Miss this...

Christine is my super fun, Jesus-lovin', friend and Ugandan sister.  She and my sister Laura got to meet when Laura came to visit me.

We went and ate pizza at a restaraunt on Lake Victoria and it was awesome.

Miss you, Christine!!

It's Been a Year!

It's officially been one year since I left for Uganda, which just totally blows my mind.  It already seems like such a whisper of time that I was even there, yet I still catch myself saying, "Oh, I just got back from Uganda."

So, in honor of the one year anniversary of me leaving for Uganda, here's a short list of great ways to support missionaries (other than financially):

1.  Pray for them daily.  And make sure you tell them you're doing so, even sending specific prayers.

2.  Write e-mails.  Lots of them.  They don't even have to be interesting.  I was thrilled by every little detail of life at home.

3.  Send care packages.  Excellent ideas include: Oreos (chocolate or my favorite golden) or non-meltable candy, photos, smelly lotions or candles, books, and CDs.  There are lots of other things I could think of too, but the simple stuff truly is the most exciting.

4.  Stay updated with what's going on "over there."  It was really encouraging for me to get blog comments because that way I knew people were reading my blog and cared about what I was doing.

5.  Call or Skype.  If this is an option, it's fun for all parties involved.  You might have to stay up late or get up early, but it's totally worth it!

So, thanks for all of you who did these things (and supported me in other ways) while I was gone.  I appreciate each one of you!  That's all I got in my five minutes of brainstorming, so hope you enjoyed!

I spent the weekend in Wisconsin, visiting Christine, who I lived with in Uganda.  It was really strange to see her in America (I had never even seen her in jeans!) AND in the snow - quite a difference from the last time we met!

Anway, we had a great time catching up and I was ridiculously excited about the six inches of snow while I was there.  We went sledding, baked cookies (I taught her the recipe for Cowboy cookies), went on a wine tour, and took a hike through some woods.  And we talked, and talked, and talked about Uganda and all the people we love there. 

Here are a few pictures:

 Hiking.

 Sledding. In the dark. Totally awesome!

The snowy woods. So pretty!

My Last Day in the Village

My last day in the village was super emotional, yet wonderful at the same time.

The moms and the ECM staff planned an awesome going-away party and I felt so blessed to be honored by them in that way.

The day included me getting three live chickens as gifts, to take home to my family. The concept of customs is definitely foreign, so I just said thank you and later gave the chickens to Ugandans who most definitely have more use of them than I. Chickens are very expensive to them and it was a huge sacrifice for them to do that for me. I was SO blessed for them to be a part of my life for the last 6 months! Here is me and my favorite mom, Evelyn, with the two chickens her family gave me. Also, notice my semi-traditional dress. I had it made specifically for this party and yes, I did bring it home. You know, for a night on the town or something...


Here I am with all three of my chickens. Two are hanging upside-down and I'm holding them by the feet. This is quite normal in Uganda and has some strange calming effect on the chickens. They just hang there, totally docile.


Not pictured events: the moms all pooled together and bought a goat, which was slaughtered for the occasion. I am NOT a fan of goat meat, but was so honored that they would do that for me. Once again, when they're struggling to feed their children, this is a huge sacrifice. It's definitely something that you want to refuse, but culturally you just can't. Instead, I just made sure I shared my portion of Billy...

Some of the moms gave me speeches thanking me for being with them and asking me to come back. Talk about emotional! But as hard as it was to leave, it was WAY cool to have some new Jesus-followers there sending me off...such a cool representation of why I went and what the Lord allowed me to be a part of during my time there.

Some of the moms had written letters (with help) and had them translated to send home to my parents.

We danced/sang/jumped around. They think this is hilarious for me to do with them - I think it's totally embarrassing, but joined in anyway.

Side story: I had ordered some drums to bring home and they were ready on this day (The party was a Saturday and I was leaving Monday on the bus to go to Kampala. ) What I didn't expect was that these drums were "fresh," meaning the leather part of the drum had been on a warm animal just a couple days prior. The drums smelled like dead body. It was awful! I left them outside on the porch and it smelled up the entire house. I honestly wasn't sure I would be able to even take them home. But I wrapped them in plastic and they made it into the States! They are still curing outside, over a month later!

Here's some more pictures of my last day:

Grace REALLY wanted to have her picture made with me. She gave her life to Jesus a couple of months ago and now smiles all the time! She speaks English quite well, so she was always a good friend to have!
Aber Prossy. She just go sponsorship and was so excited!

The moms, enjoying their sodas.

Some of the kids.

Oscar, one of my favorites. He's modeling his new clothes!

Little Ashley in the sweet little outfit my mom sent for her.

Friendship

Some of my neighbors. I miss them!

Home

I arrived safely home Thursday afternoon! In the past 36 hours I have eaten La Hacienda, Chick-fil-A, homeade hamburgers, and Braum's ice cream. And I've had a Dr. Pepper. Nice.

Plus, I've hung out with my family, which has been awesome (more awesome than the American food I've eaten).

I'll try to catch up on blogging in the next few weeks. I have a lot of cool stories and photos to share!

Can't wait to see people and share stories and pictures in person!

Computer, A Week, and the 4th

My computer officially died the day before Laura left, so it has been interesting using the Internet cafes for all my computer needs. Needless to say, my updates will be infrequent if any for the remainder of my time. The cause of computer death is not certain, but the sand and small, dead, flying ants found on the motherboard were highly suspicious. What can I say other than TIA?

In other news, I'm down to a week and a day in Gulu. Crazy! I leave Gulu early on Monday, July 12. I will spend a couple days in Kampala seeing a few friends and visiting the African Craft Market then I fly out on the 14th. I arrive in Dallas in the afternoon on the 15th. I am excited to see everyone at home, but I am really sad to leave at the same time. Please keep the adjustment period and reverse culture-shock in prayer. I keep hearing that it is much harder than leaving!

Finally, last night the Foresters had a 4th of July celebration complete with red, white, and blue sprinkled cupcakes. It was a great time of fellowship with them and some other friends. Then today one of my favorite restaurants in Gulu, Sankofa, had hotdogs and hamburgers in honor of the 4th. I sported red, white and greenish-blue (the closest I had) and thoroughly enjoyed the American food. Of course we had to sing the National Anthem before leaving as well!

In the States!

Hello everyone! I am now back in the States (arrived late Thursday evening), and this will be my last blog post here. Since arriving, things have not been too eventful; I am adjusting back to the American culture. Last night I was able to go to my cousin’s graduation party, which was fun. My Mom, brother and I also went to see Toy Story 3, great movie! Everything here is much different than what I had become udapted to in Uganda.

I won’t write too much for this blog post, but just mention a few things from Uganda that took place shortly before I left. Last week in our neighborhood we had a girl accept Jesus. She brought back a friend when we met again and then several other English-speaking girls joined us. By the end of the day we had five girls pray to accept Jesus, it was really exciting!

Some things might have been lost in translation, but we will have several people meeting with them more to do some discipleship. Another girl from the neighborhood even came up to ask if she could talk to us as well, that was really neat, I’m excited to hear about what the follow-up has been like (I really have no idea where in the world all of the English speaking children came from).

Also: we had a crazy number of baptisms on Sunday at the new church; the deaf girl in our neighborhood learned a new word (airplane); we had a great dinner with the staff before I left; I was bit by a super ant; a woman asked us to marry her son after passing her on the road; I made fried okra in Uganda for the second time; Ashley and I pulled a prank in Uganda for the first time; and, lastly, I had many good times saying goodbye to some dear friends that I love very much.

Hopefully I will see many of you soon! I’d love to hear how all of you are doing also, and look forward to talking or spending time with you!

Stuck

I am currently in Kampala. I am supposed to be on a bus headed back to Gulu. But when I arrived at the bus station this morning, I discovered that the bus is broken down and is not running today. So now I'm back at the guest house waiting until tomorrow to leave.

While frustrating, it is kind of nice to have a day of rest. The bus cancellation caused me to realize that I've been feeling quite overwhelmed the last couple of days. Laura left, my computer crashed, I'm applying to go back to school (yes, really!), and I'm leaving Uganda in less than three weeks. I needed a day to refocus, so I'm thankful that I get to stay here, whatever the reason.

"Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you..." - Psalm 55:22a

Happy Father's Day!!

Because of a combination of poor internet availability, crashing computers and busyness, we have been having a hard time making blog posts. We actually have a couple that are almost ready to be posted but saved on a computer that isn’t working, so we’ll try and update you on the latest happenings. This will be a joint blog post between the two of us.

Laura is leaving early tomorrow morning and will be back to the States on Wednesday; she’ll put up a few more blog entries and then Ashley will start posting by herself again.

On to the big news, Father’s Day was on Sunday! To say a proper Happy Father’s Day to our Dad, we thought we would include a couple of [very manly] animal stories from both of us:

Story 1: Killing, taking apart, cooking and eating a chicken.

Ashley: Learning how to properly “prepare” a chicken was on my maybe list of things to do while in Africa. On Sunday I happily moved it over to the “I’ve experienced this” list. I guess I can really only halfway check it off the list because Kent did the honors of the chop while Laura and I looked on. But it really wasn’t bad. I’m pretty sure I could even do it on my own in the future. I’m also equally as sure that I wouldn’t want to, but at least I know I could if necessary. And the biology lesson that fresh chickens provide is quite interesting. Nerdy? Maybe, but true.

Laura: The chicken was eerily warm inside afterward. After holding it in my arms as it snuggled against me, I wasn’t about to chop its head off. Once it was properly dead, however, (it is true that chickens don’t exactly stay still right after they’re killed) taking it apart wasn’t quite as bad as I had imagined. Surprisingly, I was even able to eat it when we were finished! We had very good chicken spaghetti: if you ever need some fresh chicken for dinner in the future just give me a call…

Story 2: The white ants.

Ashley: This was the second and largest swarm of white ants that I’ve experienced. It’s hard to understand how many bugs swarm during these times. Literally 1000s. You can hear the wings through the windows.

Since Ugandans eat white ants, we helped collect the ones that were making their way into our house. I would say at the end of an hour we had collected somewhere between 200-400. It was quite disgusting, but a very Ugandan experience. And our night guard was happy to have the extra bugs that we collected for him.

Laura: Despite the name, these look nothing like ants. They are oversized, fat termites each possessing four wings, and there were 1000s of them. Since our house is in the middle of huts, the light attracts the swarm. Being outside when one of the largest swarms came, I might have had more bugs hit/crawl/sit all over me in that 1-2 hours than I have in the rest of my life combined.

Because of a varied audience, we thought pictures would be best kept off the blog. If you do want to see some of these experiences just let us know. The videos and pictures are great! Happy Father’s Day, Dad! We love you!!

Unexpected Blessings (Part 2)

I got a package! A real, USPS, sent-all-the-way-from-America package from my sweet friend Amelia! I got it a couple days ago and was ridiculously excited. And it made it here in near record time – only a little over a month!

She sent me a collection of poems by Amy Carmichael, who was a missionary to orphans in India. The crazy thing is that I had JUST finished a book on the life of Amy. How cool is that??

Oh, and when I went to check the mail, I didn’t have my key. Instead, I just walked behind the counter and asked the man in the back for the mail for Box #116. He gave it to me without any hesitation. Guess I looked trustworthy.

So anyway, thank you so much Amelia. You made my day!

Portugal

The FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa on Friday. If you have ever lived or traveled in Africa, Europe, or South America, you will know that this is a big deal. Basically everywhere BUT the States is crazy about futbol (or soccer, if you prefer).

[For those of you who know nothing about futbol (of which I am one, except that I’m surrounded by it), this is the first time the World Cup has been in Africa and six African teams will be participating – South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Cameroon.]

Naturally, I felt the need to purchase a jersey with the FIFA 2010 patch. I mean, this will probably be the only time I’ll be living in Africa at the same time the Cup’s in Africa.

So I go to a sport’s store in Gulu to make my purchase. I’m hoping for South Africa, but am pretty willing to accept any African team, with the exception of Nigeria (for you, Dad).

And of course my only selections are Portugal or Nigeria.

I opt for Portugal. Then I regret it on the way home. Portugal? Seriously?? I didn’t even know where Portugal was until I looked it up on my handy little World Cup map!

Nevertheless, as I’m watching the first match of the Cup between South Africa and Mexico, I’ll be proudly wearing my Portuguese colors. And hoping that no one realizes that Portugal plays the Ivory Coast on Tuesday…

Unexpected Blessings

It seems that since Laura’s arrival there have been a multitude of different reasons why trips to the village have been canceled. This has been discouraging on one hand but very exciting on the other – discouraging because I love the village and encouraging because I equally love the town of Gulu and the people that live here!

The Foresters (the family I met in the airport when I first arrived) had a team come in this week and yesterday we had the opportunity to spend the day sharing the Gospel with them. What a blessing that was! The team is 10 college students or new graduates and they LOVE Jesus. It was a huge honor to be able to work alongside them and have no other goal for the day but to talk to people about Jesus.

The morning began with a time of praise and worship, reading Scripture, and praying. I felt so filled and realized how deep my longing for community has been over the last few months. And that was just the start to the day.

We split into groups of 3-4 and spent the rest of the day walking around Gulu and sharing the love of Jesus. I don’t know what happened in most of the other groups, but in my group we saw one person accept Jesus. We also met a man who is already following Jesus but has been longing for a solid church and community.

Finally, we met Mary and Martin and their four children. Martin is a prison guard/chaplain and Mary works at one of the little shops in town. They love Jesus like crazy and we spent the afternoon encouraging one another. The family spends much of their time and money ministering to others and they are just a huge blessing to the people around them. So cool!

As we were preparing to leave, Mary said she wanted to wash our feet. So she brought us inside her home and prayed over us as she washed our feet. I somehow managed to hold back tears, but I’ve never been more humbled in all of my life.

“If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” – Isaiah 58:10-11

Hope

One of the hardest things to process about being here is the previous activity of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) and the impact that this group has had on Gulu. The village we work in, Tegot Atoo, actually means “place of death”.

There is not a single family in that village that we have met who are not directly affected by LRA activity. Hearing stories about this is unavoidable, and especially at first I found it incredibly upsetting to watch as people brought up how the LRA affected them. They visibly change when talking about their stories. Many cover their pain with alcohol, abuse or various other coping activities.

I won’t go into specific stories, both because that is not the purpose of my post and I don’t want to write what I’ve heard over a public forum, but you can almost definitely find something about this group on the internet if you are interested. “Invisible Children” has some good videos that actually center around the place we are right now.

More importantly than what happened, what I’ve found that is so incredible about all of this is the amount of hope and change that Jesus provides to His people today.

Richard, his eyes actually seem to glow. I’ve read this in books, but don’t know that until now I’ve really seen someone that I feel this is true of, but I can see it in him. He is filled with joy and peace. As he abused her continually, his wife Evelyn prayed 10 years for Richard to come to know Jesus. About one year ago he did, and he is a wholly changed man.

He, despite cultural norms, helps his wife in the garden, goes out to dig for her in the community if she cannot and interacts with people with a great humility, something rarely seen here in men (this was not an insult to men, culturally here men have absolute dominance over women and oftentimes treat them mainly as property, not people, this is very different from western culture : ) ).

Another cultural difference is that parents don’t really interact with their children. There are not really hugs or kisses given to any of them. Richard and Evelyn LOVE their children and that love is returned. They hug, kiss, talk with and interact with them. In a very real way, they show the life changing power that Christ has over the lives of His children.

In addition to this, they also display hope and assurance in their future; not that they know exactly what will happen to them, but they know that what matters is they will one day spend eternity actually being able to see their Savior with their own eyes. Richard and Evelyn were weighed down with sins, the actions of the LRA, culture and many other things, and Christ freed them from all of that. And hundreds of other people in this community as well. People are undeniably changed and freed through Christ. “For by grace we have been saved through faith.”

This is actually one of my favorite things to talk about with people. Email me if you have any questions or want to know more, I would love to hear your input! I love you and am praying!

“And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.””
-Mark 2:17

Top Ten

Upon further reflection on my trip to the hospital, I realized that I left out a lot of important (and entertaining) details concerning my time there. So here are the top ten ways you know that you are in a Ugandan hospital, not an American hospital:

1. The doctor looks about 20. Maybe 23 at most.

2. When taking blood, a latex glove is tied around your arm. To the point that your arm turns a bluish/purple color.

3. One of the supplies for taking a blood culture is aluminum foil over the top of a glass bottle.

4. Anyone can read your chart. This is to include any hospital employee, fellow patient, or any random person roaming the halls. Definitely no HIPAA laws here.

5. The waiting room and halls are filled with people lying on grass mats on the floor.

6. Your total bill is less than $10.

7. The TB ward is next to the children’s ward.

8. A 20-something boy tries to come see the doctor with you. You say no. So does the doctor.

9. The toilet is a hole in the ground.

10. You are asked to name your tribe. When you respond, “none”, you receive blank stares. You finally state, “America.”

On Being Sick in Africa

For the most part, my four months in Africa have been pretty healthy. Apart from the first couple of days of sickness when I first arrived and a couple of days of giardia also in the first month, I’ve not had any trouble.

And unfortunately, sickness had to present itself during my sister’s time here. Ugh.

I got sick on Wednesday, but it was a different type of sickness than I’ve ever had. The only symptoms I really had were severe nausea and a general “weak feeling.” But the nausea was to the point of I couldn’t eat. Which is obviously bad.

The first step was ruling out malaria. Which we did. Three times.

Over the course of two days, I visited two clinics and the hospital (which probably sounds extremely over-the-top, but with the crazy diseases that run around here, it's just best to be extremely cautious). It is quite intense to let someone take blood from your arm at a hospital in Gulu, Uganda…definitely brings trusting in God for health and protection to a whole new level!

(For those of you who will worry about the trip to the hospital, I made sure they changed gloves before touching me and I watched them open any needles they used. Plus, the places I went have western-trained doctors and good reputations. Between the two, I was about as safe as possible!)

The first doctor I saw at the hospital was basically a joke. She didn’t really ask any obvious questions and seemed to focus only on “you’re too thin, you must be anorexic,” to which I wanted to say, “I’m here because I’m not eating. The two can’t go together.”

The second doctor was awesome though. I felt fully confident that he knew what he was talking about and he took time to explain the blood test results to me. I am so thankful for him!!

The only thing they ever really determined was that I had a slightly elevated WBC and thus started me on antibiotics (which thankfully were manufactured in the UK).

Sunday I was finally able to eat three small meals and I seem to be getting a little stronger, although I’m still not completely feeling normal.

The hardest thing has probably been that I feel so bad about being sick while Laura is here. She’s been awesome about it though and even went to the village without me on Saturday! She’s also cooked, cleaned, and been a great encourager for me. Plus, with our neighborhood ministry being so fun, she got plenty of time to play with those kiddos too.

Plus, being sick really allowed others to take care of me, which is not something I usually appreciate in any way! Jennifer, at Café Larem, was SO worried about me that she made me take a nap on the couch outside the café. Definitely a little awkward, but it did help! Also, the Foresters let us stay with them a couple nights and were so gracious to feed us, put up with my laying in bed, and offer encouragement and reassurance when I was getting really discouraged. My friend Lowna was also amazing and went with us to the clinic and the hospital. She’s probably the toughest woman I’ve ever met in my life and was a great advocate to have by my side! Finally, the ECM staff have been really kind also. Simon drove us around, Pato went with us to the hospital, and everyone else has just been really encouraging!


Oh, and as of tonight, the neighborhood kids now know the hokey pokey AND the limbo. And the adults still like to stand outside and laugh at us. But, TIA and I’m totally OK with that!! :-)

Also, on a short trip to the market this afternoon, we got to pray over an elderly woman and set up an appointment to share the Gospel with her on Sunday (when we can have a willing translator)!

Not in America

It has been a while since my last post, I hope that everyone is doing well and have really enjoyed hearing from all of you! This will be my first post since arriving in Gulu, and I will be trying to condense many thoughts and stories.

First of all, the power has been out quite a bit lately. We also ran out of water for a while, and this has all combined to create some interesting experiences. Because of the lack of water, I took my first bucket shower. This is when you get a jerry can full of water, dump it into a bucket and then pour cups of water over you to bathe. It was quite cold, but I was really excited about it as it made me feel more Ugandan. : ) Ashley has also been sick while this has been happening. We are not sure what the sickness is, but we’re pretty confident that it’s not malaria, which we think is a good thing. A few people have been overly kind and helpful through this, namely the Forestor family, Jessica at Café Larem and our night guard, Cosmas. I could really go on about them for quite a while but will just say that I’ve been blown away by their kindness, concern and willingness to serve. We also had Simon, Pato and Lona drive around with us for literally hours going to clinics to see if we could pinpoint what is going on with Ash. We’ve narrowed it down to something bacterial, have medicine and are all praying for a quick recovery. They were great with helping us during that process! Also, Ashley is feeling a lot better today, so we are very thankful!

The neighborhood ministry is still so much fun. We are trying to teach a little deaf girl some simple words in American Sign Language, and I think she may be starting to understand at least two words (dog and later, we’re not totally sure why these two). The village is so great. This was only my third day to go out, and I learn new things every time. Today the kids apparently decided I should know their language and would speak to me in long Acholi sentences. My reaction would be to talk back in gibberish and they would just laugh. I also had around 20 kids gather in a circle with gaping mouths to watch a little girl play with my hair. My hair feels very different to them, and they are rather fascinated by it, which is funny to watch. They also played elbow tag for the first time, and they were so intense! They would, at times, actually tackle one another to be safe from the person chasing them, and the kids just laughed through a whole lot of the game, as did I.

Later in the day I had my first experience visiting a family. It was totally different! I sat on the floor of a mud hut, which is smeared with cow dung for a yet-to-be-discovered reason and was served chicken and cassava. Culturally, it is very rude to not finish your entire plate of food; this can be intense as the portions that they serve are most of the time probably around three times an American portion. Also, they eat literally everything off the chicken bone and then oftentimes break it and suck out the bone marrow.. through this process I prayed a lot, thought of my grandpa who always impresses me with how much he eats off of a chicken bone and wondered if they are still filming episodes of fear factor (I did not suck out the bone marrow, maybe next time). I really love that family though, and I was so happy that they invited us over. It is exciting to continually try new things as well, I am so glad to be here!

I have oftentimes experienced here that the evidence of the hope Jesus provides to people can be so obvious in people from all different backgrounds! This is amazing to see, and I am blown away by how cool it is that I can witness these things. Just hanging out with people, in many ways quite different from me, is intense and so much fun. I am excited to see what the future holds and know that God will provide everything we need, He is awesome!

Neighborhood Ministry

Ever since the dog bite incident, things in the neighborhood have been awesome. They weren’t bad before, but things have just taken off. I have gotten to know my neighbors more over the past two weeks than I have over the past four months. Even my relationship with Cosmas, the night guard, has gotten a lot stronger. I am SO excited about the opportunities to minister near my home as well as in the village.

Monday night, Laura and I played outside with all the neighborhood kids. We brought out the soccer ball and cones, but they were far more interested in holding out hands, trying to get us to chase and tickle them, and learning all the crazy dances and songs that we so very much enjoyed teaching them.

When we did the hokey pokey, at least five adults were watching us from their homes. I’m quite certain they think we’re crazy. The kids, however, ate it up.

We introduced the chicken dance as well. That was also a big hit. Until we came to the part where you link arms with someone and turn in a circle. Then all the boys ran away hysterically laughing.

My closest neighbor, Grace, is a really sweet elderly woman and speaks excellent English. We have had great conversations almost every day and on Friday she is taking Laura and me to the market to show us where to buy some scarves. Can’t wait!

Cosmas also invited us over to meet all of his children (already know his wife). That too is another door opened.

I am sooo excited to see God move in this community!

Some Pictures

Acan Irene and Piloya Mercy. Love these girls!



I think this picture of Laura is one of the sweetest pictures ever. I just love it! These are some kids we befriended outside of Cafe Larem. Calvin (I think) and Mercy. Isn't this just adorable??

Some E-mails Home

These are e-mails Laura and I sent to our parents the day we got to Gulu. They both thought you all would enjoy reading them as well, so I am posting it here. Sometimes I don't know what's interesting or useful information, but they informed us that these would be good for the blog. So here they are. (Andrew is the intern we picked up at the airport.) Thanks for the suggestion, Mom and Dad!

***

I think Laura had an "oh wow!" moment when she saw my house. And the the lizards. And the spiders. And heard the bats in the attic that also call this place home. Nevertheless, she's adjusting really well and enjoying everything so far. Today will be her first day in the village and my first day back in a long time. I can't wait!!

The bus ride truly was great. I did my best to educate both Laura and Andrew on all I know about Uganda, its history, culture, etc. and they got to see a lot of the country, which was really nice. It is funny to watch them see things that I don't even notice anymore - like chickens and cows roaming the side of the road, women carrying babies on their backs and fruit or water on their heads, or a bunch of people piled into one vehicle!

Laura is feeling great! It was definitely a really nice thing that we stayed in Kampala a couple extra days. It let her adjust and we had a good time too. I was really glad to see Christine and I know Laura really enjoyed meeting her as well. Plus, I love Sheila that works at MAF so it was really nice to spend time with her as well.

Andrew got in a little after 8 on Thursday night. He had time to eat dinner, sleep a few hours, and then get up early to experience Kampala traffic and a 6 hour bus ride. He did great though! Didn't even seem tired! I think we freaked him out a bit - we greeted him with a sign that said Go Vols! and Gig 'em Aggies! all over it. He goes to Baylor. He's a nice guy though and we enjoyed talking to him.


***

Ash and I had a pretty eventful day and are taking our showers now (she just got out; the shower is soo cold, I have to slowly move myself into it, last night I still lost my breath). I met many of the sponsor kids today when we went to the village. They are very welcoming and clapped for me with this clap to a beat and sang a song for me. It was very sweet and thoughtful.

Then I ate in a hut, that was very different but it was pretty cool inside (temperature wise). The "Mamma" also had spoons for us to eat with which was cool for my first time! Slowly adjusting! Many of the people laugh at me a lot because mostly I just smile and say "ok" when interacting with them. Ash says they still do that for her; I would just laugh with them very confused. The children play hand clapping games though so that is nice. They are different than the ones I know but not too much. I feel like that can connect us some!

We also got the car stuck in the mud/small stream on the way there. I opened my door to put the car in four-wheel drive and the tire was over halfway in water. So today I touched my first natural African water with my hands and feet, but not too much. Many people were helpful though, and we got it out after a while of trying and a broken rope. Tonight we ate with Becky and the 4 Forester girls. They are adorable, they now have two headgehogs as their pets that they caught in their yard. I have to say, the things are stinkin' cute! Conner,you could get one..

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Mom! We love and miss you so much.

Have an awesome day!



In honor of your birthday we made signs and played with kids.



And had fun making faces for the camera.



If the Internet was faster, we would post more craziness, but this will have to do.