Mom, You Might Want To Skip This One

Today was an awesome day! We woke up at 6 and left the house at 6:30. We went to the white water rafting office and got on the bus. All of the rich tourists get picked up by the bus at their hotels, so we had to spend about an hour going from hotel to hotel.

The part of Kampala they put in the tourists in is much different from the part I’m used to seeing. The streets are cleaner, the buildings are nicer, there is landscape around the buildings, and they even have professional street cleaners around. Today a woman with a Coach bag and Marc Jacob’s sunglasses was shocked by some of the slums we drove by. I don’t understand what part of Kampala she’s been in the whole time.

I know that was a very judgmental statement of me, but it really upset me.

Anyways, after we had picked everyone up, it took us about an hour and a half to get to Jinja, which is a city close to Lake Victoria, where the Nile River ends. The drive there was so beautiful! Hills and trees and untouched jungle areas. I didn’t take any pictures because we were driving, but it doesn’t matter, pictures don’t do it justice. You really just need to come see it yourself.

There were 7 of us white water rafting: Me, Louise, Jen, Brittany, Ashley, Anna, and Carissa. Ashley and Anna were also bungee jumping, so first, we watched them go. I am so glad I decided not to go; just watching them made me sick to my stomach. After they finished jumping we got our gear and met our guide.

Our guide, Nathan, was awesome! He is an Olympic kayaker and has also trained various military troops on how to raft at night. Additionally, many kayaking video companies have paid him to do films on famous falls around the world. In short, the guy knows what he is doing. Don’t be fooled either, because not all of the guides were that good. Our guide was the head guide of the all guides which made me feel a lot better. He was also very nice and funny. He did make some really vulgar jokes and comments, but mom asked me to keep my blogs PG, so I won’t share them with you.

Rafting down the Nile is awesome awesome awesome. There are Grade 1 through Grade 6 level rapids when white water rafting and today we got to do mostly 3s, 4s, and 5s. The girls who had been in the Colorado before said they only got to do 3s and a few 4s. Also, before they dammed up part of the river for energy producing purposes, the spot we were rafting in today was one of the top 5 rafting spots in the world. Finally, soon the entire river will be dammed up and rafting won’t be offered here anymore. It really was a once in a lifetime opportunity!

(Mom, you might want to skip this part)

The rapids were incredible. There were literally times when you are floating along and it looked like the river stopped, only it was just a big drop off. The rapids honestly didn’t look that scary when we approached them, but after finishing them and looking back we would all kind of look at each other and say “Holy crap I can’t believe we just did that”.

We bought a video today, so once I get back home, I’ll be able to show them to you. You won’t believe some of the spots we went down. If I hadn’t done them myself I probably wouldn’t believe them.

I really only had 3 incidents. One rapid I lost my paddle, and another I almost fell out but the guide pulled me back in.

The last one, our raft flipped over. The rapid we were going down is called 50/50 because on average, 50% of the rafts flip over on that rapid, and we were one of the 50%. You know when you dive into the pool and you try to come back up, but there is a floaty above you and you panic for a few seconds because you think you are drowning?

This was like that. On a much larger scale.

I didn’t have time to catch my breath before we flipped and when I tried to come back up the raft was on top of me. There were a few seconds (maybe 3 max, but it felt like a minute at least to me) where I didn’t think I was going to come to the top.

I really thought I might be meeting Jesus.

I think though that that is just the feeling that being underwater in rapids gives you, because everyone in our raft felt the same way.

With the exception of those 3 seconds, it was a blast. The only part that I didn’t like was waiting. Since Nathan was the leader of the guides, we were almost always the first group to arrive at the rapids and one of the last groups to go down. This meant that we waited at the pool above the rapids for a while. Waited and stared at the rapids we were about to go down. It was rather nerve racking.

At one point, we went down a 4 meter (I don’t know the conversion to feet) waterfall backwards! It was so awesome!

We also got to do some swimming in the Nile during the flat parts.

Include in our charge was all you can eat lunch and dinner. Lunch was sandwiches. Sandwiches with real cheese and real meat and real bread and real mayonnaise. I never thought I would appreciate a sandwich so much. Seriously. Dinner was chapatti and grilled meat and pineapples. We also got to try some Nile Special (African beer). It was awesome.

On the drive home, we went through more beautiful backcountry and saw an amazing African sunset. The drive was almost 2 hours long and on the way home I had a great chat with Brittney about life and ministry and our experience so far with Empower A Child.

Overall, it was a great great great day. A day that makes you really appreciate God’s creation. Every inch of the Nile River is beautiful!

Rafting does, however, take it out of you. I am completely spent and headed to bed.

Today’s word: Mazzi (ma zee) which means water.

Definitely swallowed plenty of Nile mazzi today,
Jenna

An African Outing

Today was such an awesome day! We woke up early and left at 8 for Mityana. My group was Ty (one of the boys from Texas) and Joseph, a Ugandan. It was quite a long journey. First, we took a taxi downtown then; we walked to the taxi park. The taxi park is where the taxis going all over the country pick up customers. The way it works is each area of the park is going to a different town. I wish you could have seen it. It was crazy!

There are probably at least 200 taxis crammed into this little area. Many of the taxis get trapped in by other taxis parked all around them. Joseph told us that many times the taxi drivers will get into fights when they block each other in. Additionally, this part of the city is REALLy dirty. There is trash and dirt everywhere. This is also where many of the drunks in the town hang out. Many of the men there would yell things at me. Joseph wouldn’t tell me what they were saying, but I’m assuming it was pretty inappropriate.

The taxis hold 14 people and the drivers refuse to leave until their taxis are full, so we had to wait a while for our taxi to fill up. Then we drove the 3 hours to Mityana. It took extra time to get there because the drivers stop and let people out along the way and then refuse to leave until that seat is filled again.

I slept for some of the trip and the looked out the window the rest of the trip. The Uganda country side is so beautiful. It’s hilly and covered with trees and not developed so it’s beautiful. I tried to take some pictures of it, but I don’t think the pictures I took really capture the idea of it.

When we arrived at Mityana we had to take a boda boda to a smaller village outside of the village. Riding the boda boda was very interesting. You get on the back of someone’s bike, and hold on for dear life. It’s not as scary as it looks though. I think when you are riding on the boda bodas you feel like you are going much slower than it looks like you’re going. I’m not sure that makes sense.

Anyways, the boda bodas could only go so far, so they dropped us off, and we walked through the literal jungle for about a mile until we arrived at the boy’s school. The school was just basic straw and cement huts and there were tons of kids there. It was shocking. Our arrival disrupted their lessons. All of the kids stopped listening to their teachers and started staring and waving at us through the windows. They rarely see white people so us being there was a treat for them.

We filled out the required forms on the two boys, Tony and Keneth, who are brothers. We basically just ask them questions from the form and then write down what they say. After finishing that, we asked them questions about their life and stuff, I gave them some cookies I had in my purse, we prayed together, and then Tony and Keneth took us to their home.

Those boys literally walk 5 miles to school every day! It was a long and hot and dusty. When we arrived at their home, we got to see the mud hut they used to live in, and the cement hut they now live in, some of which was paid for by their sponsorship money.

We also got to meet their family. Tony and Keneth live with their grandmother (their dad’s mom), their dad died a few years and when their dad died, their mom left them. We also got to meet 2 of their aunts and an uncle. Their grandmother went on and on about how beautiful I was and tried to convince me to marry one of her sons several times. It was hilarious.

We helped the boys bring in water, which is one of their chores. We had to carry water jugs about half a mile to a giant tree where water collects at the roots. The water was so dirty and the jugs had mold growing on the inside. You couldn’t have paid me enough money to get me to drink or bathe in that water. I felt so bad for those boys.

Isn’t it weird how we take the simplest things for granted? Those boys walk half a mile to get dirty water. I complain when my iPod doesn’t work and I can’t afford a shirt I want. I’m so blessed and sometimes I can’t see it. I am such a brat.

After visiting with the family for a while and praying with them, we headed to the boda boda stop about half a mile away from the boys home. We had to wait forever for 2 boda bodas to come by. While we were waiting, one of the boy’s aunts gave us cokes from her shop. We also tried to teach the boys Rock, Paper, Scissors. They didn’t really get it.

Pretty soon, word spread that monzugus were in the village and a bunch of kids came out. We played with a few of them, but some of them were scared of us. Joseph told us it was because they had never ever seen a white person before.

I had some zebra gum in my purse and we gave each kid a piece and showed them how to use the wrappers to give themselves tattoos. They were fascinated, even the adults. It was so funny. I am amazed by the little things we take for granted that the people here are so surprised by,

We rode the boda bodas back to Mityana. This time, the boda bodas took us the long way around so we wouldn’t have to walk through the jungle, but that meant we rode on the dusty rode for about 15 minutes. It got so dusty when cars drove by that you couldn’t even see. I got so dirty.

Seriously, when I looked at pictures from today I look like I got a tan. Don’t be fooled. It’s literally a thin layer of dirt all over my body. I had dirt lines from my sandals and shirt. It was awesome.

When we got back into town we stopped at the cleanest local restaurant we could find. Ty and I weren’t brave enough to get anything besides chicken and chips (fries). They were pretty good, but the ketchup here tastes just like sweet and sour sauce.

By this time, I REALLY needed to go to the bathroom. Up until this point, I have been able to hold it until we got back to the house from outings. Not so today. I finally had to bit the bullet and pee in an African toilet.

Have you ever seen Slumdog Millionaire? You know the scene where the kid is in the toilet and he jumps into the poop so he can see his hero? It wasn’t that bad, so don’t get scared, but I say that to say that that’s what the toilets look like, only, lucky for me, the floor is cement instead of wood so you don’t have to look at what is underneath you.

It was relatively clean, but smelled horrible. Luckily, I was wearing a skirt which made the ordeal much easier. Also lucky, I had tissues in my purse for cleaning up. Overall, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. But thank God for hand sanitizer!

During lunch, we had some great conversations. We talked about where we see ourselves in five years. Joseph also told us all about child sacrifices here in Uganda. Apparently, whenever they are building a new building, it is considers good luck to kill a child, grind his or her body into little pieces and put them into the cement foundation of the building. Children are kidnapped on a daily basis for child sacrifices because people will also do them in hopes of helping themselves to become rich. It made me sick to my stomach.

On a side note, if you circumcised your child or pierce their ears, then they can’t be used for child sacrifices because they have already bled. If one of you uses that piece of trivia to win the million dollar question, I hope you’ll give me a part of it.

The taxi ride back to Kampala was awful. Because it was one of the last trips of the day, the taxi driver tried to cram as many people into the taxi as possible. There were 21 people in a 14 person taxi for the whole ride. It was awful.

Tonight we are just hanging out at the house and resting up for white water rafting tomorrow. I’m on dishes duty again tonight so I better get to it!

Today’s word: sula bulgi (sew la bu lun gee) which means goodnight.

Sula Bulgi everyone,
Jenna

June 11th (the internet was out last night)

Today we went to Sanuyu baby’s home to play with the kids again. I wasn’t able to play with Raymond because Felix wanted me to do some therapy with a few of the kids there. It was extremely frustrating. The “therapist” that works at the baby’s home isn’t even really a therapist, but rather does something with bones. I couldn’t really understand what he does, but he only comes to the home twice a week. To be completely honest, he was kind of a know it all, and refused to listen to any of my comments or suggestions. I tried to be respectful and critique him without being rude, but I’m pretty sure he thought I was just some stupid American.

Again to be honest, nothing he did with the kids made sense, and some things were just plain wrong. I worked with 3 kids today. The first one, Francis, has cerebral palsy. Francis has very tight, or as therapists call them, hypertonic muscles. You aren’t supposed to pull or tug on the limbs of these kids because it makes their hypertonicity worse. Francis’s “treatment” with the therapist consisted mostly of pulling and tugging on his limbs. At the age of 2, Francis can still not bring his head to midline, can’t sit up straight, and is still drinking out of a bottle. It broke my heart to see him and know that if he had been born in America, he would be so much further in his progress.

The 2nd girl, Anita, is just weak and slightly developmentally delayed. She is about 8 months old and can’t sit up yet. Instead of doing exercises that would work on strengthening her trunk muscles, the therapist would only allow me to massage her shoulders, arms, and stomach with baby oil. I’m still trying to figure out the logic behind that.

The final child, Godwin, is 3 years old. Someone somewhere told the home that he has autism. I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t the case. Autistic kids never make eye contact, never initiate social contact, and rarely, if ever speak. When I walked into the classroom to get him, Godwin walked up to me, looked me in the eyes and said “Up, please.” He also responds to all the commands that his teachers give him the first time, asks for more food and drink when he wants them, and plays well with his classmates. He is a little slow (I think he has slight mental retardation) and some speech problems, but I really don’t think he is autistic.

Regardless of what he has, the treatment for Godwin’s “autism” was very interesting. At first, the therapist told me that they were considering cutting the flap of skin under his tongue to help him talk, but since he had started making some words, he didn’t need that anymore. Instead, I massaged his neck with baby oil while singing songs to him. That was the recommended treatment.

On a side note, on the board on the therapy room, the therapist had placed a list of symptoms of autism so that it would be easy to recognize in other children that come in. One of the symptoms of autism is “twinkling eyes”, another is excessive drooling. Please know that this is not really the case.

I’m not an expert on therapy by any means, but I did know a few things that we could have done to help them. It was so frustrating to not be able to say anything to him and to not have him listen to my opinions. It broke my heart knowing the kind of treatment those kids could have gotten in America.

Felix says that hopefully the next time we go the therapist won’t be there and I can show him some exercises. We are also going to work on adjusting Francis’s chair so that the nurses will actually sit him in it instead of having him lay in bed all day.

After the baby’s home we came home for a quick lunch and then went to Remand home. We sang and played games and Ty gave a message. Then we hung out with the kids again. One of the boys from last week, Moses, came and talked to me again. A bunch of the other kids from today were really fun too. Chris, David, Jared, Justin, and Moses were all in my group and they were great kids. Two of them (Chris and Moses) asked me to bring them Bibles next time we come, it was great to just have conversations with them, even though it was hard to communicate at times because of the boys bad English.

Moses loves to play Rock, Paper, Scissors and we also tore up the dance floor today. He taught me how to dance to some African drum and I thought him some lame white girl moves. It was awesome.

Today, Moses also told me what he is at Remand home for. Sort of, he said defilement, which here in Uganda means some sort of sexual crime. That taught me quite a lot. If I had know that before I had gotten to know Moses, than I never would have talked to him. But knowing him before I found out made it very easy to forgive whatever it is that he did. To be honest, it didn’t even faze me. He’s a great kid who made a mistake. Isn’t it weird how judgmental we can be sometimes?

Tonight we are just hanging out at the house. Tomorrow morning we are splitting up into groups and going to visit all the kids who are sponsored by Empower A Child. Each Ugandan has one or two MSTs going with them. Some groups are staying in Kampala and others are going really far away. My group is going to visit 2 children 3 hours away. We have to leave at 8 tomorrow morning. It’s going to be a long day.

Tonight the internet was out. It’s amazing what you can find to do for entertainment when you have no TV or internet. Tonight, Emily introduced us to a game called star tripping. Basically, you spin around as fast as you can for 30 seconds at the stars, then someone shines a flashlight in your eyes. For some reason, you immediately fall over. I think it’s the shock to your vestibular system. It is by far one of the funniest things I have done or seen so far in Africa.

Finally, I am thinking of getting my hair braided like the women do here. Over the next 3 weeks we are going on 2 different 4 day village trips. These trips will provide no opportunity to bath (or wash my hair). The braids would at least keep my hair from looking gross. Thoughts and opinions on this topic are welcomed.

Today’s Luganda word we learned yesterday when we took the kids swimming (they had to swim naked): Jamu engoye (jam mew en goya) or take off your clothes.

Keeping my clothes on,
Jenna

Swimming with Babies

Today was a great day! We woke up and had devotionals, and after devotionals we headed to Katawalma children’s hospital. My group’s job today was to talk and pray with the parents of the children at the hospital. I went with Jeff, a Ugandan, so that he could translate for me. We met with four different families. The first family had a son with bow legs. They were waiting to meet with the doctors to see what the doctors could do for them. The 2nd family had a small daughter with bow legs. The family was Muslim, but unfortunately, they did not speak Luganda so we had no way of communicating with them. The little girl was terrified of me because she thought that all white people were doctors. I felt so bad making her scared and being unable to tell her that I wasn’t a doctor.

The next family was a boy who had broken his arm and his father. The boy had broken his arm almost 8 months, and Ugandans doctors had unsuccessfully tried to heal him. They left him with a huge lump on his wrist, and the father and son were trying to see what the surgeons could do for him.

The final father and son pair we saw were very sad. The son had fallen from a tree and required a bunch of back and leg surgeries to repair all the damages. The father told us that a Ugandan doctor had estimated the surgeries to cost around 6,000 US dollars. A Canadian surgeon had found a way to get the UN to pay for his surgeries, but the Ugandan doctor wanted to keep the money for himself and had purposefully lost the paperwork required for the surgery. The Canadian doctor had found out and refilled the paperwork, but they were still waiting to hear the results.

As it turns out, the health care system in Uganda is very corrupt. Most of the doctors and nurses will give priority to patients to whose families will pay them extra, this means that the poor are at an extreme disadvantage.

One thing from the morning that really frustrated me was communication. The healthcare provider in me wanted to know exactly what had happened to each patient and exactly what surgeries and treatments were being provided. Most of the patients could only tell us that something had been broken and something had been operated on. It was very frustrating.

Also frustrating? The therapists and surgeons were in a meeting the entire morning, so I still didn’t get to view any therapy. Hopefully next week.

Despite all the frustrations, I still love the hospital. All the kids there are so adorable!

After the hospital we came home and ate a quick lunch and then spilt into 3 groups to go to 3 different high schools. My group went to Kiva Ka high school and met with a group of students during their lunch hour. We sang a few songs, played a few games, and then Kevin gave a short message.

Perhaps the best part of this trip was the conversation we had on the way there. Benon made everyone share their testimony and it was really interesting to hear everyone’s stories.

Once we got back, we had to leave immediately to take the kids from Sanyu baby’s home swimming. We got there, got assigned a kid, got our kid dressed and headed to the pool. My kid was a 2 year old named Raymond. He was absolutely adorable! He is at the stage where he is learning how to talk so he tries to repeat everything you say. It was so cute.

He wasn’t, however, a huge fan of the water. He clung to me the entire time and refused to be spun around, dipped or anything. He was shivering the entire time because all the kids had to swim naked. He also cried whenever he was splashed. We only lasted about 15 minutes.

After eating a snack and getting dressed, Raymond and I spent the rest of the time moving a red chair around the garden and waving hello and goodbye to cars and trucks.

It took us almost an hour to get back to the house in rush hour traffic, and Raymond just sat calmly with me while the rest of the babies cried. When we got back, I also got to feed him dinner. Raymond cried when I left.

I think it’s safe to say I am in love with Raymond. I’m currently working on finding a way to sneak him into my suitcase back home. Unless mom and dad, you are interested in finally getting me and Ally that little brother we asked for every Christmas growing up!

I know you’re laughing, but I’m not making a joke.

Maybe about the suitcase part.

Right now it’s only about 9 pm but I feel like it might be 2 in the morning. I am absolutely spent. Tomorrow we are getting up early to go back to the baby’s home. Felix the therapist has asked me to look at a baby with cerebral palsy and do some treatments on him, so I’m excited about going (Laura, I may need you to e-mail me some notes!).

Today’s word: Nkwangala nnyo (In quad ga la an yo) which means “I love you a lot”

Nkwangala nnyo guys,
Jenna

Heroes Day

Today was another interesting day. We woke up and had devotions. Today was another national holiday in Uganda, Heroes Day. Apparently, in Uganda, you can only be a hero if you’re dead so Benon had us talk about what we want people to say about us when we are dead. It’s an interesting question. I had to go first, so I didn’t have much time to think about it, so at first I said that I would want people to say that I followed Christ’s plan for my life and that I was a good mom and wife. Don’t judge me! I was under pressure.

After some thought, I think that I would like for people to say that they knew I was a Christian by my actions. That I didn’t have to profess my faith in Christ for people to know that I was a Christ follower. That I was a woman of God and that my home, family, work, leisure, and everything else I did represented that.

Another one of the Ugandans, Joseph said “Your life means nothing if you have nothing worth dying for” while he was sharing. I liked that.

I’m also reading In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day. Today, the chapter kind of went along with the devotions. I really liked the quote that said, “Are you living a life worth telling stories about?” Something to ponder to each of our lives I think.

After devotions we had evaluation time. This is basically a time for us to share what we think Empower A Child can improve on. We talked about making more team building opportunities, so on Saturday we are having a “No Talent” Talent show. It should be fun. We also talked about giving the volunteers an opportunity to do more personal ministries during the week. I am really excited about this opportunity.

After the meetings and lunch we went to Kids In Need home. Kids In Need is similar to Remand Home except that none of the kids there have been arrested. All the kids there were so cute and fun! We sang songs and gave a message and played with them. I talked with 2 boys named Peter and Yemen. They are really nice and I am looking forward to talking with them again next week.

On a side note, I am beginning to discover that my favorite game to play with African children is what I like to call “Faces Game”. Basically, you get the kids to make faces, take pictures of them, and then you both laugh at the pictures. Every kid I’ve met so far loves it, and so do I!

After Kids In Need we went back to the school from the other day and played soccer, basketball, football, and ultimate Frisbee. There weren’t many kids there so we only stayed for an hour or so, but it was still a good time.

Dinner was spaghetti and rice crispy treats. Unfortunately, the only marshmellow flavor they have here is strawberry (weird!) and it made the rice crispy treats interesting to say the least.

Brittney and I did the dishes tonight. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but dishes definitely don’t get as clean here as they do back home. I’m pretty sure some of you would be disgusted by the level of sanitation we have here.

Tomorrow we are going to Katawalma children’s hospital, to a Scripture Union at a local school, and to take the 2 and 3 year olds at Sanuyu babies home swimming (I am uber excited about this). It should be a great day!

Today’s word: Yesu. This one is easy, it’s Jesus in Luganda!

Excited for tomorrow,
Jenna

Planning Day

Mondays are planning days, which means we don’t do much ministry. This morning, we woke up and had devotionals. Devotionals consist of singing, sharing what God has been teaching us, and then reading and discussing a verse. This morning’s verse was from Matthew “where your treasure is there your heart will be also”. It was an interesting verse to talk about. Sometimes, I like to think that I do a good job of not caring about earthly things then, I start to think of all the people I have been seeing lately. I think of the lady from yesterday with a run down hut who paid for lunch for 60 people, and I think of the kids who have 2 sets of clothes and yet have a huge joy for the Lord, and people from church who gave fruits and vegetables because that’s all they had to give. I start to think about all those things and then I start to think that I could probably do a MUCH better job.

I’ve found in Africa that I can live without running water, air conditioning, television, and high speed internet, and the more I think about the things I have back home, the more I think I value earthly things way too much.

After devotionals, we went to the African craft market. It was so much fun! Both of the vans are broken down today, so we had to take a taxi. The taxi drivers here charge Monzugu double for riding in a taxi, so the Ugandans have to trick them by settling on a price before they realize they are driving us. The vans we drive in usually are old taxis (they seat up to 17 people!) so other than that it was just the same as usual.

The craft market is interesting, they have a ton of stuff and everything is super cheap. I got some presents for a few people, but I’ll probably go back a few times to get everyone off my list. You can also barter like in Mexico, which I love! The only bad thing is that they charge Monzugus extra here too. Next time, I might give Amanda my shopping list and have her get the things for me for cheaper.

After we got back we had some lunch and then we had meetings to prepare for the week. I am posting the weekly schedule on the calendar at jennacoe.shutterfly.com, you can go check it out. I really don’t see a point in writing it on here, because you can just read it as it happens.

I do, however, want to tell you that on Saturday I am going white water rafting on the Nile River! How awesome is that? Seriously. How many people can say that they have white water rafted in the Nile? I am so blessed. Thank you guys so much for helping to get me here.

It’s going to cost me 250,000 shillings, or $125 dollars, but I think an experience like that is worth every penny.

Some people in my group are also bungee jumping. I love living and hate heights too much to ever do that.

We also practiced songs and skits that we will perform this week.

After practice, Amy left. I didn’t know her that well, so it wasn’t that sad, but our room does feel different now. Before she left, Amy told me that the time flies by. Watching how sad she was about leaving made me sad about the end of July. I miss home and I know I’m going to get homesick, but today mad me realize what a short time I have here. I plan on appreciating every minute of it!

Now, we are just hanging out at the house. The girls in charge of dinner tonight are making pancakes! I can’t wait.

Emily, Brittney, and I are on dishes duty two nights this week. Dishes for 40 people, times 3 meals, with water that sometimes doesn’t work. Should be awesome.

On a side note, I found out today that water hasn’t been working in the evening because of construction. I could get up early in the morning and take a real shower, but to be honest, I care more about sleep than I do about a real shower. I guess Africa is already changing me!

Today’s word: Webelenyo (way-bay-len-o) which means thank you very much.

Webelenyo for all your prayers and support,
Jenna

P.S. Completely unrelated to Africa: both of my favorite youth groups are at camp this week. The youth group at First Baptist Church Georgetown and The Connection Church at Kyle are both leaving for camp right now, I think. It's 9 pm here so 1 there? They might already be arriving. Anyways, pray for safety and for the Lord to move in everyone's life!

Also, you should check out the site awkwardfamilyphotos.com. It is hilarious and makes me laugh almost everyday I'm here.

An African Sunday

Today was my first time at a real African church. It was incredible! The church was at a run down building. I didn’t want to take pictures because I was afraid they might think it was rude, but it definitely wasn’t anything like First Baptist Georgetown! It was a one room building with peeling yellowing paint and a straw roof. There were some “windows” which were just holes in the wall, and it was so hot in there!

The church runs about 30 people on a Sunday, because it just started, and there are about 35 people in our group when you add in the Ugandan volunteers, so we doubled their church attendance.

Everyone is so full of joy! The church choir sang us a few songs and there was tons of clapping, singing, dancing, yelling, and jumping. It was awesome. After the choir sang, our group led the rest of worship. We sing a few songs in English, but most of our songs are in Swahili or Luganda. Unfortunately, you learn the songs for the week at the weekly Monday meetings, which I missed this week. This means, that whenever we perform songs, I stand at the back and pretend like I’m mouthing the words. I’m sure I look ridiculous. Joseph, one of the Ugandans, has promised to teach me the words tomorrow.

Two of the boys in our group gave the sermon. It was really was really good message on hope. It was really cool to hear them speak in English and then listen to Colin translate everything in Luganda. We also took an offering. Instead of leaving cash, some people leave mangos, passion fruits, etc. It’s really interesting! I suppose God doesn’t care as long as you give your 10%. Actually, He probably appreciates it more, because those fruits mean more to those people than our 10% means to us.

After the sermon and offering, they have “announcements”. If I were a little kid, “announcements” would make me dislike church. “Announcements” consists of all the church elders coming up and giving mini sermons. Long, boring mini sermons. Seriously, the regular service lasted an hour, and the announcements lasted another hour.

After church, we played around with the kids for a bit. We also passed out the smiley face stickers and sunglasses you guys bought. The kids loved them!

Then, we headed to a local woman’s home in the village. She and her family paid for food for our entire group, and the entire congregation, even though she and her family were so in need. Their house looked similar to the ones we saw on Thursday. I am always so stunned by how nice and giving everyone is here!

Today I ate goat, rice, beans, and matooke (ma-toe-kay). Matooke is mashed up bananas with something done to it. I don’t know what the something is, but matooke is awful. It tastes like eating play dough or something. I’m not sure, but I definitely didn’t like it. Goat meat is pretty good, a little tough, but tasty.

On the way home from church the vans were full so I road back with one of the Ugandan volunteers who had brought their own car. I know I told you yesterday that everyone here drives crazy, but I don’t think I understood the full effect until today. The van drivers must have been toning it down some us Americans, because the driver was crazy! We were going super fast and then braking right before the speed bumps that occur every 100 yards or so, we cut people off, we passed people and barely made it back into our lane before cars coming the other direction hit us. It was so scary!

After we got back, a boy named Brian (a fellow Texan) and I went to Chicken Express to get some food. Don’t worry for those of you Texans reading this; it is nothing like the Chicken Express at home. It was decent. I only had fries and a coke, but Brian let me have a bite of his chicken. It was nice to feel American again for a little bit.

We also went to the market again and I got another coke and some apple juice! I hope African apple juice is as good as American apple juice. On the way home, we tried sugar cane. You bite it, chew it and the sugary juice comes out. It’s pretty good, but it takes a lot of work to get there!

Tonight I helped with dinner, so I chopped enough tomatoes, onions, and green peppers to make pizzas for 35 people! It was a lot of chopping. The pizza was no Dominoes, but it was nice to have a little taste of home. Today has been such an American day!

No a side note, my body already doesn’t like the processed food we get in America. All my American eating has given me a little tummy ache!

Finally, I still haven’t taken a running water shower. Every morning, the water is working fine, and then in the evenings, it stops working. In protest, yesterday I only took a wash cloth bath. I probably won’t be protesting anymore. I feel so dirty.

Tomorrow we have team meetings to prepare for the week. Then, the rest of the day is a free day. I might go to the African craft market. Also, one of the girls who has been here for a while, Amy is leaving tomorrow. Everyone says that the house changes a bit each time a person leaves, so it will be interesting to experience the “new” house.

Today’s Luganda word: Jinda (jen-dee) which means fine. It is the typical response to oltya. Also, there is a special Ugandan handshake that goes along with this exchange. I can’t wait to teach it to you guys!

Doing Jinda,
Jenna