Blessings & Highlights

Good Friday/ Easter Sunday:

We celebrated Easter Sunday at Light of the World Church, the village church that GSFers usually attend. 

Light of the World Church and Children's Church building

The Church

Inside the Church

We had a celebration dinner and lunch with GSF on Good Friday and Easter Sunday! We ate some traditional holiday Ugandan food with the kids!

For those who are interested in what kind of food we ate:

Good Friday: Cabbage and pork, rice, irish (is what they call potatoes), chapati, and juice!

Easter Sunday: Rice, Chicken, beef, G-nut sauce (peanut sauce?), matoke (green banana), Irish, Chapatti, cabbage, and sodas! The kids were going nuts with the juice and sodas!

Getting ready to serve the food!

Elijah

Toddlers enjoying their meal!

The Food

Later on that Easter Sunday night, Danielle, (the other nurse for 1 more month :() and I joined one of the missionary families for their traditional American Easter Sunday dinner! It was hard finding ham but they found another cut of meat that tasted like ham! Also, have you ever had a pineapple cheese casserole? It’s great!

Danielle and I also made dessert for Easter dinner (more like I just helped make shapes out of the rice krispies)

Rice Krispies Treatss--Danielle did this

First Visitors:

I was able to meet up with two other AIM short termers serving in Keyna (I met one of the girls during orientation in GA!).  Their plans didn’t work out at a place for lodging in Jinja so they stayed with me for one night at GSF. It was great fellowshipping with them, boda riding up to GSF, and chatting with them. Short but sweet visit!

My Visitors from Kenya! Angela & Hannah

Short Term Team: A team from Florida came for a week (April 19-27). I’ve been fellowshipping with them and participating in some of their ministries and events.

We played Capture the flag last Friday night. It was crazy and fun. The grass was wet, it was pitch black, I couldn’t see any of the kids, and there was lightening that flashed in the distance. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it and were super excited! They were even more excited when we played Americans versus Ugandans (I only played in the first game of girls VS boys. I didn’t play in the Americans VS Ugandans game because I was dead tired ((not because I thought we Americans would lose…;)).

Me and Chloe (the flash was bright so my eyes are closed)

Strategizing for CTF

I was able to watch the Florida’s short term VBS presentation.

Florida Team 

VBS

           I watched their big sports game—football (soccer) and basketball—

(Although, the kids play that all the time and not just when the team is here)

Football

Football

Basketball

Paolo, Solomon, Kasifa watching bball

              I was able to participate in building a mud hut home with the team! It’s interesting seeing how they build their homes with mud and bamboo sticks.

       I was able to participate by plastering (a little bit) of the wall, passing bamboo sticks, and almost getting hit on the head by a flying hammer. No concussions for me! It was also a                     blessing being able to pray for the Ugandan homeowner after we partially covered his house.

Old mud hut home

Team helping make the plaster

Building

Plastering the walls with mud

After plastering some walls 

Praying for the owner & his new hut

             Our children loved the team. One of our boys proudly showed me his painted nails that one of              the team members did for him. I think they were doing the wordless book on his fingers???…              But besides loving their painted fingernails, they really enjoyed having a younger crowd to                  hang out with them and be a part of their team. Some of them seemed very sad when the                    team left.

Solomon proudly showing his wordless book finger colors

Nursing:

We’ve been doing a lot of Malaria tests/treating malaria, treating ringworm, treating colds (or what they call flu), wounds, cases of headaches, gastroenteritis, thorns in feet, removing a sharp stick in a leg (although I didn’t have to treat that), removing a cast, coughs, stomach issues, I&D on an abscess, vomiting/diarrhea and other fun stuff! 

The start of the removal of the cast!

Malaria testing

I was able to participate in Mercy Ministries—basically a health clinic for moms and babies and the elderly people in the villages nearby.

I watched a video on how to remove jiggers.

We took some kiddos to get their immunization shots, go to a HIV clinic, and a hospital.  

Immunization time!

It’s an interesting experience going to clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies.  1) I realized that a crying baby helps attract attention and service (Sometimes!) 2) It’s good to carry sweeties and granola bars with you on trips to the hospitals and clinics to  a)Feeds hungry kids  b)Distract the kids so they don’t cry c) feed yourself

Bahati being consoled by an egg

On Wednesday I went with our social worker, Loyce, to help pick up a new baby (3mo old?! We think!?) from the police station. Then we went to do some detective work regarding the baby to find out what exactly happened and why he was abandoned. We ended up going to a fishing village where he was left on a wood pile. No luck. Sad, but I’m happy this baby boy was left with us so that hopefully He will hear the gospel & believe one day! 

New baby- His name is Wayne...Little Wayne..haha 

Feeding Wayne

Wayne

On Friday I was able to go to a nursing meeting with other missionary christian nurses. A lot of them have been here long term. 

Making the most of being Chinese…

The children and aunties confused me with a lady from the short term team named Christabel (she’s Chinese) …so to confuse them even more I decided to make it my goal to look like her during her trip here.

So last Monday morning, I woke up and attempted that. I eventually had to stop because my glasses were making me sleepy and she had a white skirt on and I only have dark colored skirts.  I think I did confuse some people.

Me & Christabel

(we actually kind of do look alike when I wear my glasses! But I asked Danielle if we look alike without glasses and she said no—this picture is just deceiving:).

Some of the girls

I’m really milking the “being from China” (although they get confused if I am really Chinese because apparently Chinese people are darker). The girls thought that since I’m from China I am good at Karate (I guess everyone who is Chinese knows Karate? Maybe because of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies?!). So I JOKINGLY told them I am a ninja and that I know Karate. Ninja from Jinja!  They keep asking to see my moves. I’ll probably show them some Tae bo moves some day.

Bugs:

I think every bug is hatching and every bug is coming into our house because of rainy season. We’ve killed, swept, flushed, and stepped on many mating millipedes and centipedes (saw one really long centipede with pinchers go under our couch…and it never came out…), crickets, grasshoppers, and other weird/interesting bugs. Also, my feet, for some odd reason, are getting eaten alive by mosquitos. I’ve also seen some baby albino geckos and normal geckos. I also was a part of killing two snakes (a “part of” meaning a bystander watching them chop up the snakes).

The huge moth! not too exciting but had to show you

Days off & Relaxation:

It’s been nice having days off…

I went with Danielle and a couple of other people to KingFisher resort to use internet, sit by the pool, and go to the Source of the Nile (took a boat, saw birds and an otter and the sign that says “Source of the Nile” at the Source of the Nile)

Source of the Nile

Source of the Nile/Lake Victoria 

Danielle and I also went rafting together down the Nile. Crazy but not so crazy  (unless you are thrown over) adventure with grade 5 rapids. We were hoping to have bulky people on the raft so that the boat would be weighed down…but no luck. Instead we met younger people from UK, Norway, and New Zealand.

**Note to people interested in rafting…being under the water for a couple seconds feels like forever.

Me & Danielle in our gear

Nile River

After the Nile

A couple of us went running outside the compound. It was nice to run/walk outside. 1) I was sweating like crazy 2) I felt so out of shape and out of breath 3) I survived the short distance!

Running by the sugar cane field

Joys with the kids

I want to be intentional with my time with the children here and love them.

I love sitting with one of our girls named Kathy. She doesn’t talk but every time I ask her how she is she gives me a thumbs up.  I love being able to sit with her, point at the trees, hold her hand, and laugh. She’s such a sweet girl.

Kathy

It’s been sweet spending time with some of the older children, especially the teen girls. I love joking with them and talking to them. Some of them have been calling me Luke Skywalker (because I call 2 of the girls Chewbacca & Yoda) and now they are calling me “tricky” in Luganda (maybe it’s because I joke with them?!) I’m hoping I can build relationships with these girls and I hope eventually they can learn to trust me.  We’ll see how that goes.

Betty, Gayla, and Esther

The girls

I love playing with the toddlers! Recently, when the toddlers see me they tell me to “go to sleep”. Why?! Because I trained them to! Just kidding, but we do play this game where I tell them to “go to sleep” and than I wake up and chase them…and than I try to make them do jumping jacks before I sleep again(which works sometimes).

with 2 of the toddlers: ivan and joseph

joseph telling me to "go to sleep"

richard

jarod

richard and pious

pinto wasnt happy to be stuck in the middle

I’ve also been visiting the baby house and playing with the babies.  They are such fun! So far most of the times when I play with them I usually come out with some article of clothing being wet (you can guess why). 

Baby John

the babies

arthor

joshua

got milk

katie

Thanks for reading! I have my nursing interview tomorrow (Weds Ugandan time) so you can pray for that! Goodnight! Hopefully will update when I have good internet again! Thanks for reading...typos & all!