February 28, 2017

Awkward + Awesome

Happy Awkward + Awesome Tuesday! 

Living in Uganda provides so many moments for this I can't even. 

Awkwards: 

  • Accidentally getting into a conversation on how much people make. Some topics are taboo across all cultures. AWKWARD. 
  • Standing as the token Mzungu (white person) at the Lira Miracle Crusade and having the town "mad man" come talk to me... multiple times [Don't worry we moved and he left, not to be seen again for the rest of the night]. 
  • Being the Mzungu in any crown. Staring, greetings, weird looks and very random requests always abound. 
  • Cooking here. Enough said. Especially when they're trying to teach me to cook African style! 
Awesomes:
  • Finding LETTUCE at the market this week. Seriously I could have cried. If you don't believe me let's remember this post from last week. 
  • Gangsta rap and headphones to listen to it when little ears are around. 
  • RAIN. RAIN. RAIN. 
  • Having to wear a sweater to bed because it actually got chilly after the rainy day. 
  • Guacamole + Salsa with fresh homemade tortilla chips at one of the American Cafes' in town. 
  • Semi- weekend days with friends + lunch dates! 
  • My first full night of uninterrupted sleep since I've arrived: it only took 40 days. 
  • Making friends with Donald. 








Happy Awkward + Awesome Tuesday! 
xox.
·       

February 23, 2017

Thankful.

So to put Ugandan life in perspective I'm starting a Thankful Thursday post. Living overseas is hard. It's not mentioned on instagram or social media every day and you don't hear too many people talking about the nitty gritty daily frustrations that go into it but they're real. 

Nothing in Uganda is simple. What you would think would take no time at all could take you all day. And maybe a 2 week project is something you're still working on a month later [hi that would be me]. 

Recently in moments of emotions I got this from someone in my tribe. "Simply going to Africa because God tells you to go is in oxymoron.  There is nothing simple about leaving your own tribe to go in search of another.  There is nothing simple about leaving everything familiar to you without a laid out step by step instruction manual.  What there is in that is endless possibility that God will be able to move and work in you in ways you thought impossible." 

These words ROCKED MY EVER LOVING WORLD. At this point in the journey I've learned to consolidate the facts and can tell the story of my journey to Uganda in under 1 minute, under 2 if you get the extended version. But it's not that simple. It's not easy or comfortable to leave your tribe. Especially when you're thrown into a culture and community though WONDERFUL are so different than your own (seriously carrots in the spaghetti- WHY?!). It also isn't easy that you're currently the only American working with your NGO (or only westerner for that matter). I find myself missing the strangest things like cutting boards and lettuce and dreaming about kitchens and places with stoves to cook on. No really I almost drooled all over the kitchen at a guest house we visited, it was amazing and perfect and I was sad and pathetic all at once. But without sounding like the biggest cliche there are really good things happening every day. Sometimes I just want to get lost in the hard or difficult things because they seem so big and frustrating and they let me just sit down and wallow and miss my tribe. 

But then the question pops into my brain: what good is that? 

Now don't get me wrong sometimes nothing is better than sitting down and crying or complaining it out. But I've found I can only do that for so long. One of my best friends calls this the venting vs perspective question. Are you venting? Are you ready for perspective? 

So to help keep things in perspective we're starting Thankful Thursday's. 

This week I'm thankful for: 
  • American Friends who listen to alllllll your random circles and thoughts. 
  • Friends that invite you to sleepovers because having a girls night is important. 
  • A market that for some reason got fresh cilantro, fresh mint, and green onions in from Kampala (the capital) this week. 
  • INTERNET. Seriously. I'm obsessed. And it makes the world seem a little bit smaller. 
  • The fact that Uganda doesn't have many similar things to home but it does have Potato Chips or rather Potato Crisps. BLESS. 
  • Mostly running water.
  • A flushing toilet with no pipes sticking out. Can we get a huge Amen?!
  • A fan that works whenever we have power. 
  • Seeing a man in town wearing a shirt that says "Bye Felica"! My goal is still to get a photo. 
  • A tribe that loves me, emails me, texts me and never lets me forget that I'm loved. 





xox.

February 21, 2017

Awkward + Awesome... Tuesday!

Mixing it up this week with an awkward + awesome Tuesday post. I write the blog, I make the rules so Tuesday it is ðŸ˜‰

Awkwards:
  • Power outages: Every. Damn. Day. 
  • When the Pastor at church in Uganda calls you out in front of the whole church and you just awkwardly wave cause you weren't paying attention ðŸ™ˆ
  • When someone refers to you as a "missionary" and you look at them and say "Who me?" Looks of confusion on both sides followed. 
  • Taking 7 boys shoe shopping all at once. Mom's- you're all rockstars I don't know how you do it! 
  • Cooking over a charcoal stove. 
  • Taking an HOUR to warm up food. Not cook, just warm up. #ugandabekiddingme
  • Ordering chips and guac at the American cafe in town and then getting French fries and guac served to you. Only then do you remember: it may be an American cafe but this country was previously a British Colony. #americanstruggles

Awesomes: 
  • Getting to visit with our Secondary School Boys.
  • Sharing your cucumber with a little one that's never had one... and doesn't know how to sweetly tell you she totally hates it. 
  • SUCCESSFULLY MAKING PASTA AND HOMEMADE SAUCE. PRAISE HANDS ALL DAY ðŸ™ŒðŸ™ŒðŸ™Œ
  • Finding fresh herbs at the market! 
  • Sleepovers with friends. 
  • FaceTime-ing one of your youths! 
  • Getting an interview request from an old youth student. 
  • Rainy days. 
  • Being absolutely accosted and attacked every time I step into the Preschool grounds- they're so excited to see you it makes every tug and pull worth it. 





xox. 

February 2, 2017

18 Days Later

So from the title of this post you would think I'm on the way to Uganda, Africa. But as with most things in life and especially in Africa, time has the nasty habit of getting away from you.

18 days. The last post I did was 18 days before taking my life all the way to Uganda, Africa. Now here we are 18 days in country. I wish I had the words to accurately describe how I feel about that. How wonderful and exciting and magical it feels. While at the same time how terrifying, and lonely and scary it feels to have 18 days under my belt with months left to go. Since I’m not sure I have enough words we’re celebrating by bringing back Awkward and Awesome Thursday’s on the blog! So it works out perfectly that 18 days falls on a Thursday. And that I’ve had so many awkward and awesome moments since being back in Uganda.

Awkward:
  •          Getting tangled up in my beautifully fancy mosquito net the first night here in the hotel, so much so that the whole thing collapsed on my bed at 4am. AWESOME. Thank goodness for rooms with 2 beds.
  •         Anytime you want to exit a conversation in Uganda. It’s 10 minutes of goodbyes that go in a loop that I haven’t even figured out how to get out of gracefully. My new goal is to get out after 5 minutes instead of 10. #goals
  •          No longer having a name outside of Muno or Mzungu.
  •          Selfies with the kids at the village, no matter how many times we try. We’re still working on it.


Awesome:
  •          Being back in Uganda with time to leisurely adjust and get in the Ugandan rhythm.
  •          Getting to see the kiddos again. Seriously heartwarming. And they are so grown up now!
  •          Finding a little American café and having a chocolate milkshake and pizza for lunch. PRAISE HANDS ALL DAY.
  •          Having a fan that will blow all day and night. Not sure how I survived without one last time I was here. 
  •      Getting to look at some of these faces everyday. 







 Here's to more consistent internet and blogs! 
xo, 
Lo