Anniversary Month
Once upon a time...
Issue V // November 2022
In November 2021, I finished organizing my home, packing up my things and putting them into storage, selling my car, quitting my job, and saying my goodbyes to friends and family. I have reached one year in Uganda now, and I'm soon coming to one year for our wedding anniversary as well. As you can all imagine, this year has been a multitude of "firsts" and new starts - new country (not new to visit, but new to live), new home, new food, new transportation, new languages, new friends and family. Sam's family has wonderfully welcomed me, and I've been very happy to add a new mother, father, 10 siblings with their 3 spouses, and one nephew. We have our monthly family meetings, and it's a great occasion to hang out and catch up on how our lives are going.
I didn't know that time could pass as quickly as this. When the seasons have wavered back and forth between rainy and dry for the past 12 months, it's hard to imagine that a winter, spring, summer, and autumn have already passed in the Pacific Northwest. I feel like we haven't left the spring/summer period yet, and the year cannot end without winter... but it will. Christmas will be warm and bright and green again - but not because of fireplaces and decorations all over and evergreens, it's just our weather and foliage. This weather is likely more suited to the temperatures that Jesus Christ was born into, but it's vastly different than the December 25th I have grown up with. I have adjusted to new holidays: no Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July is just another day in July, Labor Day and Memorial Day are also just dates on the calendar. Instead, October 9th is the time to celebrate independence, and we write success cards for the school candidates' final exams this month since the school year is ending (candidates = those who are graduating primary and secondary school).
In my earliest post, I wrote that cultural differences weren't having any major effect on our marriage, and it's still true up to now. The main differences are just personalities and priorities. We both came to our marriage with expectations - some have been met, others not, and we're adjusting. We're navigating this new life together, and really enjoying it! {At least, I'm enjoying it, we will ask Sam how he feels about it too} One thing that has helped us grow closer is actually the differences in other people's viewpoints around us. People have their ideas for how our marriage should look, but as we have those interactions, it gives us a chance to refocus our relationship on what we know is important and move forward together. I know it's only been one year together as husband and wife, yet sometimes it seems like we've been together for a decade. Living on a different continent has made me rely on Sam in ways that I didn't expect - things like shopping in the market, how to handle situations with different people, learning who to trust and where to keep my distance. After a year here, there are still social situations in which I feel lost, and not only because the people around me are speaking a language I don't understand. In a way, I'm thankful that I'm experiencing those difficulties now, so that I will understand what Sam will pass through when he meets my people on the other side of the world.
Last year, I was a nurse. This year, I've become a "midwife-ish" (even with a solo home birth), counselor, art teacher, worship team leader, accountant assistant, church projectionist, and, according to some people on the YWAM base, a "bishop." 😅 I have expanded my knowledge of both Luganda and Lusoga (and also some Swahili), and I'm excited to learn more since I borrowed a friend's Peace Corps Luganda lesson book. I am still not a great cook, and I don't know how to make many of the local dishes. The two most common questions I get after local people learn that I married a Ugandan man are: Can you mingle posho (meaning "can you mix and prepare this ground corn meal") and can you make matooke (plaintains)? And my answer to both is no. The third most common question is "Can you dig?" and then they laugh when I respond that I can, in fact, dig in the dirt with a shovel and a hoe to plant things, and they tell me that there is no way I can do it - Westerners don't dig. I have often broken people's misconceptions of how they expect Westerners to behave. And sometimes they don't believe me that America is not actually how it looks in movies.
DECEMBER 2022
I had truly written that first post in November. And now the draft has sat untouched for over a month. Our one year anniversary has passed, as has Christmas. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and I'm hoping that the electricity won't turn off this weekend, as it has multiple times over the last week. This has truly been a time of celebrations, maybe to make up for the slow season last year. We were still within our one month honeymoon time in 2021, and no one was supposed to contact us. And that was definitely the quietest Christmas season I've had, even more so than the years when I would be scheduled to work through the 25th at the hospital. I'm getting used to hosting parties at our place, though the 2-room house means everyone has to shift outside. We've had girls baking evenings and hangouts, a bridal shower, baby shower, birthday, anniversary dinner, and now two Christmas parties at our place. The house is feeling more and more like home.
As 2022 comes to a close, I feel like I don't even have much more to write about. I've really had to slow down since coming to Uganda, and my life moves at a different pace, in different ways. I miss the freedom I had to move around in America - I had a car, I could take off to the mountains or the beach at any hour, I could go downtown and walk the bridges around the river... but it's not that simple here. With the increase in violence around this area, everyone discourages me from moving around on my own. And now, with the base closed for the season, and taking time off of volunteering at the hospital when Sam had his accident and then for the holidays, my activities involve more home time and going with Sam to the church and his work. But the limitations give me more time to think, to reflect, to plan. I didn't come to Uganda with any set plans other than our wedding, and I've just been winging it as the months pass. As we pass over into 2023 though, I hope to be much more intentional with the volunteering and the ministries. With every month that goes by, we are somewhere closer to Sam's visa being accepted, so we don't know how much longer we have here. I want to make it all count, and to set things in place that will run smoothly with other leaders when it's my time to step out. My first resolution: be more proactive in getting this blog updated at least once a month.
Til next time, peace out!
P.S. My parents have sent money to help us buy a motorcycle, so as I'm getting more comfortable with riding it, that will be a great help in expanding my horizons!
P.P.S. Holidays got busier, so it's now February as I'm adding these photos and finally going to post it. Enjoy!
Photos:
As we boarded the boat to set off for our 1.5 hour journey from the island, we were joined by a chicken, a goat, and (we only learned after we disembarked and saw it being unloaded) a huge large-horned cow!!
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