God's protection....

Last weekend I took some vacation days to go up north to Murchison Falls, the biggest game park in Uganda, with my friend Patience (who is also a nurse). We left on Thursday and headed to Kampala, the capital, where we would meet up with our tour company and leave the next day. We arrived to Kampala a little before 7pm and decided to go into one of the 2 grocery stores we have in Kampala that make you actually feel like you are kind of in America to buy some mineral water to take on our trip. We were in the store around 30 minutes, if that, and came out to find my car had been broken into! Both our bags for the trip were stolen as well as my digital camera and some money! I couldn't believe it....we had left the car locked (i'm almost positive) and there were like 5 security guards around 'guarding' the parking lot. The security guards were of course no help though...said they didn't see anything which I don't see how is possible since the shopping center was closing and there were only like 3 cars in the parking lot. It was a frustrating ordeal cause you can't just call the police to come (you have to actually go to the police station) and no one was really helping me. So we had nothing but the clothes on our backs and we were supposed to be leaving for a 3 day trip the next day! I felt like it was like The Amazing Race t.v. show and they had just taken away all our belongings :) But Patience, who is also a believer just reminded me to be grateful for God's protection. We were ok, we didn't lose our major money for the trip and our passports that were thankfully in our purses, and even more amazingly Spencer had let me borrow his really nice camera and it wasn't stolen! It was the most expensive thing in the car and it was still there, by God's grace.

I was pretty shaken up after this incident and didn't see how there was any way we could go on our trip now especially since we didn't have any clothes or even a toothbrush! But Christy, my friend in Kampala said we should come borrow stuff from her and still go. So thankfully we did. A volunteer who was there visiting even left me some of her makeup which was a blessing since you can't get stuff like that here. So even in the small things God provided. God just really showed me through this expereince how temporal our material posessions are and how all we need is Him. Frustrating things happen, but God is always in control and I have peace knowing that He ordained this for His glory. Our two Bibles were stolen so who knows, maybe the theives will come to know the Lord :)

Here I am with Patience in front of the falls....this is the Nile River by the way. I'm so glad we ended up going...I got to finally see giraffes! It was amazing...I hope to put up some more pictures sometime this week.

Pineapples....

The Union nursing team left a couple of these 'canned' pineapple cups from America. Even though we have tons of fresh pineapple here, I didn't have any one day and I wanted some fruit so I opened up one of these. I took one bite and almost had to spit it out it was so disgusting! I forgot how bad canned or what I like to call 'fake' pineapple is. How will I ever go back to America where I can't just go down to the street and buy a pineapple for 30 cents yearround?! We may not have McDonalds, but you can't beat these pineapple filled bicycles that line the street around the hospital/university, and all I have to do is pull over in my car and buy one.

I will definitely miss the pineapples here, but then again I am quickly reminded of all the fruits we have in America that I can't get here: grapes, oranges (well we have some that are green and extremely sour, more like a lemon), strawberries, canelopes, peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, kiwi, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries.... But we do have mangos, small sweet bananas, papaya, passion fruit, watermelon (but not as good as America), guavas, jack fruit (very strange large fruit that I don't particularly like) that aren't as easy to get in America so it's a toss up. But i'd sure like to have some fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream right now :)

This is how pineapples grow. This one is growing in my backyard and has been for like 8 months, so they take forever. But it'll be well worth the wait!

Does your favorite restaurant feed like a mother? Mine does....

There is a pretty good size South Asian influence here in Uganda. They own a lot of the pharmacies, grocery stores, and businesses. I have come to really like Indian food...in fact I'm just fascinated with Indian culture and burdened for the lostness of those people as well. This is a picture of the sign for my favorite restaurant in Mbarara....called 'City Top'. It is owned by a couple of Indian men and I go there at least once a week to get the vegetable curry 'hot' (you have to tell them hot or it will be so mild cause most Ugandans do not like spicy things). I don't particularly know what "Feeds like a mother" means, but I guess I'm supposed to compare it to my mother's cooking. My mother is a great cook and I thoroughly enjoy City Top so I guess it works. That's one thing I am going to miss about living here....ethnic foods and being around different cultures. I hope there's some Indian food in Evansville or Louisville.....or I guess I can learn how to make my own :)

The other day I went to visit my night guard, Fred, at his home and met his wife and 2 little girls (he has other children as well that live in the village with other family, which is very common here cause they can't afford for all of them to stay in town). Fred lives with his family in a mud room about 10ft x 12ft (which is very typical of how people live here in town). He pays 20,000 shillings a month (approximately $12) in rent but only makes 50,000 shillings working as a night guard. So as you can tell he is always concerned about having money to take care of his family. He has been thinking of trying to get a job working as a guard in Iraq, Iran, or Sudan he said. (Security companies there offer guards from here large amounts of money to go and work. The sad thing is people here don't understand about the fighting and danger that is taking place in those countries). We tried to encourage him not to leave his family, but money is everything to people here. Even though Fred is what I would consider a strong believer, providing for the needs of his family are very real and something that worries him greatly. Please pray he will trust God to provide for his needs and not desert his family in order to make money that will in all reality probably never get to him. And also that he and other Ugandans will not see money as the answer to all their problems, but look to the giver of life and rest in Him alone.

Here are Fred's two little girls. They screamed and cried when they saw white people coming to their house in a car! Children here are often very afraid of white people (they have heard that white people will eat them). Then we gave them a couple of little toys brought out by the Union nursing team and they seemed to like us then :)

Fondue Night at the Wilks

So, what do we do for fun around here? Well most Thursday nights we get together at the Wilks' house for pizza, basketball/football, and games. A couple Thursdays ago Dr. Christy (who was here visiting) fixed a chocolate fondue with bananas and pineapple for dessert. Then she told us that if we dropped our fruit off our skewers into the pan we had to kiss the person next to us. Something practiced somewhere...I forgot. Needless to say that brought great fun to the kids. Emily got several kisses from me...I couldn't keep my fruit on for some reason! So as you can see we've got pretty exciting lives here :)

Future plans....

I just found out that I have been accepted to Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY for the Spring 2007! I plan to get a MA in missiology. Thanks to those of you who have been praying about this. Please continue to pray that financial means (job, housing, insurance, etc) will work out. I'm nervous about transitioning back to American life in a few months, but also excited about what the Lord is going to teach me.

What?!

This is just one of the funny things we saw written on the back flap of trucks on the way to Lake Bunyonyi last weekend. We see a lot of funny things written on taxis and trucks here, but I really have no idea what this is talking about. Who knew there were different genders of cassava? What in the world?!

Bushara Island...

Last weekend me, Dr. Christy (a volunteer and my roommate for a few weeks), Spencer, and the Wilks went down to Bushara Island on Lake Bunyonyi (2 1/2 hrs southwest of here) for a little time away. We played some football, rode in a dugout canoe, played some Rook (our team card game), enjoyed some cooler weather roasting marshmallows by the fire, and saw an amazing night sky. All in all it was a nice little 'getaway'.

The girls went hiking around the island (which is very small so it didn't take too long). But we collected sticks to roast our marshmallows on and Sarah used her African skills to tie them in a bundle with some leaves and carry them on her head.

Isn't little Anna so cute in her life jacket?

Lake Bunyonyi from the banks of Bushara Island.

Lake Bunyonyi (picture by Spence )

Union Nursing Team

Thanks to the Union University Nursing team who came out May 23-June 3rd for all their hard work. They volunteered at the AIDS clinic, on the hospital wards, did basic health teaching with different groups, and went on Words of Hope visits. (Pictures following from their time here). I learned a lot about hosting volunteer teams and it was fun having them all stay in my home....lots of good stories :)

Teaching and food distribution at Katete

While the team was here they did a lot of basic health teaching at our different Bible storying groups/churches. These pictures are from a small village called Katete. Around 50+ ladies came to hear the teaching and we gave out some posho (corn maize flour) and sugar. They were so thankful! They even danced for us and this little boy was clapping perfectly on beat...it was so cute! Thanks to Mrs. Matthews church for providing the money to do the food distribution here. We've been having at least 30 ladies at the Wednesday night study so pleae pray that this group might become a church (this is one of the groups that started when I first came).

Refugee Camp

Here's Andrea and Sydney teaching at Nakivale Refugee camp where we have like 6 churches. These churches are amazing...totally self sustaining and they are really 'on fire' for the Lord. They also had a great youth choir I wanted to put a video on so you could hear, but I can't get it to work. As you can see they have a keyboard! Here we are out in the middle of the bush literally and these people have a keyboard. They (the church) raised money themselves by digging one day a week to sell their produce and used the money to buy this keyboard and a small generator. It's really an amazing church. These people are refugees from mostly Rwanda and Congo so it's crazy when we go there having to translate between several different langauges, but God is definitely working there. Praise Him!

Just some of the hundreds of kids that came to look at the white people when we went to the refugee camp with the Union team. These kids are refugees from Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and Somalia. They love to touch our skin and look at our cameras as well as surround us to where we almost can't breath sometimes and draw all over the cars. I think now I can relate to the life of a celebrity! (Photos courtesy of Union nursing team)

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!