Learning to Live in a New Country

So many times in the last week I have felt as if I’m completely clueless about how to take care of myself. Everything here feels different. And hard. I’m praying that I learn to live like an Acholi quickly, because I’m getting tired of feeling overwhelmed by life!

For example, we have had a mouse – a totally uninvited little guest that I have not appreciated. He ate approximately 10 of my granola bars. Not the entire bars, but he conveniently chose to eat from the center of each, so I wasn’t able to just break off the end and save the rest. Chrissy had traps set for awhile, but there was no bait in them. Basically the only way the mouse was going to be caught was if he happened to step on the trap while making a mad dash for my granola bars. So, I decide to bait the trap. I used my half-eaten granola of course. I mean, I already knew he liked those!

This was yesterday morning. Last night, we came home to find out the power was out. This is something that happens typically at least one night per week in Gulu. Sometimes it will stay out for a few days, and never is there any good reason for this. (Sometimes it’s even for big events elsewhere in the city, so they shut down power to all of Gulu so one venue can use all the electricity.) So anyway, I was already a little stressed about not having power and a fan last night. Then I am woken up at 3 AM by the stealer of all Gulu’s electricity – some party nearby. It was LOUD! As I’m lying in bed annoyed, I hear the mouse trap go off. And naturally, I freak, immediately hoping that the house somehow escaped the trap. But no, the trap had done its job. And I had to empty it this morning. Ew.

It is times like this that I pray that if God calls me into full-time oversees missions that He will let me get married first. A husband would be very helpful at times like these! :-)

Just in case you’re getting worried, I still love it here. I love the people, I love the children, I love the city. I’m sitting under my mosquito net right now listening to children play outside and it just makes me happy. But it’s definitely an adjustment. The overwhelmed feeling makes some of the little things seem like a big deal, but it also makes some of the everyday things very exciting. The things like a cold Coke, an e-mail, or a child laughing. All reasons to celebrate life!

A quick update on Mama Ochella: she is doing better! On Wednesday we went to the pharmacy and got three bags of saline solution and took them to the hospital with a plea to please administer them. They agreed and it really helped her strength a lot! I can’t figure out why the hospital doesn’t do these things on their own; none of us are trained in medicine, but simply by being exposed to U.S. hospitals we have more experience than almost everyone here. It’s a cool opportunity to minister to people.

Now for long-awaited pictures! I still don’t have pictures of the house because our shelves and furniture are still not ready. There aren’t closets here, so I am currently living out of 4 suitcases…my room is not a pretty site!


Some of the kids from Tegot. They absolutely LOVE having their pictures made.

This is Bosco. The first time I met him we brought him to the clinic in town and he was diagnosed with malaria and worms. The next time I saw him, he was much more active and his belly had gotten significantly smaller. Yay!

This is Apio. She is deaf (which is really common here due to untreated ear infections) and was really shy the first two days I saw her. Then day 3 something changed and she plopped into my lap as soon as I sat down!

P.S. Cold showers are absolutely wonderful here!