Christmas was aswesome. I am in Mombassa right now, in Kenya waiting for our bus back to Nairobi, we were catching the train but it was cancelled dude to flooding. SO "exciting coach" it is!! (Please pray its not like gasso)
It was a CRAZY A** journey to Lamu to say the least, tell you when i have more time, it involed being stuck in the dark, armourerd guards and a hyhenna, so you know....hahha
LAMU....oh my gosh....its is sooooo gorgeus, i love it. 25 miles of white sand...other little islands, sea food, tiny allys and ancient architecture.....i saw some muslem wedding rituals, got henna....and so much more.
So please pray for safe travells untill the 2nd, and i will update you all asap
lots of love, and merry christmas happy new year
melanie
Reality.
I just read a wonderful email from my firend manny, and it has inspired me to write this.
I just want to be real with all of you. Being real has been such a huge thing to me. I wish we could all be more real with eachother. With our strengths, our struggles and our weakness'. i feel like i havn't been real with you. I've felt that I need to let you all know that i am ok, and that i have everything under control, and thing are progressing at rapid rates and miracles are happening. But honestly, god is moving (as always), but it's not like that at all. I am going through a really hard time right now. Where everything i thought i ever knew or figured out, i dont' know. I am finding myself so immature, if you will. I feel alone, and am having trouble relating with my group. I feel like i am not free to be me. Maybe because i am surround by people who seem to not share the same faith as me, or maybe because i won't let them. I just want you all to know that i don't have it all figured out. Not in the least. I am constantly growing and learning, and stumbling and falling. But you know, if i was perfect...well i wouldn't be me. God is moving, i know he is. Sometimes i don't feel it, or can't see it, or touch it. But i know that its happening, otherwise i wouldn't be where i am at. This is me, the broken, lost, Melanie. On some crazy mission in Uganda. What the real purpose of this mission is, only time can tell. But in the mean time, i am going to keep living everyday. I want to thank you manny for that email, its spoken to me, and i think i will read it again. I am encouraged though. Sometimes i feel so alone that there is no use. Am i really making an impact here? I struggle with the language barrier. Its huge, cause there is no english church, no fellowship. But maybe that is my crutch, and God is slowly detaching it from me. I honestly don't really know what is going on. Right now i cant clearly see what God is doing, but that's reality. I feel way better typing this blog to you all, than making up some feel good sound good stories for you to read.
I am meeting amazing people though and i will try and write more about that soon (for you cam and others)
So, it's almost 12 midnight and i am sitting in the glass room internet room of the Backpackers Hostel in kampala. I miss home alot. It's christmas and no family. Kinda sucks, but i will live. I will be on the Indian Ocean though wich is sweet!!
I hope you enjoy the pictures and please pray that over this christmas holiday i will come to relize something. Something worthwhile. I am going to be real with you though, and not feel like i need to make up some amazing missions stories. I know you would like to hear them, so pray that they will come. And i will share for sure!!
I love you all
melanie
I just want to be real with all of you. Being real has been such a huge thing to me. I wish we could all be more real with eachother. With our strengths, our struggles and our weakness'. i feel like i havn't been real with you. I've felt that I need to let you all know that i am ok, and that i have everything under control, and thing are progressing at rapid rates and miracles are happening. But honestly, god is moving (as always), but it's not like that at all. I am going through a really hard time right now. Where everything i thought i ever knew or figured out, i dont' know. I am finding myself so immature, if you will. I feel alone, and am having trouble relating with my group. I feel like i am not free to be me. Maybe because i am surround by people who seem to not share the same faith as me, or maybe because i won't let them. I just want you all to know that i don't have it all figured out. Not in the least. I am constantly growing and learning, and stumbling and falling. But you know, if i was perfect...well i wouldn't be me. God is moving, i know he is. Sometimes i don't feel it, or can't see it, or touch it. But i know that its happening, otherwise i wouldn't be where i am at. This is me, the broken, lost, Melanie. On some crazy mission in Uganda. What the real purpose of this mission is, only time can tell. But in the mean time, i am going to keep living everyday. I want to thank you manny for that email, its spoken to me, and i think i will read it again. I am encouraged though. Sometimes i feel so alone that there is no use. Am i really making an impact here? I struggle with the language barrier. Its huge, cause there is no english church, no fellowship. But maybe that is my crutch, and God is slowly detaching it from me. I honestly don't really know what is going on. Right now i cant clearly see what God is doing, but that's reality. I feel way better typing this blog to you all, than making up some feel good sound good stories for you to read.
I am meeting amazing people though and i will try and write more about that soon (for you cam and others)
So, it's almost 12 midnight and i am sitting in the glass room internet room of the Backpackers Hostel in kampala. I miss home alot. It's christmas and no family. Kinda sucks, but i will live. I will be on the Indian Ocean though wich is sweet!!
I hope you enjoy the pictures and please pray that over this christmas holiday i will come to relize something. Something worthwhile. I am going to be real with you though, and not feel like i need to make up some amazing missions stories. I know you would like to hear them, so pray that they will come. And i will share for sure!!
I love you all
melanie
picturesss
hey i am going to post a bunch of pictures....no explanaions though cause the computer i am on is really bad at displaying and the screen is all messed up. But i know they are working thanks to daniel!!!! oh....and here are some more bike shots for you daniel....
i miss you all and i am at an awesome hostel in kampala right now, we leave for nairobi tomorrow...pray for safe journey and all that
good stuff.
miss you love you
more blogsssssssssss
It is the night of Tuesday December 19th, and we are leaving tomorrow morning at 7:30 for the Christmas off!! I am so excited. I’ve been doing some reading on Lamu in the good ol’ Lonely Planet and it’s a pretty sweet archipelago island. If you have some time, look it up! I am going to go and swim in the Indian Ocean, how cool is that? There is snorkeling too apparently!
So I failed to mention in the last blog that Nate and Paul were here in camp. Tanessa’s two friends from Vancouver that are doing ground work for an NGO that they are starting up (www.underthereadingtree.org I think). So we had tons of fun. It was Paul’s birthday and Tanessa bought him a goat, and so he slaughtered it himself! I filmed and photo-ed the whole ordeal, from living and breathing to skewers on the bar-b-que. Nate even took the liberty of blowing on the severed trachea and into the lungs that were removed. We saw them fill up and expand, just like ours do. That was pretty much the coolest thing I saw that week. I won’t go into too much detail because I don’t know how your stomachs are. I also didn’t include any of the bloody pictures for the same reason. If you are interested though, I will show you all I got when I get home.
Well I am crouched over at my lap top under my mosquito net and my back is telling me abruptly that it is time to go to bed. I miss you all and love you dearly through this holiday season.
Love always,
Melon Namarungi
So I failed to mention in the last blog that Nate and Paul were here in camp. Tanessa’s two friends from Vancouver that are doing ground work for an NGO that they are starting up (www.underthereadingtree.org I think). So we had tons of fun. It was Paul’s birthday and Tanessa bought him a goat, and so he slaughtered it himself! I filmed and photo-ed the whole ordeal, from living and breathing to skewers on the bar-b-que. Nate even took the liberty of blowing on the severed trachea and into the lungs that were removed. We saw them fill up and expand, just like ours do. That was pretty much the coolest thing I saw that week. I won’t go into too much detail because I don’t know how your stomachs are. I also didn’t include any of the bloody pictures for the same reason. If you are interested though, I will show you all I got when I get home.
Well I am crouched over at my lap top under my mosquito net and my back is telling me abruptly that it is time to go to bed. I miss you all and love you dearly through this holiday season.
Love always,
Melon Namarungi
Blogs Blogs
weIt’s 3:01pm, and I am sitting in my tent, sweating. The heat is on today. And the breeze is pretty much off. I’m listening to a party shuffle on iTunes. I haven’t written a blog in so long and I’m thinking it’s time. The biggest news I’d say, is, if you didn’t hear through the grape vine at home, I got Malaria. YUCK. Candice, I know how you felt. It sucked for sure. It all started with waking up a couple mornings with achy bones and joints. I felt like I was getting sick, but not too bad. Then I woke up Friday December 7th and I knew something wasn’t right. I needed to lie down and was nauseous. Then, just after lunch it hit me like a brick wall falling on my head. I sat on the edge of my porch for about 45 minutes with my head between my legs trying to fight off the nausea. Needless to say, it didn’t help, well all that much, I was able to keep my food down and that’s a plus. If you know me you know I would rather bounce my head off the wall then have to throw up. So, I told one of the Ugandan’s that I was seriously not feeling well and I needed to see a doctor. So they said I should go to Mbarara with the group that was leaving that day. But, because there was this big think about not going to town when it’s not necessary, and my team didn’t seem to think I was that sick, thought I should just to go the little clinic down the road in the town center. So off we went, Tanessa volunteered to drive me down, and I got a lovely needle jabbed into my vein in my hand. Oh needles, another wondrous thing in life that I love to do back flips over. Hah. So it took about 45 minutes to get the test results back, and they stuck me in a back room mud condo unit with a bare mattress to await my results. It was a ok place in comparison to some other “medical” centers around here. So as I lay there, contemplating if I had malaria or not, the sun was setting and shining into my room. An attendant lady came and bashed some nails into the mud wall with a brick to hang a net type hanging deal to keep the bugs out. It’s a weird feeling to be all alone in some strange clinic with people who barely speak English, and not knowing if your just sick, or have a possibly life threatening disease. Finally, the “nurse” came back and the results were in. “You have P Falciparum Malaria, 17%” So for every 100 of my white blood cells, there were 17 Malaria viruses. I also had the great travelers’ revenge (diarrhea) for 5 days prior to this. So they suggested some treatments. Definitely IV fluids they thought, at least one liter, then also IV treatments of Quinine (malaria treatment) and two antibiotics. Tanessa, Graeme and I thought that this was a bit much, especially intravenous. So we decided (as the liter of fluid dripped into my veins turning my arm ice cold) that it would be best for me to head to Mbarara. Just in case, you never know what can happen. So, up I got, from my bare mattress haven, to the paint shaker roads from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks. I unhurriedly, made my way to the truck while Tanessa held my IV Fluid up with my first dose of Quinine. Johnson was so nice as to lend me a pillow and a blanket for the trip, which were a savings grace because the front passenger’s side window had been broken while Apollo was panga-ing (big blade) the lawn, and hit a rock, and also, the nights are cold. So it’s amazing that I made it through the journey, because I felt like human tenderized meat. Every bump hurt, and if you can imagine four by four-ing in Canada, or North America, then times it by at least 5, I’d say you are partially there, and then add on, the amazing Tanessa regulating my IV throughout this entire process. Only in Africa. So we made it, and I was gradually feeling worse, the nausea got worse, I couldn’t see straight, it was uncomfortable and just crappy no matter what I was doing or what position I sat or lay. Tanessa regulated my drugs, Gravol every 8 hours, Tylenol and Ibuprophen on alternating 4 hours. She phoned the American Doctor in Mbarara, Dr. Pepper, seeking his tropical medicine advice. He said the IV was unnecessary and if I could keep food down then I should just take the oral dosage. So we went to town…I barely remember the ride in the back of the taxi, talking to my mom and her friends on my cell. They were all saying really encouraging things and I was crying, and crying. We got the pills, and the Taxi took be back to Canada House. Two pills every 8 hours, and they make you feel sick. So, I crawled my way back to bed, with the IV needle still in my hand, because Tanessa was still in town and couldn’t take it out. My hand is still bruised from it, by the way. This is the sickest I have ever been. I proceeded to move to the puking stages and dry heaving stages. Feeling like a soggy, drugged up, bruised noodle. It’s all a blur really, and I am SO happy to be better. Miraculously I kept all the medicine down and only threw up any food I tried to eat after waiting for the medicine to absorb. It’s my sincere recommendation that you never forget your anti-malarial drugs, it’s not worth it. I had forgotten for about four days a few weeks before, because I unexpectedly stayed in town without any supplies. During the whole process, I was blessed enough to have the infamous Dr. Pepper pay me a home visit, thanks to Richard request. He recommended to have me go for another test, cause the Malaria should be our of my body by then, and to have a full blood count and start some antibiotics cause my wonderful travelers’ bathroom blessing had not subsided in the lease. He ended our meeting with a prayer that brought tears to my closed, lap facing eyes, tears that crept out of my pressed eye lids and down my cheeks. Due to the spirit of God and maybe from just having someone there to pray for me, it feels like a desert out here at times. But I know you are praying for me and this mission at home, and I can’t express how truly grateful for that I am. So, on the 8th I made my way back to Rubingo, only to be greeted with the death of Evas’ (a co-worker that runs the AIDS clinic) sister in law’s daughter of 16 years.
So on the 9th we went back to the Mbarara area to attend the funeral. It was really distressing. I saw a dead body for the first time. I don’t really know what to think about it. She looked cold. The mother was unraveling at the seams. I cried for her. I couldn’t help thinking about how lucky I am to have never had to deal with the death of someone that close, and also to think of how utterly destroyed I would be if I lost anyone in my immediate family. (I love you all, and am so grateful for your lives, for your impact you have had in my life and others).
Then there was another death, of an HIV client, named Melon (which is what they call me here now by the way). I stayed behind on that one though; I was still processing from the funeral the day before.
Speaking of names, on a lighter note, I received my Runyankore name from the local women here at the camp. Melon Namarungi. Melon is the way they say Melanie because it is a Ugandan name and they are not used to saying Melanie, and Namarungi meaning, the best or most beautiful. It brought a blush to my cheek that’s for sure. I didn’t quite know what to say to such an esteemed name. So I humbly accepted it, not wanting to offend them, and now call all of the women that name as well.
So, on with business, I am up to par in health and feeling good. Work is progressing at constant rate. We have got a list full of 50 people, 25 adults and one child from each, who will be attending the Memory Book Work (MBW) Training session that I am planning to have on January 15th to the 19th. Providing that everything goes through with the middle stages of finishing the budget, and getting it approved by ACTS Canada. From that point we can notify the people of the date, and move forward with all the small details of getting supplies and securing the venue. It’s true that cross cultural work is a test of your patience. Because everything, literally everything takes way longer. Just discussing one topic takes at least an hour to have both sides understand what is being said. But hopefully the skills of communicating with the Ugandan’s and vice versa will be improving. I am really happy though, because it seems that the people here are getting the whole idea of memory work and are grasping the benefit of it. We had no problem finding 25 volunteers, and 25 of their kids. **Side note I am being distracted right now by a cute little lizard that keeps running across the screen windows of my tent. ** So the training will be 5 days with the adults and the kids being trained separately. **Now there is a lizzy on the inside, and he is hiding behind my picture of Victoria Katonga** I have two trainers coming from NACWOLA Kampala coming, as well as two assistants from Mbarara, that will be heading up the sessions. We will house and feed the trainers, and provide transport money for the trainee’s as well as one meal. So I have been making up some forms, a pre and post survey, trainee’s form and a thank you letter for our new MBW volunteer team, all of which will get translated into the local Runyankore language. It is now 4:34 and that means 26 minutes until chai time.
Tomorrow is our last day of work, and then the OFF!! Tomorrow I’m going to meet with Gorette one of our HIV Clients, with Johnson, and I am going to video tape her testimony with Johnson translating. How she was almost dead and then one of the ACTS workers found her and she got medical treatment, multivitamins, ART’s (anti-retroviral treatments) and now she is alive and well. I am trying to meet with quite a few of these ACTS success stories that I could include in some possible promotional video’s for ACTS.
Also I am trying to meet up with these 3 Orphans that we found, living by themselves in the Rweibogo Cell. They are 11, 8 and 3 years old. Both they’re parents died of AIDS, and now they are on they’re own. The closest relative has 13 kids that she already cares for and lives a two hour walk away. So we are trying to see of they have another relative that will care for them, or find them another home, and then maybe we can build them a new house and find some sponsorship money to help with the raising of them. I am currently looking for a sponsor for a wonderful girl name Fortunate Burungi. She came to the ACTS Rubingo camp two and a half years ago. Both her parents died and she became a street kid. Her brothers and sisters are living on the streets of Mbarara. But she came here to the camp wearing nothing but a shirt. She told them she had no place to go, Evas said she would take her in, ACTS approving. They approved and now she lives here at the camp with us. She is 16 years old and has been caring for Evas’ only child, Phiona, who is 2 and a half. There was a past intern who was paying for her school fee’s, but they can’t anymore. Evas is in no financial position to fully care for her either. So I am praying and hoping that one of you out there will be stirred and want to sponsor her. Oh, and also last Friday we had HIV/AIDS testing here in Rubingo, and Fortunate went to get tested. Sadly, she tested positive for HIV. It was dreadful to discover this as she most likely got it from her parents who were both positive and was thus, just born that way. No choice, just born with a life killing disease. So it would be best to send her to boarding school, which costs 200,000 UgSh a year, which is $125 CND. That included food everything. Food is regrettably only posho and beans, with the slight variable of matoke every now and then, and meat twice a term. But the education is better, and apparently there is less discrimination against HIV positive children.
If anyone out there would like to sponsor a child or a family, just let me know, because there is no shortage of needy people. People who are just stuck below the poverty line and can only get out with our side help. So if you would like to donate to the general fund of ACTS, contact the head office, all the info is on the website. www.acts.ca Or if you would like me to find you an individual story, just send me an email with about how much you would like to spend, and I will personally find you a child or a family and take their pictures, and video for you to see.
Thanks for all your support, and taking the time to read this enormous blog. If you would please pray for all the work here you have read about, and also for our journey to Kenya for Christmas. This Thursday 6 of us girls are taking a 5 ½ hour bus ride to Kampala, and then a 13 hour bus ride to Nairobi. We arrive at 2am, so please pray that our taxi is right there to pick us up and take us to our hotel. Then we take an 18 hour train ride to the coast, where we are headed to the island of Lamu. Hello white sand!! I am so excited for the ocean; it has been literally months since I have seen it, and that’s a very long time for me. We head back on that same route on the 29th so if you could pray for that too, it would be great. We will spend new years in Kampala, with my friend Kristy, and then head back to Mbarara on the 1st, to be back at camp on the 2nd.
Hope you all have the merriest of Christmas’. I must admit, I am home sick around this time of the year. Although it doesn’t feel like Christmas at all, so maybe you miss me more. And I pray that your New Years start off with a bang and that you all make attainable goals, as well as a few outrageous ones. I believe in you all. If God can fly my butt all the way to Uganda, he can do anything for you too!!
God Bless, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years,
LOVE ALWAYS Melon Namarungi
Ps. Adele, I hope you are still coming, even though there is this hair dressing job, which I am SO stoked for you for by the way. I am PRAYING…
So on the 9th we went back to the Mbarara area to attend the funeral. It was really distressing. I saw a dead body for the first time. I don’t really know what to think about it. She looked cold. The mother was unraveling at the seams. I cried for her. I couldn’t help thinking about how lucky I am to have never had to deal with the death of someone that close, and also to think of how utterly destroyed I would be if I lost anyone in my immediate family. (I love you all, and am so grateful for your lives, for your impact you have had in my life and others).
Then there was another death, of an HIV client, named Melon (which is what they call me here now by the way). I stayed behind on that one though; I was still processing from the funeral the day before.
Speaking of names, on a lighter note, I received my Runyankore name from the local women here at the camp. Melon Namarungi. Melon is the way they say Melanie because it is a Ugandan name and they are not used to saying Melanie, and Namarungi meaning, the best or most beautiful. It brought a blush to my cheek that’s for sure. I didn’t quite know what to say to such an esteemed name. So I humbly accepted it, not wanting to offend them, and now call all of the women that name as well.
So, on with business, I am up to par in health and feeling good. Work is progressing at constant rate. We have got a list full of 50 people, 25 adults and one child from each, who will be attending the Memory Book Work (MBW) Training session that I am planning to have on January 15th to the 19th. Providing that everything goes through with the middle stages of finishing the budget, and getting it approved by ACTS Canada. From that point we can notify the people of the date, and move forward with all the small details of getting supplies and securing the venue. It’s true that cross cultural work is a test of your patience. Because everything, literally everything takes way longer. Just discussing one topic takes at least an hour to have both sides understand what is being said. But hopefully the skills of communicating with the Ugandan’s and vice versa will be improving. I am really happy though, because it seems that the people here are getting the whole idea of memory work and are grasping the benefit of it. We had no problem finding 25 volunteers, and 25 of their kids. **Side note I am being distracted right now by a cute little lizard that keeps running across the screen windows of my tent. ** So the training will be 5 days with the adults and the kids being trained separately. **Now there is a lizzy on the inside, and he is hiding behind my picture of Victoria Katonga** I have two trainers coming from NACWOLA Kampala coming, as well as two assistants from Mbarara, that will be heading up the sessions. We will house and feed the trainers, and provide transport money for the trainee’s as well as one meal. So I have been making up some forms, a pre and post survey, trainee’s form and a thank you letter for our new MBW volunteer team, all of which will get translated into the local Runyankore language. It is now 4:34 and that means 26 minutes until chai time.
Tomorrow is our last day of work, and then the OFF!! Tomorrow I’m going to meet with Gorette one of our HIV Clients, with Johnson, and I am going to video tape her testimony with Johnson translating. How she was almost dead and then one of the ACTS workers found her and she got medical treatment, multivitamins, ART’s (anti-retroviral treatments) and now she is alive and well. I am trying to meet with quite a few of these ACTS success stories that I could include in some possible promotional video’s for ACTS.
Also I am trying to meet up with these 3 Orphans that we found, living by themselves in the Rweibogo Cell. They are 11, 8 and 3 years old. Both they’re parents died of AIDS, and now they are on they’re own. The closest relative has 13 kids that she already cares for and lives a two hour walk away. So we are trying to see of they have another relative that will care for them, or find them another home, and then maybe we can build them a new house and find some sponsorship money to help with the raising of them. I am currently looking for a sponsor for a wonderful girl name Fortunate Burungi. She came to the ACTS Rubingo camp two and a half years ago. Both her parents died and she became a street kid. Her brothers and sisters are living on the streets of Mbarara. But she came here to the camp wearing nothing but a shirt. She told them she had no place to go, Evas said she would take her in, ACTS approving. They approved and now she lives here at the camp with us. She is 16 years old and has been caring for Evas’ only child, Phiona, who is 2 and a half. There was a past intern who was paying for her school fee’s, but they can’t anymore. Evas is in no financial position to fully care for her either. So I am praying and hoping that one of you out there will be stirred and want to sponsor her. Oh, and also last Friday we had HIV/AIDS testing here in Rubingo, and Fortunate went to get tested. Sadly, she tested positive for HIV. It was dreadful to discover this as she most likely got it from her parents who were both positive and was thus, just born that way. No choice, just born with a life killing disease. So it would be best to send her to boarding school, which costs 200,000 UgSh a year, which is $125 CND. That included food everything. Food is regrettably only posho and beans, with the slight variable of matoke every now and then, and meat twice a term. But the education is better, and apparently there is less discrimination against HIV positive children.
If anyone out there would like to sponsor a child or a family, just let me know, because there is no shortage of needy people. People who are just stuck below the poverty line and can only get out with our side help. So if you would like to donate to the general fund of ACTS, contact the head office, all the info is on the website. www.acts.ca Or if you would like me to find you an individual story, just send me an email with about how much you would like to spend, and I will personally find you a child or a family and take their pictures, and video for you to see.
Thanks for all your support, and taking the time to read this enormous blog. If you would please pray for all the work here you have read about, and also for our journey to Kenya for Christmas. This Thursday 6 of us girls are taking a 5 ½ hour bus ride to Kampala, and then a 13 hour bus ride to Nairobi. We arrive at 2am, so please pray that our taxi is right there to pick us up and take us to our hotel. Then we take an 18 hour train ride to the coast, where we are headed to the island of Lamu. Hello white sand!! I am so excited for the ocean; it has been literally months since I have seen it, and that’s a very long time for me. We head back on that same route on the 29th so if you could pray for that too, it would be great. We will spend new years in Kampala, with my friend Kristy, and then head back to Mbarara on the 1st, to be back at camp on the 2nd.
Hope you all have the merriest of Christmas’. I must admit, I am home sick around this time of the year. Although it doesn’t feel like Christmas at all, so maybe you miss me more. And I pray that your New Years start off with a bang and that you all make attainable goals, as well as a few outrageous ones. I believe in you all. If God can fly my butt all the way to Uganda, he can do anything for you too!!
God Bless, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years,
LOVE ALWAYS Melon Namarungi
Ps. Adele, I hope you are still coming, even though there is this hair dressing job, which I am SO stoked for you for by the way. I am PRAYING…
Wowsers
Sorry i didn't say any explanations for the rafting pictures, they are fairly self explanatory i thought. When i am alone in the gray boat, thats when i couldn't take any more and took refuge in the saftey boat. It was flippin scary there too, it almost flipped. HAHA...It was amazing none the less. I will NEVER forget it and never do it again.
**I tried to post the rest of my pictures that i previously tried to post before rafting, but no luck again. Oh well, all the rafting ones are up, so you should enjoy them.
Rafting was unreal
The Nile River, is way great, way more powerful and breathtaking than i ever could have imagined. It is one mighty ass river!! So firstly, thank you so much for your prayers for our journey, because it was definatley divine. We arrived at the taxi park in Mbarara to find "Honest Coach" with exactly 11 seats, let me repeat, SEATS, left. The perfect number for our group. So we boarded the Honest Coach for 8,000UgSh, and headed safely for Kampala. We made it there relively quickly, with a few stops in the villages along the way. Where you can buy meat on a stick throught the windows, or watches or socks or candy or yogourt, milk, pop, underware, newspapers and anything else you could want without leaving your seats. It amazing to see, the bus pulls over and all the merchants run up to the bus with all there goods on boards on sticks that they lift up to the widows of the coach, or in baskets on their heads. You can find just about anything from these people. When we arrived in Kampala, guess who the first person to talk to us was?! JESUS, our taxi driver! Haha, yep, we caught honest coach to Kampala and then Jesus picked us up. The ten crammed 11 people and 11 huge backing packs into two cars, that escourted us relatively safely to our guest house, in Muyenga district of Kampala, Adonai Guest House. It was so nice to come back there, the first place we stayed when we came to kampala. So we unpacked our stuff, and walked to the road to find transport into the city. I jumped on a boda that took me to Nando's (a mzungu chicken joint) to meet Kristy. I got to go and see the office she works in, and chill out there for a bit and then we headed over to her place, its very nice, on the top of a hill (like everything really, its so hilly) right near a mosque. Kristy came to adonai for dinner. We had a yummy home cooked meal of chicken, potatoes, peas and garlic bread.
We left early the next morning 7am for the two hour drive to Jinja, the mouth of the Nile!!! It was a nice ride we had our own transport, we only picked up one extra person, a CANADIAN!!! Her name was sarah i believe and she was super nice, working with samaritan's purse on bio sand water filters, just like john in our group. So she came with us for the whole day and we had tons of fun with her. Oh we also had Paul and Nate with us, Tanessa's two friends from Vancouver who are hear reasearching for and NGO they are starting that will do literacy training and libraries!
We made it to Jinja safe and sound, the only problem we had, was our "guide" moses tried to scam us for $70 dollars US for transportation, on top of the $95 we were already paying for rafting. We told to get a life, cause it was a load for garbage, becuase the $95 included transport to and from Jinja. We ended up giving 40,000 shillings and told him to go away and we were never going to call him to help us book anything ever again.
First we watched Ryan and John throw themselves off the bungee platform, a huge structure over hanging the Nile. And then we got all suited up for rafting. Life jackets, sunscreen, no shoes, helmets, and alot of courage(not). WE climed down a hundred steps to the Nile, hopped in our boats and they gave us a few pointers on paddeling and then hurled us down our first rapid. Only a class 2 i think. We went down ten rapids that day, 3 of which i sat out for, 2 class 5s and a 3 which they flipped on. It was absolutely insane. I was honeltly really scared, but full of adrenaline. As you can tell by the pictures, it was just crazy. The river is SO powerful, and the current just whips you away. Even in the safety boat, it almost flipped, and i was scared. I really don't think i will ever do it again. It was a once in a life tiem experience that i survived.
After we camped at the Adrift grounds. I set up my trust tent that my dad gave me. We went for dinner at a really nice near by hotel that over looked the Nile. All the tables were under big grass roofs, around a pool outside. It was really lovely. SO i was absloutely beat after that, i felt like i got hit by a truck. So i went to bed. The therma rest wasnt quite cutting it for my bruised and battered body, so I ran into one of the dorm rooms and grabbed a foamie off a bed to bring into my tent. That was alot better. It was really loud from some partying american soldiers that were their also. Aparently some of them fought in Iraq and had some really sad and crazy stories. They killed people, lots of them, I'll just leave it at that. So, yeah, it was loud and then it started to rain. I thought, "ahhh it can't rain for that long, it rained while we were on the river so i think its done" so i tried to keep sleeping. Well, it got worse, WAY worse, it absolutley dumped torrential downpour. Lightninig and everything. It splashed right into the tent so i ended up having to through all my stuff in my dry sack and make a mad dash for the dorm rooms. I was drenched by the time i go there, but i dried out, and had a alot less soggy sleep.
The next morning we had an amazing continental breakfast at the hotel, and then headed for Kampala. We stayed at Adonai 2 this time (just tanessa, paul, nate and i went in) So yeah, i hung out with Kristy and tons of fun, we had a safe, direct, seated, bus ride back, after waiting 2 hours for the bus to fill. And now i am in mbarara preparing to go back to camp tommorow.
I have now been in the internet cafe for 2 and half hours and am getting quite tired, so i am going to go. I hope you are all well, and i miss you tons. Congratulations on the great report card danielle!
Talk to you soon, and sorry for spelling mistakes as i am not going to re read this!
Melanie
**I tried to post the rest of my pictures that i previously tried to post before rafting, but no luck again. Oh well, all the rafting ones are up, so you should enjoy them.
Rafting was unreal
The Nile River, is way great, way more powerful and breathtaking than i ever could have imagined. It is one mighty ass river!! So firstly, thank you so much for your prayers for our journey, because it was definatley divine. We arrived at the taxi park in Mbarara to find "Honest Coach" with exactly 11 seats, let me repeat, SEATS, left. The perfect number for our group. So we boarded the Honest Coach for 8,000UgSh, and headed safely for Kampala. We made it there relively quickly, with a few stops in the villages along the way. Where you can buy meat on a stick throught the windows, or watches or socks or candy or yogourt, milk, pop, underware, newspapers and anything else you could want without leaving your seats. It amazing to see, the bus pulls over and all the merchants run up to the bus with all there goods on boards on sticks that they lift up to the widows of the coach, or in baskets on their heads. You can find just about anything from these people. When we arrived in Kampala, guess who the first person to talk to us was?! JESUS, our taxi driver! Haha, yep, we caught honest coach to Kampala and then Jesus picked us up. The ten crammed 11 people and 11 huge backing packs into two cars, that escourted us relatively safely to our guest house, in Muyenga district of Kampala, Adonai Guest House. It was so nice to come back there, the first place we stayed when we came to kampala. So we unpacked our stuff, and walked to the road to find transport into the city. I jumped on a boda that took me to Nando's (a mzungu chicken joint) to meet Kristy. I got to go and see the office she works in, and chill out there for a bit and then we headed over to her place, its very nice, on the top of a hill (like everything really, its so hilly) right near a mosque. Kristy came to adonai for dinner. We had a yummy home cooked meal of chicken, potatoes, peas and garlic bread.
We left early the next morning 7am for the two hour drive to Jinja, the mouth of the Nile!!! It was a nice ride we had our own transport, we only picked up one extra person, a CANADIAN!!! Her name was sarah i believe and she was super nice, working with samaritan's purse on bio sand water filters, just like john in our group. So she came with us for the whole day and we had tons of fun with her. Oh we also had Paul and Nate with us, Tanessa's two friends from Vancouver who are hear reasearching for and NGO they are starting that will do literacy training and libraries!
We made it to Jinja safe and sound, the only problem we had, was our "guide" moses tried to scam us for $70 dollars US for transportation, on top of the $95 we were already paying for rafting. We told to get a life, cause it was a load for garbage, becuase the $95 included transport to and from Jinja. We ended up giving 40,000 shillings and told him to go away and we were never going to call him to help us book anything ever again.
First we watched Ryan and John throw themselves off the bungee platform, a huge structure over hanging the Nile. And then we got all suited up for rafting. Life jackets, sunscreen, no shoes, helmets, and alot of courage(not). WE climed down a hundred steps to the Nile, hopped in our boats and they gave us a few pointers on paddeling and then hurled us down our first rapid. Only a class 2 i think. We went down ten rapids that day, 3 of which i sat out for, 2 class 5s and a 3 which they flipped on. It was absolutely insane. I was honeltly really scared, but full of adrenaline. As you can tell by the pictures, it was just crazy. The river is SO powerful, and the current just whips you away. Even in the safety boat, it almost flipped, and i was scared. I really don't think i will ever do it again. It was a once in a life tiem experience that i survived.
After we camped at the Adrift grounds. I set up my trust tent that my dad gave me. We went for dinner at a really nice near by hotel that over looked the Nile. All the tables were under big grass roofs, around a pool outside. It was really lovely. SO i was absloutely beat after that, i felt like i got hit by a truck. So i went to bed. The therma rest wasnt quite cutting it for my bruised and battered body, so I ran into one of the dorm rooms and grabbed a foamie off a bed to bring into my tent. That was alot better. It was really loud from some partying american soldiers that were their also. Aparently some of them fought in Iraq and had some really sad and crazy stories. They killed people, lots of them, I'll just leave it at that. So, yeah, it was loud and then it started to rain. I thought, "ahhh it can't rain for that long, it rained while we were on the river so i think its done" so i tried to keep sleeping. Well, it got worse, WAY worse, it absolutley dumped torrential downpour. Lightninig and everything. It splashed right into the tent so i ended up having to through all my stuff in my dry sack and make a mad dash for the dorm rooms. I was drenched by the time i go there, but i dried out, and had a alot less soggy sleep.
The next morning we had an amazing continental breakfast at the hotel, and then headed for Kampala. We stayed at Adonai 2 this time (just tanessa, paul, nate and i went in) So yeah, i hung out with Kristy and tons of fun, we had a safe, direct, seated, bus ride back, after waiting 2 hours for the bus to fill. And now i am in mbarara preparing to go back to camp tommorow.
I have now been in the internet cafe for 2 and half hours and am getting quite tired, so i am going to go. I hope you are all well, and i miss you tons. Congratulations on the great report card danielle!
Talk to you soon, and sorry for spelling mistakes as i am not going to re read this!
Melanie
Going White Water Rafting Down the NILE!!
Ok, this will be my last blog for a while, I believe. I have been in town for a week doing office work, meetings, with TASO and Richard R, and getting organized. It has been very beneficial, as I was honesty feeling very confused as to what area of work to tackle first and how to go about. But now I have written up some work plans and finished my bi monthly report so I am feeling way more confidant as to what I will be doing next. Thank you for those who are praying, it must be you.
So tomorrow we start our next off. Whoa time flew by. And we are heading to Kampala on a bus first thing in the morning. So please pray that we will not have a crazy bus that over stuffs and drives 130 miles an hour through death trap roads. Pray that we have a nice, comfortable, speed governed bus that will get us to our destination, Adonai Guest House (where we stayed our first night in Uganda), safely and unharmed. The next morning we are packing into another bus and on our way to JINJA, the mouth of the Nile, for some of the worlds BEST white water rafting. A couple of our group members, John and Ryan I believe are going bungee jumping!! I would love to go, but I’m not all that sure it’s good for my back, same with the rafting really, apparently every one usually takes a dive in the drink. So please pray that my back will be in tip top shape and won’t hold me back from a once in a lifetime experience. It should be all good!! We are spending one night camping in Jinja, so I get to try out the trusty tent that you gave me dad, as well as the thermo rest!
I just took and interlude to writing this, as I am pre typing it again at Canada house, to run and grab my soaking wet clothes off the line because it is raining. I moved them under cover and proceeded to slip and fall on the slick concrete because my sandals were wet. Then I had handily thrown in a new African skirt on top of my white underwear and then threw my white blouse on top. Well the blue ran all over everything in a matter of minutes so I had to wash it all again and scrub the die out, in the rain, because it is raining. Oh, I can’t help but laugh the joys of Africa.
So on with the plan. We are camping one night there and then heading back to Kampala for one night. I am hoping to meet up with Kristy again. I am excited about this trip, but I do ask that you would pray protection and safety for our journey as you just never know. I am hungry so I am going to end this now and head into town hopefully, maybe I will have to catch a special hire, because it is raining. A special hire is a Taxi, and it cost 5-6,000 for a ride to town as opposed to 1,000 with a boda boda. But the boda’s are not the great in the rain, for obvious reasons.
Also I think I should write to you more about work. It has all been slow goings as I was getting used to everything and just basically taking pictures and that is not all that exciting to write about. After the off though, things will hopefully be moving forward with a steadier flow and I can have more exciting things to write about. I am going to try and post a picture of the 3 orphans that I am going to work on next. Hopefully find them a home to stay in and maybe build that family a new house and provide them with some sponsorship money for the children’s expenses. So please pray into that as well.
I miss you all, very much. Uganda is implanting itself in my heart in tremendous ways. I find myself being broken over new things everyday. Weather it is the look of despair in a child’s eyes, the laughter of an AIDS patient, or the mud that splashes all over everything. There are joys and trials everyday. Thank you so much for your prayers and please, don’t stop. Talk to you soon. Melanie
PS. I tried to post some more pictures, but seeings how i had such good luck last time, i think i may have ran it dry. My luck BITES on the posting today.
So tomorrow we start our next off. Whoa time flew by. And we are heading to Kampala on a bus first thing in the morning. So please pray that we will not have a crazy bus that over stuffs and drives 130 miles an hour through death trap roads. Pray that we have a nice, comfortable, speed governed bus that will get us to our destination, Adonai Guest House (where we stayed our first night in Uganda), safely and unharmed. The next morning we are packing into another bus and on our way to JINJA, the mouth of the Nile, for some of the worlds BEST white water rafting. A couple of our group members, John and Ryan I believe are going bungee jumping!! I would love to go, but I’m not all that sure it’s good for my back, same with the rafting really, apparently every one usually takes a dive in the drink. So please pray that my back will be in tip top shape and won’t hold me back from a once in a lifetime experience. It should be all good!! We are spending one night camping in Jinja, so I get to try out the trusty tent that you gave me dad, as well as the thermo rest!
I just took and interlude to writing this, as I am pre typing it again at Canada house, to run and grab my soaking wet clothes off the line because it is raining. I moved them under cover and proceeded to slip and fall on the slick concrete because my sandals were wet. Then I had handily thrown in a new African skirt on top of my white underwear and then threw my white blouse on top. Well the blue ran all over everything in a matter of minutes so I had to wash it all again and scrub the die out, in the rain, because it is raining. Oh, I can’t help but laugh the joys of Africa.
So on with the plan. We are camping one night there and then heading back to Kampala for one night. I am hoping to meet up with Kristy again. I am excited about this trip, but I do ask that you would pray protection and safety for our journey as you just never know. I am hungry so I am going to end this now and head into town hopefully, maybe I will have to catch a special hire, because it is raining. A special hire is a Taxi, and it cost 5-6,000 for a ride to town as opposed to 1,000 with a boda boda. But the boda’s are not the great in the rain, for obvious reasons.
Also I think I should write to you more about work. It has all been slow goings as I was getting used to everything and just basically taking pictures and that is not all that exciting to write about. After the off though, things will hopefully be moving forward with a steadier flow and I can have more exciting things to write about. I am going to try and post a picture of the 3 orphans that I am going to work on next. Hopefully find them a home to stay in and maybe build that family a new house and provide them with some sponsorship money for the children’s expenses. So please pray into that as well.
I miss you all, very much. Uganda is implanting itself in my heart in tremendous ways. I find myself being broken over new things everyday. Weather it is the look of despair in a child’s eyes, the laughter of an AIDS patient, or the mud that splashes all over everything. There are joys and trials everyday. Thank you so much for your prayers and please, don’t stop. Talk to you soon. Melanie
PS. I tried to post some more pictures, but seeings how i had such good luck last time, i think i may have ran it dry. My luck BITES on the posting today.
Classic's
1. Classic Slogan. They are written on almost every vehicle.
2. Classic Bike. (Again for you Daniel)
3. Classic Sweater. (For you dad)
Some thoughts I had...
Lord, humble me. I know nothing about struggle. I see poverty everywhere. A child in rags, with no shoes and belly impregnated out due to worms and malnourishment is a more common sight than a street light would be at home. I get 3 square meals a day if not more amongst some of the most starving people in the world. I stand out like a white thread on a new black shirt. There is no blending in. What do they when they see me? My North American nerves tell me that they see money, they see answers, hope, something for free, a meal. I pray that they would see Jesus, that they would look beyond my skin and beyond the fact that I am a foreigner. I have never wished that I was a different color so much. I feel I could be such a better help if I could just sit down on their level. Sit beside them, one on one, and pray, look into their eyes and tell them they are loved beyond circumstance. The crazy thing is, this is what they have done for me. I feel as though I know nothing, like everything I thought I knew about God and about love, about life; it’s all obsolete. Now I know it’s not completely useless, I will grow and learn of course, but once again, “I’m standing on the edge of me, standing on the edge of everything I thought I ever knew.” I have had almost everything I have ever needed. So much, that subconsciously I believe I don’t need God. That I can get along with out him. That’s what my culture has taught me, to live for you, to get ahead, to be somebody, to make it to the top, no matter who gets in the way, no matter what the emotional or physical cost. Money and status are everything. I feel like getting sick all over the place, and screaming at the top of my lungs. I want to throw away everything I have ever known and start over, to really know what it really means to live. It has nothing to do with education, with school, with a 9-5 job, with clothes, where you sit in church, what you do on Friday, what car you drive, what shoes you where, where you golf, if you golf, if you have coffee at Starbucks or Tim Horton’s. It matters if you know God. It matters if you know that you are loved beyond all circumstance, that there is all the joy, wisdom, encouragement, comfort and guidance you could ever need, dream of or ask for. It matters that you know you are a part of a plan, a part of a huge preparation. You are a part of something that is so big, so beyond, yourself that you have to trust in the one who has but it all together. Trust and know that he did not make a mistake with you, that he did not and will never forget about you. He has the air you will breathe measured and the steps you will walk laid out. The only thing that can hold you back is you. Its all weather you choose to know, to believe, to trust; or to let it all go, put it out in the back shed and forget. You can go for your own plans, and your own desires, that are destined to a life of loneliness and empty temporary fulfillment or let it go. Place your whole life, your whole mind body and soul into the hands of the creator and let him guide your life. Let him show you joy beyond any earthy pleasure you can ever feel. Let him take you, personally by the hand, look into your eyes, and lead you; tell you what is best, and where to go. God longs for this; he did not place you on this earth to be alone. He didn’t create this miraculously unique person, full of hopes and desires, dreams, emotions and thoughts; only to leave him to the dogs of this world. It is his desire, the longing of his heart to help you and love you, just as you would with a younger sibling, or a father or mother to their child. A mother and father do not have a new born infant child and then place him out in the streets to raise them selves. In the same way, God does not create us to set us out in a mine field by ourselves. He wants to be there every step of the way and every breath of the way. Every joy, pain, tear, broken bone, broken dream, death, heart ache, longing, laugh, every love, every loss, and every triumph of the way.
November 20th, 2006
Agandi, Murie Muta?! (Hello, How are you all? Etc)
YAY another blog post!! Where to start… I have been trying to include as much new stories and info for you buys as possible, but seeing how I don’t really have a consistent blogging system, I can’t always remember what I wrote about last time, or what I have told you and haven’t told you. So please forgive me if I am repeating myself. I suppose it would be better that way then leaving lots out. So I am actually writing this blog at Canada House and I will copy and paste it into my blog later. I think its better than paying to sit in the internet café and type. So hopefully I can send off some emails today that I have been dying to send off. To you Adele especially. I wish I could communicate better with you all, but there just aren’t the means, unless you have my cell number and then we can text message each other for cheap. If you would like it, and you think I would like to talk to you, then you have to call my mom and she will discern weather you can have it or not. So anyway, I can’t remember weather I told you about MPC Mbarara Pentecostal Church. It is affiliated with KPC Kampala Pentecostal Church and they are booming. I went last weekend and yesterday as well. The first weekend I was there turned into a healing service, it was amazing, people with headaches for 10 years, and back problems and stomach pains, tons of people got healed. It was a huge sanctuary with no windows (for security maybe), and I guess they can’t afford lighting cause there are only fluorescent tubes hanging down above the stage. There is never consistent power anyways, so when it’s out they would need the generator and it probably could power a whole sanctuary full of lights. Anyways, the pastor is Allen and his wife Denitz, and they are an amazing couple. The whole church was so welcoming. The pastor invited me over to his house for dinner on Saturday (two nights ago). They have a huge choir and dance team that is on stage for worship everyday. VICTORIA KATONGA YOU NEED TO SEE THEM, oh man I could not stop wishing you were there, they are awesome, so high energy and you would just LOVE IT. I will try to remember to bring my video camera next week so I can tape them and you can learn some moves. I will try and learn too for you. Haha, no promises though. So I love it there, its all in English and the Holy Spirit just fills that place to overflowing. On Saturday night I had dinner with Pastor Allen and his wife and some of their friends who live with them. It was so lovely. They had amazing beautiful house, I felt like I was almost back in Canada. They leave worship music blaring in their home when their not there, so we arrived to worship, it was so nice. Denitz then showed me 7 photo albums of lovely pictures from their wedding and her graduation. It was so cool to see the cultural differences in the wedding procedures. The cake they had was immense!!! I have never seen a cake so big, they had 1000 people at their wedding, so I’m sure you can imagine, I think there were 6 tiers. Yesterday church was awesome too. I had a different experience though. One of my new good friends Andy took my glasses; he said I need to have more faith. So I reluctantly gave them to him, thinking “Fine, I will just walk to the church without them, and he’ll give them back, satisfied that I gave them up for a while.” Well, he kept them for almost the whole service, telling me he smashed them, and I don’t need them, because I will be healed, IF I believe it. With out my glasses I felt frustrated that I couldn’t see. I was very irritable and just wanted my glasses back. I lost my concentration. I couldn’t focus on the sermon. I felt like I couldn’t hear. It was a weird experience. I prayed and prayed that I would be healed, and I wasn’t. It brought so many thoughts up for me, like, where is my faith? What does my faith mean to me? Do I have such little faith, I can’t be healed? If I get up every morning, and put my glasses on so I can see, what kind of faith is that? We are supposed to live by faith and not by sight, and I felt “Oh my gosh, I am literally living by sight and not by faith.” I was so confused and just wrecked really. All because someone took my glasses. Took my sight. I honestly am not all that clear yet on this whole experience. I didn’t exactly leave feeling like I had this huge revelation and all these great insights were made clear. I left feeling quite the opposite really. It’s the start of something though, I know that. God is working in my heart and I am convicted daily by the displays of faith that I see lived around me. People trusting God with everything, for their all, the food they eat, their clothes, health, somewhere to sleep, money to get their kids through school. Then there is me, North American girl, who has everything. I mean, my family isn’t rich compared to others in our town, but compared to the lives I see around me here, and the majority of the world, we are so blessed, materially. And I take it for granted. I want more stuff, more things, in hopes of subconsciously filling some spiritual void that hovers over my nation. Got to cram more stuff, more TV, more meaningless relationships, more trash into our lives. And amongst all this, I feel there is so little faith, so little reliance on an unseen yet all powerful God. Why have faith in something unseen when you can just grab onto something seen, whenever you want to fill your voids. Have a few drinks and unload all your garbage onto a friend, while they spew theirs all over you, never really working through anything, just dumping it on each other for temporary relief. Wadding through the trash and pushing away the piles that creep up to your nose so you can breathe for just a few more days. You grab onto a frayed, decaying rope to pull you up from it just long enough to stretch your neck above the heaps that are slowly, but definitely surely suffocating you. There are better answers. There is a life boat with your name on it, an evacuation crew that is waiting for your call, a search and rescue team trained specifically for your rescue. There is a hope beyond circumstance. There is a light stronger than all darkness. There is a wind that will come and lift you out of your garbage pile. Raise you up and above and beyond it, so far, you will never have to look back. God gives you a whole new world to look at, a whole new spectrum of dreams and visions and hopes. A Technicolor, Wizard of Oz, Cinderella’s Ball, Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory dream world, just for you and just for me. God is on our team, he created it, and wants to give us immeasurably more than we can think of or imagine, in every area of our lives. When we just put our trust, put our faith in him. Take your whole life and place it before him. His promises are true. He’s not going to leaving you to die when you give him your all. I can’t even imagine all the glorious things that will happen.
Ooops, that was a little bit of a tangent, sorry. I will wrap this up, because I know that I don’t like reading mile long updates, and I’m sure you don’t either. So I am chilling at Canada House today, getting some much needed typing and work done. I will have lunch with Richard and Jenny, and then head to town to do some errands. I have a meeting with Hilda from TASO tomorrow, about memory books. So please pray that I will have a clear understanding of what to do next and that God would provide all the people needed for this work, all the wisdom, and patience, understanding and love needed. We have an off coming up this Friday, so pray that we have safe travels to where ever we decide to go. No cell phones stolen and sane and safe bus drivers. I am either going to visit Kristy in Kampala, or go with the team river rafting down the Nile. Not too sure which one yet.
I love you all, thanks for listening to my ramblings, and I pray you are all safe and well. Adele, please save your money and meet me when I am done and we will TRAVEL!!! I am going to try and email you today. I miss you more than you love slushies.
Ruhanga Abie Nyiway. (God be with you)
PS. I got a pedicure and a manicure for $2.50 ($4,000 UGSh)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YAY another blog post!! Where to start… I have been trying to include as much new stories and info for you buys as possible, but seeing how I don’t really have a consistent blogging system, I can’t always remember what I wrote about last time, or what I have told you and haven’t told you. So please forgive me if I am repeating myself. I suppose it would be better that way then leaving lots out. So I am actually writing this blog at Canada House and I will copy and paste it into my blog later. I think its better than paying to sit in the internet café and type. So hopefully I can send off some emails today that I have been dying to send off. To you Adele especially. I wish I could communicate better with you all, but there just aren’t the means, unless you have my cell number and then we can text message each other for cheap. If you would like it, and you think I would like to talk to you, then you have to call my mom and she will discern weather you can have it or not. So anyway, I can’t remember weather I told you about MPC Mbarara Pentecostal Church. It is affiliated with KPC Kampala Pentecostal Church and they are booming. I went last weekend and yesterday as well. The first weekend I was there turned into a healing service, it was amazing, people with headaches for 10 years, and back problems and stomach pains, tons of people got healed. It was a huge sanctuary with no windows (for security maybe), and I guess they can’t afford lighting cause there are only fluorescent tubes hanging down above the stage. There is never consistent power anyways, so when it’s out they would need the generator and it probably could power a whole sanctuary full of lights. Anyways, the pastor is Allen and his wife Denitz, and they are an amazing couple. The whole church was so welcoming. The pastor invited me over to his house for dinner on Saturday (two nights ago). They have a huge choir and dance team that is on stage for worship everyday. VICTORIA KATONGA YOU NEED TO SEE THEM, oh man I could not stop wishing you were there, they are awesome, so high energy and you would just LOVE IT. I will try to remember to bring my video camera next week so I can tape them and you can learn some moves. I will try and learn too for you. Haha, no promises though. So I love it there, its all in English and the Holy Spirit just fills that place to overflowing. On Saturday night I had dinner with Pastor Allen and his wife and some of their friends who live with them. It was so lovely. They had amazing beautiful house, I felt like I was almost back in Canada. They leave worship music blaring in their home when their not there, so we arrived to worship, it was so nice. Denitz then showed me 7 photo albums of lovely pictures from their wedding and her graduation. It was so cool to see the cultural differences in the wedding procedures. The cake they had was immense!!! I have never seen a cake so big, they had 1000 people at their wedding, so I’m sure you can imagine, I think there were 6 tiers. Yesterday church was awesome too. I had a different experience though. One of my new good friends Andy took my glasses; he said I need to have more faith. So I reluctantly gave them to him, thinking “Fine, I will just walk to the church without them, and he’ll give them back, satisfied that I gave them up for a while.” Well, he kept them for almost the whole service, telling me he smashed them, and I don’t need them, because I will be healed, IF I believe it. With out my glasses I felt frustrated that I couldn’t see. I was very irritable and just wanted my glasses back. I lost my concentration. I couldn’t focus on the sermon. I felt like I couldn’t hear. It was a weird experience. I prayed and prayed that I would be healed, and I wasn’t. It brought so many thoughts up for me, like, where is my faith? What does my faith mean to me? Do I have such little faith, I can’t be healed? If I get up every morning, and put my glasses on so I can see, what kind of faith is that? We are supposed to live by faith and not by sight, and I felt “Oh my gosh, I am literally living by sight and not by faith.” I was so confused and just wrecked really. All because someone took my glasses. Took my sight. I honestly am not all that clear yet on this whole experience. I didn’t exactly leave feeling like I had this huge revelation and all these great insights were made clear. I left feeling quite the opposite really. It’s the start of something though, I know that. God is working in my heart and I am convicted daily by the displays of faith that I see lived around me. People trusting God with everything, for their all, the food they eat, their clothes, health, somewhere to sleep, money to get their kids through school. Then there is me, North American girl, who has everything. I mean, my family isn’t rich compared to others in our town, but compared to the lives I see around me here, and the majority of the world, we are so blessed, materially. And I take it for granted. I want more stuff, more things, in hopes of subconsciously filling some spiritual void that hovers over my nation. Got to cram more stuff, more TV, more meaningless relationships, more trash into our lives. And amongst all this, I feel there is so little faith, so little reliance on an unseen yet all powerful God. Why have faith in something unseen when you can just grab onto something seen, whenever you want to fill your voids. Have a few drinks and unload all your garbage onto a friend, while they spew theirs all over you, never really working through anything, just dumping it on each other for temporary relief. Wadding through the trash and pushing away the piles that creep up to your nose so you can breathe for just a few more days. You grab onto a frayed, decaying rope to pull you up from it just long enough to stretch your neck above the heaps that are slowly, but definitely surely suffocating you. There are better answers. There is a life boat with your name on it, an evacuation crew that is waiting for your call, a search and rescue team trained specifically for your rescue. There is a hope beyond circumstance. There is a light stronger than all darkness. There is a wind that will come and lift you out of your garbage pile. Raise you up and above and beyond it, so far, you will never have to look back. God gives you a whole new world to look at, a whole new spectrum of dreams and visions and hopes. A Technicolor, Wizard of Oz, Cinderella’s Ball, Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory dream world, just for you and just for me. God is on our team, he created it, and wants to give us immeasurably more than we can think of or imagine, in every area of our lives. When we just put our trust, put our faith in him. Take your whole life and place it before him. His promises are true. He’s not going to leaving you to die when you give him your all. I can’t even imagine all the glorious things that will happen.
Ooops, that was a little bit of a tangent, sorry. I will wrap this up, because I know that I don’t like reading mile long updates, and I’m sure you don’t either. So I am chilling at Canada House today, getting some much needed typing and work done. I will have lunch with Richard and Jenny, and then head to town to do some errands. I have a meeting with Hilda from TASO tomorrow, about memory books. So please pray that I will have a clear understanding of what to do next and that God would provide all the people needed for this work, all the wisdom, and patience, understanding and love needed. We have an off coming up this Friday, so pray that we have safe travels to where ever we decide to go. No cell phones stolen and sane and safe bus drivers. I am either going to visit Kristy in Kampala, or go with the team river rafting down the Nile. Not too sure which one yet.
I love you all, thanks for listening to my ramblings, and I pray you are all safe and well. Adele, please save your money and meet me when I am done and we will TRAVEL!!! I am going to try and email you today. I miss you more than you love slushies.
Ruhanga Abie Nyiway. (God be with you)
PS. I got a pedicure and a manicure for $2.50 ($4,000 UGSh)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Update from "Communications Officer"
Here, is an update i wrote for the ACTS office, thought you might want to check it out.
Update from the “Communications Officer”
I hear that you are wondering how I am doing over here in the great and beautiful country of Uganda? Well I am writing to let you know that I am doing absolutely fantastic. Uganda is more than I ever dreamed. The landscape is breathtaking. Lush rolling green hills, patched with crops and matoke plantations. And then there are the people. They are wonderful beyond description, especially our own team (sorry for the bias). The people here are so hard working, such survivors. I am quite often embarrassed of my North American spoiled brat mentality. We are working well as a team now, and seem to be solidifying our roles in the project areas slowly, but surely.
So far I have been doing a lot of listening, watching and observing. How the Ugandans live and work, the cultural patterns. What projects are happening and how they are running. I’d say the hardest parts of living in Uganda for me, are firstly, the light in the day. How it is bright at 7am on the dot and dark at 7pm on the dot. I find myself wanting to go to sleep, or at least hide out in my tent from the mosquitoes, all too early. And then not wanting to get up until 7am when the breakfast bell goes. This if you have done the math, is way too much sleep for someone (12 hours). I am getting over it though and adjusting to the pattern, it has taken time though. The second hardest thing has been the food. CARBS CARBS CARBS!!! With the heat and humidity I already find myself a bit sluggish, add a pound of matoke and rice and beans and you can imagine my energy levels plummeting. It’s hard to find a happy medium in the eating schedule, breakfast at 7am, lunch at 1pm, chai at 5 and dinner at 7pm. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
Mainly, I have accomplished a lot pictures and video. I had a meeting with a woman name Hilda at TASO Mbarara and she runs a memory book program from that office. It is now integrated into their system at TASO and is offered to all the clients. With the memory work and I, no books have been started as of yet. I received a book that they use at TASO in Runyankore, so that will help with communicating the idea of the project to the Ugandans and potential clients. I have been writing small backgrounds of a few of our home visit clients as well as pictures. There are so many needy people that I could find a Ugandan sponsor person or family for every person in British Columbia. I am trying to brainstorm of ideas for the sponsorship program, because I feel that it needs to start happening now. There needs to be systems implemented and better communication between Canada and Uganda. I will be soon visiting other project areas; Nyakigera, Kikigati and Bushara Island, to document all that’s going on over there.
As for me, and my heart, I am doing well. It is a lot to process, all the need and completely different lifestyle, and also finding people on the same level as me, and the ones that seemed to be are just far away. Not that I need a safety net of Christian support, but it has been hard finding my peaceful places and just having conversations with people who understand where I am at. That is in no way a put down to the rest of my group either; everyone is where they are at and that totally fine. I just have to seek God, solely and fully, because I know he hears me and understands me better than myself.
I am in Mbarara right now, at Canada House, totally unexpectedly. I was going to burn a CD of pictures and such to send here to Richard to send to Canada, but our power is broken in Rubingo and my lap top died so I hopped in the truck with Rose and Katie who are proceeding on to Nyakigera. So here I am, we are about to celebrate Jothams birthday, its tomorrow but he will be gone. So I gotta go and eat some chocolate cake, it’s a definite rarity around here. God bless you all, and thank you for your prayers. I miss you dearly, and pray that all is well with you.
Sincerely with much love,
Melanie
Update from the “Communications Officer”
I hear that you are wondering how I am doing over here in the great and beautiful country of Uganda? Well I am writing to let you know that I am doing absolutely fantastic. Uganda is more than I ever dreamed. The landscape is breathtaking. Lush rolling green hills, patched with crops and matoke plantations. And then there are the people. They are wonderful beyond description, especially our own team (sorry for the bias). The people here are so hard working, such survivors. I am quite often embarrassed of my North American spoiled brat mentality. We are working well as a team now, and seem to be solidifying our roles in the project areas slowly, but surely.
So far I have been doing a lot of listening, watching and observing. How the Ugandans live and work, the cultural patterns. What projects are happening and how they are running. I’d say the hardest parts of living in Uganda for me, are firstly, the light in the day. How it is bright at 7am on the dot and dark at 7pm on the dot. I find myself wanting to go to sleep, or at least hide out in my tent from the mosquitoes, all too early. And then not wanting to get up until 7am when the breakfast bell goes. This if you have done the math, is way too much sleep for someone (12 hours). I am getting over it though and adjusting to the pattern, it has taken time though. The second hardest thing has been the food. CARBS CARBS CARBS!!! With the heat and humidity I already find myself a bit sluggish, add a pound of matoke and rice and beans and you can imagine my energy levels plummeting. It’s hard to find a happy medium in the eating schedule, breakfast at 7am, lunch at 1pm, chai at 5 and dinner at 7pm. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
Mainly, I have accomplished a lot pictures and video. I had a meeting with a woman name Hilda at TASO Mbarara and she runs a memory book program from that office. It is now integrated into their system at TASO and is offered to all the clients. With the memory work and I, no books have been started as of yet. I received a book that they use at TASO in Runyankore, so that will help with communicating the idea of the project to the Ugandans and potential clients. I have been writing small backgrounds of a few of our home visit clients as well as pictures. There are so many needy people that I could find a Ugandan sponsor person or family for every person in British Columbia. I am trying to brainstorm of ideas for the sponsorship program, because I feel that it needs to start happening now. There needs to be systems implemented and better communication between Canada and Uganda. I will be soon visiting other project areas; Nyakigera, Kikigati and Bushara Island, to document all that’s going on over there.
As for me, and my heart, I am doing well. It is a lot to process, all the need and completely different lifestyle, and also finding people on the same level as me, and the ones that seemed to be are just far away. Not that I need a safety net of Christian support, but it has been hard finding my peaceful places and just having conversations with people who understand where I am at. That is in no way a put down to the rest of my group either; everyone is where they are at and that totally fine. I just have to seek God, solely and fully, because I know he hears me and understands me better than myself.
I am in Mbarara right now, at Canada House, totally unexpectedly. I was going to burn a CD of pictures and such to send here to Richard to send to Canada, but our power is broken in Rubingo and my lap top died so I hopped in the truck with Rose and Katie who are proceeding on to Nyakigera. So here I am, we are about to celebrate Jothams birthday, its tomorrow but he will be gone. So I gotta go and eat some chocolate cake, it’s a definite rarity around here. God bless you all, and thank you for your prayers. I miss you dearly, and pray that all is well with you.
Sincerely with much love,
Melanie
More Pics
1. One of the many villages.
2. Poster for the president, they are every where.
3. The place where we eat in camp.
4. Woman with papayrus on her head.
5. Ugandan View.
More Pics
4,5. Ugandan View's
3. The ugliest bird in the world, that eats garbage.
1,2. Views at the AIDS testing day.
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