America: An African Boy's Perspective Part 2

After the last post, a lot have I seen, much much much more than I thought I would ever see...I thought I had seen enough about America through the hollywood blockbusters; how wrong I was! The only true representation of America that I can vividly remember from those movies is the cemeteries!

On a positive note, the Lord has graciously granted me good health; I haven't had problems with my stomach in regards to foods, I am grateful to Him for this.
I have also been privileged to be taken around many different places here in Michigan by my American family and friends. We've been to huge malls and supermarkets, eaten food from different places, given a tour of downtown Grand Rapids, been to watch "American Football" in schools as well as volleyball and playing soccer - these have been refreshing to me.

People here have been so kind, we have been invited to different houses for dinner, which is cool and someone showed me, through his actions, what it means to see a need and meet it. He looked at what I was wearing when we had stopped by to say thanks for his previous donation of shoes to us, and very fast, he noted that I needed good shoes for the winter. Off he went inside and came back with new Colombia hiking shoes for me! Thank you Jeff!

Back to my intriguing observations; sorry for my wonderings here and there about stuff. The dogs, yes, I mean the dogs. It has struck me how privileged the American dogs are, to live a life that is far better than over 60% of Ugandans, let alone Ugandan dogs! In Uganda, dogs are some of the most suffering creatures; in villages, most of them have to fend for themselves and usually a dog's life is that of suffering. These dogs here happened to be in the right place, I bet the dogs back home would want to immigrate, if I tell them about their counterparts here. There's more I could write about this, but I will leave it for now.

Homes here have no wall fences, which surprised me. Back home, almost every nice home has to have a strong wall fence, it's part of the construction plans and even then, you still have to have a security guard to ensure your safety. The first few nights, I felt a little insecure inside sleeping in a house without a fence and yet it's by the main road!
Even the mail boxes don't have locks, anyone could just pick your mail and disappear; I joked with my mother-in-law that "I hope no one will steal my green card when it gets mailed here". Of course I was assured that it's a criminal federal offense to steal mail and nobody wants to face the wrath of the law. I keep thinking about this from time to time.

Last week we visited my wife's close friend, Nancy's family. I met her son Bryce, and we had something in common...hunters! He showed me around his hunting zone, explaining what animals he has so far managed to kill, etc, etc. He proudly showed me his hunting guns, and bless the Lord, he gave me an opportunity to shoot at the cans with both guns! I think I hit three targets and missed once. Afterwards, I kept thinking how these guns make hunting so easy and if I had one growing up, I would have probably depopulated animals in my country considering that I used to hunt so I could sell the game and use the cash for buying my school supplies. But this is something that you can never hear of in Uganda-guns in the hands of civilians, that can be used for hunting animals, talk about the American Liberties and Right!

Finally for today, let me say something about the houses here. Almost all the houses I have been to so far, are constructed using timber. In Uganda, we use concrete walls and floors and I would choose concrete all day. And I think we probably can't build our houses in Uganda using timber because of many reasons, especially security, reckless fires, and termites. One thing I have observed from all these houses is that, they make a lot of noise as you walk on them. Africans are people who are secretive and private. They would feel very uncomfortable staying in these houses for so many reasons, some of which, I can not elucidate from here. This is something I look forward to sharing with people when I go back to Uganda and hear their diverse opinions. Maybe in a couple of months, I will write some of their thoughts in this blog for your consumption.

Next week, I will write about the church, my observation of christianity here, more of my observations here, and many more. Hope you enjoyed today's blog. Give us your feedback. God bless you.
In Christ,
Ruudy.