Mother and baby at refugee camp...I think this picture is so sweet.

My favorite pit latrine in Uganda....

Just a picture of my favorite pit latrine in Uganda. This is at one of our churches at the refugee camp about 1 1/2 hours from here. The reason it is my favorite pit latrine (that I've experienced so far) is that when you stand up everyone can see you because there is no roof and the walls stop at about my shoulders, the door (if you can call it that) doesn't shut, and most of all because there are maggots that you can see when the light shines down in the latrine. :)

Game Park...

Here are some pictures from our trip to the game park with the Union University nursing volunteer team. There were 8 total in the team, but 2 got sick and couldn't go. Here I am with some of the girls on top of the car as we were taking pictures of elephants. Fun times.

We left very early to go to the game park and saw this beautiful sunrise. The picture doesn't really show it, but the sun was huge! We have some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets here being on the Equator.

We saw so many elephants at the game park when I took the Union nursing team. We went to this open field where there where probably at least 20 elephants. A family crossed the road right behind our trucks.

The elephant in the last picture was by itself and did not look too happy to see us, especially Spencer who got out to take pictures and could have seen his last days had he gotten much closer!

Here is a cape buffalo with the 'enyangi' (white egrant) birds that I am named after here.


I was very excited to get this picture of a hippo "yawning" finally. For those of you that don't know...I am really intrigued by hippos. Maybe it's from all the years of playing 'Hungry, Hungry Hippos' as a kid. Here's a couple random facts for you....hippos can run at speeds up to 18km per hour and hold their breath for 5-6mins.

How a headlamp has changed my life....

If I had known how much a headlamp would have changed my life I would have asked someone to send one months ago! I know most of you back home are wondering why in the world I would be so excited about a headlamp...you may not even know what one is...but let me just tell you it's a great invention. As most of you know the power is turned off here every other day for 24 hours at a time. It's become life here so we make the best of it. I had been 'making it' with my candles and flashlights, but learned of the joys of using a headlamp from my supervisors the Peppers and asked my nursing team from Union (pictures to come from that soon I hope) to bring one out for me. My headlamp has 3 different lights (red for night vision, LED which is brighter and more concentrated, and a normal flashlight) and the light can be titled while on my head to make for the best possible angle! I know most of you still don't understand why a headlamp would change my life but let me just explain.... 

Top 10 uses for a headlamp in Uganda when there's no power: 

1. when cooking 

2. when reading/writing 

3. when putting on makeup 

4. when trying to start my generator 

5. when eating (it's hard to see your food by candlelight!) 

6. when trying to lock up my doors at night 

7. when hooking up/taking down my inverter (powers a lamp, etc. from my car battery) 

8. when typing on the computer (sometimes you need to see what you are typing) 

9. when doing household chores 

10. when walking around my house in general 

The main thing is, the headlamp frees up my hands so I can be more productive during power outages. I used to always hold my flashlight in my mouth...which was so annoying (especially as I began to drool all over the flashlight). Anyways I highly recommend headlamps especially to all of you out there who live in countries where you have frequent power outages...it WILL change your life, I promise! :)

Discipleship group

Monday we went to visit our patient Namudu (with flowered shirt in the middle) and she and 4 of her family/neighbors got saved. Friday we went back to begin some discipleship with them. Praise God they all showed up and 2 others (this old man and another women who also claim to be saved)! It was difficult to make them understand that now they are saved they cannot be taken out of God's hand and lose their salvation. Due to the Anglican influence here they believe that you must confess every sin you commit in order to 'keep your salvation'. I tried to explain that we are by nature sinful and sin all the time, without even realizing it sometimes. And if we had to confess every single sin we commit in order to stay saved then we'd be spending every second of every day on our knees! When we realize that salvation is fully a work of God then we can be assured that He will preserve us till the end. Phil 1:6 ,John 10:27-30, Rom 8:16, Rom 11:29 (just to name a few). :) We will continue meeting with them each Friday. Please pray that this group will come to understand the fullness of God's grace and gift of salvation. Pray that they will continue to be eager to learn and to bring others. Pray that God will guide me in what discipleship strategies to use (only one person in this group can read).

Words of Hope visits

This picture was taken at a house where we went to do homevists. These are the children/grandchildren of our patient. The girl in this picture is 14 years old and that is her baby she is holding. Her 'husband' left her so now she is living with her parents again. Her mother is our patient...the father is muslim and has several wives, but hasn't tested for HIV yet. The boy in the brown shirt is the father's son from another wife...the one in the overalls is the mother of the 14 year old girl's son. Are you confused yet? This is very typical of families here. Everyone lives together and it's often hard to figure out who is really related. It's so sad to think this girl, younger than my brother, has a baby. You would think she was my age from the way she acts. There's not a lot of 'being a kid' here....kids work hard and grow up fast. These little boys were so cute as they played together on the dirt floor of their house. The one in the overalls kept hugging his mother, who was covered in mud from digging in the plantation....it was sweet.

Have you ever locked your keys under the hood of your car?

This past week I did something pretty dumb. Every other day here we don't have electricity so I have this thing called an 'inverter' that I hook up to my car battery and I can run an extension cord into my house and charge my computer, phone, run a lamp, fan, or a few other basic things (the things I've learned in Uganda...I sure didn't know what an inverter was before!). It usually lasts 2-3 hours before completely draining my battery. So this past Sunday night we were having a bad storm and my alarm was sounding that my car battery was now dead. So I ran out to unhook my inverter and accidentally locked my keys under the hood of my car! Not only that but one of the inverter cables got stuck under the hood as I was shutting it. Since it was night and it was raining there wasn't much I could do. I just tied a plastic bag around the cable and waited till morning. Then I called Barry, my teammate, and he brought our mechanic and a guy who specializes in locks (i guess sort of like a lock-smith). Here they are trying to 'break into' my car. They pried open my window then used a coat hanger to unlock my door. I've had experiences locking keys in cars before (like the time when I was about 11 and I locked my baby brother in our van with it running a few days before Christmas), but this was a first to lock my keys under my hood! Just another 'fun' story of life in Africa.

flying wet kisses.....

Guys....take note and learn from the master poet who sent me this 'sweet' sms (text message) tonight! It said....

"Yes seetie gd nite flying wet kisses but we don't have power till we meet"

I know most of you girls are jealous out there. It pretty much made my day. I didn't recognize the number so I don't know who the sender was....a secret admirer, someone playing a joke on me, or a wrong number. Who knows? I think my favorite part is the line about not having power...gotta love Uganda :)

These roads we travel....

Pictures don't really do justice of our road conditions here. They've gotten even worse over the past couple months due to the rainy season. It's been said you could lose a small child in some of these 'ruts'. The picture above is the major road going to my house. After the roads get so bad someone (i don't know who) comes and dumps a load full of clay bricks down to fill in the holes. Interesting, huh? The bottom picture is a backway to my house, but cars can't pass this way anymore, haven't been able to for several months cause there is a huge pile of rocks/bricks in the way. And then there is a big pit where water lines are surfacing.

I just wish they would tear up the sections of the road that still have some concrete, make them all dirt and grate them. But then the rains will come and just make it bad again. Oh well....that's life here in Uganda.

Girls Night In....

This past Friday I had some of the university student girls over to my house for a sleepover. It had been a while since they had come over. We had spaghetti and I made fudgesicles from scratch (oh the things I've learned in Africa :) and then watched movies til the 'wee' hours of the morning. Fun times.

Dubai U.A.E.

I'm finally back from my travels. It was such a fun 2 weeks! I spent about 5 days in Dubai (which is in the United Arab Emirates...on the Arabian Pennisula near Saudia Arabia for those that don't know) for vacation. Dubai is one of the coolest cities I've ever been too...it's extremely rich (it's the business capital of the Middle East) and makes America look old! It is definitely one of the fasest growing cities in the world. There is one area of town where there are at least 150 high rises under construction. I've never seen anything like it! By 2008 Dubai is supposed to have the tallest building in the world. It was so nice to be in a 'real city' again with nice paved 4-lane highways and driving on the right side of the road. The big thing about Dubai is all the shopping! There are tons of malls and one even has a ski slope inside it. CLICK HERE to see more pictures

Here I am in front of the famous sailboat-shaped Burj al Arab hotel on the coast of the Persian Gulf. It is the only 7-star hotel in the world and only costs about $1000 a night to stay there.

I went to Dubai with Christy and Kristin who both work at Heritage International School in Kampala. Here we are enjoying some good American food from Chili's! Eating at American restaurants was one of the highlights of our trip! They had Applebees, TGI fridays, Tony Romas, tons of fastfood (including Papa Johns which I was very surprised about) and even a marble slab ice cream place!

Desert Safari

We went towards the border of Oman and took a desert safari. One of the coolest expereinces of my life thus far! We rode in land cruisers and went 'dune bashing' a.k.a the roller coster that never ends. 45 mins of sliding and turning and hopping sand dunes was awesome, but made us a bit sick to our stomachs (some people in the other cars threw-up whenever we stopped). We had a neat Egyptian family in the car with us (husband, wife, and 2 year old daughter). They were very nice and taught us a lot about the culture too. We were taken to a big tented area where we rode camels, got henna tatoos, ate a traditional meal, and was etertained by a belly dancer.

I never thought I'd get to ride on a camel in the desert! When camels sit down it is scary....as you can tell from my face I screamed :)

Here I am drinking some strong arabian coffee where we had a traditional meal in the desert. After our meal (including tasty lamb kabobs) we were entertained with a belly dancer.

Dubai is famous for their gold souks (arabic word for market). It's supposed to be one of the cheapest places in the world to buy gold. We didn't buy any but had fun shopping for other suveniors and looking around. I can't believe this beautiful building is a 'market'! Much different than Uganda's markets :) This country is so clean, there are actually trash cans.....we missed seeing the cavaras (plastic shopping bags) everywhere. Here's Christy and Kristin doing a little window shopping.

Dubai is still rich in Arab culture although 80% of people living in Dubai are foreigners (particularly South Asian). Here you can see traditionally dressed muslim men and women in front of the mosque that was in one of the malls we visited. There are prayer rooms or mosques almost everywhere you go (malls, airport, restaurants) and the call to prayer is played over the speakers inside the malls (as well as outside from the mosques that are on every corner). Some women were fully veiled in a burqa, others only covered their heads. The women were dressed so beautifully and it was such a rich place that we felt poor in our jeans and t-shirts. While some people speak English, Arabic is still predominately used and all signs are in both Arabic and English. It was interesting to me to see such westernization along with such tradition.

Airport Madness....

Even though we left Africa to see some westernization, we booked our airline tickets in Africa (Kampala, Uganda) and of course we have a fun story to tell about our return home...cause 'that's Africa'. We arrived at the Dubai airport at 2am and checked in for our 4:45am flight. We were 'greeted' by people returning to different parts of Africa (Nigeria, Zambia, Ethiopia, etc) and all their STUFF (as you can sort of see in the picture). I have never seen so much stuff....people were checking like 5 huge boxes full of who knows what. We saw everything from generators, to car tires, to comforters, to huge stuffed lions...it was INSANE! There was even one lady who checked all her stuff in only to go out into the airport and buy more 'duty free' stuff and then she tried to bring it back to the counter to check in more luggage! I have never seen anything like this before in my life. The idea of waiting in a line is not a concept that is well understood in most of Africa so people were pushing us with their carts trying to 'cut' in front of us. One person got pushed so hard they fell down!

So, here we were 3 white, American girls with one suitcase apiece trying to to check in. After waiting an hour and a half we finally reached the counter only to find out that we really didn't have tickets on this flight! Aparently the Ethiopian Airlines office in Kampala did not confirm our return flight (and didn't tell us that we were supposed to have done that 4 days ago). We were told that we would have to call the airport at 6:30am and see if we could get on the next morning's flight (same time). So we ended up renting a car and going back to the guest house we stayed at to catch a few hours sleep. At 6:30am we called and were told that we could get tickets but we didn't receive an itinerary or anything...they just told us to come to the aiport at midnight to get the tickets (a little scary, but what can we do?). The next day we got to go back into Dubai eat at Applebee's, see more sights, and go to a mall and watch a movie while waiting for the clock to strike midnight. We arrived at the airport at 11:30 and waited for an hour, but thankfully we did get tickets and they were able to send us to Uganda instead of Nairobi, Kenya (we were going to take a bus back to Uganda cause it is so much cheaper...but much more dangerous). So then we went to check in this time at 1am for the 4:45am flight hoping to 'beat the rush', but we were too late. There were already like 100 people with their 50 billion bags/boxes trying to check in. Thankfully this time we just went to 'business class' cause we wanted to make sure that we really had tickets on this flight and we did so they let us check in. It was a pretty crazy 2 days (or was it just one?), but God really took care of us and blessed us with a free flight to Uganda and an extra day in Dubai! He works all things together for good!