Life in Zungwe

The Peace Portal Community church property is in the village of Zungwe. I spent an hour or so every few days just going for a walk through the villages near the church property, which was really interesting!! The locals eventually started to get used to the fact that I would just walk with no specific destination in mind - I had lots of people ask me if I was lost! (I was walking for exercise, but that concept is somewhat foreign to the average peasant farmer in rural Uganda who gets more than enough exercise just trying to survive!!) One man, as I passed by him for a second time (on my way back), called out to me, "Mzungu! Where are you going?" I replied, "For a walk." He looked at me, paused for a second, and then said (somewhat incredulously), "You are walking, and you are carrying nothing??" I nodded, and in apparent disbelief at the craziness of mzungus, he headed off to do something more purposeful than what I was doing! That experience made me laugh...although there were a few kids following me at that point, so I didn't laugh too loud!

I really wished I could speak Lugandan fluently when I was walking around the villages, as I am sure I would have had some really interesting conversations with the women I met on my way. In Ugandan culture, even if someone is practically shouting distance away it is expected that you say hello. So I would try to greet most people I met along the way in Lugandan, and often the women would respond in Lugandan and attempt to ask me more questions...which I didn't understand and couldn't answer. Next time, I will have to make more of an effort to get my conversation skills in Lugandan a bit more proficient!

Here are some pictures I took while I was walking around...

A pretty average village road. Uganda is very green...I loved the banana trees that were pretty much everywhere! I had kids following me when I took this picture...they would run to get close behind me, then as soon as I would turn around they would try and hide and pretend that they weren't following me:)

This is 85 year old Vincent, one of the men from the church, working in the quarry that is just down the hill from the church. Working in the quarry involves using a make-shift hammer to smash large rocks into gravel...not the easiest job. (I saw both men and women working at this). This is how Vincent makes money to support his grandchildren (two of his grandchildren live in the children's homes now, which helps).


This is one of the nicer rural homes that I passed regularly as I walked - it was always really well kept!