Not too far from where we stayed in Uganda lived a family who’d moved to the area as refugees from the war in the north.
The father, Phillip, farmed land a few hours away from home; the mother made crafts while looking after the household. Their son, Emmanuel, had become a close friend of the volunteers at AOET, as he’d often be seen near our living quarters, offering a friendly hello, directions, etc.
We were invited over to the house one evening, where we sat and chatted, marveling at the talent of the mother and the drawings of the children. Emmanuel and his sister Mercy did most of the translating, as the mother knew very little English.
As we were leaving, we asked Mercy to sing us a song, which she allowed me to record.
Yesterday for morning snack they did give us “milk tea” which is like a chai tea with milk, but this one was overdone on the milk. The milk here is usually whole milk, so when it is hot it skims on the top and creates a film, which can be pretty gross looking. So when given things in Uganda it is proper to finish all of it, or else you are seen as rude. So the tea was poured for us whether we wanted it or not. We all tried the tea and decided it was gross, but we didn’t know what to do, we had to get rid of it without them seeing. So two of the ladies went “on a walk” outside to throw their tea into the grass. While they were gone, we spotted a sink in the corner and were like YESSS, perfect. We tried the water, which of course did not work. But the drain looked fine, so Devin dumped his cup down the drain, no problem. So Wayne, Karissa and I go ahead and dump our cups down the drain. We go to leave and then look back at the sink to see the milk tea is now coming out of the drain, down the wall and into the middle of the office. We are all like OH CRAP, they can’t see this! So Karissa runs to get paper towels from the dental room, while I block the door to prevent any of the Ugandans from coming back and Wayne is moving the furniture from the flow of milk tea. We successfully clean the milk tea and rearrange the room before anyone returned, but it was a close one.
Ashley recounting our tea debacle one day while in Uganda.
