Buloba Campus...Its Official!

Yesterday was the official grand opening of GBI's new campus in Buloba!

Even though I have been there many times before, the event really solidified it all for me. Once again I was blown away at the provisions that God gives us...and how beyond our belief his provision is!

The campus has progressed far since we purchased it last year...it has flushing toilets, electricity, new paint, new tile, a kitchen, dorms...and sooo much more!

We celebrated with our local police, the prime minister of UG, the head of the Higher Education accreditation board, founders, donors, staff, students and many more.

I can not wait to see what GBI looks like next year at this time...or even in 5 or 10 years! God is doing great things here and I am thankful that He allows me to be a part of it!

(Pics to come next week some time :)

I can READ!!

Today in my Luganda class I read a 96 page luganda book...Impressive right?!

Now before you get tooooo excited for me, I will let you in on a little secret...

All the pages looked like this:

haha...but you know what?

I don't care! I can still read!!!

Hehe!

Who Wants to be a Millionaire...

UGANDAN STYLE...

I am learning more and more about Uganda now that I have access to Ugandan TV Channels and to my surprise I now know that their is a Ugandan Version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire...

As a result of my new knowledge, I now have a few questions...

1.) Can I go for a taping....?!? How fun would that be right?!

2.) If so...where is this taping?

3.) And how do I go about getting my pale behind a few tickets?!

If you are reading this and you know the answers to my questions, let me know :)

It's Science People...

I opened my SEALED, Snap lid container of rice today and to my surprise...some of my little friends had sneaked in. I'm still stumped at how they managed to get into the supposedly airtight containers but don't worry...that wasn't my scientific revelation!

I went through a now common exercise of sifting the bugs out of my rice, poured my 2 cups of rice into my pan, then did another little visual check for any unexpected visitors. I found a few and removed them and then added my 3 cups of water...and... to my surprise I learned a very important scientific fact...

Not only do dead PEOPLE float,

BUT

So do DEAD bugs :)

I found 5 floaters after my addition of the good ol' H20 and thought to myself...gee...if I would have know this fact earlier, I wouldn't have had to go through the pain of sifting!

I think next time I find friends in my rice, I am just going straight for the drowning/floating method, after all, its fast AND effective!

Till next time....

Yeah!!! I'm NOT stupid!

So remember how I wrote on my facebook page that you should pray for me because I had a Luganda exam...Well...I have had a few now and at first I was really starting to feel stupid every time I got my papers back. The thing I couldn't figure out was why everyone was telling me I did great when I thought I did so poorly...

It wasn't until one of my friends clarified it for me..."You do realize they grade on a British scale and not an American one right?"

Me: Yeah...but what is the difference, I don't get it?!...Well it took a few days and my curiosity got the best of me, let me say I am so thankful to the Internet for clarifying it for me!!

My test scores so far:

64% & 74%

But in the British scale,

70% and above is an A (4.0)

60-69 % is a B+

55-59% is a B (3.0)

50-54% is a C+

40-49% is a C (2.0)

and

39% and below is an F...

NOW I don't feel so bad...but do you see why I was so confused in the beginning! haha! Yeah for good grades!

Spanglish...

In Cali we have the term "Spanglish" and it is a nice way of saying you are are speaking Spanish and English at the same time....half your sentence may be in Spanish with a few words of English thrown in...

I was reminded of Spanglish today when I was in my Luganda lessons and we were talking about "Luganda-nizing" English words that we do not have in Luganda. Right now, I am definitely use a lot of "Lugand-glish" for the simple fact that I dont have enough Luganda words in my working memory...BUT I have to say, the Lugandanizing of English words makes me kinda happy...

1.) It gives me less to memorize and

2.) It tricks me into thinking I understand more Luganda than I really do!!

SOOOO...here are some of our Lugandanized English words...

Try and see if you can figure out what words they are :) I will put the answers at the bottom (but don't cheat and peek before you try and figure it out for yourself :) After all, it will be more fun that way :)

1. Ssaati

2. Kkooti

3. Laadiyo

4. Bbaasi

5. Bayibuli

6. Ssikaati

7. Mmotoka

8. Bulangiti

9. Ttivvi

10. Pulofeesa

11. Zzipu

12. Mayiro

13. Ssiniya

14. Apo

15. Eggiraasi

16. Pulezidenti

SO...how did you do?! haha! Did any of those look like English to you??? Let me assure you, they sound more like English than they look when they are spelled...

In case you couldn't quite figure out what these words were, here are the answers! I would love to hear how many you got right...

1. Ssaati = Shirt

2. Kkooti = Coat

3. Laadiyo = Radio

4. Bbaasi = Bus

5. Bayibuli = Bible

6. Ssikaati = Skirt

7. Mmotoka = Motor car

8. Bulangiti = Blanket

9. Ttivvi = T.V.

10. Pulofeesa = Professor

11. Zzipu = Zipper

12. Mayiro = Mile

13. Ssiniya = Senior

14. Apo = Apple

15. Eggiraasi = Glass

16. Pulezidenti = President

Reality Check...

The longer I live in Africa the more I come to realize what close minded views people have of this continent...

When I say I live in Africa, many people imagine me in the middle of a National Geographic Photo shoot, hunting wild animals, crossing large deserts or sitting in the middle of a slum full of kids with runny noses and swarming flies...

I realize that this view that people have comes from the images they see on television, or read in story books...and unfortunately I find that american TV, books, and even the education fall way short on giving us an accurate picture of what the rest of the world is really like...

SO...here is a little bit of a reality check aimed at giving you a small picture of what we have in Uganda and some of the things I enjoy that most people can't imagine I have access too...

In UG we have:

• TVs...and not just small ones, we have nice big flat screen ones...
• We have DSTV
• with MTV,
• E! Entertainment
• and all the other channels you may enjoy in the US
• We have tabloid newspapers...and yes, they are just as ridiculous as the ones in the states
• We have a movie theatre
• A bowling alley
• And a small roller skating rink
• We also have a paint ball field
• White water rafting
• and Bungie Jumping...but if we are being honest, I would never jump...no matter what country I was in!
• We have coffee shops
• with Iced Mochas, Lattes
• and sweets to munch on
• We use cell phones,
• and have internet access through blackberries and iphones.
• We also have traffic...lots of it...and personally I think its worse than the 405 morning drive
• During the week, you will see business women and men in their business suits
• carrying laptops and
• sitting in cafes, having important business meetings
• We also have shopping malls
• Food courts
• Elevators
• and fancy restaurants
• We have spa's
• Swimming pools
• local celebrities
• and Five star hotels
• We also have Two story houses
• Dogs and Cats as pets
• and Ice Cream shops
• You can find Pringle potato chips in our stories (on most days)
• along with twix candy bars
• and oreo cookies
• We also have pizza parlors,
• Chinese food
• A sushi restaurant
• and a beauty parlor that does eyebrow threading, mani's and pedi's
• We have banks,
• ATM machines
• Fireworks on New Years
• and Night clubs
• We have motorcycle cops
• Police cars
• and highways
• Our cars have radios,
• CD players,
• and air conditioning
• English is our national language
• and Uganda is a country, making Africa a CONTINENT
• We have lakes,
• Mountains,
• and Valleys
• And despite what you may think...Uganda is generally green year-round
• We have great weather (ranging from mid 60's to mid 90's depending on the time of year)
• We have car dealerships
• Auto repair shops
• and photo studios
• We have mormon missionaries in black trousers, white shirts, black ties and name tags, just like the USA
• We also have Jehovah witness temples,
• Mosques
• Catholic Churches
• and a variety of protestant churches
• We have universities offering Phd's
• MA's
• and BA's
• And, just like in the US, people in UG spend absurd amounts of money on their weddings

I am sure there are more things I haven't mentioned but well...If I tried to kill all the stereotypes that people hold about Africa in one blog, that blog might be a few miles long...

I hope this gives a clearer picture of life though, and just how much Uganda really has to offer!