Tiring Tuesday 13-1-09

[I am now going to title these blogs with the appropriate date format as Emily cleared up for me since the entire world does it differently then in the States; my apologies--Ands]

I had such a good day today! The people here really do relate their faith to everything! I’m trying to write this now while simultaneously watching Gilmore girls… which is not a very efficient thing to do. I should journal slash write to you, but I’ve just been thinking and processing all day long and I want to watch some sweet American tv!

Ok pause gilmore girls, go writing. Except not really, it’s just the theme song.

Anyways, Uganda. I need a nap I am so pooped. Today I had to get up at 7:15am and we went to breakfast, which was a roll, an ear of corn, and this really sweet, milky tea. Lillie described it as something you’d get out a cappuccino machine back home, but without the coffee part. I didn’t have corn because I don’t like corn, especially for breakfast. I did have the roll though, and I liked the tea but it was a bit much sweetness so early in the morning.

Then we had History, but we sat in the classroom for 45 minutes because they said our professor was coming. Unfortunately, he actually didn’t think he had to come, so we just sat and talked and played hang man. Then I went to the honors college dorm and went on the really slow internet.

So anyways, I had to do something to feel better because I had my old testament class from 5-7pm tonight and it was awful! I was the only mzungu (white person) there, and I didn’t know anyone! So I just sat by myself because I was kinda early, but no one sat near me at all! But then the prof said, “Ok everyone take out your books and turn to page 1.” Then everyone wanted to sit near me because I was one of the few ppl with a book. So all these guys who smelled au naturel came and sat like practically on top of me. Just kidding, one on each side, then two behind that were looking over my shoulder and two in front that turned around over their chairs to look. It was incredibly oppressive. I just kept telling myself: “Cross cultural experience. Cross cultural experience. Oh jeez. Cross cultural experience.” And they weren’t sharing my book like, “Oh I will respectfully read at the same time you are and maintain my own space.” No. It was: “This is as much my book now as yours, if not more, so move over while I push my body onto your desk and turn the pages for myself.” Ok not that bad, but you get the picture. I know it’s just the African way of completely having a different idea of what personal space means, but it was really overwhelming. Ok so then at first I could understand the prof, but I was really sleepy. Just from the heat and sitting too still and getting up early. So my mind starting wandering and then I completely lost track of what the prof was saying and NEVER GOT IT BACK. Seriously I had no idea what was coming out of his mouth. He was speaking English but it did not sound like it. Everyone around me would laugh all of a sudden, like when you’re watching a movie in a different language and the laugh track comes on. I felt really left out so I just pretended I knew what was going on, his body language was funny at least.

The class itself seems like it’s going to be really easy, and this class was two hours long. At the end we were supposed to sign up for tutorials, I think, but they sort people into tutorial groups based on major, so of course I never know where to go. On top of not knowing what he’s saying anyways. And there are definitely huge ranges of English proficiency here. Some only nominally speak it, and some can converse quite fluently. Lucky me, sitting by 6 guys who couldn’t really communicate at all. Boo. I’m complaining a lot, sorry.

Dinner was kinda funny because there was a Uganda-Kenya football game on! Uganda actually scored while we were there, so the eruption of cheers, jumping, and clapping was hilarious. Kelsey and I wanted to stay just to watch the reactions, not actually the game. She said it filled her with joy she’s really amazing, she said her energy is totally from God. She reaches out so consistently to everyone around her and never gets intimidated or annoyed. She really knows how to connect with the UCU students in a quiet, meaningful way. I think it’s really developing a foundation for some awesome relationships. I admire her so much. I don’t want to be hard on myself, but I definitely got drained today. Oh and in our dorm there’s like a fire alarm going off, so it’s this consistent, really high-pitched beeping noise that we’re trying to drown out but I think it’s giving me a headache. Hopefully my ear plugs will block it out.

Oh I forgot to tell you why my day was so good earlier. So we met this man named Sam the other day when we were slack-lining (like in the pics I posted), who is a 36 year old law student. He saw me looking at the bulletin board today and said hi and I remembered his name and everything! So he and some other law students were sitting under a shade tree (yes really under a shade tree, so classic African) and he invited me over to talk. I went ahead cause I didn’t have anything better to do and we ended up having a pretty cool discussion about how science and faith interact. He told me he had heard a BBC program about quantum physics being evidence of creation and kept saying, “You will acquire on this. You will speak. You will acquire on this.” Which I suppose was an invitation to offer my thoughts on the subject. So I got to talk a little about quarks and leptons and try to explain entropy and thermodynamics to them a bit. I think they didn’t quite get it, but I was proud of remembering what Dr. Vader had told us [In Thermodynamics Class during the Fall semester]. They seemed pretty fascinated in general by the fact that I was studying engineering. They said I was “bold” and that they found it encouraging that I was expanding the faith into such areas. Pretty interesting stuff.

Anyways, what a crazy crazy day. I am so pooped and that noise is still beeping. But I gotta get up early tomorrow and it’s almost 10, so I guess I’m gonna try out the earphones. I only have the one class from 8:30 to 10:30 so I am so totally just chilling out, getting some reading done (that’s like my only hw these days) and “surfing” as they call it here.

--Emmes