It's all an adventure!!!

This week a few of us took an adventure up Soroti rock, it wasn’t as hard to climb as we’d expected, it only took 1 hour from leaving Amecet (at 7 am) but it was a lot of fun, when we reached the top we didn’t encounter ghosts or snakes like we were warned about, however we did meet some breath taking views! Despite how easy it seemed, there was some pain along the way (Yay for my feet growing this year and my shoes giving me blisters) ad we did feel that we deserved the treat of ice cream when we’d finished!
 

Now you might be thinking Durrrr life’s an adventure for you, NEWSFLASH you’re in Africa idiot. But I was thinking last night about how even everyday things are an adventure!!!

As I mentioned in my last couple of blogs, our awesome toddlers are all on their feet, we now spend endless hours chasing them around the compound! Those of you who are parents or older siblings will know the excitement and worry that comes from walking toddlers! This week rose decided that she likes the slide, now we don’t have one of those little kids plastic slide and there’s no soft ground if you fall off. This week I’ve anxiously watched Rose climb the steps and panic as she comes to the top and doesn’t know how to make it onto the ledge at the top, as she practiced more and more she was able to do it. For her it was an adventure, that slide was her rock and she was determined, I sat and watched her and panicked every time she wobbled almost waiting for her to fall (funny how we always expect the child to fall rather than make it?)

 

I think life is like that rock of that slide, when a door is opened we walk through it, despite the pain we are aiming for the success, and sometimes we aren’t aware of or ignore the dangers so that we can make it. At the end of the day in both these situations I knew that even if an accident happened, it wasn’t going to be life or death (unless those snakes on the rock were poisonous) despite the pain and the fears we make it to the ice cream or bottom of the slide.

 

Ever thought of God as the Auntie (well uncle) or Parent watching you struggle with the slide? Ever wondered why he didn’t come and carry you? If I had gone running to Rose every time she panicked on the slide she never would have learnt herslef. I was watching her and I was ready to catch her and give her medical attention if she fell but I also had to trust her and believe in her, I knew she could make it even if she didn’t. Sound like God yet????? Many times we wonder where God is, why we aren’t flying on his wings, but he’s there ready to catch us when we fall, when you don’t notice him, it’s because you didn’t fall, we should be thankful rather than angry really!!! He was believing in us!

Many times this year I’ve felt like I’m walking into the unknown, I don’t know where I’m going, I don’t know what’s at the top of the rock or even if I’ll make it, I’ve been scared to step onto the ledge at the top of the slide because I don’t know that it’s safe and whether I’ll wobble and fall, how many things have you failed to step out do due to fear??? I’ve been reading ‘Making Jesus Lord’ By Lorren Cunningham, he talks about laying down your rights, now you might think I’ve done that, I left the comfort of my own home, culture, comforts and language and came to a foreign and different land, however you can travel and still hold onto almost everything. Laying down your rights is the ultimate test of your sense of adventure and trust that God is the loving parent watching over you. I realised I have to lay down my right to be afraid, because fear stops me doing things, it is a barrier, stopping God calling me into places I don’t want to go. Fear is me holding onto my plans instead of following Gods adventure!

Now I’m not saying this because I’ve got it all sussed, I’m not ready to walk in front of the firing squad,  I’m challenging myself, and I’m asking you to join me in the climbing the mountain to lay down your rights, because with every step we take; our burden becomes lighter, our God provides our strength and we get to see God using us in amazing ways!!!! I CAN DO ALL THINGS IN CHRIST WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH. (I just have to let him!)

There’s a plan and a bigger picture, Jeremiah 29:11!!! “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, not for disaster but for hope and a good future.”

The world tells us we have to make the plans, God tells us he already has, which path do you want to take? What’s holding you back?

 

We can make our own plans

But the Lord gives the right answer

People may be pure in their own eyes

                But the Lord examines their motives

Commit your actions to the Lord

                And your plans will succeed.

And for those of you who read my last post.... We survived the night shift, the kids with Malaria recovered quickly, I even managed to make porridge, and get the kids dressed, medicined up and ready for school on time, PTL!!!!

March!

So I gather I haven’t written about what I’ve been up to for a while now! March was a good month and my 7^th full month in Uganda. I continued to work in the pre-school almost every morning.

On the 8^th of march for international women’s day the females of the base took a trip out. We went to the kingfisher resort for the day and spent the day in and around the pool, it was so much fun teaching some of the African’s how to swim and playing with the young children who came so that their mothers could have a break! We shared a wonderful bring and share lunch which included pasta salad, amazing rice dishes, chapatti, mandazi’s and lots of yummy fruit!

The new DTS continued with their learning and we continued to get to know them more and show them around Jinja, we took a trip to the source of the Nile. I’m not going to lie there isn’t much to see except some bubbling water however it is something pretty crazy to say I’ve seen and I now want to go to the mouth of the Nile! It was a really fun day that we spent relaxing and laughing, it’s fun days like that which allow me to feel that not only am I serving here in Uganda but I am so blessed to have all these amazing tourist/cultural adventures as well!

Our ‘Big Sister’ Naomi surprised us when she returned from a medical visit back in England, me and Becca flew out of our chairs when she appeared at the dining table on Sunday evening, and she was just in time to celebrate her birthday which we did by a ‘surprise’ bonfire which was a great evening and we saw some great African and Tongan dancing around the fire!

I was sick a few times during March which was not fun, but I am very grateful for some amazing room mates and my lovely mama Jeanine who always made sure I was doing okay!

I had 3 lessons during March to teach the VTS (vocational training school) ballet which was very fun, they might not be pro’s and I think they thought I was trying to kill them but we did enjoy the time and it was a great opportunity for me to share some more western culture rather than the normal tribal dancing!

Pre-school continued to inspire and challenge me, I got to continue to teach song time and by the end of the month the kids had a whole load of new song and actions that we loved to sing every day! I also taught the Bible  section of the kids day a couple of times which is an challenging for me as the children to struggle to listen to me talk for a long period because of understanding my accent, however I love being able to see the children learn and grow. I successfully completed the task for hand writing the letters A-Z in all of the children’s books, the letters were all written out 8 times with 3 words for the kids to copy. I also had to draw lines into the books- it was a beyond time consuming task, however I see it was one of the best ways of serving however boring it means that the teachers can get on and teach and the children sit around so much less that’s what allows me to go on, knowing that it makes a difference.

The end of March saw me preparing of my move up to Soroti. My last few days of pre-school were sad and I just sat and cuddled the kids who were climbing all over me! We had some great song times and danced around singing loudly without a care in the world. I just loved being able to be so care free with the kids, showing them about the simple joys in life! I certainly will miss them and the teachers who I had a lovely meal with my last day there- Ugandan’s sure do know how to bless people!

I was sent on my way to Soroti with some wonderful prayers and blessings from the Hopeland community and the YFG’ers who I had a lovely last meeting with (which include juice and cake) I’m going to miss my friends, room mates and family from Jinja so so much, but I am excited for this next adventure that you will start to hear about very soon...

Placement goes on...

Wow, it has been a busy few weeks and i’m so grateful for some time this weekend just to relax!! I am now 5 weeks into my placement at the pre-school. Middle Class certainly keep me busy! We have about 30 4-5 year olds in our class and with limited space it can certainly be challenging. Staff shortages have been an issue these past few weeks and i have been given the task of teaching the children numbers and sounds from the alphabet. It’s certainly a challenge to get all the children to listen to me and make learning fun! (major respect to all teachers that manage it) However ‘teacher Tee’ has managed to master song time! I spend about 30mins a day teaching the kids Jesus your my super hero, our God is great big God and other HBC songs! The winner however has to be the little green frog song, thank you to my cousin for teaching me that many years ago!!! In class the kids have been learning about how they are Gods children and are specially created by God, they have also been praying for their needs and for each other. It’s beautiful to see a 4 year old stand up and pray for their sick parents or school fees!

My afternoons are spent preparing books for class, writing out letters and number for the kids to copy- man I wish we had a photo copier!! Haha! 

The head teacher of pre-school has pretty much adopted me and Becca as her twins, Mama Jeanine is an amazing lady! She works so hard in the pre-school and caring for her family, she has so much wisdom and faith I just love her!!! She has also blessed me with dinner 3 times now, and boy does she make some good chips!! J

Since I last wrote we have seen some visitor to the base, Kirsty joined me at half term which was great! I r4eally hope she enjoyed seeing life as I know it and working in the pre-school. It was really eye-opening to me to see how different my life is now to what it was! While she was here some of the girls celebrated valentine’s day with a meal in town which was r3eally good just to relax!

This past week our YFG co-ordinator from  England visited, it was great to see her and chat though our experiences so far! I was blessed by our spontaneous one to one and i’m sure i talked far to much! Haha! It was great to hear her wisdom and for her to be able to see and say how well we are all doing!

The next DTS have arrived and it been fun to hang out with them for a few days and watch them settle in to base life remembering how I was 6 months ago! We have also moved rooms in the last week due to the amount of on the new DTS so we now have A PROPER TOILET and a decent shower (yes it’s still cold) moving was an entertaining process I certainly now own far too much!

This week Ella who was last year YFG feb student returned to England for her debrief, I remember meeting her for the first time when she was 6 weeks into her placement (where i am now) and suddenly she’s finished! It’s crazy to think that’s going to be me before I know it! I’m certainly not ready to leave yet I still have so much I want to achieve and learn before that day comes right now the thought of having to leave this place is sad i have defiantly settled in and really love Uganda now, i just pray that when the day comes i will be ready to leave ( but hey i still have 6 months!)

Once again my blog post is scatty and unstructured (just like my brain) still I'm sure your get the picture!

Start of term!!!

well it's 4:30 on a friday afternoon, and i think i kind of understand that end of the week feeling tezchers get, i mean as a student 3:15 on friday was the hilight of my week but i really don't think that compares to the feeling teacher get!
Now don't get me wrong, i have had an incredible start to my placement but it has been hard work! the first week i spent my time helping clean and organise, i don't think i have ever seen so many disorganised boxes, there was stuff EVERYWHERE at the start of the week, but after mnay hours of sorting organising and cleaning the shelves were re-stacked the resources orderd and the place dust free!! the first thing that really hit me about how this is an afrian pre-school not in the UK was that the hand made resources and games are all stored on peices of old box or plates, there are nice cabinets and draws to store things in. You might be thinking durrrrr you are in Africa but sometimes i do forget that it's different here because i now see this as home, especially when i see games i had as a child or domino's that i can picture in a box at my gradparents house!!
Pre-school term started on monday this week (6th feb) a staff shortage meant that for this week both middle class (4yrs) and top class (5 years) were both in one class with one teacher are 2-3 helpers (thats me!!!) we had about 60 children and so i'm sure you cn imagine with the start of term hype it has been a crazy week! The program the pre-school uses is a Bible based sylabus, the day (well morning 8-1) consits of singing, leaning about the Bible, memory verse ( this week was psalm 119:89-90) learning manors (e.g. how to greet someone into your home) and education (alphabet, numbers etc) everyday the children also learn about the weather (all week it has been sunny!!) and the day of the week, date and month! During free time the children work on projects (this is what we would call classroom playing) and have domino's, puzzles and matching games which are all educational resources as well as being able to colour and draw.
This week i have also worked with smaller group (15-20 children) teaching them, on thursday we looked at numbers and the children had to count from 0-7 and then match the number and words. After we had learnt to numbers they then practiced writing, i found challenges with mixed abilities in my group and some difficlties in lauguage, although the children are learning english and are expcted to speak it not all understand me or speak it!! Today (friday) i worked with a group on the alphabet, one issue i found was that half way though learning some of the letter cards were missing!! At this age the children also have a short attention span, the different approach here in Africa meant that i had to try and engage the group for almost half an hour, this i have learnt is hard enough at the best of times but especially with a group of non-understanding misbehaved 4 year olds!!! They are certainly going to be a project!!
The cutest moment of my week has to be when 4 year old patience sat on my lap and fell asleep, bless the little girl she was curled up for almost an hour!!! The girls in true girly fashion have taken a liking to my mzungu hair and are constantly twisting an braiding it!!
I think thats about it for these weeks but i will leave you with some prayer points:
pre-school: language barriers
disapline with the children
staff in pre-school
preperation for the next phase of my placement (at amacet childrens home)
financial security and trusting God with my money!!
Good healt
Rain!!!! haha it's been far too hot lately! haha
oh and as a last point, we have been harvesting and shelling the maize that we planted the first week we were here! it's been amazing to see the whole process go through ( even if it is going to make posho YUCK)

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!

Lets Blog!

So, i know it's been a while since a proper blog, so i guess lots should have happened but at the same time lots hasn't happened! Life goes on with bible reading (of which i'm behind) lectures, work duties (more cleaning the classroom) and cooking!!
Since my last 'proper' update i had a late birthday celebration during work duty- joel poured the water we'd been using to wash sheets straight over my head! apparently that's the tradition here in Africa when it's your birthday you get soaked! 9 i might have to bring this tradition back to england!) i also broke my toe (i think) by dropping a hoe on it whilst weeding! luckly it's doing much better now :)
lectures have been on prayer and intercession, praise and woship which was deffinatly on of the best weeks so far, and mission evangalism. During praise and worship week we did a personality test, i am a conscientious instigator (and no i didn't have a clue what that meant either) but bacially i'm organised and i like to get jobs done! however it also means i'm quiet pffffffffffffffffffft!!!!!!
We've also had Tess' birthday, she joined the 19 club and for her birthday we had a dance party which was so so much fun :) We also continued the clebrations with a day trip to Kampala as me Tess and Becca, it was muchous fun, we started of our day with breakfast (fancy coffee and pan au chocolat) and then wonderd around the 2 small shopping centers, got pedicures and a dreadlock (which is now half fallen out :( ) we got pizza for lunch at New York Kittchen which had these massive slices of pizza and cup cakes galore (i was to full to want a cup cake but nect time i'm there!!!) what was funny was that we all experienced slight reverse cultuer shock! everything was so western compared to base and we felt like proper tourists rather than missionaries- i can't even imagina how excited i will get over things when i get back to England!
During that week our small group (chosen generation) also had a meal which me and Katie cooked in true western style- we had grilled cheese and fruit slad with yoghurt and the crepes with lemon and sugar and butter an cinamon! It was such an amazing meal!
The week of the 17th saw lectures on spiritual warfare and the start of getting up at 5am! the point of which is to conduct spiritual warfare as we perpare for outreach so the timming was prettu good! unfortunalty my body objects to getting up at 5am and running on so little sleep and i spent 2 days in bed! At one point my staff thought i had malaria but PTL it was just over tiredness and now i am getting to rest more duing the day so hopefully i will continue to cope (however you can continue to praye for me!!!) Lectures that week ended on thurday because our teacher had his werdding introcuction at the weekend (wanna know what that is? read on!!!) so on friday we got a pretty chill day as we just had to clean the class room and then we got to go and relax in town which was needed after a long aand exhausting week! That day finnished in the awsome way- cheese fondu!!! I love having a swiss girl on our DTS!!!
Saturday- susan and charles' introduction. This is a ugandan tradition and is the official engagement of a couple, it's hosted by the girls family and the boys family turn up and there's a big joke running throughtout and they pretend that they don't know what they're there for! But then the girls family all parade and dance round as a welcoming thing and they choose the boy out of the crowed of the boys family! It was very colourful and fun even though it was long and lots of talking in luganda which we didn't understand! It ended with the boys family bringing gifts and gifts there were so many at leats 50 fruit baskets and then other gift boxes and a sofa and arm chair and a cow and chicken and lots more! unfortunalty i don't have many pictures because my camera broke- bit after many hours or praying and a nail file it's fixed! :D we had to wear traditional wear of a chicoi ( i think i spelt that wrong) i cant describe it so here's a picture:

Then this past coming week has certainly been a different one! We stared the week preparing for our adventure (keep reading!) which involved a zulu dance- not for mzungu's! and lots of skit rehursals! Then on wednesday we had a love feast to say farwell to some people on the base so we got some amazing food and then headed of on our adventure to lingera island! we took a 2 hour boat ride to the island which has to ben the most crazy journey i have ever had! First the bus got stuck driving down the the lake edge, we ended up leaving 2 hours late and so and hour in to the jouney (at 7) it got dark, and then the storm hit! No joke we had wind and thunder and lightning and ouring heavy rain and iour boat- basically a canoe with a motor on the back! we got drentched without any jumpers or coats- but being typical chirstians and YWAMers we didn;t let this dampern our spirits and the second half of the journey consisted of lots of praise and worship songs!!!
Our stay on the Island way just as exciting, the base there is tiny! we had smaller rooms and so me Tess and Dama shared a room, me aand Tess shard an almost double bed- which was so so comfy! :) lessons continued as normal in a md hut! how crazy is that and then in the afternoons we had a crusade- basically we set up speakers in a field and preached and did our dances and skits and saw so many people get saved :) i got to spend this time lust showing love to the little kids although i couldn't understand them it's amazing how God can just promt you to meet there needs and so it was amazing to see and 7 year old girl light up when i held her baby sister so that she could join in the dancing! the whole experience was great and then when we went back the next day the kids came back and found us and we played games and sang songs like the hokey kokey with them- unfortunatly the crusade didn;t actually happen because the rain hit and it hit hard!!! we ran to find cover and eventually hid on a tin hut which turned out to be the police station! Me and tess then went back ou in the rain to watch the local football match- the school kids beat the community, but it was the craziest match the whole 'pitch' was a puddle and most of them were playing without shoes! Saturday was our last day on this island- we got up at 6 and climbed the hill of the island- the view was beautiful you could see so far and the other islands in Lake victorian and just miles and miles of water! our time ended with a talk from Aunt Catherine about the YWAM base on Lingera, the base does such an amazing job in administeing health care to the island and surroundithen ng islands and giving immunisations. However the base needs prayers they are lacking in staff (only 3 of them) and they also need provision of things like a computer and photocopier! so pray people! We left the sunny island and travelled back in the day- i finally have a watch strap tan and got back on the bus just and the rain started to fall!
and now? we are relaxing in flavours as base internet still isn't working but i just had a bacon and egg sandwich so it was worth getting up early to wash all our muddy clothes so we could get into town early :)

mini update!

So internets still down and i i don't have loads of time to give you a full on update right now, i'll get there at some point. But i have some prayer points:
Internet is still down because they need to get some more cables in, pray that this happens quickly!
This week we started getting up at 4:45am to pray for outreach for an hour before quiet time, i'm starting to understand why this is so improtant, we need to be eqipped and it's an awsome way to show God how serious we are about serving him. BUT i need more grace and understanding, i also need to me physically cabable, my body responds to early starts and lack of sleep y being sick (not very helpfull) in order to get abough sleep i also have to go to bed really early, this makes getting other things such as Bible reading done very difficult so i can feel myself starting to get stresses about it. So please just pray for me about all of this!
For me you can also pray that during this time of tiredness and illness i continue to seek and find God, it can be very difficult to lose focus and just get angry rather than remebering why i'm here! After tha amazing breakthrough that i had i really don't want to fall back now!

Outreach , comes in 3 weeks now, we have lots to do and as a DTS we are all struggling with the tthings we have to learn and prepare, we never seem to stop! so we all just need peace and rest and strenght during this time. We also need saftey on outreach and god just to show us where he wants us!

As a side note, i am doing really well, i have been ill but am recovering now, it's not all negative here honest! We took a trip to kampala on sunday which was really good and we got to sit in a proper western coffee shop and eat pan au chocolate and pancakes and have pizza for lunch! So as life goes on it's hard but it's good and i know everything i am doing is worth it even on the tough days!

Take a deep breath week 6 was a busy one!

So sorry this post has taken a while! Internet went down at the weekend again because a wire has been missing! It's hard to think back on what has been happening actually!

We had our Holy Spirit week starting on the 26^th lectures felt like RS lessons at times with discussions about the trinity and all the omni words! On Wednesday Ella came down to Hopeland, she is a Year For God student that started in February and is on her placement in Soroti at Amacet orphanage, talking to her has really confirmed to me that I want to go up and do that so come January I plan to head up there for at least 3 months of my placement and then I will come back here (to Hopeland) and finish up my time at the pre-school!

Thursday was my birthday!!!!! It was a very emotional day! I had a pile of cards that had been sent from home which was really nice but did make me miss home a bit! But the girls then did a really good job of cheering me up with chocolate and other gifts which was very very sweet of them and I love them so much for it! We also got a cake at fellowship at Tim and Jackie's which was AMAZING (thanks Ella!) I also got to skype mum and dad on my birthday for like a whole hour which was really nice and such a birthday blessing PTL.

Friday... what a day! We concluded holy spirit week with a baptism of the spirit, and that was quiet an amazing time, to start with our leaders were totally humbling and washed our muddy, smelly feet! And we spent some time in worship, God just really moved in that time, people had their eyes opened to Gods heart and other people received deliverance from things like lies which had taken hold of them and how they viewed themselves, the enemy really stood no chance at that time!

As for me, I had spent the morning session sitting in prayerful, tearful worship as I committed everything I have, had and will be over to God. Letting go of anything is hard and although I'd thought that coming to Uganda was the end of me holding on to my plans it has become increasingly obvious over the last few weeks that I am still holding on to a lot. I have to admit that I left that morning session rather annoyed because I felt like God hadn't worked in my life, it's like I was giving and giving but God wasn't hearing me or I wasn't hearing him (much more likely) but the main point was that I just didn't understand why I didn't feel any different!

I sat through lunch, which we had as a DTS and was amazing food with chicken and beef, but I really couldn't enjoy my time I just felt mad and upset so I went back to the room and collapsed onto my bunk, what happened from here is hard to explain but what I can say is that after I don't know how long lying their crying with pins in needles in my head and this strange pain that I felt was consuming me and people surrounding me in prayer I finally sat up feeling like a different person, in fact feeling more like me! It was like I'd been freed and released from the person who was trying to live my life! I know that probably sounds odd but I don;t know how else to describe it! God had really worked in my life, I knew it this time for sure, I had my breakthrough and and it was amazing! Now don't get me wrong this was no quick fix, I know that I still have to continue committing myself and my life to God, I also know that I have to continue in prayer asking God to work on my character and turn me into the person he wants me to be. But for the first time in what seems like forever I feel like I’m facing in the right direction and what's funny (sort of) is that it wasn't until this happened that I even realised I had been facing the wrong one! So yes life is pretty good right now, in some ways it's got harder because being more 'myself' has made me realise how much further I still have to go and has also made me feel more homesick (prayer hint) but all I can do is glorify God for this, and to celebrate (well actually my birthday) we went...

WHITE WATER RAFTING!!!!!!!! yeahhhh I can officially say that I have swam I the river Nile! And been thrown into it by a 6ft wave! I had the life scared out of me but it was so so much fun and when we actually made it through a category 5 rapid without being flipped out of the raft I think our whole boat was pretty chuffed! However floating down the rapids was also pretty sweet (thank God for life jackets!) we also got some great food that day! Lunch was chibatti wraps- I had salami, ham, cheese and ketchup in mine :D I don't think I have ever been so excited to eat that type of meal that we would class as 'basic' at home!

Sunday we continued the birthday celebrations with Chinese food :) which was lush :) although I did have to move seats at one point as rain started coming through the ceiling in the middle of the massive storm! I also got to chat to some of the lovely people of Christ Church Billericay, unfortunately I couldn't skype them but it was lovely to chat to people and really made my day :)

Oh and I forgot about the party on Friday! To celebrate the birthday that month we had a 'surprise' party in the DTS classroom, what I find funny is in Uganda when it's your birthday they call you baby, I don't think I will ever find it normal for everyone to be saying to me 'we have a baby in the house' but I do like the fact that in this culture they only cut up and hand out half the cake and you get to eat the rest of it!!!!! how amazing is that- I might be remembering for my next birthday!

Now I’m pretty sure this is the longest post I’ve written yet and I do hope you haven't died of hunger or boredom before reading this sentence, but for now I will leave you and write about this weeks adventures another time!

Month uno!

So my mum told me that I haven't blogged in a while and I guess she's right so....

I've officially been in Uganda a month which is totally crazy- it doesn't feel like it's been that long at all and although I don't want to wish my time away it's nice that time is going by without too much effort!

The last week has been a bit of a roller-coaster, Sunday I went to Calvary chapel church which was good a bit of a mix between engligh/african church so that was interesting. We then went to flavours for lunch and I got these amazing kebab things and hot chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream! YUM! The internet wires got stolen on Monday so we were cut of from the outside world again! We had work duties on Monday which involved cleaning the whole of the massive dinning room- that wasn't so fun! We did however got porridge afterwards, african porridge is very runny and you drink it, it's surprisingly nice especially with nutella!

On wednesday I did my first African grass cutting- know and slashing- you get a mettal pole with a sharp and an hack at the grass- it's hard work and blisters are inevitable! Gardening also happened on Friday when we spent an hour pulling up weeds, it had just been raining so we got extremely muddy! Thursday I got ill which was nasty I had a stomach ache and headache for a couple of days.

On the plus side, the talks were good (once they started, our speaker didn't turn up for the wek so we had a DVD instead!) I learnt a lot about deliverance and demons which was interesting!

Saturday was the best day I’ve had here so far, Iran! (about 1mile) Then had a lazy couple of hours before me Becca and Katie went into Jinja we went to the source for lunch and I got a cheese burger and an iced mocha! Which was amazing and cost the equivalent of £1.10 :D

we then went to Shalom orphanage in Bugembe (one of the local villages) and spent just over an hour there, they have about 20 kids there from 2-16 and we played games with them and they showed us their dances which they perform in churches and places which were really amazing. We joined in for a bit but the kids kept laughing at us so I guess that means we weren't very good!

Sunday I spent 2 hours washing and went into Kakira for some luch, we bought Rolex's which are chibatti and egg- LUSH :) I also got hit my a boda-boda, I’m not joking it just drove straight into me while I was talking to someone. I'm not hurt PLT however it did continue to try and drive through me once it realised it had hit me! That wasn't so fun!

I think that's all for now! I'll be back soon!

Week 3!

This week has been pretty buys, emotionally and physically exhausting as well, or teachings have been pretty hard core! We've been looking at rejection/ acceptance and the father heart of God

Monday we started small groups which is a group of 5 of us- we meet 3 times a week to chat about how we're getting on, how we are finding the speaker and things like that. We also had work duties, this week I was cleaning the kitchen and had to spend 2 hours cleaning cobwebs off the ceiling- there were some HUGE spiders!!!

Then Tuesday was food heaven! We got pasta and beef at lunchtime and then went to a hog roast at Tim and Jackies in the afternoon! It was amazing :) we also had a social event in the evening where we played some games I beat Christian in seeing who could chew along a piece of string to the sweet first! We also got popcorn and did some crazy African dancing!

Wednesday morning we got banana pancakes which made a very nice change from bread rolls! We also had a massive downpour over lunchtime I don't think I have ever seen it rain so hard and the rain drops were MAHUSIVE!

What else? Friday we went out with the evangelism team to do some door to door teaching- I was amazed about how welcoming people were to here even f they didn't want to make a commitment right then we defiantly got the chance to sow some seeds- well at last I think we did everyone was speaking in Lugnada so I had no idea what was going on half the time!

In other news our bathroom light now works and we nearly killed Joel when failing to kill the rats- well actually it wasn't poison that made him ill but for a while we thought it was!

we had a thunderstorm last night, it lasted for hours and the claps of thunder lasted like 20 seconds1

I feel like i've forgotten to say something important but i cant think what!

Finally internet is back!

 

Fellowship

so I have to tell you about Thursday night fellowship at Tim and Jackie's (the base leaders). It's a gathering of whoever wants to go on the base, there were about 15 people there, Tim spent some time sharing about holiness and how we should strive to live a holy life, it was a really powerful message and really encouraged us to pray for hatred of sin. We then played some AWSOME games!!! I will have to show you them once i'm home, but I was so much fun. I felt so at home and relaxed there, maybe for the first time I didn't leave something feeling exhausted or as if it had been effort which was such a blessing. So right now i'm just thankful so that time that allowed me to be refreshed and feel at home. The bad news was that the internet was taken down by a storm and repair is taking a while!

So we went into Jinja on saturday for some shopping and then we went to the kindfisher hotel on the edge of lake victoria which has an awsome swimming pool :) I got a cheeseburger and chips which was to die for!!!!!! it was good just to chill out away from the chaos of the base or town. There was an orphanage group in the pool when we were there and we played games with them and has them singing high school musical which was really funny :)

also been to out first african church service we went with our base leaders- curch starts at 9 so we went at 10:30 and it still went on till 1!!! it was exciting but the preach just went on and on and on and on....... it also rained during the talk so we had to stop and worship for a bit because you couldn't hear a thing!!

Dinner time here is exciting when we get chibati :) normally we get some combination of Irish potatoes, beans, rice, cabbage, spinnage and posho (which is don't really eat) so the food is mostly edible but not varied. Peanut butter has become my best friend especially with banana sandwiches for breakfast!!! I am however missing chocolate but rice and nutella for dinner one night was my best food invention so far! Pineapple here is actually amazing and seeing as I don't like it at home thats saying something, I’ve also braved eating watermelon and avocado so far which weren't as bad as back in England!

In other news, we have rats in our room, it fell through the hole in our celling one night and although the boys have gone up through the hole and found the nests they haven't got round to killing it yet!

I also braved going for a run! A couple of laps round the football pitch, good exercise but I missed the smooth paths of home rather than playing dodge the holes and jump some brambles, it was more like a steeplechase!

Work duties have started and so far I have had to clean the floor or our classroom by pouring buckets of water over the floor and then sweeping it out the door, I had my first experience of African farming, dropping seeds into holes and covering them with soil using my foot, after a couple of hours my feet we're a couple of Kg heavier and everyone was covered in mud!!!! I had wash up today which luckily wasn't to bad although didn't do my back any good which is currently killing me (prayer hint)

This week our speaker has been talking about sin, repentance and forgiveness, it's been really interesting to here what he has to say.

I have so much else to say but I just cant think right now! Anyways sorry about the really long post!

A couple of days in Africa

So i've been in Uganda a couple of days now, DTS has officially started but we have just been spending the time getting to know each other and learning about YWAM values! there are 11 girls in our room but we still have a couple to arive, our DTS is 17 people so far with about half Ugandan and half western. our DTS staff are all ugandan and so lovely. so far we've done lots of singing and hugging! last night we also played musical chairs, musical statues and duck duck goose, it was rather entertaining!
So far my learning of Lugandan consists of Weblle (thank you) and that is all.
I've finally stopped feeling ill from my malaria tablets which is a big blessing because it ws horrible!
We took our first trip into Jinja yesterday with the whole group so Msaki (our DTS leaer) organised it but when we have to get there and back alone it will be interesting! yesterday we had 20 people in a 14 person minibus it was certainly a squash! but it was good to get some biscuits and a phone and some other bits however getting used to ugandan shops and markets wil be an experience! we also need to learn how to get cheap prices because we a Munzungu's they will try and charge us more
This afternoon i went into my room to find a cat sitting on my bag! it was cute but slightly scary!
i had so much else to say but right now i cant remeber.
for all of you that wish to pray for us i would just ask that you pray for unity in our group, protection from sickness and peace from being away from home!
sorry this post is all over the place but hey i'm sure you can make sense of it!