Uganda Studies Program. Blog #1. 

This has been an amazing experience so far. After a few days of orientation in Uganda we bused over to Rwanda for about a week. While in Rwanda we stayed at two convents, participated in a monthly mandatory national work day, and visited art museums, micro-finance groups, and genocide memorials. It was an extremely informational and emotional trip, and I am astounded by the amount of pain the Rwandese have experienced and the beauty that has grown out of such deeply rooted pain. One of the things that astounded me the most was the reality of how recently the terrible events came to an end in Rwanda. There are people my age in Rwanda that have memories of watching their families gruesomely chopped to death. There is no escaping the affect this has on the emotional and spiritual health of the Rwandese. It was almost hard to feel anything at all while hearing such raw stories because no pain felt great enough to do justice to reality. (I think I could go on about this trip for a long time..).

We spent a couple days debriefing our trip on an island at beautiful Lake Bunyonyi, the third deepest lake in the world. I don't think there could be a more relaxing place to debrief from the issues we faced in Rwanda. It was a beautiful weekend spent swimming, stargazing, worshipping, and eating. The eating part was actually ridiculous... one should not try to eat multiple quesadillas, guacamole, and salsa followed by crepes with chocolate after being on a rice and beans diet for a couple weeks. It just doesn't end well. Anyway, we had our last hot showers for who knows how long and then hopped on the bus (but first the boat) for the long ride back to campus.

Today was our first day of classes and it's just plain old beautiful to finally be able to establish some sort of routine. I wish I could say I haven't experienced culture shock... but I definitely have. This is not a short trip and therefore issues that come up now need to be dealt with. now. I am definitely finding comfort in the fact that God is God to all nations and I know I share this huge part of my identity with many of my peers here. This evening I found myself attending community worship... or fellowship as they call it. Man. These people know how to worship freely. And the speakers here. So direct. There's no tiptoeing around. It's great. 

I think that pretty well summarizes my life since August 25th. I can't wait to become more comfortable in this community, and to hopefully move beyond being overwhelmed by little things like laundry.