Somewhere in the middle. . .

It has been an interesting week.  The highlight was definitely yesterdays rafting trip, however I have had many other special moments as well as things that I look forward to in the coming days. Late last night 6 interns arrived from North America.  They are all from the US except for Jessica who is from Guelph, ON.  I now have company in the girls dorm.  Jessica and Hannah are very good company and I have enjoyed getting to know them.  The arrival of the interns fresh from North America has also given me a window with which to see how much 2 short weeks in this culture has changed me.  What shocks them no longer shocks me. . . some of the things they notice as new and different no longer seem all that different to me. In some ways the change I see in myself surprised me, as in many ways I still seem like an outsider in this culture.  In other ways I marvel at how some interactions and daily business seems natural and second nature to me.  I am comfortable hopping on the back of a boda boda (motorbike for hire) and going for supper at one of the staff members houses, buying something at the market no longer seems like a foreign experience. . . small things like this that seem not so out of the ordinary, yet there are still so many things that remind me I am somewhere in the middle.

 I read the book “Outside the Wire” about Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.  I highly recommend it as it is written by soldiers and humanitarian workers that  are actually on the ground in Afghanistan.  It gives a perspective not offered on the news or in articles and changed my views and opinions on what I thought in contrast to what actually is.  Anyway to get to my point, one of the humanitarian workers commented that although she had lived among the people in Afghanistan for several months, she had never really been to Afghanistan. . she was somewhere in the middle between Canada and Afghanistan.  Obviously this is an analogy, albeit it is one that I really identified with after travelling to India and Haiti and now to Africa.  I think to truly understand the meaning of her point, one has to have stood on the bridge between another culture and their own.  And so I also feel that at this moment I am somewhere in the middle.  Although some things in Ugandan culture seem familiar, I am still clearly an outsider.  I also know that when I return to Canada, although I will be back in my native culture I will feel like somewhat of an outsider as I will have changed in ways that I won’t realize until I am back in the Western world.  I will be somewhere in the middle. . .

I have no pictures to post from today.  It was a nice relaxing day around the office.  Maggie who is deemed the “eMi Grandma” had me over for supper which was very nice.  I enjoy talking with her very much.  Plans for this week have changed quite a bit since yesterday.  Tomorrow I will head to the Watoto Childrens Village which is near Kampala here and will take about 1 hour to drive to.  I will spend the day there will Pat Aylard who is on staff here as well as Dan the intern and do a site survey.  I went to see the Watoto Childrens Choir when they toured Manitoba, so I am very much looking forward to seeing their property.  Friday I will head to Gulu, but not to the original site we were going to go to.  The site we were originally going to survey was about 480 acres.  Dan and I will travel to Gulu to survey a smaller 8 acre site for a different organization and return home on Sunday.  I am happy with the turn of events as I wasn’t too excited about bushwacking 480 acres through the African Jungle to do a survey.  That survey will be done by someone else at a later time.  It was just too big a site to do in the time we had available. 

I am hoping to get some kiddie pictures from the Watoto Village tomorrow.  I am not sure if I will be spending the majority of my day in the bush, but will post photos if I have opportunity to take any.

The website for the ministry we will be surveying for in Gulu is http://www.ttwuganda.com/