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
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.
More Pics
1, 2, 3, 4. The Ugandan National Bird.
5. HIV Positive woman living positivley. I love this lady, she is in a choir and they do HIV awarness presentations. She is always laughing and praising.
More Pics
These are all of my tent. (So you can see every angle. haha)
Oh and the window roll....thats where my lizard Sketch lives. I named him. He eats the bugs, and sometimes misses a spider.
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