. But I got so exhausted, and then got the sickness that was going around camp; finally I had to go home a week early, which was devastating. But I learned a lot about myself through that experience, and I was so blessed to see my wonderful teammates stepping up to make sure things would keep running smoothly even without a team leader. I'm sad I missed that last week of camp, but I'm so thankful for the encouragement the Lord gave me as I watched my friends so willingly carry my load. And I learned that I can't do everything myself!

Leading a team in Karamoja will be quite different, but I'm excited for the challenge. It will be strange to have this place, which is normally so quiet, buzzing with visitors, but the enthusiasm, probing questions, and boundless energy that short-termers bring will be refreshing.

We're still looking for guys for the team to Karamoja this summer! The girls slots are already full, but we have room for 2-3 more guys.

And there's ALWAYS a need for counselors at White Lake Covenanter Camp in the Catskill Mountains of New York. I won't be working at White Lake this year (for the first time in 7 years!) but I'll be at Family Camp, fresh off the plane from Uganda. I couldn't recommend that team highly enough if you enjoy working with kids and teens.

Go to the RP Missions website to learn more about either of these trips (and lots of other trips across the US and around the world!).

Day 5: "So, why are you guys not freaking out right now?"

This week I've been on vacation while the Wright family went to Kenya to drop their daughter off at boarding school. Anna's in the 11th grade at Rift Valley Academy, a fantastic Christian school where missionary kids from all over Africa come to get a great high school education and enjoy the benefits of school - extracurriculars, broader course offerings, friends that aren't hours away -- that are hard if not impossible to come by when you live in the middle of nowhere.

The family said their goodbyes and had just left the school in Kijabe an hour before getting pulled over by the  Kenyan police. The same thing happened when I was travelling back from Kijabe with the Wrights a couple months ago. To be honest, it's a corrupt system, and the police are looking for bribes. Last time, Bob was charged with speeding, our van was impounded, and we had to sit in the police station for about an hour while Bob talked with the officials. The thing is, that old van can't speed. It starts vibrating violently at 80 kph (the speed limit), and their charges that we were driving over 100 kph are simply impossible.  

Today, however, Bob actually got arrested and put in a jail cell for a few hours, while the family had to wait in the station for him. I don't have all the details yet, but from what I understand they got pulled over between 8 and 9AM and were there till after lunchtime. Thankfully they let Bob go and didn't keep him overnight.

We were all buzzing about it at lunch here in Karamoja, but we weren't overly concerned. We stopped to pray for them. We trusted that God had the situation all under control, and we figured that Bob would at the most have to spend one night in jail. When we told our short term visitor Rebecca what had happened, her face was priceless. She couldn't believe how nonchalant we were. "So, why are you guys not freaking out right now?"

What can I say? TIA -- This Is Africa! Expect the unexpected. Flexibility is key. And all those other schnazzy mottos that sound so nice and easy till you're standing in a Kenyan jail cell on false charges. Yup. 

Day 4: Book Recommendation

Tonight, after our group dinner, Chris and Chloe Verdick, our college-break visitor Rebecca, and I had some really deep discussions about all kinds of difficult issues -- the death penalty, spanking, singles adopting, gay marriage, building relationships with unbelievers, the signs of true conversion, how believers deal with besetting sins, politics, alcoholism -- pretty much you name it, we covered it. Our discussions got heated at times, but it was good for us; iron sharpening iron. It's not easy having your thoughts on certain subjects stretched, but it's so beneficial to talk these things out with other believers.

I wanted to share one particular article which has to do with one topic we discussed at length: homosexuality, and what it looks like when a GLBT person comes to faith in Christ. I haven't yet read Rosaria Butterfield's book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert but it has been receiving great reviews, including this one by Carl Trueman. Rosaria was a radical feminist lesbian Queer Theory specialist and English professor at Syracuse University before becoming a Christian and marrying a Reformed Presbyterian pastor. I heard her speak at the Rose Point RP Church while I was in college, and I was so impressed and inspired by her story. This review is well worth a read, and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the book (Kindle version!).

There's a lot we can learn from Rosaria about how to be loving to GLBT people we may meet at work, at school, in church.  According to Carl Trueman, every pastor should be required to read this book, especially the two chapters in which she describes with brutal honesty what she thought of Christians before she met the RP couple who would later lead her to Christ. I hope this book might be a blessing to some of you.

~Emily

Day 3: Girls' night under the stars!

Erika, Leah and I, along with our short term visitor Rebecca, are going to sleep on the Wright's roof tonight. The Wrights have a flat roof over Bob and Martha's office, with a wall all the way around and a good sturdy ladder (don't worry Mom, I won't roll off the roof!). When the Wrights are travelling and I'm looking after their house, Erika and I like to drag mattresses up there and sleep under the stars. However, when we slept up there a couple months ago the screeching bats were so loud I hardly slept at all, so tonight I'll be bringing a trusty pair of ear plugs! 

I wish you could see the African sky on a clear night. It's stunning. Last year Erika, Leah and I watched The Lion King on the roof -- the setting of the movie looks a LOT like Karamoja, and watching Simba look up at the stars was a bit surreal. I'm a firm believer that you're never too old for a Disney movie! 

It gets quite cold up there at night, so the cold air wakes us up early enough that we can watch the sunrise. I'll bring my camera and try to snap a couple pictures. Unfortunately the power lines they installed a year or two ago kinda ruin the view (which I wouldn't be too upset about, except that they don't actually work, and it may be years before the electricity is actually turned on!).

In the meantime, here a couple more pictures from recent months :)

Day Two: All the Single Ladies... Christmas Photo!

Left to right: Leah Hopp, village health instructor, me, and Erika Hopp, the Okken's teacher.

I didn't have true Ugandan Christmas clothes, so I put on the only red clothes I own. Chris and Chloe gave me my first ever I <3 NY t-shirt; they found it in an Mbale market, and it's actually clean and fits perfectly! I was amazed.
There's our Christmas tree: four cypress branches tied together. Leah bought the branches and Christmas lights in Kampala. We have a few Christmasy-colored Karimojong blankets and some ornaments and tinsel that Erika brought from America.
We had a wonderful Christmas! I hope you did, too.

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New Years Resolution: Day 1

I'm not one for resolutions, probably because I never succeed in keeping them. I can't remember the last time I bothered even making a resolution.

I read somewhere that it takes 14 days to form a habit. I did succeed in establishing one important habit this year (beginning in October) -- I wake up every morning around 6AM and read my Bible. My motto is "no Bible, no breakfast." Waking up early was really hard for me at first, but I forced myself to do it, and now it's no problem. I can see now why everyone says it's best to read your Bible in the morning, rather than haphazardly later in the day like I used to do.

Forming that habit has inspired me to try another challenge. My resolution is to blog every day for 90 days, no matter what (unless I come down with a horrible case of malaria, in which case I hope you'll excuse me!). I don't expect to blog daily after the 90 days are up, but I think this jump start will help. I'm going to take Sundays off, as a day of rest. The internet here in Karamoja may occassionally fail, but I think I'll be able to keep up with this pretty consistently if I make it a priority.

I haven't written on here in a while. To tell you the truth, after you've spent a certain amount of time in the same place overseas (I've spent almost 12 months in Karamoja since 2009), everyday life no longer seems blog-worthy. The things I do, day in and day out, are just the mundane routines of life -- baking bread, snotty babies trying to pull out my arm hair, killing cockroaches, pulling ticks off my legs, walking to the clinic, teaching Sunday school with a translator, dinner and games and movies with my fellow missionaries. I've fallen out of touch with people, because I can't imagine anyone would care to know about these little things. But I've been reminded that a lot of my friends and family don't really have a good idea of what constitutes "everyday life" on the African savannah, so my goal is to share a little snapshot with you every day.

For instance, today I walked up to the Wright's house with Caleb Okken, who's ten. He wanted to visit Jadu's kittens. We strolled up and saw Jadu munching on something bright green - a baby snake (I think it was a boomslang). You know you've been here for a while when you hardly flinch at such a sight! [I started writing a fun fact about baby snakes, but I don't want to terrify anyone... just rest assured that this is actually the first baby snake I've ever seen here, and I'm thankful for that!]

Speaking of Caleb, he's reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time, and he's getting REALLY into it. My brother, sister and I are total LOTR fans (books and movies), so I love all the intense questions Caleb throws at me. This afternoon he and his teacher, my friend and former hut-mate Erika Bulthuis, were having a little LOTR review time at the end of school, and they invited me to join them. Erika had a list of study guide questions that she couldn't answer, so she thought I might know. I'm not quite a walking encyclopedia (unlike some people I know) so I couldn't answer every burning question, but it was such fun to dig into the books with them. I'm hoping that from now on Erika, Caleb and I will read portions of The Silmarillion aloud every Wednesday when Caleb's school day is finished. He's not ready to read it on his own -- the names alone would slow him down too much, and the language is more difficult to understand --  but he's so eager to learn more that I think he'll enjoy delving into the history of Middle Earth with the two of us.

I spent most of the day lesson planning, and I made three loaves of bread. Now it's 5:00 -- where did the day go? My to-do list is insane right now. Funny how many tasks get put aside in the midst of the holiday craziness, and now they're staring me in the face. The holidays are over... time to get back to business. The Wrights are on their way to Kenya, driving Anna back to boarding school, so I'm on vacation until next Wednesday.

Much love to all my friends and family,
Ngakiru (Emily)