SOME OTHER PERSONAL REFLECTIONS FROM BUDUMBULI VILLAGE...

Helping Hand...
And she let me help. It was kind of the idea – the purpose of the home visit in the village – to get me, the student, involved in the day in and day out. But she really let me help. I was given a shot at skinning the pineapple. I helped chop much of the succa and dodo (greens) and shopped entire cabbage the Ugandan way. Food preparation is extensive. There is so much that needs to be done to put a Ugandan meal on the table (or rather on the floor). And she allowed me to be a part of every step of the process – pineapple through dishes. Mama Lukia continued to thank me for my work, tell me I was doing a good job and that I had “learned”. She was very excited and genuine in all of her compliments. Somewhere in the middle of the cabbage, however, it occurred to me...if Mama Lukia was doing it by herself (since only one person could be chopping at once) it would have been done so much faster and better. Regardless of the fact the goal was my participation, for me to be a part of it, a small piece of me was amazed by how much she let us (I was with a partner who was in this case my professor, Deb) do. Let me do. She let me help. It reminded me not so much of the culture of Uganda, but the culture of God. The fact that God doesn’t need me. Actually, he never has. He would be so much more efficient, much more successful, intensely better off if I wasn’t involved. I mean, I get the job done...even if I slice my finger and get a blister. I sort of can do the task at hand – but not like God does. And still he lets me help. Asks me to be part of his day in and day out life. Something tells me he takes the same joy Lukia did in the fact I am “learning”. He doesn’t need me but He wants me and He’s going to be with me every step of the way.

Beautiful Feet
Isaiah 52:7, Romans 10:15
The seemed to take pride in their shoes. They loved their shoes. But I was awed by their bare feet. Their dusty, dark, brown, bare feet. The way in which they so easily walked around on the hard ground without their shoes. Strong and hard they took on the world. I thought they were beautiful. I have on mermaid green toenail polish. My toes are gross and always painted and I decided on something a little more eccentric for my time in Uganda. Margaret saw them. She pet my toes gently and looked at me and smiled. “You have pretty feet”. Suddenly all I could think about was this incredible verse in Isaiah (and quoted again by Paul in Romans) noting the beauty of the feet who carry the news of the Lord. Instantly I wanted desperately to be one of those people and I pray, despite my lack of missionary status on this trip, to have beautiful feet in God’s kingdom too. To live a life which continually proclaims “God is Lord!”

Some other Notes
- Despite my desire to be culturally sensitive, my first instinct was to what was natural for me. I was given extra space to spread my legs...but I really wanted to cross them...that was what was comfortable. Comfortable was my first instinct, but comfortable isn’t always best...
- A lesson is to be learned from the mundane of life. To go day in and day out with dignity and resolve is not only commendable but a contentment like I can’t understand
- Lukia was focused intensely on the inside of her house. For as much as she wanted us to see every nook of the inside, she excluded the outside. We spent the entire day in doors. She seemed almost proud of the inside of her house – at least in comparison to the out. What an incredible thought...to endeavor towards forcing others to focus on the reality of your inside...