I was able to spend Easter with some of students who are apart of the student ministry. Patience is a nurse and has been a really good friend to me since coming to Mbarara. She teaches at the University and is getting her master's in nursing. Dennis is a medical student and plays the guitar on the praise team at church. We had a fun meal at the Pepper's house and then enjoyed playing games together Easter afternoon.

Don't worry grandmommy...I still got to enjoy a bunny cake this year (of course it wasn't as good as yours, though).  

March 13-20th I attended a nursing conference in Limuru Kenya (about 45 minutes outside of Nairobi). This is the conference center where we stayed. There were around 50 nurses who attended. It was such a beautiful place and wonderful time of fellowship. The weather was so nice as well...I even needed a light jacket at times! It was really refreshing to get away for a while, meet some new people, and learn more about nursing in a third-world country. 

One of the highlights of our time in Kenya was traveling into Nairobi and eating at "Java House". This restaurant/coffe shop chain was started by a couple of Americans. It was amazing!! The food was the closest thing to American food I have had since coming to Africa! We even got to enjoy ice cream!! Fun times...here I am with Emily and Darla. A couple of other nurses I met who serve in other parts of Uganda. 

 We were surrounded by these beautiful tea fields while at the nurse's conference. Tea is one of Kenya's big crops. 

Shops in Mbarara. There are about 3 major roads in Mbarara. This is the one that has all the Auto/hardware stores. 

The streets of Mbarara town. 

Just another day here in Africa...

Life here in Africa just takes longer....you can't just "run" to the grocery store or the post office. What would take me 30 minutes to accomplish in America takes about 2 hours here. Lately I have experienced some of these nice frustrating "Africa days". Like the day before I was supposed to leave to drive 4 hours to Kampala (the capital city) I had a flat tire. No big deal right; wrong! I didn't have a jack or any of the other equipment needed to change a flat. When I finally did get the proper equipment I found out my spare tire was bad! To top things off as I was leaving the clinic to go get my flat tire repaired I hear a "crunch" sound.
I was like oh no...now what?!! One of the Ugandan counselors who was with me had left her seat belt hanging out her door and I ran over it. Anways, I ended up spending over 4 hours getting my tire repaired, buying a new tire for a spare, and fixing my seat belt! Later I found out that while they fixed my flat...they did not balance the wheels and when I drove above 60kpm my truck started shaking really bad.....so I spent a couple hours the next morning before leaving for Kampala getting my wheels balanced. I am learning things here that I would never have to worry about in the states!

So today was another "fun" day. I was with the Words of Hope team and we were getting ready to leave to do home visits when I realized I left my cell phone at home. I knew it wasn't safe for us to go without communication so I went back home. When I got my phone I had a call from my supervisor (Dr. Pepper) saying that the electricity department was coming around turning people's power off who hadn't paid their bill. Well I hadn't received a bill in over a month so I figured I better go check on it. Of course the electric department was full of customers who were upset cause their power was shut off. So I went to try to find out where my bill was. See here the company personally delievers your bill to your house each month. Well since my house is surrounded my a fence/gate if no one is here the company leaves the bill waded up and stuck somewhere in my gate. Which is just great cause the wind can blow it away or a kid might take it. But that's the system here. So they finally found my bill and said I owed a ridiculous amount of money. Before Iwould pay it though I went back home to check my meter. Thankfully I had written the number down on the day I moved in 44164 so I went to check the meter and what did it read?? 44164 of course...my meter was broken. So how was the company getting the balnced I owed you might ask? Well by estimating of course. Apartently the meter has not worked for over 2 years and the electirc company has just been estimating what this house uses each month. Can you imagine your electricity bill being estimated in America! So after taking a man back to my house to check it again and going back and forth about 3 times I was able to get out of paying the bill and I am supposed to be getting a new meter...so we'll see.

Now the Post office is beside the Electric Company so I thought I would run and check my mail "real fast"Ha, yeah right. I find a nice big package from back home....Yea!! I go to pay for the package and they tell me I have to go with someone from the post office down the main street to the revenue offices where someomen in "customs" will inspect my box. So after waiting for some time they finally opened my box and make me take out each thing one by one...It's insane!! After taking the man back to the post office and paying for my package....I realized that I had spent the last 4 1/2 hours just going to the Electric Department and the Post office! The joys of living in Africa....a culture where time has no meaning, literally!

Through all of these "frustrating experiences" I have been learning a lot! Evas, a Ugandan nurse who works with me helped me through a lot of this kind of stuff. Today as we were driving back and forth to the electric company Evas reminded me not to worry that these kinds of things happen and that I just need to trust the Lord and ask for his protection/guidance each day and accept whatever comes my way. She is so right...there's no point in getting upset or frustrated cause this just life here. It's amazing to me....Ugandans are such strong people cause they have had to live such hard lives. I really am learning a lot from them...there faith is strong and it puts me to shame at times. May He Be Glorified even in the "frustraing" days :)

This is Stacey....my new American friend here in Mbarara!! She is 25 and single working as a teacher with another mission organization here. I just praise God for her....I had been praying that God would provide a friend near my age here outside of Ugandans. Unfortunately Stacey will be leaving in May, but I am so thankful for her friendship right now...please be praying that God will bring someone to replace her that I can be friends with as well when she leaves. It's not easy living alone here but having a friend to go walk with or just talk to has been such a blessing!

Here is one of our home visit patients...Ambrose and his family. The children were home for lunch from school and we had a really good visit with this family. Both Ambrose and his wife have AIDS. Ambrose has lost his sight because of the disease so he can not work or really do much other than sit all day. His wife tries to do some tailoring to make money for the family. Thankfully both are believers and are trying to rely on God for strength. We were able to spend some time reading scripture and encouraging this family. But I couldn't help but think as we were sitting there that these poor children would be left as orphans soon. I am not for sure if they even understand that their parents are sick. This is just one of the many examples of patients and their families that we, the "Words of Hope Team" visit.

Fun story (kind of)....after taking this picture we got into my truck to head back to Mbarara (about a 40 minute drive). We get back to Mbarara and I can't seem to find my camera anywhere. I thought "oh no..did I leave it back at that village?" Well to say the least I was not the calmest person at this point. I just wanted to cry because a digital camera is not easy to replace out here and I need it to keep you guys updated about life here! But my friend Kathleen, a missionary nurse from Kampala who was visiting me at the time prayed with me. Thankfully I never shed a tear...I started thinking this camera is only a "thing" and crying over it wouldn't do anygood. So I just waited while Enoch and Aloysious (counselors with Words of Hope) took a friend's motorcycle all the way back to the village for me to look for it. I thought there was know way it would still be there because people here are so poor I was sure someone would have already sold it to someone by now (although I seriously doubt they would have known how to use it and it wouldn't be any good without all the cables). But thankfully it was there...Praise God. He is so faithful...even when we are faithless! Pray that God will bless Ambrose and his family for their honesty and that he will continue raising his children in the truth.

This is a typical "water hole" where people come to get their drinking water out in the villages. Can you imagine drinking this water? We always teach our patients to be sure and boil their water before drinking, but that is not always possible...it's very expensive to boil water and time consuming. It's amazing the children are not more sick, but they build up a resistence and are able to eat and drink things that could kill us Americans! 

I had to put this picture on here. I couldn't believe it when I saw this satelitte dish out in a deep village. We were doing home visits about an hour outside of Mbarara and they have satelitte TV!! It's crazy people are living in poverty yet they somehow find money to get what's important to them...it's so frustrating! (This isn't a common site though just so you know, but I thought it was interesting.) 

No this is not a geyser at Yellowstone! It is a huge ANT HILL! They are everywhere out in the villages here. People eat the ants so I have heard, but I haven't gotten to experience any yet...I'm sure I will at some point though.

We have identified a village, called Katete, where we do home visits where there are several patients that are believers. We asked if they would be interested in having a bible study at one of our patient's home on Friday afternoons. They were so excited! Here we are on our first meeting and we had 20 adults plus lots of children that came to meet under the mango tree. It was great! People here in Uganda are searching for hope so we definitely have an open door here. As you can see there are only a couple of men and this is a real problem in Africa because most of the men don't want to have anything to do with God because they don't want to have to give up their promiscious lifestyles (as I have mentioned before). Please pray that God would raise up some leaders, specifically male leaders, among this group. We have been studying through a bible study called "Who is Jesus". It is all done in Ruyankore of course so I am just there for support. Enoch (pictured in the blue beside me) has been a huge assest to our Words of Hope team this past month and has helped start this study but he is going back to the capital, Kampala, where he studies at the University. Please remember Aloysious and I as we hope to carry on the work and that this group might be of support and encouragment to each other as several of these people are HIV+.  

This is the Canteen I sometimes get a quick lunch from when I am busy working at the clinic. They love it when the muzungu (white person) nurse comes and tries to speak Runyankore and eat Ugandan food! Their specialty is Goat liver and chips (french fries)...yummy huh? I usually just get chips and a nice bottle of coke, but sometimes I get an amadazi (this hard deep fried muffin thing). Really Ugandan food isn't that bad and I can eat a huge plate full for like $1.50 so it's really cheap. I have had "goat stew" a few times and it's pretty good....I like it better than the cow meat here! 

Here is a view of the hospital grounds. Each "department" is in a separate buidling with a grass area in-between. Patient's family members or caregivers sit outside and cook the patients' food in these areas (cause there's no cafeteria!) It's crazy...I can walk into the wards at anytime. No one asks me who I am or what I am doing...if I want to start treating patients they gladly welcome me.  

This is the female medical ward of the hospital. There are usually 25 beds, but this day there were about 40 patients on the ward...when there aren't enough beds the patients have to lay on the floor. Every patient brings their own matress, bed sheets, and an attendant who takes care of them. You can not be admitted to the hospital without a caregiver!! There are only about 2 nurses for all those patients so it's impossible for them care for each patient. They barely can get the medicines passed out! Can you imagine trying to start an IV on a patient who doesn't have a bed and is lying on the floor? Oh nurse friends...the sights I see!  

This is just outside the medical ward of the hospital. Patients' families and attendents "camp out" literally bringing mattresses and all to stay outside and wait while their loved one is in the hospital. A sight you definitely wouldn't see in America!