also.

please check out my friend Charith's photo blog for africa...

she is quite the photographer.

rural visit.

so, this weekend we went on a visit to a village oustide of Kampala. Leilani, Sarah and I went with Josephats to a place called Fort Portal where the Tooro (pronounced todo) tribe lives. One of his friend's family opened their home to us.


the street. still in Kampala.


the road on the way to house we were staying in. there were 7 of us traveling in this vehicle...four in the cab that would tightly fit three. i got the middle, which means straddling the stick shift...in a skirt...awkward.
it was raining like crazy, the mud was crazy, and the driver was a little crazy. Josephats lost his wallet and we had to go back and look for it. then we got back onto the muddy road and got stuck twice. i got right with God 'cause i was a little scared for my life...


Boy watching us get unstuck, haha.

Apuuli.

This is the man whose family we stayed with. Apuuli isn't his real, name, though. One of the village customs requires people to use petty names in order to preserve the sacredness of the real name (or so i've heard from other sources...they wouldn't really talk about the whys of their customs sometimes.) Anyway, there are 11 different names everyone uses. Mine was Amooti.

country.

so fort portal had probably some of the most beautiful countryside i've ever seen...sarah said it was like fairyland or something. it was quite unreal sometimes...
(sky's pretty grainy in these photos. it's not overediting, though. dunno.)

people.

this lady wasn't as sad as she looks. don't be deceived. the people were mostly very happy and friendly.


A guy selling tobacco. Apuuli said he's raised a family and put all his kids through college by selling this in the market.

hiking.

Atenni, Atwooke and Apuuli taking us up a hill to site see. good hike. i didn't get any good photos of the view, though...suck.


DUNG BEETLES! these things were way tight. i even accidentally sat on these two and they just kept on rolling. their egg sack is inside of that, and the female is in front in this picture...you can tell by which one is bigger, they said.




working.

children.

so you can't go to a rural village and not see kids...and be affected by them and have them affected by you. we were the first mzungus (white people) any of these kids had ever seen.


they remind me of peter pan or something. or like a gang. like the lost boys...or of something good against something bad.




following. this was wonderful, not sad.

site seeing, etc...

leilani.


some of the nicer restroom facilities we experienced.


friends. josephats and apuuli


at the caves.

visiting.

leilani making the millet bread (i forget the traditional word...)
imagine something that looks like poop, feels like raw dough and tastes like crushed up cardboard and sand. we ate a lot of it.


at one of the households we visited.



Leilani and Sarah driving to houses.

structures etc...

the house we stayed in. bible verses painted everywhere...


the church we went to.


leaving for somewhere...


the family. there were more, though. the lady in the middle is the head of the household.

me and orphanage...

so this is me after kate pushed me into the tub i was washing clothes in.
actually, i fell. humorous i suppose...


We went to an orphanage in Kampala called Jordan house.
this is not a place of despair, and it was beautiful. They fed us (even though they were fasting for wisdom).
They played with us, they let us take photos of them and they loved us.
So here are your typical "children in africa!" tourist photos. but know that i was impacted by this experience and these kids know hope that i wish i could tap into, even halfway.
This is Sandra.


Agnes. Whenever I'm around kids like this, there's always one that sticks out...kind of a favorite, though i don't like looking at it that way...this was the one, though. She was shy and wonderful and pretty and happy.

more.

haha. the kids wouldn't show their teeth when smiling unless they were laughing or something...
so i asked her to smile with her teeth and it came out like this. funny.

ah, so beautiful.

zaitune (I think), Agnes, Prossy



Erica.