a new Alma Mater: Uganda Christian University

main entrance to campus

I just finished my second week of classes here at UCU. The class schedule has FINALLY been made official after changing around five times in the last two weeks. The organization of the schedule is VERY different from back home at Bluffton. My classes aren’t scheduled in what I would think of as “rational” with certain classes on MWF and others on T/TH. Everyday I have a different combination of classes, at different times during the day,

I am taking a total of five classes here that amount to 16 credit hours. Four of my classes are USP students only which doesn’t result in much interaction with Ugandan students. Two of these four classes are taught by Ugandan profs which has been somewhat of a challenge for me because they can be hard to understand at times which makes it easy for me to get distracted. I do however find my prof for African Lit. who sounds like Yoda (which I think increases the difficulty in understanding him) very entertaining so class isn’t too terrible. :) My other two classes with the USP students are my “core” classes: Faith and Action in the Ugandan Context and IMME Practicum. Both of theses classes are set up in a seminar/discussion format. Basically we do a lot of reading and then come to class to discuss what we found insightful or challenging and how it applies to our life. I am learning a lot from both these classes but I am not impressed with the emphasis on participation. A lot of times I would rather just observe and absorb the deep intellectual thoughts that my classmates are bringing up rather than risking the chance of saying something that sounds dumb. The class that I DO have with Ugandan students is Understanding Worldviews. I was really nervous for this class because I didn’t know any other USP student that was going to be in the same lecture time as me. My professor ended up being American so I wasn’t the ONLY muzungu in the building. This class has given me a good opportunity to interact with Ugandan students and make some new friends. I am really enjoying the class and learning about worldviews from this different perspective (bc the class is designed for African students).

One of the perks of the Ugandan Education system is the grading scale. Are you ready for this?

85-100= A       75-79= B+     65-69= B-       55-59= C     0-49= F

80-84 = A-      70-74 = B      60-64= C+      50-54= C-

So… yeah luckily they will be sending my grade letters back home and not the percentages. I think this is pretty awesome. I guess they could be tougher when it comes to grading so that could changed things. Only time will tell.

main classroom building

 

the parade of students from Chapel to the dinning hall (much like Bluffton)

Jill using a tray at lunch!! How dare she??? Bluffton friends would NOT approve!

 

 

USP class room and some friends

 

 

I am leaving shortly for a weekend trip to Jinja! We are going to visit with some missionaries and we will get to see the source of the Nile! Keep us in your prayers as we travel! Hope you all have a great weekend! LOVE

Family

Maama Joyce Serukenya. This is my mom. She works as a secretary at the Anglican Church that we attend. The end. 

Joannah. This is my sister. She is 29 years old and currently unemployed. She loves to cook and sleep. During the day she helps out around the house with the chickens, the cooking, and the cleaning. She is pretty quiet and very observant.

Sarah. This is my sister/cousin. She is 21 years old and is involved with ministries at the Church. She used to take classes at UCU but she had to stop taking classes because she doesn’t have the money. She spends her days visiting friends and helping out around the house. She is fun.

 

Shakira. This is a new neighbor girl that I met over the weekend. She is nine years old and has two siblings that she promises to bring over next time she visits. She is very outgoing and loves talking with me in English. She is VERY smart and I think our new friendship makes little Martin jealous.

 

Martin. He is the son of the man who helps out with the chickens (I may have already mentioned this). As you can see Martin lost his front tooth, or part of it.

 

My Family (minus Dennis). Back (L-R): Joannah, Maama, Ida. Front: Sarah and Me. Sorry about the poor quality.

Picture Post #2

Okay so I decided there are rules for those of you who visit my blog. Well, there is just one rule that I will call the RED DIRT RULE (because the dirt is red in Uganda).

THE RED DIRT RULE: If you read my blog OR even just look at the pictures you MUST leave me a comment. This way I know who is looking and so I feel the love. Thanks.

 

The family room in our house (Martin in the background turning on the light for me).

This essentially is my bathroom. The yellow jerry can hold the water that I then pour into the blue basin for my bath. When I am finished I dump all the water down the small drain. This is also where I brush my teeth. 

This is my bedroom that I share with my sisters, Joannah and Sarah. My bed is the one on the bottom right guarded with the mosquito net. I have made my bed every morning so far! Be impressed!

This is my little area that I have all to myself. I am basically living out of my suitcase with the exception of my skirts which are hung up on a bar that is not pictured.

 

Me and Martin. He is my new best friend here in Uganda. He LOVES my camera and does a little dance every time the flash goes off.

Jill and I are still friends. :) Some people think we are sisters because we are both from Ohio and go to Bluffton together.

Sunset view from our dinning hall on campus. LOVE IT.

Picture Post #1

I know this is a little confusing. I had to do it quick so I will try to fix it later and add more photos. Enjoy for now. :)


Picture 1:
The kitchen inside the house, we are lucky enough to have an actual stove and oven!

Picture 2:

Our Dining room table where we eat and also watch soaps. My little friend there is Martin. I like him and he likes my white skin.

Picture 3:

Our two cows on the left (which mama Joyce recently sold) and the cement building on the right is the latrin (bathroom/squatty potty).

Picture 4:
Ida taking care of some of the chickens.

Picture 5:

Our compound/courtyard area. Straigh ahead is the door to our outdoor kitchen that is basically an open firepit. To the left is the door that leads to the main part of our house.

Rwanda

My trip to Rwanda was an experience I will never forget. Going to Rawanda is most DEFINITELY a learning experience that you can’t get from the classroom or text book (Alicia) and something that is hard to explain in words. I knew very little about Rwanda’s history besides the genocide in 1994. Going there and spending a week learning about the genocide and seeing the effects of it firsthand has been both an eye opening and challenging experience. We had speakers talk about the East African Revival, the genocide, life after the genocide and the gacaca courts’ work toward reconciliation. You can still see the pain and the hurt in the eyes of the people living there and hearing their stories and testimonies breaks your heart. It is SO hard to understand how something so terrible can happen in our world today.

In addition to our speakers we also visited two memorial sites. We went to The Kigali Memorial Center and to The Nyamata Church Memorial. Although the memorials were emotionally draining I think it helped us as students get a better understanding of the genocide and made it more real (I know that doesn’t sound right but I don’t know how to explain it). What is truly amazing is the hope that the people in Rwanda have for their future. Even through all of the hurt the people have been able to work toward forgiveness and reconciliation, with some victims of the genocide living right beside the perpetrators (can you even imagine?). It is so inspiring to see how the people are working together to rebuild their country and become united. God is so good.

While we were in Kigali we also heard from several missionaries living in Rwanda who work through different organizations including, Food for the Hungry, Mission Moving Mountains, and World Relief. One of the women that we talked with has been in Rwanda for 12 years with her family. She does a lot of work in holistic development and also talked to us about business as missions. I really enjoyed our conversations with her because she helped paint a picture of what it is to be a missionary. I realized that we can’t romanticize the life of missionaries; you don’t always see instant success, it takes a lot of commitment and sometimes a lot of time in order to see progress.

To finish off our trip we went Bunyonyi Lake in Kabale, Uganda and stayed on an island there Friday night-Sunday morning. It was so beautiful and was a good time to relax and reflect on the week’s events. We had to travel to the island by boat, mind you these boats are more like canoes carved from trees, it was a little sketchy. I stayed in a cottage there with two other girls that had a beautiful view that overlooked the lake and the surrounding mountains. I spent my free afternoon on Saturday swimming in the lake with friends and trying to get some sun. Sunday we had to get up early to travel back to Mukono and prepare for classes which started yesterday (I will write more on traveling and also classes later).

The trip was a great experience and really helped us to bond as a group. I am excited about the relationships that have been made and the rest of the time we have to grow as a group. I hope to post some pictures soon (it takes a while for them to download).

Thanks for all of your prayers and for taking the time to read. Love you all.

p.s. I also LOVE comments.

I am in Uganda!?!!

Hello All! I arrived to campus on Tuesday around 11:30 pm (3:30 pm in Ohio) after traveling for 35 LONG hours. I traveled with a friend, Jill, from the Akron-Canton airport until we met up with the rest of the group in DC. It was a little overwhelming meeting everyone and trying to remember names at first because we are such a large group (45 students) but everyone seems great so far. Everything really has been quite a whirlwind experience and I am still trying to grasp the idea that I am actually here in Uganda! CRAZY!
It really hit me on Wednesday when they were dropping us off at our host families. We had a van load of people and were trekking up the winding, bumpy, dirt roads and would randomly stop, help someone unload their bags, wave, and leave them behind with total strangers. I was like “This is happening so fast!” Soon I was the only one left in the van and as my driver, Vincent, our USP intern, Boniface, and I continued up the hill (more like a mountain) I realized the great adventure I was on. It was an awesome moment of realization about what I am about to experience in the next 16 weeks. I was filled at that moment with such excitement and peace as I watched the beautiful scenery and people out my window.
When I arrived to my host family I received many hugs and I felt so welcome. They are all wonderful people and I am having a lot of fun getting to know them. In my family I have Maama Joyce, two sisters Sarah (21) and Joanna (29), a cousin Dennis, and a “house keeper” Ida. I MUST mention that we happen to live on a chicken farm. We have three chicken coops packed from wall to wall with what they say is hundreds of chickens. We also have two cows that a neighbor man, Francis, helps take care of. I share my room with my two sisters and we have a lot of fun teaching each other about our cultures and talking about music. They also enjoy watching soaps. We get a good laugh out of them because they are the Mexican soaps with English voiceovers… hilarious! My walk from home to school is about twenty minutes. I walk five minutes to my friend/fellow USPer Abigail’s house and we make the rest of the uphill/mountain walk together. We are both very glad to have each other on the walk. Many of the kids along the way yell out to us, “Muzungu,” meaning white person, and wave frantically. The past two days a group of children have come to my house to see the “Muzungu” but I have missed them because I am still at the University.
Our USP group will be leaving tomorrow morning at 5am for our 10 day trip to Rwanda. We are going there to learn about the genocide, and also so that we can experience and recognize the cultural differences that there are across Africa. It will also be a time for us USP students to bond with one another before we officially start classes on September 7th.
Everything is going so good and I will try to keep everyone updated as much as possible. Once classes start and I am set in a schedule I hope I will be able to have more access to internet time. Please bear with me until then! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ask me questions! It will help me so I know what to write about because there is so much to say! For now though, know that I am safe, having fun, and wishing you all were with me!

one week

One week from today I leave to study for a semester in Uganda (ahhhh!). I will be taking classes at the Uganda Christian Univesity located in Mukono, Uganda and living with a host family for 16 weeks! I am part of the Uganda Studies Program (USP) offered through Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU)/Best Semester with an Intercultural Ministry & Missions Empasis (IMME). I will be taking five classes including 1.) Faith and Action in the Ugandan Context, 2.) African Traditional Religions, Islam and Christianity in Contemporary Uganda, 3.) Cross Cultural Immersion/Missions Practicum, 4.) African Literature, and 5.) Understanding Worldviews.

To read more about the Uganda Studies Program visit http://www.bestsemester.com/usp/

I am both excited and nervous for the adventure I am about to embark on! This blog is my attempt to keep those who are interested up to date on what is happening while I am in Uganda. I am not promising to be good at this but I look forward to giving you all a glimpse of my experience.

Please keep in touch!

You can email me at: hannamattingly@gmail.com

OR

Send a letter to me at:

Hanna Mattingly, Uganda Studies Programme

Uganda Christian University

P.O. Box 4

Mukono, UGANDA