What do Polygamy, Homosexuality, and Shorts all have in common?

What do Polygamy, Homosexuality, and Short Shorts all have in common? They are all major cultural differences between life in America and life in Uganda.

So why start with Polygamy and Homosexuality?
Every time I hear someone talk about his "wives" or "your other wife", I get completely caught off guard. This has probably been the most shocking cultural thing to me! Me being naive in my own little bubble I thought polygamy was illegal world wide. NOPE! One of the teachers at the school even told me that since the population of women is so much higher than the population of men (due to war) it is good that Uganda allows polygamy. I have no idea if that is true.. but still I am completely shocked! One of the workers at the school even has a second wife in the village... he has his "city wife" that also works at the school and he has his "village wife". So why do I write about all of this????? My shock at the open discussion about polygamy is how Ugandan's feel about how we openly discuss homosexuality. In Uganda, it is absolutely illegal in any way, shape or form to be gay. Most Ugandan's are equally shocked about our openness to discuss homosexuality in America.

Short Shorts????
In America, everyone wears their shorts and allows their thighs to show when it is hot outside. In Uganda, it is no problem if your bra or even a women's full chest shows.. but you MUST NEVER allow someone to see your thighs! I had Teddy & Phoebe (two older girls in their 30's that are orphans and still stay at the school) over to watch High School Musical 3. The second the movie started I thought... oh no there are lots of thighs showing in this movie..... And sure enough about half way through Teddy commented about how short the girls shorts were and that it was really bad!

Blowing on Hot Food
I think I have mentioned this one before... but blowing on your hot food is considered extremely rude! It basically is looked at as rushing and therefore rude. I never realized how often I do it, until I found out it was culturally unacceptable!

Last one for now... Freedom of Speech
One thing I am thankful for is our freedom of speech in America. Even though Uganda is a democracy, people are not free to discuss whatever the please, ESPECIALLY about the president. It is illegal for any news stations to say anything negative about the president, and it is illegal for government workers to speak negatively about the president. I asked someone what they thought about Musevani, and they basically just declined to answer out of fear of potentially losing their job.

So why am I sharing all of these cultural differences on my blog?
My blog is not only my way of keeping in touch with all of you, but it is also my way of journaling about my time here. All of these cultural differences are things I have had to wrestle with while being here. Lately, the discussions on polygamy and homosexuality have become a regular conversation with my neighbor and she was the one who enlightened me about how Ugandan's are also shocked by culture in the Western World.

On to the Week
This week has been really great. There was finally a break in the heat and I was able to wear a sweater for part of the day today! SO THANKFUL! I think it is easier to describe the week in pictures, so you can read the captions below :)

My friend Ingrid use to work as an occupational therapist back in the US. She knows far more about molding plastics than I do, and agreed to come last Friday to help me adjust the ankle-foot orthotics donated to us from Midwest Orthotics in Chicago. She was so helpful!

I was so excited... do you recognize this hoodie! Its from Illinois!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited! (This is the same student with a Team USA jersey) For the record, no I did not bring extra clothes for the kids with me. Most of the clothes that you find here are second hand from other countries.

3 of my favorite little boys! - Cole, Graham, and Owen! I was blessed to be able to babysit for them Friday night so their parents could have a night out!

On Tuesday, I was able to skype with my Sister-in-law's class! It was so much fun to meet each of Collyn's kids and answer all of their questions? My favorite question they asked - "Do you have candy in Uganda?"

Matthew - This is my dear friend Margret's son. Margret runs the first store right outside of the school gate. She has been coming faithfully to my Wednesday morning Bible study, and I have been absolutely loving our discussions as we work through the book of James. She did not own a Bible when she came the first week, and thankfully someone had just given me an extra one so I passed it on. I love when I walk by her store and I see her sitting there reading it!

The most exciting part of my week! On Wednesday, I got to take these two (Sumaya and Kato) along with Clare to Katalemwa. Katalemwa is a government organization that works specifically with kids with physical disabilities, and they make their own equipment. So the 4 of us squished into the backseat of a truck...... thankfully it was not a long ride and they had good attitudes. Both Sumaya and Kato have spastic tight muscles.... so as we bumped along the pot holes I was trying to protect the rest of us from their stiff elbows. Clare has very low muscle tone... and just sort of flopped every where, so I was trying to hold onto her and keep her in her seat. It was quite fun as you can see above! I just love these 3 kids!

Clare smooshed with me as we went!

At the workshop at Katalemwa - Kato need his wheelchair repaired, and we were able to order 2 walkers, one for Clare and one for Sumaya. Praise the Lord!!!

The kids had filled up most of their charts, so I just moved on to making new charts for the rest of my time here. According to the sticker chart we had about 250 physical therapy sessions since we started.. but I think that is an underestimate since I am some times forgetful about giving a sticker at the end of each session and many stickers have been ripped off.

My funny moment of the week - a coffee press is called a coffee plunger here :) I asked a teacher if she knew what a plunger was, and she asked if it was a type of fruit :) Toilets are definitely different here since there is no need for plungers!!!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support as always. I really could not have survived my first 6 months here without all of your prayers. I am so thankful for each and everyone of you!