Well we said goodbye to our babies. Were both were surprised we were'nt a mess on the day we left. I think we were emotionally drained from the days before though. As we left Suubi some of the nannies sang songs to us and prayed over us. Those ladies are just so amazing. They've been such a blessing. Made it to one last Watoto church service, then had to zip over to the bus station.
Made it to Kenya alright. Neither of us slept very well on the bus, so we were quite tired. Took a taxi out to Monica and Davids. Spent four days with them. In that time we did a little touring around Kenya checking out some of their unique little shops, but mostly just relaxing. Met up with our fellow volunteer Andy one of the days. Hung out for awhile before we had to say goodbye again. Most evenings we were in the sitting room where they had a piano. I hadn't played a piano since leaving home. Felt so good to be playing again. Our last night we made dinner for Monica and David. One of our greatest specialties, stir fry. :)
Left Kenya at 3 in the morning on the 24th. Flew to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, then from there went to Johannesburg to meet up with Luke. Had a bit of a mix up with baggage, but praise the Lord we got it all sorted out. Luke and his friend, Jonathan, picked us up at the airport and we spent the night at a couples house in Johannesburg. Got stopped by a cop on the way. He was being absolutley rediculous and just looking for a bribe. Which Luke gave hime. It was either that or spend the night in jail. South Africa is so different from Uganda. Many times people just lump Africa together as the same. While Kampala was the crowded dirty city, Johannesburg is quite more westernized. Slightly shocked to see so many white people. Still corruption though.
Next day we went to the church camp. Was actually a group of churches from quite a few different countries. Was absolutley amazing. I, personally, have been way more challenged in the week I've been here, than the whole time I've been in Uganda. The people here are so real. I don't think I've ever come upon a church so in tune with God. There is no age segregation and the pastors truely have a heart for their people. All the churches, despite the distance between them, are very closely connected. Just being with and talking with these brothers and sisters has reenergized me and inspired me. I'm sad that our time here has to be so short.
After camp we crossed the border over to Botswana and spent the night in Gaberonne. Got up bright and early next morning and drove the 10 hours to Kasane. Saw many elephants on the road, not like Canada where the biggest thing you'd see on the road is a bear. There was one bull elephant who mock charged us, just a bit frightening. Had an unfortunate break down about 2hours from Kasane. We were in the middle of a forest reserve, with no cell service, and wild animals in the area. Sat in the shade and waited for help. Decided to get back in the car when we had some elephants sneak up on us, and then have them get scared back into the bush by a lions roar. Was quite an adventure. God blessed us and brought some good help along. The first guy to come was going to charge Luke something like $300 just to get us into the next town, and then we'd have to figure out what to do from there. Thankfully God sent along this other guy who saw the problem, quickly made a phone call, and had some belts brought down for us. We were able to fix the problem right then and there and make it to Kasane that night. Had to drive in the dark and keep an eye out for elephants. Came across many of them and other animals. Arrived at Kasane and booked into the Chobe campsite. Were so tired. Set up camp and plopped into bed, drifting off to the sound of hippos. Next morning just had a chillax day. Decided not to go to Victoria Falls due to issues of time, stess, money and it probably not going to be a good view at this time. That evening we went on our boat safari. Was quite a lot of fun. Sat up near the front of the boat. Luke said it was the best boat safari out of all the times he'd been on it. Saw a cocky young elephant go chasing after some girraffes. Quite the spectacle. Lastly we saw this huge croc. The thing was just massive. Sailed back to the camp with a glorious sun set. Woke up bright and early the next morning, we've had so many early mornings now. Took off to the game park to do a self drive safari. Self drive is just so much better than doing it with an organization. You can stay as long as you want looking at an animal and you can choose not to stop at every impalla you see (which we saw a lot of.) Went through herds of hundreds of buffallo. Saw so many animals: elephants, giraffes, hippos, impalla, water buck, kudu, lechwe, baboons, wart hogs, mongooses, and so many different birds. The variety of birds is just fascinating. It's crazy to try and think how God created so many different sizes, colors and shapes. Had an awsome display of some hippos play fighting. They opened their mouthes so big. Made for some awsome photos. Also saw this very tired bull elephant. He was just standing around with his herd, leaning back and forth, eyes nearly closed. Almost thought he'd fall over. Was histarical when he lifted his trunk up to rest it on his tusk. He looked so rediculous. Had to leave the game park at six. Christina spent the last hour making elephant cries trying to call out a lion. Unfortunatly we didn't come across any cats. Went back to the campsite and sat around the fire talking. Have had so many great discussions in this last week. Partially packed up the camp site before going to bed. Had to get up early again the next morning to head back to Gabs. Apparently there'd been a hippo near our camp site early that morning. Luke woke up to see the gaurds throwing rocks at it to scare it away. Wish we'd been awake to see that. Anyways, we loaded everything back into Luke's vehicle and drove off. Thankfully no break downs this time. Stopped by the salt pans on the way. They are so big. Right now there filled up with water and there like a great lake. Saw some wattled crane out there. Luke said they are highly endangered. Made it back to Gabs and unloaded our bags at our host couples house. Had a fantastic fish dinner then went to a meeting at the church. Spent some time afterwards talking to different people about all our exciting adventures. I was surprised I wasn't tired out from all our travelling. I just wanted to stick around and talk with people forever. Was the last to leave, but that was just due to our host couple being the ones to lock up. Unfortunatley Christina didn't make it to the meeting. She had a bad headache and decided to rest at the house. She was feeling a bit better when I got back.
Now it's next morning. Spent it re packing our bags for the hundredth time. Flying out saterday night. Still have a couple more exciting things planned for later today, but we'll be sure to tell you about them later. (Come on, I can't tell you everything and you got to have something to look forward to.)
Don't feel ready to go home yet, but I know I have to. Please pray that all our flights go well as we make our way back home. Thanks for all the prayer for Kenny. He had his surgery and everything went well. He still needs some prayer though because now he has malaria. We're still praying for him and agnus and all the babies we left behind. Thanks for putting aside your time to keep up with us and support us. Greatly appreciated. God bless!
~Amie K
Friday, April 1, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Goodbye Uganda
Well what a crazy last week and a half it has been. Friday we went to work and I spent the morning with Steven, one of our suubi babies who cut his tongue and had to get stiches. Then I spent the rest of the day
with Agnes a little girl who is malnurished and has been doing very poorly, is not expected to live long. So i spent the day with her, it was so much fun and she loved the attention, she needs it. Its not unusual for babies to get depressed when they loose their parents or in agnes' case don't see there parents often (she was just taken untill she gets better) Any ways, Agnes has HIV, TB and is extremly malnurished so please pray that he gets better. Another little boy, Kenneth, who is also very malnurished and has a bloated stomach is doing very bad as well, his stomach keeps growing but nothing else is gaining any weight. He is 4 years old and if he falls on his stomach he could die. Last week he fell but landed on his nose, so praise God that he is still here and just pray that he would get healthy. Other then those ones all the babies are good as far as we've heard. We are leaving for Suubi tonight for the next couple nights to spend as much time with them before we leave Uganda, which is already on Saturday and we will take a bus to kenya and visit monica and david again which we are both really excited for. So last week we had the privilage to go to Gulu (northern uganda) we found out on friday afternoon and where on our way saturday morning. Gulu was amazing, we got to go to church there, spent a few days in the babies home, falling in love with more babies (sigh) and then on wednesday we raged (quite literaly) to the watoto childrens village. To get an idea of what this trip was like lets imagine that there are 7 people stuffed into an itty bitty car, then lets imagine that we are in africa on dirt roads at the best of times. now lets imagine gynormous wholes, here and there with some
massive speed bumps ever little while, and for fun lets throw in some pot holes. Now that the scene is set
imagine that a huge fast scary monster is chasing you, casuing you to go through said road way to quickly. FOR 1 HR! fun? oh yes :| anyways we got to the village and where quickley toured around the schools by a volunteer who was working up there. And of course being surronded by kids :) and then we went back!!! After words we went on a tour of living hope where they help woman who are single mothers who have HIV. It was so cool to get a tour and see all they do, disiple ship classes, day care for the womans babies and teach them practical skills so they can provide for themselves (sewing, making peanut butter). The next day the 6 of us where invited to go to a refugee camp where watoto does a camp to help the people deal with all that they've been through. There where 2800 people there!! they where so happy that we came and danced, did dramas, and sang for us it was so cool. We even got to here a couple of testimonies, God is so good. Since coming back from gulu, we have said way to many goodbyes. Andy (from NZ) left on tuesday, Lina, Tone, Kristine and Amy (from Norway) left last night- that one was the hardest one yet because we've been together for the last 4.5 months, and today we say goodbye to a couple babies and tomorrow we say goodbye to the rest, i'm already a mess- i wish we had more time, but i doubt there would ever be enough time. This week we had to say another goodbye, a little boy, 3 years old, named Cooper passed away this week. He had a blood clot that stopped his heart, so we all went to his memorial, it was very sad, and is so hard to understand why something like that would ever happen, only God knows. Please pray that we make it through Saturday as its going to be very hard. Please also pray for Agnes and Kenneth as their health is not good. God bless and we shall see you all in 2.5 weeks
-Christina
with Agnes a little girl who is malnurished and has been doing very poorly, is not expected to live long. So i spent the day with her, it was so much fun and she loved the attention, she needs it. Its not unusual for babies to get depressed when they loose their parents or in agnes' case don't see there parents often (she was just taken untill she gets better) Any ways, Agnes has HIV, TB and is extremly malnurished so please pray that he gets better. Another little boy, Kenneth, who is also very malnurished and has a bloated stomach is doing very bad as well, his stomach keeps growing but nothing else is gaining any weight. He is 4 years old and if he falls on his stomach he could die. Last week he fell but landed on his nose, so praise God that he is still here and just pray that he would get healthy. Other then those ones all the babies are good as far as we've heard. We are leaving for Suubi tonight for the next couple nights to spend as much time with them before we leave Uganda, which is already on Saturday and we will take a bus to kenya and visit monica and david again which we are both really excited for. So last week we had the privilage to go to Gulu (northern uganda) we found out on friday afternoon and where on our way saturday morning. Gulu was amazing, we got to go to church there, spent a few days in the babies home, falling in love with more babies (sigh) and then on wednesday we raged (quite literaly) to the watoto childrens village. To get an idea of what this trip was like lets imagine that there are 7 people stuffed into an itty bitty car, then lets imagine that we are in africa on dirt roads at the best of times. now lets imagine gynormous wholes, here and there with some
massive speed bumps ever little while, and for fun lets throw in some pot holes. Now that the scene is set
imagine that a huge fast scary monster is chasing you, casuing you to go through said road way to quickly. FOR 1 HR! fun? oh yes :| anyways we got to the village and where quickley toured around the schools by a volunteer who was working up there. And of course being surronded by kids :) and then we went back!!! After words we went on a tour of living hope where they help woman who are single mothers who have HIV. It was so cool to get a tour and see all they do, disiple ship classes, day care for the womans babies and teach them practical skills so they can provide for themselves (sewing, making peanut butter). The next day the 6 of us where invited to go to a refugee camp where watoto does a camp to help the people deal with all that they've been through. There where 2800 people there!! they where so happy that we came and danced, did dramas, and sang for us it was so cool. We even got to here a couple of testimonies, God is so good. Since coming back from gulu, we have said way to many goodbyes. Andy (from NZ) left on tuesday, Lina, Tone, Kristine and Amy (from Norway) left last night- that one was the hardest one yet because we've been together for the last 4.5 months, and today we say goodbye to a couple babies and tomorrow we say goodbye to the rest, i'm already a mess- i wish we had more time, but i doubt there would ever be enough time. This week we had to say another goodbye, a little boy, 3 years old, named Cooper passed away this week. He had a blood clot that stopped his heart, so we all went to his memorial, it was very sad, and is so hard to understand why something like that would ever happen, only God knows. Please pray that we make it through Saturday as its going to be very hard. Please also pray for Agnes and Kenneth as their health is not good. God bless and we shall see you all in 2.5 weeks
-Christina
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Mombasa and after - AKM
Got off the train in Mombasa and got picked up by a guy named Kombo. He was so great. He's been in the tourist business for like 20years. He convinced us to switch where we were staying. He took us to a better place than we were planning on staying at and it was still cheap enough for us. We were practically right on the ocean. So beautiful. Unfortunatley the beach boys drive you nuts so it's hard to relax. Next day Amy, Tone, Lina and Christina went snorkling with Kombo. They got to have a sea food lunch and sea a bunch of sea animals. Couple of the girls got small scratches from coral. While they did that Kristine and I stayed home and just chilled on the beach. Went out for italian ice cream. The walk was a lot longer than we had thought it was going to be. Thankfully the ice cream was worth it. Next day didn't go so well for me. Woke up with a splitting headache, which continued until the rest of our time there. Laid in bed the whole time sweating to death, unwanting to move. The rest of the girls still got to do some cool things. They sailed out to a little island, rode camels, found amazing shells and got tanned. Last day there we finally took me to the hospital to get checked out. About an hour later I was diagnosed with malaria and a bacterial infection. Got two needles. They said I could finish the rest of my treatment in Nairobi, so they gave me two viles for more injections and pain killers. Chilled around in resteraunts until we went to the train station. Survived the train ride alright. In the morning God blessed us so much. Saw so many wild animals out the window. Gazelles, wilderbeasts, zebras... it was so amazing. Arrived in Nairobi and went straight to the hospital. There they tested me again and put me on an IV drip. Took forever to get my test results. Christina had to keep running around doing things because we didn't have an attendant. Finally they came back with my results. Still possitve with malaria. The doctor decided to switch me to oral treatment instead of the injections. Which meant I had to pay more money. Hopefully insurance can get it all back. After the hospital we booked our bus tickets back to Uganda and went to Monica's again. Monica and David were so good to me. Constantly checking my temperature, getting me food and drink, and making sure I was comfortably rested. Before we left we gave them a thank-you gift. The two have become like family to me and its so hard to say good bye. Thankfully we'll get to see them again on our way to Botswana. Bus ride back to Uganda was so horrid. They do not know how to pave roads here. My head was killing me, I just wanted to cry the whole time. Had such a hard time drinking. Finally made it back to Kampala. Picked up some groceries and got Mike to drive us back out to Suubi. Shortly after unpacking got a text from Sandrah saying we needed to move back to Buziga, due to much needed renovations that are going to be done out in Suubi. So, had Mike come back, and packed all our stuff into his car. Was so packed. Mike was just laughing, he's never had his car so full. Made it to Buziga and just collapsed. So tired of travelling. Finished the last of my medication. Then went to bed still feeling horrid. Next morning I had a miraculous recovery. My headache was pretty well subdued and I was so hungry and thirsty. I ate and drank so much that day. I was overflowing with joy and praising God. Still have a bit of recovery to do but I have been blessed so much. They sent us back out to Suubi for one night, due to a special guest coming out. We had to do so much work to make the place look perfect. Washing, organizing, straightening, making sure the kids all had new clothes... it was crazy. We're both highly exhausted afterwards and were glad to have the day off today to just relax after everything we've been through.
Thank-you so much to everyone who has been praying for me while I was struggling with malaria. Prayer works. We believe in an Awsome God. Please keep up the prayers as we finish out our last month in Africa. Time is flying by so fast. Love and appreciate you all.
Amie
Thank-you so much to everyone who has been praying for me while I was struggling with malaria. Prayer works. We believe in an Awsome God. Please keep up the prayers as we finish out our last month in Africa. Time is flying by so fast. Love and appreciate you all.
Amie
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Kenya- Nairobi
Wow what a fantastic week it has been for us. So we left Suubi on Saturday and the goodbyes where so painfull for me, I still haven't figured out how I'll be able to leave them all for good... I guess this is a good trial run. When we left on friday there where about 10 in the sick room out at Suubi, we haven't heard how the kids are doing so hopefully they are all good and happy. I'm not sure if Amie told you or not, but I'll tell you anyways Jude, my baby, had a really high fever and was at bullrushes for 4 days. I'm sure all the nannies got annoyed with me asking when Jude was coming back!! But he came back a week ago last sunday and is doing really well. Leah, one of the girls from the sets of twins, had a hernia which was growing, last we heard she was at the doctors office booking appointment to get that opperated on, so pray that that went well. Anyways we left Suubi and stayed at Buziga, the place where we where staying in Kampala. We went out for supper with Sonya, one of the volunteers who used to be out at Suubi but had gone home for christmas, and Lucy another volunteer from Australia who had been up in Gulu and was leaving on monday, as well as the norweigens. Sunday morning we woke up early and took the bus to Jinja for a horse back ride along the nile. It was so cool to see the nile and "the source of the nile" and go horse back riding again. Only down side to that was that we rode english, I never realized how much more I enjoy western! So much more relaxing!! But it was fun non the less after I got used to the bouncy gait they call a canter. Monday we went to bullrushes and said goodbye to whatever babies were left that we knew, which was all of 3, well 2- we had gone to say goodbye to Leah but she was at the doctors the whole time we where there :(. Had dinner that night with a bunch of volunteers, most of them who would be gone by the time we got back to Uganda and then boarder the bus for our 12hr bus ride to Kenya. The bus was fine, not alot of leg room so it was a good thing that we had the front seat and where able to stretch out. Crossing the boarder was find and nothing exiting happened. Got to Nairobi and where pleasently surprised to find mostly good driving habits as well as clean roads and not mass amounts of people like we find in Kamapala. We dropped our begs off at the hostel and then I got a call from Monica and David, family friends from way back in Finnland, who insisted that we stay at their house starting tomorrow as we already booked in at the hostel. Went to the Giraffe centre where we got the oppertunity to feed, hug and get kissed by giraffes!! It was an awesome experience!! Then went out for supper for Amy's (norweigen) birthday! Amie and I each got a good sized small pizza for $5!! got to love africa!! Wednesday MOnica and David picked us up and it turns out they live right next to the giraffe centre, so Monica was planning on taking us there, We ended up having an amazing lunch and then napping for over 2hrs. On thursday we went to the elephant orphanage and watched them feed, even got to touch them. On the way back we drove past a bunch of baboons sitting on the side of the road. Then in the afternoon after lunch we saw 2 lepoard tortoises on around 40 years old that weighed 60-70 pounds and a smaller one, Amie and I both picked up a tortoise, I the big one and Amie the little one, it was so cool to see them. Staying at Monica's was so nice and so relaxing. It was also really cool because she had come to Houston almost 40 years ago and she showed me pictures of places I recognize, Babine Lake and Moricetown Canyon as well as pictures of my great grandpa's farm. Friday we had the oppertunity to visit my dad's sponosor kid, Joseph, who lived just out side of Nairobi. It was such an awesome experience and we gave him a soccer ball to share which was so cool.. and Joseph and his little brother couldn't stop smiling. We got to meet his parents who took the day off just to meet us and got to see his house. After that we had lunch in town and then went to the train station and met up with the norweigens who had been on Safari for the last 3 days. We got on the train and Amie and I shared our own compartment with a bunk bed and a seat that turned into a bed, we also served dinner and breakfast in the dinning cart. It was so neat to be on a train and spent most of the time we where awake looking out the window waving at kids as we passed by. And finally after 14hrs on the train we saw the Indian Ocean for the first time and Mombassa. (I'll let Amie tell you about our time in Mombasa next week- so far its been fantastic)
Just to update you on the elections in Uganda- Museveni was reelected president by 68% so the opponents are already calling foul as there where alot of fishy things happening on election day- missing ballot cards, peoples names missing from lists. Last we heard last night Besigye (Museveni's main opponent) was getting people to rally on the streets of Kamapala which was already happening last night, and thats the last we heard. Please pray that if Uganda has a revolution (which wouldn't necessarly be a bad thing) it would be a peacefull revolution and they wouldn't follow the example of so many other african nations.
Also please pray that Amie and I are able to return to Uganda on Saturday like we planned... Kenya is nice but I miss the babies way to much!!! and also that God would just guide us in our last 3 weeks in Uganda, whether or not we should go up to Gulu for a week or just spend our time saying goodbye out in Suubi.
Thanks for your continued prayers!! This has been an amazing experience and we are both so glad that its not over yet.
-Christina
ps- i'll try to update the rest of our kenya trip sometime soon :)
Just to update you on the elections in Uganda- Museveni was reelected president by 68% so the opponents are already calling foul as there where alot of fishy things happening on election day- missing ballot cards, peoples names missing from lists. Last we heard last night Besigye (Museveni's main opponent) was getting people to rally on the streets of Kamapala which was already happening last night, and thats the last we heard. Please pray that if Uganda has a revolution (which wouldn't necessarly be a bad thing) it would be a peacefull revolution and they wouldn't follow the example of so many other african nations.
Also please pray that Amie and I are able to return to Uganda on Saturday like we planned... Kenya is nice but I miss the babies way to much!!! and also that God would just guide us in our last 3 weeks in Uganda, whether or not we should go up to Gulu for a week or just spend our time saying goodbye out in Suubi.
Thanks for your continued prayers!! This has been an amazing experience and we are both so glad that its not over yet.
-Christina
ps- i'll try to update the rest of our kenya trip sometime soon :)
Friday, February 11, 2011
February 11 - AKM
Hello readers
Here to update you on whats been going on lately.
Nothing too exciting. Lots of planning for our trip to Kenya. We leave monday night. Getting a bit excited. We have a few things planned to do while we stay. We'll be sure to tell you all about it once we are (hopefully) back in Uganda. Keep praying the upcoming elections go well.
We now have a huge group of babies here in Suubi. They just recently moved most of the kids from Bulrushes up here. They are making Bulrushes mainly the place just for sick kids. We visited Bulrushes the other day. It's so empty there now. Many of the volunteers are still there. Suubi deffinatley needs more help, so we are hoping they send more people up here soon. We had a couple more volunteers for awhile. They came with the new babies to help them settle in. They're back to Kampala now so its just Christina and I again. We did just have a family move into the apartments here. Haven't met them yet but the wife is supposed to start working here soon. Don't know if we'll get to meet her before we leave.
Please keep praying for our babies. We have several in isolation battling with sickness. I, also, am struggling with a nasty cold. Havn't worked in quite a few days. Tried working this morning for about an hour but then had coughing fits. Christina's been struggling with sickness a bit too, but shes still been working hard. She came upstairs yesterday covered in baby food. The kids had attacked her. I got to see one of the culprits. She was even messier and looked so rediculous. Made me laugh (they say thats the best medicine.)
Found out we are going to be able to go to Gulu baby home after Kenya. It's the only Watoto baby home we havn't visited yet. We're so glad we are going to get this awsome opertunity.
Thanks again to all of you who have been supporting us. Your prayers mean so much. God bless you and keep you!
~Amie
Here to update you on whats been going on lately.
Nothing too exciting. Lots of planning for our trip to Kenya. We leave monday night. Getting a bit excited. We have a few things planned to do while we stay. We'll be sure to tell you all about it once we are (hopefully) back in Uganda. Keep praying the upcoming elections go well.
We now have a huge group of babies here in Suubi. They just recently moved most of the kids from Bulrushes up here. They are making Bulrushes mainly the place just for sick kids. We visited Bulrushes the other day. It's so empty there now. Many of the volunteers are still there. Suubi deffinatley needs more help, so we are hoping they send more people up here soon. We had a couple more volunteers for awhile. They came with the new babies to help them settle in. They're back to Kampala now so its just Christina and I again. We did just have a family move into the apartments here. Haven't met them yet but the wife is supposed to start working here soon. Don't know if we'll get to meet her before we leave.
Please keep praying for our babies. We have several in isolation battling with sickness. I, also, am struggling with a nasty cold. Havn't worked in quite a few days. Tried working this morning for about an hour but then had coughing fits. Christina's been struggling with sickness a bit too, but shes still been working hard. She came upstairs yesterday covered in baby food. The kids had attacked her. I got to see one of the culprits. She was even messier and looked so rediculous. Made me laugh (they say thats the best medicine.)
Found out we are going to be able to go to Gulu baby home after Kenya. It's the only Watoto baby home we havn't visited yet. We're so glad we are going to get this awsome opertunity.
Thanks again to all of you who have been supporting us. Your prayers mean so much. God bless you and keep you!
~Amie
Monday, January 31, 2011
Rwanda + some -CDB
Wow its been so longs since we've updated this, everytime I was going to get around to it our internet conked out on us!! So lets catch you up to speed on whats happening now. In the last couple of weeks we have gone 2 church with some of the babies, the first week was a success and the babies sat quitely for the sermon or slept, but our second try yesterday didn't work out as well, the babies where all restless and one little boy, Sam, decided he would like to preach instead, so he spent the whole sermon comentating uncoherently :) thus we made an escape a little early to save from distracting the entire congregation.
Went to pick up our visas, and figuring I better check the expirey date on them as a volunteer got sent home a month early with 10 days notice. I checked our expirey date, and wouldn't you know it they expired on the 20th of March. This isn't a huge problem as we were already planning on going down to Botswana to visit Luke Saffarek, but now we have 4 days that we must figure out where to go to spend, we have decided to head down to Tanzania and spend a couple of days in Zanzibar and from there fly to Johannesburg. In the end it will all work out.
A couple of the Norweigens moved in with us first Lina and Tone for about a week, it was great to have some company back at Suubi and Lina, Tone and I did a little bit of excersing, jogging and such, but this heat makes it alot more crazy as we are now just coming in the hot season. But I should probably get in the habbit of it I suppose :)
On Jan. 22 we worked the morning shift, then after work we went down to the main road to catch a matatu and as we where waiting we where swarmed by several Ugandans, one asked Amie if she was married to which she replied yes and showed him her "wedding" ring, he then asked me if i was married and i said yes. He then persisted to ask Amie if she had any friends because he wanted a wife just like her and was wondering if any of her friends would be interested in meeting him, to his disapointment all her friends lived across the ocean. He then persisted to ask her for her phone number and I eventually just dragged her away telling him her husband would be jealous. After that we got into town and went to the church for a service, during that weekend they had a revival sermon, it was so good, just praising God, it was great, my current favorite song at the moment is Our God is Love by Hillsong. So anyways enjoyed the sermon, and then we went to have supper at at pizzeria with a bunch of volunteer, after we had finished our pizza we took taxis down to the bus station. As we where standing by our taxi grabbing out our bags some guy grabbed a plastic water bottle from Amie's back pack, well i don't know why but 2 guys started fighting over this, and a couple of the girls almost became injured innocent bystanders, but everyone was able to avoid the flailing fists and quickly get into the bus station, all this because of a plastic disposable water bottle!! Apperently Ugandans hate stealing, so this out break b/c of someone stealing is a fairly common occurence. Hoped on the bus and spent the next 10hrs on the bus, except for our 4am boarder crossing and random stops for gas, where some of the girls got out to use the washroom, 1 was a hole, the other was a corner in the yard, and the 3rd was lets just say not the cleanest of washrooms, thank goodness I didn't need to go :) Got into Kigali Rwanda at 7am Rwandan time, now apperently there is a time change between Rwanda and Uganda, this we did not know so we are still thinking that its 8am, we went to the hotel, had breakfast and then took the local motorbikes called Motos, they are extremly safe, helmets are a must and also unlike Uganda they will only take 1 passenger. We went to a church where the head pastors are from BC affliated with PAOC, they weren't there that weekend, but had given me the information about the church via email. So we where sitting in the church at what we thought was 10am wondering why the church was so empty, Amie and I took a walk and where looking at bullitin boards and met 2 Rwandan guys who invited us to their young adults sunday school class, we where so confused and didn't understand when it was if it was currently 10, and eventually figured out that it was only 9am, so we all decided to join them (btw 7 of us came to Rwanda, 4 Norweigens, 1 NZ, and the 2 of us) It was alot of fun getting to know them, and participate in their class as they began to learn about the fruits of the spirit. After the service the church invited us as first time visitors to join them for some refreshments and a chance to talk to some leaders of the church, we felt so welcome by the entire church body, as the young adults welcomed us into their class, as people came up to us during the sermon to welcome us and as the pastors met with us, it was awesome. Spent the rest of the day relaxing.
Warning this is PG
Monday we woke up early as we had a tour planned to visit some of the memorial sights. It was a very sobering experience to be in the churches where tutsie people had gathered expecting to be protected in the church and where killed in the church. The church no contains alot of the clothes of people killed in the genocide, exactly as they where found, the roof contained bullet wholes and blood stains, and the wall had imprints of where they through babies at the wall, it was so sad. They had mass graves in the yard which we where able to walk through, so sad, and just brings what happened to life. After visiting another church set up very similiar we had lunch and then went to the genocide museum. As we walked through the museum we where loaded with information, a couple of things that stand out to me was how the rest of the world just stood by when they had the power to stop what was happening, when the genocide started the UN pulled out when one of the commanders asked for more men they refused, the world sat by as thousands of people where killed, and this didn't happen years ago, it happened merely 15 years ago. Another thing that stuck out was the heros of the genocide, one lady was assumed crazy, so she used that to protect many refugees by scaring away soldiers, the sacrfices people made to risk their own lifes is so phenomenal. The saddest part of the museum was the last part of the museum called the children's room, there where pictures of kids, a little bit about them, how old they where, their favorite food, best friend, favorite toy and sometimes their last words, and allways how they died, it was so heart breaking!
After the museum we went out for supper and then sat on the patio and watched the moon rise. On tuesday we where planning on going to Hotel Rwanda and relax but it wasn't exactly hot, so we walked around town, checked out the craft market and went on a Moto ride. It was sad to leave Rwanda. Rwanda is an amazing country that has come so far in such a short amount of time, the streets are clean, there is no corruption, traffic laws are obeyed, its Africa with a huge dash of the westren world (western prices too :). ) Had an uneventull bus ride back to Uganda and where able to get dropped off at Suubi on the way, so at 4am we made our way back home and enjoyed a little sleep before heading downstairs back to work.
Thursday Tone and I went to Bbira for our last soccer practice with the girls, we played a game and had some guys join in, it was alot of fun, hot but still fun. Unfortunatly we won't be able to keep it going now that school has started the kids have a full day during the week, and we aren't able to get the weekend off to do it then, and we don't have a whole lot more weeks left untill we come home. After soccer we had a volunteer meeting and then Lina and Kristine came back to Suubi with us for the weekend. Work has been good, and all the babies are more or less healthy. Saturday we had another volunteer move in for the next couple weeks and slept on the roof in our own little mosquito net :) and woke up to see the sunrise which was spectacular. After work on Sunday we came into town, when to a concert at church put on by the young adults, it was amazing the singing and dancing, Africa is covered with a much less slutty versions of Beyonce!! After the concert we went back to Buziga for the night, hung out with all the other volunteers playing Mafia and psychiatrist then woke up early and talked to my brother and Cody.
We are heading into town pretty quick to see my babies and head to the craft market and get groceries. Not alot exciting happening in the next couple of weeks, but after that we head to Kenya for the elections, please keep that in your prayers as africa is errupting with troubles of presidents refusing to step down, Egypt, Tunisia, and Ivory Coast. Please pray that the same does not happen in Uganda. As for Sudan, the final verdict of the voting that happened in the begining of january gets released this week, so pray that that goes peacefully. Please pray for continued health for us and the babies, and as we are planning our trips that that all goes well and doesn't stress us out.
God Bless you all
- Christina
Went to pick up our visas, and figuring I better check the expirey date on them as a volunteer got sent home a month early with 10 days notice. I checked our expirey date, and wouldn't you know it they expired on the 20th of March. This isn't a huge problem as we were already planning on going down to Botswana to visit Luke Saffarek, but now we have 4 days that we must figure out where to go to spend, we have decided to head down to Tanzania and spend a couple of days in Zanzibar and from there fly to Johannesburg. In the end it will all work out.
A couple of the Norweigens moved in with us first Lina and Tone for about a week, it was great to have some company back at Suubi and Lina, Tone and I did a little bit of excersing, jogging and such, but this heat makes it alot more crazy as we are now just coming in the hot season. But I should probably get in the habbit of it I suppose :)
On Jan. 22 we worked the morning shift, then after work we went down to the main road to catch a matatu and as we where waiting we where swarmed by several Ugandans, one asked Amie if she was married to which she replied yes and showed him her "wedding" ring, he then asked me if i was married and i said yes. He then persisted to ask Amie if she had any friends because he wanted a wife just like her and was wondering if any of her friends would be interested in meeting him, to his disapointment all her friends lived across the ocean. He then persisted to ask her for her phone number and I eventually just dragged her away telling him her husband would be jealous. After that we got into town and went to the church for a service, during that weekend they had a revival sermon, it was so good, just praising God, it was great, my current favorite song at the moment is Our God is Love by Hillsong. So anyways enjoyed the sermon, and then we went to have supper at at pizzeria with a bunch of volunteer, after we had finished our pizza we took taxis down to the bus station. As we where standing by our taxi grabbing out our bags some guy grabbed a plastic water bottle from Amie's back pack, well i don't know why but 2 guys started fighting over this, and a couple of the girls almost became injured innocent bystanders, but everyone was able to avoid the flailing fists and quickly get into the bus station, all this because of a plastic disposable water bottle!! Apperently Ugandans hate stealing, so this out break b/c of someone stealing is a fairly common occurence. Hoped on the bus and spent the next 10hrs on the bus, except for our 4am boarder crossing and random stops for gas, where some of the girls got out to use the washroom, 1 was a hole, the other was a corner in the yard, and the 3rd was lets just say not the cleanest of washrooms, thank goodness I didn't need to go :) Got into Kigali Rwanda at 7am Rwandan time, now apperently there is a time change between Rwanda and Uganda, this we did not know so we are still thinking that its 8am, we went to the hotel, had breakfast and then took the local motorbikes called Motos, they are extremly safe, helmets are a must and also unlike Uganda they will only take 1 passenger. We went to a church where the head pastors are from BC affliated with PAOC, they weren't there that weekend, but had given me the information about the church via email. So we where sitting in the church at what we thought was 10am wondering why the church was so empty, Amie and I took a walk and where looking at bullitin boards and met 2 Rwandan guys who invited us to their young adults sunday school class, we where so confused and didn't understand when it was if it was currently 10, and eventually figured out that it was only 9am, so we all decided to join them (btw 7 of us came to Rwanda, 4 Norweigens, 1 NZ, and the 2 of us) It was alot of fun getting to know them, and participate in their class as they began to learn about the fruits of the spirit. After the service the church invited us as first time visitors to join them for some refreshments and a chance to talk to some leaders of the church, we felt so welcome by the entire church body, as the young adults welcomed us into their class, as people came up to us during the sermon to welcome us and as the pastors met with us, it was awesome. Spent the rest of the day relaxing.
Warning this is PG
Monday we woke up early as we had a tour planned to visit some of the memorial sights. It was a very sobering experience to be in the churches where tutsie people had gathered expecting to be protected in the church and where killed in the church. The church no contains alot of the clothes of people killed in the genocide, exactly as they where found, the roof contained bullet wholes and blood stains, and the wall had imprints of where they through babies at the wall, it was so sad. They had mass graves in the yard which we where able to walk through, so sad, and just brings what happened to life. After visiting another church set up very similiar we had lunch and then went to the genocide museum. As we walked through the museum we where loaded with information, a couple of things that stand out to me was how the rest of the world just stood by when they had the power to stop what was happening, when the genocide started the UN pulled out when one of the commanders asked for more men they refused, the world sat by as thousands of people where killed, and this didn't happen years ago, it happened merely 15 years ago. Another thing that stuck out was the heros of the genocide, one lady was assumed crazy, so she used that to protect many refugees by scaring away soldiers, the sacrfices people made to risk their own lifes is so phenomenal. The saddest part of the museum was the last part of the museum called the children's room, there where pictures of kids, a little bit about them, how old they where, their favorite food, best friend, favorite toy and sometimes their last words, and allways how they died, it was so heart breaking!
After the museum we went out for supper and then sat on the patio and watched the moon rise. On tuesday we where planning on going to Hotel Rwanda and relax but it wasn't exactly hot, so we walked around town, checked out the craft market and went on a Moto ride. It was sad to leave Rwanda. Rwanda is an amazing country that has come so far in such a short amount of time, the streets are clean, there is no corruption, traffic laws are obeyed, its Africa with a huge dash of the westren world (western prices too :). ) Had an uneventull bus ride back to Uganda and where able to get dropped off at Suubi on the way, so at 4am we made our way back home and enjoyed a little sleep before heading downstairs back to work.
Thursday Tone and I went to Bbira for our last soccer practice with the girls, we played a game and had some guys join in, it was alot of fun, hot but still fun. Unfortunatly we won't be able to keep it going now that school has started the kids have a full day during the week, and we aren't able to get the weekend off to do it then, and we don't have a whole lot more weeks left untill we come home. After soccer we had a volunteer meeting and then Lina and Kristine came back to Suubi with us for the weekend. Work has been good, and all the babies are more or less healthy. Saturday we had another volunteer move in for the next couple weeks and slept on the roof in our own little mosquito net :) and woke up to see the sunrise which was spectacular. After work on Sunday we came into town, when to a concert at church put on by the young adults, it was amazing the singing and dancing, Africa is covered with a much less slutty versions of Beyonce!! After the concert we went back to Buziga for the night, hung out with all the other volunteers playing Mafia and psychiatrist then woke up early and talked to my brother and Cody.
We are heading into town pretty quick to see my babies and head to the craft market and get groceries. Not alot exciting happening in the next couple of weeks, but after that we head to Kenya for the elections, please keep that in your prayers as africa is errupting with troubles of presidents refusing to step down, Egypt, Tunisia, and Ivory Coast. Please pray that the same does not happen in Uganda. As for Sudan, the final verdict of the voting that happened in the begining of january gets released this week, so pray that that goes peacefully. Please pray for continued health for us and the babies, and as we are planning our trips that that all goes well and doesn't stress us out.
God Bless you all
- Christina
Saturday, January 15, 2011
January 15 - AKM
We're now half way done our trip. The next 2 and a half months are going to fly by so fast. It's amazing to look back and see all that we've done so far.
Thanks so much to all of you who keep us in your prayers. We are all much healthier now.
Had to say goodbye to our Australian room mates here at Suubi. Jen and Anita went back home and Lucy has gone to Gulu village for 5weeks. It's sad to say goodbye to friends and now its very empty in our home, just Christina and I. Two of the Norwegians, Tone and Lina, are moving in on monday though. The girls doing soccer have missed it for the past few weeks. Mostly due to it being the kids' break and its hard to get everyone together. Suubi soccer has been cancelled due to school starting up soon and there won't be anytime for us and the kids to get together. Kind of sad that didn't work out. Hopefully in the future more sports can be set up here. Keeping Bbira soccer going atleast until school starts again though. Once school starts we'll see if there is a time that we can still keep it going.
Nannies have specific babies now. Before it was just all the nannies taking care of all the kids. Now its better for the babies because the nannies get to know their specific kids and can tell more easily if something is the matter with one of them.
Had to say goodbye to my favourite little girl, Ella, on Thursday. Her family came to take her back. I'm glad she gets to be with her true family, but still its very hard for me to let her go. When this trip is over its going to be so hard to say goodbye to all the kids knowing that we might not ever get to see them again. Same day Ella left, I had to go into town with some of the special needs kids to do phsio at the International Hospital Kampala. That helped keep my mind occupied. It was cool to get to go in with the kids. We'll see if I get to do that more often. Christina might possibly be going into town next week with Anita. She has a clubbed foot and is getting surgery done. Please pray that the surgery goes well for her.
Today Christina and I made a treck down to the Equator. Met the Norwegians down there. We can now officially say we've been in the southern hemisphere. There wasn't too much there to see. Some craft markets, cafes and of course the line of the equator. Was lots of fun hanging out there though. Planning a trip to Rwanda next weekend. We'll be going with the Norwegians and Andy.
Sudan finished its voting sometime today. Hopefully we will find out more information on the situation there tomorrow. Please keep Sudan in your prayers. We'll try to update you guys updated on all thats going on here.
-Amie
Thanks so much to all of you who keep us in your prayers. We are all much healthier now.
Had to say goodbye to our Australian room mates here at Suubi. Jen and Anita went back home and Lucy has gone to Gulu village for 5weeks. It's sad to say goodbye to friends and now its very empty in our home, just Christina and I. Two of the Norwegians, Tone and Lina, are moving in on monday though. The girls doing soccer have missed it for the past few weeks. Mostly due to it being the kids' break and its hard to get everyone together. Suubi soccer has been cancelled due to school starting up soon and there won't be anytime for us and the kids to get together. Kind of sad that didn't work out. Hopefully in the future more sports can be set up here. Keeping Bbira soccer going atleast until school starts again though. Once school starts we'll see if there is a time that we can still keep it going.
Nannies have specific babies now. Before it was just all the nannies taking care of all the kids. Now its better for the babies because the nannies get to know their specific kids and can tell more easily if something is the matter with one of them.
Had to say goodbye to my favourite little girl, Ella, on Thursday. Her family came to take her back. I'm glad she gets to be with her true family, but still its very hard for me to let her go. When this trip is over its going to be so hard to say goodbye to all the kids knowing that we might not ever get to see them again. Same day Ella left, I had to go into town with some of the special needs kids to do phsio at the International Hospital Kampala. That helped keep my mind occupied. It was cool to get to go in with the kids. We'll see if I get to do that more often. Christina might possibly be going into town next week with Anita. She has a clubbed foot and is getting surgery done. Please pray that the surgery goes well for her.
Today Christina and I made a treck down to the Equator. Met the Norwegians down there. We can now officially say we've been in the southern hemisphere. There wasn't too much there to see. Some craft markets, cafes and of course the line of the equator. Was lots of fun hanging out there though. Planning a trip to Rwanda next weekend. We'll be going with the Norwegians and Andy.
Sudan finished its voting sometime today. Hopefully we will find out more information on the situation there tomorrow. Please keep Sudan in your prayers. We'll try to update you guys updated on all thats going on here.
-Amie
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