no power...ugh!

We lost power last night at about 8 pm and it came back around 10:30 this morning, it was the best time to go out but when it happened again tonight I thought, 'Oh no, is this how it will be every night?'. Luckily, it came back on within 20 minutes!!
But I think the lack of power was the beginning for me of a difficult day. Emma, the littlest child just didn't like me this morning, probably because I was trying to teach him shapes and colors. And then I found myself frustrated with the kids often, before devotion time I made them sit silently for several minutes to think about their behavior, and then prayed with them for patience for their aunties and uncles and prayers for their behavior to have good listening ears, to remember to keep their hands to themselves, etc. I'm also most frustrated with a few things related to the staff and other volunteers that I just am not understanding. Please pray for guidance and wisdom in addressing this frustration for me. You know me, ever the productive, efficient, fair one...I'm struggling.
I did/do have two ways of being encouraged though:
1. Tomorrow is my day off and I can rest and take a break.
2. The kids have done really well learning their Bible verse, thanks to Auntie Joanna teaching it using some sign language! The verse is the motto for Rafiki ministries: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widows and orphans in their distress and to keep from being polutted by the world. James 1:27
Thanks for your prayers, your love and reading my blog!

special needs and pen caps

This morning after bathing and dressing the children and walking them to school, I made lunch for our day at Katalemwa Home for children with special needs.

In Uganda having a child with a mental or physical disability is extremely frowned upon ( as if it were a choice), often the father leaves the mother after bearing a child with a disability, blaming her for the child's condition. The family often hides the child in the home to risk being shunned by the community.

Luckily Katalemwa is making great strides to improve the persona of these handicapped children. They invite not only the child to come for assessments, therapy and schooling or play, but also the family so that the parents can learn how to care for the children at home, what exercises to do with them to strengthen limbs or correct a limp; of course not all the diseases are fixed easily, if at all, but Katalemwa does as much as they can. It does cost the families some money but they are getting food, housing and therapy for their child and that is so important. Unlike in the states where disabled people can get social services and support the Ugandan government doesn't acknowledge the need by offering similar programs.

I love the consideration of sustainability, community and changing this negative stigma of the disabled children that Katalemwa offers to Ugandans!                                                     9.6.12

It is Saturday, not even 10 pm, and I am wiped! I think I am having an allergy to something, perhaps in my room, which makes me weeze and cough a bit, but its so much better than getting malaria.

So the fears they instill in you: malaria, well, I have yet to get bit by a mosquito or see one, I guess my morning application of OFF! Deep Woods is working (haha got one this morning {Sunday}), either that or they want to scare you enough that you take it seriously, which I am, but it doesn't seem as much of a problem in the city. Another fear that many had for me was the people, not knowing them (outside of the orphanage) and not fitting in, well, at least daily I get, "Hello Mazungu" (I might change my name), but everyone is super friendly and happy to see you and hoping to sell you their goods or services.

This morning we took the children to get some immunizations at a clinic, most of them are so brave and don't even cry when they are getting their shots, they come out ready for you to read them their next book or play something with them. I'm quite impressed, although we did have an issue with Carol, the smallest girl, who usually is bouncing off the walls with excitement and joy, ended up coming down with a fever of 106!! And she is soo tiny! Luckily at the hospital she was checked out and given a clean bill of health...no malaria, and some asprin to help bring down the fever.

The most frustrating thing about the children is that they put everything in their mouths, a pen cap on the floor, a piece of thread, garbage, stones, literally everything!! I am really going to have to come up with a lesson on hygiene and what is appropriate. Apparently I am the most-teacher like of all the workers and missionaries (thanks mom for passing that gene and some lesson plans along to me), I'll speak more to their teaching style and how it differs from ours perhaps next week, I think I am going to school with the children this upcoming week to teach a lesson, or at least help...oh boy!!      9.8.12

　

The Market

Today I went to the market to do the shopping, what a system; Godfrey (an uncle at the orphanage (a worker)) stays with the van while Esther (an auntie/worker) and I go into the market. We find the usual boy that helps us by providing bags and taking food back to the van, while Esther smartly uses her bargaining skills to get the best for us the most cost-effective way. The market is not smooth ground, but bumpy and with rocks jutting out or potholes digging in all the time (similar to the roads). The umbrellas are tattered and some areas selling food are simply covered by tarps. As I pass everyone stares, some of the daring say 'Hi Mazungu', which means hi white person, but the beans are colorful, the fruits and vegetables are ripe and I am happy to walk through it all and experience life in Kampala.

The food is good, although basic, breakfast for me is usually bread with jam, then lunch is poncho (its some flour based food) with beans and carrots, snack time is always fruit: watermelon, pineapple, bananas or mangoes. Supper is the only variable, but always includes rice, and then usually a meat and vegetable combination in a sauce. That is definitely the tastiest, or perhaps the way auntie monica (the cook) makes cabbage is the best, either way she is great at providing for everyone; there are 12 children, 5 workers and right now 3 missionaries.

 

You'd think with all of us working it would be enough, but it is exhausting, teaching the young ones, doing laundry (there is always tons of laundry!), sweeping the courtyard, trimming the hedges, shopping, cooking, playing, singing and bathing. People in Uganda bathe twice daily (those that have the luxury of it anyway), and I've never seen American children run to the bath as fast as these kids do, they love bath time! The kids love to help out with all the chores, hanging things on the line, taking the trimmings from the hedges to the trash, usually if I don't get up immediately afteer my place is clear one of the kids and asks if they can put my dish away...absolutely!!

Tomorrow we are going to serve at a home for children with special needs and I am looking forward to the opportunity to play with them, love them and share Jesus' love with them.

Day One

Words can not express how amazing it was to pull up to the orphanage and have ten adorable children running at you screaming, "Auntie Laura is here, Auntie Laura, Auntie Laura"! And they'll let you scoop them into your arms and hug them. It was an overwhelming experience full of immense love for these amazing little children. Its hard to do anything but hug and kiss them.
Last night they all sang praises to God while Moses and Godfrey played the drums, then I read them a Bible story, and off they went to sleep. It was a long day of travelling and I am so happy to be here! Day one is over, so many more to enjoy...

Africa is real

Everybody has been asking me 'how do you feel?'...well yesterday it finally started to feel like Africa is finally here, I am finally going on this trip! As I wrote to my co-workers words of thanks and gratitude for their support and sort of said good-bye, with tears in my eyes I could acknowledge that what I have been built for, serving the underserved, was going to come to fruition in a huge, life-transforming way! Tonight I'll say good-bye to some of my closest college friends, and again it will hit me...this is happening for real. I'll only be gone for a few months, I can't even imagine what a whole year would feel like, what a whole lifetime would feel like.
If you know me at all you know I am not timid, far from it; I'm a bulldozer, not in the sense that I'll run you over, but I will get at the base of the problem and get to work. My previous prayer requests have been for spiritual preparedness, and they have been answered in astounding ways, I need continued prayers for patience, gentleness, self-control and not letting myself get so wrapped up in the problems and how to fix it, but in embracing the Ugandan way of life and hoping that I can find some peace and acceptance in my own bullldozer world.
I've got one week of realizing it is real before I step on the flight...I am going to Africa.

countdown is on

The countdown is officially on, I am leaving the land of affluence for a land of poverty in ONE MONTH! This evening I assessed my list of things to do before I'm gone and its looking like that list is dwindling. I helped a friend of mine last week pack her belongings up as she headed into the mission field for two years in China, talk about faith!! No, really talking about faith, my devotional a few days ago read like this: Think much of my servants of old. How Abraham believed the promise that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. How Moses led the children of Israel through the desert, sure that, at last, they would gain the Promised Land. Down through the ages there have always been those who obeyed, not seeing but believing, and their faith was rewarded. So shall it be even with you. -God Calling. My faithfulness in accepting this mission, has surely left me feeling rewarded, I can't imagine what its going to feel like as I walk amidst the land of poverty, amongst people that still know that they are blessed amidst the disease and poor conditions.
I received a newsletter from Rafiki Africa Ministries last night, and with tears in my eyes (I know, ms. non-crier is crying again) I read about Cocus, a 6 year old at the orphanage who  had been abandoned because his father died of AIDS and his mom said she didn't love him anymore because of his disease and how it was crippling him. Its one of twelve stories I'll hear more about as I learn about the orphans and their circumstances. Please pray for Cocus, that he knows that Jesus loves him despite the absess in his back, and that I love him, without even having met him.

A Loving Embrace

I've got just under 2 months before my plane leaves for a foreign land and by God's grace I am only a few hundred dollars shy of my financial goal! I've already had a bowling fundraiser planned for the beginning of August and so I'll be able to further support the orphanage, and perhaps some other organizations I will be working with in Kampala, maybe a baby hospital.
A little girl fell asleep in my arms the other night watching July 4th fireworks and while I rocked her on the porch I thought about the upcoming nights where I will be rocking my little orphans to sleep, or comforting them when they fall down; the human touch is astounding in its ability to evoke so many human emotions and I can't wait for my holding of these precious ones to be one offering immense love. Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
Please keep praying for all the continued preparations both here and in Uganda.