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

Prayer Requests

I apologize that this post will be quite different today... I am feeling a bit under the weather and also feeling like I have a million things to do, so taking the time on a blog this week just isn't going to happen. So instead I have a few prayer requests for you:

1) My good friend Margret (you saw pictures of her with me at the reptile village on Facebook) was in a boda boda (motorcycle) accident yesterday. Praise the Lord, she went to the hospital last night and nothing is broken, but she is in a LOT of pain.

2) I have a cold... again... the kids all have it and this time I was one of the last to get it. Pray that I have more energy soon!!

(Side note... as I write this I am in the back part of my flat... one of my students just walked up to my window in the front (where my lights are off and curtains closed) and said "Teacher Laura how are you? I am fine" without a word from me :) )

3) I am starting to feel the stress of getting ready to go home. I feel like I have a million things to do and TONS of paperwork, and all I want to be doing is hanging out with the kids.

Plus these two can make it kind of hard to get paperwork done :)

4) Pray that God will prepare Sabrina's heart as she comes to Uganda next week to take over working with the kids at Kireka Home. (Praise the Lord for her as well!!!)

5) Praise God that chicken pox has not spread! Since one kid brought chicken pox to the school only 2 others have gotten it!!!

And a bonus - Kato and Lucky made me this super cute apron yesterday with fabric from Rwanda!

Sorry to be so short but that is all this week! I am off to a fashion show at my friend Christine's fashion & design school. Have a great weekend and thanks for your prayers!