{"id":26,"date":"2015-07-20T12:33:36","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T12:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/?p=26"},"modified":"2015-07-20T12:33:36","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T12:33:36","slug":"welcome-muzungus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/2015\/07\/20\/welcome-muzungus\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome Muzungus"},"content":{"rendered":"

***Due to the lack of our internet, I have been writing these blogs in a word document and just now posting weeks later***<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After a few days in Kampala we finally arrived in Mpigi. On the afternoon of June 19th all East African fellows were greeted by a welcome ceremony in Mpigi. Around BanaPads headquarters many local men, women and children gathered to welcome us to their village. Everyone gathered in a circle and introductions began. However, due to the language barrier, it was not your typical \u201cmeet and greet,\u201d instead our introduction was dancing. They called it a dance competition, one American and one Ugandan danced in the circle together, until it was a new song and a new pair of people entered the circle, so one by one we each danced in the circle as we met a friend. When it was my turn I grabbed the hands of an elder woman and began to dance. Even though, we could not speak the same language we were able to communicate through dancing and her gentle smile. The days following I saw this women in the village and she acknowledged me with a large grin and a soft laugh, we exchanged the short words of \u201cJjebale\u201d (meaning hello), clearly remembering our dance meeting the other night. It is amazing the communication one can have without understanding the same language.<\/p>\n

After our dancing introduction the other fellows headed back to Kampala to start their adventures at their respective host enterprise. But for us (Gogo and I and the video team Paris and Shelby), we continued the dance the night away. The children were in awe of the foreign \u201cMuzungus\u201d (what Ugandans call all white people.) We thought that was the end of the greetings ceremony, but it was only part one.<\/p>\n

The next morning after enjoying breakfast it was time to kill the goat. In honor of our arrival, a goat would be prepared; it is tradition to kill a goat for special occasions and holidays and goat meat is usually a luxury. As we enjoyed our morning tea, we watched each step of our future meal preparation. After, the animal squealed and it took its last breath, the man who killed the goat looked up over to us and bluntly stated, \u201clife over.\u201d Needless to say, it an interesting way to begin our morning and it was gruesome to watch. Since its special to kill a goat, no part of the animal can be wasted. Therefore our breakfast included the liver, our lunch was other intestines, and dinner was BBQ. My first few bites of liver, I was unaware it was the liver and I was immediately unsettled when I realized it, I hope that is was my first and last experience of animal liver. However the BBQ was absolutely delicious.<\/p>\n

\"Gogo<\/a>

Gogo in awe of the goat killing<\/p><\/div>\n

\"IMG_1288\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Besides the language barrier (everyone speaks L\u2019Uganda) everyone is extremely friendly and welcoming and the children just want to play all day.<\/span><\/p>\n

BanaPads headquarters is located 30 minutes from the equator in Mpigi. Our accommodations are great; we are staying in the BanaPads guesthouse right at headquarters. We each have our own shower in our rooms but no hot water, our electricity is limited since it is based on a generator or solar energy, and the toilets a little hole in the ground, similar to an outhouse called a \u201cpit-lantry.\u201d I feel as if I am able to experience living in an authentic rural Ugandan Village and truly thankful for this opportunity!<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>

View of BanaPads guest house and Lake Victoria<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

***Due to the lack of our internet, I have been writing these blogs in a word document and just now posting weeks later***   After a few days in Kampala we finally arrived in Mpigi. On the afternoon of June 19th all East African fellows were greeted by a welcome ceremony in Mpigi. Around BanaPads … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"blatham","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/author\/blatham\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"***Due to the lack of our internet, I have been writing these blogs in a word document and just now posting weeks later***   After a few days in Kampala we finally arrived in Mpigi. On the afternoon of June 19th all East African fellows were greeted by a welcome ceremony in Mpigi. Around BanaPads…","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/brookelatham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}