=)

"Mirembe, we love you more than you know"

That statement brought such a smile to my face tonight...

I had gathered the girls of Ebenezer together and we were sitting on the floor of one of their homes...

I had wanted to talk to them about how much I cared for them and how important they were to me...I also wanted to share with them what I was learning in the institute and how my walk with the Lord has been up to this point.

It was a great conversation...lasting about 1 1/2 hours and ending with Juliet telling me how much they loved me...

Oh how I love the way God's family works....Age doesn't matter, neither does culture, color, language, sex, or social status...

Christ truly does have a beautiful, multi-ethnic bride waiting for Him when He returns!

Winter in Uganda?

I guess you could say that...but really...we dont have a "winter" season...we just have a rainy season and a dry season.

But since I know most of you think Uganda is HOT all year round...here's the 10 day forcast...

Scattered thunderstorms everyday (between a 30-70% chance)
Lows between 66 and 68 degrees in the mornings/evenings
Highs between 78 and 84 degrees each day
with a chance of wind gusts...

Sounds just like Cali in January...with the exception that it will never rain 10 days in a row in cali :)

So there you have it...I have been and will continue to sport my hoodies in Uganda :)

Contact Info

Here is the latest contact info...

For those of you that have my mailing address at New Hope Uganda, I would ask that you now hold off on sending anything via mail after today as it can sometimes take 6-8 weeks to arrive and I am leaving the institute in about 7 weeks.

I will get my new Kampala mailing address to you as soon as I get it!

As for phone contact, I have a Ugandan cell phone number that you can call me on internationally (if you get a calling card)

OR

I now have a skype online phone number that you can call and leave messages on. This number will ring to my computer and is a local California call. I would love to get messages and hear some of your voices SO if you don't have this number and would like it, email me and I can send it to you :)

Hope you are all doing well! I miss you lots!

Uganda

So I have been thinking about this for awhile now and have come to realize that I really do LOVE life in Uganda.

It is for the most part completely opposite of life as I knew it before but for some reason I feel at home...

I love the sound of the birds outside my window at all hours of the day
I love that I can see clusters of the milky way at night
I love the sound of millions of frogs at night after a rain
I love that it can be HOT and two seconds later raining so hard that the ground is flooded
I love the way the wind blows just before a strong rain
I love the breeze of an outdoor shower in the afternoon
I love that you can hold someones hand for no other reason except that they are your friend
I love that when you ask Ugandan's to tell you who someone is they will say they are the dark black one
I love that the world doesn't stop when there isn't any electricity
I love that when you are sick all your friends come to visit and pray for you
I love that I cant eat as much as a Ugandan child
I love that you are always welcome, even if you aren't invited
I love that you can sit in silence and then erupt in laughter just because
I love that church isn't planned but is spontaneous
I love that every kid you pass calls you Auntie or Uncle
I love that you are within walking distance of all your friends
I love that fresh fruit and veggies are the cheapest things you can buy
I love that you can go to the market and the salesman will give you a piece of candy to try for free
I love that there is always room for you, no matter how full the car is
I love when you go to some one's house the first question is "do you have a bathroom?"
I love that I can see Jupiter
I love that we have family devotions every night
I love that a trip into the city is exciting
I love that when you are dressed nice you are told that you look "smart"
I love that we can worship in English, Lugandan, Ateso, Swahilli, and Lauo and that God understands each word
I love that no matter how much toilet paper you use, a pit latrine, unlike a drain, will never clog
I love that while my progress is slow, I catch words in Lugandan that I understand
I love that movie night is simply a group of friends gathering around a laptop with the pc speakers turned on full blast
I love that mopping entails flooding the place and then just squiggying out the excess water
I love that I can shower using just 1 1/2 gallons of water
I love the way Ugandans pray
I love that you can take a 12+ hour public transit ride and it only costs $7
I love that I can stand in the Northern & Southern Hemishere at the same time

Basically, I love Uganda...and I thank the Lord for that because it is him that made me love the people and this place so very much.

Error...

My brain gave me a serious error message the other day...I don't know if you have ever experienced that or not but its weird to say the least...

What brought on this error message?

I drove one of my friends cars from her house, to my house...Seriously...it was less than a five minute drive, down her driveway, out the secondary site gate, onto the main dirt road and then into the primary site gate...

So what was the big deal?

The steering wheel is on the passenger side and I had to drive on the opposite side of the road...

WEIRD!

My brain was having some serious problems just because the door was on my right and not on my left and because a right hand turn was more like a left hand one, crossing over traffic...

I think its a good idea that I wont have a car for at least another 6 months...maybe by then my brain would have realized that I am not in Kansas (ahh...cali) anymore!

kilos vs lbs

I have to say...I like the whole kilo system...

The other day when someone asked me how much I weighed...the number was under 100! Something I havent been able to say for a LONG LONG time when I use pounds...

I have to admit, I think I may really love this new system of measure :)

And just if you are curious about your weight in kilos...take your weight in lbs and then divide by 2.2...I have to say...a two digit number is much better than a three digit one...

I vote that the states switch over to kilos and make all of us feel a little bit better about ourselves :)

Adapted??

I always wondered how I would know when I have adapted to my life here in Uganda and today I think I finally discovered that I have...

SO what happened?

Today, a fellow missionary here at New Hope offered to let me live with her for the last 7 weeks that I am here at the institute.

Now her house is nothing like mine...She has:
-running water
-an indoor bathroom with toilet AND shower
-a kitchen complete with oven and refrigerator

So pretty much the opposite of how I live here with none of those things...

I had always thought that I would jump at an opportunity like that and say yes in a heartbeat but to my surprise I told her I had to think and pray about it and rather than my heart saying yes I found my heart saying no...

That surprised me...

So I really am content, happy and adapted to my home and my life here...

It could be that the idea of moving again just isn't all that exciting...after all this whole last year has been one big move after another:

Oct - Dec 2008 - Living in Florida
Jan - March 2008 - Living in Canoga Park
March - May 2009 - Living in Simi
May - June 2009 - Living in Colorado
July 2009 - Present - Living in Luwero
Nov 2009 onward - Will be living in Ggaba

Humm...so maybe its NOT that I am adapted BUT rather I just need a place to call my own...

6 homes in less than 1 year...

I can't wait to get a little more settled once I hit Ggaba...imagine...one place for at least 3 years! Now that excites me!

Desert please :)

In a country that has NO...and yes I mean NO dark chocolate or chocolate chips to be found...where can a girl turn to have a little sugar after a meal??

Tonight I was pleasantly surprised when I walked over to the Ebenezer family. I went early just to hang out with the girls and was excited to see a stalk of sugar cane that they were carving up...

If you have never had sugar cane, it basically looks like a stalk of bamboo...

You cut off the hard outer case and the inside you chew as if you were chewing tobacco...(and NO I don't know that from experience) anyways, you put the wood in your mouth, chew it till all the sugar is out and then spit it out.

Its very very sweet...pretty much equivalent to eating a spoon of raw sugar but just with a little more effort and some residual pieces of wood left in your mouth when you are done.

It was a nice little sweet surprise for desert tonight...even though I would much rather have had a nice piece of dark chocolate instead :)

Tongue Twisting

Wow...language learning is HARD!

Most days I say really stupid things...like today...

Joyce: "Oli otya Lena?"
Me: "uhh...weebale...I mean...Kale...uhhh...wait no...Jende!"

Basically...I have so many little responses in my mind that when poor Joyce asked me how I was this morning I told her...thank you, okay, I mean...I'm fine!

Maybe I should put a sign on my forehead that says "Caution...don't speak to me in Llugandan before 9 am..."

Let's hope it gets better before it gets worse!

One plus...I do keep the Ugandans entertained and we have some great laughs at what comes out of my mouth...

for example...

The other day I was trying to say that I loved Rolex (a type of breakfast burrito here) but rather, I declared my love to the rolex...with a confident "I love you Rolex!"

Yeah...it was a sight! Auntie Flo and Mama Jane pretty much fell over and rolled in the grass as they just repeated my declaration of love for a burrito over and over!

ahh...Llugandan...pray for me :)

Fast food service...?!?!

So a few of us from New Hope drove into Kampala Friday for a shopping trip...when you live in the bush its hard to get things so this is usually a monthly occurance and an all day affair.

We decided this time that we would spend the night at a local camp ground and then drive back Saturday, being that the drive is about 2 1/2 hrs each way.

So since we had a little extra "chill" time than normal we sat down for lunch in Garden City's food court....

It is pretty much what you would see at any mall, a bunch of tables and a variety of food choices, with only one big difference...

You dont stand in line...

What you do here is sit down and every waiter, from every food place bum rushes the table and hands you their menu...they tell you the specials all at the same time, trying to convince you that the things on their menu are the very best and then, rather than letting you mill over the menu's on your own, they stand around the table to see who won you over...

Talk about pressure! I am a very slow decider when it comes to food menus, and so to have about 8 Ugandan's standing around trying to convince me to pick something from their menu was a rather stressful food choice...

What did I go for...this time around I choose from what I think was an indian or greek menu...a chicken shwarma in a pita...yumm!