Uganda & Kenya May-June 2013 from elisa hyman on Vimeo.
June 23, 2013
June 22, 2013
Kenya Days 13-14
Day
Thirteen
This
morning, Brittany and I woke up around 5:00 a.m. to fill Hannah's room with
balloons and sing Happy Birthday. Her
mother had sent me a birthday care package almost two months ago and I was
anxious to share it with her!
The kids
were dismissed from school today so we took a nature walk to the nearby
lake. It is so beautiful in
Kenya! As we got closer to the water,
there was a sign that said "Beware of Hippo!" What?!
Thankfully, we did not have any encounters! As we walked, the kids grabbed wild cactus
fruit and carefully ate them. What a
beautiful land these kids get to explore.
At
evening worship, I realize that I've been claimed by a little girl named
Milcah. She placed her bible on a chair
next to hers and doesn't move it until I walk in. Just like my Ugandan girls, she doesn't say
much. But holds my hand tightly and
likes to be held in my arms. So that's
what we do! I put my arm around her
during worship, I put her face in my hands and tell her how beautiful she is
when I say good night, and we walk hand in hand. That's how I play Mama to these kids. That's all they want, to be someone's
undivided attention. She waits patiently
for me at the bottom of the stairs during our teams mealtime and she saves my
seat in worship time. She wrote me
letters everyday and today she wrote it to Mom!
We went
to Amazing Grace Ministry today, which houses about 30 children ages 4 and
up. They truly have very little, but are
full of joy! The ministry director has a
calling to love on these kids in a family setting, not like an orphanage. The
kids are full of love and spirit. They
very proudly showed us their individual gardens, their rabbits, ducks and
cows. They had two puppies that are
supposed to be guard dogs, but are slowly turning into pets, after the kids had
watched an American kids movie introducing them to pets living in a home. They keep asking if their dogs can sleep inside
with them, but to Africans, that is silly!
One of
our team members got to preach tonight at evening worship. Kristi did an amazing job. I'm so glad she stepped up, I was worried
about having to do it myself...lol!
After the kids had their evening worship, our team spent some time in
our devotional and worship time. Naomi,
made a special birthday song for Hannah, which was hilarious! And Brittany and
I introduced the warm fuzzy books I had made for each team member. We began writing about our memories together.
Day
Fourteen
This is
our last full day together. We had some
of our team working in the Fiwagoh clinic, some playing with kids, and some
teaching at the school. Most of the
teachers handed over their classrooms to our team. Our team taught science, social studies,
math,and English. We dipped out when it
came to Swahili, ha!
In the
afternoon, we visited Haven of Hope again.
The team really seemed to enjoy spending time with the kids there. We unloaded donations of clothes, crafts and
sports equipment. The kids sang a few songs
for us and we preformed a few for them.
What a beautiful ministry!
After
dinner and Fiwagoh worship, it was time for our team to process and come to a
close. We gave the opportunity for
anyone to share any talent, or scripture.
Hannah showed us how she can lick her elbow, and Brittany and I
preformed a reenactment of Praise Him, a hilariously bad performance from some
young adults in Kampala. We got serious
and talked about what is next? Many
shared how God worked thru them during this trip. It was awesome! We had our final team worship and we belted
it out! We cried out to God and praised
Him for brining us together. Kenya Days 10-12
Day ten
We said
our goodbyes to Ekubo and got on the road to County Lake Resort.
This was our respite. A day of relaxing and recouping before
another week of ministry. We processed a
little on the road. I was super excited
to take the team to this Resort because it it simply beautiful! We were eating lunch watching the waves crash
on Lake Victoria when I remembered a team member telling me she wanted to get
baptized. Brittany and I were honored
to be a part of this! We scouted out a
good spot, and got it done! What an
experience!
The
shower I took at the resort was one of the most fulfilling showers I have
had! The water trickled out slowly, but
it was warm and I was clean! Brittany
and I reclined on our private patio talking and giggling! After dinner, we had
our team devotional and worship time.
Wow, it was powerful! Rest and a
nice hot shower can do wonders for a team!
We all piled into one of our teams rooms. It was a tight fit, but I think the coziness
made for better worship. Once again, our
worship leader rocked it!
At bed
time, Brittany and I had the great idea of checking up on our team members with
a little humor. We snook up to one of
the room windows and not even 5 seconds later, we had two hysterical young
girls! It was actually very funny, and
they took it very well considering! So
we thought we'd try scaring some more rooms.
What a bad idea! At the next room,
there was no window, so we went to the back porch. I couldn't reach over the fence, so I pushed
a chair into their back door, expecting a scream or some kind of reaction. Instead, there was just silence. So I kept doing it. The lights went out. Brittany and I were about to pee our pants
with laughter! We went to the front door
and Brittany opened it. It was unlocked! I lost it!
I couldn't stop laughing! Well
out came two very very frightened team members that were on their knees
praying, thinking that someone was trying to break into their room. Uh...mission team leader fail! Brittany and I felt awful! Awful!
I wasn't sure those girls would ever forgive us, so we retreated to our
room and locked our own doors!
Day
eleven
Another
day waking before sunrise. We boarded
our bus to the airport to fly to Kenya.
A few days ago Brittany had introduced a game I like to call The Stupid
iPod Game. Basically, you put your headphones in and cover your ears as you
sing to music and everyone laughs. Well,
I wasn't done having fun, so we played this game on the way to Kenya...on the
plane! Too funny! Good times!
Once we
landed in Kenya, our driver told us that we couldn't arrive to Fiwagoh
Ministries until sundown. They are a
Seventh Day Adventist ministry and observe the Sabbath. So we improvised and took the opportunity to
shop. Our driver took us to various
small shops overlooking the Great Rift Valley.
Simply breath taking! I can't
believe this is my life! The shop owners
were very aggressive and Brittany and I had to give our team some tips on how
to deal with them. This is not my first
rodeo, and I know how much these tourist type items are jacked up in price for
white people. When I shop in these
stores, I rarely make eye contact, I don't touch an item unless I truly am
interested, I never act interested, even if it is an item I've been searching
for. I offer 1/3 to half of what they
are asking for. If they don't come down
to my asking price, I walk away. It
sounds harsh, but it works! Almost every
single time I walk away, they chase me down and say, "okay, you
bring," meaning that they are accepting my offer. This was one of the most aggressive spots I
have ever been to and there items were not high quality, so I was roothless in
my negotiating skills.
It was
starting to get dark, and almost time for us to arrive at Fiwagoh and we saw
our first set of wild zebras! I can't
believe that I get to do this stuff! We pulled over and snapped a few
pictures.
When we
pulled up to Fiwagoh, we were greeted with an overwhelmingly warm welcome. It was dark, the sun had just set, and the
Sabbath was over. The 200 kids chased
the bus until it reached its stopping point.
When the doors opened there was a sea of brown arms reaching in grabbing
every team member exiting as if to claim them before anyone else could. I was claimed by three teenage girls, my
favorite age! We were escorted into a
courtyard where the tiny Pastor Benson introduced himself and welcomed us. He was the first I saw to have a megaphone. What a great idea! I'm putting that on my wish list for my next
team! It came time for me to introduce
the team, and he handed me the megaphone.
With 200 kids sitting quietly, I got a little stage fright. My coleader had no desire to help a sister
out, so I quickly told them we were excited to be there and love on them and
then I introduced each team member. I
handed the megaphone back to Pastor Benson and his response was "that's
it?" Lol!
Our team
settled into their rooms filled with bunk beds and rested.
Day
twelve
Fiwagoh
ministry has morning worship at 6:00 a.m. And evening worship at 7:00
p.m.. Watching the sunrise is going to
get old...lol! None of us had been to
Fiwagoh before, so we didn't really know what to expect. I really don't have any experience with
Seventh Day Adventists so I couldn't really prepare my team. All i knew was that they practice the
sabbath, are vegan and are not charismatic. Flexibility and grace have been our
teams theme, so we just went with the flow.
The worship was organized and carried out by the children. that amazed me! It started with two hymns, which
the children all knew from heart...all 10 verses...lol! And then a word from Nash, a fifteen year old
boy. They pray on their knees and then
worship is done.
It was
late and I was just about asleep, when I hear Brittany screaming! She said that there was poo on her bed! I didn't believe her and thought that maybe
she was plunking me. S I got up to
investigate and their was indeed some kind of poo looking dropping! Her jaw was wide open in disbelief and I was
on the floor in tears! I couldn't stop
laughing! We eventually found out it was
a prank! I'm so glad to have a team that
can joke and a coleader that can take a joke!
Uganda Days 7-9
Day seven
Saying
goodbye to Return Ministries was difficult for our team. I was the only one who had ever been there,
and my visits were only for a few hours. The days we spent there were full of
children that desperately needed one on one love and attention. They children didn't want us to leave their
sides. Many had open wounds and fevers
and my team was broken for them. Already,
I saw the wheels in their minds turning.
They felt called to help. I look
forward to watching that come to pass.
That is probably one of the
rewarding things to see as a leader!
As our
morning team worshiped together to the talented Curtis, I raised my hands high
in admiration. I sang loudly with joy and thanks for the work He was just
beginning to do in our team. I prayed for my leadership, for wisdom to make the
right decisions as a leader, for unity, for my team members to give me grace
when I made mistakes, and for the two team members that were still delayed in
Chicago.
As a
short term mission trip leader, I have to be aware of the diversity of our
team. I need to be sensitive to
different religions, life experiences and personalities. This was going to be our first time praying
over ministry leaders. I can recall a
time in my life that praying out loud was unheard of! And laying of hands was for the crazy
charismatic folk! Our team circled around Samuel and Sarah and lifted them up
in prayer. I explained that I would be opening in prayer and Brittany, my co-leader,
would be closing. And if anyone felt led
to pray in between that they could. I
was blown away at the amount of heart felt prayer! We must have prayed over them for over ten
minutes, which is nothing to Africans, but I was proud! Proud of the boldness,
proud that my team was allowing the Spirit to takeover, proud that they wanted
to pray and proud that I was standing back enough to let it happen!
No one on
our team had been to Ekubo before, including our drivers. We realized this about an hour after driving
around in circles! We had no phone
number, nor Internet service. So how
does one without any means of communication nor navigation systems find a
location in rural Uganda? You pull over
and ask any random person walking, of course.
But no one knew of Ekubo Ministries.
Finally, we found someone who did...or so we thought. He got into the van carrying our luggage and
took us down miles and miles of bumpy dirt roads. We come to a compound with newer
construction, that looks like it houses a ministry and they say we are
here! Whew, we are temporarily
relieved! Then they keep calling the
ministry by another name. I insist that
we are not in the correct place, and the driver tells me, yes we are and that
they just call it by another name. I
tell them that we are not staying unless we see George and Christie, the
ministry directors. One of our team
members had an international plan on their phone, so we called VO for George's
number. Back on the road we went! We finally arrived about four hours after we were supposed
to. Flexibility, right!
When we
arrived at Ekubo, it was dark and everyone was tired. The workers and George worked on setting up
our sleeping arrangements as Christie told her story. I had already heard George's version of how
the unlikely two met, and was anxious to hear her version. A white girl from Alabama marrying a village
leader from the bush in Uganda, makes for a funny story!
My team
was exhausted, and I could see them coming down from their high. That's a hard thing to see as a team
leader. I wanted to manufacture that
same momentum we had at the beginning of our trip, but it wasn't my job. All I could do was try to keep it going and
hope that through talking thru it, it would bring them back to their sweet
spot, so to speak.
Our
mattresses were squeezed onto floors in two bedroom home, and then in two small
workers quarters behind the home.
Mosquito nets were hung with rope draped across the room like a laundry
line. We were living in the bush! We knew it was coming, and that our stay
would not be "comfortable" by American standards, but I think reality
set in once we were actually there.
Christie had told us that the water for the toilet and sinks came from a
water barrel outside and that her kids had to pump water from the bore hole to
fill it. When teams came, it emptied the
barrel quickly, so not flushing so often would help with that. There was no hot water heater, so I opted for
baby wipe baths! We were living as close
as we could to the families in that village.
And I'm glad to have had this experience.
Day eight
Some of
our team had still not received their luggage and were sharing clothes with
other team members. And Hannah and I had
been in Uganda for a week, so it needed to be a laundry day. There were no washing machine or dryers in
the bush, so hand washing in basins was our only option. I was excited to wash! I wanted clean clothes! The workers and children laughed at us as we
pumped water from the bore hole, carried it to our basins in Jerry cans, and
attempted to wash our clothes. I started
hanging up my clothes on the bushes to dry in the sun, as they do. But...I didn't realize that my panties would
cause such an uproar! There were men
working on a building nearby and were giggling and staring at my multicolored
Hanes Her Way panties drying on the bush.
One of e women pulled me aside and told me to hang them dry in the
bathroom because it was causing too much of a scandal! Wow, I learned something new! I never knew
those Hanes Her Way would be viewed in such a way...lol!
Christie
walked us down to the children's home, where abandoned children are brought
until they can be reestablished with extended family or adopted out. There was a little boy crying when we walked
up and I picked him up to comfort him.
He clang onto me tightly. I was
okay with it, but didn't want to be a baby hog, so I passed him onto another
team member. Wow, he got upset!
Day nine
Brittany
went to market with George and some other team members to prepare the feast for
Ekubo. They came back with about ten
really nasty, sick looking chickens that had pooed all over the van and
themselves! I had initially wanted to
kill one, but those chickens were nasty!
So what do I do? I delegated the
chicken slaughtering to willing young girls on my team! Now that was hilarious! The knife was dull, and the girls were
hesitant, so the poor chickens had a very slow death! Honestly, it was one of the funniest things I
have seen...the girls reaction of course!
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