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! 

No, I don't dress like this everyday! Last week we had our annual mission meeting. The theme was "The Incredibles"...Saturday night we were to dress like super heroes. Here I am with Penny and Evelyn, fellow nurses...we were the Three Nursesketeers! Unfortunately we didn't win the contest though.  

Here is Annah, my house helper that lives behind me. Here she is with her friend Margaret. Annah is about the size of a toothpick, seriously! But she has been such a blessing. These are her 2 rooms that are about 5 steps outside my backdoor. Don't you love her curtains in the doorway?! Turtle Power!! 

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.