Everyone is leaving :(

So, Rebecca and Alex are leaving tomorrow.....so sad. I've really enjoyed all the volunteers and seeing them go is difficult after being roommates for several months. Alex has been entertainment with his silly tactics, his funny impressions and his adrenaline rush risk taking that has put all of our BPM's well above healthy levels. Rebecca has been joy incarnate. She is full of life and brings sunshine where ever she goes, her heart is gold and I'm going to miss both of them very much.

There farewell dance was sweet because Rebecca loves to dance with these ladies and always joins in whenever they have practice. It was only appropriate for her to jump right in on her farewell dance. Alex too got some good moves in before he left the dance floor - the women went crazy.

As a few leave, more arrive thankfully. Marayah just arrived yesterday, she is going to be here for 10 months as the Volunteer Coordinator. She's wonderful and is perfect for the job! I'm kinda sad that I'm only going to be here for 11 more days, I would've like to have spent more time with her here.

Then, on Monday we get Andrea who will be one of the girls taking my place when I leave - very excited to meet her :)

I've been really busy lately since Randy has left. However, it's been good, I'm loving everything I do here (other than bookkeeping....ugh). As my time here is coming to a close, I'm doing all that I possibly can to soak in the days I have left here. I want to take it all in and continue to take advantage of what God has for me here.

Farewell Kate

So Rebecca and I escorted Kate up to the airport this week. Her flight didn’t leave until late at night so we spent all day in Entebbe goofing around. We went to the Entebbe Zoo and got this beautiful view of Lake Victoria. We saw amazing animals. I went on a Safari last time I was here and it was fantastic, but this came in a close second. The Safari allowed you to see animals in the wild, but you only saw them if they were around. This zoo had every exotic animal Africa has to offer and you could see them up close and personal.

We had an adrenaline rush with the Lions. The male and female were mating and the male started to get upset that all these tourists were watching, so he came up to the fence and started to growl (not a roar unfortunately, but a growl). Kate and I were watching from behind the crowd and Rebecca was far in the distance. We noticed the only thing keeping these lions in was a chain linked fence… yes like the ones at baseball diamonds….not very secure.

Then the lion kept growling and soon enough he made a lung towards the fence with the crowd of people behind it. Everyone jumped back and screamed and Kate and I looked at Rebecca only to find her sprinting down the hill with one other lady. They were booking it as fast as they could. Even after everyone realized the threat was over, Rebecca and this lady were still running. Kate and I were laughing so hard and Rebecca didn’t stop running until she was out of site.

Really, how can I blame her though, I truly think that lion could get out if it wanted to. It’s gotta be stronger than a chain linked fence….frightening.

This other picture is of the group of us all together. This is our only group picture…..unreal, why didn’t we take more? Anyways, now Kate is gone and Alex and Rebecca leave next week…tear.

So much more has happened, I apologize for not blogging as often I should.

And to my love, this video from Kymbi. He misses you….you were so good to that boy.

Safe Journey Randy

Lilian, pictured to the right of us girls, is about to give birth. We were at her house delivering a birthing kit that Kate’s family helped provide for a bunch of our prego Suubi women. It was so much fun. This particular woman was so grateful. She is perhaps the most faith-filled person I’ve ever met and so it was so fun to be able to a part of blessing her. Her intense and sincere gratefulness were greater gifts for us girls than what we actually came to give her (I love how it ends up working out that way).

So we’ve been having dance practice every Monday, it’s been amazing and so much fun. I feel like this is a time for the women to forget about all their indifferences, all the jealousies, all their worries and just be free. This is a time where I see the most smiles, hear the fullest laughter and see the most bonding between the women. They LOVE to dance and the ones who don’t know how are now learning which is so much fun to watch. The picture shows one of our Suubi women (Agnes) getting’ fresh with Randy at his ‘Goodbye’ dance, it was so priceless.

We had a nice dinner with some good friends (Ben & Kym) before Randy left. This place was called “The Haven” and it was exactly that. After driving for 15 minutes through the poorest of the poor village, you arrive at this well manicured getaway out looking one of the most gorgeous views of the Nile. It was truly breathtaking at sunset.

So Randy left the country of Africa yesterday. The Suubi women and the tailors of Epoh were so sad to see him leave, as were the volunteers and of course, myself. I took him to the airport and was so emotional. I only have 5 more weeks here without him, but he was a real support for me here. I miss even just his presence in the house and the security of having him around. I keep trying to remember that I need to live today fully and presently. I don’t want to be counting down the days ‘till I leave and can be with Randy again. I want to take full advantage of each day here and be fully available for God to do whatever He wants with me for the day. The volunteers here are awesome and make it easier to just that, I’m thankful for them.

what I've been up to

So I dressed up as a cowgirl for Halloween here because there's not many options to get creative here with dressing up. Becca was a Hippie and though they changed out of the traditional Ugandan dress, Kate, Emily and Rachel (my namesake), were all decked out in African dresses called Gomeces (have no clue how to spell that word).

We went to hand out candy, soccer balls and jump ropes in Walukuba and the children danced and sang for us. We couldn't resist partaking the fun. The little boy in the white button up shirt was our little MJ, he did all the moves and so smooth. He's a stud! The picture with the little girl on my lap is Hamina, she was so dear to me when I came here over a year and 1/2 ago. She is more outgoing this year and is learning how to dance and shake her cabina (butt). I love these village kids, they're so much fun!

Pictures for fun

So this first picture is when we went to take a boat ride on the nile from a resort called Kingfisher. There were 6 of us that went to go swim and then take a boat ride at sunset....so romantic :)

Emily and Adam (a couple of the new volunteers) are pictured here.

This second picture is at Kingfisher. We were parked under this tree with a bunch of hanging nests like this. I thought it was really unique.

This next picture is of a bird that was Bronco colors. It was so bright and colorful, I just had to take a picture of it.

Then I saw some children walking on the RailRoad tracks on the way home and it was a kodak moment, so I snapped away.

And the last picture is a girls pampering night. We asked Betty, Nancy and Sharon to come and join the fun. They were hesitant at first, but joined along with some persuasion. They kept on asking why we do things like put stuff on our faces, let it dry and then wash it off. They said it was different and that they didn't know how it could help your skin. Africans have naturally perfect skin and they age VERY slowly so they wouldn't need it even if it were readily available to them. However, it was the experience that made it fun.

Times like these

Sorry for the long span of time between my blogs. It’s difficult for me to assess my time here from week to week. I am continually stretched and challenged here. I am dealing with so much with my family and my marriage outside of all that is going on with Light Gives Heat. I am finding things out about myself that took me 27 years to find out. I am ugly, I am sinful, I am confused, I am lost and I am weak. Amidst all of this, I am believing that I am also beautiful, I am loved, I belong to my Abba and His grace covers ALL. Some days I feel more of one than the other but am still trying to figure out how to operate out of my heart knowing all of those truths.

Processing all of this ½ way across the world from my friends and my family has forced me to run to God and run to Randy. I’m learning a lot and realizing the purpose of all His timing (which I didn’t think would happen). Things are never what they seem.

We’ve also become close with a family here that has been a great support for us, they are our community right now – thank God for them!

Now, enough of me, let’s talk LGH. Suubi is going great! We’ve started weekly dance practices (for tribal dance) and the women and all of us Mzungus LOVE it!!!!!! English classes are progressing and Literacy classes are still awaiting a teacher (we’re getting there). The Epoh (bag) project is slowly coming along as well. We think we found a new building to move to because the current one is having problems with theft, plumbing, locks, running water….and on and on. We’re hoping to make the move sometime this week!

We got 3 new volunteers in on Friday. Betty said the night before that she was feeling so big because she was about to birth 3 more children. She views us all as her children, she’s a good mom! After the volunteers arrived she said the birth was somehow not all that bad.

It’s been raining a lot, we’ve arrived at rainy season now. Friday it rained all day long and everything shuts down here when it rains, so Friday was not productive for anyone.

A couple of weeks ago I witnessed the birth of a baby boy named after my husband, Randy. The picture of Christine, the Mother is here along with Randy and I holding baby Randy. Within the hour of the birth, my best friend, Cory birthed a baby boy in America named Joseph Augustine (Gus). I was calling Cory every ½ hour to an hour to check up on her during her labor. I felt that God was sweetly giving me this experience here in Africa to directly parallel with the birth of Gus. I wanted nothing more than to be there for Cory for her labor and delivery and to hold this sweet Gus within the first day of his birth, but God has placed me here during that time. He gave me an experience here that kept me present in real time with the birth of my best friend’s baby boy. Even though I couldn’t be there for his birth, I was grateful that God gave me this experience to be with Christine (the suubi woman who gave birth to Randy) at the very same time Cory was in labor. I was able to hold baby Randy within the hour of his birth, it was truly amazing. God is so sweet to have blessed me in this way. I love that God is so caring to bless us with things like this that we don’t necessarily need but that He knows will warm our hearts, and He does this just because he loves us, just because He loves me. Wow!

I’m humbled by how thoroughly God loves us. Thanks Abba!

Creatures to "The Hills"

So, ever since Alex and Rebecca have arrived, we’ve encountered many insects that are Egyptian African HUGE. One night, we came across the big guy in the pic with the fisted hand. He wouldn’t move off this pillow. Rebecca threw shoes at it; Alex tried lighting a match by it and still nothing. It was clinging to that pillow as if it was a part of him. It was huge and ugly.

Then we went to the pool on Sunday and came across this fugly centipedish thing. He appeared under my bag at the pool and one crawled over Kates foot….ewey. He doesn’t look that big but he’s about 6 inches long without stretching him.

Then the other night this huge praying mantise I guess flew into our house. It was also huge but probably pretty harmless.

Then one night after we were all freaking each other out because of some drama with the teenage girls living with Betty, we decided to pray and then distract our thoughts by watching episodes of season 1 from “The Hills” (don’t judge me please). The picture of all of us on the couch watching the computer depicts our "movie cinema experience" in Africa. So, the Hills has now become a bit of a routine every few days. This is us intensely watching the drama of rich teenagers unfolding from a scripted “reality show”. There couldn’t be a show more contradicting to what is going on everyday around us here in Uganda. It does seem a little sacrilegious to watch it at all, let alone here. However, it’s our escape for now and when the entire town of Jinja shuts down after dark (unless you’re one to get drunk), you get creative with things to do when the sun goes down. We’ve spent hours talking with Betty, George, Nancy and Sharon and playing with Kimby; we’ve played bad mitten using the coffee table as our net; we’ve had worship/nooma nights; movie nights; game nights; dance parties; baking nights; chill reading nights; and soon to come “make-over night!” I want to do makeovers on all the girls (again, don’t judge me please).

We’ve got quite an amazing LGH volunteer crew and I’m so thankful that everyone appreciates each other and the time we have here in Africa together. What would we (LGH) do without volunteers and what would I (selfishly) do without the fun they bring? Thanks volunteers for sacrificing and being who you are!