Short Cut to Heaven

Do you know what a short cut to heaven is????  Well we learned today.  So Auntie Amanda and I took two of our big boys for boarding school today.  As we were standing there another boy Dennis who when with us made this comment.  There was a HUGE cactus tree and we asked if it was poisonous?  So he said, "Yes, if you drink the milk from the tree it will be a short cut to Heaven!!”   That is one way of saying you will die.

This week I have escorted three of our boys to their new schools.  It is sad saying good bye to them.  For a couple of them, there was such sadness in their eyes.  This is their first time being away.  For one boy he is a three hour drive away.  He finished very high in his class and is going to a very good school in Entebbe.  The two other boys are going to school a lot closer to home.  They are going to Wyrachi College.  Basically in US standards they are in the 12th grade, but here it is called college.  Kind of like a technical school.

My parents always told us kids not to play with knives!!  Well in Uganda I think that phrase is used quite loosely.  Obvious, you tell I have a story to go along with this comment.  J  So as I was coming back from Entebbe the other day, we were driving through Kampala.  Sitting on the side of the road were some different stands.  People were selling chipates, fruit, sodas, all kinds of things.  Anyway, this baby maybe 15 months or so, was sitting on the counter with his/her mom, you can’t tell sometimes.  Anyway the baby was holding the knife the size of a machete.  I think the knife was almost taller than the child from waist to head.  You know the scary thing is that this is a common site. 

Things have gone fairly well with elections.  Yesterday we had a few people from the orphanage go into Jinja and there was word of tear gas.  So things were a little crazy in town, for a little bit, but everybody made it home safe and sound. 

We are seeing an improvement in the teen girls.  Thank you Lord for that.  They can definitely be difficult, but I think God is making changes in their life. Youth Group has been going well.  We met last night and as we were singing, time was running out, so we just kept singing.  The worship time with the kids was great.  I love seeing the kids worshipping God.  What an amazing blessing to be a part of.  

Being a Good Loser!

February 21, Monday

So I have decided that I send out emails for two different reasons.  The first is: I know a lot of people are interested in what is happening on this side of the world and they love to hear stories and the second is for selfish reasons.  J  After I send out an email, I’ll get online and almost every time I’ll have at least 15 emails from friends and sometimes more than that.  So I just want to say thanks for emailing and sending prayers and encouragement this way.  I always enjoy being able to sit and read emails from friends.

The kids were out of school for a long weekend, because of elections.  Everybody has just stayed put here on the compound.  We were told not to leave our home until at least Wednesday.  As far as we have heard, there haven’t really been any violent issues, so Praise the Lord for that.  The announcement was made yesterday on who the president will be.  The same man who has been in power for the past 25 years, is still in office.  So everyone here seems happy about that.  So hopefully in the next few days we won’t be home bound anymore, but we will be able to go back to town, we are all out of pineapple. We need to go!! J

So last week, since we were going to be homebound for the week, I needed to go to Lugalambo (fruit/vegetable stand).  So I got to drive for the first time here in Uganda.  Two of the older boys wanted to ride with me.  We took a crate of bottles to fill up for our Valentines evening together.  So I borrowed Adam’s vehicle and got to drive on the back roads through the sugar cane fields.  The steering wheels are on the wrong side here, plus you drive on the wrong side of the road, and to top all that off, there are no lines on the road, so people drive how they want.  This one guy in a big truck was talking on his cell phone and wasn’t paying attention at all so I mean I was almost in the ditch on my side of the road.  The boys showed me a short cut, which meant I had to get on the main road.  WOW what an experience.  I don’t think I am ready to drive in Jinja town, but it was a fun experience.  I’ll just keep practicing driving through the sugar cane fields.

The older kids don’t enjoy being out in the hot part of the day.  So while the kids have been out of school we have been waiting until about 5 in the evening to do anything.  On Friday they played a huge game of Capture the Flag.  I think by the end I counted about 60 kids out on the field.  It was pretty crazy.  But they loved playing and they played for about 2.5 hours.  Then Saturday we played a game of Ultimate Frisbee.  The kids wanted to play against the “whites”.  Let me remind you there were about 10 whites and 30 Ugandans.  We got SPANKED!!!!  I think we only scored one and they scored about 16 points.  So we played again yesterday and we picked up 3 Uganda kids and still got beat pretty bad.  The funny thing is, is we will start the game and it might be 8 on 8 and before you know it there is a field full of kids.  They just come out on the field and start playing.  Anyway, the kids were dancing around and thought it was pretty great that they were creaming us.  I am learning to be a good loser!!!  I am sure most of you know that is not an easy task for me, but hey this trip has been all about me doing new things…  Painting nails, coloring princess pictures, dancing, and now being a good loser!!!  I think this has been the hardest task of all.  J 

Our little girl Gloria went to the hospital Saturday night.  She came back home yesterday, but the missionary staff is trying to figure out what is best for her.  They might take her to another hospital today.   She is not breathing very well.  In 2010, she spent most of the year in the hospital.  She has health issues, but they have gotten worse.  Please be praying that the right decisions are made for this little one.  Also continue praying that I’ll be a good witness to these kids and the house moms.  I had a house mom tell me the other day that she thinks the girls will get better if I stay full time.  It made me smile and I just said we will see how I can help them in the next three months.  Lately the girls have been coming around, so I hope some of the things we say to them are sinking in.  God is definitely doing some work in this place, especially with the house moms.  I feel like so much of it begins with them.  So please just continue to keep GSF in your prayers.

Beating

Beating has a few didn’t definitions.  When I say I am going to beat you, it is in a competitive tone, just cause I am a little competitive, and I mean that I am going to win the race we are about to have or at least I am going to try.  So this is how the story begins…..  On Sunday Mark and Amy went away for the day and came back Monday after lunch.  They were enjoying time away for Valentines.  So I stayed at their house Sunday with the three kids and then I was with them on Monday as well.   Adam and Betsy were going to go and have lunch in town for Valentines as well, so I offered to watch Liza (she is 3) while they were away.  So we were getting ready for lunch and I sat Liza down with her plate of food.  Everybody was taking a little bit longer to get there, so she started early.  She had been sitting there about ten minutes before the rest of us sat down.  There were 4 kids, 4 of us ladies and then Auntie Betty.  I was trying to get Liza to eat her food.  She was taking forever to eat her carrots, and she hadn’t touched anything on her plate.  So I said “Liza we are all going to beat you if you don’t hurry up” Her eyes got huge and her facial expressions was funny.  Everybody started to laugh; I realized right away what I had said.  So quickly I said, “I mean we are going to finish eating before you, if you don’t start eating your food.  After I said this she looked at me with those big eyes, and said “I thought you were going to punch me”!!  Obviously I have to watch what I say, because it Ugandan it may mean something totally different then in America. 

Valentines, was so much fun with the kids.  We wanted to make it a special evening.  Amy had gotten a flower for each of the teen girls as well as the house moms.  So when the girls got home from school, they had a flower sitting on their beds.  We did just a little decorating up at the guest house veranda.  The kids aren’t supposed to be up here, but it has such a beautiful view, I thought this would be the perfect place for our evening.  We were originally going to cook them a meal, but they always complain and say that our food is not filling enough, so we decided what’s the point, we will just do deserts.  So everything included chocolate.  There were brownies, cupcakes, chocolate cookies and a few other things.  We had some white Christmas lights hanging from the beams and just had those lights on and had dance music playing.  We listened to music, danced, and they had deserts and a soda.  It was a nice time to spend with the kids and show them that we loved them even though something so simple as a Valentines party.

Today is Thursday and the kids are out of school until Monday because of the presidential elections.  Hopefully things will be quiet and there won’t be any problems, but we need to be heads up and aware.  We are taking a few precautions.  We need to plan on being here on the compound for at least the next week and maybe even though next weekend.  So since most of the kids are around, we are going to plan a scavenger hunt this afternoon for them, and tomorrow afternoon fly kites.  I got some kites from Grand Slam, before I left, so we are going to give those a shot. 

Please be praying for me.  Tonight is our youth group time and we are talking on the newness of life.  Last week was somewhat of an overview.  Tonight I’ll be speaking on RESPECT.  Respect is an issue that we have been having some difficulties with.  So hopefully it will go well tonight.  The topics for the weeks to come are Respect, Words, Thoughts, and Purity is the last week.  Just be praying for all of us ladies as we lead each week.  Pray that we will have a positive influence on these kids and that they will see Christ though us.

Good Things!

Feb 14, 2011

It is amazing how things/kids can change so fast.  Obviously I need to just go day to day.  But yesterday was amazing.  The girls and I had a great evening together.   After doing nails with the moms, I was coloring princess (I know way out of my comfort zone, twice in one day J) pictures with all the girls in my house.  All of a sudden they turned on the music and just started laughing and dancing.  Little bit, by little bit other girls from the other house started making their way over to house 4B.  Finally at 10pm I sent them home, there were about 20 in all.  What a blessing for a wonderful day after a major storm the day before. 

The main reason for this email is the Presidential Elections are beginning on Wed. 18^th.  Some people say that things should be mild and not many problems and then some say “you just can’t be too careful”.  We are supposed to plan on being prepared to stay on the compound for the next week and a half or so.  We should have enough food, fuel, and airtime to make it though.  So please just keep the country of Uganda in your prayers.  I don’t really know who the right president should be, some say the man who is in power now will remain.  So please just be praying that God’s will, will be done. 

On Being a House Mom

February 10, 2011

So I have totally decided that watching the babies and toddlers are much easier than the 8- 13 year olds!!!  The good Lord might be trying my patience.  J 

Aunt Debbie is a house mom for most of this week.  I am learning that the girls can be so mean to each other.  They call it abusing if names are called, if someone hit someone else.  Anything like that is abusing here.  So needless to say there is a ton of that going on in House 4B.  Gloria one of our special needs children needed to go to the hospital.  She is not doing well and there is so little we can do here at GSF so she is at the hospital.  We don’t know how long she will be in the hospital, but the mom in 4B went to be with her.  So at least until Sunday I will be a mom of 7 girls.  WOW, that is a lot of kids, let alone all girls!!!  I was at least glad that the youngest in the house was 8, so it was supposed to be just fine.  But one of the older girls is constantly abusing the little girls.  I tried to talk to her and find out what was going on with her.  Of course, she wouldn’t talk to me at all.  So I told her if she wanted me to treat her like one of the little girls, I’ll do that.  Punishment here is slashing (which is cutting the grass with a slasher).  So all the girls had slashing duties after school and some had more than others.  The older one was in a lot of trouble, so she had more to do.  She would intentionally NOT do what I asked.  I give those parents so much credit to those who have more than one teenager.  Wow that is one tough job!!

The kids are supposed to come straight home to the houses after school.  The bell rings at 4pm.  When lunch was over, I asked the girls to make sure they came straight home after school.  Well I think they were trying the mzungu, because by 5pm two of the girls were still not home.  They already knew that they were in trouble, so me being who I am, I marched myself down to the basketball courts.  Most of the kids go there and play after school, which is fine, but all the GSF kids are supposed to go to their houses and change and wash their uniforms.  The two girls didn’t come home at all, so first of all they were in uniforms and second of all they intentionally disobeyed.  As I showed up down at the courts, one of the girls hid behind about four other girls.  So I said “Catherine, if you are trying to hind from me, you have to be faster than that!!”  I told the two girls they need to head to the house now.  So I marched them both back to the house.  Apparently it was quite a site to see, as the kids commented about the two girls getting MARCHED back home.

As I think back, the last email I think I sent was in regards to dealing with the teenage girls.  I guess I am making things sound much worse than they are.  I guess I am just dealing with things I am not necessarily use to dealing with, since I am not a parent.   I mean I have dealt with teenage girls for the past 8 years, coaching them in softball.  It is different, because I am living here with them and they don’t have parents to try and help them grow into respectable teens and young adults.

The house moms have been having meetings three days a week.  Teaching them about discipline and trying to help them be “moms” to these kids, instead of just house moms.  Because of the culture, it is definitely a challenge.  I get so excited when I see a mom hug one of the kids in their houses.  I always make sure to let them know, that I can see that they really love their kids.  I hope all the moms will really show the kids love.

I do need to mention this so you don’t think it is all bad.  Last night as we were sitting down to finish dinner, the power went out.  This is not necessarily a surprise.  It has actually been going off a fair amount lately.  Well the kids didn’t really have any candles and I had my flashlight, but I didn’t really turn it on.  So I would hide behind a wall and scare the kids.  It was a nice change hearing the kids laugh after having a tough day with them.  I guess I need to learn to be thankful for the small things.  Ahh laughter is a good thing.

Hope everyone has a great day; hopefully my evening will be uneventful with the girls. 

God is still good, even though the frustrations.

deb

Life in Uganda

2/3/2011
Amy was having a meeting with all of the house mom’s yesterday morning, so I was babysitting/hanging out with the babies and the toddlers who weren’t in school.  I love spending time with them, and listening to them giggle as I chase them around their houses tickling them.  I love the sound of their laughter and could get used to hearing it all the time.  The one thing that is a little bit harder for me to get used to is when you are sitting down with the babies/toddlers and one is sitting on your legs and then all of a sudden you feel water running down your leg!!!  The only problem is it is NOT water!!!  Most of the kids don’t wear diapers.  Actually I think there are only two of the little ones that do.  So I guess I just have to “some how”(Ugandan favorite saying)  get used to it.

Even though this is my fifth time to GSF, there are still firsts.  Yesterday a friend and I needed to head into Jinja.  We were trying to figure out how we were going to get there, so we decided we were going to take a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) and then public transportation to town.  A boda was no big deal I have ridden them many times, but going public transportation that is another story!!!  Public transportation is one of those skinning 12 passenger vans, but you put as many people possible in each van.  So there were 20 of us squeezed into this van riding the 20 minutes or so into town.  It wasn’t a straight shot either; we would stop along the way and maybe drop off one person, just to pick up two more.  It was quite an experience.  I almost forgot to let you know, that it is also very common for people to be carry live chickens in the van.  As we were getting on, and lady was getting off with a chicken in her hands.  Good times!!!

Please be praying that God will grant me some patience as the teen girls are struggling, and as us women are trying to work with them. It is hard to want to spend time with people when they act like they don’t want you there.  They are so disrespectful and sometimes downright mean.   Part of the problem, is we don’t know how to help, because they won’t really talk to us.  Youth group started last night, for the boys and the girls.  We started together and then split.  The girls stayed down and the boys went up with Uncle Adam.  We want the girls to come if they really want to be there, it is not mandatory.  We just need some direction in teaching the class.  We are going to do it for the next 6 weeks and see how things go and then decide if it should continue. 

I know that there are always so many prayers coming my way, and I just want you to know how appreciative I am for those.  Keep um coming!!!

Deb