It was the midpoint in the semester, just as students were
starting to feel a little weary of the school assignments that have been piling
up, and most of us felt ready for a change of pace. With the late nights spent
writing midterm papers finally behind us, we piled into two vans early on a
Friday morning for the five hour drive to Kapchorwa in eastern Uganda. Our
target departure time was 8:30am sharp, so keeping time was important, but once
we’d all settled into the vans and taken off down the road, we took off our
watches, put away our phones and relaxed into life with a very different sense
of time.
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| The vans rolling out of the UCU parking lot |
Each student was dropped off at a home somewhere along the
road between the village of Sipi and Kapchorwa town. As with the Mukono
homestay drop offs, no one was exactly sure what to expect from this week spent
living with strangers in a new village, so the vans were filled with a little nervous excitement and a lot of hope for the best.
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| Molly and her host sisters carry her things to their home |
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| Zachary meets his Kapchorwa mama |
And with that, rural homestays began. A week of making new
friends…
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| Geralyn with her host mama |
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| Julia with her baby brother Simon |
Learning to cook and make juice...
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| Kat helps her family prepare a meal |
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| Alexis makes passion fruit juice during a visit to Kat's Kapchorwa home |
Learning to milk cows...
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| Kendra learns to milk a cow |
Getting the full coffee experience...
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| Kat helps her family harvest coffee berries |
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| Jansen serves coffee that he helped harvest, pulp, roast and grind |
Helping out around the compound...
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| Laura helps sweep her family's compound |
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| Sam sorts peas while hanging out with his twin sisters |
Helping to carry water...
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| Louise takes a jerrycan down the road to get water for her family |
Hosting the staff when they came for visits...
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| Julia pours tea for the staff during a visit |
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| Katie and her host sister "give a push" to the staff after a visit |
And, of course, enjoying the stunning scenery of Mt. Elgon!
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| Jessica and her host mama during a hike to a nearby waterfall |
The week came to an end much too fast, but each student left
with yet another valuable experience that will stay in their hearts forever.
To debrief the events of the week we stayed at
the Crow’s Nest, a lodge in Sipi, which has arguably the most spectacular view in
the world. (We're not biased!) Overlooking a beautiful green valley and the gorgeous Sipi Falls, it
was the perfect spot to catch up with each other, discuss the questions we had
about the week, fill up on delicious food, hike to three different waterfalls and
just soak in the beauty of the glorious hills.
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| Morgan gives us a pep talk before we leave for the debrief hike |
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| Students stop on the top of a hill while the fog rolls in |
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| Students take a rest under a waterfall during the hike |
We ended our time with a Sunday morning worship service at
the top of the hill – a beautiful way to stop and remind ourselves of God’s
presence after a week of learning to love the world around us with big hearts
and open minds.
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| Julia leads us in prayer on Sunday morning and shares some insights she gained from the week |
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| The view from the hilltop during our worship service |
