This woman is collecting bananas to sell in her small duka (shop). There are many kinds of bananas grown here in Uganda. When these ripen they will be kabalagala, these are small sweet bananas (much sweeter than in the states). You can buy a hand of them (with like 12-15 fingers) for sometimes as little as 7 or 8 cents out in the village...insn't that crazy!

As Aloysious and I were walking through this banana plantation to a patient's house during home visits one day he said "Do you know what this is, Kari". I saw about 7 or 8 large piles of dirt with small plants growing on them. I couldn't really tell what they were though. Aloysious said...they are graves. The patient we were going to visit would one day be burried here along with her husband and other family members that had more than likely died of AIDS as well. These patients' days are numbered but pray that they might know Him the giver of Life.

Last weekend I had 15 of the students from church over to my house for pizza, decorating cookies, and a sleep over. We stayed up till 2 am watching "chick-flics" and had a lot of fun. Thanks Aunt Julie for the sprinkles and icing from back home...it was a great idea! Most of these girls are studying medicine at the university and are right around my age. They really are a blessing and I am thankful for their friendships. 

Here's the finished project...I think there were 3 cookies after the night was over :) 

This is my friend Betty, the tailor, who is a new believer. She made me this Kitangi, a traditional African dress. This frabic is comon from Congo and dresses like this are worn all over Africa. Women wear dresses like this everday here in Uganda, but most don't wear the head wrap here in town unless it is a special occasion. Do I look African, yet? Keep remembering Betty as her husband is muslim and does not want to "hear" about her new faith. Pray that she continue to grow in truth. 

Aerobics in Africa?

Watch out Billy Blanks, cause Apollo the aerobics instructor at the little gym above the dance club/bar in Mbarara may put you out of a job! So I have really been missing exercising and going to the YMCA since moving to Uganda. Sometimes I walk here, but I am constantly stared at and talked about in Runyankore..sometimes people will just touch my skin....to say the least it gets pretty annoying at times! Anyways, I was telling one of my Ugandan friends about missing going to the gym and she said that they have aerobics Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings in town. I was like...yeah right, areobics in Uganda where all they seem to eat is startches and fried foods? No one seems to care about staying in shape here (or at least the women don't). But I decided to try it out anyway...hey it can't hurt to meet new people right? So tonight I went along with some other Ugandan girl friends and boy did I get a work-out! I realized how out of shape I was. Of course we had to take our shoes off, cause it's not acceptable to wear your shoes on carpet here, and I kept having to scoot back cause the guy in front of me was practically on-top of me at times (personal space is not really valued here)....but over all it was a really good workout. I think my favorite part was when everyone started running around in a big circle saying "faster, faster"...I was like is this for real? I of course was the only white person, but everyone was really nice to me and welcomed me. Afterwards we had to go and pay (75 cents) downstairs in the "sauna" area....I still don't know how anyone would know if we payed or not cause it was in a completely different area. I was welcomed by the sight of big Ugandan men in small towels drinking hot tea. Only in Uganda would you finish working out and drink a nice glass of hot tea...these people and their chaayi!! (Runyankore for tea) The only way to get to the aerobics room is through the bar/pool joint with the dance club...hope I don't get in trouble with the board :)

This was probably one of the most fun experiences I have had since coming to Mbarara....wasn't quite like the Y...but still a taste of something I enjoy from "home". I would never have thought God would provide an aerobics class for me...but that just shows how much he cares about us...to give us things we enjoy; even the little things that don't seem to matter...they matter to God!

Here is Grace, one of our patients, along with some village children (everyone always wants to get their picture taken). Grace is a believer and comes to our bible study that meets in Katete on Wednesdays. Several weeks ago we visited Grace and she was so sick I didn't think she was going to make it...we were able to help her get to the hospital and get treatment. Now she is able to dig in the gardens and work in her banana plantation! 

Enkoko (chicken).....

So yesterday we were out in a village visiting some patients and Aloysious decides he wants to buy a chicken to take home to his parents who he was going to go visit in the village. Actually the chicken is supposed to be for me when I go visit his village (his mother keeps wanting me to come visit so they can cook a meal for me and say thank you for helping Aloysious when he was sick with appendicitis). So now he decides to put it in the back of my truck to take back to town. As he does it starts flying all over the place...thankfully i have a camper on the back of my truck! So here he is trying to tie the legs together tighter...I just kept thinking about orientation and killing that chicken....the things i do here that i would never do in America! By the way he bought this hen for like $3...can you believe that?!

Here is the Words of Hope team (home visits project to AIDS patients), minus Evas..the other nurse. We have lost/added some people lately. Here is Dr Pepper, Aloysious, Peace (our new counselor) and me. Aloysious will be beggining seminary classes this next week in Jinja (about 6 hours away). So he will be gone for 3 weeks every 3 months as he goes for his studies. I am really happy for this opportunity for him, but Words of Hope will really miss him. Please remember him as he studies as well as Words of Hope...that we will be able to get more help as our number of patients keeps growing! 

Thanksgiving in April?....

This past Sunday at church was a Thanksgiving Service...sort of like a homecoming. Former members came back and we gave thanks to God for all He has done in the life of this church. Here is the worship team...made up of University students leading us in worship. This is not your typical African church (although we do clapp our hands, use drums, and sometimes jump/dance a little) because the students are much more westernized and sing a lot of American praise songs...plus most songs are in English.

Here are the children at church eating under the mango tree at the fellowship...they are sweet. 

After the service...we had a full course Ugandan meal with matooke (the staple food here), rice, beans, peas, chicken, chaptis (thick flour tortilla like things), millet (which is disguesting and i don't know how to discribe it), and bannas as you can see! It was a good day of celebrating what the Lord has done in the life of this church and about 100 people attended! 

Here is our church in Mbarara town. This is the only church we (Baptist Mission) have unfortunately and about 50,000 people live in Mbarara. The next closest church is about an hour or so out in a village. Right now the majority of the church is university students and children so the service is lead in English, which is good for me, but the majority of people in Mbarara don't speak English well enough to attend. Please pray for more male leadership as well as a local pastor for this church. 

Here are some of the university students at our church enjoying the fellowhip. Lillian, Mera, and Brenda (all medical students). 

This is the side view of the church. The red metal thing in the ground is the baptismal. This church is very nice compared to other churches in town. 

This is Geoffrey and Gift...two kids at church. Both are HIV+, but are on antiretroval drugs thankfully and living pretty healthy lives. But more importantly they are being raised in the truth! 

Rejoicing in Hope...

As I watched her gasping for air between coughing, I wondered what she was thinking as she lay there, her body literally wasting away due to AIDS. Mary was by far the worst patient I had ever seen while doing a home visit. She was too weak to speak or even squeeze my hand. Her skin was like burning coals as she lay covered under a thick blanket. The small room had 4 beds taking up almost every possible inch of space. This was the "house" where the mother, sister, and children were staying along with Mary. As I listened to the mother explain the situation to Aloysious in Runyankore, I wondered what Mary must have looked like before the disease took over. I am sure as a young girl in secondary school, infatuated by an older, man she never thought she would be on her deathbed at age 30. The mother told us that she married young to a man who was mean to her and beat her. After she became sick, he took another wife in town and left her in the village to die. As I assessed her, I knew it was only a matter of time before the disease took her life. What do I do....as a nurse I couldn't just leave her there to die?! But the mother said we could not take her back to the hospital....they had to wait for the husband to come and decide what to do with her. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be a stranger to your own husband. But many women here live as outcasts to their "co-wives" and are no more than a servant in their own home...caring for the children and preparing food. Knowing that we could not offer Mary and physical hope, we began to read scripture to her. As Aloysious read Psalm 23 she looked at me as if she was at peace....she knew she was going home...to a real home to live forever with her Savior. Mary had Hope in what seemed like a hopeless situation, but each day thousands of people die of AIDS without this Hope.....oh that they might "Rejoice in Hope" (Rm 12:12).

Our annual mission meeting was held at the source of the Nile River on Lake Victoria. Lake Victoria is huge! I was able to take a boat ride out and see some of it....there are over 50 islands on the lake! And the biggest island has 70,000 people!  

Here I am with the Peppers...Sally, Kelly (15), me, Megan (17), and the famous Dr. Pepper. I have enjoyed hanging out with their daughters, but they will soon be going back to boarding school in Kenya. 

Here I am with the other singles in our mission...Christy, Ashley (an MK visiting from the States, me, Tammy, Karyn). Their costumes weren't as extravagant as mine!