This is Victor and his family, This is the little boy who runs over to tell me hi after every meal! It is so cute!

Something you don't get in the states

This week starts our two week break! We get time off for Easter and then it is just a normal “spring break” but 2 full weeks it is great!! So for part of the break I am going to help re organize the library and the resource room. I am going to get to stay and finally meet Downie and her family (My bosses daughter). The Gulu will be during the break! Then my mom will be here, we are going on Safari. We will go to Queen Elizabeth National park where we hope to see all of the game. Then we go to Bwindi National Park to do a gorilla trek. I am really excited about our little adventure! Once we get back from that in middle of April I will only have 3 more weeks in Africa. Time has really gone super fast and I can’t believe that my 4 months is almost up! These children have left a huge imprint on my heart and all of Uganda will remain with me forever. I will let you know how all of my adventures go!
To those of you who have had March birthdays (there was quite a few) happy birthday and we will have to celebrate when I see you!! Also to those of you who have sent me things I really appreciate it, they were all wonderful surprises!!!

This is the Mubende church and our welcome party of children who greeted us!

True African Experience

This weekend Joann took me Mubende which is about two hours away from Rafiki. We took Susan a local pastor up there to distribute free Christian books to the pastors. I got to experience a true African experience. After we met the pastor in the town he took us out to his church and we went down this “road” (I truly thought we would get stuck in the gigantic pot holes) and he said here is the church. I looked and the church was a barely standing boarded up building with no windows and no flooring. So we parked and were swarmed with about 60 children all wanting to touch us because we were white and the special visitors that they had been waiting for. We entered to a full church of standing Africans clapping for us as we made our way up to the front. There were about 6 pastors from different churches and they brought with them Sunday school teachers and elders from their church. As we were told we had to stand in front of the group and introduce ourselves so Susan started then Joann and last I stood and said my name and how long I had been in Uganda. We then for the next hour took the children outside and Susan taught them a song in English and Spanish. I also went up and taught for 5 minutes about who Jesus is and what he did for us as she translated for those who did not know English. Then we went back into the church where two of the primary schools came to sing and dance for us. They sang asking their parents to provide for them so that they could go to school. They asked them to stop child labor and to love them instead of leaving them at home all the time. All the children just wanted to touch us because we were white and so they crowded around. I think they also probably thought we were going to be giving them something (which was hard not to do). They were so happy and grateful that we were there and they just kept thanking us and asking us to return. Then the pastor of the church talked as well as the district council man (mayor). After about 3 and half hours Susan finally got to talk which was the whole reason we were there. So after 6 hours of being there they sent us on our way with two live chickens and two big stocks of Mutoke (Ugandan staple food) this was our thank your present for coming. A definite experience

Gulu Trip!!

This week I got permission from the village director to go to Gulu with Joann one of the Overseas staff that works here. I have been praying that if God wanted me to go that He would open the door. Gulu is where the war has been going on, which what brought me to Uganda in the first place. This is where Invisible Children was filmed and where there are thousands of displaced people living in IDP camps. If you haven’t seen Invisible Children please do so, it will open your eyes to what is happening in our world. The pastor from the church that everyone attends here was an orphan himself and went up for the first time and said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and was appalled of the living conditions. He said mentally prepare yourself. Joesph Kony the leader of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) is not there right now, he has fled to Congo and the war has stopped for now. So it is much safer now that he isn’t even in the country. I know that God is going to really open my eyes and this will lay heavy on my heart. Please pray for SAFETY first and then for my emotional state as well. Like I said earlier this is the whole reason I wanted to come to this country and so I feel like I am being called to go and see the need. I will be there April 6th and 7th.

I hate being sick!!

I guess God wanted me to understand what starvation really felt like. I have had a bacterial stomach infection and have had nothing to eat in over 72 hours. I thought at times the 30 hour famine was difficult. Little did I know! I went to the doctor in town that Rafiki uses and was surprised at how nice it is! The doctor was very nice and after having a malaria test and some other lab work, I got some medicine and was on my way. It only cost 35,800 shillings which is only $20.45, which was for medicine and the lab work!! I am very lucky though because the amount of bacteria was huge and to not be feeling sick or throwing up as well has been a God thing. God has been good though in giving me a day of no school (it was Women’s day, which they celebrate here). I made it through teaching one class on Friday and just being weak with no stamina I decided to come back home. So just pray for those who can’t eat for longer than this amount of time, I can’t imagine! At least it isn’t malaria!!!!

What God has shown me!

I never thought I would have to go half way across the world to hear some wonderful sermons that really make you think about your life through God. Since being here I have really had my eyes opened to a lot of things. America is in trouble with religion, we have totally destroyed what Jesus wanted in and through his churches. I think within my lifetime we will end up having Africans come to the states as missionaries rather than vice versa. People here in Africa literally have absolutely NOTHING and they still sing praises to God and glorify Him in what they do. Prayer here is taken to a different level; God is the only thing some people have. They have to FULLY rely on prayer because they have no means to fix things themselves. Where as in America so often we will pray for something and then find a way to take care of it on our own after we have prayed. Even the churches here don’t have much you sit in plastic lawn chairs in a building that is half open but yet they serve as missionaries to surrounding slum areas or to churches in the bush. Your offering truly is an offering to God in that it goes to further His kingdom, not your own church. Today in church 4 ladies where there from a surrounding slum that the church is helping out. They live in huts that have old bed sheets as the roof and they take care of 40 children who have lost their parents to aids. So the church every other week takes food and the weeks in between goes to help teach English so that they can read the Bible. You can truly see the hand of God working in this country through people like this who go out and serve even though they are poor themselves. It is pretty amazing to be in the presence of people who are so passionate about serving.
Let us remember James 1:22---Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.

This is the view looking out from the guest house This is my home away from home






This is my kitchen/living room!

Places I've been and Things I've seen!!

I have been rooming with a wonderful couple from Boerne Sue and David and we have quickly become very close. They have made living here and getting used to things that are different very easy. They have also been like parents to me, reassuring me, encouraging me and helping me to adjust very easily. I thank God that they were put into my life, they are wonderful people and I will miss them greatly. We have been able to go every weekend to a new place so I thought I would update you as to the places I’ve been. The first weekend I went to the source of the Nile. We rode in a small motor boat that I thought would flood (it was kind of scary but we made it) to where the Nile meets Lake Victoria. This is the largest lake in the world and it was very nice. This is where I also walked through my first look at poverty. In order to get to the boat we had to walk through sewer, trash and broken down shacks that were people’s houses. It was a very eye opening experience. The next weekend we got to go to Speke resort which is where the queen and the parliament will be staying when they come in August. It was beautiful I really didn’t feel like I was in Africa, I was surrounding by beauty. We went here with the Anderson’s (a family here who is serving with Rafiki for at least two years) they take their children every once in a while to swim in their pool. The following weekend we went to the equator, which was not anything spectacular but it was neat to know you were standing in two hemispheres. I was able to buy some neat jewelry made by women with aids and it is surprisingly made out of paper. So far I have seen so many things and I have experienced a lot. I am now by myself though being the only person in the guest house and the only mini-missionary but I know I will continue to have many neat experiences. This can be a good thing but also a lonely thing, but so far I have been just fine with it all. Please pray that I will not get lonely or homesick for the next couple of months and that I will continue to grow.

Things I've learned about Ugandan Culture!

You learn real fast that a white person is an mzungu (M-zoo-n-goo) and anywhere that you are seen you will hear at least one person yell that to you. It doesn’t mean anything bad just that you are white and you lead a comfortable lifestyle, some are begging but most are just saying hi. I have learned that in order to adopt a child from Uganda you have to live here for 3 years to be able to legally adopt them. So those of you who thought I would be bringing a child home, I will not be. It has caused problems because Americans come here wanting to adopt but can’t. The problem is that some people come to “adopt” but really take them for child slavery. Also I have learned that Uganda like many other places has some stupid laws for instance any medicine (including gauze) that is expired can cause your clinic to be shut down. So people that send stuff to Rafiki have to send things that won’t expire for a long period of time, really this is just a ploy for the agency that checks for the dates to get money. Another backwards thing here is their understanding of marketing. They believe that if a product sells quickly that they should not replace it. So you can go to a store looking for something that you have gotten before and they will tell you “it is finished” meaning it is gone. They don’t restock it because they believe empty shelves look bad so they just never re-order that product. I have also learned quickly that laughing here means many things it can mean surprise, wonder, embarrassment or that something is funny. That was hard because I thought the kids were laughing at each other like kids in the states but they were probably really just embarrassed. Also silly means stupid here not funny, luckily the kids are used to having so many visitors from the states that they know at Rafiki that silly means funny. So I continue to learn new things everyday about the kids and the culture here, it is way different from the states and New Zealand.