Today was a much needed rest
day.
Many of our group headed into
Kampala for the day but since some of us did that last weekend, we got to stay
and rest for the morning.
It was a
beautiful morning and we were able to catch up on sleep, reading, and email.
At mid-day I met up with the special ed immersion group to
help them with some of their deliveries.
Over the past week they have been working with a number of children with
disabilities in both Mukono and Lugazi.
They have worked tirelessly to create two walkers from scratch and also provided
wheelchairs to two students and clothing and food and toys to other families. I was able to go for several food and
clothing deliveries and one of the walkers.
The walker we delivered today was for Jordan who is one year old and has
yet to walk to talk. Bethany and Lauren sized up the seat for the
walker and then sewed it in just a few minutes.
It was so amazing to see Jordan begin to jump around and use his legs
within just a few minutes of being in the walker!
It was a heart warming and sobering experience to visit
these families.
Children with
disabilities are often poorly taken care of because their families don’t have
the means or knowledge.
Often the
parents were so thankful and happy that we were able to help in some small
way.
We delivered some clothing and food
to Juliette who is HIV positive and currently has malaria.
We also delivered a dress to Daphne who was
almost murdered as a child because one of the neighbors believed in child
sacrifice.
She suffers the loss of her
left hand and some severe scarring.
 |
| Meal preparation |
 |
| This is a cooking banana |
We had to rush back to UCU to pick up Michael and Aino as we
had a dinner event.
We were hosted by Steven and Margaret Ssenyonjo for a traditional Ugandan meal and were able to learn about the
process of preparing it.
Most Ugandans
cook outside or in a room separate from the house because it generates so much
heat.
Most people here use charcoal
stoves for cooking food but sometimes they also use wood because it gets hotter. I learned a lot about bananas today! We've seen huge bunches of green bananas and also eaten a lot of yellow bananas; I assumed the green ones eventually turned yellow. However, today I learned that the green are matoke or "cooking" bananas. These are the ones they mash up and cook to make matoke, which is a starchy side dish served at most meals. The yellow bananas come from a different tree and are called "eating" or sweet bananas.
 |
| matoke cooking on the charcoal stove |
Ugandan food is pretty easy to eat gluten free. There is often a base of matoke or rice or both. Then there is some kind of other starch or vegetable-steamed pumpkin, cassava, sweet potatoes, chipati, etc. There is often some kind of meat stew made with beef, chicken, or pork. Finally there is almost always fruit-pineapple, watermelon, or mango are the most common but passion fruit, avocado, or papaya are frequently used as well.
Today was a much needed rest
day. Many of our group headed into
Kampala for the day but since some of us did that last weekend, we got to stay
and rest for the morning. It was a
beautiful morning and we were able to catch up on sleep, reading, and email.
We had to rush back to UCU to pick up Michael and Aino as we
had a dinner event. We were hosted by Steven and Margaret Ssenyonjo for a traditional Ugandan meal and were able to learn about the
process of preparing it. Most Ugandans
cook outside or in a room separate from the house because it generates so much
heat. Most people here use charcoal
stoves for cooking food but sometimes they also use wood because it gets hotter. I learned a lot about bananas today! We've seen huge bunches of green bananas and also eaten a lot of yellow bananas; I assumed the green ones eventually turned yellow. However, today I learned that the green are matoke or "cooking" bananas. These are the ones they mash up and cook to make matoke, which is a starchy side dish served at most meals. The yellow bananas come from a different tree and are called "eating" or sweet bananas.
Ugandan food is pretty easy to eat gluten free. There is often a base of matoke or rice or both. Then there is some kind of other starch or vegetable-steamed pumpkin, cassava, sweet potatoes, chipati, etc. There is often some kind of meat stew made with beef, chicken, or pork. Finally there is almost always fruit-pineapple, watermelon, or mango are the most common but passion fruit, avocado, or papaya are frequently used as well.
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