End of 2010 Update

Hello world!

Let me take this opportunity to at least wrap up the year with an update. First of all, it’s been EXTREMELY HOT here recently. It hadn’t rained for the last 2 weeks or so until just a few days ago. In fact the heaviest rain we’ve had in a long time came on Christmas day. We’re talking a serious downpour for several hours straight. It ended up being a freezing cold Christmas after all.

In other news, we got a new puppy! I don’t even remember if I wrote about giving the other dog away but it’s now with a different owner. It was causing problems between us and our neighbors so we thought we’d try a different one. This one is a girl and her name is Roxy. She’s exactly what I wanted in a dog because she’s social and friendly around most people but can also bark at strangers. Our neighborhood is becoming increasingly dangerous so it will be good to have some extra security once the dog grows a little.

I’m about 8 months pregnant now though still small. I guess I’m just one of those small pregnant ladies. Most people think I’m around 6 months because of my size. Due to her years of experience, Grandma was the only one who guessed I was 8 months! People keep telling me if I was an African I would be so fat by now! I must say for a first pregnancy I feel it has treated me fairly well thus far.

There was one set back the other week which put me in the hospital for a couple days, but it wasn’t exactly pregnancy related. It was food poisoning, made worse by the fact that I couldn’t take any normal medication for it because it wouldn’t be safe for the baby. It developed into some kind of bacterial infection but I was well treated at the hospital. We thank God that the baby was fine throughout and I’m also fine now.

In the beginning I was just nervous about pregnancy because I’ve always heard about how hard it was. I had a picture in my mind of being miserable for 9 months, and though it’s not easy, it definitely hasn’t been as bad as I thought. Now I’m just terrified about the whole delivery thing! I mean, I’ve seen it a hundred times in the movies and watched a live video in biology class, but what is it actually like?! Anyways, I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, but I feel like time is flying and I’m approaching the bridge very quickly!

Michael is doing well in all of this. He was afraid I would hate him and be annoyed with him through most of the pregnancy but so far it’s been the opposite. I feel really clingy around him now and I get really jealous when he spends his time with anyone but me! Thankfully his job is flexible and we can spend a fair amount of time together. In addition to managing the guest house, he also gets some cake deals here and there. He’s hoping to break through into UCU next year and run a canteen there since there is a vacant building already. He would love to be running his own business rather than working for other people.

I’m happy to say we were able to go to Salama School for the Blind three weeks in a row for music ministry as their school term ended. They don’t resume again until February of next year but at least we are off the ground and running with teaching the kids music. I’ve been blessed with a wonderful team of keyboard and guitar teachers and I really thank God for their commitment. They not only teach but are also passionate about seeing the ministry succeed, and I can see how much they really love the kids too.

So far it has been amazing to see how quickly some of the students are picking up these instruments. I can’t wait to see how far we will get in the next year going every Saturday to teach. In the meantime we are trying to get at least 2 new keyboards and a guitar which we can give to the school so that they have instruments of their own. We are working on finding the best way of receiving financial support from countries abroad because of course, we hope to have many partners supporting the ministry in the future.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We spent Christmas weekend visiting Grandma, my host family from 2008, and Aunt Susan in the village. It was nice and refreshing to get away from the crowded and noisy city for a few days. We really feasted and managed to finish off a whole goat and 3 chickens!

We wish you a blessed and happy new year!

Blessings

We thank God because as of 2 weeks ago, we are now car owners! No more public transportation for us. Well, of course we use taxis here and there but it feels different when you do it by choice rather than by force. So far it has been a huge blessing and we are just so thankful to God every time we use it.

It’s a toyota corolla and a bit old but it’s mechanically sound and the fuel consumption is low. That’s a bonus because fuel here is ridiculously expensive. I don’t know what fuel prices are like now in the US but if I’ve done the math right, here we are paying the equivalent of $5.50 per gallon. Hence, we use the car sparingly – only for the biggest needs. Anyways, it is God who provided the car and I know he will give us the means to maintain it.

Back in June our church held crusades in the surrounding areas and on the night we attended, the speaker concluded with a powerful prayer session. It was a time of presenting our biggest and most pressing needs to God and believing in faith that he would do something about them. Many people prayed about finding spouses, others about financial breakthrough, and others prayed for physical healing. I prayed for financial breakthrough and specifically for a car. In the midst of praying I felt the Spirit leading me to pray for a car within a 3 month time frame, which to me sounded impossible, but anyways, that’s faith. It really stretched me because we had absolutely no money in savings for a car. You can imagine how crazy it felt praying for God to provide a car in three months when you have no extra money...you are starting from zero.

However, God is truly faithful and can do anything. By the end of September we had all the money we needed for the car and purchased it on October 1st. Also, since the crusade we have gained various jobs here and there which have given us the financial breakthrough we needed and are now providing the weekly income we need for fuel. That is why I can honestly and confidently say that it is God who provided it.

We needed the car so much for many reasons like general convenience in getting around Kampala, transporting the cello wherever we need to take it, etc. However there is a bigger reason that some of you know about already but others may not know. I guess it’s time to make it public since people here are figuring it out...I’m pregnant! Wow, it feels really wierd writing this on a blog...we’ve been keeping it secret here for about as long as we could. That’s kind of how people are here...it’s not something they usually discuss openly. They have indirect ways of talking about it which is quite different from home where people just ask, “Are you pregnant?”.

We’ll give you an official due date soon but I’m about 20 weeks/5 months along. We’ll find out the gender on the day of birth...more exciting that way! We are so excited and experiencing a lot of new things as we go through this for the first time. Please keep us in your prayers as we need them so much.

Moving Forward

Hello to everyone who still reads this thing! Life without a laptop or anykind of PC is apparently not easy. Anyways, here’s an update on us.

Michael began working at the restaurant at the beginning of August and in the last month the place has begun slowly catching on. I say slowly because the menu is mostly western and a bit pricey compared to the typical Ugandan restaurant. However, once people discovered that this was not the typical Ugandan restaurant they have been steadily coming in. It’s the quality of the food that attracts them.

By the way, the pizza...best in Uganda, period. No pizza I’ve tasted here has ever reminded me of home but with my husband’s pizza, I was taken back to the US with the first bite. I know you’re thinking I’m just saying that because he’s my husband but as an authentic American who loves pizza, I can honestly say there’s nothing like it here.

The unfortunate news is that Michael is now no longer working there. The owner had to send him away with great pain because of poor planning. She simply has no money to pay him beyond this first month. It’s a common problem here. People start a business and expect to make serious profits within a very short amount of time. I guess she didn’t realize that these things take time to catch on and you can’t expect the business to start paying for itself in just one month’s time.

It came as a huge disappointment but at the same time we were hopeful that we could still benefit from it and in fact we are already seeing the benefits. The situation has pushed Michael to really begin baking from home and selling to friends, family, and even the Uganda Studies Program students from the US. All of these people will be placing orders with us every week and we will deliver directly to them. It’s really better because all the profits will go to us instead of an employer/restaurant. It’s an idea we have always talked about but never put into action.

Also, we’ve seen how God is truly taking care of us as only one week after Michael left the restaurant, he was offered another job as manager of a guest house in Kireka (about halfway between Mukono and Kampala). The pay is about the same and the job is more flexible and less strenuous physically. We thank God so much for his care and provision.

As for me, I gained 3 more cello students at a different music school – the African Institute of Music (AIM). This school is very different from Kampala Music School. It was founded by a missionary from California who had a vision of beginning a music school in Uganda and eventually forming something like a national orchestra here. The school is basically in a big house and it creates a beautiful and comfortable environment for learning. So far I’ve found the students to be very committed and self motivated. Two are Ugandan and one is Tanzanian. They have basically been teaching themselves cello for the last year or so and are grateful to have a teacher, so it is really a perfect situation to step into.

As for the project at Salama School for the Blind, we are thinking bigger and bigger all the time. God has shown us that our original vision of a music project was much too small. It was something we felt we could feasibly do. But I believe God usually wants us to have massive visions that are obviously too big for us to accomplish on our own and push us to rely on Him for success.

Currently a friend of ours who is very connected to Salama and also happens to be a lawyer is writing the constitution and bylaws for what will hopefully in a years time be Hope for the Bind Ministries – a registered NGO that will act as a source of overall help and funding for the school. Since the school has so many needs, we realized it would be a bit strange to raise a lot of money for a simple music project while ignoring other serious issues. So now we are seeing the music project as one of many others that will enrich the school. Eventually we would love to bring other people on board who can design things like an agricultural project, and a medical project to take care of the many needs of these students. Finding sponsors for all the students would also be an aspect of the organization.

So please pray for us as we work on getting things into motion. It is really a long process and the music project in particular has now been on hold for about 6 months but as soon as we can get a car we will begin on that again. Please pray that God continues to bring/lead us to the right people who can help and not harm this endeavor. I’ve seen a lot of organizations here start off well and eventually collapse because of just one corrupt person.

I know this vision is from God and because of that I have total confidenc e that it can succeed with time and hard work. So please begin supporting us in prayer now as I’m sure you all know that starting off is never easy.

I think I’ll leave it at that for now. We are missing all of you there so much, but we are also happy to be where we are. God Bless.

HELLO!

Okay, so here are my attempts at making excuses as to why I haven’t written in so long:

1. Everyday for the last 2 months our electricity has been off from about 9am to 6pm as the power company has been replacing their transformers. So of course businesses like internet cafe’s have been closed during the day. Could I have gone in the evenings? Yes, but I was busy watching the world cup and I don’t really like going out at night. Wow, have I become old and boring? I used to love going out at night.

2. Life has been so routine and practically boring until recently that I was really at a loss for what to write. At least now things are happening, so here’s an update on our lives.

Michael is supposed to be starting work soon as the chef of a new American restaurant opening up in Mukono. This is a huge answer to prayer! Michael has been without steady work for the last year so of course it was putting a strain on us financially. This new source of income will help us to sustain the kind of life we want to live and will also give Michael an opportunity to put more capital into his travel company for marketing and such. The company is now fully registered as Wildcat Safaris Uganda. There is no website yet but it will soon be possible.

Another answer to prayer came last week when I FINALLY got my Dependent’s Pass which says I can stay here legally for the next two years. I emphasize “finally” because we applied for this pass last year in October. They said it would be ready in five days. Ha! Nine months later I’ve got it!

There were some unclear things and misunderstandings about the visa I got from the airport when we arrived here in May of last year, and at one point Internal Affairs was trying to give some ridiculous fine of over $4,000! Thank God one of Michael’s uncle’s is a powerful person in Uganda and was able to convince the higher-ups to wave that fine and give us the pass for the normal fee. The fact that we didn’t pay a single bribe to the officials and still got the pass is a miracle, though it is part of the cause for it taking so long to process. Internal Affairs is apparently one of the most corrupt ministries in Uganda. Anyways, God helped us through 100%.

In celebration of finally being fully legal in this country and not having to deal with Internal Affairs anymore, we decided it was time for a little vacation. We considered it the honeymoon we never took in Uganda. We went to Mabira National Forest just for the weekend and had a relaxing and refreshing time in the privacy of the thick woods. It is an absolutely beautiful place where we were able to spend some quality time together before life becomes different and very busy for Michael. We have consistantly had 1 or 2, sometimes 3 friends/relatives at a time living with us since October of last year so this was a good chance to get away and be alone for a couple days.

e were able to take a simple forest walk for a couple of hours though we covered little ground when you look at the forest as a whole. It is massive. When we drive through it on the highway going 60/70 mph it takes a good 20-30 minutes to get through it. We saw plenty of red-tailed monkeys on our walk and some exotic birds and butterflies. I even fell in the mud once along the way! I mean, someone had to make a funny memory.

was also nice just to have someone else make dinner for us. There was a fire pit behind our cabin so we made a campfire in the morning...not as exciting as it would have been if it was at night, but we couldn’t get firewood in the dark. The most unfortunate part of the trip was that we had no camera. Oh well, we have our memories.

We also took a side trip to Jinja to visit the source of the Nile and a good American cafe there. I never thought I would describe a cheeseburger as “refreshing” but I had one, and it was indeed very refreshing. Jinja is only about a 25 minutes drive from Mabira but we had an impossible time getting a taxi so we ended up hitch-hiking with a couple who had a personal car. As we conversed we discovered that the man works with internal affairs! Pretty funny since we took the trip specifically to celebrate being done with dealing with internal affairs, but it was okay. He was a good guy and we got a free ride to Jinja.

That’s all for now. I will try harder to keep you all posted as life goes on.

One Year and Counting

Last Sunday we had the pleasure of celebrating our first anniversary! We thought through a lot of different ways to celebrate like going to Murchison Falls on safari, going to a nice restaurant in Kampala, or having a big party and celebrating with friends. Originally I was ready to go the American way and have a romantic dinner for two (after the realization that safaris can get expensive!). Later on however, we realized my birthday would be taking place 5 days after our anniversary, so we just decided to have one big party to celebrate both events.

It turned out to be a great day of eating good food, cake, playing cards, and having serious debates. Yep, that’s right. We “discussed” (at the top of our lungs, sometimes sitting , sometimes standing) things like politics, religion, where to buy your clothes, DSTV, and the meaning of a “simple” life. What else can you do at a party when the power’s out all day? We were afraid it would be too quiet without music and movies...little did we know we had great debators in our midst who all prefer to shout at the same time.

In the evening we decided that instead of sitting in a dark house we should enjoy the great outdoors, so we actually carried all our furniture outside and set up a new living space on the lawn. Probably the biggest hit of the day was our wedding album. It is a beautiful storybook album with the pictures printed directly onto the pages. The comment of the day was “This is not in Uganda”, meaning that technology is not yet used here for things like personal albums. Wedding albums here are simply full of regular pictures, and it’s common for friends and family to take a picture or two for themselves once they see the album. When people see our album, their first response is to complain in a joking way that they can’t take any pictures home with them. Personally I’m grateful it worked out that way...OUR wedding pictures! You can’t have them!

The last year has been so good but also extremely challenging. At least my challenge of missing American food has been taken care of for now as I will soon be receiving a package from Mom and Dad which contains Mac & Cheese! Also, some of my friends from Britain that I work with at the music school treated me to lunch yesterday at an American style coffee shop with really good sandwiches. And of course, I’m so grateful for my wonderful chef of a husband who is always willing to step in and make me french fries when I get tired of African food.

Seriously though, besides that “crisis” we have not had an easy time with jobs and finances. My work at the music school is part time and many of my students are unreliable. Michael’s travel company has not picked up a lot of business yet either, but of course it is common for new things to take time and even get off to a rough start. We are really seeing that with our music ministry at the blind school as we are still struggling to get consistent transport to the school every weekend.

However there are many opportunities coming up for us that we are praying will keep us busy in the near future. There’s a good chance I and a violinist friend of mine will begin playing in some of the big hotels around Kampala to provide dinner music for various functions. Also, a job has opened up in the Uganda Studies Program at UCU that I have half a chance of getting since I’m a former student. There is a good chance that Michael will be working one or two jobs in Gulu as a chef and hotel manager in the very near future. While he would be living a long distance away most of the week, we still see it as a good opportunity for a time until something else comes along. As for the project at the blind school, we have discovered that there is a missions organization in our area that sometimes rents out their vans, especially to other ministries.

These are just a few of the possibilities we are looking forward to in the near future. Despite some of the challenges we have faced, God has allowed us enjoy our first year of marriage and grow in love for each other. In fact, the challenges that we have come through have been good reminders that without God we can do nothing. We owe him everything. He has kept us going in ways that we never could have on our own and brought us through situations that could bring anyone down if not for God’s help.

So we are working on being thankful for and in the challenging times, because they make our lives testimonies of God’s goodness and in the end, bring Him glory. Who knows? If not for the challenges, we may have gone through the first year of marriage giving ourselves the credit for everything instead of giving God the glory. “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name...” (Psalm 29:2).

Missing Home

I love Uganda, and I like most of the food here, but sometimes I just miss American food like crazy. Like the other day I got an intense craving for mac & cheese...didn't see that one coming! Of course, it's not like it's impossible to get mac & cheese and other American delights here. They are just expensive compared to Ugandan standards. The money we would use to buy a jar of Alfredo sauce for one meal here could get us about 6 or 7 meals of African food. It's just not worth it. We did manage to make tacos the other day at least!

Please don't worry...food is not the only thing I miss about home. I miss all of you! Our dream right now is to come home for Christmas this year, but it will take a miracle.

It has been so long since I last wrote, but it seems like nothing much has happened here. The music project for Salama School for the blind has not really taken off yet because we can't get there on a weekly basis. We had a successful "kick-off" day, playing violin, piano, and cello for the students. We also want to teach them guitar but the one they have at the school is in a very sad state so we have not been able to teach it to them yet.

After hearing a sample of each instrument, we gave them a chance to touch and try out each one. It helped them to grasp what it is really like to play these things. We managed to go back one more time after that and began group lessons. Most students have an idea of which instrument they want to learn but we haven't totally organized a time table yet for giving them private lessons. Most students have chosen keyboard of course because it's familiar to them and is somewhat easy to make good sounds on right away compared to cello or violin. Still, we have at least 2 or 3 students on each of the other instruments so things should be moving along well soon.

Since that first day of group lessons we have not been able to get back to the school because it is very far and we don't have an available car. So the project is basically on hold until we can get consistent transport to the school. The person we had planned to go with every week is not able to go anymore so now we are really stuck. There are those who are willing to take us on a weekend here and there, but if we can't give lessons on a weekly basis there will be no progress. We are planning to make a video very soon to showcase the project and point out some of the needs we have. Then we will send copies home to several churches and hopefully begin receiving support for the project.

We had a very nice Good Friday service last week, and I was privileged to be a part of it. I played cello with the worship team in 2, 1 hour sets and also did a special. It was a great service, though very different from those I've attended in the U.S. First of all, beginning at 9:30am and ending around 3pm is not something I'm used to! At least lunch was provided afterward for us to enjoy as a church.

The biggest difference though was not the length of the service, but rather the mood. Instead of being somber and serious, it was actually a service of celebration. I've never seen the people at church dance and shout with so much joy as they did that day. It made me wonder what would be left for us to do on Easter Sunday, but of course, it was another celebration. It just had a slightly different focus.

We are still enjoying "newlywed" life here but we're getting close to that 1 year anniversary! We are just so thankful to God who keeps us going and takes care of our needs every single day.

An Addition to the Family

Meet the newest member of our family! This is our new puppy O.B. We missed the boat the first time we had an opportunity to get one, but this time we didn’t hesitate. Now we’re the proud owners of a whimpering, flea-infested, ankle biter! Well, the fleas should be going soon with the help of meds, but I’m not sure when he’ll grow out of the other things.

O.B. stands for “Old Boy”, which is not so appropriate now but once he grows up a little it will be more fitting. Here in Uganda O.B. and O.G. are basically terms used to describe alumni of any school. For example, anyone who has graduated from IWU is my “Old Girl” or “Old Boy”. Anyways, we thought it would be a fun name for a dog and it sort of gives people a feeling of friendship even when they first meet him.

Having a dog here in Uganda is not terribly uncommon but it’s definitely a different experience than in the States. Most people here use them as guard dogs, so they are not so much indoor pets. They don’t really get special treatment and I’ve never seen anyone take their dog out for a walk or anything. So here, they’re not very hard to look after…at least, that’s what we’re hoping.

Other than the new puppy, everything else is going along normally. We are just looking forward to new things beginning in February, and we can’t wait to see where God takes us in these endeavors. We are planning to begin music lessons at Salama School for the Blind in about two weeks. We’re still in need of voice and keyboard teachers but I’m confident we will find some soon. In the meantime we will go ahead with cello, violin, and guitar lessons.

Also this month, Michael and I will be going once a week to an upcoming preschool to read Bible Stories and sing songs with the children there. We are excited about this opportunity because we (Michael especially) love children. This should be a really fun way to minister and get a little more connected in the community.

One group that we have absolutely loved being a part of so far is a small group fellowship for young married couples. It’s called True Vine Fellowship and is based at the Anglican cathedral nearby, but thankfully they accept couples from other churches as well. It’s a very close-knit group and though we’ve only met with them a few times, we have already become close to most of the people. Different couples host the fellowship at their homes once a month and we meet either for Bible study or to discuss marriage related topics. For the topics we usually have guest speakers who are a bit more qualified and experienced than any of us, so we really learn a lot.

We recently had a big cookout together and it was a blast! It was really a taste of home, complete with sausages, hamburgers and grilled pork. It was a great time to get to know each other, and for Michael to show off his grilling skills! Anyways, we’ve realized that this is a really worthy ministry and we hope continue to be involved for a long time.

The Holidays in Uganda

Happy New Year!

One holiday that Ugandans know how to celebrate is New Year’s Eve. My goodness. Christmas can go by without notice but New Year’s…It was as if the whole country was in Kampala celebrating all night long! Almost all the churches plan an overnight service of praise, prayer, and preaching from around 9 in the night to 5 in the morning. There’s nothing like stopping at midnight – people just expect to spend the whole night out.

Michael and I spent it with some friends at Watoto Church in Kampala (former Kampala Pentecostal Church), only staying until about 2:30 in the AM. It was an incredible way to bring in the New Year. This church was planted by an American missionary couple and it’s doing great things around Uganda. The church itself was packed with thousands of people inside so we ended up with the masses outside in the parking lot following the service on the big screen. The praise and worship there was almost purely western with a few African songs in the mix. It was a nice taste of home as I felt like I was back in chapel at IWU - the major difference being that these people know how to dance!

Christmas on the other hand didn’t seem to come with all the bells and whistles that I’m used to. Decorations are sparse and don’t appear until the day has almost arrived. In fact, we put up decorations at my mother-in-law’s house ON Christmas day. Most people don’t do Christmas trees, probably because they’re all fake and could only be chosen by Charlie Brown himself as a sufficient decoration. Anyways, I’m not trying to bash Uganda for lacking Christmas Spirit, but I just couldn’t help but notice how toned down it was compared to how we do it in the US.

Here, Christmas is about spending time with family and going to church. I think people exchange small gifts here and there, but no massive gift exchanges for the most part. Michael and I along with many of his brothers and sisters, travelled to Iganga to spend Christmas with Mom and Step-Dad. We basically went to spend time together as a family and eat a lot of food! It was a great weekend to relax and take village tours, visiting other friends and relatives. We spent almost every evening gathered around the laptop enjoying episodes of “Tom & Jerry” – a show which is apparently a hit in any culture! We also ate all the mangos we could possibly stuff ourselves with…well, at least those who were used to eating them. Most people had around 10 each. I managed to get 4 down – quite an achievement for me!

On Christmas Day, everyone goes to church. In the village where we were, Michael was the preacher of the day! I was so proud of him. He simply felt like it was something he needed and wanted to do, and asked the reverend of the church if it was okay. The reverend was actually relieved because he wasn’t feeling well and was looking for someone to preach in his place. The church also responded very positively. They were very attentive, and some said it was the first Sunday all year that they hadn’t fallen asleep in church!

I definitely missed being with family back home – spending Christmas Eve at Uncle Tom & Aunt Kay’s, eating the best Chicken Noodle Soup on the planet! Missing these traditions is inevitable, but it was also refreshing to celebrate in a different way and spend time with my new family.

Now we are just looking forward to what God has in store for the coming year! Be blessed in 2010!

Finally Back Online!

A "quick" recap of recent events:

We participated in the Kampala quarter marathon (10K) with over 20,000 other people! This was quite exciting for me because I’ve never been interested in running and I’ve never done a serious race like this. It turned out to be a lot of fun and not as hard as I thought it would be.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with the students and staff of the Uganda Studies Program at UCU and almost had a taste of home. The mashed potatoes and gravy really hit the spot and we ate way too many desserts, but the turkey turned out to be really disappointing. It was cut like a chicken, marinated, and thrown on the grill for a few minutes. The flavor was okay to be sure, but I couldn’t get a real bite out of it because the meat was so tough! The rule with meat here – you have to boil for some good time before doing anything else to it…it’s so tough. So, not exactly the turkey dinner I was hoping for, but at least we watched “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” (once the power came back)!

We celebrated Michael’s birthday on Saturday the 12th and ended up having a great party! I really laughed at how things worked out because it would never work in the U.S. We sent text messages to about 2 families on Friday night and called a few people Saturday morning. A few friends arrived in the morning and by 2 we had over 10 people in our house ready to eat some good pork for lunch. Haha! And we were concerned that no one would show up…

Michael is gaining business little by little with his travel company and cake making, and I’m getting new cello students here and there as well. I’m really enjoying teaching at the music school and now the International School of Uganda as well. It’s interesting teaching children and adults because you really have to adapt the teaching style for maximum effectiveness. I’m trying to market myself to other international schools and also take up a few private students, teaching in their homes. By January, when schools are back in session, I will likely have 15 students all together.

Something that we could really use prayer for is a project we are trying to start up at Salama School for the Blind. It’s a wonderful school with passionate children in whom I have seen great musical potential. A few months back, God gave me a vision for these students – that they can be great musicians if someone will take the time to teach them. Upon meeting with some of the directors of the school, I found that we were an answer to prayer. They had the same vision for some time, but no one to teach the students.

Because of my connections with Kampala music school, I’ve been able to round up the teachers and instruments we need in order to give lessons to these kids. We are thinking of calling it the “Joyful Noise Music Project” and offering guitar, piano, voice, violin, and cello lessons for now, but of course we hope to add more opportunities in the future. The project will basically focus on equipping them to play worship music – familiar choruses and hymns. They are already very passionate in their times of worshiping through music, so we hope that one day they will be able to have their own worship bands and even string trios or quartets. In the future they could even minister in churches and raise money for their school through this.

We’re planning to begin in February when all of them have returned from the holiday break. We’re very excited and we believe that God can do many great things with this project, so please join us in praying for this. I will keep you posted with more specific challenges and things to pray for as they come up.

Hope you’re all enjoying the snow during this festive season! As for me, I’m really having a hard time realizing that it’s Christmas. The decorations are sparse and the average temps are in the 80s…not a flake of snow in sight! I don’t miss the snow so much but, I miss that warm, cozy Christmas season feeling. Does that make sense? It just doesn’t feel like Christmas at all.

For the first (or maybe second) time in my life, I won’t be going to Uncle Tom and Aunt Kay’s house on Christmas Eve…I’ll be going to my mother-in-law’s house in the village to eat good African food and just visit with everyone around. Things will be quite different indeed, but still good. Merry Christmas everyone!

Oh and by the way, we’re most likely getting ourselves a puppy for Christmas!

Sorry!

Wow, sorry I've not lived up to my own expectations of writing another blog soon. Our laptop has been down for some good time. First we had to get it cleaned for viruses and in the process lost almost all photos. Now it has stopped booting up all together so we'll probably lose all documents now. It's not really practical for me to write blog updates at the internet cafes because it adds up to a lot of money.

So we're here, alive and well in the dry heat of December. Yes, I'm totally confused about the holiday season! It's so different. I'll try to be posting short updates for the time being until we can get the computer fixed again.

We miss everyone back home very much and hope you have a great holiday season!

History

This blog was actually written about a month ago and many things have kept me from posting until now. For example, as I was posting it there were riots breaking out in the street so we had to leave before it was posted. Life has just been generally inconvenient lately so this is the first I've been back to the blog since early September. Just enjoy thinking of it as an historical account! I will try very hard to post another update very very soon so that you will know the current situation. Thanks for reading!

Once upon a time...


...We had a big reception as a way of celebrating our marriage with friends and family here, and introducing me to the family members I’ve not met. It is indeed a very big family! As Uncle Manzi was introducing the family to me he would say something like, “All the girls who are a part of the Rabichwamba family, stand up.” Then about 25 of my cousins stood up! It was great to finally meet most of the aunts and uncles and see everyone all in one place. It was also good for Michael’s family to meet Rev. Henry and some of the USP staff. We really had a great time dancing, giving speeches, and eating great food and of course, cake.

The day was basically a success, except for the fact that we, the guests of honor were about 3 hours late to our own party! We were going to get ready from the family home in Kampala but we decided to go to a nearby salon for my hair instead of doing it ourselves. We told the guy we only had about 30 minutes and we thought he would do something simple and fast. 2 ½ hours later, my hair was done! He did a great job and was going as fast as he could, but he really put us in a tough position. Our party was starting on the other side of town and of course, I couldn’t leave with my hair halfway done, so we had no choice but to come very late. Once we got to the party everything was fine, but the morning was so stressful.

I’ve finally started teaching at the music school, but only one day a week for now. Originally they told me I would have ten students and more would come in September, but many of the students weren’t so committed or serious about lessons, so for now I’m only teaching 5 of them. So far it’s been a good experience because they are all at different levels. One of them is almost as good as me so sometimes I feel like I’m not very helpful, but it’s fun to teach him because he can play more interesting pieces. My youngest student is 12 and she is a talker! I can see that it’s going to be a challenge to get enough playing/teaching time in with her.

I’m glad that I will be around for a while because the students all have great potential. I would love to help them go far in improving their playing skills. I think now that they will have more consistency in their lessons they will improve quickly. The school usually just brings in visiting teachers whenever they are available, and these foreign teachers are usually only around for about a month at a time. If no one is visiting, they simply can’t offer cello lessons. One of my students wanted to know how long I was staying because she’s been playing for seven months, but she’s already had 6 different teachers. No wonder she’s struggling with basic techniques! I’ve also had about 6 different teachers, but in the last 12 years! So I hope with some stability, she will be able to improve quite a bit.

Michael is still looking for a job, but we’re hoping that one of the hotels he applied to will call him soon. One restaurant manager almost gave him a job, but apparently he was “overqualified” so they didn’t hire him after all. Ridiculous, I know. So for now we’re just trusting God that things will stabilize soon with jobs and finances.

Otherwise, we are still enjoying newlywed life, we enjoyed the beach again on Sunday afternoon, we love our church, and we hope to get more involved and connected there soon. We’ve been attending Deliverance Church in Mukono for about 2 months now and we’ve really been blessed by it so far. One of the things we’ve loved about it is that the people there are so genuine in love and faith. The church has many ministries including outreach programs, ministry to the less fortunate, etc. The music is lively and Spirit led, as well as the preaching. They really emphasize acting upon the word and doing the things we learn about in the sermon.

Application is seriously emphasized, for example, a few Sundays back, the pastor was talking about giving and being free with our money and possessions. It wasn’t a planned thing, but he just got so fired up about it that as he was encouraging us to go out and be givers to those around us, he just had everyone stand up and give something to someone else in the church! It was incredible! The pastor gave someone his tie and his watch, Michael gave someone his sweater because it was a very cold morning, and I hadn’t carried anything with me that day so I just gave someone a hug! It’s just really refreshing to go to a church with people who are genuine and want to act on their faith.

We will be joining a home cell soon, (a small group) and this coming Sunday I’ll be playing for offertory for the first time. Michael might be joining the choir in the near future too, so we’re excited to be joining the people there in ministry.

Tooth Fairy Vs. The Rats

I don’t know when or where the whole tooth fairy idea came about, but this week I learned from our neighbor boy that they have a very similar myth here in Uganda. Since he’s of the age of losing teeth, he started telling me how when he loses a tooth, he puts it in the corner of his bedroom and while he sleeps, a rat takes the tooth and leaves some money. I was so amused by this and I started to tell him how we do the same thing in the states only our parents tell us that there’s a tooth fairy who leaves us money. I almost told him how eventually, kids figure out that it’s really their parents who give them money, but then I realized he still hadn’t figured it out and there was no way I was going to spoil it for him!

This boy is quickly becoming our friend as he loves to come by to “converse” and see what we’re doing. When he wants to kick a ball around, he knocks softly on the door and asks me, “Is the neighbor in?” It’s so cute how he doesn’t call Michael and I by name, just “neighbor”. This boy has incredibly good English, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak in his native language. Once he starts talking, it’s hard to get away. One day after talking with him for some time I went inside to continue some work. When I came out a few minutes later he was there waiting and he said, “We are still conversing.” Some of the things he talks about cause me to think that I’m talking to an adult and then I remember that this boy can’t be more than 7, maybe 8 years old! I look forward to getting to know him and his family more in the future. We visited them once and they’re a great family. Lately we’ve gotten into the habit of gift giving...like the other day, Michael baked some bread rolls and told the boy to give them to his family. Immediately after taking them over, he came back with some bananas for us!

After some motherly nagging, I’ve finally made an apartment video tour as promised, so at the end of this post there is a glimpse of where we are currently living. Unfortunately my camera doesn’t record sound so it’s a silent film. Basically right now we have more space than we know what to do with. We’ll fill it up eventually but we decided just to get by with the basics until we are both working. Decorative things, and plants and flowers will come later, and we’re even doing without a fridge and a dining table for now. Those things are such necessities in the US, but it’s so easy to live without them here in Uganda. Most people don’t have them and would probably feel awkward anyways as eating at a high table is very Western. Our second bedroom is lacking beds right now but eventually we’ll be able to host visitors overnight. I can’t really compare the floor to anything in the US, but it’s basically a smooth, polished cement.

Anyways, we’re just enjoying having the place to ourselves and hosting visitors whenever they decide to come over. Our place has become quite the hot spot on Sunday afternoons! The last couple of weekends we’ve had 6-8 friends/sisters/cousins over at a time. I’m really loving Michael’s friends and family so much...we have the best time together eating, dancing, playing games and watching movies. I never expected to have such close friends this early on, but I’m so thankful for them.

Last Saturday we were tired of sitting around the house so we went to the beach in Entebbe with some friends. The waves were so good at Lake Victoria that day and we basically spent the whole afternoon jumping in the waves. I assumed that because this beach was the closest one to the airport that there would be a fair amount of tourists there...I was wrong. All eyes were on me and even when I was in the water everybody wanted to swim close to me. Maybe those who have a more outgoing personality would enjoy this but those who know me well won’t be surprised to know that this made me very uncomfortable! One high school boy even asked Michael if he could take a picture with me, as if I was some kind of celebrity! Thankfully I have a great husband who kindly said "no, sorry, this is my wife."

It just cracks me up because so many people on the street here look at me as some kind of big, important, celebrity and sometimes I just want to tell them how incredibly normal I am! It’s not easy to get used to this when the last thing I want to do is be the center of attention. It really gets to Michael too. Now he just stares right back at people, which makes them quickly look away in shame. We’re learning that if you don’t want to be stared at, you just have to stare back, because almost nobody wants to be stared at!

One Sock Short

I don’t buy it. I used to think that washers and dryers were sock eating machines, but yesterday I found myself coming up one sock short as I was laying them out to air dry. Even here in Uganda where we’re washing clothes by hand, we still end up with an incomplete pair! I don’t care what you say, you can’t blame the washing machines for stealing your socks.

I apologize for taking so long to write another update...I think there is a way that stability and routine will help solve that problem in the future. So much has happened in the last few weeks so I’ll try to just give a “quick” recap...we’ll see.

-We celebrated our 1 month anniversary on Tuesday, the 16th, but it feels like we’ve been married a lot longer!

-We’ve booked an apartment in Seeta (pronounced “Say-tah”), the town next to Mukono. We haven’t started occupying it yet because we’re still buying furniture, but we’re planning to make this Saturday our moving day. I’ll post some pictures as soon as I get some! In the meantime we’re staying with a friend of Rev. Henry named Rachel. I couldn’t stay at Reverend’s house anymore because we discovered that the cold/flu I thought I had was actually a result of staying in that house. I’m allergic to something, possibly bats, the furniture, who knows? All I know is that I begin sneezing and coughing almost immediately upon entering the house. So Rachel has been kind and generous enough to let us stay with her until the end of the month. It’s really a pleasure too, because she has a 6 month old baby named Jed who is just the happiest and most peaceful baby I’ve ever seen!

-Last week I applied to the Kampala School of Music to teach cello lessons and a week later I already have the job! I won’t be starting until August 10th but they assured me I have the job. This is definitely a God thing because it was just way too easy! I met the administrator a few weeks ago and talked with him for about 5 minutes. He told me to email him my resume and after seeing it he told me to call him. When I called he said we should meet to discuss a few details, but then called back a minute later and said that the visiting teachers are leaving in August so just come August 10th – that’s your starting date. Way too easy!!!!! Also, they apparently provide housing for their staff, so we may be getting even more help in that area in the coming months.

-I’ll be talking soon with some of the USP staff about ministry opportunities in the area so that I can start volunteering and serving somewhere soon.

-A couple weeks ago we had a family reunion of sorts for Michael’s Mom’s side of the family. We all met in Jinja at Grandma’s house and feasted! We ate in the traditional way of only using our hands, and it was quite entertaining for the kids to see an American eating this way! After feasting there was dancing of course, and I really got a kick out of watching the older folks jump up and dance. I think what really made it hilarious was actually the song that everyone first started dancing to – the new hit song in Uganda that is about bread and butter! The first time I heard it I couldn’t stop laughing because it’s these guys singing to their girls, “You are me bread and me buttah, me bread and me buttah”. Imagine your whole family getting up and dancing to this song...quite entertaining.

It was great to see Michael’s mom again and spend that weekend with her. My baby nephew Okello apparently doesn’t remember me at all from last year because he cries and hides every time he sees me! Hopefully he’ll get used to me as he gets older!













It’s official...we’ve deemed this the picture of the week! On our way back from Jinja we passed someone transporting goats in a most unusual way. He strapped 2 of the animals to himself and even made the boda driver carry one as well! Needless to say, they were ashamed.

Life is still a little bit hectic right now but God is providing for us all the time and I think life will be taking shape more in the next month or so.

Home Again

It’s good to be back in Uganda...I never realized how many little things I missed! Simple things like the natural sounds you hear at night, African tea, the sweetest pineapple on earth, and even Blue Band! Blue Band is basically the only brand of butter here and it’s so much sweeter than ours. Of course, I missed the people most of all. It has been amazing to see everyone here. In fact, it feels like I hardly left even though it’s been a year.

We arrived around midnight at the airport in Entebbe completely exhausted, but excited to be home. The most exciting part about our arrival for me was discovering that my cello was completely intact and even tuned to the same pitch that I left it in! I had heard so many horror stories about people putting their instruments under the airplane with the rest of the luggage and finding them crushed when they reached their destination that I swore I would never check mine as baggage. I was planning to just ship it through DHL but apparently something of that size costs about $2000 to ship that far...not an option! Since we found this out the day before we left for Uganda, we had no choice but to check it with the rest of our luggage and trust that God would get it there safely. Needless to say, God came through for us again! A big “THANK YOU” to all who prayed for it!

After spending the first night in Entebbe, Michael’s sister Barbara picked us up and had us stay at her house for lunch. She has 4 beautiful boys who I am proud to call my nephews. They were fascinated with my “guitar” and also had fun with the camera. I’m telling you if you just give kids here a little bit of trust and lend them your camera, they will take the best pictures. Here is some of their work...I think you can tell which one is Mr. Personality

Later that day I met some more of Michael’s family that lives in Kampala, and finally ended up in Mukono in the evening at my host family’s new house. My host father from last year, Musumba Henry, insisted that we stay with them until we find a place of our own...how could we refuse?! It’s been so good to be with this family again, especially Enoch. Sometimes he can be just as fun and sweet as he was last year, but other times he really lives up to the stage that he’s in...the terrible two’s. He’s talking a lot more now, and his favorite new words seem to be “motocar, vroom, vroom!” He really only speaks and understands Luganda, but he’s very good at copying and mimicking words and sounds – even when I cough or clear my throat he also does it!

So far we’ve been looking around Mukono and Kampala for cheap but decent apartments. There are definitely plenty of good options but it’s hard to decide where to live when we don’t know where we’ll be working. There’s a beautiful apartment in Mukono with a lot of advantages but we’ll most likely end up somewhere in Kampala. Michael’s friends and family have been so great, looking for places for us...people here really take care of you.

Unfortunately I came down with a cold about 2 days after we got here and throughout the week I’ve had it all – runny nose, sore throat, cough, fever, and aches. I’ve been taking more medicine than I knew what to do with and just to make things worse, on Friday I woke up with a very fast heart rate and almost no strength to do anything. I finally went to the doctor only to find out that it was just a reaction to some of the meds I was taking to get rid of the cold. So I guess that’s good news but we spent a lot of money to find out that information and walk away with some basic pain killers and vitamins.

Anyways, we’re really doing fine overall, though still very tired. Michael has been meeting often with his business partners about their travel company, and I’ve been attempting to rest though it’s still not enough. It’s going to take a while to adjust and really recover from the trip, so please pray for rest and strength in these next few weeks while we also look for jobs and housing. God has been so faithful every step of the way and we’re excited to see where exactly he takes us next!

Life comes at you fast...

I apologize for not writing in so long...life has been crazy! We're finally wrapping up the semester and saying goodbye to our families this week Friday. I'm hoping it won't be so hard since Caroline and I are both staying in Uganda for an extra month and will be back to visit our family a few more times in May.

Many interesting things have happened just in the last two weeks. The first weekend in April, our IMME group travelled for 12 hours in a small van over treacherous dirt roads to experience Bwindi, home to one of the largest national parks in Africa. Bwindi impenetrable forest is absolutely gorgeous and famous for being the home of over half of the gorillas left in the world. Though we were lodged at the edge of the forest, we didn't see any gorillas because we you have to pay about $500-$800 to do that and we were just in Bwindi for ministry purposes.

We met some pretty amazing people that weekend, like Dr. Scott, who came to Bwindi about 4 years ago and basically developed a whole health clinic compound out of nothing. His ministry has come so far so quickly and has really been meeting the needs of the people in great ways. We also got to meet and work with Pygmies, helping them build mud houses. It was a little shocking to see the "house" the family lived in before that we were replacing with a new mud house. The old house was basically an "A" shaped roof on the ground, made of sticks and banana leaves with an unattached wood plank as a door. I had to duck to walk in and the amount of floor space was about equal to that of a 3 or 4 person tent. I couldn't believe that it was home to a family of 7.

Church that Sunday was incredible because we just went to a local village church where the service lasted about 5 or 6 hours! Bwindi is home to the Bukiga people who have a distinct drum beat and dance which involves a lot of jumping and stomping, and it made for an unforgettable praise and worship experience. After having lunch we all went and danced with some of the village kids as they sang - so much fun!

Bwindi was great, minus the drive and the salmonella that came along with it. When we went back to school after that weekend 9 out of the 12 of us were sick with diahrea and vomiting - we endearingly called it the IMME epidemic. It was pretty awful...I had gone this whole semester here without really getting sick and here at the end it finally came. A few of us went to Kampala to see a doctor at a place called "The Surgery". It was a crazy experience as we all felt awful and had to wait for several hours. We were actually seen and treated by Dr. Dick Stockley, who plays the part of the journalist in "The Last King of Scotland". He was hilarious and made the whole experience that much better. I developed a high fever that night too, but thankfully the medicine worked for everything and we were all feeling a lot better over the next few days.

So after a crazy week I was thankfully able to travel back to Sipi to visit friends for a much needed weekend of relaxation. It was great to Michael and Reverend Diana again - she was so surprised! She thought for sure I wouldn't make it all the back to Sipi since this program is ending soon, but she was pleasantly surprised to find I had come "home" to Kapchorwa like I promised I would. Some, though not all of you have heard by now that Michael and I have actually decided to pursue a relationship with each other...you know part of the story already, but if you want to hear the whole thing just ask me sometime when I'm back home and I would love to tell you.

I realize not everyone will understand, especially at first, but just know that this is not a shallow fling. It may seem out of the blue to some, but keep in mind, there is a lot more to the story that you don't know. It has been well thought out, talked out, and prayed about.

I actually met a lot of his family this past Sunday as we went to his Mom's house for lunch. I will be staying with her at her house in Iganga district (about halfway between Mukono and Sipi) for most of May, just living there, helping around the house, and also volunteering locally in their community. When we arrived we received an incredible welcome at the local church...I've never experienced anything like it really. As we walked in the doors of the church we found about 30 people from the village clapping and shouting with joy to welcome us. They were just so excited and grateful to have me as a guest in their village, knowing that I would be staying with them for about 3 weeks in May. Michael and his stepdad made a few speeches and also asked me to say a few words as is custom in this culture. Then they all sang and danced in celebration of my coming, and I was just beside myself. The whole thing was totally unexpected and I just kept thinking that nothing like this would never happen in America...Ugandan hospitality continues to floor me.

When we had lunch back at the house, I actually became so grateful for all the intercultural classes I had taken back home in which I learned the importance of food in culture. I was already pretty full from having tea before lunch, but the time came I knew I had to eat and eat well to make a good impression! I don't think everyone there realized that I had already been living with a Ugandan family for the past 3 months and was used to local food like matoke & rice and some kind of unidentifiable meat, so they were worried that I wouldn't like the food. It was so funny because I could feel the stares of everyone the whole time I was shoveling food into my face, conquering the African sized portion Michael had served me. He told me later that the way I ate all of the food really made a great impression on his parents and other relatives and that the conversation they were all having in Lusoga (the local dialect of Iganga) during lunch was all about how well I was eating! Who knew that food could be the major deciding factor of my acceptance into the family!

After a long trip home to Mukono, I was pleasantly surprised to find my family very excited for Michael and me. I was so nervous when I was showing Caroline pictures from the weekend and Musumba walked into the room. Caroline showed him the pictures and said "...Sharon's new boyfriend" to which Musumba responded "Boyfriend? Hallelujah!" I responded gratefully with the usual "amen" plus an extra sigh of relief!

This may be the last post I write for a while as we are leaving for a 10 day trip to Rwanda this weekend. When we return we will basically just be debriefing that trip and the whole rest of the semester, then I'll see my fellow students off at the airport and proceed to Iganga for the month. Thank you all for your continued prayers, I really am missing you all so much.

Prayer Requests:
-For Michael and I of course
-Pray that the details of May would work out smoothly
-Enock is very sick with flu
-Safe travel to Rwanda - its a 14 hour drive across the roads of Uganda

I just can't leave yet

Another good week has gone by...so little time left. It's crunch time now just like any other semester and I am trying desperately not to get too stressed with school while trying to cherish the last few weeks I have with my family. On saturday I spent the day in Kampala with Danielle, Caroline, and Danielle's sister Rebecca. We sort of killed two birds with one stone by spending time with family and studying because we went to this great cafe and had the best time sharing stories, drinking coffee (a mocha frappe!) and even getting some homework done.

Last Sunday we were talking Godfrey about how little time we have left here in Uganda, so he decided he wanted to show us some of the ministries he's involved in. We went first to Besaniya - a children's rehab center. We didn't stay long though because he really wanted to take us out to the school for the blind about half an hour away. We picked up our friend Reverend Esmond and the four of us drove out on one of the worst roads I've ever travelled on...ever. Soon after arriving I realized it was well worth the effort. When you meet these kids and the workers who manage the place you immediately feel so much love from them.

It was one of the most incredible experiences I've had at any ministry in Uganda thus far. These kids are so loving and accepting and really just full of joy. As soon as we met them they started feeling our arms, our hair - anything to get a first impression. It's funny because they are the only ones who can't tell you are a mzungu until you open your mouth and speak! The first few kids we met just held onto our hands the whole time that Godfrey was giving us a tour of the compound, and it made us all want to stay forever. We did getto stay at least for about an hour and join them for an evening fellowship service. Wow, those kids can sing, and once again I was so impressed with the sincerity and passion of their worship. Salama school for the blind is one special place that I think I will never forget.

That was really the highlight of my week. There were some minor excitements amidst the normalcy - Musumba actually sent Caroline and I to the suprmarket after dark for a loaf of bread...we felt so independent, haha! We watched 2 episodes of Andy Griffith last week and it was so funny to hear the heavy southern accents after being here for 2 1/2 months! Mama doesn't like us to whistle after dark because it will "call the snakes," so when she heard the Andy Griffith theme song from another room she was concerned and demanded to know who was whistling!

Enock continues to keep us entertained as he is getting closer and closer to speaking real words. Poor kid - he's probably so confused hearing English and Luganda all the time. He's gettign the tones down quite well and cxan copy almost any sound, but he still doesn't quite form the words. When Mama tells Enock to call for Elisha he copies the exact tone she uses, but al lthat comes out is "aaaya". So for now his vocabulary consists only of 3 words: Amen, Dada, and the Luganda word for hot, it sounds like "jya" or something. He loves to point at my cup of tea and say "Jya!" to make sure I know that it's hot. That kid makes me so happy...I don't know how I will live without him.

It's rainy season now which is good and bad. It's good because we have plenty of water (the tank is overflowing!) but bad because everything gets so muddy. Yet Ugandans work so hard to stay clean and I don't know how they do it! We walk the same roads yet my shoes are covered in mud while theirs stay clean. To me, this ability ranks right up there with their ability to see in hte dark and hear a whisper two rooms awya. Not gonna lie, I'm a little jealous.

Anyways, because it's always so muddy when it pours for hours on end, everything sort of stops and events get cancelled. On thursday we even cancelled our missions class, but since the rain stopped in the afternoon we were still able to have a dessert "BBQ" in the evening as planned. Professor Button and his wife invited our class over totheir house for smores and roasted chocolate bananas! It was incredible, and quite a refreshing taste of America - roasting marshmallows over hot coals while listening to Jack Johnson...praise God for expatriot professors!

As much as I miss home (and I do miss all of you more than you know) I have actually just changed my plane ticket...I love these people and have nothing to do for the next month so I've decided to extend my stay through May 24th instead of May 2nd! I know it won't excite some of you as much as it excites me but I just can't leave these people in a few weeks. I know staying longer wont' make the leaving any easier but I have to take advantage of every opportunity to stay while I can. I don't know the details of what I'll be doing or where I'll be staying for the month of May, but I have a few options and its just a matter of working out the details now. I'll be spending some time in Sipi, some time in Iganga, and some time in Mukono. Besides visiting friends and family in these places I'll be volunteering at some local ministries.

Ugandans are the most hospitable people in the world and a visitor is always welcome, even without an appointment, so don't worry too much about me! Everyone I've talked to so far about staying with them for a few days or weeks was very excited for opportunity to host me and they said they would even be willing to host me for the whole month. So while this will be a challenging experience to be here basically alone, without the school related program, I will still be surrounded by friends and family who love me and know how to take care of people.

Prayer Requests:
-Time management - balancing finals and papers with spending time with my family.
-Getting the details worked out for staying here in May
-Guidance from God about the near and distant future

Happy Easter!

This weekend we went to the Luwero district of Uganda to meet with some ministers and learn about their ministries. We arrived thursday evening after a 4 hour drive that was only supposed to take 2, but Danielle and Erin kept us entertained with ridiculous singing and joking so it wasn't so bad. At one point our van was turning around near a boda-boda park...perfect opportunity to be harrassed. One driver was saying something to us in Luganda about love (kwagala) to which Danielle responded out the window "banange," (my friends) - an expression used sort of like "my goodness". The driver continued harrassing so Danielle said, "tu swala" (you're shaming us) and closed the van window. At this the entire line of boda drivers busted up laughing and clapping for us - it was quite a showdown!

For Good Friday we got to be a part of an incredible program hosted by some of the churches in Luwero. It is an event in which Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Lutherans, and the Church of Uganda all come together for the way of the cross. I've heard of churches in America doing the "stations of the cross" before, but never quite like this. In Luwero, they do a dramatic presentation and actually act out the stations of the cross. The first two were held in the catholic church, and then we all proceeded out into the streets following the actors as they continued to reenact the events. There were about 1000 of us walking as one large mob around the actors, led by a pick-up truck with massive speakers. Some of the bishops rode in the truck and through the speakers, read the scriptures that corresponded with the acting. They also preached a little as we went and we definitely drew crowds around town. It was really an amazing way to take the Gospel out into the community. It was also an unforgettable experiencing that really made the story of Christ's suffering come alive in a new way. Walking for 2 hours in the hot sun in a crowded mass of hundreds of people, following a man carrying a cross and being "beaten" almost the entire way...I felt like I was really part of the crowd walking with Jesus 2000 years ago. A lot of people in the community joined us along the way simply out of curiosity about what was going on, and it made me realize that when this actually happened to Jesus, most of the crowds probably had no idea what was going on. I had thought about this before but it sort of hit me in a new way, being a part of it. We ended the walk at the Anglican church and they "crucified Jesus" to the cross and ended with a closing service.

After the most incredible Good Friday of my life, the day got even better as we met with Father Jerry, a local Catholic priest for tea. This guy has such a heart for ministry and just seemed like one of the most sincere people I've ever met. After meeting with him, we were invited Bishop Kisseka's house for more tea! He is an Anglican bishop and has the nicest house I've seen in Uganda thus far...Bishops are pretty highly regarded here. He has actually ministered in America for some time, so it was interesting to hear about the differences between ministering here in Uganda and ministering back home.

I just can't believe what amazing people I'm meeting here in addition to the families I've stayed with. I am loving my Mukono family more and more all the time. Yesterday we had a huge lunch for Easter...Chicken, beef, pork, irish potatoes, pasta, cabbage, greens, 3 kinds of sauce for each of the meats, rice, matoke (of course), pineapple, and soda. We all ate so much! 3 plates each at least! Even after my 3rd full bowl of food, our friend Godfrey who was over for lunch said once again, "Sharon, you have eaten like a mosquito!" And after telling him I couldn't possibly eat anymore, he said we needed to get up and dance and jump around to make more room for the food! After we had all eaten way too much we all just relaxed and talked for the rest of the afternoon. After all that talking we decided it was time to do something so the rest of our evening was filled with dancing! I know I'm a Wesleyan, but I figure maybe social dancing is okay when its with your family!

The Sunday morning service really wasn't all that different from a normal service except the cathedral was completely packed, we took communion, the liturgy was a little different, and the focus of the whole service was on Jesus' resurrection of course. So even though Easter Sunday wasn't vastly different from how I've experienced it in America, it was definitely not a disappointment. It rained all day but here that is a blessing...you start realize this when your family's water tank is overflowing for several hours! Mukama yeba zibwe! Praise the Lord!