Only 4 Days Left....

   Yesterday was my last day at Blessed Hope. I started my morning off with the baby class. They are just so adorable and are filled with joy. I hope to never forget their bright smiles and sweet nature. After lunch, I taught math to the P4 class (4th grade). We worked on word problems :) It was so fun! I hope I didn't confuse them too much. As I looked around that day, I just prayed that God will allow me to keep the memories of them close to my heart and that I will not just think about them, but also allow them to change my life. I have so much at home that I take for granted...I hope to come back from Africa with a new out look on the opportunities and possessions I'm allowed to have in this world. I took some photos today of the children and their activities. I hope you enjoy.

I think the picture above and below are great images for Sweet Sleep. :)

Some more photos of the kids below working in class when I was teaching word problems in math...

The last thing I wanted to share about Blessed Hope is just a little bit more about the children there and their daily lives. I really hope to never take for granted all the choices I get every day and opportunities I am given. In the morning, students started with a little posho that is watered down kind of like porridge (around 10 am) and then lunch is served at 1 pm. They will also eat posho with beans for lunch.

For dinner, they have the same and on Sundays they are able to eat meat.  The children help fetch water about a half mile away for each meal and then for washing/bathing at the end of the day. These are some of the photos I took of them on the last day. Some of my sweet older boys turn to get the water!

They are also very creative in their free time. They create wonderful toys such as the soccer ball below (out of plastic bags and rubber bands) and the doll (made out of banana leaves).

They are such sweet children, and I hope they will be in your prayers as well. :) Farewell Blessed Hope...I do hope I have the opportunity to come back and visit next year!

   Today, we visited the two orphanages that Sweet Sleep gave beds to last year. It was interesting to see the differences in the various orphanages and where they are located. I took a truly death defying boda boda ride to one of the orphanages today...apparently he thinks mzungus should be able to hang on and ride like true Ugandans. I survived thankfully...but not without some praying during the trip....especially when I noticed one of his handles break mid-ride(I thought it was the brake...turned out it was the clutch...but still...kind of freaked me out). Only 4 more days of boda bodas, great scenery, and precious children!

A Weekend in Africa

    Saturday was a super fun day! I went to Adrift and picked up our white water rafting video and picture CD...here's a few awesome photos to look at! We white water rafted the Nile River Saturday the 19th. 8 of the team members went along:
Boat Order: In the boat on the left side front to back: Stuart, me, Rachel, Peggy
In boat on the right side front to back: Gary, Abigail, Darlene and Audra
What a great experience...gorgeous landscape, fun rapids and even some monkeys!

Just a few of the very fun photos!! On Saturday, Josephine wanted me to have some fun so we went to the Uganda museum first. It was interesting to get to see some of the history of Uganda. Next, we rode a taxi to Entebee and went to the zoo. I was able to pet a rhinoceros haha...I was interested to see their zoo since I feel like so many animals wander the streets...monkeys, goats..you know! Haha...Here is a picture of Josephine and me at the zoo!

Here is also my promised picture of me on a boda boda....I LOVE them!

They are so easy to zip in and out of traffic in...I love it! (maybe slightly dangerous...haha)
After the zoo, Jospehine took me to the beach since my family was in Destin and I missed out. The "beach' is the coast line of Lake Victoria...it has sand and waves...so it works :) Here are some pics!

We had a wonderful Saturday...but an even better Sunday! Josephine invited me to attend church with her and then eat lunch with her family! Worship in Uganda is very different. The people are just so passionate...there is a lot of singing, dancing, and more...most of the singing was in Luganda..but they do sing one song I know..."Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah...Praise ye the Lord!" The whole congregation actually divides into men and women and sit and stand! I participated!! As far as the sermon, they had two preachers...one speaking Luganda and one English...I couldn't understand either..they might as well have been speaking both in a foreign language, but it was still lovely!

Our Sunday meal was also wonderful. Here are some pictures of her lovely family and me :)

What a wonderful family and new friends :) They were such gracious hosts! And lunch was yummy too!!

Today was Monday, and we headed back out to Blessed Hope. Remember the taxis I talked about? Legally are supposed to hold 14...at one point on the way we had 26 people in it...yes you heard me right...26. 21 adults and 5 children...if I could've taken a discrete photo I would have but it just wasn't a possibility...needless to say I was very squished. I taught Grade 5 math this morning. We working on finding the area of rectangles and triangles. This afternoon I was working on grammar with Grade 7. I got to teach them something they didn't know today! Analogies! It was so fun...they really enjoyed it :) I am so thankful to have had those children in my life...they have forever changed my outlook on life and I hope to go home with just a little bit of their joy and love. Here's some action shots of today's lessons.

We had a good time...after class today, I got to see a very hilarious site. I was informed by Josephine that sometimes they cannot afford to have moving trucks to move people. They actually use boda bodas...I could not help to take a picture of this and laugh hysterically. Can you imagine the talent this takes?

Thanks to everyone for reading and all the prayers so far! I can't believe I leave here one week from today. Time has flown for sure. Tomorrow I return for my last day at Blessed Hope. I know my heart is going to break leaving those sweet faces behind!

Blessed Hope = Love of my Life

    First, I'll start with an update on Ivan. If you didn't get a chance to read that part of an earlier blog. He was a little 6 year old boy that Jen, Gary, Josephine, and I happened upon when we arrived in the subcounty of Gulu. He had epilepsy and had fallen into the boiling water and fire the day before. The mother who spoke no English had no money or means of transportation. The boy had received 2nd and 3rd degree burns on over half of his small little body. I am so thankful that we arrived when we did. Jen and Gary quickly said they would pay for anything he needed and sent him in a vehicle to the hospital. As for the update...he is now doing much better. He is able to use his arm and has been able to open his eye that was so badly burned! Thank you for all your prayers!
    Today, I went back to Blessed Hope. I can't remember if I shared this or not..but the children don't say "Ms. Amanda"; they always call women Auntie Amanda and they call men Uncle 'insert name'. It was so wonderful getting to see all their smiling faces and here "Good morning Auntie Amanda" They just get so excited :)
    Flexibility is a key word here in Africa. Instead of teaching math, I worked with the baby class today teaching about animals. I was helping them draw the various animals and talk about the sounds and names...apparently I am an artist over here in Africa. The teacher asked if she could keep my drawings and laminate them for the baby class to use over the next couple of years. For a good laugh...here are the drawings...

    Are those not the most hilarious things you've ever seen? I guess I will be leaving behind some artistic drawings...haha. Here is a photo of the baby class in action...

     Our team was able to take digital photos of all of the children and get them printed at a shop here in Kampala. The children really don't get a chance to see themselves very often and I had the great joy of passing out the photos to the baby class. They could not stop giggling...

    I have enjoyed every moment of my time there, and I can't wait to get back on Monday. I want to get an opportunity to spend more time getting to know some of these children's stories. Today, I was able to really talk to a boy named Ben. He is from Northern Uganda. This is the area that was struck so harshly by the LRA during the warfare. Ben shared with me that he was in fact victim of the warfare. At the age of 5 his home was raided during the night and his father was shot. His mother was killed shortly after that. Ben was living as an orphan at a church at the age of 10 when Pastor Joel (the founder of Blessed Hope) brought him to the school He has lived there ever since. He does have two brothers that still live with his grandmother in Northern Uganda and gets to see them on some holidays. Ben is a wonderful boy and so deeply in love with God. Please pray that overtime Ben will be healed like only God can heal. I will be returning on Monday to the orphanage to help with math and hopefully learn more about the children there.
    Tomorrow is Saturday, and Josephine and I will be going to the zoo and the Uganda museum. Since I have seen so many animals on the side of the road, I am very interested to see this zoo! I am getting the opportunity to attend church on Sunday with Josephine and eat lunch with her family!
     To end the blog, I'll show you what the inside of a taxi looks like on my way to the orphanage and on the way home (aka around 2 hours worth...)

Buuuuut tonight I got to end my day with a little taste of home (Josephine is amazing and took me here for dinner so I could "not feel homesick!" she said....she rocks!!) PIZZA!

Catching Up :)

It's been a couple of days since my last post...

Tuesday was a very long bus ride back from Gulu to Kampala. We stopped many times for various reasons...one of which was because a cattle truck hit us...majorly scary moment to be in a wreck in Uganda. The picture below shows the cattle truck in the background which had 15 people sitting on top of it when it hit us...it swerved at the last moment to miss us and ran into the bush and I thought it was going to tip over...very scary! The second picture shows the damage to our car....then everyone was yelling in Lugandan which to me is just as scary.

Then our driver decides it not to be a good idea to fill up while in a city...instead prefers to run out of gas in the middle of no where Africa....so we have to buy gas from a man on the side of a road in a jerry can. Picture below....

Yikes! Needless to say our ride was very long in a van where all the seats were tilted down at a 45 degree angle....BUT I did get to see monkeys and baboons...I mean really...quote from Jen Gash in the car.."In America...we call these squirrels.." hahaha

Pretty cool if I do say....Tuesday night was definitely a cool down and talk it out night with Jen and Gary. We had seen so much heartbreak in Gulu that it was nice to have them to talk to about it all. The children and people have just gone through so much, and in America there is just simply nothing to compare the type of warfare the LRA subjected their innocence to. To let everyone know, Ivan the last I heard was doing better in the hospital. He had survived the surgery and was continuing to heal. His little brother was actually admitted for malaria so I am glad that he was with the family. I will try to find out more on him.
   On Tuesday before we left, I was able to tag along with Jen, Gary, and Josephine as they met with several partners. World Vision and ARC are two companies they partner with here in Gulu, Uganda. These companies are amazing in what they do. They are determined to reach out to all the EVI (extremely vulnerable people) and help get them back on their feet. I do not even know where to begin with how these people heal from what they experienced. ARC works in getting people the things they need to rebuild their lives such as mud huts, latrines, nonfood items and a choice of an animal or seeds. They are trying to enable and empower these people to get back to where they came from. As I discussed later Tuesday night with Jen and Gary, these people have no outside communication with the world...all they have known is fear and warfare...how do you convince them it's okay again and to trust you? When so many just feared going to sleep at night...
   It is such a powerful thing to think about...and yet I will never understand how they feel. I have never felt scared to sleep at night for fear that soldiers would raid my home and execute my family....and worse yet kidnap the children. I know this information is graphic and I feel as though I am even dulling to down for print...but to look in the eyes of these people of Gulu and see the emptiness just breaks my heart. What Sweet Sleep and Jen Gash does is amazing; this organization restores some of the hope and innocence that was robbed from the people here. Sweet Sleep not only provides bedding and nets for the children but also Bibles. I feel as even I would be guilty of not realizing the importance of a Bible when these people have so many physical needs (food, water, sanitation, clothing, bedding, and much more) but this story we heard from the people at World Vision (works with the victims of the LRA warfare) gave me a whole new perspective on the importance of a Bible...
   One of the woman working for World Vision shared this story from a child they had encountered in the bush in Gulu....I do not know the age or if it was a boy or girl...but all the same it will touch your heart. World Vision was out in the bush providing various things for the people. One of the workers noticed a small child holding onto a Bible as the child laid down. The worker bent down to talk to the child and asked the child if he/she could read the Bible? The child without hesitation replied "No I cannot read it, but when I lay down to sleep and it is beside me, I know that I will be safe throughout the night." It broke my heart, but at the same time was such a great story to hear. Jen shared that night at dinner that it was always the hardest to raise money for each Bible Sweet Sleep gives out as opposed to beds...myself included I guess sometimes we concentrate on the physical "life sustaining" needs of these people...but these people need hope...they need God and they are hungry for Him. I hope that if you read this blog and feel any attachment to it...you will visit Sweet Sleeps website and look at the work they are doing not only in Uganda but also Haiti and Moldova...maybe you'll even want to support some of their work! No pressure on that but def check it out :)
http://www.sweetsleep.org/

     Well moving on to Wednesday, it was my day off so rest for the morning was nice. That afternoon I took my camera to be fixed...several hours and 80,000 shillings later...still broken. Not so great...so this morning Josephine and I went back and took the camera....four hours later and 15,0000 more shillings...it will take pictures...but I can no longer zoom or have a flash. I guess that is better than nothing right?

   On a very fun note, a few of my teammates (Mike, Tyler, and Alexis) had grown very close to a boy named William at Blessed Hope Orphanage. He is an amazing soccer or "football" player, but he does not have the opportunities to truly grow. They asked if I would use some of the money they left behind to pick him up some soccer gear! How fun! Here he is before modeling it for me....he was so grateful and could not stop hugging me...he is a VERY shy teenage boy so this was huge for him! I just wish that Mike, Tyler, and Alexis could have been here to give it to him :)

And some of my boys I love....

Left to right
Ben, Joseph, Andrew, and William

    On my way home from Blessed Hope...it literally took Josephine and I 4 1/2 hours...the taxi system here is MIZ! They are vans...and they don't always stop everywhere...and they only travel when they are completely packed aka like 16 people....so it took almost 2 hours to get a van...then they only go so far...so I was able to experience today (in the morning and at night...like dark time) my very first Boda Boda rides...um...i LOVE them. Boda bodas are the motorcycle taxis....I don't have a picture of me on one yet..but that is my next goal!
Here is a picture of one of them though...

   Well I'm going to go recoop for the night...but..tomorrow I go back to Blessed Hope in the morning and I am actually going to be helping to teach math to Primary 5, 6, and 7 (which are the older kids who do know some English!) eek! I have learned how to say a few things in Lugandan now....none of which are particularly helpful but..."Oli otya?" means how are you...and Ova ludda wa? meaning where are you from...and I tell people I am staying in Muyenga before the hills..haha in case I get lost!

  Pray for my teaching skills and Lugandan/English skills tomorrow! Haha....miss everyone!