Gratitude

I love it when God gives you very obvious reasons to be thankful!

The water has been out for 24 hours, I think it is coming back or trying to, but we've had to wash dishes and bathe the kids in buckets after filling the jerry can with water from the rainwater tank and hauling it around. Carrying buckets of water is no easy task. It reminds me of a 6K I did last year to raise awareness that the average African woman walks 6K each day for clean water! Shout out to ComeUnity!

Then I also made posho (our lunch staple) today for everyone. You have to stand over the hot brickets while stirring flour and water together for about 15 minutes. I am way more grateful for Auntie Monica and the effort she puts in to cooking for me everyday!

I'm also thankful for the safe arrival of a new missionary, his name is James. He is a great addition to our team and a really sweet, honest, down-to-earth person.

Oh and I'm very thankful that both my desires to get dark and lose weight are finally coming to fruition! I won't be black anytime soon but I've got a good tan going on and my pants today are literally falling off, I've lost at least 10 pounds, hope I can keep losing more!

The grocery store and cafe, our secret delights of home: About once, ok sometimes twice, a week we walk to Quality Shops, a little westernized shopping plaza a mile or so from home, during the children's naptime to sit in a cafe or grocery shop for snacks.

The other girls drink coffee and I usually have a coke as we sit and chat in the cafe. Sometimes we splurge and eat lunch there, like chicken sandwiches, or a caprese sandwich, sometimes we snack on french fries! The manager and waitstaff know us and greet us all enthusiastically. They try so hard to do everything the way they do in an American or European cafe; at times it's endearing, other times it's just annoying.

The grocery store is beyond our grocery stores at home as it has another level of department store items like clothing, office supplies, kitchenware, children's toys, etc. Some days we just walk up and down every aisle to see what they have; I usually buy a bag of granola, a few bottles of coke, a snack of some type like a chocolate bar, and a can of tuna. (I found this huge sale on Brie cheese the other day, cheese here is super expensive, anyway, was sooo excited to not only eat cheese, but enjoy good cheese!)

My Ugandan experience is not living in a hut in a village, and I am very grateful for the city-life experience, it's definitely more my style! I do really appreciate these westernized conventions that make it more comfortable and make living here very easy.

I think I need to take some time to thank everyone that got me here. Whether you came to my bowling fundraiser in Philly, came to my surprise 30th birthday party in NY, answered my request letter, prayed over me, prayed for me, are praying for me, or gave because you heard from a friend that I was going and you wanted to support me...you are awesome! God wanted me here, I said yes to His calling, but you got me here financially and spiritually. Thank you, this is an experience of a lifetime, one that I won't let be a blip on my timeline, but an experience that impacts my life forever.