am so so sorry. I can't believe it has been so long since I have written. Thank you to all the dediccated people who have read my blog. Thank you so much to my parents who are so understanding and who called me while I was at a rhino sanctuary. :) It is amazing, but I am so so busy this year. It has been great! The classroom continues to be doing well, there are always challenges like getting children to participate, but Irene and I are doing our best to engage 80 students at a time. I am especially enjoying two of my student's company named Gloria and Catherine. They have taken me and my fellow teacher Ann under their wing and we visit them almost every day after school. We eat corn, they teach us how to dig and garden and we pump water together. Catherine also braided my hair the other day and I looked like a rapper and a little girl all at the same time. We have been dancing after school and planning like crazy for lessons every day. I have to mark papers all the time, while doing minni projects like trying to finish recording 12th Night for the blind students.
This past weekend our teachers came over and we had a picnic, which ended in a slip and slide lead by Jamie! It was amazing. The little children who came with their parents took off their very nice clothes and slid in their undies. It was great! This weekend we went to a rhino sanctuary with Jamie and our teacher group and stood twenty feet away from the rhinos!!! It was incredible. They got so close in fact that our guide had to tell us to back up because they might charge! AHAHAH! To sum up the amazing weekend my fellow teacher wrote a poem about it and I would like to share it with you all. It was such a peaceful day filled with life changing moments. Here it is:
Fenced into this safe place
we walked into grasses tall
and trees
luxurient with sounds almost friendly.
We came at last upon them:
animals gray, sensual, ancient.
Of course they won the confrontation; we moved back
before they also turned away.
For long moments then we watched them
massive creatures in a vast expanse of open land and silent sky.
Weakly we tried to hold onto this extra ordinariness
but the sweat of our backs
and thoughts of details mundane
pulled us back to mortality.
We left satisfied for our encounter with glory,
and at night
lying among fallings stars,
our questions were our praise.
we asked, we wondered,
we
wondered,
These were our gratitude for such infinite healing silence.
}Ann Heyse
I just love what she wrote and it pretty much sums up our entire weekend. Now I have returned to Gulu and am in my last week of teaching. This morning I had a class and I told them a story about how the turtle got its shell. They now have to write their own fable and then read it in front of the class in English and Lwo their native language. We are trying to incorperate western methods and Acholi culture into the classroom. We shall see how it goes.
Emily my dear friend is coming to visit me on Wednesday! So pray for her safe journey. I am busting at the seams! I can't wait to see her!
Miss you all very very much! I will return July 10th!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Team teaching and Dancing! What more could you ask for?
I feel so at peace when I dance the Acholi dance after school. If anyone remembers the documentary about the Ugandan dance that was up for an academy award, this is the type of dance that my kids do after school! I love it and embrace it! It was great to see my dancing friends and get back into the groove. The combination of singing and dancing is so uplifting. Of course the children all laugh that a bunch of Mazungoos (white people) are dancing their Acholi dance and shaking their hips, but after a while they started saying to me "Madam, you are getting it! Much better than last year." :) I just smile and say, "That is because I have amazing teachers." It is so important to empower these children when they are faced with so much oppression and adversity. I asked one of the students who told me she had been abducted by the LRA when she was 14 for about four months and then escaped if she thought they would come back. She is scared they will and she thinks they might. To live in that kind of fear on a day to day basis just boggles my mind. She asked me if there was any war in my country. It told her we were at war outside of our country, but I have never experienced one that was taking place inside of my country or right outside my door. I am just getting a small taste of what it is like to live in an area that has gone through war.
But then I look around and people are laughing, loving life, learning, dancing and going on with their lives. They inspire me and make me realize what is really important in life. My student asked me if I would go and plant flours with her in front of the dorm. I said I gladly would!!! How important it is to share days together and have human connections with one another. That is something that I am going to bring back to my New York City life style when I get home. Today is a day that we are honoring our teachers and we are going to have a picnic together! I can't wait!!! I am wearing my overalls and cap and making pasta! It is going to be a great exchange!
Team teaching this second go round has been awesome! Irene and I are on a roll and encouraging the kids to concentrate on their creative writing. We are also getting more class participation, in our 80 person classroom which rocks!!!
But then I look around and people are laughing, loving life, learning, dancing and going on with their lives. They inspire me and make me realize what is really important in life. My student asked me if I would go and plant flours with her in front of the dorm. I said I gladly would!!! How important it is to share days together and have human connections with one another. That is something that I am going to bring back to my New York City life style when I get home. Today is a day that we are honoring our teachers and we are going to have a picnic together! I can't wait!!! I am wearing my overalls and cap and making pasta! It is going to be a great exchange!
Team teaching this second go round has been awesome! Irene and I are on a roll and encouraging the kids to concentrate on their creative writing. We are also getting more class participation, in our 80 person classroom which rocks!!!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
track and field events
Who would have thought that track and field events would be so important that they would cancel school? They are! But to be honest I have loved it. All of the schools in the Gulu District come together at this place called Peche stadium to compete. Even the students who are not competeing come to the stadium to cheer on their fellow students. My friend Ann and I went both days for about three hours and had a great time chatting with the students and teachers and seeing how it is really done. The boys and girls are soooo fast and strong. They run for miles, very often without shoes. I was very impressed.
We would ride our bikes there every morning and along the way we would have to pass through a cluster of trees that had hundreds of bats in them! We at first thought that they were birds, but no...bats! Children were using sling shots to try to hit them up in the trees. It was not plesent. On the way to the stadium one of the bats got so scared it decided to poop on my shoulder....ewww....bat poo! We took a break to clean it off my shoulder, but man! I have never seen so many bats out and about during the day!
Other than that we went to St. Judes, an orphanage, where one of the other teachers is teaching a class. He is incorperating a class with digital cameras. The children are really doing awesome work. I often love to go and participate and also play with the babies. There are at least 10 of them there that are between the ages of 1 and 3. My heart really goes out to them. Well, I am off to ride my bike home and lesson plan for tomorrow! First day of teaching!
We would ride our bikes there every morning and along the way we would have to pass through a cluster of trees that had hundreds of bats in them! We at first thought that they were birds, but no...bats! Children were using sling shots to try to hit them up in the trees. It was not plesent. On the way to the stadium one of the bats got so scared it decided to poop on my shoulder....ewww....bat poo! We took a break to clean it off my shoulder, but man! I have never seen so many bats out and about during the day!
Other than that we went to St. Judes, an orphanage, where one of the other teachers is teaching a class. He is incorperating a class with digital cameras. The children are really doing awesome work. I often love to go and participate and also play with the babies. There are at least 10 of them there that are between the ages of 1 and 3. My heart really goes out to them. Well, I am off to ride my bike home and lesson plan for tomorrow! First day of teaching!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Big Bike, small goat, little skirt, Boppin Party!
I bought a bike!!! My friend Ann and I were determined to buy bikes! Everyone here is so mobile. Either you are riding a bike, on a moto, or you are walking. We decided now was the time to get them. There were a lot of bikes shops, but we visited the first one we came across. The man who owned the shop was john. He advised us to get these huge bikes that were brand new. I said to him, "Now, look at me, I am very short!" He said, "I am as tall as you! Don't worry, we will fix it and make sure it fits you." I thought, ok, what the heck. So, we paid him and off we went super excited to buy bikes!!! We came back two days later to pick up the bikes and they looked exactly the same. They were huge and definitely made for a man to ride. We were a bit hesitant, but willing to try out the bikes so off we went into Gulu traffic reminding ourselves that we had to drive on the left hand side. AHAHAH!!! So scary. We were doging, cars, goats, cattle and we could barely get on the bikes! We were falling all over the place. Finally when Ann and I got back to the house we both said, "We have to go back and get new bikes!" So...The following day, I tred to ride the bike to school in my short skirt and when I say short I mean my shirt that covered my knees. That is really short here. I could barely get on the bike! My friend Agnes showed me how it was done in Uganda. You put one foot on the pedal and throw your other leg over. I got on and road to school, but while I was riding a bug flew in my eye and I almost took out a child. So...I was convinced that I needed a smaller bike. We returned to the shop and the owner gave us new shinny bikes that are just our size. I almost thought I couldn't ride a bike! That evenning as we were coming home with our new bikes I spotted a boy, who couldn't have been more than five years old, riding the old large bike that I had just traded in! Obviously, that large bike was for all sizes, I just didn't know how to ride it. :)
The next day when I came home I saw that we had two goats in our back yard! I asked my friend Agnes, "Agnes! We got goats!" Thinking that we got new pets. She said, "Yes, they are for the party tonight." I tried to not show the expression of horror that was on my face. "Oh," I said, "That's great, we are so lucky..." So I sadly watched the goats happily chewing on grass, but little did they know that they were going to be our dinner that very night. I said a goodbye to the goats as I was leaving on my way to school, cause I knew when I got back they were not going to be the same. I thanked them for their sacrifice. When I got home, guess what was on the grill?
BUT...we did have an amazing party. The organization that I am working for called Invisible Children organized a party for their staff because one of their staff members was leaving. We had a great feats of potatoes, vegetables, and you guessed it...goat. Which I did eat...and it was good.... It really makes you appreciate your food and the true definition of the circle of life. We had such a good time dancing all night long to amazing music in our front yard. All of the Americans went to bed and most of the Ugandans partied until the sun came up!!! It was awesome!
Today we are going to go see a man who keeps bee hives and gardens. I am excited! I hope everyone is well and having an awesome summer!!! :)
The next day when I came home I saw that we had two goats in our back yard! I asked my friend Agnes, "Agnes! We got goats!" Thinking that we got new pets. She said, "Yes, they are for the party tonight." I tried to not show the expression of horror that was on my face. "Oh," I said, "That's great, we are so lucky..." So I sadly watched the goats happily chewing on grass, but little did they know that they were going to be our dinner that very night. I said a goodbye to the goats as I was leaving on my way to school, cause I knew when I got back they were not going to be the same. I thanked them for their sacrifice. When I got home, guess what was on the grill?
BUT...we did have an amazing party. The organization that I am working for called Invisible Children organized a party for their staff because one of their staff members was leaving. We had a great feats of potatoes, vegetables, and you guessed it...goat. Which I did eat...and it was good.... It really makes you appreciate your food and the true definition of the circle of life. We had such a good time dancing all night long to amazing music in our front yard. All of the Americans went to bed and most of the Ugandans partied until the sun came up!!! It was awesome!
Today we are going to go see a man who keeps bee hives and gardens. I am excited! I hope everyone is well and having an awesome summer!!! :)
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Planning lessons over laundry
It is so amazing ( I know, I always start this way but it is true) to be back at Gulu High School and see all of my old students. I honestly thought I would never be back here again and I think my students did too. When I recognize my old students I get overwhelmed with joy and start to almost cry and we run towards each other and laugh hysterically as they say "Madam you are back!" I can't wait to begin classes.
My co-teacher Irene and I had are first lesson planning day. She lives right near the school where she taught me to cook cabbage over a stove the other day. She told me to meet her at the school at 10:00am, which Africa time means 10:30, but I was there at 10:00. Time passed and it was 10:50. I wondered where she was, so I just decided to walk to her house. I turned the corner, saw her house and saw her washing clothes. She said that she needed to catch up on washing and honestly I didn't mind. She invited me to sit and plan the next lesson while she washed clothes. I am going to be recording Twelth Night with one of my other co teachers for the blind students and we were discussing how I was going to get the recording device.
I think she could tell that I was feeling a little uncomfortable sitting there planning while she washed clothes. She turned to me and said, "Do you want to help with the washing?" I said, "Sure!" Then she asked, "Have you ever done this before?" To be quite honest, the way she was washing the clothes was in three basins, one to wash with the suds, second to wash some more, third to rinse and then put on the line. I really honestly had never washed clothes in this manner before. She was scrubbing away with only soap and her hands. I had scrubbed in the sink, but never bent over washing everything from my shirts to my blankets! It was amazing. So, she gave me a wrap and I was there planning our lesson and washing clothes with her. What amazed me were the looks from the other african women and men watching this white woman bending over washing with her Ugandan friend. A woman came over to me and said, "thank you for your work." I said, "I am just helping out a friend." This is truly what the teacher exchange is all about. She teaches me her lessons in the classroom and outside the classroom. The man I spoke to was very confused that I was washing clothes, but I waved and yelled out, Afoyo! Which means hello. The children gathered around and picked mangos from the tree that was near us. We took a mango break and decided to make lunch with beans, sweet potatoes and avocados. I loved it! Again she taught me how to cook it, and she claimed that I cooked it when in reality there was no way I did it solo. She totally helped me. We then sat in her home and ate and chatted about politics, her weekend, my job, how life had been the past year. It was so relaxing and satisfying. I then washed the dishes while she finished up with the laundry and then we parted ways. As I left her little village a man said to me, "next time you are going to dig!" meaning he wants me to dig in the garden. "you bet!" I said. "I want to learn all that I can." I hope that I can bring these lessons back home with me. It is amazing to me how much they conserve water. They save it in their homes in huge cans and gather it whenever it rains in buckets. I hope I can bring a little bit of their practice back with me in the states.
If you happen to notice the current headlines about peace in Uganda, please think of the people. The talks are still going on, but it is not looking so good. So please think of them and the people living there. I am off to go pick up my bike I just bought! Hooray! I am bike bound and hitting the Gulu streets! Until next time! :)
My co-teacher Irene and I had are first lesson planning day. She lives right near the school where she taught me to cook cabbage over a stove the other day. She told me to meet her at the school at 10:00am, which Africa time means 10:30, but I was there at 10:00. Time passed and it was 10:50. I wondered where she was, so I just decided to walk to her house. I turned the corner, saw her house and saw her washing clothes. She said that she needed to catch up on washing and honestly I didn't mind. She invited me to sit and plan the next lesson while she washed clothes. I am going to be recording Twelth Night with one of my other co teachers for the blind students and we were discussing how I was going to get the recording device.
I think she could tell that I was feeling a little uncomfortable sitting there planning while she washed clothes. She turned to me and said, "Do you want to help with the washing?" I said, "Sure!" Then she asked, "Have you ever done this before?" To be quite honest, the way she was washing the clothes was in three basins, one to wash with the suds, second to wash some more, third to rinse and then put on the line. I really honestly had never washed clothes in this manner before. She was scrubbing away with only soap and her hands. I had scrubbed in the sink, but never bent over washing everything from my shirts to my blankets! It was amazing. So, she gave me a wrap and I was there planning our lesson and washing clothes with her. What amazed me were the looks from the other african women and men watching this white woman bending over washing with her Ugandan friend. A woman came over to me and said, "thank you for your work." I said, "I am just helping out a friend." This is truly what the teacher exchange is all about. She teaches me her lessons in the classroom and outside the classroom. The man I spoke to was very confused that I was washing clothes, but I waved and yelled out, Afoyo! Which means hello. The children gathered around and picked mangos from the tree that was near us. We took a mango break and decided to make lunch with beans, sweet potatoes and avocados. I loved it! Again she taught me how to cook it, and she claimed that I cooked it when in reality there was no way I did it solo. She totally helped me. We then sat in her home and ate and chatted about politics, her weekend, my job, how life had been the past year. It was so relaxing and satisfying. I then washed the dishes while she finished up with the laundry and then we parted ways. As I left her little village a man said to me, "next time you are going to dig!" meaning he wants me to dig in the garden. "you bet!" I said. "I want to learn all that I can." I hope that I can bring these lessons back home with me. It is amazing to me how much they conserve water. They save it in their homes in huge cans and gather it whenever it rains in buckets. I hope I can bring a little bit of their practice back with me in the states.
If you happen to notice the current headlines about peace in Uganda, please think of the people. The talks are still going on, but it is not looking so good. So please think of them and the people living there. I am off to go pick up my bike I just bought! Hooray! I am bike bound and hitting the Gulu streets! Until next time! :)
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Cooking African Style
I have less than a min to update but here are the highlights:
Cooking a cabbage dish on the stove with my teacher
Watching my teacher throw sticks in a mango tree to get the best mangos out of the tree. She was strong!
Going to mass and dancing and singing with my students! It was a blast!
Riding a boda again.
Seeing my old students and having them remembering my ping pong song.
And so much more! I will write more soon!
Cooking a cabbage dish on the stove with my teacher
Watching my teacher throw sticks in a mango tree to get the best mangos out of the tree. She was strong!
Going to mass and dancing and singing with my students! It was a blast!
Riding a boda again.
Seeing my old students and having them remembering my ping pong song.
And so much more! I will write more soon!
Monday, June 2, 2008
I am in AFRICA!
I don't have much time, but I just wanted to let you all know that I made it to Africa! After an 8.5 hour ride from England to Kampala, I am here at Back packers and honestly it is like I never left. I love it here. :) I love the fact that I can look out my window and see monkeys hanging from the trees. It is great to be back in the African environment and the group is awesome! Well I am off to eat a Spanish Omlet! I will write soon. Much love,
Margot
Margot
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Can we say Danke for the sausage?!
I promised myself that I was going to go completely vegetarian this
summer. Lately I had just been eating chicken for the past couple
months to get a little protein. Well, that went out the window when I
went to Germany because every single meal we were offered had some sort of tasty sausage!
That is right. I was never a big fan before, but oh my goodness it was amazing. I
tried about five different kinds and while India and I were there we
had sausage at least every meal. It is not a hot dog my friend,
they have those too, but they had sausages with chicken, pork, beef and all very different and very tasty.
To begin: India and I found each other in the Hamburg airport on Tuesday (thank
goodness) and the wonderful Kirsten (Ina's sister) picked us up at the
airport. She was just as I remembered her five years ago when I saw
her with her father in Malaga, Spain except now her English was even
better! I was so impressed! Almost everyone speaks English in
Germany, which makes me feel like a heal because I wish I spoke
German. I tried my best to learn what I could, but very often I just
kept saying Danke, Danke...which means thank you. Believe it or not I
was so thankful for the entire five days I was in Germany. The
Brammer family are the most giving people in the entire world. They
had no reservations about letting us stay in their home for three
nights four days before the wedding! Amazing! They were the most
impeccable hosts showing us around Hamburg, Leunaburg (spelling) and
the village of Raven. (sounds like Rafen.) Not to mention they were the calmest I have every seen a family before a wedding. Every thing went so smoothly and right on schedule. But I digress...here is
how it all began with the German wedding of a life time.
Tuesday:
We arrived in the village of Raven: population 250. The main occupation of this region is farming. Ina's father is a serious farmer as well as everyone else in the community. When we arrived we were welcomed by rosy brick buildings and multiple barns built out of wood and brick. It was just how I imagined a village in Germany would be. I am not surprised that Ina over 10 years ago when she came to Central High School, oh my gosh, was well adjusted to the farm country of the Shenandoah Valley. She went from one farm land to another. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the families in Woodstock, Virginia came from Germany. Ina's house has been owned by the Brammer family for over 200 years and there is a tree in their front yard that is over 300 years old. Can we say, older than our country? The gardens that they have in front of their house are beautiful and I couldn't help but notice the very cute goats that the neighbors had next door. To think that in Africa I will be eating goat...eek!
We were shown around Ina's gorgeous house with beautiful paintings that were made by her mother. When we went upstairs India and I were shown to our room with a double bed. In Germany they had blankets that I was not familiar with. I wasn't sure if I got in them correctly, but they fold them in half on the bed. They are extremely fluffy so I decided just to leave half for underneath me and one half for over top so I was like a pig in a blanket! Later I found from Ina that it is not the way they do it, but India and I insisted to continue with the tradition of being like a sausage all cozy in the blanket.
That night there was to be a party. The entire village was invited to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Ina and Stefan. It was, as I like to call it, the breaking of the plates party! I am going to bust out my favorite phrase 'it was amazing!' As soon as you arrive you bring old plates and pots that you don't care about and you throw them up against a stone and they break into a thousand pieces. This is good luck for the bride and groom because it scares all of the ghosts away. At the end of the evening the bride and the groom have to clean it all up. It was a great way to get out aggression and then after you throw the plate you take a shot with the bride and groom. The bride and groom had to greet and witness every guest that came to the party. I was so impressed with stefan and ina's stamina. :) They were great hosts. The party was outside, but we also could go inside a building that was an old sheep barn, but now it was converted into a dance floor and bar. Talk about a great idea. There was an open bar and sausage served all evening. India and I were downing the coca colas as we had not adjusted to the time zone yet. Not only did we meet all of Ina's family, but the entire village as well. We met her grandmother who we all fell in love with. She didn't speak any english, but she knew one phrase, 'I love you!' I found that ironic because the only phrase in German that I knew at the time was 'I love you' as well. So we just kept going back and forth saying I love you to each other. She is a dear woman. Love truly is the universal language.
Well, India and I discovered that night that Germans know how to dance! (also Ina's now husband Stefan is a professional ballroom dancer so they definitely showed us all up.) But everyone of all ages were out on the dance floor. I got kind of, lets call it, 'stuck' with neighbor Frank for a very long time on the dance floor. We had a lot of fun, but he definitely kept asking the American Girls to dance. India at one point even called me over and we all began to dance together. You owe me India. :) It was a great night. We definitely slept really well that night, but decided to get up early the next morning and trek through Hamburg!
Wednesday
Ina's brother and sister Kirsten and Andreas took us on a tour of Hamburg. Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and you can definitely tell because it is very metropolitan. It also has the 6th largest port in the world so we took a boat tour of the port and admired all the ships coming into the city. It was great to be on the water and enjoy the amazing weather. We then walked around the city and enjoyed the shops, walked around the river, stopped at starbucks, (which has only been in Germany the past two years), visited the town hall and tried to avoid birds as much as possible. India has finally found a soul mate of a fellow fear of birds. Her and Kirsten would shy away at every bird we met and Andreas and I did our best to save them from the 'flying rats' as Andreas liked to call them. We tried fish and chips and at the end of the day Turkish food filled with doner. I wasn't sure what that was at first, but India and I were relieved to discover that it was lamb. Whew!
Thursday
Mr. Brammer decided he would show us around his farm. We got in his jeep and off we went through the vast potato fields. It had not rained the moth of may so it had his own irrigation system. It was a good thing he did because he has over 500 acres of land filled with sugar beets, potatoes, barley, a yellow flower that creates oil (I forgot what it was called) and wheat. What more could you ask for? We actually did have some of their home grown potatoes for lunch one day and they were honestly the best potatoes I had ever had! They were filled with so much flavor, I could have eaten them all day long.
Later that day we met up with Ina and Stefan at their apt. It was great to see where they both lived and look at old photo albums from the Central High School days. It is amazing how much we have grown up in ten years! We then went out and explored the town of Luneburg where Ina and Stefan live. This city is exactly what I imagined a German city to look like. It is one of the few cities that was not destroyed in WWII so it is very historic and the buildings are all very old. Stefan insisted that we have the best cheese, bread, and sausage at the market so we took a break from walking and had a little picnic near the market. It really was amazing. When you add cheese to the mix I am never going to complain. We then walked to the top of a water tower that looked out over the city. It was completely filled with red brick houses and trees. It was quite beautiful.
On our way to dinner (yes, we decided to eat again) we passed a US store. I was very curious and was very disturbed to find that it was filled with army figures and camouflage. Is this what Europe thinks of the US? It is only filled with the idea that we are a military? I was very concerned. So of course we took a picture of me looking very confused.
For dinner we had curried sausage (yes more sausage) but it was so good! What has happened to me? I am loving meat! :) We had a great time catching up over dinner.
Friday
The next day Kirsten showed us around the village where the wedding took place. Also where our hotel was located. We hiked through the woods and walked around a very large lake. It was so peaceful. Kirsten explained to us that every year they choose a queen of the villages that reins for one year. It reminded me of the beauty pageant at the Shenandoah County fair. Some cultures really do overlap. That evening Ina and Stefan took us to our hotel and we went out to dinner and got some ice cream. There is something about the European ice cream. It is so much better, in my opinion than the ice cream in the states. It has so much flavor. It just so happened that it was strawberry season in the northern part of Germany so I was getting strawberries on everything!!! I couldn't get enough of them! It was another great day in the land of Germany and the next day was the all day wedding!!!
Saturday The Day of the Wedding!
Traditionally in Germany the couple goes to the court house to get married before they have the church ceremony in front of all of their guests. India and I were privileged enough to join Ina and Stefan's immediate family for the civil ceremony. It was very emotional, we were in a room and their was a minister who said a bit about them and gave them their vows. There was not a dry eye in the house. For this event we wore a more casual dress, but had to be prepared for the church ceremony where we got all done up! This started at 10:00 in the morning. The best man and the maid of honor signed the marriage certificate and they were married in front of their closest friends and family. Then when they came out of the court house we all threw rice, drank champagne and they had to saw a log together. I am not sure what that symbolized, but it was great to see them all dressed up, sawing away at the log and working together as a team. We all left the court house and arrived at Ina's house to have tasty wedding soup for lunch. At home
my grandmother used to say however many meat balls you got in your soup is how many children you are going to have. Well, um....I am going to have an army then if that is true. It got at least 20 in my soup! We then had some more champagne and then got ready to go to the church. The church is right down the road from Ina's house and it is over 500 years old! It really was beautiful. When Ina walked in her wedding dress with her father I got chills. She was so beautiful. Traditionally the father doesn't give the bride away in Germany, but Ina wanted her father to give her away. He said to Stefan, the love for a daughter is like the love for his wife. It grows like a rose and now I am giving you my rose and please take care of her as I did. (It was something along those lines in German.) The only thing that India and I could truly understand were the songs that were sung in English. But the meaning behind what was being said was clear. I have never seen such a happy couple. As we processed out of the church, everyone from the village was waiting outside with rope that ran across the road. They were hold up the rope to stop the bride and group and they were supposed to give them candy, champagne or a gift. It was hilarious. We had to stop so many times for people in the streets. Can you imagine if we had to walk through the entire town of Woodstock, or NYC?!
We then celebrated at Ina's house all afternoon drinking more champagne and then the real party began! It was time to go to the hotel and celebrate! We got in our cars and drove to our destination!
The party was amazing! We really had the best table. They were all our age and all spoke English and were very happy to do so. They informed us of everything that was going on. There were speeches from multiple family members and lots of dancing. When it finally came to throw Ina's flowers all the girls hesitantly got in a clump, but no one wanted it! We then decided to blind fold Ina and get in a circle around her, when the music stopped she threw it. She threw it right at her brother's girl friend who was standing next to me but she dodged out of the way so it went between us! I went to pick it up to give it to her, but then everyone cheered that I was going to have a wedding in America and everyone was invited. I said, 'no, you got the wrong girl, this isn't for me!'. Everyone knew though that it truly belonged to Andrea's girl friend. I later gave her the flowers and told her I couldn't possible take them to Uganda. She laughed and she took them. The truth is, she is probably the next one to be married! My favorite part of the evening was when they played the West Virginia song. 'Take me home, country road.' It was so surreal! Ina and her father sang and danced to it we me and India. Who would have thought that we were be dancing to that song in Germany. :) The party continued into the night and at 2AM they gave us all a snack, can you guess what it was? That is right, meat and cheese! We also cut the cake and ate more strawberries. I don't think I had eaten that much in one day since....well....maybe Spain. :)
India and I decided to go to bed at 2:30 cause we had to get up at 6:30 to leave for the airport at 7:00. I can't believe how quickly the time went and how many things we saw and people we met. I have to say that without a doubt that the Brammer family is amazing! But no longer is Ina named Ina Brammer, but Ina Merker. Best wishes to them and may I return to the land of sausages once again!
summer. Lately I had just been eating chicken for the past couple
months to get a little protein. Well, that went out the window when I
went to Germany because every single meal we were offered had some sort of tasty sausage!
That is right. I was never a big fan before, but oh my goodness it was amazing. I
tried about five different kinds and while India and I were there we
had sausage at least every meal. It is not a hot dog my friend,
they have those too, but they had sausages with chicken, pork, beef and all very different and very tasty.
To begin: India and I found each other in the Hamburg airport on Tuesday (thank
goodness) and the wonderful Kirsten (Ina's sister) picked us up at the
airport. She was just as I remembered her five years ago when I saw
her with her father in Malaga, Spain except now her English was even
better! I was so impressed! Almost everyone speaks English in
Germany, which makes me feel like a heal because I wish I spoke
German. I tried my best to learn what I could, but very often I just
kept saying Danke, Danke...which means thank you. Believe it or not I
was so thankful for the entire five days I was in Germany. The
Brammer family are the most giving people in the entire world. They
had no reservations about letting us stay in their home for three
nights four days before the wedding! Amazing! They were the most
impeccable hosts showing us around Hamburg, Leunaburg (spelling) and
the village of Raven. (sounds like Rafen.) Not to mention they were the calmest I have every seen a family before a wedding. Every thing went so smoothly and right on schedule. But I digress...here is
how it all began with the German wedding of a life time.
Tuesday:
We arrived in the village of Raven: population 250. The main occupation of this region is farming. Ina's father is a serious farmer as well as everyone else in the community. When we arrived we were welcomed by rosy brick buildings and multiple barns built out of wood and brick. It was just how I imagined a village in Germany would be. I am not surprised that Ina over 10 years ago when she came to Central High School, oh my gosh, was well adjusted to the farm country of the Shenandoah Valley. She went from one farm land to another. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the families in Woodstock, Virginia came from Germany. Ina's house has been owned by the Brammer family for over 200 years and there is a tree in their front yard that is over 300 years old. Can we say, older than our country? The gardens that they have in front of their house are beautiful and I couldn't help but notice the very cute goats that the neighbors had next door. To think that in Africa I will be eating goat...eek!
We were shown around Ina's gorgeous house with beautiful paintings that were made by her mother. When we went upstairs India and I were shown to our room with a double bed. In Germany they had blankets that I was not familiar with. I wasn't sure if I got in them correctly, but they fold them in half on the bed. They are extremely fluffy so I decided just to leave half for underneath me and one half for over top so I was like a pig in a blanket! Later I found from Ina that it is not the way they do it, but India and I insisted to continue with the tradition of being like a sausage all cozy in the blanket.
That night there was to be a party. The entire village was invited to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Ina and Stefan. It was, as I like to call it, the breaking of the plates party! I am going to bust out my favorite phrase 'it was amazing!' As soon as you arrive you bring old plates and pots that you don't care about and you throw them up against a stone and they break into a thousand pieces. This is good luck for the bride and groom because it scares all of the ghosts away. At the end of the evening the bride and the groom have to clean it all up. It was a great way to get out aggression and then after you throw the plate you take a shot with the bride and groom. The bride and groom had to greet and witness every guest that came to the party. I was so impressed with stefan and ina's stamina. :) They were great hosts. The party was outside, but we also could go inside a building that was an old sheep barn, but now it was converted into a dance floor and bar. Talk about a great idea. There was an open bar and sausage served all evening. India and I were downing the coca colas as we had not adjusted to the time zone yet. Not only did we meet all of Ina's family, but the entire village as well. We met her grandmother who we all fell in love with. She didn't speak any english, but she knew one phrase, 'I love you!' I found that ironic because the only phrase in German that I knew at the time was 'I love you' as well. So we just kept going back and forth saying I love you to each other. She is a dear woman. Love truly is the universal language.
Well, India and I discovered that night that Germans know how to dance! (also Ina's now husband Stefan is a professional ballroom dancer so they definitely showed us all up.) But everyone of all ages were out on the dance floor. I got kind of, lets call it, 'stuck' with neighbor Frank for a very long time on the dance floor. We had a lot of fun, but he definitely kept asking the American Girls to dance. India at one point even called me over and we all began to dance together. You owe me India. :) It was a great night. We definitely slept really well that night, but decided to get up early the next morning and trek through Hamburg!
Wednesday
Ina's brother and sister Kirsten and Andreas took us on a tour of Hamburg. Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and you can definitely tell because it is very metropolitan. It also has the 6th largest port in the world so we took a boat tour of the port and admired all the ships coming into the city. It was great to be on the water and enjoy the amazing weather. We then walked around the city and enjoyed the shops, walked around the river, stopped at starbucks, (which has only been in Germany the past two years), visited the town hall and tried to avoid birds as much as possible. India has finally found a soul mate of a fellow fear of birds. Her and Kirsten would shy away at every bird we met and Andreas and I did our best to save them from the 'flying rats' as Andreas liked to call them. We tried fish and chips and at the end of the day Turkish food filled with doner. I wasn't sure what that was at first, but India and I were relieved to discover that it was lamb. Whew!
Thursday
Mr. Brammer decided he would show us around his farm. We got in his jeep and off we went through the vast potato fields. It had not rained the moth of may so it had his own irrigation system. It was a good thing he did because he has over 500 acres of land filled with sugar beets, potatoes, barley, a yellow flower that creates oil (I forgot what it was called) and wheat. What more could you ask for? We actually did have some of their home grown potatoes for lunch one day and they were honestly the best potatoes I had ever had! They were filled with so much flavor, I could have eaten them all day long.
Later that day we met up with Ina and Stefan at their apt. It was great to see where they both lived and look at old photo albums from the Central High School days. It is amazing how much we have grown up in ten years! We then went out and explored the town of Luneburg where Ina and Stefan live. This city is exactly what I imagined a German city to look like. It is one of the few cities that was not destroyed in WWII so it is very historic and the buildings are all very old. Stefan insisted that we have the best cheese, bread, and sausage at the market so we took a break from walking and had a little picnic near the market. It really was amazing. When you add cheese to the mix I am never going to complain. We then walked to the top of a water tower that looked out over the city. It was completely filled with red brick houses and trees. It was quite beautiful.
On our way to dinner (yes, we decided to eat again) we passed a US store. I was very curious and was very disturbed to find that it was filled with army figures and camouflage. Is this what Europe thinks of the US? It is only filled with the idea that we are a military? I was very concerned. So of course we took a picture of me looking very confused.
For dinner we had curried sausage (yes more sausage) but it was so good! What has happened to me? I am loving meat! :) We had a great time catching up over dinner.
Friday
The next day Kirsten showed us around the village where the wedding took place. Also where our hotel was located. We hiked through the woods and walked around a very large lake. It was so peaceful. Kirsten explained to us that every year they choose a queen of the villages that reins for one year. It reminded me of the beauty pageant at the Shenandoah County fair. Some cultures really do overlap. That evening Ina and Stefan took us to our hotel and we went out to dinner and got some ice cream. There is something about the European ice cream. It is so much better, in my opinion than the ice cream in the states. It has so much flavor. It just so happened that it was strawberry season in the northern part of Germany so I was getting strawberries on everything!!! I couldn't get enough of them! It was another great day in the land of Germany and the next day was the all day wedding!!!
Saturday The Day of the Wedding!
Traditionally in Germany the couple goes to the court house to get married before they have the church ceremony in front of all of their guests. India and I were privileged enough to join Ina and Stefan's immediate family for the civil ceremony. It was very emotional, we were in a room and their was a minister who said a bit about them and gave them their vows. There was not a dry eye in the house. For this event we wore a more casual dress, but had to be prepared for the church ceremony where we got all done up! This started at 10:00 in the morning. The best man and the maid of honor signed the marriage certificate and they were married in front of their closest friends and family. Then when they came out of the court house we all threw rice, drank champagne and they had to saw a log together. I am not sure what that symbolized, but it was great to see them all dressed up, sawing away at the log and working together as a team. We all left the court house and arrived at Ina's house to have tasty wedding soup for lunch. At home
my grandmother used to say however many meat balls you got in your soup is how many children you are going to have. Well, um....I am going to have an army then if that is true. It got at least 20 in my soup! We then had some more champagne and then got ready to go to the church. The church is right down the road from Ina's house and it is over 500 years old! It really was beautiful. When Ina walked in her wedding dress with her father I got chills. She was so beautiful. Traditionally the father doesn't give the bride away in Germany, but Ina wanted her father to give her away. He said to Stefan, the love for a daughter is like the love for his wife. It grows like a rose and now I am giving you my rose and please take care of her as I did. (It was something along those lines in German.) The only thing that India and I could truly understand were the songs that were sung in English. But the meaning behind what was being said was clear. I have never seen such a happy couple. As we processed out of the church, everyone from the village was waiting outside with rope that ran across the road. They were hold up the rope to stop the bride and group and they were supposed to give them candy, champagne or a gift. It was hilarious. We had to stop so many times for people in the streets. Can you imagine if we had to walk through the entire town of Woodstock, or NYC?!
We then celebrated at Ina's house all afternoon drinking more champagne and then the real party began! It was time to go to the hotel and celebrate! We got in our cars and drove to our destination!
The party was amazing! We really had the best table. They were all our age and all spoke English and were very happy to do so. They informed us of everything that was going on. There were speeches from multiple family members and lots of dancing. When it finally came to throw Ina's flowers all the girls hesitantly got in a clump, but no one wanted it! We then decided to blind fold Ina and get in a circle around her, when the music stopped she threw it. She threw it right at her brother's girl friend who was standing next to me but she dodged out of the way so it went between us! I went to pick it up to give it to her, but then everyone cheered that I was going to have a wedding in America and everyone was invited. I said, 'no, you got the wrong girl, this isn't for me!'. Everyone knew though that it truly belonged to Andrea's girl friend. I later gave her the flowers and told her I couldn't possible take them to Uganda. She laughed and she took them. The truth is, she is probably the next one to be married! My favorite part of the evening was when they played the West Virginia song. 'Take me home, country road.' It was so surreal! Ina and her father sang and danced to it we me and India. Who would have thought that we were be dancing to that song in Germany. :) The party continued into the night and at 2AM they gave us all a snack, can you guess what it was? That is right, meat and cheese! We also cut the cake and ate more strawberries. I don't think I had eaten that much in one day since....well....maybe Spain. :)
India and I decided to go to bed at 2:30 cause we had to get up at 6:30 to leave for the airport at 7:00. I can't believe how quickly the time went and how many things we saw and people we met. I have to say that without a doubt that the Brammer family is amazing! But no longer is Ina named Ina Brammer, but Ina Merker. Best wishes to them and may I return to the land of sausages once again!
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