Final Exams

It's probably getting old reading an apology at the beginning of each of my posts for such a lengthy delay, so I'll say it one more time - I'm sorry! - and from hereon out we'll just assume that it is implied whenever there are long delays (which I can almost guarantee will continue to occur). Thanks though to those who called me out for taking so long to get another post up...it worked! :)

I am in the middle of finals over here. Instead of having everything condensed into one week, they are spread out over a couple weeks. It's nice in some regards and a pain in others. The biggest hassle actually hasn't been the studying but instead has been getting all of the projects and everything completed. Thankfully, I've enjoyed the work I've been doing, and have actually been able to make some real use of some of the projects. For example, last Friday morning I gave a presentation to a World Bank employee about speeding up a lagging rural electrification project. Granted, I think he had already reached every conclusion that I offered, but it was still a cool experience.

I had one final exam last Wednesday, have three this week, and then have two more during the week after. My last exam will be on Wednesday, December 10 - the same day when I fly out to come home for the Jorgensen-Connolly wedding & spend Christmas with the family. To say that I am excited to get home and see everyone would be an understatement! Besides, it just doesn't feel like Christmas season with 90º weather outside!

Although school work has been more demanding these last few weeks, I still have had some very cool experiences over the last few days. I'll give a quick summary:

Thanksgiving - I have gotten to know several other ex-pats in the area, and we organized a group of 25 of us to do our own Thanksgiving. The actual meal was at the home of the USAID Director for Uganda, an absolutely gorgeous place in a very nice part of Kampala. We had pretty much the entire Thanksgiving spread - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and even pumpkin pie! The food was delicious and a welcome break from the Uganda food that I have been eating nearly every day over here! It was a very cool experience since most of us were experiencing our first Thanksgiving away from family, so we adopted each other. It wasn't a home Thanksgiving, but it was about as close as I could get!

Marriage "Introduction" - In Uganda there is another step in the marriage process that is not included in our culture. After the engagement and a few weeks before the actual wedding, there is an official introduction of the families. I was invited to attend one of these introductions by one of my host Rotarians, whose niece was getting married. The event started at 1:30 with lunch. We sat down around 2:30 and didn't get up until about 7:30 - 5 hours of sitting...ugh! It was very interesting though. Basically, the entire ceremony is an opportunity for the groom's family to give gifts to the bride's family (who organize the event). The gifts were numerous and ranged from gallons of cooking oil to a live cow and goat. Both families were definitely in the upper tier of society, and it was interesting to see how traditional things like livestock were still included in the gift giving process. Overall, a great cultural experience, but not sure I'd like to sit through another one any time soon!

Bahai Temple - Instead of going to my normal church this morning I instead went to the Bahai Temple with a few friends. Bahai is a faith that is something of a mixture between Christianity, Islam, and Hindu with several other influences. Kampala has one of eight temples in the world, and the only temple in Africa. Services are open to anyone so we decided to check it out. After getting lost while driving there (why do I keep trusting the maps over here...?) and taking a detour through a few interesting parts of Kampala, we finally arrived at a gorgeous building. The service consisted of readings from the Bible, the Qu'ran, and from some of the writings of the Bahai founder. Different, but very nice to see religions from around the world combined in a constructive manner rather than what we're seeing in other parts of the world right now!

Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now. Not sure if I'll get another post before I leave. If you don't hear from me before the 10th, hopefully I'll see most of you back in Iowa in the upcoming weeks!

Cheers!
Chris