Being Home

Almost 3 months since I last wrote, and 2 months since I have left Uganda. Time has gone by so quickly I cannot believe it has been 2 months that I have been home. I miss the country I left behind and the people I loved in it. Being home the first few days was weird, I was more culture shocked when I got back then when I actually got to Uganda. American food, my nice comfy bed, my friends, all that I was homesick for when I was there, but now I am homesick for Uganda. But I will be back hopefully sooner than later. Since I have been back God has blessed me with so much that I do not deserve. I don't know if it is because I did something small for Him. But getting the chance to go was a blessing in itself. But He has provided me with a new car (newer I should say but every car is new compared to my 1982 truck) He provided me with an amazingly fun job working at a cupcake bakery and me and a friend are in the works of starting our own business. What I have learned these last few weeks leading up to now is that God is good no matter what the circumstances that may surround us and life doesn't show favoritism towards you if you are a believer, things happen and God is good.

"Lauren, you have to stop touching the animals!"

Well, last blog entry was rather heavy and serious so I decided this one will be a some what embarrassing one. I hear "Lauren, you have to stop touching the animals!" A LOT. Mainly from the other Americans but I think I say it to myself too. Not that I listen to myself or anything...When I got to Africa, I was expecting to see wild animals and other crazy things, but I get here and all I see are FARM ANIMALS! I LOVE animals back home, and since I have been here I have realized that I am animal deprived back home. I live in the city so the only animals you get are cats and dogs, but here, there are ducks, goats, chickens, cows, and dogs and cats. Everywhere I go I am tempted to touch or pick up and cradle an animal. It doesn't matter if it's a huge bull with mile long horns, I will touch it and I have. My team members are starting to get a little annoyed when we go out of the house, because if there is an animal I will try and sneak up on it and pet it or pick it up. Most of the places are used to me now and will grab the animals for me so I don't look like an idiot running around chasing them. And for that I am forever grateful.



Don't judge me.

after I held this one, the gave me a week old one to hold

These are just the instances where someone had a camera. There have been MANY others with cows, goats and occasional chickens

The Exorcism

No, I am not referring to the movie. I actually witnessed one yesterday. As our usual Thursday's go, we went to Remand Home in the afternoon, which is a home for teens who have committed crimes as they wait to go to court. We did a normal program but instead, at the end we had a "deliverance" session for kids who needed prayer and healing of diseases or habits. We definitely stirred up some demonic activity because as we were walking back to the van to leave, we hear someone screaming and waling. We looked and saw a girl that was unable to stand and was being walked/dragged by some other team members to a more private location. My first thought was that she was being possessed because of how she was acting and what all the kids had just been through with our program. She started to draw a crowd so they brought her into her room, which everyone else, including me followed. I was allowed to enter and pray over her as she was laying on the floor convulsing and screaming. It wasn't the exorcism's that you see on tv where their heads spin around or their eyes go black or they start spewing out Latin, but this was just as scary because I knew the girl was being attacked. They said she would regain consciousness every once and a while and said she was being dragged into darkness and every time someone would say Jesus' name, it would burn. When we got in the room she was still waling and convulsing as 3 other team members were praying, holding her down and demanding the spirit to leave as she was closing her ears and shaking her head. The other Remand Home girls who shared a room with her gathered around her and starting singing Christian songs. We then were asked to leave because we needed to get home, but they said that when they left her, she was sleeping. They also found a voodoo necklace thing around her waist which they took off and later we burnt it at our place. The car ride home was quiet as you can imagine as us American's were trying to process what we had just been witnessed to and a part of. The Ugandan's said that demon possession is common here because of all the witchcraft and voodoo. A lot of the kids at remand home had gone to witch doctors to get healed, which means they are making a pact with the devil. It was definitely an eventful day and one that I will never forget. It just makes me love and thank God even more for saving me from such evil.


Lauren

This World Is Not My Home

I have never been homesick before, but that is because I have never been away from home longer than 2 weeks at a time. This is my first time being away this long and I was surprised to not become homesick until now. I am 2 months in with 1 more month to go, or technically a little over 3 weeks, which flies by here. Weeks go by in a flash and then you realize you are down to weeks left. It felt like maybe 3 weeks ago that I first got here. I know once I get home, once I reunite with my comfy bed, see my family, dog, friends, reintroduce my body to Chick Fil A, once I get bored with home again, I am going to be homesick for here,because I am leaving a piece of me here, hoping I will have the opportunity to come back. The fact that I am homesick however sometimes troubles me because this world is not my home. Philippians 3:20 "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ". The bible mentions multiple time that this world is not our home, that just because we are in the world, does not make us a part of the world. I should really be homesick for Heaven, which in a way I am, but I am so used to the comfortableness of home, that that is what I miss the most and most anxiously await for right now. The bible commands us to take the gospel to all the nations, and the apostles definitely had to leave everything they had behind including their wives and houses in order to follow Christ. If my desire in life is to travel and spread the gospel, then I really need to get over this worldly homesickness.

Lauren

Because of Your love, I LIVE

So we are down to just 3 Americans. I have seen 5 leave already and it's like a family member is leaving. The house is empty at night and I will soon probably have my own room. I don't even have my own room at home. But they did say that this was the slow season, and I am glad I came at this particular time, 1, because God has me here at His perfect time, 2, because it is slow, and they need all the help they can get. Not everyone can take 3 months off with no responsibilities back home. Us mzungu's have almost "celebrity status" here. We are few and far between so when someone see's us they shout MZUNGU!! and wave or come up and talk to us. It's really weird and at first I was uncomfortable with it, but I am getting used to it. I have been told that some Ugandan's think white people are perfect, and have no problems at all, and some don't think we are human at all. But we are human and have just as much sin and shame and problems as anyone else. The thing I love about Uganda are the people her, they are amazing and extremely hard workers. If I had to do what they do on a daily basis, I would I have no money and live on the street.

Culture differences I have experienced:

1. We live in the capital of Uganda, so as you can imagine, it is very city like and extremely hectic. Sometimes you can forget that you are in Africa until you realize that there is HUGE terradactyl birds continually flying over the city.

2. Space is very limited and apparently frowned upon in this city. Cars are literally on top of each other and if you are in line at the grocery store and leave about an inch of room between you and the person in front of you, someone will cut you in line. It's really ridiculous. You are forced to breathe down other peoples necks.

3.Men here hold hands with other men, but it is not what you think, it means they are friends. Which I find extremely fascinating considering in the US. guys can barely handle a 2 second hug or hand shake let alone holding hands on a walk.  Also, men can hold hands with other women but that only means they are friends too. When a man holds a woman's wrist, that means that they are "together".

4. No one prays silently here. Everyone prays out loud, which is kind of hard to get used to. I will walk in on my roomate praying out loud and I feel like I am intruding.

5. When cars honk here, it isn't considered a rude gesture, it means that someone is either passing you or close to you so don't hit it. It's probably more polite than to not do it.

6. Uganda has not adapted the 21st century's way of sweeping. They still use twigs tied together and it is a pain, because it does not pick up anything and you have to bend down to do it.

7. Goats, dogs, cats and cattle roam the streets as if they are lizzards in America. I can't think of a better example because stray dogs are usually taken in, in America and cats are always hiding. But these animals are everywhere and sometimes cattle are in the middle of a busy roundabout where there is grass and they're just grazing as if they are in an open field.

8. They don't use trash cans here, they dump their trash wherever and then just burn it. Which I think is the worst thing to do because 1, it's a horrible smell, 2, it just makes it worse I think, and 3, I am going to have the lungs of a smoker by the time I get home.


9. Because traffic is so bad here, people make a living by selling things car to car while we are in back to back traffic. It's actually pretty convenient because you can buy a pair of sunglasses without getting out of your car, and you can try them on etc. I call it African HSN. They do harass you when you are in your car though, and when they see a mzungu, they expect us to have money so they won't leave the window until we yell at them.


That's all that I can think of right now but there is so much.

What I miss the most about the western world, is:
1.washer and dryer (everything is hand washed and hung to dry outside. By the time it is dry is smells of burnt trash.)
2. American food
3. A microwave
4. chocolate that isn't $2 a bar


Also, regarding my dilemma, I changed my flight to Feb 28th as oppose to Jan 31st! I am so excited and only need $300 more. So if you feel led to give, feel free and whatever excess I have I am going to donate to an orphanage we go to. Thanks everybody!



Lauren

Back to work, The Nile and my dilemma

I realize that I have not posted in some time and I apologize. I feel there is so much to tell that it is impossible for me to start, so I usually put it off. This past week we finally went back to working a regular week. Because of Christmas, we had about 2 weeks off, so this week was really exciting having 1-2 projects a day. I prefer busy days, but it was understandable due to the holiday season. Last week was amazing because I went to 2 projects that I have never been too and I loved them. One was a babies home (were we cannot take pictures) and the other was a children's center for street kids. The babies home is very organized and Christian centered but we cannot hold the babies because no matter how bad they want to because they will end up screaming and crying when we leave and the women who take care of them just cannot handle it. But besides that it is great. We start off by helping the women do chores like mopping, making beds, doing laundry and dishes, and then after that, we can play with the babies. We played with them and sang Christian songs with them. The children's center called Shalom is like I said a place for kids to come if they feel like they are being mistreated at home or have nowhere else to go. You never know how many kids will be there because so many come and go. We did our usual program with them, sang songs, played a relay race and then helped feed them porridge. While we were there I fell in love with this little girl named Nina. I also enjoyed the puppies that were on the property :)
       This weekend us 5 American girls went on an adventure to the Nile. 3 of the girls signed up for doing white water rafting for 2 days, so the company provided transportation. We traveled about an hour and a half to Jinja. It worked out great because I did not want to go white water rafting, but horseback riding and it was directly across the Nile from where we were staying. So we got there, they gave us breakfast (even us 2 who weren't rafting) and tea and just explained to the girls about what they would be doing. I was planning on riding at 2, so I found some one to take me on a boda boda (motorcycle) and waited around until it was time to go.  In the meantime, me and Kim got breakfast, even though it was around lunch time and ordered a ham and cheese omlet (which was incredible considering I haven't had cheese in forever!) So it was time for me to go and I tell my transportation that I am ready and he tells me that it would take a lot longer and a lot more money to go all the way around the river to the barn, so instead, for about $7 he could take me on a boat across the river. So I said yes because I like to save money and we headed on our journey. I was a little afraid at first because I was getting in to this rickety old canoe that would be taking me across the river which is where they raft. But we made it, they went around the falls and we got to this island in the middle that I had to cross which he said was filled with medicinal plants, on the other side there was another canoe waiting and we went to the other side. I had to climb this huge cliff to the barb, but it was so worth it because the view was breathtaking. There was only one other person who signed up to ride and it was this older man from Oregon. We made good conversation and then got on our horses to go. We have a Ugandan guide in front and one behind us. I absolutely love the feeling of riding, it has been so long and because I live in the city, you have to travel to ride. We walked along the Nile for about 10 minutes and then went deep into a village that was nearby. I signed up for a 2 hour ride, so we go all speeds, not just walking. We trotted for a while, which I was comfortable with and then cantered which I haven't done since I was little, so it was a little terrifying but fun after I got used to it. We went through the village which was fun because the kids would hear us coming and run out waving. Most people however looked as if they have never seen a horse before and were terrified, there was one girl who was on a bike and threw it down and ran, and the animals seemed terrified too, especially the goats which one almost got itself killed trying to run away. After the 2 hours was up they took me on a tour of the barn and all the horses and said that there is only about 100 horses in all of Uganda, and they have 20 of them! No wonder the people were scared. I walked back down the cliff, got in my boat and went back across the river to find the rest of the group waiting for me and telling me that they weren't going rafting the second day because a group that they were supposed to go the rest of the way with wasn't going to come. That night we had a bonfire with some of the Ugandans who took the girls out and we introduced the idea or roasting marshmallows to them, they were skeptical at first, but then couldn't stop, it was so funny to watch. That night we went to our room, which was a small room that consisted of 4 bunks that had 3 beds on each. They were so close together, I was getting claustrophobic and it didn't help that mosquito net was directly on my face, which defeats the purpose. The next day we hung out a bit and then left. All in all it was an amazing experience. I have also never been so sore in my life!
            So my dilemma is, that I am wanting to stay another month, I am just not ready to go home yet, and with us having 2 weeks off during December, I want to work as much as possible and experience more. This place is so amazing and I am enthralled by everything I see. I realized a few days ago that I only have about 2 and a half weeks left, and that is just not enough. So, because I am wanting to stay another month, I will need more funds, since I only fund raised for 2 months. My needs are as followed : $250 to change my airline ticket, $500 to stay in this house for another month, and $200 to live off of. It is a lot of money, but if it is in God's will for me to stay, then it will absolutely happen. So I am asking you to pray for me in provision and if you feel led to help contribute, let me know and I will give you all the information you need. Thank you so much!



Also, the girl who took all the pictures went home and won't be able to post the pictures until Thursday, so I will not have them until then, I do have a few though. If you would like to see all the pictures from all us girls so far, our website is www.UgandaMzungus.shutterfly.com

Lauren

Nina