DAY 11: May 28- Beam of Hope

Now I have the routine down. Wake up. Change clothes. Eat Breakfast. Finish getting ready. Read my textbook. Eat lunch.

After being destroyed by the Nile River yesterday, we all were pretty tired. We decided to just eat lunch at the Gately. I had the “Nile Burger”…figures. After lunch, we head off to The Source to meet for our Service Learning. So today I had the opportunity to go back to the Beam of Hope, but instead of just playing with the random kids that were outside, I would be taking to the disabled people that stayed there.

So when we got there, I felt awkward. I didn’t know who to talk to and for one of my friends it was her 3^rd time going back. Finally, these three guys came and sat next to me. I’m not sure of all their names, but the main guy I was talking to was named Jeff. They were all very nice and very curious about my life and my thoughts.

He started with asking me about my favorite movies and my hobbies. You know surface level questions. I asked them about their families. I told them about mine. Then we started to talk about the differences between the U.S. and Uganda. We talked about President Obama and President Roosevelt (because he was a disabled President) and Jeff said he would like to be President of Uganda (I’m still not sure if he was joking or not). They asked if we had street children in the U.S. like they have here, and what the government does about it. We started to talk about the Terminator (you know Gov of California). They were just so curious about life in the U.S. unfortunately I didn’t have many answer for them, considering I’m not the biggest politics fan. They asked me how the U.S. treats disabled people.. I told them about the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.. thanks Professor Martinez and my I/O Psychology Class for that one).

They talked to Paul about Soccer.. I learned that Africans are very big soccer fans. I asked them how they knew English and told them I wanted to learn Lusoga (the language around Jinja). They said it was hard, but that they would try. So I got a piece of paper and learned some greetings. Because in African culture greetings are very very very important. I learned how to say “Good morning” slash “How was your night” (same thing) and how to respond. (This greeting you say before noon). Then I learned the greeting for “How are you” when it is pass noon and how to respond. Jeff told me that if someone asked me those questions, I should respond and ask them the same question. Then they would respond and ask me the same question over. And I would respond and ask them the same question and it would go on like that for a while, which again shows the importance of greetings in this culture. I learn how to say “thank you” and “you’re welcome.” And even learned numbers up to 10, but they were hard for me. The language is very hard to learn. The words are long.. and you have to hold certain letters (slash sounds) out for longer or shorter than others.. because if you don’t you might be saying a completely different word. I had a really good time talking with those guys, and they taught me a lot.

Then it was back to the Gately on a Boda. Dinner. Yum (like always) and class. Today for class we were studying verbal communication, so Selby invited the missionaries over to tell us stories about their verbal interaction with the African culture. Some of their stories even reinforced what I had learned today (especially about the importance of the greetings). Another interesting point they made was that Africans belief that items have a spirituality.. they are not just things. So if a person hits a car.. they will say “the car hit me.” For example, we were talking to one of the ladies that works at the Gately about drums. We asked her if she knew how to play. And she said “no, it doesn’t play.” In the U.S. we would probably say, “no I don’t know how,” but she said based her answer around the object not working or playing.. its very interesting.

After class, we all went to Spencer and Emily’s house for desserts and to watch our crazy rafting video. It was hilarious to see the video, especially when we flipped and had the plants in our helmets. I think I might just have to buy the video, so I can have my 2^nd “the Brittany Chin-Lee Show” movie to go along with my Skydiving video. Plus at the end there is an hour of bonus film… Like the worst flips ever.. yah.. they looked brutal. Overall, today was a good day. I felt like a learned a lot about the African culture.. now my eyes are open to this incredibility different culture.