Last Days in Africa

Sorry for the delay of update. There are two reasons for this: 1) things have been real busy around here as I wrap up the sponsorship information 2) (but it’s mostly because) I know that if I update then I will have to write about leaving here, which I have just tried avoiding even thinking about. But departing this place is inevitable and impossible to push back via “not thinking about it.” So, as I lay in my bed at 4:30am, I have finally mustered the motivation to write. But where to begin?!

I’ll begin by answering “why are you awake at 4:30am?!” The answer lies in one of the most exciting things that has happened since I’ve been here – there’s a little baby here! Favor arrived here at GSF about a week and a half ago. She’s about 8 weeks old and is absolutely precious! She is actually the younger sister of one of the older boys who has already been living here at GSF. It’s so fun to have her here! We take turns staying with her at night here at the baby house, and tonight was my night to stay with her. Whenever she wakes up during the night I can’t help but think of my sisters Carly, Kelly, and Katelyn who do this EVERY night!

I got to see Al Kimball and Joel McCall last week! They were in Uganda on a missions trip, so we met up at a restaurant in town. It was so neat to see some familiar American faces! We had a great time catching up over lunch. I brought two of the teen girls from GSF which was fun. It was neat to have my Pennsylvania and Uganda worlds collide for a bit.

After eating lunch with Al Kimbal and Joel, I went with many of the GSF teens to the agriculture show in Jinja. I really had no idea what to expect. It was a week-long annual show where people from all over Uganda come to run it. It ended up being like a big fair/carnival or something. The place was just flooded with people. But the people there were different; they were a bit more rough than the usual Jinja crowd, just as you would find at an American carnival. There were some rides, many things you could buy, food, games, and promotions put on by different companies who were trying to sell things. They also had some animal exhibits, one being a snake area. The GSF teens dared me to ask to hold one of the snakes, and were a bit surprised when I accepted the challenge rather eagerly! So, I got to hold this huge, huge heavy python – it was so cool! I also got to hold another kind called a Puff Otter or something like that? Besides the snakes being heavy and stinky, it was cool to hold a snake so big; I had never held one so big before!

While I’m talking about highlights, I should also mention that I got to go on a boat ride on the Nile last week! There was a team staying here from Greensboro, NC, and they were taking a boat to see the source of the Nile. So, I tagged along with them. It was a great time. Besides seeing the source of the Nile, we also got to see so many neat birds and wildlife the live on the Nile. There were some pretty beautiful birds!!

Mark has been doing great in school. Well, I guess I’m using the word “great” a bit loosely… but, relatively speaking, he has been doing very well. I feel like it’s such an answer to prayer! He’s had a couple mishaps, including running to go find some food in the middle of class (I couldn’t find him for what seemed like forever! Turned out he was at a nearby hut where the woman was cooking) and peeing in the middle of the grass in front of all of the other K3 kids. But, overall he really is improving. I’ve always considered half of the battle of getting him into the class to be getting the teachers of the class to believe that he should be in class. Well, the other day I had to leave part way through the school day (which I’ve had to do several times), and so I told the teachers “Ok I have to go but I’m going to leave Mark here. If he’s bad, just send him home” and the main teacher said, “Oh he will be ok. You know, Mark is starting to learn how to behave well in the classroom, and I think he will be fine while you are away.” I was so excited!! When I used to leave they would try to get me to take Mark with me, but this time the teacher had some confidence in Mark! I’m really praying that they keep Mark in class after I leave. The kids are about to go on their holiday, which is a month (I think) of break from school. I’m a bit nervous to  know if he relapses after the holiday, but I’m going to give his house mom some things to work on during that break time. So hopefully he’ll remember how to behave well even when he comes back!

The teen girls made a big dinner the other night for fun. It's incredibly how they all know how to cook so well! It was also a blast being all together. They made an enormous amount of food, but in true Ugandan style, they were able to polish off almost all of it. I was asking them all, "how in the world do you eat SO much food??" and they said "there's no reason to keep extra! Maybe this is our last meal to eat - we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow! We just eat every meal like it's our last."

Today was my last Sunday here. The Sunday worship services are always one of my favorite times of the week, so I was sad to think that it would be my last. They brought me and Lianna up to the front to sing us a song and pray for us as we journey back to America. It was a sweet and special time.

Prayer requests:
-    Please pray for me as I have to say goodbye to all of the kids here at GSF. I am really dreading saying goodbye to them all, so I would greatly appreciate your prayers! Please also pray for my transition back into America. I know I have a lot to look forward to at home, but it’s going to be very hard for me at the same time!
-    Please pray for packing and safe travels back to America!
-    Praise God that Philip, the boy that I previously asked prayer for, is doing better! He still isn’t fully recovered, but he looks so much happier and maybe like he is even gaining some weight.
-    Praise God that He’s kept me healthy and feeling well throughout this entire trip!! But please continue to pray for His protection!

Boat ride on the Nile!

 

Potty time at the baby house!

 

Lunch with Joel, Al, Jenny, and Esther!

 

Kids sitting in K3 class

 

This is the kids' version of playing "dollies" - they tie the babies to their backs just like the mamas do out in the village! So cute.

Reading time with some of the boys. They LOVE reading books!

 

Big snake

 

Some of the Agriculture Show crew. The four with the matching shirts had just gotten back from bungee jumping....!

 

My sweet Mark and Nicolas

 

Baby Favor

 

Dinner with the teens

 

Some of the teen girls - Joy, Rebecca, and Esther

AIDS Highway

The past 10 days have been exciting to say the least. As usual, I feel entirely overwhelmed when it comes to recapping them in an update. So, I'll do my best at giving you a taste of the full picture!

A major part of the past few days has been taking Mark to school every day. If you recall, Mark is a 5 year old kid that I've been working with. He was pulled out of school at the beginning of the year because the teachers couldn't handle his disruptive behavior. They also thought he had some mental disabilities. After working with him while I've been here, I thought it'd be a good idea to try to get him back into school. So, I've been going with him Mon-Fri from 8am-12:15. It's been interesting in many ways, because I'm able to see how Mark interacts within the classroom, how he responds to instruction and the teachers, and also how the teachers handle their K3 class (which is pretty much a preschool). Although they consider their education at GSF fairly "Americanized," it's pretty far from what walking in a preschool in America would be like. There are 41 children in single-room, 30x30ft (guesstimation right there) building. The kids' ages range between 3-5, with most of the kids being 4. There are two desks (one for each of the teachers), a shelf of toys, and a shelf for the kids' workbooks. Besides that, it's empty. The children sing, dance, recite the alphabet, sing songs about months of the year and days of the week, practice writing, hear a story, have a Bible lesson, and some other random things (I honestly haven't even caught the pattern of the day yet - each day seems so different). Whenever the kids are being taught, they are sitting in the shape of a U around the teacher. They have to sit still, legs straight and hands on their laps, without disturbing the kids next to them. If they disturb, they have to stand up. The kids are taught lessons on how to write letters and draw shapes. The teachers demonstrate using a small hand-held blackboard and chalk. Then the kids are each given their work book to practice writing the letter. The work books aren't an actual curriculum or anything - they're just empty notebooks that the teachers have filled out for each child. For instance, they were learning the letter "g" so the teachers wrote the letter a couple times in each book and then the kid was supposed to practice writing the letter g. For advanced kids, they also throw in a couple words that start with the letter g, and have them copy the whole word. For slow kids, they have the letter "g" already somewhat written, the kid just has to trace the line. It was neat to see how they pay attention to each kid's achievement level and assign work accordingly. From around 10:15-11 the kids have a break. They all go to the pavillion for a cup of porridge and a handful of soy beans and peanuts, and then they go to the playground for about 15 minutes. During this time all of the "K" classes (K3, K4, and K5) are together, so there are probably at least 100 kids. It's pretty crazy but lots of fun.

I wasn't sure how it would be stepping into the classroom, such as how the teachers and children would respond, but it's been good. The teachers were excited to have a "Muzungu" (white person) to help, and immediately asked for classroom feedback and promoted me to "Teacher Corinne." They have me work with many of the children, not just Mark. I think this is a good thing so that it's not like all of my focus is on him. They also have me do some of the lessons sometimes including story time. They've even started fixing me a nice cup of porridge in the mornings haha. They're definitely happy for the help, which is expected considering they juggle 40 kids every day!

All of that said, Mark is doing really well. There are definitely rough times when I think "Should he really be in class?!" but other good times when I think, "he's doing so well! Do I really need to be in class with him?!" The first day was definitely pretty rough, but I think overall he has been showing steady improvement. He sits so well and stays quiet while the teacher is going over the lesson. When it's play time, he usually does well. Sometimes he gets a bit excited and ramy with the toys and other kids, but he's pretty under control. Actually, if he ever gets too bad then I take him outside, talk to him, and sometimes ask him, "Are you going to be a good boy or do I need to take you home?" and that pretty much clears up obedience problems for at least a little while. He loves being at school, so the threat of taking him home is pretty intense for him. As far as his learning goes, he's doing pretty well. He started with knowing like... nothing. When I asked him to circle things, he would just scribble somewhere on the paper - he was so bad at handling a pencil. Now he can circle answers, trace letters, and even write letters without tracing (if he tries really hard). He's excellent at matching shapes (drawing lines to connect matching shapes or letters). When the class used to go over the alphabet and songs, he used to just sit there and do nothing. I don't know if he actually knows the alphabet or songs, but I can see now that he's at least trying to repeat the teacher. He's also improved with stuff like using the toilet instead of the grass when he needs to use the bathroom, not hitting other kids, and responding to discipline. Just because he hadn't been in such a strictly disciplined environment before and he had been spending all of his time with Moses and Caleb, two disabled boys, I think that he legitimately did not know what was and was not acceptable behavior. So, it's still a work in progress, but he's definitely learning. PRAISE GOD! I'm so excited for him and have totally fallen in love with little Mark! It's so fun to work with him. In such a big group of children, it's only by God's grace that he's doing as well as he is. The teachers are not fully convinced that he's "normal" yet. They have it in their heads that he's autistic or something (which for the record, he acts in no way autistic). They also doubt that he'll be able to pass K3 this year. So, we'll see what happens. I mentioned to them that, even if he does not pass K3 and has to repeat, it's better for him to be in class than spending all of his time with the mentally disabled children who do model good behavior and are unable to properly communicate with him. I think they both agree with me on that one =)

Today was super interesting because I was able to go to a feeding program that Carolyn, a missionary in Jinja and former director of GSF, has started. She meets with 12 moms every Wednesday to give them food, formula, tips on how to care for their babies, and the love of Christ. The feeding program is held at a nearby hospital, and it's purpose to help babies in great need while keeping them in the care of their mothers. Many mothers with no way to care for or feed their babies either let them die or desperately try to give them away. However, the mothers in this feeding program are given the gift of food as well as hope and motivation for raising their child well. Most of the children have AIDS and were on the verge of death upon entering the program.

As we, Carolyn, Casia, and me, walked into the room at the hospital carrying the food for the babies, the mothers all clapped and cheered for us. The feeding program provides so much hope for them and their baby. Although the program has only been going on for two months, Carolyn said that the mothers have all become a support group for each other. The children also get weighed every week, and they've all been improving tremendously. One of the mothers in particular who caught my attention was a young girl, about 20 years old, who had twins. It's unimaginable to think of the difficulty of raising two babies with AIDS at such a young age and in such living conditions. However, the mother and babies all looked to be happy and doing well. Carolyn said that already 7 of the mothers have accepted Christ through the evangelism of the program. How wonderful that God is able to use this opportunity to spread the gospel!

From the hospital we headed to a health clinic along "AIDS Highway." This is a highway that runs from Kenya to Uganda, and this stretch of the highway is called AIDS Highway because truckers stop there for prostitutes. Because they are so poor and desperate for money, the women of the village sell themselves for 500 shillings, which is equivalent to about 20 cents. In this area, AIDS is rampant, as well as pregnant women and malnourished babies. The health clinic provides a place for mothers to come for check ups and to give birth. Touring the clinic was absolutely mind blowing. We walked into a small room that was empty besides a table with a bed sheet overtop - this was the delivery room. There was another closet-sized room that had a table and bed sheet overtop - this was the check-up room. It was unbelievable. There were mothers in need all over clinic. We talked to one of the nurses at the clinic about getting a feeding program started just like the one that we had been at earlier. The nurse was extremely receptive of the idea, so we are starting it next week. Until then, the nurses need to investigate and choose 12 babies to be saved. 12 babies is only a tiny fraction of the need at that clinic, but as Carolyn said today, "how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." This idea has been good for me to keep in mind while here. It's easy to get overwhelmed with all of the need and think "There are too many people to help - I can't help all of them so I might as well not try." But that's not the answer. Carolyn is taking on what she can and trusting God to work through her as He directs during through these feeding programs. He can use even a small vessel to do great things.

In other news, the team from California left last week. Casia's team is arriving on Friday, so the guest house will be totally maxed out again. Amanda, another missionary here, is also arriving Friday. The food here is still awesome. I get to see monkeys nearly every day. The Greer family, a missionary family here, arrived last week and they're wonderful people. I haven't seen any snakes over the past week, but I have heard of two others that have been killed around the guest house (one was crawling into our bathroom when Justine, a Ugandan worker here, saw it and killed it). Last week Uganda was "low-lighting" or something, so we spent a great amount of time out of the day without electricity. This week we've had electricity most of the time of the day - Praise God!

Every day I fall in love with this place and these people more and more. I dread the day that I have to say goodbye to all of the beautiful faces I've met here. So, I take one day at a time and try to minister to my fullest with each moment.

It would be such a blessing for me if you could pray for these requests:

1. Please pray for Mark at school, that he would continue to show improvement in behavior and development. Please also pray that the teachers would have a bit more faith in his ability to succeed. Also pray that God would enable me to work with him in a way that would best help him to succeed in school.
2. Pray for the feeding program that Carolyn is doing. Pray for the mothers, that they would see the love of Christ in us. Also pray for the children, that they would grow strong and healthy.
3. Praise God that I've continued to stay healthy. I haven't had health issues at all. Please pray for Casia though; she hasn't been feeling so well every since she got here. Pray that she'd have renewed strength especially before her team arrives.
4. There is a boy Philip who lives at GSF. He is 10 years old, and has been really struggling with his health lately. He has AIDS, so he's never real healthy. But he's been doing especially poor lately. What's more is that he's been very poor in spirit as well. Please pray that God would heal him physically and regenerate his spirit.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!! I appreciate it so much! God has blessed me immensly as I feel the power of your prayers each day, empowering me emotionally and spiritually.  Please keep praying! Also, feel free to email thoughts/questions any time - I'll do my best to respond!

I've included some pictures. I forgot to take my camera today when I went to the feeding programs (such a bummer!!) but I'll take pictures when I go next week. By the way, we got wireless internet here at the guest house...!!! So awesome. It made the internet faster, so uploading photos does not take nearly as long! Anyways, here they are:

This is Mark! We were playing on the playground after school

They coordinated the babies one day. Here are some of them (I didnt even realize they were arranged red-white-red-white-red!)  I'm still trying to figure out a way to sneak them all back to USA in my suitcase..

The kids dancing as a welcome for the return of the Greer family

The worship/dance team at church. This was during the song that went "shake that body that Jesus gave you" Haha!! No joke.

Godfrey in the pavillion. This was during porridge time with the K3 kids (he has porridge in one hand and a handful of soybeans and peanuts in the other). Because there aren't enough cups for all of the kids, the kids get porridge, quick eat it, and then wash their cups in a bucket so that another kid can use the cup for porridge.

Godfrey is a sweetie and put these flowers in my hair. Look at that SMILE of his!! Photo taken by Sophia - she's in the next pic!

Sophia, me, and Godfrey. Sophia is in K5, but she hangs with me during break time when all of the K classes are together. She is an absolute sweetheart, even though she's making that funny face in this pic. We're "best friends" haha

 There's that beautiful smile of hers!

Lauren working on drawing a picture for her sponsor!

Philip, the boy that could use some prayer for healing right now!

Some of us went to King Fisher pool for one of the girl's birthday on Sunday. It was a beautiful resort!!

It's right on Lake Victoria. Super beautiful and very inexpensive resort to stay at if you're ever considering vacationing in Jinja, Uganda! Haha..

Picture Post

Here are some pictures from the past week! Some of them coordinate a bit with the previous post, and some are just random. Enjoy!

 The kids had a sports day at a school last week. It was so fun! It was a big deal to the kids, because it was a giant competition between 8 different schools. They played soccer and netball. Here is a portion of the soccer fans cheering enthusiastically
 














 The kids ate sugar cane all day, which made the place look like a disaster by the end! Looked like a little hurricane went through, haha.

 In Jinja. Haha.

This was during the four wheeling trip. We stopped at a shop for a rest, and as soon as we hopped off the ATVs, little kids came and climbed all over them. It was so cute!

Crossing the Nile on the way home from Jinja

Pictures from our jungle hike on Sunday.  This is me, Jennie, and Ida.

These sheep were cracking me up because they were staring at the same area and were synchronized chewing.

Me and Ida

Brian rockin my sunglasses

The over 6 ft cobra that they found at the guest house.

The team from California did tie-dying with the kids and face painting. They all had so much fun and looked great! This is Ida, Jennie, and Rachel.

Chloe

Me and Patricia

More African Adventures

Wow, has it really been over a week since I last updated? The time is flying by, and I think every day that I am NOT here long enough!! This trip is going to be over before I know it, so I'm trying to soak in every moment - it's just going by too quickly.

That said, I am absolutely loving it here. The kids at GSF are absolutely wonderful - I love getting to know them each better and better every day. I really enjoy working with the children for writing their sponsors. It's sweet to see how excited they are to write their sponsors. I think it's a special time for them because 1) they're writing something that's going to get sent to AMERICA! 2) they enjoy the special attention/1-on-1 time. After they get home from school, I make sure they get done their chores (slashing, washing clothes, cleaning), and then I pick a couple children to work on their sponsor letters for the day. Ages 7+ (give or take a few kids) write letters to their sponsors and draw pictures, and 6 and under just draw a picture. It takes some of the kids 20 minutes and others 2 hrs. I didn't realize how long it would take each letter, but they really do put much effort and time into it - it's so sweet. I also ask them a couple informational questions about themselves and take their pictures. When the girls are finished writing their sponsors, I "reward" them by painting their fingernails. For the boys, I read them a book of their choice when they're finished. It's so cute - they love being read to.

Besides the sponsor stuff, I've been working steadily with three special needs children: Mark, Moses, and Tom. Moses is downsyndrome and about 9 yrs old. I usually take him along with Mark to play ball or to the playground. Caleb, a boy with mental disabilities and tuberculosis of the spine, and Lianna (another intern) come along too. Lianna is "assigned" to work with Caleb, so it works out well. The three of them are a total handful. We've had many rough moments, but we all manage to survive our 30 min - 1 hr together every day. It started out especially rough. The problem is that they know we are white, which they associate with no punishment. They're typically able to do whatever they'd like if they have a white person in control of them. We've realized this though, so we make sure that they know we're really serious and will punish if they do not obey us. Their behavior has improved, which I'm thankful for. We knew all along that they are capable of following commands and obeying because we see how they behave with their house moms, and they obey well! But I guess I really can't blame them for testing the waters with us.

Besides working with Mark in that group setting, I also take him every day for some learning/coloring time. Mark is about 5 years old, but he's not in school due to misbehavior. He's also a little behind the other kids when it comes to learning. So, we're working on the alphabet and colors. He's doing well. I have this big coloring book that I'm going through with him, and every day we color a different letter as well as pictures that go along with the letter. He also gets to practice writing the letter by tracing. Because he has behavior problems, I try to be real strict with him, and if he misbehaves, I send him home (which does not make him very happy). For the most part, he does very well, so well that I suggested we try school with him again. The problem is that the teacher has over 30 kids in his class, so she cannot afford dealing with such a disruptive child in the classroom. So, starting tomorrow, I'm actually going to go into school with him. I'll take him to school at 8 and stay with him for the full day (which for his age is just until noon). Ideally, I will start by going in with him every day, but will eventually lessen my supervision of him until he's weaned off of my presence altogether. I'm excited to see how he does. I know it will be very different for him to be in a group setting, but I'm praying he does well!! He's such a precious kid.

Tom is the other special needs kid. He is autistic, I think about 6 yrs old, and doesn't talk at all. I've spent this week taking him on walks just to start some interaction with him. He does well on the walks and really enjoys them. Actually, now whenever I see him around he comes to me, grabs my hand, and tries to get me to take him on a walk! He really is such a sweetheart.

Things around GSF has been pretty busy lately! A team from California came in on Tuesday afternoon, which has been quite a change. There are 10 of them that came, as well as another girl who will be here for five weeks. She also has a team of 12 people coming in two weeks, so that's exciting. So, the room has increased by 8 girls. It's quite full now! Actually, really full. Haha. We've all managed alright though. Since they've been here, the cook, Justine, has been making lunch and dinner every day....and it's so delicious! So that's a big bonus.

A couple days ago Suzanna, Lianna, Cassia (the girl staying for 5 weeks), the Renzlow family, and I went four-wheeling along the Nile (Bujagali Falls?). It was SO much fun. Because we were on four-wheelers and in the bush, we were able to cover a large amount of ground and see so much! We drove through many villages, which was especially neat. We left at 5pm and went until 8:30pm. The ride included a sit-down dinner at a Ugandan home. We didn't really know what to expect for that, but it ended up being so nice (relatively speaking)!! They had so much food prepared for us - it was delicious! I seriously love the food here. They had rice, beans, pork, yams, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, spinach, cabbage, g-nut sauce, matoke, and poscho. It was like a feast. We were there for about 40 min before we headed back to the four-wheeling place. We had 2 guides with us who did a great job. Some of the areas we went through were real dry so we got dust all over us. Some were real wet and muddy, so we also got covered in mud. Some of the paths were through real thick jungley bush, so it was really beautiful to drive through that. We really had a blast.

Today we went on a walk through the jungle with the team and some of the GSF teens. It was so fun and a total mess, haha. It has been raining quite a bit, so the swamps were pretty high. So we trudged through some mud and water, but it was so much fun. It was just beautiful! We walked from GSF up through the jungle and came out at a village. There was a soccer game going on, so we enjoyed watching some of the game, and then walked back to GSF. It was a treat to hang out with some of the older high schoolers. Some of them are in school Mon-Sat, so there's not a lot of time to spend with them.

We've had some pretty intense creatures around here lately. Yesterday they found a 6ft cobra trying climbing up the wall of the guest house (the house I'm at!)  at the window of the girls' room (the room I'm in!). Thankfully I was in Jinja during the finding of the snake, but they had the body for us to see when we got back. It was intense. We have also found 3 wolf spiders in the bathroom, and one was HUGE. Again, I wasn't in the bathroom for that, for which I'm very thankful! I was in the bathroom for one of them though (it was about a half-dollar size). .It was in the shower with me so I killed it. It was actually really difficult to kill and it took me a solid 10 min to finally REALLY kill it. It was super gross. The mosquitos have also seemed to really pick up the past few days. I have only gotten a couple bites until the last few days - I feel like I suddenly got them all over me! It must be the weather or something. Don't worry though - I am taking my malaria pills!

I really appreciate all of your prayers! Here are a couple updated prayer requests/praises:
1. Thank you for praying for the nagging bugs! I feel like the bugs havent decreased, but I think my sensitity to them has. For instance, I had to brush off about 50 little dead bugs from my sheets before crawling in bed. Bad part was that there were so many little bugs on my bed and pillow, good part is that I was able to do it without freaking out internally! So, please keep praying! I know your prayers have been helping me deal with them thus far!
2. Praise: I have yet to be real sick! There have been some days where my stomach feels a bit upset, but for the most part it's very minor. Thank you for praying, but please keep praying for continued health!
3. The little boy who I mentioned in the last post is not going to come to GSF. Keep praying for him though! That said, there is a little girl who is hopefully coming this week. I think I'll be able to go with the social worker to pick her up in a couple days. I'm very excited about it, but please pray that her transition into GSF would go smoothly!
4. Pray for Uganda. There have been severe thunderstorms around here lately, which have led to 20-30 known deaths due to the lightening...! Pray for the families of those people as well as safety.
5. Pray for Mark going to school tomorrow! Pray that he'd behave and absorb the information.

Thank you for your support! If you have any questions or anything, always feel free to contact me. So much "action" happens in a day here - it's hard to get it all into an update! If you'd like me to expand on anything, just let me know!

A couple pics. I'll upload more sometime soon!

Typical Sighting. Yes that little girl DOES have a baby strapped to her back!

 Dinner at the Ugandans house during four wheeling

 Driving through the jungle!

No Shortage of Bugs in Uganda

It's hard to believe that it's been a week since I last updated - time has flown by! It's weird though - it seems like the week has gone by so quickly, but I also feel like I've been here for a month. I think it's probably due to learning so much and experiencing so many new things in such a short amount of time. 

One of the more "intense" learning experiences of the week actually just happened today. I went to the local hospital along with a social worker and a couple other people from GSF because GSF had been notified about a severely malnourished child. The hospital was calling to see if GSF would be willing to take the child in. Of course my natural reaction is to be like "AH severely malnourished child?! Let's go pick him up!! We can feed him and care for him!" but I've come to realize that that is not exactly how things work around here. GSF has been around long enough to realize that not every needy child needs to be cared for by the orphanage itself. When they hear of cases or are called by families asking to give their children, GSF first heavily investigates the situation using their Ugandan social worker, Keren. Keren finds out as much as she can about the children by talking to family, neighbors, other ministries, etc. Do the children have loving parents that are just trying to get them into GSF because they think GSF would provide the kids with more opportunity? Do the kids have aunts or uncles that are capable of caring for the kids? Do the children just need temporary care or long term care, and if long term, are they able to be put up for adoption? It gets pretty tedious and difficult to find information, especially because Ugandans are careful of disclosing information and are difficult to get ahold of. Anyway, so that's what the visit to the hospital was about. We didnt pick up the little boy, but we did meet him and his older sister to ask questions about the situation. It was very sad seeing the boy... He was 3 years old but very small. He had no hair except some white wispy strands. His neck was so frail, his spine bulging out of his back, and his arms were like...nothing. He also had this horrible sounding cough, but I'm not sure exactly what the hospital diagnosed him with. Keren talked with the older sister, a 15 year old who is the oldest of 7 children whose mother died. Next she is going to visit the home of the children to scout out the situation a bit more. This has not been the first case like this since being here - Keren is also in the midst of investigating another case dealing with two children who are looking for placement. It does take a lot of patience, but I am understanding more and more the importance of waiting out situations such as this. GSF stresses that we need to find what is best for the child. It's very neat to see the time that they put into each case, taking time to pray for wisdom and discernment before making decisions regarding the future care of the children. 

This past weekend I got to spend a day in Jinja with the other two interns and the GSF nurse, Sarah. Jinja is about 30 minutes away. On the way there, we took a taxi. The taxis here are like minivan size without the hood in front, maybe a little bit bigger than that. They're definitely smaller than conversion vans though.. We hit up the taxi outside of GSF and rode it right into Jinja. By the time we had gotten to Jinja there were twenty people and a goat in the taxi. It was hilarious. I would've thought there was no way we could've fit that many people in, but they made it work by rearranging everyone and really squeezing in tight! The goat would go "beehhh" every so often, and it would just get my funny bone. While in Jinja we went to the market. The market is just..crazy. I don't even know how to describe it except to say that there are tiny little stations selling anything you can imagine all scrunched together in a square. I think I should just take a picture sometime.. We also went to some other shops along the main road that sold things like souvenirs. They really are neat little places, and I was tempted to just buy everything. But, I practiced some self-control and only bought a few things. I got to use some of my bartering skills! We met up with another missionary that Sarah is friends with for lunch. The lunch was great and I even got to have Mango Sorbet for dessert - yum! On the way home we stopped at Ruthie's house, a girl who grew up at GSF and still comes back to visit. She currently lives in a tiny apartment outside of Jinja with four other girls. Ruthie is just the sweetest, happiest, and cheerful young girl, so it was really special that we got to visit her! From there we road bodas (botas?) back to GSF. Bodas are little motorcycle taxis. But they're not like American motorcycles... try picturing a mix between a motorcycle and a dirt bike. Although they're not very big, we went true Ugandan style and had three people on each bike (2 of us + the driver). Actually, sometimes I see the Ugandans put four on a bike, but I do not know how they fit!! The bodas were quite fun, except that we all had a thick layer of brown dust over us by the time we got to GSF. We all looked like examples of "Spray tan gone bad" or something.

Sunday evening for dinner I ate at one of the houses here at GSF (the way the orphanage works here is that they have the children divided into homes so each home is like a family unit). So, it was like the ugandan house mom and all her "kids" - i think there were 8 of them. It was one of the boy houses, so it was pretty loud. Sarah, Suzanna, and Lianna also ate there, and it was very interesting because we got to see how the family does devotions before dinner (lots of singing and then testimonies of good things God has done for them). When it was time for dinner they had us visitors serve them. Like, they gave us each a spoon and had us dish out everybody's food...so weird!! I asked sarah afterwards what the deal was and i guess that's how they make guests feel as though they are part of the family. I guess that sort of makes sense! Interesting cultural education..

I had a traumatizing event with a critter here the other day. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth before bed when I took a step towards the sink and slipped. I looked down to see what I had slipped on when I realized that I had crushed a gecko! It was soo disgusting; I stepped right on its head. Bleeckkk it was so nasty, I screamed and ran to the room! I went back the next morning and it was still there and covered with a gazillion little ants. I couldnt even stand to look at it, so I gave Lianna some shillings to clean it up for me. I really don't mind geckos and lizards, but the ones here are really ugly - they're pale and big, probably about 5 inches long.

That said, the bugs here have really started to gross me out. They're super intrusive. They're always EVERYWHERE. In my food, on my clothes, in my bed. It's as though there's absolutely no clean place. I even find bugs sitting on my bar of soap! The kitchen is just full of bugs, they crawl all through the ingredients. When I pull a clean plate off of the shelf, it always has ants on it. Before I dry off with my towel after the shower, I have to check it for bugs. Before I went to sleep last night I had to flick a dead bug off of my pillow. Last night Lianna and I were making dinner in the kitchen and we made the mistake of leaving the door to our room open (our door leads to the outdoors). By the time we had eaten it was dark outside. So, because the bedroom door was open and the light was on in our room, TONS of bugs were attracted to our bedroom! I walked in and there were bugs just swarming the lights! They were ALL over, probably like a thousand of them. So, we turned the light in our room off, turned the porch light on, and prayed that they would all fly back outside. It worked for a couple bugs, but most of them just enjoyed lounging on our mosquito nets. So, Lianna went in with the broom and cleaned up well. She did a great job, but there are still quite a few stranded wings in here (there's a kind of termite/bug here that flies and then loses its wings. It's really weird). G-R-O-S-S. Oh! Another gross story.. I was eating a mango the other day, and as I pealed it further I realized that the opposite half of it was completely brown, rotten, and full of WORMS! Lots and lots of worms. Bleegghhk. 

The days here are all pretty different. I have no strict schedule so it's kind of just about getting stuff done on my own time. I usually wake up around 7:30, shower, eat breakfast, help at the baby house/work on sponsorship stuff, eat lunch at 1:00, work with the sponsorship stuff/work with some of the special needs kids, play with the kids when they're out of school, make dinner, eat dinner around 7, relax/read/email, go to bed. Tuesday mornings there is devotions with all of the house moms that I go to, and it's really awesome. I love hearing them sing!! Wednesday night is "missionary devotions" which is when all of the people who are missionaries meet. Thursday evenings is youth group with the teens. Friday night is movie night with the teens. Sunday afternoon is movie time with all of the other kids. Also, every day I am to spend time with 3 special needs children, Tom, Moses, and Mark. I actually haven't started working with Tom and Moses yet, but I started working with Mark yesterday. Mark is thought to have ADHD, Moses is down syndrome, and Tom is severely autistic. I think I'll be working with all three of them from now on. 

Last night me and Lianna made spaghetti and brownies. It was so delicious and wonderful. We've decided that being in Uganda is like taking woman lessons; we cook, hand wash our clothes, put them on the clothes line to dry, iron, care for children, and clean. Actually, we have a Ugandan woman, Justine, who helps us with a lot of it. She's like super woman - she does everything! She even made fresh passion fruit juice for me the other day and it was so glorious. Oh the luxuries of living in Africa!! Haha. 

Things to pray for:

1. Continue praying for health/safety. There was one day that I had an upset stomach (the day after we ate dinner at one of the houses with the kids...haha), but besides that I've felt great! So praise God for protection thus far, but please keep praying!

2. Please pray that the bugs will leave me alone! I know that may sound silly but for real...they're intense. 

3. Pray for the young boy who I got to see at the hospital. Pray that, even if it isnt through GSF, that God would provide for him and the rest of the children.

4. Praise God that my memory of the children's names is increasing greatly! There are still some children who I have difficulty recalling, but for the most part, I know who the children are. 

Thank you for your prayer and support!! 

I've included some pictures so that you have an idea of the scene here! Hopefully they'll load this time!

Joseph, one of the oh so very sweet kiddos in the Baby/Toddler House!

Eddy, a real cutie from the Baby/Toddler House

The kids welcoming the Renzlo (sp?) family - they're visiting for a few weeks! 

Monkey watching!! They were climbing the mango tree that's right off of my back porch. Can you see them?? 3 of them are sitting on the ground eating mangoes.

Solomon wearing his "Ed Hardy" t-shirt. Cracks me up - he has no idea! Haha.

Haha I love this picture. The woman in the pic is Auntie Rose, who is a house mom in an all-boys house. She has all the boys out slashing, which is their version of mowing. They swing an iron blade back and forth (machete-like) to cut the grass. I dont know if they were in trouble or something, but she had them all put to work!

Some kids washing their clothes after school. They come home from school and have to wash their uniform by hand every day! They also have other chores that they have to do before they're allowed to come play.

The kitchen where breakfast/lunch/dinner is made for the houses, as well as breakfast and lunch for all of the school children.

Lake Victoria on the way to Jinja

  

Random pic from Jinja