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. 

Today we organized our field day activities during the morning and visited Haven of Hope in the afternoon. What an amazing woman of God Nelly is.  She started Haven of Hope because of a huge desire she had to love on orphaned babies.  She considers every child her own, and it shows.  Many of my team members were drawn to her enthusiasm.  I loved watching that!

Just a few days ago, a team member had mentioned to me that she would like to keep some of her donated formula for another ministry.  She didn't know who, but felt like it was something that she was supposed to do.  I was a witness to this team member asking Nelly if she needed formula.  Oh how God works!  Nelly teared up and raised her hands in the air and thanked God!  She had been praying for formula for the last week, and little did we know that He was going to meet that need thru us!  God is so freaking good!  We look forward o coming back to Haven of hope in two days.

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! 

We hugged Pastor Samuel and Sarah tightly and got on the road to Ekubo Ministries. Our team stopped for lunch and a little shopping.  I found a GREAT deal on a painting!  I can't wait to see it on my wall!  It was fun haggling with the shops!  I thought my team that everything is negotiable! 

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!

Right after we finished washing, Brittany pulled up with our last two team members.  What a journey they had! 

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! 

Since I was too scared to kill a chicken, I plucked the feathers.  Now that was gross!  They pour boiling water on them and the feathers come off easily.  But...they were still covered in dirt and feces!  Blah!  Cooking went much smoother at Ekubo for many reasons.  We let some of the workers help us, we were serving about 80 people instead of 500 and we were cooking dinner not lunch.  We made beef soup, chicken soup, rice, pineapple and soda.  It was a huge it success. George told me that no one had ever done this for them and that it made him very happy!  They brought out music and partied until about 11pm.  I braided Ritah's hair for Christie.

 

Uganda Day 4-6

Day Four

I woke up with the roosters to prepare my heart to say goodbye to my three Ugandan daughters.  Tough. Stuff.  It's always a very emotional goodbye! My driver was already sitting in the car waiting on me and I just didn't want to let them out of my arms.  We just sat in silence holding each other tightly, as we always do on departing day.  The driver finally got a little inpatient, and told me it was time. I looked down into Caroline's eyes, that were starting to fill with tears, and I lost it!  These girls...have my heart!  And I have theirs!  I quickly tore my self away and waved my final goodbye and blew a "mom loves you" kiss and they were out of sight. 

How can children that I get to see once a year have such a big piece of my heart?  I can't put it into words.  It is a true divine appointment!  We have a deep connection, a deep love.  I get to be "Mom" to them from afar, even if just a few days a year.  They know that I will always come back, I am their one constant.  It is an honor!

We arrived at Return Ministries just hours after a Man Up team.  I could tell that Pastor Samuel and Sarah were tired. So we offered to treat them to lunch.  It was just a simple mall food court type of place, and they were so impressed.  It was an honor to give them the an opportunity to be pampered a little.  Their kids attached to me and Hannah rather quickly, and by the end of the day we had been upgraded to "Aunties." 

Our driver arrived at 9pm to take us to the airport to pick up our team.  Their flight was supposed to arrive at midnight.  Hannah and I were so excited, we were having a difficult time containing ourselves.  The time had already passed 1am, and we still hadn't seen our team!  Finally, around 1:00am , Brittany had came over to tell me that 13 bags had not arrived and two team members would be arriving the next day.  The team waited in line for another hour and a half to fill out forms for their missing luggage.  When we were all finally on the bus, we played two truths and a lie to get to know each other.  It was a great start to our next two weeks!

Day five

After just a few hours of sleep, it was time Tories and give God the glory.  I was anxious to share the African church experience with my team, and they were anxious to love on some kids!  We walked up to the compound that houses the children's home and they church and the kids went crazy! They pulled and grabbed us from every limb and direction.  I had warned my team of this, but I'm not sure they thought it would be that warm of a welcome.  It's as if we're were celebrities.  With two kids on my lap, and two under each arm, I sat down ready to worship. The music was lively, and the word was given by Lan, one of my team members.

At Return Ministries, the children are fed lunch after church.  They cooks brought out giant pots of rice and beads for us to feed them.  We served about 300 kids. They didn't have enough bowls or plates, so we waited for some kids to be done, washed the plates and used them again.  It seems like we did that about 4 or 5 times.  After lunch was served, our team was escorted my our new friends back to the guest house.  When we closed the gate, many children laid on the ground continuing to call for us through the 6 inch space between the gate and the ground.

A few of the team members joined me for a trip to market. I love taking Mzungus to market inUganda! We negotiated for fresh produce and rice. 

That evening, when we returned, we went back to the church for the Coffee Time with the youth and young adults.  They preformed some lively songs and then it was our teams turn.  Dani, a young girl on our team, is a B-Girl! The Ugandans went crazy watching her BreakDance! It was awesome!

I finished my night with a little FaceTime with my family.  Brandon got to meet Pastor Samuel and his wife Sarah, and my kids got to chat with their kids.  When Marley and Pearl were talking, Marley said, " are you coming to my house?"  And Pearl responded with "tomorrow morning!" So freaking adorable!

Day six

Waking up with the roosters seems to becoming a pattern. I woke up at five am to take another group to the market to buy meat. It was crowded!  I think Chloe, our 10 year old team member, was a little grossed out by the rural Ugandan meat markets! While walking thru the market I heard a scream.  I turned around, and Hannah, our Missouri babysitter was catching her breath after an attempted pick pocketing. Nothing was taken, but she was a little shaken up.

Back at Return Ministries, it was time to start preparing the feast for the kids.  Our team was divided into about half.  My group worked on cutting up meat, vegetables and fruit, while the other half worked on games, crafts and sports with the 200-300 kids outside.

Preparing a feast for over three hundred kids and the adult workers was work!  We started the fires and continually added coals to keep the heat going.  We started with oil, onions, garlic and carrots. We browned the meat, then added tomatoes, tomato paste, seasonings and water. I'm sure I'm making this sound pretty easy, but can assure you, it was one of the most tiresome meals I've ever prepared.  Try cutting about 60 onions and about 20 kilos of meat with a two dull knives! It definitely made for a good story! 

The men on my team were amazing!  They all had such a servants heart and were ready to serve wherever and whenever I needed them.  They continually lifted the giant pots filled with boiling soup to add coals, and fan the fires.  Chloe became our master chipati roller!  When it came time to serve, we realized that we were going to run out of rice and chipati.  I quickly had the team start preparing more.  We thinking that children from the community heard that Mzungus were preparing a feast of meat, soup, rice, fruits and sodas and they wanted in on the fun! There had to be closer to 500 plates served! I expected that, but didn't expect to run out of food! The older children waited patiently as we waited for the rice to be done. The team had skipped lunch, and it was starting to show.  I had one girl almost faint, and passed out with a baby on a sofa, one with a bad burn from cooking, and many many with exhaustion starting to set in.  That's where the Mama in me set it and I called it a day!  We walked back up to Return Guest House, ate dinner, had some worship and passed out!

Uganda Days 1-3

Day One
After many trains and planes, we made it to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to connect to Uganda.  I was napping and woke up to Hannah telling me that she saw a Man Up team  I started searching for familiar faces, and found Mitch from Missouri!  What a crazy small world!

We arrived in Uganda and were greeted by some new faces and driven to Jinja.  As we drove up to the children's home, I could see the kids walking back from school in their familiar orange uniforms.  I walked around waiting to see one of my girls' beautiful faces.
Caroline saw me first!  She was walking with tow other girls when she spotted me.   She dropped her backpack and came running up to me with a giant smile that showed off her beautiful smile. It has almost been one year since Ive seen the girls and she seems to have grown a whole foot!  At 12 years old, she is to my shoulder!










Next, we waited for Sharon.  I could see the secondary school uniforms start coming thru the gate, and knew it would be soon.  Sharon repeated eh same welcome as Caroline!  She dropped her bag and came running to me!  At around 15, she has stopped growing, but is still my sweet girl.  Both girls had thought I was join to be here tomorrow, so I surprised them!  We held each other tightly for the rest of the night.  The other children would mock them for holding so tightly.  I am their mom, and love them like my own.  Neither of us minded!

Day Two
I woke up early to see the girls off to school.  I packed them a snack and kissed them goodbye.  I was heading back up to my room and tripped on a stair. It was like slow motion.  I tried to catch my fall, but wasn't fast enough.  My mouth hit the cement stair and I heard a crack and felt a foreign object moving around in my mouth.  I tasted blood.  I instantly knewI had either broken or lost a tooth.  When I pull amy hand from my mouth, I felt the broken tooth.  I went for help and almost passed out before reaching the clinic.  They cleaned me up and after I rested a bit, I was overwhelmed with concerned visitors.  What a way to get started!  I learned to eat slowly and to one side.  Maybe I can loose a couple of pounds!

I woke from a nap to someone knocking on the door.  It was a staff member brining Hellen to visit.  What a surprise!  She lost her little brother just two weeks ago and still managed to show me her smile. We talked and she held me tight.  And an hour later, I hearted that her mother was newer.  She came to meet me.  She was a woman that wore her worries.  I could see the tole a hard like had on her.  Hellen translated for us.  She told me how happy she was that I loved her daughter.  I told her how sad I was to hear of her loosing a child.  She invited me to her home, and of course I accepted!

Day Three
Where do i start?  My morning started with sending Sharon and Caroline off to school.  I packed them snacks again and slipped it into their bags.  Hannah and I then caught a bod a to Sangalo Baby Home to love on some babies and bring her some infant formula.  We were shown a brand new baby that weighed about 3 pounds.  Damalie asked me to name him.  I named him Brandon.  Being so small, he needed a big, strong name to grown into!  I prayed over him for protection, health and for provision.  I look forward to watching this little man grow!

We then got back on the boda and headed to Hellen's home.  Is as so special to see her home and experience a little of her life.  As we drove thru the rural village, I could see a red brick clay home.  I saw a bright smiling excited girl running towards us.  We got for the bod a and were greeted with the only tow stools in the home.  As is customary, her mother kneeled down before me, to show me respect while she sat on the red dirt while holding my hand tightly.  I knew that declining these seats would be offensive and that she wanted to please me, so we accepted our seats.  We talked thru a translator and she again thanked me for loving her daughter.  I told her it was an honor!

Life in Germany - The first Three Months

After three months in Germany, we have gotten settled and even gotten our feet wet a little. While we will have the opportunity for many more travels and experiences, here is what we have learned so far.

1. ALWAYS carry Euro on you, coins and bills. You may need to use a restroom, and the restroom attendant will give you an ugly German stare down if you don't put a coin in her bowl. And nowhere takes our coveted Visa check card!

2. While I'm talking about Euro…the conversion of Dollars to Euro is NOT 1:1! I'm still learning this lesson!

3. Build up your walking endurance. Seriously! The first few weeks here, I seriously thought I was going to die! Germans walk everywhere! Parking and traffic can be horrific, so walk walk walk!

4. Stairwell Apartment living has its benefits and disadvantages. We like living on base because of the huge convenience for all of us. It allows us to only have one vehicle, Brandon can walk to and from work and come home for lunch. Miles can walk to school. And I can drive, uh walk….lol, Marley to school. We have access to all the U.S. luxuries that others living off base don't.

Now we also get to hear all the things that are going on above us, and I've already been told that our downstairs neighbor can hear us. :) And hiking up three flights of stairs with a screaming child and 14 bags of groceries is not fun!

5. Layers are a necessity! I'm Texan, okay Texican! I'm from the part of Texas that used to be Mexico…I'm FREEZING here! I'm not used to dressing in 5 layers and wearing wool socks. Burr!

6. Run down or get run down! Brandon hates it when I say that, but it's so true. There are no lines or common curtesy. You have to push your way through trains, airport lines, coffee shops and bakeries. If you don't, you'll be there for hours as young and old push you out of the way!

7. Ausfart means exit, very important!

8. Children aren't always allowed or appreciated. My first experience with this was in Ikea. A little girl was sliding down the bunk bed slide of a display. A woman quickly ran over and told the family to take the girl to the kinderzimmen.

9. Kinderzimmens are your friend! Most large shopping malls or stores have FREE childcare while you shop. LOVELY!

10. iTranslate can be your friend. I almost ordered Haggis (a pudding of sheep blood, and organ meat), thankfully I figured out what it was before ordering.

11. Packing snacks, water and meals is a must. Fast food is not available like it is in America.

12. Germans like their rules.

, they are very serious about them! For instance, Germans will stand at a cross walk forever until the light changes. Their standard for rule following can also be a great thing. I left my purse in a changing room, went home and realized it. I drove back, to find several people in the changing area and my purse left untouched. Nice!

13. Warming up your car is a no no. It's actually against the law. A car cannot be running and parked for more than 3 minutes. I DON'T LIKE THIS LAW!

14. Sundays are fun days! Literally, all stores are closed. The Craigslist equivalent is shut down. Sundays are meant for family time. We are adjusting.

15. Personal space. Hmmmmm, how do I explain? There is no personal space. Thats that!


We are loving our new home. Lessons have been learned and I'm sure there will be more to come! For now, Auf Wiedersehen!

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