Mzungu Night!

I can't believe I'm starting my fourth week here already...time is flying now! I think we are all finally starting to get really comfortable with each other as a family, even though the members of the family keep changing. School is starting up again for all the kids here so some people are no longer staying at our house. Imma (whose name I was mispelling as 'Ema') left on Friday, but we thought she was leaving Sunday so we did not get to say goodbye. Also for the past week Reverend's younger brother and sister, Becca (16 or 17) and Elisha (15 or 16) have been staying with us but Becca left today to go back to school. So this is the current family roster - Msumba (the Luganda word for 'Reverend'), Mama Irene, Elisha, Rittah, Grace, Enoch, Caroline, and me - and this actually seems to be quite small for a typical African household!

I've had some interesting conversations with my family lately. First of all, I am surprised at how much our parents here compliment us on how "smart" Caroline and I always dress. They have actually thanked us several times for dressing so well because usually, Mzungu students bring their casual concept of dress over here with them and don't really make an effort to fit into the culture in this way. I guess it really does have a big impact on how people receive you!

We have also been talking about some of the differences in weather between here and America - especially Michigan! Mama Irene was asking me about what we do when it snows, and apparently she always thought that life just stops during winter. She thought that no one went to work or school when it snowed and everyone just stayed inside all the time! She asked me how people travel when there's snow on the roads and I attempted t tell her about plows and salt trucks. Then she legitimately asked me how those trucks drive through the snow. She thought maybe we had to drop the salt from planes because it would just be impossible to drive through snow! The whole conversation was very eye-opening for both of us I think. For someone who has lived in Africa her whole life, the ideas she had about snow actually make sense when you think about it. It has been fun thus far to see parts of my world back home through different eyes.

This weekend Caroline and I went with our parents to a college graduation party for our new friend Dambale. She just met Caroline and me last week when she came over to the house to visit, and the next thing we knew, we were invited to her graduation party! It was quite different than any open house I've been to in the states. For one thing it officially started around noon or 1, but when we showed up at 2:30 there was still no one there! Gotta love African time. After visiting and meeting people for about an hour, the presentation/ceremony began. This involved everyone sitting in rows of chairs on the front lawn with Dambale and some of her family at a table in front of us. There were several pastors there, so in addition to some prayers and songs led by our host father, another pastor gave a short sermon. We sang several songs in Luganda at random times throughout the event and it was a blast! The whole thing was really a great experience, and apparently we are going to another one next Sunday!

Yesterday at church there was a missions team visiting from Muskegon, MI! One of them preached the sermon and the others introduced themselves and also gave a guitar to the worship band as a gift! We talked briefly with them afterwards, thinking we may or may not see them again, but later that afternoon Msumba came home and told us that all the "Michigan guys" were going to come over for dinner Monday night and said we should cook some American food for them! After thinking about the ingredients and cooking facilities we have here, Caroline and I decided that Sloppy Joes would be a feasible dinner to prepare.

I called my dad to get his recipe for the sauce, and it's sort of funny - the first time I call home is mainly for the purpose of asking how to cook sloppy joes! It was really good to hear my parents voices though, of course!

So no pressure or anything right? We just have to cook sloppy joes (which I've never done) over hot coals (which I've also never done, but thankfully, Caroline has) for about 20 people! Thankfully, our family is also cooking the normal African food we eat every night as well so if something goes wrong there will be food to eat! We normally eat dinner here between 9 and 10 pm but we are moving it up to 7 so that it's closer to Mzungu dinner time. People here usually don't worry about eating at specific times, they eat "when food is ready," or as Msumba says, "Here, we don't eat time, we eat food!"

I'm sure no matter what happens tonight we will all have a good time so I will try to stop worrying so much enjoy the experience! I will definitely let you know how everything turns out, complete with pictures too!

Thank you so much for your prayers and comments - they are such a blessing read!