Owino Market

This past week our team packed up and went back to the village. In preparations of going back to the village I had many things to do to prepare myself mentally and physically for the village. A few weeks back, my mother had sent me about 100 dresses made out of pillowcases made by some ladies at her co-workers church. These dresses were the most adorable things I had ever seen. I immediately knew that I wanted to give these dresses to the girls in the village. But I felt that I could not give the girls these cute dresses without giving the boys something as well. So Hilary and I had decided to buy the boys t-shirts !

            

An MST ( volunteer )  who was  here early in the summer had left me with $100 to buy bibles and $100 to do anything else with. So I emailed him to ask if I could use his $100 to buy t-shirts and he agreed and said that I could totally use that money to buy t-shirts for the kids in the village. So on Monday afternoon Hilary and I were in need of some stress relief from the house …. and what better way to do that than leave the house and spend lots of money on t-shirts to clothe little boys in the village.

            

We headed out of the house met up with our Ugandan friend, Collin, and went down town to the Owino Market. The Owino Market is the biggest market in East Africa. I was excited to go there because I knew that the shirts would be cheap, and I have heard so much about this market and have been in Kampala twice now and have never made a trip there. Collin had been there many times so he was the perfect person to ask to take us. He advised us to not bring our purses because at this market a lot of theft happens. When we got out of our taxi, we had to walk for about ten minutes. With each step it seemed like we just kept walking further and further into the bad part of town. I honestly was in a culture shock. I no longer left like I was in Kampala Uganda. I felt as thought I was in China or India. There were truck, people, and trash everywhere. We had no sidewalk to walk on, we simple walked through the traffic in the middle of the road.

When we reached the Owino Market, I again was shocked. It was store after store after store. And when I say store, I mean small area piled with whatever they are selling. It was a small dark dirt alley, with more people than space in the alley. As you walk past each seller, they call out to you to buy what they have, the men yell out that you are beautiful, and they grab at you. I quickly realized why Collin made us leave our purses at home.

           

When we made it to a man who was selling t-shirts. We quickly stopped and Collin began bargaining with him. We stood there for a very long time sorting out sizes, types, and makes of the t-shirts. After about 20 minutes, we were able to walk away with 60 t-shirts ! 

It was an interesting and a bit scary experience. But totally worth it to be able to bless some children with t-shirts :-) 

My Everyday, Ordinary Life

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." - Romans 12:1-2

Bogare !!!!

Hilary, Me, Jennifer - Victory Primary School

Katy, Me, Kelley - Hand washing clothes at Sanyu Babies Home

Children eating porridge at Victory Primary School

Hilary, Kelley, Mallory, Me, Megan - Living life in the village

My friend from New Styles Primary School in Wankulukuku

Me, Bogare, and Sarah in the village

A beautiful child 

Me sharing a bible story at Victory Primary School

A group shot of all of us with with boys ( Gabe, Kyle & Craig)
before they set out for their personal mission to Rwanda !

Me and a child in the village

Me, Hillary, & Mallory after a day of working on the well

Our team after a hard days work of cleaning out the well !

James 1:27

"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. "

                                 - James 1:27 

This is exactly what I am here in Uganda to do. I am so thankful for this scripture. This past week I have been very tired and beginning to feel run down. I have found myself getting into a routine. I wake up each day to go to an orphanage, or a primary school and I do not think about my faith that is being put into it. I have let myself just go through the motions of serving and not actually wholeheartedly serve. 

On Monday morning God really spoke to me. As the rooster made its morning call outside my window, I immediately began to squirm around in my bed. I have been so tired lately and the fact that I sleep on a thin foam mattress has been making my back as well as my whole body ache. As I laid there in bed not wanting to be waking up at 7am to go to an orphanage, I somehow,most likely by the grace of God, got my butt out of bed and headed off to the orphanage. 

When we go to the orphanages, we spend our first hour or so of time there helping out the caretakers. We mop floors, feed and dress babies, hang clothing to dry on the line, sort clothing, sort beans, or clean clothing. We are there to make the hectic morning a little bit easier for the caretakers. Without us there these women have to do all of these chores themselves as well as care for the children at the orphanage. Because I have been so tired lately, I have found myself sticking to doing chores the whole time and not bothering with the children. I would do mopping or washing clothing until we would leave the home and some days not even see a child. The children in this orphanage truly need love. These children are found on the side of the road, left in taxis, left in public rest rooms, or simply left at the doorstep of the home. So these children need all the love that they can get.

On that Monday morning, God slapped me in the face the second that I walked into Sanyu Babies Home. He reminded me of the scripture in James. I am supposed to be joyfully caring for these orphans. I walked into the home and wet naked babies were everywhere. Some were crying, some were smiling, some were running, some were sitting, some were big, and some were super small. I quickly grabbed a towel and dried off the first baby that I could grab. I was able to dry the children, stop some from crying, dress them and love them. 

In that first ten minutes of being at Sanyu Babies home God reminded me of one of the reasons I am here in Uganda. And that is to love on these orphaned children. If these children had a loving family they would not be in a room every morning running around unhappy waiting to be dried from their bath and waiting to be dressed. They would be cared for and loved every second of the day. 

I spent the rest of my morning doing the mopping, washing clothing, sorting beans, and hanging clothing much faster than I had ever done before. I wanted to spend more time with these babies. Instead of avoiding them, God placed it in my heart to want to be with them more than anything. When I finished my chores I went to the room where the infant babies are. I was able to simple hold a little girl who was about 1 month old. As I was holding her I was able to tell her that she was beautiful, tell her how much God loves her, pray for her, and rock her to sleep. 

Monday was the first time in a very long time that when it was time to leave the babies home I honestly did not want to leave. I was able to push my desires of sleep or lunch to the side and solely want to love on the child of God that was placed in my hands that morning. 

The very next day God was able to show me just how much he wanted me to take this bible verse to heart. The next day I was able to spend time with one of my Ugandan friends. We were on our way to visit their home and hang out with their brothers and sisters, when we passed their Mothers church. She was in the yard of the church and quickly waved us down.We  got off the boda boda ( motorcycle taxi) and met her in the front yard of the church. She was excited to see me - a muzungu ( white person ). She was spending her afternoon weaving baskets with some other church ladies. She explained to me that she was feeling sick for the past few weeks and could use some prayers if I was able to spare any. We spent our time having small talk while she and the other women made their baskets. Her name is Elizabeth and she herself is a widow. Her husband passed away about 5 years ago. She has been raising her five children all by herself. She has been trying to send them all to school as well as eventually all to University. She has such a great heart and easily shows God's love to others. I could see that in the way that she clearly showed it to me in the way that she openly loved me. 

God used this verse this past week to show me once again why he as called me here. If I were back home in America I would not have the chance to rock an orphan to sleep on a Monday morning or sit with a widow as she weaves a basket on o Tuesday evening.  God is continuing to show me each day why he has called me here to Uganda. I am so thankful for the reminder that he sent me this week :-)

A Week In The Village

"I have a special concern for you church leaders. I know what it's like to be a leader, in on Christ's sufferings as well as the coming glory. Here's my concern: that you care for God's flock with all the diligence of a shepherd. Not because you have to, but because you want to please God. Not calculating what you can get out of it, but acting spontaneously. Not bossily telling others what to do, but tenderly showing them the way."

-1 Peter 5:1-3

These past few weeks Empower A Child has really been looking to me for leadership. I am one of the main communicators of our team. Everyday, the Ugandan staff approaches me with their announcements and I am the one who delivers them to the team. The announcements range from super important ones to something as simple as telling the team that dinner is ready to be eaten. I am thankful for the leadership that I have been given. When I was planning my trip, I knew wanted to come back to Uganda. I knew that I wanted to come back with EAC as well. But mostly, I knew that I wanted to have a role with some type of leadership. I am so blessed to now know that EAC has put their trust in me. They trust me to fully communicate the ways of the organization to the team. Just yesterday I even lead an orientation meeting all by myself. Knowing that the organization has put their faith and trust in me is a wonderful feeling. 


Last week I was the leader for the team that went out into the village. This summer, we are beginning the building of the Training Center for Empower A Child. The organization has bought land in a village called Zirobwe that is located about 45 mins away from Kampala. They hope to build a school, a church, a medical clinic, and one day a type of trade school or university. So here in Uganda we have been focussing on making that happen. Each week we split our group of volunteers ( which has grown to about 25 people ) one group stays here in Kampala and the other goes out to the village for a week. We are trying to create a good relationship between Empower A Child and the people of the village.Then we all come together on the weekends to share our stories from the week. 


Last week was probably the hardest week for me. The village life is MUCH different from the life here in the city. When you spend the week in the village, you spend it sleeping in a tent, not showering, and working hard. 


Our first night in the village was an interesting one. Our team consisted of 6 American girls, 1 English girl, 2 American boys, and about 5 Ugandans. All of our tents were close together so there is almost no privacy at all. Our first day in the village consisted of us simply setting up our tents and getting settled in the village. We did a small amount of evangelizing to some of the families in the area, then headed back to our campsite to head to bed. In the village, with no electricity.... you go to bed when the sun goes down. 


Each day in the village we would wake up, then head to the water wells for cleaning. We were able to finish the cleaning of one well in just a few hours of our first day of work. These wells that we cleaned out were more like huge mud holes. The wells that we worked on cleaning out had not been touched in 10 - 30 years. So they were overgrown and for a lack of better words - just plain nasty. So we took our slashers ( the African lawn mowers ) and cut the tall grass and weeds back. We dug all of the thick mud out, and cleared out the hole. At the end of 3 days of work, we had cleaned  not one ..... but TWO water wells for the community of Zirobwe. 


In the evenings we spent our time with the children of the community. We did our Empower A Child program with them, which consist of signing songs, playing games, and sharing bible stories, and doing crafts with the children. The children in the village are so amazing to be around. They are so loving and so great. The children in the village have next to nothing. They have no shoes, some have no clothes, and they are just so so dirty. But they are so filled with love it is amazing. They get such much joy out of simply holding our hands or being carried and loved by us. It is such a blessing to be able to spread God's love to them.


The week in the village made me appreciate all that I have. I was completely humbled. It was such a hard week for me, but every time I felt myself getting ready to complain I had to remind myself that this was one week out of my life. This is everyday life for the people of Zirobwe. I struggled greatly with the fact that I was so dirty and did not have even a speck of make-up on my face. I am very insecure about  not having make-up on ,therefore week in the village really challenged me. I was forced to not wear make-up obviously because there were no mirrors and no access to showers.To even get water you had to walk 1/4 mile to get to the closest water well. We used baby wipes to keep ourselves clean. Every time that I was thinking to myself about how dirty I was , I immediately felt guilty. I was not there that week for me. I was there for GOD'S PURPOSE. 


The week in the village really helped me grow. I had to not only focus myself and keep myself from getting tried or complaining, I also had to focus on being a leader. I had to make sure that I was also encouraging my team, keeping a smile on my face, and not outwardly complaining so that others would be lifted up. I was thankful for my role as a leader for the village team because it helped me stay on track. I was constantly reminded of how I was there for God's purpose and not mine. I was able to encourage others through the strength that was given to me from God himself. 


Next week I will be headed back to the village. So hopefully God will use me in some huge ways :-) 

The children with their craft ( a cross made out of popsicle sticks)

Our team after our day of working on the wells.

Gabe, Jamie, Hilary, Mallory, Me, Kelsey, Megan, Cody

Bogare ! Our special helper :-) 

Cleaning the well ! 

Katy, Me, Jamie, Hilary, Kelsey, Mallory

Gabe teaching the children about Jesus walking on water.

Hilary pumping water form the water well !

Working hard ! 

Me holding a village child :-)

Bungee Jumping Over The Nile River !!

That is right.... I bungee jumped over the Nile River. 8 of my fellow volunteers here at Empower A Child and I leaped off a 150 foot ledge into the Nile River. 


From working on the adventure staff at NorthBay I was confident about the equipment. I for sure thought that I would be able to do it. Somehow I ended up being the last one to jump. One by one everyone made it look so easy. I for sure thought that I would be fine. I even was encouraging the two who went before me that they would be fine. 


Then it was my turn..... 


When I got to the ledge I chickened out. I was standing there with my toes over the edge with the director supporting me. I begged him to let me down. I told him that there was no way I could do it. He would begin to count down 3......2.... then I would quickly say NO! Finally after about 4 minutes, I thought that I could do it myself..... but of course again I chickened out. But then, all of a sudden I was flying through the air. The director had given me a little shove . As I was flying down, he yelled down to me "Please don't hate me!" Of course I didn't hate the man. I was thankful. I could not have done it without the push. 


As I was flying down I soon was dipped head first into the Nile River. Then safely taken off the bungee onto a raft , then taken back to land. 


I am so happy to have had the experience to bungee jump over the Nile River. It was SO beautiful and so amazing :-) 




"I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me"
- Philipians 4:13

The Rat Attack

On a hot summer night in Uganda. I was tucked fast asleep in my bed, wrapped in my mosquito net enjoying my sleep. My roommate was away in the village, so I was all alone in my dark Ugandan room. My roommate, Jayan, had told me that I could keep food in a bag high up on a hook and if it was high off the ground, the rats will not find it. So I had put my pringles in a bag, and hung it on the hook above my bed.

As I began to fall asleep, I heard a few sounds that could have been a rat, but tried my hardest to fall asleep anyways. Deep in my slumber at 4am is when the horror began.

THE RAT crawled on my face, over my head... and then flew up my mosquito net. I quickly grabbed my head lamp, RAN out of the room and screamed. When I was able to calm myself down a bit, I went back to my room, flung open the door and switched on the lights.

To my surprise, the rat was still hovering on the ledge above where my net was hanging. I would not enter my room. I stood at my door holding the door open partaking in a staring contest with the rat.

SIDE NOTE - Let me explain..... this rat was legitimately 6 inches long, then about 8 inches long with his tale. He was fat and scary.

Ok back to my story.

So there I was 4am, head lamp on head, having a starting contest with the rat. I began to think about waking up the girls in the room next to me. One because I was scared and needed comfort, and two because no one would believe me without another witness. So I began to straddle the hallway so that I could have the starting contest with the rat to make sure he didn't move, and swing open the girls door to begin to try to wake one of them up. I didn't want to wake them all up... so I whispered loudly to them. FINALLY, after about 10 minutes, Hillary came to my rescue.

Hillary was my rat attack hero. I could not have made it through the night without her. Fearlessly she walking into my room to get a better look at him. I stayed outside watching her as she attempted to figure out how to catch him. She fearlessly took a laundry basket and caught him. Sadly, he was a super flying rat... and flew out of the basket and under my bed before she could put the lid on it.

Still freaking out, I quickly ran onto my bed to garb my hippo and my pillow and get out of there as quick as possible. As I was on my bed, the rat ran from my bed across the room to Jayan's shelf. Then TWO rats ran into my closet. At that point I was dunzo. Hillary and I screamed, then I quickly took an empty bed  in Hillary's room of on of the girls who is away at the village. It took a long time for me to fall back asleep. But thankfully I finally did.

So I learned my lesson the hard way. I will no longer EVER have food in my room. Pringles are never going to be worth the feel of a rat on my face.

I will end this post with nothing more than T.I.A. ( This Is Africa) 

Summer Is Here :-)

Two bear feet on the dashboard
Young love and an old Ford

Cheap shades and a tattoo

And a Yoo-Hoo bottle rollin' on the floorboard

Perfect song on the radio

Sing along 'cause it's one we know

It's a smile, it's a kiss

It's a sip of wine, it's summertime

Sweet summertime

- Kenny Chesney - Summertime 

For as long as I can remember. Summertime to me is time spent with my friends. It is spent going to the beach for a week or more, walking on the boardwalk, eating ice cream, fireworks, bearfeet, windows down, sunglasses, late nights having fun, no worries, BBQs, and just a lot of fun with my close friends. For the past 3 summers, I have also spent my summer working for TEAMeffort. So that means hot days working in the sun, staying happy all the time, and the usual TEAMeffort worries such as do I have to shower today? Can I really make these high school kids believe that I am the one who knows how to build this roof? When can I sleep? 


But now- I am here in Uganda this summer. And I will be here for the whole summer. Last summer I had the chance to go home and still spend time at the beach, and still have those summer memories. But this summer I am here in Africa where it has been hot since the second I got off the plane. I am experiencing the weather or summer but it will not the the summer I am so used to. I will not be spending my nights at the beach. I can go bearfoot although it is not recommend. The windows are always down... but that is because you will boil in your car if not. I wear sunglasses only when I am on a boda boda ( motorcycle taxi) to prevent the dirt from getting in my eyes. 


This will be a different summer for sure. Yet, I think it might be one of the best summers I will have had in a long time. It quite possibly will be the best summer of my life. I am here in Uganda waking up every day ready to serve. I have already been presented with millions of chances to further the Kingdom of God since I have been here. I get to walk outside at any point to the day and receive huge hugs from my neighborhood friends. As much as I have loved my lazy days of summer in the past - I am more than excited to live out my summer this year in Uganda.




So, with that being said.Summer season is here and with that comes busy days. We have been busy here in Uganda working together and going strong on our outreach programs. We now have about 20 people staying in our house so there is never a dull or quiet moment around here. Summer is a great time here in the EAC house because you are never bored. There is always someone to talk with and there is always a child to play with outside the gate. We sure have been keeping busy. 

With the new volunteers arriving, I have been put in a role of leadership. I am one of the go to people when a volunteer has a question or concern about something. I have also been a leader for different outreaches that we attend. So I am the one in charge of my group of muzungus ( white people ) at times.


Last week we spent a lot of our time in the village. There was a home that was not yet finished. Our team was blessed with the opportunity to go into the village and help by mixing cement to make floors as well as putting up more brick to creat more stable walls for the home. While in the village I was the leader of the water group. Now that would seem like an easy task in the States...... but in Africa - NOPE!  My team of about 5 girls were given the task of walking to the well with our empty jerry cans, filling them with the well water, then bringing them back up the hill completely filled....and repeteing that task all day. Now, this well was a ten minute walk down the hill then more like a fifteen - twenty minute walk back up the hill with the heavy jerry can. Doing this task always reminds me how what I take for granted in my life. So many people here in Uganda do not have the luxury of turning a faucet to find water. They have to walk to the well every time they want to drink, cook, clean , or bath. For us, we just walk to the refigorator, the kitchen, the laudry room, or the bathroom and turn the faucet. So by walking back and forth to the well, I believe that my team was able to understand just how much we take for granted in our daily lives. 


Later in the week I was given the chance to share at the Remand Home. The Remand Home is the juvenile home that we visit on Thursday afternoons. I was able to speak to them about the woman at the well. I was excited to have actually walked to a well to know how to explain the story better. I explained about how we have different things in our lives that we thirst for. Just like the woman at the well, we all are thirsting for different things. The woman in the story was thirsting for acceptance in the husbands that she had. I shared about how each of us thirsts for many things and we keep retuning to those things over and over again to be filled with joy. In the end, we are always thirsting. We are never fully satisfied. We constantly are turning to things for acceptance, satisfaction, and fulfillment in our everyday lives. For the kids at the Remand Home, they are thirsting for money, so they tend to steal. Or acceptance, and they turn to bullying. But just like the woman at the well, we are left still thirsting. But Jesus showed her grace , love, and forgiveness .... and he will do the same for us every day. I ended my time of sharing with a visual aide that I have seen many times with Young Life. I did the filling of our cup demonstration. If you do not know what that is - let me explain :-) ..... You take one plastic cup and you poke a hole in the bottom of it. Then you pour water into the cup as you explain all of the things that we "thirst for". As you are explaining them, obviously the water is falling out of the bottom of the cup and never fully being filled. Then you explain how all of those thirsts go away when you have Jesus in your life. You then take a new cup, with no holes in it, and place it over the one with the hole. Then when you pour water into that cup..... it becomes filled and could even overflow. 


Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life."
- John 4:13-14


The young adults at the Remand Home were very attentive the whole time. My interpreter, Douglas was very energetic for me as well. When we broke into small group discussions, the teens really showed that they understood what I was talking about. Some kids explained that they thirsted for stealing when they were on the streets and knew that it did not fill them with joy because it did nothing but lead them there to the Remand home. Some other kids said that they wanted to trust Jesus like the woman in the story because when we believe in him and trust in him, our lives will be better. It felt amazing to see that the kids not only listened to me, but understood as well. 


This week, we are slpitting our team into two groups. One group will be going to Zirobwe. Zirobwe is the village that we are going to be building the training center. So we have one team heading out there to start construction as well as participate in outreach programs in the community. 
The other half of our group will be staying here in Kampala doing our minitries that we do in the city. I will be in Kampala this week keeping busy with our outreaches here. I am excited to get the chance to reach out to more children in this city this week ! 
We will be switching groups each week. So next week I will be living in a tent in the village :-) 


Thanks so much for all of the prayers and kind thoughts that you have all been sending my way. I appreciate all of them and you are truely helping me stay strong over here in Uganda ! 


Miss you ALL ! 




Prayer Requests:
- Zirobwe and the huge things that are happening in that village through Empower A Child
- The team in Kampala to stay strong at all of the projects that they will be setting out to do this week. ( 8 schools, 1 babies home, 1 disability hospital, and 1 juvenile home)
- My health - I am currently coming down with a super soar throat and a bit of a cold. It is becoming hard to speak at times. So please pray for me to be healed so that I can speak to these children here in Uganda. 
- My fellow volunteer Craig. For the past month 1/2 he has been violently ill. He has been here for 10 months serving with Empower A Child. He is trying hard to stay strong and not let his sickness bother him. But it seems as though every time he turns around he has a new illness whether is it pink eye, or stomach problems, or body pains. So please lift him up in your prayers so that he can finish his year of service here in Uganda happily and healthy :-)
- And as always, the children and people of Uganda :-)