Monday 30 January 2012

Dts Graduation and holiday!

So the reason that i haven't blogged since we've been back is coz i've been on holiday!!! :) the first week back on base we just got our selves re-situated! at the end of the week my mum dad and brother flew out for graduation... graduation was a big day here we "put on smart" (looked pretty) preperation included prealling hundreds of irish potatos and cutting piled of greens!!!! Our graduation service included worship, speaches from our base and school leaders and performances of song which saw the DTS on our feet dancing our little cabina's off to some African pop! haha! we clebrated our first night of freedom with a trip to flavours cafe for dinner it was really great way to celebrate with our friends and some of our parents too!
while the parents were out here the took the tour of Jinja (not sure of what they thought of the cramed minni buses boda rides and posho and beans that i now call home!) it was really good to be able to share my new livestyle and living conditions with them though i now wont have to try and explain things so much when i come home because they know what things are like now! We took a nice holiday and gorilla safari tour in Queen Elizabeth national park and Bwinidi forest! i nearly got kidnapped by a chimp that very nearly landed out of a tree onto my head, and i have now officially been to the equator and trecked in the rainforest, which was very steep and so many times i got caught in the undergrowth and fell into some holes!!! However i did see gorillas which are amazing animals HUGE but so beautiful and they have such personalities, we also got to see an 8 month old baby which was thr cutest!!! The hotel lodge we stayed in nearly sent me into cuture shock, we had big beds and hot water and A BATH!!! i nearly cried!! haha, we then spent a few days in Kampala with Becca, unfortunatly i got sick with what has turned out to be a parasite! (YAY!) it was good to explore the city a bit more, if yyou ever find yourself in the city check out 1000 cups coffee shop for some amazing drinks and the national theatre for some more cultural experience, i'm sure Tim thoroughly enjoyed dancing up on stage whilst making music with a pot and spoon!!!
We ended the 2 and a bit weeks of family time together back in Jinja with a white water rafting trip on the nile! Mum and dad did surprisingly well the boat stayed upright the whole time however i did end up in the river twice, once bumping onto a rock and getting a lovely bruise, the second time the boat was stuck in a surfing wave and had to be evacuated however i had already been thrown overboard and was floating fdown the river on a kyak!
It was really good to see the family for a few weeks and catch up with home and recieve a whole suitcase of presents!! Thank you to every9one who sent me presents letters and cards! It's been sad to watch Mum dad and Tim return to nice sunny (hem i mean freezy freezy england) but i am excited to start work in the pre-school on base for the next 2 months and i know that i'm not ready to leave Uganda yet!

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Week 1 of outreach

okay so i realisd i missed this week out, which is a shame because it was the best!!! we were in Mutwala Kenya staying on the banks of a river in a mud hut with the nicest family community, we did lots of school visits, which included skits, preaches, games and dances. I gave my first preach at a primary school, i talked about how Jesus is our healer and how he is the light of the world (from the story of JEsus healing the blind man) i was amazed at the response of the kids, so many of them decided on that day that they needed to lay down their worries and fear and trust in God! it was amazing considering i wa freaking out about what to speak about, but what can i say... the holy spirit really doe work thourhg you and give you the words to say!!!
Every evening we did crusades at the top of the hill and showed movies, unfortuanly it rained a few evening and got very muddy, trying to climb muddy hills in flip flops is the ultimate fail and many times i walked bare foot in the dark home having to be pushed up muddy slopes or caught at the bottom when i went flying!!!
Every moring we would collect water at 6 from the river, this involved more battling with mnuddly slopes whilst carrying a jerry can on my head, i am proud to say in true verity fashion i slipped and fell getting coverd in mud and busting my shoulder!!!! However the jerry cans of water were essential for washing and bathing (pouring a jerry can on water over your head!!!) clothes washing took place in the river (veruy african i felt)
and now it seems like it was so long ago i cant think what else to say right now, it seems so long ago!!

Outreach weeks 6-8

we moved 30 mins down the road to Kikatiti and our school leader Misaki's brand new house which was probably the first African owned house I've been to that i could actually live in, it had tiled floor and everything! However a lack of outside space did mean we were very much on top of each other!!
The first week mininsty was at a church 40 mins down the road and the walk in the mid-day heat was not fun! However we got lunch and we helped complile and distribute chirstmas packages of basic foods for the local people! We also ran crusades at the church and really got to integrate with the local boys dancing african style, i really had a WOW i love Africa moment that night as i lookde out over the plains towards the mountains as the sun set- some things you just don't get in england!
Christmas in Africa was certainly an experience, chirstmas eve we stayed up doing hair and playing christmas songs till 2am! Christmas day we got up at 6am to clean the house, sort rice, seperating out stones and chaff and doing our daily duty of collecting a 20 litre bucket of water and carrying it on our head! We then spent 2 1/2 hours in church at a thanksgiving (not Christmas) service and then spent the rest of the day at the ceremonial opening of the house! Boxing day however was way more Christmasy, we had presents under the tree and did our secret santa!! i got a scarf, necklance and earings as well as a load of biscuits and sweets :) thank you Peacey :) A few of us then went to a hotel and laid buy the pool and got lasagne and garlic bread!! That evening we watched movies and relaxing which added to the chirstmas spirit!
Our second and third weeks we worked with the local church in town, we joined with them for our weekly prayer and fasting and it was really good to take sometime to specifically prayer for home :) We spent a few mornings spiritual mapping/ prayer walking. During wich i watched a boy chase a chicken, visitefd a clinic to pray with mums and babies and visited a catholi8c priest's house and ministry. We also did seminars in the church during the afternoons and had some more film shows.
We had our first storm since being in tanzania, boy did it rain we were running around outside trying to fill up barrells to collect the precious water, it did save a trip to collect wateer the next day!
We also visited an orphanage twice, they have 6 kids there all pre-school aged yet they sang and recited Biblle verses for us in English and swahili. The orphanage was really nice and the children really had their own space with only 2 in a room and they had wall alphabet charts in english and swahili!
New years eve was spent in church, we had prayer, worship, a skit and dance upto 11 and then me, Katie and Becca celebrated the new year with mountain dew and biscuits! We had no power but still we stayed up in the dark talking and stuff untill 3am (english new year!!) And we were back up at 8 for church! I managed to bust my shoulder during the skit on new years eve and so water collecting for the last week didn't happen for me!
Outreach ended with a Safari :) a group of 6 of us went to Arusha national park for the day and saw giraffes, zebras, buffalo, pumba, flamingo's, water buck, buch buck and a few other random animals and birds, as well as LOADS of monkeys :) it was an amazing way to finnish outreach even though we did get battered and bruised from standing up with our heads out the roof when it was so so bumpy! But we did get to eat our PB&J sandwiches with some giraffes at lunch time so it was deffinatly worth it!!
Our jouney back went smoothly it took 17 hours which was pretty good and most of it was over night so we could sleep! I can sucessfully say that i managed to put on a lot of wieght during outreach so much so that my jeans don't fit!! haha, me and Tess and litterally going to be running our butts of for the next few months!
Debrief week has been relaxing we've just been getting oragnaised and chilling out as we prepare for graduation on saturday!

Outreach weeks 3-5

After 18 hours of bumps, little sleep, only 2 toilet breaks, my visa being stuck in naomi's passport, some awesome views of tanzanian plains and masi villages we made it to Nemy's (our leader's) home in the region of meru near killalla villlage. The house was pretty much in the jungle which was pretty cool but there where loads of mosquito's!
Mama Nemy is pastor of the local church so most of our work was with the church, we did crusades and film showings most days this did mean that we (well the boys) built a stage out the front and i'm pleased to say this one was sturdyer than the one in kenya! We also visited a compassion international school's graduation and got a change to minister there in the form of the everything skit. We also visited anotheer church, after ariving 2 hours late we got breakfast, kate prached amazingly it was all about being friends with God and was deffinaly the preach that spoke to me most from the whole of outreach! We then got lunch twice and hiked a mountain and lost the window of the taxi bus! We also served at an oraphanged cooking, cleaning and decorating, me and Tess made posters of the kids rooms to give them coloura and make the rooms more homely! We also spent a bit of time going door to door with the church members and praying for them and their needs and just blessing the homes, it's one of the few things in ministry that you KNOW that even when you leave a mark will be left and blessing will continue to flow on families!
The moment that spoke to me most at Nemy's was during a crusade when me and Becca we're sitting with 2 sisiters Happy (age 8 with learning disabilities) and Angel her little sister, as i sat with Angel i got to see how she craved attention and how she was a little bundle of fun and joy that just wanted someone to play with, so we played row row your boat and had tickle fights and she was a model in my sunglasses! My favourite ministry from the whole of outreach was putting together packages for 2 families which included food and clothes,this meant i spenf a few hours in the African market wheere clothes where all less than £1 and we got so much for the girls, it was crazy and packed but i LOVED it and it was so great knowing we were getting things for people when you know they are going to be beyond greatful!
Our worship and prayer times while we were there were also relaly encouraging, God really spoke of our days of prayer and fasting to our team and to indiciduals, we recieved directions and encrouagement, it was a real reminder that God is personal and intimate with us and that he has a plan for each on of us even during the challenging times that when we don't undertand why things happen or what will happen next God calls us for a reason and we just have to trust in him because as Jeremiah 29:11 says "For i know the plans i have for you, they are plans for good to give you hope and a good future" we knew that God has called each one of us to be there and so there was a purpose for it and God would protect us and teach us through everthing that was or wasn't happening!!! It's so easy to get caught up in the drama's of liife, thinking about when you will next sleep or eat that we forget about our relationship with God, but sitting in the scilence with God is so freeing and releasing, God can just speak to you and bring healing and forgiveness!!
Sickness hit again week 5 and Becca's sick bucket became my sick bucket, but luckly i didn't get it as bad as Becca who spent all night throwing up and ended up in hospital with dehydration. But PTL after 1 night in hospital she came home safe!
During our stay in tanzania we got to go into Arusha which was pretty crazy, lots bigger than Jinja town that we're used to and we did get lost once but we were pretty impressed with our getting in and out of town abilities considering that none of us spoke swahili and non of them spoke english!! we did however find a supermarket and some nice cafe's which made a nice reak from luch of posho and beans that we ate for a week straight!!

Outreach week 2

our second week in kenya was spent in Rhiad which is about 30minuits out of Kisumu up the mountain so from the pastors house we had some amazing views out over the city and lake victoria :) The house was really lovely which i was greatful for seeing as i spent 3 days bed (well matreress) ridden with malaria!! you might ask how that happened, and honestly i don't know because i took my doxy religiously but 4 of us got malaria in the same week!
The trip to thr clinic was an adventurre, i've never had my photo taken in thr hospital by the doctor before, or been asked to sign the guest book, however the docotr did manage to find a cure for my hic-ups, a mouth full of sugar! i think i must have been the starngest patient- i laughed when they told me i had malaria! Fortunatly malaria is quite easily curable, 8 pills a day for 3 days with some horrible side-effects (the headache pills i got made me crazy!!)
On the ministry side of things it was a good week, we went to a muslim school where 90% of the students went to church- no i don't understad the either!! I spoke in a school about HIV/AIDS and relationships with each other and Jesus which i was nervous about because once again it was a muslim owned school and i was sure the kids would know more about HIV than i do! but we were accepted really well and even got to pray with the muslim school owner me and Joel rocked the session we ran with the P6&7 kids :)
Our crusades this week were in the middle of the village and we had a wooden stage that looked like it would collapse at any moment, my one brave ventre onto the stage during the skit got rained out (like most nights!) and we ended up hidding out in the opub with samosa's and the carrying chairs back to the house on our heads, 1. because we're in Africa and 2. because it was sitting raining! After another crusade we had our first (and only) incounter with demons, this poor high school age girl had been suffering for about 7 years by being haunted with spirits of death, however afetr 2 hours of praying she was delivered and since the images that haunted her mind have stopped!
One of the main difficulties we had this week was the approach to ministry, the pastor and culture had a somewhow agressive and forward approach to ministry which is deffinatly what i'm used to or necessarilty agree with but it is acccepted here, however trying to balance what i feel is right and culture is challenging!
We prepared to leave Kisumu on monday 28th of November, we spent many hours in the box sized Kampala coach office as the bus was in African style 3hours late! but we did walk down to lake victoria to watch the sun set and we saw some hippos!!!

outreach

okay you're about ti get hit buy 3 long blog posts on outreach after 2 long months we're safely back in uganda, enjoy reading, and if i haven't said something you wanna know, just ask so mich happened i'm bound to have left something out!! :)