Outreach to a Rural Village

So I went to a rural village in the outskirts of Lugazi where I live. A lady from the church I attend is part of an organization that goes around and helps different schools and she wanted us to come with her. She never gave us any details, we thought that we were just going there to have a look at the school and discuss what we can help them with in the future. When we got there, they had the cute kids put on a program for us. They sang and had little dances and solos to go along with it. After that, we went on the tour of the school grounds. It wasn't much of a school but they had some buildings where they held classes and we could see some areas where we could maybe help them. After that, the guy turned to me and said, "Okay, lets get to work." I was handed a machete type thing and told to go cut down bushes and grass. We were going to clear out this whole field. While I was being a lawn mower, other people were put to work getting water and cutting down some trees. After that, we went to lunch. They brought us some bananas, sugar cane, and Jack fruit. While we were eating, they came and informed us that they were expecting us to teach them after lunch. :) Funny huh, so we got some lessons together about sanitation, Business, composting. By the end of lunch, almost all there village was there, well it seemed like it. They had us sit in front with all the leaders of the village and then the kids sang again (the same songs). Then they just started to dance. The crowd was going crazy. The ladies were doing this crazy yell and laughing. Then they started to pass these scarf looking things that they were wearing around there waist to us. Which meant we went up. When we were up there, the crowd went even more wild!! It was so funny!! After that, they had so many speakers get up there and speak to everyone and after that, they fed us. It was cute, they walked around and washed our hands and then the children would come and kneel down and hand us the food. The food was called Casava and it had beans in there with it. It really wasn't that bad but it was a huge portion and I just couldn't eat it!! After lunch, we got up there and taught the people. I'm not to sure how they took everything but they thanked us, took pictures with us and then we left.
There have been so many different experiences like this. I love these experiences because I learn so much about there culture and the way they are and what they believe!!
Oh and another cool thing is that I ran a half marathon last Sunday. A couple of people and I just decided to on Saturday night. It was a last second thing. So we left at 5:30 in the morning caught a taxi finally found the place to run, they let us register even though it was closed and then we ran it!! YAY. Well my time is up. I better go!!

Tifanee Miller