My African Life

As I sit here waiting for our chicken formerly known as "Kitgum" to cook, I thought I might take a moment to catch you all up on my life.

Here's how its going. I have arrived safely in Uganda. I spent a couple nights in Kampala getting materials together and then I took the 6 hour post-bus ride to Gulu. I spent a night in a very tiny cramped hot "hotel" room in Gulu and then moved into our new apartment the next day.

After a week of traveling it felt SO GOOD to unpack. So good.

There is a very granola young mormon couple here (Jaimie and Jaron) that we have a connection with (they are both American, BYU alums), who met us at the bus stop and then gave us their old apartment-they moved into a new one earlier than they were planning for us which was really nice.

The best way to describe life in our apartment is like really luxe semi-permanent camping. There are two rooms. One is a bedroom with a queen-sized, mosquito-netted bed that we share and two shelves. The other room has a sunken in couch, a desk, some shelves, a weak mini-fridge and a water dispenser. Then outside there is a small patio with a couple chairs and a kitchen. The kitchen has a small sink, and a small stove. Off the patio and to the right a few feet is our shower/bathroom. It is a squat toilet which I broke within 48 hours of being here.

Don't get gross now. I just broke the handle as I tried to run away in the middle of the night from the splashing water.

Anyway, life here is a little exhausting to say the least. I don't feel like we spend all that much time working on our Needs Assessment but we do spend a reasonable amount on it and we only just got here. But, really just living takes up about 90% of our time. One of our favorite phrases that we say in an annoying (but only half joking voice) is "Why is life so haarrrddd?"

It truly is more difficult though. First of all it is always incredibly hot. If this were America or if I was living in a nicer place then I could go inside to the air conditioning and cool off. No such luck here. There is no respite! It gets a bit cooler at night but its still hot. Never have I been so unconcerned about indecent exposure.

Also with limited resources and cooking supplies, every meal is a struggle.

A typical day involves waking up to the sound of a rooster cock-a-doodle-doo-ing at around 8. It's pretty consistent. I don't need an alarm clock. By 8 I won't be able to ignore the sun or the rooster anymore. We get ready, we eat what is usually a meager breakfast, grab our helmets and head out. After leaving the gate to our little compound (there are a few other apartments with other mzungus here - a guy from England, a couple from Germany, a girl from Colorado) we hail a boda.

A boda boda is the cheapest, easiest form of transportation around here. Basically how it works is that there are strange african men on motorcycles located at strategic points all over the city. If you want one you can hail it down much like a taxi, decide on a price, hop on the back and "we go." Often Kristen and I will both ride the same boda but once we realized that it would be the same price if we spilt up and take two, we have tried to do that. If we both ride together, the person in the middle gets really uncomfortably close to the driver. Imagine straddling a small motorcycle in a dress pressed up against someone else's sweaty backside. Now stop.

Anyway, bodas are really fun. They almost always put a smile on my face. We ride down bumpy dirt roads, swerving around pot holes and enjoying the little bit of wind in our faces and waving to kids along the road. Some drivers are more reckless than others but, (don't worry mom!) I have my helmet!

There isn't really such thing as a typical day here yet, but we often meet with the staff of the NGO we are working with. They are very nice and hospitable. We almost always have to make a shopping trip every day too. This necessity is a combination of poor planning, moving into an apartment without many accessories and the fact that our fridge is the size of my nephew.

Today we felt really good about going to the outdoor market because we know our way around a little bit and we now feel comfortable enough to barter a bit and fight the "mzungu" prices that some people try to give us.

Our best friend here in Gulu would probably have to be Bonny our gatekeeper at the apartment complex. He helps us with things that are broken around the apartment and even went into town with us the other day to find a replacement for the broken piece in the toilet. He is great. A very very nice man who has lived away from his family who are in the southwest of Uganda for about ten years getting money for them. We have a sweet friendship with him that consists of him doing favors around the house for us and us sharing our food with him or buying him juice or candy.

Well, is there anything I'm missing? I don't think so. Basically the showers are cold, the internet is spotty and the German's next door are always singing.

Life is good.

p.s. look forward to hearing more about Kitgum the chicken in the next post!

The Edge of Europe

So our second day in Istanbul got off to a rough start- ie Kristen puked in the flower pot at breakfast. So we took a nap in the hotel until around 10 when she felt a bit better (she thinks it was the malaria medicine that made her nauseous).

When she was feeling better we went out to the Grand Bazaar. Seeing as I love shopping and buying useless things, this was a great use of our time. It was indoors and a little bit hectic (people kept telling us how beautiful we were and one guy even asked me for a kiss!) but not too crazy. I bought some cool Turkish flats, a genie lamp, a ring and a nice scarf. The store that sold me the scarf was so cool. They had pictures of lots of celebrities there (like Liam Neeson, Jimmy Carter and Laura Bush). The old man who owned the shop didn't speak English but he kept giving stuff to us while his grandson showed us things. Like he gave us little evil eye pins and a new bag for me to keep my stuff in. He was so sweet.

Scarves! 

Inside the Grand Bazaar

The nice grandson. They had a New Hampshire license plate there and I was like 'No way! I'm moving there!' (for my mission). So we took a picture.

Liam Neeson and the nice grandpa man! Liam was probably there because he was filming Taken 2

We were walking past this lamp shop when a kid was like, Come! I take picture! So we were like ughh....okkkk. He took our picture and then pretended to drop Kristen's camera. Then he scampered away-turns out it wasn't even his shop!

After that we wandered around until prayers were over and we could go to the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque was gorgeous. It seriously looks like science fiction. Like, we felt as if we could be in Naboo or Gondor or something. We put on our new scarves to cover our hair when we went inside and the interior was also magnificent. Even though there were tourists everywhere, it still felt holy and like a house of God. So we made our way to the back and just sat down and prayed for a little bit which I liked.

Our new scarves right outside the Blue Mosque. Taken by some nice middle aged American twin men!

Inside the Blue Mosque

Blue Mosque from a distance 

After a few more photos which we couldn't help taking, we headed back to our hotel. I asked Ni, our friend at the hotel desk if my bag had come yet. He was like 'no, sorry.' And I was all 'WHAT?' Cause I had been bugging him about it all morning. And then he was like 'just kidding, it is here.' And it was! That Ni....

Ni! He was kind of a lifesaver in Istanbul- he would call people for us and give us directions.  He was so funny and melodramatic sometimes (see his expression?) He was also feeling sick. We kind of loved him.

We hung out with Ni for awhile until our cab came and then headed out for the airport. The only significant thing from the airport is that they have an evil eye hanging over the security checkpoint- crazy huh?!




Anyway, we really loved Istanbul. It has this cool feel of being vaguely European but also more exotic. I mean there are European-like signs and cars and trams but then Mosques everywhere! It's so cool! And the people are a little fringy too. They are sort of European, sort of Middle Eastern and 100% charming. Everyone was so nice and friendly to us which was not what we expected at all.

Overall, Istanbul was a fantastic experience which I would recommend for anyone and EVERYONE! It was so great. So so great.

I will stop now.

The Best of Sultanhamet!

Greetings from K'la! ('K'la' is how cool folk say Kampala).

Kristen and I are safely here at our hotel in Ntinda just a few minutes walk from where the BYU group lived last summer. It's so crazy to be back! But more on that later. Right now I want to talk about ISTANBUL!

Istanbul was soo cool! I loved it!

At first I just felt kind of displaced and confused by the fact that I was on the Bosporus, but the architecture was beautiful. So. The first morning we both woke up really early because of jet lag. We hung out in our room for a little bit and then got breakfast where a super nice Australian couple gave us good advice on what to do for the day.

Breakfast! This was outside on the deck and you could see the Bosporus strait from there!

View from outside the little place we ate breakfast

We were nervous as we headed out into the street since we didn't really know where we were going. BUT with some great directions from the super nice hotel people, we made it to the main tourist area in like 5 minutes. That's right. The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace were all within a 10-15 minute walk from our hotel!

So, first we went to the Hagia Sofia. It was funny because we kept seeing signs that said "Giris" which we read as 'Girls.' Which didn't seem that weird because when I went to the mosque in K'la I had to go through a separate women's entrance. I kept wondering to myself in Istanbul, 'where is the boys entrance?' Finally we caught on.

So we got into the Hagia Sofia and because our jet lag had woken us up so early we were some of the first people there and it wasn't crowded at all. It was so majestic and so beautiful! We just gazed at everything in wonder. The dome is so high up and there are beautiful circular green ...I don't even know the word... decorative sign things hanging with Arabic writing that were just beautiful. At one point a stray cat from the outside world ventured in and we played with him for a little while.

We bonded as we gazed in awe at the magnificence 

pillars inside!

I loved the hanging candles!

There is a balcony level to the Hagia Sofia which was also cool. To get there you climb this slopping ramp several stories. At one point there is a window looking down from one level of the ramp to the other and I climbed in so that Kristen could take a picture. I was antsy because I was pretty sure what I was doing was not allowed and sure enough when I crawled out of the small space a guard was standing there. He just winked at me and kept walking.

illegal?

Every Turkish man I met was so nice.

So yeah. The balcony was cool because there were old Christian mosaics there from before it was taken over and made into a mosque. My favorite mosaic was the one at the front of the church/mosque that had the virgin Mary and baby Jesus. Also there was a cool one with an Empress called Zoe which I didn't know was such an old name!

As we left the Hagia Sofia, a young man approached us offering to give us a tour of the Blue Mosque. Even though we knew he wanted us to pay him, he was nice and so we let him take us around. But it was Friday and the mosque was closed for prayers so her just walked us to the Topkapi palace and went on his way.

The palace was cool but not my favorite. That was probably just because it was like...an outdoor palace? And it was raining and windy and very very cold. But there were cool artifacts and the walls had beautiful tiles. They have some HUGE jewels there. It was so funny-at one point Kristen was reading the explanation plaque next to a case and then I saw her look over to the case, and her eyes got ENORMOUS just like Abu in Aladdin when he sees the huge ruby in the cave of marvels. I can kind of understand the 40 thieves now--this stuff is definitely lust and theft worthy! And I don't even like jewels!

It was cold and wet

We also got to visit the Harem. Judging by the size of the place and the architecture I don't think that word means what I always thought it meant. It seems like it was for more than just concubines.

Hot drink from a street vevndor

After that we had a nice small lunch at a scenic restaurant in the square and then we were wet and tired so we went back to our hotel. We meant to take a short nap but TWO HOURS LATER, we woke up. And we decided to go to a Turkish Bath. This outing required a lot of social trust. I am sure you are all dying to know so I will describe it in some detail:

It started out with us waking up an hour later from our nap than we meant to so we were kind of out of it. We went down to the lobby to ask the guy there for a bath recommendation. He called and we waited in the lobby until this Turkish man in a big van pulled up to take us to the bath. As we left the hotel guy was like "be careful" because they kept making jokes about the American woman who just died in Istanbul. Kristen was like 'be CAREFUL? What's going to happen???" But we dutifully hopped int othe van and were taken through the winding cobble streets of Sultanhamet. We got to the bath and it looked kind of sketch from the outside. It has been operating since the 1400s! WE got in and the man at the desk just handed us a piece of paper in English explaining our choice of bath experiences. Kristen wanted the full deal so we payed 60 lira for a bath and massage. Luckily there was a private woman's section although we weren't sure of that at first. And I think it means a lot about us that we still decided to go!

So anyway, this brisk Turkish woman with very little English led us into a room. They have changing rooms for us but we shared a changing room and there were clear glass walls. So that was kind of weird. Basically they gave us this picnic table looking towel to cover our nakedness. But by the end? We were just naked.

It was fun! A good ice breaker for me and Kristen. The led us into the sauna where there were 4 sirens just sitting there lounging around in bikinis and Kristen and I were super awkward. Then a lady came in and ordered us out. we laid down on this square marble thing in the middle of the room (me on one side, Kristen on another) and they rubbed us down with sandpaper. Then we went over to these old faucets and poured water on ourselves with these like dog bowl looking things. Then they washed us with soapy water.

And when I say that they washed us, I really mean that they went at like every part of our bodies. It was all women though so, while it was a little surprising, it wasn't uncomfortable. Then they led us into this other room and pointed to some stairs and at the top was a small pool! So Kristen and I just skinny dipped for awhile and tried to think of secrets to share but neither of us have very scandalous lives. It went on for awhile, us swimming and chatting and it was pretty peaceful. Then we got out and rinsed off. Then we found the water closet. These were squat toilets with doors like refrigerators. I'm not even going to try explaining that one. Anyway, then we were both just wandering around topless and we went into the dressing room and asked them for towels which they gave us. So we dried off and got our clothes back on and went out into the main area where they led us over to a salon type thing where we dried our hair. And one of the guys working there chatted us for awhile until our Turkish van driver came back!

afterwards in the salon area!

rocking the sneakers with skinny jeans and wet hair

Anyway, so that was my Turkish bath experience! I hope you all enjoyed!

After that we had food delivered to our hotel and hung out and slept until the next morning which was again filled with adventure! Stay tuned!

Istanbul, No! Constantinople!

Well I'm in Istanbul right now.

I haven't done anything yet besides get to my hotel and sleep.

I was feeling pretty sick coming off of the 15+ hours of travel without any decent sleep.

But now that I got like 11 hours I feel a bit better.

Istanbul seems pretty normal so far. Vaguely European and not as exotic yet as I had perhaps hoped. But today we will get out of the car and who knows what adventures are in store for us!

They lost my luggage. Trying to mime pulling a suitcase with the customer service lady who spoke very little English was quite frustrating but hopefully enough information was communicated that I can get it back tomorrow when I go back to head out for Uganda.

The guys at the hotel are nice. By which I mean the people who work here. Don't worry Mom I'm not hanging out with random guys! They tried to convince us that internet was 20 euros an hour.

But that was a joke. Its actually free. They were just trying to gauge how rich we were by our reaction. We were like 'that's expensive!" so we passed.

That's all I got for now.

Waiting to head out from Salt Lake! 

Words of Wisdom from my Home-Teachers

So I had a very long day today and was still on campus when my roommate called me to remind me that my home teachers were coming over. For any non-Mormons reading this, home-teachers are two random guys who live in your church congregation who are assigned to be your friends. They are supposed to visit every month and share a gospel message.

Tonight they made us hamburgers with mashed potatoes! Because 4 months ago at the beginning of the school year, we told them it was our favorite food! So that was kind of fun. Then we all sat around eating and talking and I asked them if they had any mission advice for me. It turned into a litany of mantras passed back and forth for about 30 minutes between the two of them. The advice they were giving was just too good to not write down. So here they are. Some are serious, some are funny. Some are blatant rip offs from famous people in authority.

-A clean apartment is a happy apartment.

-Buy your food together, and cook together. Don’t ever cook alone.

-You will cry.

-Don’t have a boyfriend while you are on your mission.

-Keep your heart locked and your windows open.

-Follow your gut instinct, 90% of the time it is the spirit and the other 10% is good practice.

-Look at people deep into their eyes until you see the child of god in them.

-Don’t brag about your accomplishments at home. Because nobody cares.

-Be obedient. Just don’t be good at being obedient.

-Be an animal not a robot.

-Be obedient, don’t force obedience on others.

-James E Faust once said “Faith is the power, obedience is the price, the spirit is the key, Christ is the reason, love is the motive of missionary work.”

-Charity never faileth—that’s a great motive. It never fails.

-Internalize chapters 3, 8 and 11 of preach my gospel.

-Use the scriptures. If you don’t, it’s like telling Nephi, no! I got this!

-Preach my gospel…that is the scriptures. Just kidding. That’s a joke.

-Respect your mission leaders. Don’t make their life a living heck like all the other sister missionaries.

-If you have a problem, first pray about it. Then talk to your companion before talking to any authority figure.

-Pray right after you shower. Otherwise you will fall asleep on your knees.

-This might sound crude, but enjoy any time in the shower or on the toilet because it’s the only time you are ever alone and don’t have some weirdo next to you.

-Pray out loud in the shower.

-Teach people, not lessons.

-Don’t follow your lesson plans exactly.

-Don’t look at your watch throughout the day.

-Don’t calculate at all. Just don’t calculate. You will go into spiraling depression.

-Don’t expect big things on holidays. Expect to cry on Christmas Eve.

-Don’t feel bad if you sneak out to watch the fireworks.

-If you need to, take a break and buy a bagel or something. Go to a bakery. It’s warm there.

-Remember obedience is the first law of everything and the difference between a 100% obedient missionary and a 90% obedient missionary is not 10%. Mind blown.

-Respect your senior companion. You will be a senior companion one day. And you will be grateful when your companion obeys you and submits himself to your will.

-Remember perfect worship of Christ is emulation. I have a poem I’d like to read now.

-Talk to everyone.

-Follow the spirit even if it doesn’t make any logical sense. The spirit defies logic.

-If you follow a prompting and it doesn’t lead anywhere, don’t lose confidence in your ability to follow the spirit.

-I think this counts as a lesson.

-Don’t ever think you’re smart. Like bible bashing? It’s bad.

-The biggest problem you will come across is not enemies of the church, but apathy. Yeah, yeah? (Fist-punch).

-Diligence is an outward expression of your love for the savior.

-Read chapter 4 and 6 over and over again and take the self-quizzes. At the end you can rate yourself for your Christ-like attributes and then you will have ratings. Like, yeah! I have a 6.7 charity! Man, my charity was always really low…

-Find ways to entertain yourself. My companion and I printed out a bunch of tiny pictures of ourselves and every time we went on exchanges we would just hide them all over their apartment. Last month at our mission reunion this other guy came up to me with a mini picture of me and said he found it in his wallet a week ago.

-One time, we decided to make a chocolate temple with these candy bars. So I made a foundation and brought it to district meeting and we sang ‘How Firm a Foundation” and I unveiled it and then Zach picked it up and broke the foundation.

-If you ever have a bad day, make crepes at night. Crepes are the best by far. They make you feel so good and they are so fun to make. We used to listen to the Wicked soundtrack while we made them. Now I know that whole thing in German.

-It’s good to have traditions with your companions.

-Take the time to be friends with the members, but make sure they still respect you as a missionary. Be a friend but not a buddy. Hahaha….leadership handbook. 

-On exchanges, always make a candle-lit dinner for your exchange companion. He will love you forever. And then he’ll say something really inappropriate.

-Don’t have P-day be the focus of your week…even though that’s impossible. But try.

-Celebrate P-day eve. IT’S THE BEST. P-day eve is the best day of the week.

-When you’re teaching people, don’t have your main motivation be to get them baptized but to help them.

-Talk to people as yourself from the heart, not just Preach my Gospel.

-Use object lessons. But KNOW what you are doing beforehand. Remember that one time…?

-Get the gospel art book. It’s the best. You’ll be so crave to look at images.

-Buy nutella, then make a crepe and wrap it ice cream. This is no longer mission advice. This is just life advice. 

I love my home teachers.

Life in a nutshell.

I've heard it said that if every person's problem's in the entire world were thrown into a pot and redistributed we would all be jostling to get our own problems back.

That's probably true.

But still.

Sometimes I get pretty fed up with myself and just wish that I could go hibernate or temporarily inhabit someone else's body or, I don't know, become a Tibetan monk or something.

Instead I'm moving to Africa next week.

I guess that's the next best thing?

To quote a poem I learned in elementary school:

I'm lost.
I've gone to look for myself.
If I should return before I get back,
Please ask me to wait.

I don't know a lot of things. Least of all myself.

For now all I can say is that I go to seek a great perhaps.

Moving Out

Hey friends,

So my freshman self would be shocked but I am actually SO SAD to leave Provo and move to Africa for the next couple months.

Ok, I'm not THAT sad about Africa, don't worry. I am way psyched to go back to Uganda and do development work. It's a dream come true. But it feels like the end of an era here. And it is. About 13 days after I get back from Uganda, I leave on my mission. How's that for mission prep? When I come back almost all of my friends will be gone and I will just be here on my own. Seeing as I have been with the same roommates for four years, that's pretty tragic.

But life goes on. It's just been stressful lately as I do prep work, analyze research from last summer and try to get my stuff all packed up to move it home this weekend. Not to mention saying goodbye to all the people I love.

I could go on and on about how crazy life is right now. But I'll stop. The point of this is that I'm pretty stressed but as I have been packing up I found a really cool quote on a stray piece of paper that I wanted to record before I throw it away.

Here it is:

"More than 100 years ago, Abraham Lincoln said that our nation could not exist half slave and half free. We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist one-third rich and two-thirds hungry."
 -Kennedy (I think!)

Just something to think about, guys.