Rural Homestays in Kapchorwa

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.

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.

Molly and her host sisters carry her things to their home

Zachary meets his Kapchorwa mama

And with that, rural homestays began. A week of making new friends…

Geralyn with her host mama

Julia with her baby brother Simon

Learning to cook and make juice...

Kat helps her family prepare a meal

Alexis makes passion fruit juice during a visit to Kat's Kapchorwa home

Learning to milk cows...

Kendra learns to milk a cow

Getting the full coffee experience...

Kat helps her family harvest coffee berries

Jansen serves coffee that he helped harvest, pulp, roast and grind

Helping out around the compound...

Laura helps sweep her family's compound

Sam sorts peas while hanging out with his twin sisters

Helping to carry water...

Louise takes a jerrycan down the road to get water for her family

Hosting the staff when they came for visits...

Julia pours tea for the staff during a visit

Katie and her host sister "give a push" to the staff after a visit

And, of course, enjoying the stunning scenery of Mt. Elgon!

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. 

Morgan gives us a pep talk before we leave for the debrief hike

Students stop on the top of a hill while the fog rolls in

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.

Julia leads us in prayer on Sunday morning and shares some insights she gained from the week

The view from the hilltop during our worship service