Resting in Glasgow

As many of you know one of my dear friends is living in Scotland for a year. Dani and her husband Ben are working with Harvest Bible Church here in Glasgow. The church in Scotland is dying and many churches have closed or have less than 50 people in attendance. So Dani and Ben are living life here and trying to be intentional about every conversation they have. You can check out their blog here.

Dani has been a wonderful blessing from The Lord. I first met her in 7th grade at Camp Zion. We stayed in touch as we grew up and went to Camp together during the summers and some winters. I remember AOL Instant Messaging (remember that??) with her when we were seniors in high school and we both had applied to two of the same colleges. And then God put us both at UW-LaCrosse together and were were inseparable after that! The crazy thing is our freshman year we were at missions week at the church when we were attending in LaCrosse when they called for anyone who felt called to be a missionary to come up front. Well... the holy spirit led both of us up front and here is Dani spending a year in Scotland and I just finished my year in Uganda. It is just one of those friendships that you know God had his hand in the whole way and I am incredibly blessed to be her friend.

With Dani our freshman year at UW-LaCrosse

So far the week has been quite relaxing as Dani is now 9 months pregnant and ready to have her baby. But truthfully after the last 2 weeks of being crazy busy and emotionally drained after saying so many good byes it is nice to have some time of rest with Dani. We did go out today to walk around downtown Glasgow and I literally wanted to buy EVERYTHING! Things I would never buy at home I just want to buy because they are there and I could since I havent seen anything similar in the past year. Do not fear thankfully I have NO room to take anything additional home as my suitcases are all at their max weight so I have just been window shopping. :)

In downtown Glasgow... yes with Starbucks :) And yes I am aware that I absolutely do not match... its COLD here!

We made a some Lego people for a few special boys in Uganda (you can see them below) - by the way, did you all know you could make Lego people!!! :)

Downtown Glasgow is really pretty and has lots of old buildings

And my last few good byes before I left Uganda:

I spent my last night with the Howley family that run Matoke Inn. This is a really special family to me as I came to Uganda at the same time as the Howleys. We went through language training, culture shock, and learning life in Uganda together.

These girls were hard to say good bye to. They have been a wonderful support system to me. We have laughed, shared our frustrations, sought out the best Western food in Kampala, prayed for each other, and supported one another in our separate ministries over the past year. I am very thankful for each of them.

Well thats all for now. Next time you hear from me will be when you see me back home!!! I cant wait! Pray for safe travels on Monday and then a good time of debrief Tuesday morning in Atlanta before I head back home Tuesday afternoon.

Top 10 Things I Will Miss in Uganda

I am now remaining with just 2 whole days in Uganda. I absolutely cannot believe that one year of my life has passed. How could it go by so quickly????? It took me 6 months to be fully comfortable with life in Uganda and 6 months after that I  become completely content with life here only for it to be time for me to pack up and come home.

TOP 10 Things I will miss about Uganda:

10. Living where I work - I NEVER thought I would say this, but it is really nice to live where you work. Instead of an hour commute on both ends of your work day I have just a 10 second walk!!!

The teachers kids at Kireka Home

9. Tropical produce!!! I love that I can eat mangoes, yummy small sweet bananas, papayas, pineapple, passion fruits, and avocados daily and it is affordable! 

8. 12 hour Sunshine - This sounds crazy, but once you get use to the sun being up from 7am til 7pm it makes your life easier - if the sun is up you are working - once the sun goes down it is time to go home! I do miss my long summer nights at home, but 7 - 7 sunshine is far easier than daylight savings and mostly dark winter days!

7. Boda Bodas - Yes I said it! I love that I can call a friend and have a personal driver at my house in 10 minutes... he can weave in and out of traffic and pass all those cars and they get you there in less than half the time of a car! (Yes I know they are not safe but I am ignoring that part!)

My wonderful boda driver Solango

6. Grocery Shopping is only a 2 minute walk away! You know those days where you get home from work and realize you did not plan well for dinner and do not have what you need. I love that when i do that (almost every day) I can just walk to my friend Prossey's store and come up with everything I need to make a basic dinner!

Prossey's store

5. Loving on kids with special needs - I know I will be able to do this at home, but it is so special to be able to love on these kids here because many of them are not love on at home. 

My kids at Kireka Home

4. The Mugwanya family - Francis and Andrienne's ministry with Fathers Heart Mobility has been my absolute favorite part of ministry here. I am so thankful to be able to join them on their outreach trips and share in their passion for showing people with disabilities and their families how much God loves and cares for them. They have been wonderful friends and a wonderful support system! 

With Francis, Adrienne and Hannah at a distribution to a children's home for children with disabilities last Thursday

Assembling chairs with Sabrina, Adrienne and Adrienne's friend visiting from Canada

Ragiba (sp) a sweet little 5 year old girl with severe sickle cell. She cannot walk because are bones are too brittle and keep fracturing. But she could really smile and warm your heart!

3. My AIM Family - This group of missionaries have been a wonderful support system while I have been here. They are people that I can call whenever there is a problem and people that I can rely on. There have been good friends that I can meet for dinner to laugh with and good friends that I can be accountable to. I am so thankful for my AIM family!!

With Cassandra and Heidi two full termers with AIM

2. Esther - Yes do not judge me but this little girl stole my heart and I will miss her following me around everyday. I will miss her coming and knocking on my door so early that she has to join me for breakfast, I will miss her accompanying me as I walk around the neighborhood doing my shopping, and I will even miss her making a huge mess of all my therapy toys while I am trying to do PT with another child.

Just found this old picture from Esther in January... she has gotten so big!!

Esther playing with a singing card while I packed on Friday

1. And I am sure this will come as no shock to all of you - Most of all I will miss all of my wonderful Ugandan friends. It is very hard to say good bye especially since I do not know if I will every see many of them again. God has given me such a wonderful family here and I am so thankful for the relationships with everyone I have met here. I am so thankful for Kireka Home as they completely welcomed me in and made me one of their own. I am so thankful for each and every student and staff member there and I will miss them terribly! 

With Margret and Matthew

This is my last post from Uganda! I will try my best to do my usual Friday post this week, but will be posting from Scotland! Please be praying for my travels this week - I leave Uganda on Wednesday morning.

I cannot thank each of you enough for your prayers, love and support over the past year! I pray that God blesses each one of you!

Sorry :(

So we have almost made it a full year with a post every Friday... BUT this week it will just have to wait. Check back on Monday afternoon for a post on finalizing my time here in Uganda.

Last Day of School

School for me has officially ended. I have survived working for a full academic year in a government school in Uganda. There have been a few hard days that I wanted to go home, but for the most part this has been the fastest 11+ months of my life. By God's hand I was not a complete mess as I said good bye.

Below are my last pictures of the kids:

Gift of school supplies to the school (Thanks so much Park Moms for contributing these things so long ago! And if you are wondering where the rest went, it has been being used this past year during therapy time)

The head teacher presenting the gift to the students - Suzan (You met her as Fat Suzan) is accepting for the students 

I also made peanut butter cookies for the kids that they are anxiously awaiting for - and I just love Kato's  face in this picture

Basket of gifts for all the employees at the school

I found a local organization that makes reusable shopping bags. When I first came everyone LOVED my reusable bags - so they were thrilled to have their own. It has been fun the last few days to see everyone using them!

My little friend Shimri

Ayati

Kato & Suzan made headbands for me out of local fabric called Kitange. Let me know if you want one, they made me LOTS!

This will not be the last photo of Esther, but she looked so cute. And yes it was that cold here on Tuesday morning. Ok... as my friend Bobbie says it was probably still 70 degrees, but we have become very use to the heat!

3 of my closest friends - Lukcy, Doris and Sumaya - these girls have blessed me so much. They are always willing to go above and beyond to help me at my home and to spend time with me. 

Lucky

Sumaya

Doris

Lucky and nurse Joanne

Cecelia, Esther and Ayati

The Boys: Richard, Bless, Kevin, and Kato

Shafik

I am going to miss them!! - Ethero, Komba, Bridget, Ayati, and Suzan

It has been really fun to watch Teacher Mary's love for small Suzan grow over my time here. Suzan literally lives at Teacher Mary's house these days. This past week her older girls came home from school and were trying to shoo Suzan off their veranda, the younger girls that stay at home told them that Suzan should stay because she is also a part of their family :)

Sunna- I will miss this boy making me laugh each day!

Well that is all for this week. Please continue praying as there are many more good byes to say and still lots of things to get accomplished before I leave!

Life Lessons from Cyrus

Never would I have imagined that one of the greatest lessons I could learn about life would come from my friend Cyrus. Cyrus is a 13 year old with autism and he use to be able to make me cry by 8:45 am. His parents use to not provide consistent medication for him so he use to be constantly all over the place. Some mornings he would spit in my face, hit me, and even throw rocks at me if he was unhappy about something. Thankfully, this past term, his medicine has been consistent and he has been so well behaved (except when he was coming down with the chicken pox... he was going back to those old behaviors and I knew something was wrong.)

Cyrus

I do not know where Cyrus hangs out when I am at my house, but the second he hears my door click he is on my veranda! A few Sundays ago it was no different as I was bringing my breakfast dishes out to wash. I had eaten a banana and my peel was on the plate. At the school fruit is quite rare, so Cyrus really wanted to eat my nasty banana peel. I had plenty of bananas inside so I was trying to tell him to wait just a few seconds and I would go inside and get him a banana to eat. Well in the 10 seconds it took for me to get him a banana he was happily starting to chew on my banana peel.

After I gave him the banana I came back inside and started thinking about how often we do this to God. So often I get frustrated with God's timing not being the same as mine. And so often I chose to settle for what looks good right in front of me (even if it is a nasty banana peel) instead of waiting for God's plan which is something a whole lot better.

Cyrus and I today (yes it is cold and rainy here :( )

This was all recently brought up again as I am reading through the book "Follow Me" by David Platt. (I would recommend this book to everyone!) At one point he quotes C.S Lewis and writes, "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." He goes on to write, "Deep down inside, people seem to be afraid that if they let go of the stuff of this world they will miss out on satisfaction in this world. But disciples of Jesus gladly leave behind the trinkets this world offers because they have found surpassing treasure in Christ. The passionate pursuit of true, deep, and lasting satisfaction always leads to Jesus."

I thought this was such a great reminder of so many things in life where we just want the right here and right now and are not willing to wait for what God has for us. I promise if you stop and think about this thought you realize that all around you people are settling for the banana peel in front of them!

Thanks as always for your love and support! Lots of prayers for next week would be great as I have about 70 good byes to say  to 70 very special children.

 A few hard Good-Byes already...:(

Joseph, Desire, and Umar

My friends from the orthopedic workshop at Katalemwa - Akrim, Sharifah, and Victor

Lesley- Thankfully this was the easiest good bye because she will be moving to Chicago area!!! :)

Rats vs The Tooth Fairy

Yesterday my friend Matthew lost his first tooth. Instead of the Tooth Fairy coming they tell kids that rats will leave money under their pillows! Can you imagine being excited about a rat crawling under your pillow at night???? I had heard this before in my time here and it shocked me then, and shocked me again yesterday :) So I thought this week I would write about a few differences in culture.

Matthew missing his first tooth

Unless they were mice (rats) like these below... I guess I wouldnt REALLY mind that!

A National Holiday that is Announced the Day of:

So on Wednesday this week I found out that we would have a national holiday on Thursday or Friday... Excuse me... on Thursday or Friday... this is yet to be determined...???????? In Uganda everyone celebrates both Muslim and Christian holidays. Apparently the date of the holiday Eid (pronounced Edy (think like the ice cream)) is determined based on when they see the full moon. AND it is specifically about when they see the full moon in Saudi Arabia. I learned this after I asked a million times about what happens if it is cloudy in your country. I also stated that we know ahead of time when the full moon will be... why can't they just always observe it then - but that is not the tradition for Muslims. At the end of the day I still could not wrap my brain around closing all government facilities with barely a 12 hour notice for a national holiday. :) My American brain REALLY REALLY struggled this week!

What did I do yesterday...??? I cleaned - with a few little helpers!

Kissing VS No Kissing

I attended my first Ugandan wedding two weeks ago. One of the teachers at the school's daughter got married. It was a beautiful wedding and both the bride and the groom absolutely loved the Lord. Since it was a Christian wedding it was not so different from what I am use to, but about midway through the reception I realized there had not been ANY clinking of the glasses. And then I realized the bride and groom had not even kissed at the church! So I started talking to my Ugandan friends about the kissing tradition at weddings in America and they were absolutely shocked! I will say this should not have surprised me since in Uganda there is absolutely no PDA including hand holding. (In Kampala.. most people can get away with holding someones hand, but absolutely no where else in Uganda can you do that). 

With Teacher Joy (Her daughter is the one that got married)

The teachers (L to R): Justine, Loyce, Ruth, (Esther), me, Mary

And of course a picture with Esther :)

It makes me laugh that even after nearly a year in a different culture some things still surprise me. (Or make my skin crawl like the idea of a rat under my pillow) But, I have come to really love my Ugandan brothers and sisters and respect their culture.

My time in Uganda is quickly coming to and end. One question I have been asked frequently lately is what do my last few weeks in Uganda look like - so here is actually a fairly detailed answer :)
- Sunday Sept 10th: New AIM short-termer comes to join me at the school!!!!
- Week Sept 11th - 15th: POTENTIALLY the last week of school (this is yet to be determined :) )
- Week Sept 17th - 23rd: ALSO POTENTIALLY the last week of school :) Otherwise, I will try to see a lot of my Ugandan friends outside of the school this week and say good bye.
- Aug 29th: Last wheelchair distribution in Jinja :(
- Aug 30th: Move out of my flat at Kireka Home and say a lot of really hard good byes
- Aug 31st - Sept 1st: 8 girls crammed into a car for a 2 day girls road trip to Lake Mburo National Park
- Sept 2nd: Debrief of my time in Uganda
- Sept 3rd: Say final good byes :(
- Sept 4th: Leave for Scotland
- Sept 4-9th: Stay in Scotland and pray for baby Arant to be born :)
- Sept 9th: Final Debrief in Atlanta
- Sept 10th: Home Sweet Home :)

As always, thank you all so much for your love and support! I love each of you so much!

Laura