Superman Gecko, a Slap on the back, and The God Rinse

Hi family,

We hope this update finds you well.  We have been busy here with classes the last few weeks and are so excited about all that we have been learning. Thank you to those who have written emails to us! We have loved hearing of what you are up to as well. Just because we are in Africa doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in your lives, so keep those emails coming!

So, as usual, we have had our share of excitement here.  The other day during our morning break, I decided to be brave and go use the latrine. I’m still not fond of the place, but hey, when nature calls you must go. Our block of latrines is up a path behind our hut. As I bravely tucked my toilet paper roll under my arm and walked up the path to the “hole” as our friend Devin calls it, I rounded the corner only to see a gecko do a “superman” off the roof of the latrines right at me. It all happened so fast. I was brave and then I wasn’t. I do have to give myself credit though that I did not scream. Yay for me. So, when Superman landed he landed on his back on top of my sandal at which point he wiggled at an incredible rate of speed to try and flip himself over and then ran into the nearest bush. I stood silent and still, turned and resolutely walked back to my room, toilet paper still under my arm, and sat down on my couch. Nature wasn’t calling anymore. Score one for the lizard, zero for Aimee.

As much as I try to bring humor to all of my bug encounters or animal incidents, some days the humor is more difficult to find. You should ask Chris, he could tell you that I have good days and bad days. For instance, one evening we were house sitting and were “relaxing” at their home when I noticed these large bugs that buzzed around and dive bombed like a wasp or large hornet might. I was having a bad bug day and was seriously on the verge of a breakdown but was trying so hard to chill out. Chris killed one of these creatures because he could tell I wasn’t going to be able to tolerate sharing the room with it. I decided to sit next to him and took a deep breath and was really trying to enjoy our evening in a home.

Then, once again, everything happened so fast, the remaining large creature dive bombed the curtain next to my hubbie and Chris lost sight of it. I didn’t. It was crawling quickly from my husband’s mid back up towards his neck. In my terror I made a choice. I had to save the man I love. I took my journal and slammed it down hard. The bug had to die, right? The look on my husband’s face was indescribable….he may have been thinking did you seriously just kill that bug on my back and hit me that hard?!  I thought I had acted bravely and then realized I just abused my husband in my bug panic.

Then I heard buzzing. It was coming from his now vacated chair and as I saw the bug fighting for life I cried out in a loud voice, “It’s not even dead!!!” Like that would have made my actions ok.  Chris began to speak to me but I burst into hysterical sobs. Literally, I totally lost my attempt at calm. Balled like a baby people. My husband being the amazing man he is took me in his arms and let me completely fall apart as I yelled my dislike for bugs. After I stopped crying and we were getting ready for bed, we did laugh about this, but it was one of the things that wasn’t at all funny at the time but a story that will be told around the dinner table for years to come.

My next story has nothing to do with bugs, unless you count the hairy caterpillar that took refuge in the door frame of our shower. He behaved himself however, so we won’ t talk about him much.  Let me first explain that Uganda has wet and dry seasons. We are now in a wet season and it is lovely. I adore rain and think that the rain here is one of the things I will miss most when I leave. It’s powerful and loud and rains for awhile once it starts. Sometimes it’s in the evenings after a hot day, and then other time we wake up to the sound of rain on the roof and it is a cozy and cool way to start the morning. I LOVE IT. 

Anyway, Chris and I try to take our showers in the evenings as then our mornings aren’t quite as hectic and you feel refreshed before going to bed after you’ve been hot and sweaty all day long. So a few afternoons ago, Chris took a shower first (remember these are outside for us and out of a bucket) and he made it inside right when is started to rain. He doesn’t like rain too much because he doesn’t like to get wet so this was lucky for him. Anyway, I thought to myself, well, I can wait and shower later in the dark with all the creepy crawlies or I can take my chances with the rain. I bet you can all guess what I chose.

So out the door I ran. First, I had to go to the place where we fill our jerry can with water. Up the hill and around the corner I went where Betty was cooking and watching me standing in the rain getting water. She thinks I’m so funny. Then back down I ran to the shower stall attached to our hut. It’s basically 3 concrete walls with no roof attached to the house. The rain was really starting to come down now. So I grabbed my stuff out of the house, Chris offered me the umbrella to rest in the corner of the stall to try to keep my towel dry, and off I went. I screamed twice, once when I saw the caterpillar, and the second time when my plastic box holding my clean clothes fell on my head.  No problem, really, I was fine.

Needless to say I was soaked through before I even started my shower. Trying to get wet clothes off is a chore and the stall is just the right size that the water was pouring off of our roof and off of the umbrella right onto my head. Now don’t get me wrong, I was enjoying this. It was crazy exciting and I thought, hey God, if this is how you answer my longing for running water than so be it. I will praise the Lord.

I must say the lightning towards the end freaked me out and although the umbrella kept my towel dry there was no way to dry off out there, the water was coming from all directions. So I put my wet soaked dirty clothes back on (putting a wet long skirt on was a task) and made a run for the door. I burst in and Chris calmly looked up at his dripping wife and said, “You’re a crazy woman.” I can be crazy, as you all know, but I was so full of joy. God knew I needed a rinse from Him and it was wet and cold and glorious. Thank you Lord.

That’s all for now, I have to go to class, but there are more stories to tell so I will write again soon.  Love you all and I pray that your day holds something joyful for you; a gift from His hand, like the rain here is for me.

With joy,

Aimee and Chris

A Corn Cob to the Chest, a Jigger and Body Types

So, the cravings for food have begun. If any of you feel the Spirit lead you, please go eat/drink  at ChikfilA, Starbucks, Subway, Pueblo Viejo, PF Changs, Boriello Brothers, Red Robin and/or anywhere that serves ice cream on a hot day in honor of the Haywood’s.  We greatly appreciate your participation.

Corn Cob to the Chest

So, last Monday, Chris and I went to our family group to work in the garden with them for the first time.  Uncle Rukundo, the family father, had to go to a meeting so we worked alongside two of his sons, Patrick and David. They had just harvested their maize (which looks like corn but is not) and needed to now clear the field in order to make room for planting again. So, we took our slashers (tools that look and are used somewhat like a golf club but are shorter and sharper and flatter) and got straight to work.  Ok, so let me try to paint you a picture. When slashing there are some warnings perhaps we should have been informed about before beginning.

One, skirts (required clothing for me as a woman here) tend to grab everything as you walk in the garden and provide a plethora of opportunities for jumping at the twigs and grass you thought for sure might be a spider or snake crawling up your legs. I’m happy to say neither were really crawling up my legs.

Two, and most importantly in my personal experience, is what we might call giving ample room between you and your fellow slashers. If you stand too close to the person next to you a few things can happen. God forbid the slasher hit you, but what I found mostly is that tall grassy weeds, dirt and other garden objects can come flying into your personal space at a high rate of speed unexpectedly. Now don’t get me wrong, getting “earth” on you while slashing is normal and actually evidence of proper technique; however, I was not prepared for what happened during my first gardening day.

Chris was to my left, David to my right, and we were all happily slashing away making really good progress when all of a sudden something hit my sternum bone with tremendous accuracy and what I will call OOMPH. I clutched my chest in shock thinking surely a rock had performed CPR on my chest when I looked down to see a bug eaten hardened maize cob laying in the dirt at my feet. David next to me looked afraid as he said, “Auntie, did that hit you?” I wanted to tell him that he should take up professional golf, but all I could do was laugh, very hard, at which he shyly joined in. Who gets hit with a maize cob right in the chest? I do.

A Jigger in the Foot

Now I’m so thankful to the Lord that this next story involves my husband and not me. Please forgive me for saying that God, but I’m glad he was the one to bear this burden.  God knows who can handle what. So, a jigger is a bug. You get them, I have been told, from the dusty dirt. Well we often walk on dusty roads, but also were in the garden the day before. Chris and I were sitting one evening talking and he was running his finger on the bottom of his foot and he felt a small bump and said it felt sore. Immediately I assume bugs because, well, that is the natural paranoid reaction right? So, our dear friend Betty who lives here took a look and said Yep, she thought it was a jigger but would look at it in the morning light. In the morning light it still looked like a jigger so she got straight to work doing surgery on Chris with a safety pin. So I’m usually fine with this type of stuff and what I mean is helping people and cleaning them up and bandaging them. I found out though that when it involves a living bug that has burroughed its way into my husband’s foot and created a white egg sac that completely surrounds the bug and has to be removed ever so carefully so the egg sac doesn’t burst inside the skin was enough to get my gag reflex going. I was fine until they were carefully squeezing it out of his skin and a perfectly shaped white ball came out. The bug and egg sac were thrown in the fire, I stopped taking pictures and went to have a moment alone. I know, wasn’t my husband the one who should be disturbed and need prayer over this? Maybe, but my husband is a stud and was not too phased. Plus all the Ugandans and staff here told him he's "official" now that he can say he has had a jigger. I’m happy to report his foot was barely sore and he is doing fine. I on the other hand am still a bit disturbed.

Body Types

I must give a disclaimer that the following would never happen in the United States of America. Never. So, I’m trying to walk through our dining hall in the middle of the day during a break from class and I get stopped by two of my Ugandan women classmates. Without asking my permission, they whip out a measuring tape, you know the kind that seamstresses use? Before I knew what was happening to me they had the tape around my waist and were holding it and studying it closely. Then they both smiled and were speaking very fast in Lugandan and then one slapped the other on the arm and said, “Ah, can you imagine?!” Then the tape dropped and they looked like they were wanting to measure my hips but I think perhaps the look of horror mixed with a smile on my face made them think twice. I walked away and was told by one of my Ugandan friends here that my body type is very attractive and that they were measuring me because they were admiring my figure. I have had a few women come up to me and tell me that I am very beautiful and that my figure is of a most desirable type. They could be lying but I’ve heard that from a few other people too, so I am choosing to go with it and feel like a babe during my time here. It’s my time people!  It’s my time! Chris is a lucky man!

There was so much more I wanted to share, but I am tired and exhausted from all that God has been doing. I hope to write more about all that we are learning very soon. For now, I needed to have a good laugh so I hope you did too. God is good and really is doing a transforming work in our lives. We can’t wait to come back and share all we are learning with you all!  Oh, and feel free to write us emails or make comments on the blog! We enjoy so much hearing from people at home. And feel free to send some chocolate. Just kidding. (No I'm not.)

Love you!

Aimee & Chris