recent activity

yall might be wondering... sean, what have you done lately? well here i am to answer that. one of my biggest highlights so far is beheading a chicken. i did this sometime last week i think. first i had to pluck the feathers around where i was going to cut. then i stood on its feet and wings and grabbed the neck. then i whipped out my pocket knife and sliced through its skin cartilage and flesh. with the head still in my hand i stepped off it as i watched it try to stand up and run away. it struggled to stand up, and when it did it tried to run, but it had a really hard time trying to balance. so it kept taking a few steps and falling down over and over. it made it about 10 to 15 feet away from the place of execution when it just started to flop on the ground, similarly to a fish. it was quite an experience and i hear that we are having chicken for christmas again..... look out chickens, here i come!!!! i have also been to another wedding and introduction since then. the wedding which was yesterday was much nicer/fancier than the last. the bride and everyone else was actually ready when it was supposed to start which isnt very common in africa. the ceremony took place in a huge octagonal church. the reception was at a very nice hotel. after a while of sitting through the long talk during the reception, a few guys snuck me out of there and into the bar to watch soccer with them... that was awesome and cara was mad that we left her there :P ... today i went with one of my best friends, moses babu, to his sisters introduction. his brother is very funny and is absolutely crazy for my type of music. he is very talkative and told me at least 500 times how glad he was that i came to join them for this. this introduction was also much more enjoyable thanks to moses translating much of the talking for me. it was during this that i found out that he has 9 sisters and 4 brothers... holy crap!!! but overall it was much more enjoyable to me. i cant wait to find out what this upcoming week has in store for me!!!

my role

so idk how much info leaked though and how many of you were wondering about one of my latest fb posts, but a few days ago i kind of had a break down. it all starts with the fact that i havent really had much/any responsibilities here, which is mainly due to the fact that everyone is on holiday. well a responsibility eventually came up and it was one of the things that i was told i would do. so i got excited, finally something to do!!! the people in charge of the ministry that i came here through (rtp (remember the poor)) wanted an "american" to go and meet with a minister and to relay information back about him and his ministry so that rtp could decide if they want to help support him. well they decided that cara would be better qualified than me (and i agree), but they also said that i was not even allowed to go along with her because if they see 2 white people they might assume that they "have it made." so when i heard that i would not be able to participate in this this made me very very upset. i realized that cara is more qualified than me to do pretty much everything, so i felt like i am going to be watching her be doing much of the stuff that i was sent here to do.
the second thing that made me upset is that i realized that all the money i raised for "ministry purposes" had been spent for me without me even being able to give any input as to what it went towards. correct me if i am wrong, but doesnt the person/people who raised the money decide how they want it to benefit the ministry. at least i know that it hasnt gone to waste. anyway i just felt very useless and was wondering why i was here and had a breakdown.
i am sorry that this has been so much of a downer so far, but since then i have been able to come to terms with my situation (with a huge help from david yee... thanks ;P). i realize that i am here to serve, and i need to be willing to serve in any way that is needed. i have also been able to have a "discussion" with pastor john and i/cara told him that i feel like i havent been able to serve, and would like more opportunities. i guess i am joining him tomorrow (i have no idea what we are doing) and i just have to hope that he creates/finds more opportunities for me to serve. but i realize that i will just have to make the best of the situation i find myself in. thanks for the prayers and the continuing support.

Something Interesting

hey so today i think that i will write about something interesting for a change. this is the story as far as i know (which isnt much). so there is this girl who is sponsored at the school who used to live with her grandmother. well apparently her grandmother died and her mother took her away from the school for a while to live with her in the village. well... her mom just dropped her back off early in the morning yesterday. she is about 3 years old and had a hard time getting along with the other kids. cara noticed this and decided to show her special attention and tried to help her. well we found out 2 things. the first is that she didnt know a word of english(which is normal cause you star to learn it when you are about 4-5) or a word of luganda. apparently she only knew her moms language. well the other kids kept trying to talk to her, but when she kept getting frustrated and tried to hit them. the second thing is that she was very sick (i think it was malaria) and cara took her to the clinic. well eventually they came back and she was still very upset and just miserable, so cara decided to take her home for the night. cara cared for her all night long, by feeding her, bathing her, and basically holding and showing love to her all night until they fell asleep.(that happened last night) well this morning i went to the school and found her in a much better mood and getting along better with the kids. had cara not done this for her she would probably still be the miserable little kid that she was yesterday. so basically i was touched by the love of God that cara displayed to this girl and i am very glad to have her in my life as a role model that i can look up to.

and i thought the introduction was boring.....

whats crackin my peeps...... ok so in america we all hate it when there is a road sign that says something like "construction ahead, single lane only"... well in uganda they have that too... unfortunately it is one lane for both directions.... lol... i thought that was very funny and unusual. so yesterday i went to a wedding.... at first i thought i was in luck... the wedding was supposed to start at 10 am. we left the house at about that time and we were just planning to maybe catch the end of it and go to the reception to hang out, chat, and eat. well.... we beat the bride there apparently. the bride showed up quite a while after we did and this was about noon or so. so we watched a wedding that was going on in the church while we were waiting for the one we were there for. then after everyone was ready, they preformed the ceremony along side another couple who was getting married. yeah very bizzare... and having 2 couples did not make it go any faster either. btw the entire thing was in luganda too. after the ceremony we visited pastor johns mothers house cause it was on the way and cause the reception wasnt ready yet or something. when we finally got to the reception we sat and did nothing for about an hour or so until the bride and groom decided to show up. there were no tables, and i somehow ended up sitting in the back by myself . i thought ok... they are probably going to say a few things, eat, cut the cake and then par-tay. well that is exactelly what happened, except for saying a few things took about 7 hours, and everyone was tired and wanted to leave as soon as they started to party. so overall i spent about 10-12 hours just sitting and listening to people talk in a language that might as well be gibberish to me. it was an interesting experience, and i am glad that i went, but honestly i give up on these ceremonies. i really am not going to go to another one unless i have someone there to talk to and to interpret for me. i am ready for the students break to be over so i can start actually doing some work. sorry for another not very interesting blog, but i hope to have some crazy experiences soon... btw i am having some major pizza and wings withdrawals. i really am losing sleep at night because of it... i mean what else do you think i am doing up at 2 am writing this? so if anyone wants to send me a pizza i would be all for that... aight!!!!! peace out

3 weeks

hey yall... tonight marks the end of the 3rd week that i have been here in uganda. first off i would like to address an issue.... as i post my blogs and updates on facebook i dont bother to bs about events or anything. i want to give it to you, my audience, as it really is. i try to look at the bright side of things, but sometimes it does not come out the way i intend it to. some of you have commented about me being so down on the introduction that i went to on saturday. i did not mean to come off as whining about how boring it was (the im never going to another introduction was actually inspired from pastor john himself who is sticking to that... and saying that was meant to be funny more than anything else).... but during the blog i was simply trying to point out how insanely different an african introduction is from what you would expect from an american ceremony. i did in fact have a decent time learning how different the culture really is. however it really was still very boring and uncomfortable having no idea what was going on. but all in all it was a good learning experience for me. so going from that story to today.... today was another introduction and being the great guy that i am, i thought i would give it another shot... however pastor john had such a terrible time at the last introduction that he refused to come to this one.... or any other introduction ever again. anywho... today was a much better experience. first off i rode in a car with mark, cara, and an elder.... riding with them helped so much cause who youre with in a car ride really makes all the difference.... last time i rode with just pastor john. he is a good guy..... but socializing with him is a whole different story. this trip we only stopped 2 times and one of the stops was to have lunch..... so far the trip was so much better... then when the ceremony started to take place, i started to tune out due to the lack of english... and so did mark. apparently i was one of the re-occurring subjects throughout the "discussion". it was very hot in the attire that i was wearing and with the sun shining directly on me i fell asleep just to wake up to everyone (about 100-150 people) looking and laughing at me. i tried to ask people what was going on... but i never really got a clear answer. all i really understood was that the brides family couldnt pronounce my name, so that is why everyone kept looking at me throughout.... but during the "discussion" i was able to beat marks high score on a snake game on our cell phones, and it took me 86 minutes and 7 seconds to beat a sodoku puzzle... but it was really hard and i didnt cheat... not that much at least.... but the "discussion" ended up being about4-5 hours long... then we finally ate and snuck out to leave at about 9 or 10 and we got back past midnight.... but i enjoyed this introduction much more...

Sunday... a day of rest... Monday... party!!!!

so some of you might have seen some of the latest pic i have put up on my facebook... those are from yesterday (sunday). on sundays we usually hang out and relax after church. cara, i and some of the boys who stay at pastor johns house thought that it would be a great idea to take advantage of the beautiful beach at lake victoria. there is a beach that is a few miles away that is possible to walk to, but the boys wanted to show us a better one that was a few more miles down the road. it was really cool and we all had a really good time. i tried to swim to an island that was off in the distance. the only problem was that as the shore got further and further away, the island didnt appear to get any closer, so after about 10-15 minutes of swimming i decided to start to head back. cara started whining and complaining about how worried she was of me... lol... anytime i ask her a question about what i should do she almost always replies "i dont know... im not in charge of you." yet somehow she always ends up trying to take charge... idk... girls are way too confusing. but after we were done swimming we played a bit of frisbee and soccer and just chillaxed till it got dark...
today was pretty cool. i went to the school for most of the day. because most of the children are going back home for holiday (which is like our summer break, but theirs is during the winter/now) they decided to have a christmas party now. so everyone was preparing for it all day long. mainly it was just a big/nice dinner for the kids, and loud music to dance to. so living here at the house, i get about the same foods for every meal, but at least i get a selection of about 4-5 items at each meal. the kids who live at the school get either rice and beans or posho (made from flour and water... like a blan piece of rubber) and beans for every single meal (and they eat the mangos off the trees at the school). this would be the equvilant of having spaghetti (without sauce or cheese) and meatballs with apples for every single meal..... think about that.... by the 3rd day of that you would be sick of it. well tonight the kids got a special treat. they got rice, matoke ( smashed and cooked bananas), irish (potatoes), macarone (spaghetti), spinach, beef, and chicken. it was really funny to see these kids eat huge mounds of food. these 3-8 year olds seriously ate over 2 lbs of food each (around here there is no problem with getting kids to eat their food.) it was lots of fun. then the kids danced for hours... they kept wanting me to dance, but i had to explain to them a few things... first it was not possible to headband to that type of music, secondly the only type of dancing i do is moshing, and finally i dont mosh alone/you wouldnt want me to anyway. but it was a great night...
as far as my actual work here... the majority of it is on hold until school starts up again which isnt until at least january. so mainly what i am doing right now is just getting to know the people around the school and a few computer things. however pastor john told me he wants me to teach "computers"(i know so vague) to a few people in a week or two. so we will see how that goes. oh and btw i might have to go to another introduction on thursday :(... lol i will have to hope that it is better than the last one..... alright... g2g peace out my homies!!!!

African introductions

alright where to begin this one..... so a few days ago.. pastor john asked me if i would like to attend an introduction with him. then he explained to me what that is. an introductions is a ceremony for a couple who is about to get married (within a few weeks). so we left at about 9 am to start this journey. we showed up at 10:30 at the place we were supposed to meet moses who is the um, groom to be and his family... there was no one. so we drove though downtown kampala for 2 hours and then went back. they were there this time. so we all packed up and drove some more towards where the ceremony was taking place, but on the way, somehow we realized that there was no soda, meat, and many other things that was needed. so about 6-7 stops and 8 hours later we arrived at the ceremony. the "bride to be"'s family was already there and sitting for i-have-no-idea-how long. so once we were finally seated they started talking through a mic and pa system. all that happened for about 2 hours was groups of guys and girls came out to the center, kneeled and answered questions from one of the guys from the brides side of the family. it was very boring cause they only spoke in lugandan. i was so bored that i started trying to throw the coffee beans that were on the table into my friend marks jacket, but he was tired and got pretty pissed off after about an hour of that. finally after that part of the ceremony the grooms side of the family(and friends which included me i guess) went out to the parking lot (if you could call it that) and brought in many gifts which included many fruit baskets, huge sacks of sugar and salt, and half of a dead cow(which i helped carry in). then they did some more boring stuff until we ate dinner, and about 30-45 min after dinner it was over and we left..... that is why i will hopefully never attend another african introduction again.

Living arrangements

nothing super interesting has happened lately, so i will take this blog space to tell you about the condition of my living arrangements. i started on this journey with out any expectations, and what i have is way on the other end of the scale. Johns house has a living room which is connected to a dinning room and a kitchen. there are 2 rooms and a bathroom on either side of the living room. john and esther live in one, i have one all to myself, cara has one to herself, and his kids sleep in the other. the other boys who live here live in the building right next to the house. my room has a nice tile floor and white walls/ceiling. before i moved my clothes and stuff in the room there was only a bed and a small fan in the room. the bathroom is very nice. similar to one you would find in america, but there are no drawers or cabinets, just a few shelves and tons of bugs. there is hot water, but it is currently not working, and that is fine with me and cara.... mmmmmm cold showers... fun. the boys who live here pretty much clean, cook, and watch tv all day. they clean my room, make my bed, and do my laundry, and i feel bad about it and tell them that they dont have to clean my room and that i will do it, but they insist. i really do feel terrible about it. i practically had to beg them to not clean my shoes, but they still do it anyway. they are really nice. so... onto the food. for breakfast i usually have tea, and a slice of bread with either butter or peanutbutter. lunch is usually posho (like a really blan rice-like material) and beans. dinner at the house is very nice though. there is always rice, chipote(thick tortilla), mashed bananas, potatoes, some meat (fish, beef, chicken), beans, and fruit. it is very very nice. there is electricity here and it is supposed to be all the time, but it goes off for a while every now and then, and so does the water. overall these people are very hospitable, and i am not suffering in the least bit, but i might be taking a trip to the farm, and living there for a bit.... that will be a different story... oh well gotta go to bed.. peace y'all