Standing Still or Moving on?

It’s weird for me to imagine that life is moving on without me back in the US…

While it is no surprise to me that it is, it is also strange to think about that the life I knew in America will never again be the same…

When I go back to visit…

My church will have a new pastor

And new people I have never met before will be members

A friend will have passed away,

While others will have moved far away…and I'm not talking another state far, I'm talking another country far…

Some single friends will be married

Some childless friends, will have children.

Homes and jobs will have changed

And my brothers will have girlfriends

Relatives will have died

Health plans will have been revamped

And new policies will have been set in place

Diet fads will be different

And TV shows I have never heard of will be popular

And to think…these are just some of the changes that have happened in the last year…I can’t imagine what changes will have taken place by 2012! Just another reminder, that earth is not really my permanent home.

Pot Holes?

When I lived in the US pot holes were not very common, and if they did show up they were usually small and fixed within a week…

Not the case here…In fact what we term “pot holes” really doesn’t do Ugandan pot holes justice…I was thinking about it today and how I could describe these road hazards…

And after much thought, the best way I thought to describe them is that our pot holes are more like bomb shelters…If you jumped in a pulled a board over you, you could probably survive for weeks…some of them are even big enough to house small families…so when I say my car could be swallowed by one…I am being literal, not melodramatic…

That being said, I came across a dozie of a pot hole today…it was so big that all the cars opted to hop the curb and drive on the sidewalk rather than try and navigate their way through the crater…

It made me smile, and really made me think just how boring driving is going to be if I ever end up driving in LA again…seriously…not even downtown LA compares to this!

On a related note…If guys love extreme sports (such as off-roading) so much, why don’t more guys want to move to Uganda?! Cause seriously…it has become an every day sport for me…and if I don’t say so myself, I am getting pretty good at it!

BRRRRRR

Last night was HOT and STUFFY....

Today was warm...not so stuffy...

BUT as I was leaving work the dark rain clouds rolled in...the ones that told me they weren't there for their usual 5 minute rain...

AND so, it rained, and rained, and rained...

AND the wind blew

AND my house was cleared of its stuffiness and stickiness from the night before...

It felt night...then it was a bit chilly, then out came my flannel PJ pants, my hoodie sweatshirt, my socks, and my nice thick blanket...

Its been nice to enjoy a cool night...as they are so very rare here

AND as I lay here, all wrapped up, I thought to myself...just how cold is it?

So I looked it up on weather.com and it is a brisky 68 degrees...

All I have to say, is its a good thing I dont live in Alaska, or Canada, or the East Coast...I think I would freeze to death.

Here's to blankets, hot chocolate and flannel PJS!

Lena #2...

Today I meet a girl from church...I had seen her before since she is on the worship team but today I cam across her at Adrift, small world that we both planned to raft on the very same day, without planning it together...

So We meet...and guess what...

Yep, her name is Lena...spelled the same way as mine...

But thats not the only funny thing...

Her ugandan name...

Yep, its Mirembe...

So now there are two Lena Mirembe's living in Kampala, going to the same church and living within a few minutes of each other...how hilarious is that!

Talk about a small world!

Is it worth it?

That has been the question this past 30 days…Is being in Uganda worth missing out on my friends’ lives back home? Is it worth it being here, if it means I will never again hug my friend back home? Is it worth it, if when I get back I realize life at home has passed me by? Is it worth it, if I wont be able to attend the funeral of a close friend or meet her new baby?

I have to admit, I have been in a funk these past 30 days…and honestly it is a funk that I haven’t really understood…until today…

In my attempt to find out why I feel the way I do, I looked through the books I brought with me, hoping I packed one that might explain this new stage I have entered…A friend of mine loving called it…”Stage 2 the negative stage”

After scanning the shelf of unread books, I came across “The Art of Crossing Cultures” and pulled it out…I am glad I did…It has explained a lot…

For me, I thought that my funk was solely from the loss of my friend Kylee, one month ago but in reality, its not…It’s a series of changes, all that have occurred in the last 30 days and all of which have contributed to pajama day today…

This month,

• A good friend died
• Things at GBI were extra stressful with the National Counsel Visit
• My exercise level decreased, along with my cultural immersion with the purchase of a car
• I had to learn to adjust to new driving stresses
• My computer crashed and many of my documents were lost
• I started attending a new church
• NMSI Finance switched systems, which meant my monthly support dropped considerably all the while the new expense of Petrol increased
• I came to the realization, that most of my friends or family will never know where I live, work, or what my life is like.
• Friends in my apartment complex moved, leaving me without spontaneous afternoon & evening visits
  and
• My scale so loving told me that I gained a few kilos

The thing I come back to when I look at my month, think of my funk, and ask the question “Is it worth it?” Is that faith without works is dead. Faith isn't easy and if it was Jesus would not have had to say "Pick up your cross and follow me"...He knew we may question if what we are doing was worth it and yet he knew me and had a plan laid out for my life before the foundations of the earth.

That being said, I believe without a doubt that God brought me to Uganda. He knew what my last 30 days would look like, and he knows what the next 30 days will look like and for some reason he thinks I am strong enough to bear it. He won’t give me more than I can bear, even though some days it feels as if I am going to be crushed under the load and he knows where I lay my head at night, my route to work, and what I do for fun, even if my friends will never know.

My prayer is that God will allow me to feel him closer than before. That he would remind me that this earth isn’t my home and that living in what I know (aka Cali) isn’t better than living in the place he has sovereignty placed me in right now.

My prayer is that I will be reminded that while my friends may be gone from this earth, they are ever present with Jesus and someday I will get to see them again. My prayer is that instead of thinking of the things I may miss, I would be reminded of the amazing things God has already allowed me to see and experience here.

My prayer is that when the electricity goes out, when the bats fly into my head, when the roaches fly, and when the driving gets a little rough, that I will be able to say with confidence, “Yes…it is worth it!”

Easter Traditions....

Someone asked me yesterday what American traditions are for easter and to be honest...I really had NO idea...

BUT today, the answer came to me...as I was sitting in a shuttle going to Jinja (about a 2 hour drive from my house)...my easter tradition is to go away...to do something fun and adventurous...

I think this started because I was a teacher and always had a week off right before easter...Some of my easter break trips in the past included London, Paris and Hawaii...all great fun...

So what did I do this easter?

I had a 4 day weekend...

Friday I went to the Entebbe Zoo...hung out with some monkeys and saw some of the local animal life



Saturday I went white water rafting on the Nile...and only managed to flip out of the raft once during a rapid





and then Sunday-Monday I went home to my village to visit my kids from Ebenezer Family and Mama Jane...

It was great fun, keeping in tradition of doing fun and adventurous things...but this time I did them within a 2 hour radius of my home here in Uganda!

Tatted Up

As a kid, I remember one of my jobs with my dad was engraving all of his tools with his name and his social security number...I remember it because 1) My dad had alot of tools, and 2) because I thought it was odd that even though none of them was ever stolen he still felt the need to "tat up" every tool he ever owned...

Today I came full circle though...

I paid my mechanic to "tat up" my car...1) I have yet to have anything stolen, just like my dad, but 2) I'm not Dorothy and I definitely don't live in Kansas...

SO about $20 and 2 hours later,

every window,
every door handle,
every rain guard,
and every light,

now has my car's license plate number tattoo'ed on it...well engraved on it...but it's more fun to say tattoo'ed...and hopefully my car's new body art will prevent me from having to run around the city having to find replacement parts for my car's exterior parts.

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Two Hands...

I'm your typical one handed, lounging, talking on the phone, listening to music, and eating a snack all at the same time type of California driver...

That said, my relaxed Cali ways are just not gonna cut it here in Uganda and so I have begrudgingly submitted to the 10 and 2 positions on my steering wheel...

Yes its sad...BUT mandatory...if you were driving here, you'd hold on too...

Here's a glimpse of what a typical day of driving looks like...I just snatched this off you-tube...so no you wont be witnessing my driving skills in this video...I'd need a co-pilot with a camera to capture that...

Palms?

Have to say...I came across a first today...

It is the weekend before Easter...palm Sunday...and as I was sitting in church in the middle of Kampala the pastor asked..."it's palm Sunday...who brought their palms?"

To my surprise over half the church held up and proceeded to wave around their palm branches...

That was different...but then, on my way out of church I noticed taxi cabs, boda bodas and random people with palm branches strapped to them...

Have to say...The Ugandans around here really got into this whole palm Sunday thing 100%

Maybe I need to learn to be more festive!

Grade Beef...Grade Chocolate?!

I have come to realize in my more mature years that there really is a scale of good vs bad chocolate...

Its kinda like Grade Beef...you can get the good stuff or you can settle for 2nd best and pray that you didn't get any weird random parts ground into the beef...

So as I was eating a candy bar that someone sent to me from the US...that declared that it was the "World's Finest" I whole heartedly had to disagree...

It was BAD...and honestly...it was comparable to bad Ugandan chocolate...so this makes me think that we need an international grading scale when it comes to chocolate...

I vote they just print it right on the label so you can decide whether or not its worth the calories or your time...

For my taste...this is the scale I propose...in order from the best to the worst...

1. Swiss Dark Chocolate with Hazelnuts...oh yeah
2. Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate
3. Dove Dark Chocolate
4. Dark Chocolate with Coffee beans
5. Hershey's Special Dark
6. Dark Chocolate Peanut butter cups
7. Dark Chocolate in General
8. Swiss White Chocolate
9. Swiss Milk Chocolate
10. Dove Milk Chocolate
11. Candy Bars...you know the ones...ones that don't count as real chocolate...Kit Kats, Reeses, Etc...Pretty much anything that has to advertise with a bright label because that's the best part of the eating experience...I find that every country has this stuff...and its GROSS!

So yeah...if you didn't figure out the general scale, Good Dark Chocolate ROCKS and most milk chocolate SUCKS

Chocolate expert...signing off...

Ewh! Gross!

Haha...There are a rare few things that I have found truly gross over the last 9 months here in Uganda...but the other day, I ran my new #1 grossest thing, and well...it got me thinking...what has grossed me out the most...Here are my top 3...from least to greatest...

3. A tied piece of small intestine served to me on top of my matoke (I ate around it :)

2. A dead dog...rotting on my road for 4 days in the African sun (Did you know bodies grow and weird bugs start eating the carcass...and that even with your windows rolled up the smell comes in the car!)...ewwh!

1. A dead cockroach...floating in the dish I left in my sink to soak over night (Now I don't mind these on the ground...but knowing they are walking on my sink at night with my clean dishes is just disgusting!