First just a quick, fyi. It is Thursday, almost 12noon, and I have finished typing up some updates on our boys that live out in the homes in Bombo (the village that I visit on the weekends). Some of the responses are so funny, insightful, or just simply encouraging. I will post some of my favorites at the end of this update.. they are definitely considered blessings. I hope you enjoy them!
Yesterday was Wednesday. It was a pretty uneventful day, honestly. I woke up and headed off to the women's program. It was kind of difficult because some of the women did not complete this week's homework assignment: Who is the target audience of your business? How will you advertise for your business? And how much will it cost? Some of the women had INCREDIBLE responses! Creative and often free! However, some women did not turn in their assignment, which means they will either not be able to sell jewelry to me and Abby this Friday, or they will only receive 1/2 the wages of their jewelry. Upsetting for the ladies, but I absolutely adore and respect Abby for keeping them accountable and teaching them discipline. They are going to do so well! And I am continually growing more and more proud of them!
After the Women's Program is the Street Kids Program. As I mentioned before, last weekend our storage unit was broken into and many things stollen. I posted on Facebook how I was praying about contributing to the financial needs of restocking the storage unit with food and clothing for the boys.. and WHAT A BLESSING!! My mom told me the following Monday that someone at church had put money in the offering designated towards my trip! I decided that it was the Lord telling me to help with the resupply. When Abby told David how much I was going to contribute, he screamed for joy!!! haha... it was so encouraging! (money goes so much further here in Uganda...) I told her that I wanted it to go towards the food and clothing and then they may use the rest towards what they think would be good for the boys (special treats, medical bills, resettling expenses) And as a treat, the boys all enjoyed ice cream yesterday afternoon!! Abby took some pictures for me because I was doing medical. So fun!! They were sooooo excited when the ice cream man pulled up on his bicycle! Enjoy these pictures!
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| Yummy! |
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| Having fun! |
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| He carries a bag of cups and cones.. as well as an ice chest with the ice cream in it all on his bike! |
| haha.. just a sweet picture. |
Ice Cream Time!!!!!!!
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| Waiting for the yumminess! |
1. Boda Boda taxi rides! I have already posted the video on Facebook.. such a rush! and a chance to get a cool breeze as you ride!
2. The API team... I mentioned this briefly before, but I have been blessed with such an amazing team to join this summer. The men and women are incredible. It is great to be working with people my age, with my same passion and heart for serving the young children of Uganda! It is so refreshing and encouraging. And as I have stated before, I absolutely adore David and Abby. They are an incredible couple.. please see the last post for my short bragging on them! The uncles at the SK program are great. They have energy when needed, compassion, and structure as well. They sing songs, teach them lessons, love on them, mend their many wounds, and just feed them in so many ways.
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| Uncle Abby! Energy and Passion! The Lord has given him a gift and the boys respect him so much! |
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| Uncle Eddy... quiet, supportive, stern, love. |
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| Uncle Abby teaching a lesson on abbreviations! |
And out at Bombo the uncles are so kind and compassionate as well. Loving hands and hearts to teach the boys the love and serve our Father. And the Aunties who are so kind to cook and clean for the boys as well. Goodness, the Lord's design of a Body of Christ here on Earth is so incredibly fulfilled in this team. What an amazing group to be working with! I am humbled and blessed!
3. Nakato and Kamara! Nakato is David's younger sister. She is 20. She lives with me here at the VH. She cooks for me, cleans my clothes, and cleans my bathroom and rooms. She is soooo precious and sweet and I absolutely adore her for everything. I hope she gets tired of me expressing my gratitude. I try to tell her every chance I get and also try to help her with some of the things around the house. Kamara (pronounced Kamala) is our body guard! He moved to the city from Bombo to live with us. He sleeps outside every evening and checks on anything we are nervous about. He also walked and brought me a huge box of bottled water and some milk just this morning. He always has a smile on his face and is just a blessing!
4. Morning Breeze! No joke, I wake up cold here. I remember times living at Camp War Eagle in the summers of college and I went to bed sweating and woke up sweating. The weather here is lovely and I actually changed into some yoga pants this morning because I was chilly. The breeze is such a blessing!
5. The beauty. I have posted pictures of how beautiful my home is, and every weekend it is a beautiful drive out to bombo! The trees, flowers, mountains! Goodness, it is lovely.
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| My precious Moses. |
7. Moses... he is one of the street kids. He is precious and loving. He loves to learn academic and I love teaching him how to read little labels and things. He is absolutely precious. On Monday he gave me his craft project, a beaded bracelet. I showed him yesterday, Wednesday, that I still had it and kept it with me. He said, "on Friday, I will bring you something special!" I can't wait for that little sunshine. He is precious. Here is a picture of him with his ice cream!
8. Health... well, up until yesterday, I had felt perfectly healthy! After visiting Uruguay in High School, I had to break my addiction to Pepto! haha.. and I have heard many people get sick when they first begin eating the African food, but I have been blessed with good health. No headaches, no stomach aches (until yesterday) and I have been feeling good! Thank the Lord!
9. Birds that I heard in the morning and sound just like monkeys! Cracks me up. I just imagine they are monkeys anyway and it is fun. Nakato laughs at me for it. :)
10. Natural sunlight. Because electricity is so sketchy, we have windows everywhere! I love the natural sunlight each day.
11. No mosquitoes! I live in the city.. there are some mosquitoes, but the bites are few! So good.
12. Chacos. Those of you that have them, know what I mean. I can't imagine wearing anything else. They are sturdy and wonderful for all the walking I have to do here!
13. Cafe Javas. A restaurant close to the VH that serves American food, for a good price, with A/C, and WONDERFUL customer service! I have had two col, chicken salad sandwiches from them with french fries and an incredibly large brownie ice cream sundae! It is great.
14. Slow Pace... everything here is slow-paced, which actually is great sometimes. Walking up the huge hills isn't so bad with the slow pace! and not having to be anywhere until 10am is awesome too!
Okay... Now here are the things that will be blessings someday I am sure.. but for now, not so much!
1.Laundry. I love that Nakato does it for me, but it still comes back to me smelling like dried sweat. :/ I have used lots of my febreeze spray... but still, it is gross.2. Heat... even though the mornings are lovely, it is still very hot outside when walking around. And the Ugandan food is almost always hot and warm. So heavy too. Not my favorite. that is why I enjoy my trips to Java's for cold food!
3. Cold showers... yup... always... freezing cold... and coming from a spout that I splash all over. eeck.
4. Simply being dirty all the time. Walking around and sweating all day when I am out is just horrible.
5. Ants in the kitchen. I will never get used to these GIANT ants that are in our kitchen all the time... or found crawling on the bread when you are pulling it out of the bag... but we just whack them off and continue on..
6. Filthy Squatty Potties out in public. Nasty... disgusting... and horrible. Thankful to keep my wet wipes in my purse with me AT ALL TIMES. And simply try not to drink so much when planning on going out. (however, Java's has a beautifully nice restroom!)
7. Slow service everywhere... except Java's... but a slow pace, means slow service.. buying minutes for the phone, exchanging money, at the grocery store.. everything is slow... drives me crazy sometimes.
Okay... I will post the boys' responses tomorrow maybe because this, once again, has turned into such a long post... I hope you are looking forward to it! The boys out in Bombo homes are growing so much and it is just wonderful to read their testimonies!
Love to you all. Again, if you have read all the way, I thank you! Your comments on Facebook are always so very encouraging to me!
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