Beth's Adventures in Mbarara Uganda

December 2006 School Update

2007-03-06T22:56:00.000+03:00

Mmpora Mmpora…

I am SLOWLY trying to update you on the things that have been taking place here in Mbarara over the past several months. I think it’s easier to do it with pictures…plus they’re way more fun for YOU to see than to just read my blabbing!

Book projects:

Each student presented a project on a book they had read on their own (outside of class).

Elizabeth Fouts read Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and as part of her project, her grandmother and grandfather (Nick’s parents who were visiting for a few weeks) came in as Mr. and Mrs. Claus explaining why they had chosen Rudolph to lead the sleigh and share some treats with the class! SO fun!

James Baker created a “television” box to summarize the book, The Paint Brush Kid

Luke Fouts created a hugehouse to explain the plot of the book,

One Day in the Tropical Rainforest

Kaho Sato made a creative poster of different people’s feet after reading The Foot Book

All the other students did great projects and I’m so proud of the work and progress they’ve been making this year…it just takes a LOT to upload tons of pictures and I thought you would get a nice picture of things by seeing these couple of photos for this particular school “project.” The projects were as diverse as the books they read:

Hannah: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
David: Stone Fox
Herin: Sounder
Jae: The Chalk Box Kid
Kiho: My Side of the Mountain

After studying simple and complex machines in science, we had fun trying to create the “perfect” wheel and axle. Here we are testing one of the vehicles and releasing it down the ramp. It was a fun activity and I think I learned as much as the kids!

We had a fun Christmas party with a couple of silly games…

These pictures are when we had a relay race where the kids had vasoline on their faces and had to put their faces in a bowl of cotton balls to make a “santa beard”…so fun!

While David Earles and Kiho Sato were in a hurry to get back to their teams, they were also very cautious because they wanted to keep the cotton balls stuck to their faces!

Curt Baker likes to be a crack-up!

Group photo of my little “santas”!

After our fun party, we did a little performance for the parents. My p1, p3 and p5 students acted out Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas while I read it aloud. (Thanks Camp Wamava for the great memory and idea!) Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera died and I didn’t get any pictures…but it IS on my list of stuff to get over to Andrea’s to get some pictures from her of this fantastic event.

The preschool plus class sang some fun songs to us (before my camera battery died), so that is this picture:Davis Baker, Micah Fouts and Avery Fouts. So cute!!

The Great Unknown

2007-03-04T22:38:00.000+03:00

After much prayerful consideration, it has been decided that I will leave Mbarara, Uganda after I finish school in June 2007. It is SO hard to believe that this life that I have come to love here in this small town is coming to an end.

I thought I would stay here forever! The team here is going to be going through so many changes over the next year, though, and we decided it wouldn't be a good time for me to try to "transition" my job also, especially since what I KNOW is school and kids. (Also because I have felt called to do something more with Africans if I'm going to be here in AFRICA!)

Anyhow, even though I'm really sad to be leaving Mbarara, I'm also really excited!!

Strangely, my future is TOTALLY unknown and I'm sort of okay with it. I do need to start making plans and figuring out where to go once I leave Mbarara on/around June 13th, but the world is FULL of possibilities!!

I could go back to Michigan and work for Woodhaven Schools again. (There's a good chance I could get a 2nd grade teaching position there!) It would require some work, on my part, to figure out certification and continuing ed. credits to stay up-to-date.

I could go to Maryland to be closer to the majority of my family. I'd love to work on my masters degree in counseling/social work or something like that. My ultimate goal is to work in a children's home, so I can HELP kids...not just deal with the politics and paperwork that goes takes place in many public schools.

It's even been suggested that I could go to Texas or Searcy to teach and work on a masters degree simultaneously...and I've THOUGHT (although not seriously) about Washington state or the west coast area just because that's where my big brother and his family are currently living. But I don't think I'm a west coast girl any more than I am a southern girl. Unless something VERY obvious and drastic happens, I don't think I'll be ending up in the any of these places... (TX, AR, or WA)

OR....

I could go to Kitale, Kenya and help to run a children's home there! I'm not sure about ALL of the details, just yet, but I think the majority of my job would be overseeing the primary school that is currently run by a corrupt headmaster.

SOOOOOOOOOOO.....Pray about it for me! I went there to visit a couple of weeks ago and fell in love with some of the kids--especially baby Ian! (I tried to post a picture of him---soo cute!! But alas, it's not working now!)

Anyhow, I'll try to write more later--especially about the trip. It was my first time taking public transport! What an adventure!! But I guess that's life--an adventure is always out there and ready when we are--and sometimes there's an adventure for us even when we're NOT ready!

School Fees

2007-03-04T22:21:00.000+03:00

Well, as some of you know, I've been helping coordinate some of the school fees for some children that Amy Naramore was helping before she left in September 2006. Two boys who I am currently helping (out of my own pocket) are:

Dennis, who has started at Bishop Stuart University in August. He is studying business administration, which is a 3 year course. Dennis is active in the our church youth group and helps with worship on Sunday mornings by being the "overhead" guy. Even through the death of his mother (this past December), he has shown such trust and faith in God-- that HE is the great provider. What a great kid, with great potential! Each semester costs approximately $1200.
He has also expressed a need for a laptop computer...

Joseph, attending S6 (senior 6 advanced level) in Kampala, also has great potential. It is likely that he will finish secondary school at the top of his class in November 2007, which will hopefully help him get into university on a merit scholarship. He is 18 and has a goal to study engineering at the university level next year. He is also an orphan, without a father. Joseph's school fees are approximately $300 per semester (3 semesters).

If you would like to help these boys financially (which would help me immensely, since currently the majority of the money that is paying their school fees is coming from me), please send a check to:

First Colony Church of Christ
2140 First colony blvd.
Sugar Land, TX 77479

Be sure to write "Ankole Student Fund" on the memo line.

There is also a family of orphans we would love to be able to help with school fees. If you are interested in more information about this family or how you can help, please email me at : beth@everydaychurch.net

Thanks!!

Pictures!

2007-03-04T20:37:00.000+03:00

Guess who's able to post a some pictures FINALLY!!! I think these pictures mainly go with my last post (from Feb. 11th) except the first couple of family during hte Christmas holiday. So fun to see them all and I can't believe how fast my neice and nephew are growing up! (I'm sure the neice and nephew that I didn't get to see way out in Washington state are growing up fast too!)
First is "baby Logan"...he turned one year old in December and this was the first time I was able to see him. Awww...how sad! But he sure did love my long earrings! And Taylor sure is a talker! (I wonder where she gets that from!) Had a great time seeing them, playing with and reading to them. Hope to get to know them better soon!

Christmas morning at my Aunt Debbie's house. Her family tradition is to give her daughter new Christmas pjs each year...so she gave Debbie, Sarah and I a pair too....aren't we so cute?!? And we match too!!

Next, my beautiful friend Samantha on her wedding day!
I went all the way to America for this! It was so worth it!

I think I talked about going to London and visiting hte British Museum and the British Library with Shane and Carole Gage...so fun!...in my last post. So, the pictures below are:

The Rosetta Stone at the British Museum...I know I studied it (and even taught about it many years ago in Flat Rock, but I just can't wrap my brain around its significance or historical purpose. Shane just told me it's probably the most significant thing to see in the museum so I went to see it (and take a picture of it)! But I totally thought the mummies were way cooler!!
Actually, the museum itself was just beautiful--regardless of all the cool treasures they had!

Beautiful! Cool saying on the floor. Do you see Shane and Carole?

Carole and I at the British Library...SOOOO tired and jetlagged....but sitting on a book!

They wouldn't let us take pictures in the library...could ruin stuff??? who knows? But I'm a rule follower, so I didn't take pictures....except out in the lobby!

2007-02-11T15:53:00.000+03:00

I can’t even remember what I last posted. As most of you know by now, I was in the States for Christmas and for a dear friend’s wedding. See the photo of me and Samantha (Tomassoni) Dewey.

hahaha....it's not allowing me to attach pictures--oh well, TIA (this is Africa)! (you'll just have to imagine how beautiful Samantha was as a bride and how great I looked in my beautiful Ugandan dress, that my friend Betty made.)

The only problem with my trip "home" is that I didn't get to see everyone or spend enough time with everyone--and that it was a little cold! In fact, I feel like the WHOLE time I was home I was freezing. Maybe I’ve just gotten used to the beautiful weather here in Uganda. Anyhow, it was great to see family and friends and if I wasn’t a “hugger” before, I sure am now! Aside from all the hugs, it sort of felt like I had never left. Life continued on, but it was a little surreal that I could just slide back into things as they were. Maybe I’ve just finally come into a peace about my life—that it doesn’t matter where I am or what sort of external things are going on around me. It was just good to be “home”—in Maryland and in Michigan!

Anyhow, my trip back to Uganda was great also. I met up with the Gages in London, and after dealing with luggage issues, we hit the town. It was cold, dreary, drizzly, but SO fun to roam the streets of London. We went to the British Museum and the British Library and saw lots of cool stuff, including, but not limited to the original writings/songs of Jane Austen and the Beatles. I also got to see the Rosetta Stone and lots of real mummies!

The drive back to Mbarara was a great time to catch up with the Gages and it felt like I had never really left, except the fact that I had missed out on some Christmas fun! We arrived back just in time for the power to go out on the 13th of January. School started on the 16th and on the 17th, the Glissons and Alita (new teacher here for a few months) arrived safely.

The first few weeks were horribly busy and crazy. It's like I hit the ground running and haven't stopped yet! Getting back into the swing of things here and catching up with everyone; mourning the death of two wonderful men from Jinja: Adam Langford, a missionary and Moses Kimeze, a church leader; getting over jetlag; planning and teaching school; visiting with town church ladies; having town youth spend the night; trying to figure out what to do after my teaching commitment ends in June; having people over for dinner; worshipping with team; team and ladies' meetings; acclimating Alita to life in Mbarara...

Lots has happened in the month I’ve been back. WOW—it’s so hard to believe it’s only been a month!! I’m trying to write short updates this week about what’s been going on, so be patient with me! More later…

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-24T21:41:00.000+03:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS! It actually feels a little more like the Christmas I'm used to since I'm in the States with all the hectic rushing around. I'm certainly not FOND of the craziness and commericiality (is that a word?) of the holiday season, but for some reason, combined with the colder weather, it just feels more like Christmas.

Currently still in Bowie, Maryland but getting ready to head to Columbia, Maryland for a Christmas Eve service at my sister's church. Then we (Debbie, Sarah, and I) are driving to Pennsylvania for a couple of days to spend Christmas with my parents (who went there yesterday) and my aunts and cousins.

Things are going well. It feels like I sort of went to sleep and just woke up 16 months later...a little eerie how things don't really seem to have changed. cell phones....those seem a little different and more confusing to me. Guess I'm just used to my simple simple Ugandan one...

Speaking of cell phones, I have borrowed my mother's and the number is: 301-213-8767

I'll be in Maryland until the 30th of December. I'll be in Michigan from the 30th of December until 4 January. Then I'm back in Bowie until I depart for Uganda on the 10th of January.

Here's hoping you all have a blessed Christmas with your families, friends and dear ones, wherever you may be!

In America for Christmas

2006-12-24T21:31:00.000+03:00

WOW! This is SO crazy! It is FREEZING here in America! For those of you who don't know by now, I'm currently in Bowie, Maryland at my folks' house. I came in and surprised them last Tuesday night. Read below to find out all about the trip home and my first night back in the States.

My trip home was great. LONDON was great. My trip there was just fine. After landing, I got a coffee from STARBUCKS! YEAH for yummy warm coffees! And they sure do have some new flavors, for all those flavor-lovers out there! I rode the tube to Picadilly circus and got tickets to go see Les Mis for 20 pounds! In line, there was this nice couple behind me talking to me about shows and which to see, etc., etc....they were wanting to see Lion King, and I told them I was too, but that I knew that it wasn't showing Mondays. They didn't really believe me, so I just said, well, its' just what I found online, but maybe my "online" stuff is wrong from Africa, blah blah blah. Anyhow, long(er) story shorter than it could have been....they are going to to Bwindi in August and were asking about stuff to do nearby! Crazy, small world! They took my email address...who knows if I ever hear from them again! So, after the show (which was pretty good, from what I can remember...I did doze off a little!), I decided to grab a slice of pizza for dinner. (You know, those 2 lunch/dinners that they served on the airplane just seemed SO LONG ago!) So I ate a DELICIOUS slice of pineapple/ham pizza as I walked briskly to the tube. Did you know that people can carry open beers and stuff like that around London and even on the train?!?!? Crazy, I tell you! I think I was on SERIOUS sensory overload with all those beer-smoke-stinky smelling things! I actually was missing the simple scent of plain old body odor! There were a couple of guys who were talking rudely about stupid Americans. One eventually called the other a "boinker" or something stupid like that and said that's what they say in America. Well, I could not be quiet any longer and set those guys straight. "They don't say 'boinker' in America," I said quite plainly. The look on their faces was priceless--kind of like the look people might give you when they're talking about you in front of your face in Runyankore and then you say something to them in Runyankore back! (Not that I would exactly know what this feels like, but thought Jay and Nick might understand!) Anyhow, they were all apologizing and wishing me a Merry Christmas as I got off at the next stop to go to Seiko's house. I finally found the apartment and was so glad I pretty much just crashed. Both Seiko and her brother (name, please Andrea??) were heading to be anyhow since they had to be up to work early the next day. Let's see...I was so tired, I didn't even MIND the fact that they're re-doing their bathroom and therefore didn't have a bathroom door. They were so sweet...had a lovely bed made up for me, complete with a towel and pair of pajamas laid out (Is that a Japanese thing Andrea?). Of course, Seiko probably forgot who I was/what I look like, or else just didn't have any pajamas larger than a size XS. I thought it was a little funny, but oh, so sweet, to even have a place to stay!! They had a shelf with some cool looking bottles on top-- and ONE RWENZORI water bottle which made me smile!I left the next morning to head to the airport and even left myself extra time (Thank you LORD!). The tube train I was on just kept STOPPING! It was kind of funny....others on the train heading to heathrow did NOT think it nearly as funny as I did...I guess that's one reason I was thrilled to have left Seiko's at 9:00 am to catch a 12:45 flight! The other was that AIRPORT! WOW!~ What a MADHOUSE!!!! I do NOT recommend flying this close to Christmas if you can avoid it. And those poor aiport workers--having to deal with rude people always in hurries!! The simplest "thank you for your work" sure did light up their faces with gratitude (sometimes confusion)!I know this is getting longer and longer, but I have a couple more things to share with you, then I need to head to the eye doctor! You know those really cool moving walkways they have at the airport? Well, I was walking on one towards my final gate and there is this sweet middle-aged, middle-eastern looking lady with two small children walking TOWARDS ME...and they were WALKING! I couldn't help but laught out loud, because I don't think they were doing it for fun....think they just didn't understand! Had TWO SCREAMING babies on the flight from London to Baltimore, but it wasn't a big deal since I just kept my headphones on most of the time watching movies--nothing really worth mentioning except the Pirates of the Caribbean 2. I got out through customs (was I supposed to say I was bringing "souvenirs" or "merchandise" with me?) Even made it through the "random" x-ray testing and all before Debbie was there to get me....had to trade someone a dollar for change so I could call her and tell her NOT to park, but just swing through to get me since I had my luggage and was ready to go. Spent a LOT of time LAUGHING wiht her last night. Ate a wonderful meal of stuffed pork loin with apricot chutney (sweet meat Jay--you would have LOVED it!) and couscous and fresh green beans and carrots. Totally YUMMY! Plus cappucino chip icecream for dessert! My parents reaction was...well, they're not really emotive people. They just sort of stared-- Mom, with her mouth open for about 30 seconds. Then she finally said, 'what are you doing here?' They spent the next 10 minutes asking where Chris (debbie's friend who she was SUPPOSED to be brining home) was and talking about him, until we finally said, "you can meet him later." So confusing! The next question from my mom was, "where are you going to sleep??" She didn't think my bed (or any of the other 4 spare beds) was cleaned off....or the rooms were clean. They were all just fine---just typical Christmas junk in the rooms...but clean sheets and warm blankets! My sister-in-law didn't think it was a problem (she told me on the phone) because after all, I had been in AFRICA for the past 15 months, right? What do people think that means? That I sleep on a mud hut floor?!?!?!?! Anyhow, great night of sleep--other than waking up at 3 am, 5 am and then again at 6 with a HORRIBLE headache and urge to throw up/diarhea (don't even know how to SPELL that word!) Felt much better at noon when I finally got out of bed. Been drinking coffee---not as good as Ugandan, but it's hot and there's yummy creamer. Found some yummy spinach dip with carrots--I mean, store bought spinach dip--and it's pretty good!!

The winner of the "most surprised" contest goes to my baby sister Sarah, who I'm not 100% convinced believes I'm even here. We called her on speaker phone down in NC last night...Debbie and I. It was hilarious! She wanted to know who was with Debbie. Finally we convinced her it was me---and then we said, haha...we're on 3-way! We got disconneceted from her cell phone (even in America!!?) and then Debbie called her back about 20 minutes later and apologized for lying to her and pretending I was home. She passed the phone off to "mom" and I had her thinking I was my mom for about a minute---until I totally lost it and couldn't stop laughing. She kept shrieking and squealing, "what the crap?!" man, her language! hahaha... anyhow, THINK she believes it now and will hopefully bring me some stylish clothes when she arrives on Friday. My older sister Rachel, didn't seem as shocked or surprised. Glad I'm home safely, how did I pay for it? The common question seems to be "how did you get here?" And, not that my family members are stupid, but, are there THAT many options of getting to America from Uganda that I just don't know about??

Well, time to brave the cold and the roads (the washington beltway) to get to an eye doctor appointment...

Lots of love from this cold, but familiarly warm place

Mudding with the Youth

2006-12-03T23:49:00.000+03:00

One Saturday a long time ago (in September??), the town youth went to Jadress's home (one of the members at MCC) that is currently being built by many volunteers from our church. Jadress is a widow with LOTS of kids (9?). We helped to build the walls of her new home with MUD. Be sure to check out the pictures on my new picture site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bethellen/

Here's one of me building part of a wall:

Paper Mache Africa

2006-12-03T23:29:00.000+03:00

As a culmination of our Social Studies unit on Africa, the 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders made a huge papier mache Africa map. Not only was it messy and tons of fun, but I think we all learned a lot too! Be sure to check out the pictures from our construction (sketching it to scale, layering papeier mache, coloring, and labeling) on my picture site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bethellen/

Here's a picture of the completed map:

"new" Picture Website

2006-12-03T23:26:00.000+03:00

I have been posting pictures on the website listed below because it's easier than all the resizing and stuff that I had to do before for the other one I was using. The only problem is, unless I pay a user fee, it only lets 200 photos be available to see. Also, I've been having trouble being able to put them into groups and label them. Sorry about the hassle, but hopefully you can figure some of it out yourself! Good luck and enjoy! Much love!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bethellen/

Boys' Slumber Party

2006-12-03T21:57:00.000+03:00

Well, to be fair to the boys in school, we had a slumber party for boys only last week. In attendance was Curt and James Baker, Luke Fouts, David Earles and Jae Kim. We started the night out with a "puzzle" that they had to solve. (They were tied together with string and had to figure out how to separate themselves without breaking the string or untying it!) It was a lot of fun for them and very helpful for me to be able to be in the kitchen making supper without worrying about who was wrestling with whom or doing other typical "boy" things and hurting themselves or destroying Terri's house.

After a yummy pizza supper, the boys worked in teams to build structures by rolling newspapers. Their goal was to make the biggest, sturdiest structure possible. They seemed to really enjoy this too. AND, they were very creative once they saw I was taking pictures. We spent nearly an hour (after the building contest), posing for pictures that would "tell a story"! Be sure to check out the pictures I've posted online at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bethellen/

(*I'm intentionally NOT including any pictures in the email because I know that it is difficult for some people to receive such large emails!)

After cleaning up all the newspaper (and I apologize to parents because I think several of their newspaper "swords" went home), we went outside and played flashlight hide and go seek. (Yes, we did put on bug spray!) A couple of the kids ran up and scared the Fouts and Grandma and Big Daddy in the midst of our game. Livingstone, my worker, thought we were crazy, running around in the dark with flashlights! But it was loads of fun.

The boys were very diligent in brushing teeth and getting ready for bed. Then we watched "The Rookie,"during which I sort of fell asleep on the couch until I got a phone call from America. My sister convinced me to let them watch ANOTHER movie...so then they watched "Spy Kids." The boys were much more talkative during the movie than the girls and they were thrilled that they were up later than the girls! They finally crashed out around 2 a.m I think.

I was sort of surprised that I was the first one up at 8:30, but the boys got up soon thereafter. We had a delicious breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, fruit smoothies, banana bread, hot chocolate (they had to be like the girls!)...

Overall, a great time was had by all! Remember to check out the pictures!!

For Samantha

2006-11-15T21:44:00.000+03:00

Here's my email address...

beth@everydaychurch.net

Talk to you soon!

HAIRCUT!

2006-11-07T18:42:00.000+03:00

Yesterday in Kampala, I went for a haircut and chopped off a little more than 10 inches of my hair to send to "locks of love." For those of you who didn't know, I've been growing my hair out since about December 2004 when I really got in my brain that I was going to come to Uganda. Well...maybe it was more official in Feb. 2005. Anyhow, I've only had trims here and there and was actually wanting to grow my hair out until I left to come here back in August 2005. BUT my slow-growing hair had other plans...

It's actually a LOT shorter than I wanted it to be--esp. in the back. But Mira (the Croatian hairdresser) can be a little opinionated and really thought it was important to keep the front longer than the back! Oh well, it's just hair, right? And it will grow back!

The pictures below: 1. Before cutting it all off; 2. Mira cuts it all off (with Andrea watching);

3. After...better view of the hair (with a little length in back along my neck) but my eyes were doing something funny; 4. After....

Just in case you were wondering, my hair will NEVER look like that again. I don't plan on blow-drying it for 40 minutes every day!!! I'll try to get you some pics of my hair after I style (or, rather, DON'T style) it soon!

Pumpkin Carving Slumber Party

2006-10-31T21:37:00.000+03:00

You will NEVER guess what I'm doing right now!!! I'm sitting in the dark with 6 darling little girls who are laying on the floor of my living room watching a video. Tonight we had the first ever "school" sleep over with my 5 school girls (Herin Kim, Kiho and Kaho Sato, Hannah Baker and Elizabeth Fouts) and special friend, Micah Fouts.

When they all arrived at 6:00apm, I was a little less-than-thrilled and, to be quite honest, just plain TIRED. I was making all sorts of mental notes to NEVER make plans on Friday nights. (Either I am just too tired after a week of schoo or I am getting oldl!)

Anyhow, while I put the pizza in the oven, the girls sang to "Sound of Music" and made Halloween crafts that my mom sent. (Thanks Mom!!) They LOVED the freedom to just do whatever with the supplies that were available and made some very creative and cool things.

After dinner--during which I heard numerous times that there was SO much cheese on the pizza, the girls made up and played some crazy keep-away game. I think part of the game was to see who could SCREAM--or maybe SHRILL at the top of their lungs the loudest. It was too cute. (I popped a couple of Aleve at this point!)

Then we carved pumpkins! TOTALLY fun. They LOVED cleaning out the pumpkins and playing in the seeds and goo... And the jack-o-lanterns look great!

And now, after watching "A Little Princess" and then hiding and jumping out and scaring each other around the house which, of course, made them all scream at the top of their lungs, causing Renee to call and make sure we were okay because she actually HEARD the screaming from her house, we've settled down and are (hopefully) falling asleep during a 30 minute "focus on the family" video.

I am SOOOOOOO glad that we had this fun and special night together. Praise God that He gave me the strength and energy to keep up with the girls tonight. And I am especially thankful for the simple joys and pleasures that God gives us--like laughter for no reason!

Well, I need to get to bed now that the video is over and I am hearing "sounds of sleep" from the girls. I have a feeling that no matter how late they stay up, they'll be up pretty early. Any suggestions for breakfast??

School Update #2

2006-09-23T16:27:00.000+03:00

SCHOOL UPDATE:

I can hardly believe that we’re at the end of week three! We’re so glad that Kiho and Kaho are home safely in Mbarara and back at school with us. Of course, adding more people to the classroom also means adding more adjustments that need to be made. School is definitely a work in progress, but I think it is going well.

On Tuesday, September 26, we will have an open house time when you can come to the school room with your child and see how things are set up and learn a little about what we do all day. Please feel free to come any time from 5:00 – 5:45 pm. Your kids can show you around the school room and if it’s nice weather, they can play outside for a little bit. At 5:45, I will be speaking briefly to all parents and just sharing an overview of a few things. We will finish in enough time for you to head home for dinner by 6:15pm.

Also, next week we will have local lunch on Wednesday. We will be eating potatoes and peas and chapattis. Please have your child order his/her lunch on Tuesday and bring 1000/= to pay for it. We will be eating at the Fouts’ home and as always, parents and siblings are welcome to join us.

Weekly reminders:
*ALL students have spelling tests on Fridays. Please work with your children at home to learn their new words and help to reinforce the rules that go with each week of words. Next week:
*1st grade: short i sounds
*3rd grade: long i sounds
*5th grade: long o sounds

*ALL students are memorizing scriptures.
*1st grade: Psalm 1 (due October 13)
*3rd grade: Psalm 8 (due October 13)
*5th grade: Psalm 91 (due October 27)

Thanks so much for all your help!

School Update #1

2006-09-23T15:34:00.000+03:00

Wow! I can't believe that 2 weeks have gone by already. I guess that just proves the old saying true: "time flies when you're having fun!"

We sure have been having fun, but it has also been a busy two weeks! We're working hard to get ourselves into routines so that being in a one-room school house with 3 different grades and about 8 different levels is still conducive to learning!

A couple of changes for everyone to know about:

1. I would like to add 15 minutes to everyone's day because that will allow students to have those last 15 minutes for packing up and cleaning up and still getting out of the classroom on time. This way I can continue teaching right up until the 2 or 3 o'clock hour. Please take note that 1st graders will now be in school from 8:30 - 2:15 and 3rd and 5th graders will be in school from 9:30 - 3:15.

2. We will be studying either Social Studies OR Science. We will switch back and forth between units of study. Right now we are doing a Social Studies unit on Africa. We have recently been talking about stereotypes. Be sure to talk with you kids and find out what they're learning!

3. I have attached a calendar for the fall semester. Your child should also bring home a "hard copy" of it this week. More information about each event on the calender is forthcoming.

Also, I have done preliminary reading tests on most of your children at this point. I would like to schedule a time to test the rest of the children in the next week or two. I would also like to meet briefly with parents to discuss my findings. Please let me know when it's a good time to meet with you.

Finally, I have attached a few fun pictures of some things we did the first couple of weeks. Hope you enjoy the pictures! Be sure to ask your kids what we were doing if you're unclear about what's going on in the pictures.

The older kids practiced some science skills: classifying and sorting.

All students were apart of a human graph. First, they're lined up according to the month in which they were born. Then they're graphed according to their ages. Can you guess how they're graphed in the 3rd photo?!? I'll give you a clue: the children are, in order from left to right: Jae, Luke, Curt, James, David, Herin, Hannah and Elizabeth.

First graders made all bread letters for all 26 letters of the alphabet! It was fun and MESSY!

Elizabeth Fouts reads the book she wrote, "Orange Cat, Orange Cat" to fellow classmates, preschool students, and students' family members. James Baker also reads his book, "White Window, White Window" to the same group of people following a special lunch/recess visiting the Naramores house.

Thanks so much for all your help, support and encouragement. As always, please call or email with questions, comments or concerns.

Welcome to School Letter

2006-09-23T14:40:00.000+03:00

September 7, 2006

Dear Parents,

WOW! What a great first week we have had! Having all of the kids in one room has been a lot of fun, but not without minor problems, which will – of course – take some adjusting as we all learn to work together in such a small space.

To maximize our learning time together, there are a few things I would like to share with you.

School starts at 8:30 for 1st graders and at 9:30 for 3rd and 5th graders start at 9:30. If the older children arrive BEFORE 9:30, they are asked to wait outside until they are invited inside, so as not to disturb our precious “1st grade only” time.

Lunch is from 12:30 – 1:15 each day. If you are having lunch delivered to your child(ren), please make sure it comes on time. Please put delivered lunches on the table on the porch, rather than disturbing class for a child to come out to meet you/your worker. It also might be a good idea to send a set of silverware that can be left in a cubby each week, since the Glissons’ home is not open for us.

Some Wednesdays, there will be “local lunch” available for students, prepared by Scovia, my house worker. Families are invited to join us for lunch/recess on these days at my home. The cost for lunch is 1000/= per person and should be brought to school ON TUESDAY so that I know how many people to expect. Next week (Sept. 13) we will have beans, rice, matooke and g-nut sauce. Students do not have to eat local lunch; they are more than welcome to pack their own lunches as they would on other school days.

Each day, students are working hard to memorize scripture, a little at a time. First grade is working on Psalm 1 for the next five weeks; third grade is working on Psalm 8 for the next five weeks; and fifth grade is working on Psalm 91. We will be checking progress in class each week; I will work with students to help them pace themselves by memorizing 1 – 2 verses each week. Memorization is an important skill for your child to develop and I am excited that we get to use the world’s best book as a resource to improve this skill.

Fridays I will send home folders. Please look through them with your child, sign page in the folder and have your child return the folder to school on Tuesday.

Finally, in the midst all the craziness that comes with having multiple ages, grades, levels and languages, it is very important for students to be attentive to directions and instructions all the time. Students also need to practice focusing on their own work, rather than the things going on around them in the classroom. Please talk to your children about this and remind them of the importance of listening and following directions the FIRST time they are given.

As always, please feel free to email (beth@everydaychurch.net) or call (485-20802 or 0782-546-186) me anytime with questions, comments, or concerns.

Thank you for all your help, as we work together for the benefit of your child.

Sincerely,
Miss Beth

Intern Arrival - June 2006

2006-09-17T22:28:00.000+03:00

Amy Naramore and I drove to Kampala Saturday June 3 to do shopping, get shots for Jon David, and then head to Entebbe to pick up interns. Lindsey (from Australia) was supposed to fly in that night. The rest would arrive early the next morning.

So Shane, Carole and I went to pick up Lindsey around 8:30 pm--with NO flight number, exact arrival time or anything. We stayed for several hours and then finally tracked down John Barton (in Mich) only to determine we had somehow gotten the wrong dates! We were a whole day early!!! Lindsey was scheduled to arrive the NEXT night and the interns weren't coming until Monday morning. WOOPS!

Carole, Amy, Jon David and I headed home to Mbarara without interns. When I got home, Terri and Amy were headed out the door with her brother and sister-in-law. So I said goodbye to them and spent the rest of the day cleaning and getting ready for the interns. Even though I was sad that they weren't here yet, I was really glad to have the extra time to clean house and prepare for them.

The next day, Jay and Shane arrived in Mbarara with 10 interns (Laura and Grant were already here). It was a cold, rainy day. Lots of luggage got wet on the way. Everyone was tired and needing showers and dry clothes. Lindsey (staying with me) had the misfortune of packing in a suitcase which was put on top of one of the trucks. Everything in her suitcase was WET! But we hung it all up on hangers in the bathroom and eventually it all dried.

All interns and teammates went to Riheka for a local lunch, so the interns could get their first taste of local food. They sure did get thrown into Uganda in a hurry! We spent most of that day just getting to know each other and trying to keep everyone awake.

Well, I have tried adding lovely pictures of the first day...everyone hugging everyone, reactions to local food, Tyler falling asleep...but it just isn't working! Oh well, this is Africa!

2006-09-17T18:21:00.000+03:00

WOW! What a summer--actually, what a year! I celebrated my "one year anniversary" in Uganda a couple of weeks ago on September 1st. It's hard to believe I've been here over a year! My, how time flies when you're having fun!

I know it’s been FOREVER since I updated this blog. So I think I’ll do a few “short” updates, based on events/things that have happened recently. (Actually, some of them are NOT so recently!)

First, this summer’s internship was amazing! Be sure to read all about it in the separate post.

Second, my friends, Lori and Lauren, came for a short visit in August. They just so happened to be here for my 30th birthday and we went GORILLA TRACKING--WHAT AN AMAZING ADVENTURE! Be sure to read all about it.

Third, school has started and I am the only teacher! AAAHHHH!!!!!! No, just kidding--sort of! It has been lots of fun and is a totally new challenge for me to juggle 3 grades, about 8 different levels, 3 different first languages, and 4 ethnicities.

Also……

We had future teammates, Theron and Sarah Hutton come for a short survey trip.
We hosted quarterly meeting (for all Church of Christ missionaries in Uganda). I had a great time hosting a house full of 9 girls + some for meals and games!
We had a farewell retreat in Kampala for the Naramores who were supposed to have left on September 2. (They’re still waiting on the judge to sign their final adoption papers for Savannah.)
We sent people to the National Meeting in Kampala.
We had a missionary fellowship (with all missionaries in Mbarara).
We hosted several small groups of friends passing through Mbarara on the way to the game park.

I started to take over Amy Naramore’s “School Fees Program” with the help of Shane Gage. Through this, we sent 2 of our orphaned youth from town church off to COLLEGE!

I think that's the major stuff. I've also been working on a new picture website. It has some pictures of internship and GORILLA TRACKING! Be sure to check out this link: http://flickr.com/photos/bethellen/

Culture Shock??

2006-07-07T14:34:00.000+03:00

Three reasons why I think I might be going through culture shock right now:

1. Recently, I decided I can’t STAND how dirty Mbarara is…it seems there is TRASH everywhere! Just the other day, we were out in a village and I was giving out some gum and the people took it and thanked me and then threw their trash on the ground! AAAAHHHHH! And it wasn’t even KIDS! It was adults! What is the matter with using trash cans??

2. As I was making potato salad for the 4th of July (I’m not a huge fan of the holiday, but it was a little different celebrating it in another country!), I realized that the 35 potatoes I was cutting weren’t all the same. It’s as if some are baking potatoes and some are not. (I know that there are LOTS of other types of potatoes besides baking potatoes, I just can’t remember what they are at this point.) Anyhow, it hit me, in America, I would have bought the “right kind” of potatoes to boil, peel, and cut up to make a delicious potato salad. HERE, the only thing you get is “irish potatoes” or “sweet potatoes”.

3. So my interns are gone and I have the house to myself. Great, right? WRONG! I still have workers on my compound 24/7! Walking around the house in a pair of shorts…oops! There’s a window! Feel like I have to keep curtains and windows and doors closed to protect a little bit of privacy. But I HATE the closed up atmosphere when I do…

*Please pray for me in this time of adjustment!

May Team Things

2006-07-06T11:47:00.000+03:00

Well, May sure was a busy month! The first two weeks were pretty typical weeks, with school, piano lessons, ladies' Bible studies at town church and youth nights.

We started having serious ladies' meetings around the 2nd week of May in preparation for Dr. Vann Rackley to come. He has been working with our team since before they came many years ago and has made a few trips to Africa since.

Team worship on the 13th was a little different. Nick had all the children create and bring something to worship. And what a wide variety of things we got! The whole worship centered around praising God using the gifts He has given us...in ALL we do. Three-year-old Savannah Naramore praised God by being helpful and helping to change her little sister's diaper. Sarah Nell praised God by giving hugs and kisses to people. The kindergarteners and preschoolers praised God in song and dance. Several kids created pictures or drawings. Curt Baker created a crane out of k-nex; Luke Fouts created some type of motorized car; Elizabeth Fouts created a picture frame...okay, so you get the point. Anyhow, it was great!

I got to spend a day with the Glisson children while Scott and Emily went to Fort Portal to work on adoption papers for Ansley. It sure was fun! Check out our pictures!!

We had a great Girls' Night Out on the 19th, our last one before the summer. We got to see the video of Amy Naramore giving birth to Jon David--YIKES!--makes me want to have a c-section or adopt! On the 20th, we had a special farewell to one of our teachers, Amy Howard. It was sad, but funny to see Amy Naramore's acting abilities as she starred in a skit which she wrote and produced! Man, that girl is talented!!

The guys left immediately following worship to go on a "guys weekend" of rafting, golfing, etc. in Kampala and Jinja before picking up Dr. Vann Rackley who arrived on the 23rd. During this time, I stayed at the Naramores with Amy and her 3 small children. It was lots of fun and Amy said I'm a better bed-partner than her husband--in that I don't move around or snore!

So, while I was playing "house" with Amy and her family, the guys were off rafting the Nile River in Jinja. Unfortunately in their macho-ness, they flipped their raft one too many times and Danny sliced open his knee pretty badly. I guess that put a slight damper on their weekend...having to end their rafting adventure early and spend time in the hospital in Kampala. They even spent the night with the female missionaries in Kampala---since one's a doctor and the other is a nurse! Ellen and Darla were very helpful!!

They all made it back to Mbarara on the 23rd with Vann and we had a lovely team dinner at the Fouts. Then there were lots of meetings and sessions--both group, couples and individuals--with Vann fo the next 5 days.

At the same time, it was our last week of school. We had a great field day on the 26th, followed by an afternoon of swimming at Lake View. What a great way to end the school year! For field day, we had lots of great games, my favorite being "chubby bunny". I think the kids liked this one too because they got to eat marshmallows! They also loved the water balloon toss. Of course, it was extra special that Davis and Briley's balloon was the last to pop--and it was only after we intentionally threw it on the ground HARD to break it. But to hear their delighted screaming each time they threw it to each other and it fell on the ground but DIDN'T break was one of the highlights of the day.

Saturday the 27th, Terri and Amy left to go pick up Amy's brother and sister-in-law who were coming for a visit. I spent the day in the kitchen cleaning and re-organizing things. Then I rushed over to the Bakers to cook dinner for them.

Terri and Amy returned with Daniel and Amanda on Monday the 29th to a vegetable lasagne, but I couldn't eat with them because they were so late. I had to run out the door to babysit the Bakers so the SF group could have one last meeting.

Tuesday morning, I left early in the morning with Andrea and Lori to go to Kampala to shop for interns. We had a great time! Ate at a new Korean restaurant for lunch; spent the night with Darla and Ellen; visited with Heidi from Mbale. GREAT girls get-away trip...but also got lots accomplished-like buying my gas stove and food for our interns!

And that is the end of the month of MAY! PLEASE check out the pictures that go with all this stuff on my picture website.....

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos

look at the "May Team Things" folder........

Chicken Murdering

2006-07-06T00:59:00.000+03:00

As part of the internship, our interns had to cook dinner for the missionaries. Sounds pretty simple, right? The catch is, they can only use ingredients and things they could find here in Mbarara town.

SO, Lindsey and Bethany decided to kill a chicken--even though you CAN buy them in town already killed and frozen...if the power is working! It sure was an adventure! Jessica and Courtney (the interns staying with the Naramores) also killed a chicken in our backyard. It was actually quite "agusting!" I'm not sure if the ax was sharp enough. It took Bethany 3 or 4 hacks at our chicken's neck before it actually lost its head. And then the skinning and gutting and all that other gross stuff...almost made me NOT want to eat dinner that night. (Did I mention it was raining!?!?) Both Jessica and Bethany had killed chickens before, so they made it look easy--agusting, but easy. I was shocked at how much the insides of the chicken looked exactly like the packages of chicken breasts I usually buy at the grocery stores in Kampala! (BE SURE TO SEE ALL THE PICTURES FROM THIS CRAZY DAY ONLINE AT MY PICTURES WEBSITE:

As it turns out though, dinner was pretty good--although the chicken was really tough. I guess you need to let it sit longer or tenderize it somehow. They slow cooked the chicken in bbq and honey--both of which you can get in town!. They also made mashed potatoes and even found green beans in town! Baking soda biscuits and a yummy chocolate-flavored dessert topped off our delicious dinner.

For the most part, they made it look simple...I think most dinners were ready around the normal dinner time. (Some interns made mango cobbler, pizza--homemade sauce of course, fruit pizza, spinach salad--because they couldn't find lettuce, etc.) They didn't seem stressed out by having to cook without the conveniences of America or packaged and pre-seasoned things. In fact, I came home from a 3 hour meeting to find my girls lounging around and watching CSI, just waiting for the time to start the green beans and potatoes. Of course, they did all of this on their day OFF, where the ONLY thing they had to think about was preparing dinner!

Sweet Potato Update

2006-05-17T22:12:00.000+03:00

On Monday, when I walked into my classroom I nearly vomited. It smelled so bad! Sour, rotten, slimey sweet potatoes in jars with dead bugs floating in them. I carried them outside and aired out my classroom, deciding to wait and let Curt and Herin figure out what to do with them.
Curt and Herin decided we should change the water and that some were just not working. So we threw out some of them (the peel and the inside part of the potato).

In the two pictures above, Herin and Curt are holding their noses because it smells so bad. And on the right, Herin is changing the water in the jars with sweet potatoes.

Below is Herin's response. I didn't even change her spelling or grammar mistakes. Remember, she's Korean and English is her second language.

"Every day the bugs came and fell in the water, but one week later, it stinked so bad that we changed the water, covering our noses, and through some of the pieces out. We through the peel of the sweet potatoes and the insides. Now we're waiting for the sweet potato to grow. But I think the eye will grow better than the others. But my friend thinks that the whole sweet potato will grow. I wish it grows quickly and not stinky."

Curtwrites:

"We checked out potato plants this morning. Boy, did they stink bad! There were even some bugs floating on top of the water. We emptied the water adn rinsed out the jars. We also studied the pieces of potato carefully. Some of the potatos had grown longer roots. Others had not done anything except collect mold. We chucked these. (They were the insides adn teh piece of peel.) Then we rinsed jars and refilled them with clean water."

Below, Curt, grimacing at a moldy potato peel, is getting ready to "chuck" the peel. On the right, Curt and Herin show the newly cleaned jars with clean water with the "hopeful" potatoes.

Check back next week to see if we have more moldy potatoes or if we have some potato plants growing. . . . .

Growing Some Sweet Potatoes...

2006-05-17T20:40:00.000+03:00

So, my 4th graders and I are trying to grow sweet potatoes by putting them in jars of water. I know that I taught middle school science for several years back in America, but Biology--and more specifically BOTANY (that's the science of plants and stuff, right?)--is just not my thing.

Anyhow, last week (Wed. maybe? That just shows you how great I am at keeping records for this science experiment!), we put some sweet potatoes (which had been in a black cavera for 2 days in the classroom) in jars of water to see if they would grow new plants. Well, only one of the potatoes actually fit in the jar...and it even stuck out quite a bit. So we decided to cut them in pieces to experiment and see which part of the plant was actually responsible for the growth of a new plant.

It was suggested to even see if a new potato could grow out of the peel of the potato or from the actual inside part of the potato. So we tried it all! I think we put 6 jars on the window sill, one with a whole potato; two with chunks of a potato; 1 with just the "eye" of the potato; one with the inside only; and one with the peel only. In the picture to the left, Curt is trying to get me to put only the white (yes white!) part of the sweet potato in the jar...as a new experiment to see if anything would grow from it!

Below, Herin and Curt are filling the jars with water. Notice that one of the jars Curt is holding already looks cloudy and dirty...not a good sign. Be sure to check out my next post to see what Curt and Herin wrote today in their journals about the potatoes and see some new pictures!

Question #4

2006-05-02T22:10:00.000+03:00

Did I ever even post question #3? Surely, I can't remember.

Oh well...

Question #4:

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one ability or quality, what would it be?

Mbale Quarterly Meeting

2006-04-18T21:27:00.001+03:00

Four times a year, all Church of Christ Missionaries in Uganda get together, hence the name "quarterly meeting." This particular meeting was supposed to be held during election week back in February, but instead got pushed to the last weekend in March.

So, the main reason for heading out to Mbale was for business, but it ended up being one of the most fun times I've had since being here in Uganda. I mean, I had a FANTASTIC time! Left one Thursday right after school and stopped in Kampala for the night. LOVE Darla for housing us ALL THE TIME! Not the best night of sleep though, because power was out, there were tons of mosquitoes and I was HOT! No big deal though...

Next morning headed out with Darla and Mark (after spending several hours at the airport trying to pick up someone's lost luggage) to Mbale. Arrived at the "teachers' house" around 5 and then went out to Oasis for dinner. GREAT food, great company, great time in general! Power was out, but when we got back, we hung out and played some crazy games or something. Slept well...with a mosquito net!

Saturday morning we went walking and then to a coffee factory. I am in LOVE with that place. I could live there...mmmm...the smell of fresh coffee!! Anyhow, it was fun (check out my pictures: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos) to learn about the process the coffee bean goes through to become drinkable! We bought some coffee and I even got to help pack my beans into a bag. The lady would not let me use the big special heat sealer machine, but it's all good...

So then we made a quick stop at the market (check out the picture of the fish just chilling!), had a late lunch and then dinner and then went to a time of worship. Went back with our wonderful hostesses (Becca, Jamie, and Rachel) and played some more games and then went to bed.

Sunday was church, followed by a catered lunch with everyone and then our business meeting (not so much fun). Ran around town and helped prepare dinner for all the singles, which our hostesses graciously provided. Went to a special thingy for the Shelbournes who have been here TEN YEARS, followed by a game night.

Monday, we went walking again and then to Sisyi Falls...not really sure if I'm spelling it right, but you pronounce it CC falls. Anyhow, a very lovely day. Weather couldn't have been better, nor the company. There are lots of pictures of this beautiful place on my pictures sight, so make sure you check them out! There were lots of monkeys just flying through the trees, and there were some cool looking lizards, not to mention the interesting looking trees and the cactus growing on top of a huge boulder! There were Tarzan-like vines hanging down from some of the trees and roots that you could climb! So, great day overall! Then we went and got take-out from Oasis and went to play games with the Linda Tyler and Andrea Baker (husbands were all in Kenya at the Annual Men's Retreat). There, we determined (finally) my Meyer's-Briggs personality type: ENFP--in case you're wondering!

Tuesday was a school day. Andrea and I met with the "administrator" of their school (Danetta) to pick her brain. We had lunch at school with the teachers and then I spent the day working on school stuff. POWER actually came on at their house for the FIRST time since I had been there and stayed on about 5 hours!!!

Wednesday, school started with a devo, followed by games and water balloon tosses! Then we all (kids, teachers, moms, etc.) walked to the pool for the afternoon. That afternoon I went putt putt golfing with Andrea and the boys! Then we were supposed to have a ladies' Bible study or something but since power was out and the generator wasn't working right at the house we were supposed to go, they cancelled it. Fortunately, they didn't cancel it until after we piled in the back of the pick-up truck to go pick up Heidi. So we sat in the back of the truck and got to see the beautiful stars! Jamie and I even sang a song! Another great day!

Thursday was when we said goodbye to the Mbale girls and I headed back to Jinja with Andrea. There we met her husband, Jay, and the other guys for lunch at this Mexican restaurant, which was actually GOOD! Then I rode with a couple of guys to Kampala where Darla let me stay at her house AGAIN! We made pizza and attempted to make icecream, then we played cards with the Bakers and Mark Long and Scott Glisson. Pinnochle!!! I know you may not believe this, but this was my 7th great day in a row!!!

And that's essentially where my Mbale story ends....the rest of the trip involves going to Luwero to visit an orphanage....but that's a whole other story. Check back later for that....

The Question Game #2

2006-04-18T19:49:00.000+03:00

Lots of people thought the question was too easy last week, so this week I'll give you a choice.

Answer any (or all) of the following:

A. If you could have free, unlimited service for 5 years from an extremely good cook, chauffeur, housekeeper, masseuse, or personal secretary, which would you choose?

B. Relative to the population at large, how do you rate your physical attractiveness? your intelligence? your personality?

C. Would you prefer to be blind or deaf?

Easter

2006-04-17T21:13:00.000+03:00

For Easter, the Glissons hosted an early morning Missionary Fellowship. We met at 6:30 am for a sunrise service, followed by a time of fellowship and FOOD, of course! It really was a great time, even though it was pretty early. One thought that Scott shared was how we were celebrating Jesus' resurrection, and coming out of a time of darkness into the light and even more importantly, a new life! It just hit me and made sense why we were choosing to get up so early for a sunrise service...

After that, I went to town church, where I sang 2 new songs with the "choir." Lori has been trying to teach the Ugandans to sing in 4-part harmony and I was needed to help with the tenor--of all parts! I think things went well and God was praised! Service was much shorter than normal, getting out at 12:15! So I joined the Bakers for lunch at Agip. After lunch we went to the new building site. The progress they are making there is AMAZING! (If you want to see it, you can check out: http://www.ankolemission.com/bldgblog.htm)

I went home and had a nice little nap--my first in MONTHS! At first, I felt a little bad because power was on and I was feeling like I needed to do some things that involve power (laundry, for example). But, I gave in and decided to just have a day of rest!!!

Around 5 pm, I went to the Bakers, where Lori, David, and Sarah also joined us for an Easter egg hunt. After the kids found the eggs, they hid them for Jay, Andrea, Lori and I to find. It was fun! Then we made tacos for dinner, which we got to enjoy in candlelight, because the power went out.

When I walked home, the sky was clear and beautiful with so many stars. Everything was quiet, except the wind blowing through the palm tree leaves and the night insects and birds (and the occasional barking of the Bakers' dogs!). A little while later, it got a little cloudy, but the moon started to rise in the sky and lit the night quite wonderfully. I tried to get some pictures of it. Some don't look TOO bad, but unfortunately they don't even come close to capturing the beauty that I was blessed to witness.

Overall, the Lord blessed my Easter with a beautiful sunrise, meaningful worship, peaceful relaxation, and great friends throughout the day. Hope yours was just as wonderful!

p.s. I've tried about 8 times to upload some pictures, but the internet seems to be temperamental....so I'll just try again tomorrow!

the QUESTION game

2006-04-11T23:21:00.000+03:00

I've recently decided that I'm not the best at keeping in touch with many friends and family members at "home." So what I'm going to do is try to email a question out each week that hopefully people will answer....just to try to stay in touch. Might be silly, but who cares? If even a fourth of the people respond--WOW--I'd just love to hear from people!

In case you don't get my email question of the week, maybe I'll try to post one here too.

Ready for question #1? (Feel free to respond here or email me!)

For a person you loved deeply, would you be willing to move to a distant country knowing there would be little chance of seeing your family or friends again?

what IS communion?

2006-04-11T16:25:00.000+03:00

During the month of March, we had a team worship time where we focused completely on the Lord’s Supper. It was really a meaningful time to me just because I was going through a rough time right then. We actually spent a good part of the time sharing past and current ideas about communion, i.e. what it is to us, where we got these ideas from, how we feel about it, etc. Overall, it was a great time to get to know my teammates; I really enjoyed communing with them, as well as communing with the Lord.

How To...

2006-04-11T16:24:00.000+03:00

Last week, my students wrote “How To” papers. They were given the choice about what directions they wanted to write. Herin chose to write a paper explaining how to hard-boil an egg and Curt wrote about how to make a tuna fish sandwich. So on Friday, we had “Directions Day” where we graded the papers by following the directions and making ourselves lunch. You guessed it—tuna fish sandwiches and hardboiled eggs!! It went really well, although the tuna was REALLY salty! I guess 1 tsp. of season salt and 1 tsp. of garlic salt will do that!

March Missionary Fellowship

2006-04-09T17:13:00.000+03:00

One Saturday morning in March, we had a "missionary fellowship." This just means that ALL missionaries in Mbarara get together. All denominations and nationalities are invited and we just come together in unity to praise the same God. We also played a fun little game, where we tried to get to know each other better. Even though we all live in the same city, we don't cross paths much. The fellowship is always a great time to form new relationships with people who share a common passion for our Lord.

School Goodbyes in the Month of March

2006-04-09T16:06:00.000+03:00

The month of March was a sad one in school as we said goodbye to 2 of our classmate. Kiho Sato went to Japan on a 6-month furlough. Also, Eric Choi moved with his family to Kampala so his father could continue working on his language lessons. I realized I had already posted some pictures and wrote about this after I added 18 more pictures and changed the name of the picture folder to "School Goodbyes in the Month of March." SORRY!

But let me tell you about the few extra pictures I added. There was a little going away party for the Satos before they left for Japan. That is one chunk of pictures. I also added 2 pictures from Kiho's last day of school with us. One is just of her and Herin swinging and one is a class picture of P4.

Another group is from a small going away party for Eric and his sister Crystin (in P2), which happened to fall on St. Patrick's Day. We ate lunch with P2 and played some games and then had a big cookie and a prayer circle for the Chois before they moved away.

We sure do miss Kiho and Eric!!!

Random School Stuff

2006-03-23T06:46:00.000+03:00

So, I've recently lost 50% of my class at school. That's right. Two of my four students are gone for the remainder of this school year. Kiho Sato went back to Japan for a 6 month furlough with her family and Eric Choi moved to Kampala with his family.

But before they left, we did some pretty cool stuff, and I just posted some pictures in a new folder called, "Some School Stuff."

For science, we were talking about mixtures and the students had to "seperate" the mixtures. Well, the rocks and sand wasn't too hard. For the flour and rice, Eric tried to blow the flour away. Then Curt got a strainer to help. It was actually quite funny. Then we even attempted to boil away salt water to separate sand and salt.

Another group of the pictures are of a lunch that Eric's mom brought for all of us to eat.

One set is of us writing on each others' backs. This was an activity we did before everyone moved away, just to shower each other with kind words. The kids really got into it!

Then there are a couple of pictures of the kids leaning up on a wall trying to get information from a map.

It's been fun, and I know it will continue to be, teaching them. The dynamics have just changed and will take a little getting used to.

Baptism Sunday!

2006-03-22T20:08:00.000+03:00

On Sunday, March 12, Mbarara Church of Christ welcomed 2 new Christians into God's family. Just wanted you to share with us as we celebrate new life in Christ!

Our new brother, being born again!

Saula (the lady in black and red) was also baptized. She is a former Muslim.

Richard prays for the two new Christians.

Japanese Culture Week

2006-03-21T08:23:00.000+03:00

For Social Studies, we studied the culture of Japan for a couple of weeks. Luckily, we had some first-hand experts--one of my students is Japanese and her parents came to teach us! They brought us a delicious sushi lunch and then taught us some typical games and fun activities that Japanese children play. They also taught us a little about the history and culture of Japan. In our studies about Japan, we also made Japanese Flying Carps for art, learned a few of songs--"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "Happy Birthday"-- in Japanese, and even played a little trivia game about Japan. Overall, we had a great time learning about Japan!

feeling a little artsy...and africa

2006-03-20T21:39:00.000+03:00

Just wanted to post a few random pictures that I've taken and JUST LOVE!

First is John, one of our workers. Clearly this was on a day where there wasn't much to do.

Another day, John and Livingstone taking bottles back to town (and probably buying more sodas)!

Thirdly, I just like the fruit stand. It was on my way home from Kampala after getting Debbie to the airport. (So it was actually taken way back on Christmas Eve!)

Finally, aren't Davis and Savannah just adorable? He was walking her home after a day of playing. Luckily, there was NO VASOLINE around that day!

A Tea Party!

2006-03-20T21:12:00.000+03:00

How did I celebrate the elections? Well, because we were unsure of how things would turn out and wanted to keep close to our homes the day the news of the new president was announced, school was closed. And Hannah Baker decided to have a little tea party, since we were all just hanging out!

Once everyone was there, her mom asked, "Well, Hannah, what do you want your guests to do now?"

"Color!" she said emphatically. So we did. And we enjoyed tea and muffins and lovely conversation all the while.

Plus Hannah even sent us home with a home-made gift bag and a beautiful piece of stationary.

What a great way to spend a holiday from school!

50%

2006-03-20T18:43:00.000+03:00

Well, I'm sure you all know that we only have power about 50% of the time. (I think I've told almost everyone by now!) We lose power from about 6 pm until about 6 pm the following day. It has posed some problems, mainly with things like keeping the food in the fridge cold, not to mention cooking. I guess that in the past 2 1/2 months of this, I've gotten into a little routine.

On power out school mornings, I eat cereal and get use the Bakers' boiled water to make my coffee in a french press. (THANK YOU STARBUCKS AND MOM AND DAD FOR THE GIFT LAST CHRISTMAS...and I suppose Aaron Pishalski for introducing it to me!) Lunch on these days is usally cold leftovers or a sandwich or salad. Mornings where I'm NOT rushed off to school, I will usually heat water over the fire out back for coffee and sometimes I'll even cook eggs (or one time French toast) out there...but then I have to fight Quesa, our dog, for the food I'm cooking!

The biggest change I've had to make is being even MORE of an advanced planner (which is hard for me to begin with!). For example, copies, printing things in town, laundry, even rationing our hot water from the hot water tank! But I guess there are always adjustments to be made....right?

About a week ago, for a way to spend the day (since there was no power), my roommates and I went to the Tea Plantation after church just to get some solitude and quiet time--away from our house. It was great! I took a blanket and some pillows and listened to music and read (and even did some school work!). Overall, it was such a great time to rest and "get away"!

Some Re-caps of Debbie's visit (more detail about the 40 new pictures I just posted)

2006-03-19T12:43:00.000+03:00

So I just posted lots of pictures from Debbie's visit way back in December. (BE SURE TO CHECK THEM OUT AT: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos )

The first one is really blurry, but it's the only one I have of her arriving at the Entebbe airport. I made Lori guess which person arriving was my sister. I don't know if I waited long enough for Lori to make a guess, because when I was saw her come out, I was so excited that I just got a huge grin on my face and started walking around the other people to get to her.

The next few are in Jinja, from right after we went rafting. It was so pretty there. After we went rafting, Spencer took us to the source of the Nile River, and it was just beautiful. The sun was setting, and it suddenly started pouring. The next morning we had a few minutes to look around the Source Cafe (also where they hold church) in Jinja. The woodcarvings and decor was beautiful!

Some of the other random pictures are of Debbie riding a piki piki (pronounced "peachy-peachy"). Of course, I was taking the picture while I was either rideing in front of or behind her on my own piki piki. There are a couple of pictures of some dancers that we were trying to see at Lakeview when we went there for lunch, but they were SO late, we ended up having to leave as they were coming out so that we could make it to Lake Mburu and back before dark.

We spent a LOT of time with the Bakers. We took the kids to the pool one day and even played the "Big Red Challenge" with them....you know, you lick the back of the Big Red wrapper and then stick it to your forehead. It sure does burn, but that's the challenge--to see who can stand hte heat the longest. I think Hannah won! We also tasted grasshoppers at the Bakers. One of their workers, Kama Kama, fried them up for us. They weren't so bad--tasted somehow like bacon. Thinking about what we were eating too much was not good though.

Sword and Soccer is another fun thing that Debbie got to participate in here. Every Saturday, team and neighborhood kids show up at our compound to play soccer. Then Terri teaches them a little Bible lesson.

For Christmas (and I'll probably do another post about Christmas in general, along with some more Christmas pictures), our team has SO MANY visitors. We had a team Christmas party with a White Elephant gift exchange and a cookie exchange. Debbie was able to be here for all of this. She even helped to make all sorts of fancy Christmas cookies to contribute to it!

Okay, I think that about covers the 40 pictures I just posted about Debbie's visit. I do have several other posts/photo albums in mind that I will try to post in the next week or two. . . or not, since I'm heading out to Mbale next week for quarterly meeting.

So, stay tuned for stuff about Mweya, the ladies' ministries, the aggies interns, and more!

Today I feel....blech.

2006-03-18T19:08:00.000+03:00

Do you ever feel like you've got so much to do, you just don't even know where to start? well, i do, and i can't even tell you why or what it is i have to do....

I was just looking through my pictures and trying to organize them. THAT is a chore. I'm sure I have more than 3000 pictures--and I really wish I could post more of them to share. I know I'm really far behind in doing that, so sorry...but I'm taking baby steps.

Today, I did add a couple of pictures to the Tea Plantation.

I also added a "Bat Cave" folder. This is from November. When Kati, Andrea, Lori and I went to the game park (and we stopped on the way at the Tea Plantation) at Jacana Lodge. Andrea and I went on a walk with Robinson, a guide from Queen Elizabeth Park, to a bat cave in hopes of seeing a python!! We didn't get to see the python, but the bats were freaky enough for me! Afterwards, we had lunch together and swam (relaxed by the pool) for a little bit. This is where we saw a beautiful, but poisonous, blue lizard. We also saw several monkeys in the trees. It was pretty cool.

Well, I'm hoping to post the pictures of my sister's visit (way back in December) soon--at least some of them! I also have quite a bit of stuff to write about....soon I hope.

For now, I need to go find something for dinner. Man, it's times like this when I wish I could run to Taco Bell or order a pizza or even chinese food!!!

Valentine's Day

2006-02-25T21:08:00.000+03:00

For Valentine's Day, the kindergarten, p2, and p4 students created a "Sweetheart Cafe" for their parents. The kids came early and helped set up, then they served as waiters and waitresses for their parents. It was just lovely!

We also had a combined Valentine's Day party during school, where we ate a yummy picnic lunch, had a guest reader (KK), decorated heart-shaped cookies, and played fun games.

Make sure you check out my pictures: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos

My wonderful roommate, Terri, made Amy and I dinner! Plus we got to eat chocolate-covered strawberries!! YUMMY!!

A few more school highlights...

2006-02-25T18:21:00.000+03:00

Be sure to see the pictures at http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos)

*We took a planet walk (WAY BACK IN SEPT.), where we mapped out the solar system. We drove stakes into the ground and measured proportionally how far away all the planets are from each other.
*We tried to figure out if "Ooblech" is solid or liquid.
*We kept track of the medals won during the Olympics and made a huge pictograph to show each country's medals.
*We tried our hand our explaining how to make an "apple carousel." So, ours may not have turned out the way they were supposed to, but we had fun trying to follow each other's directions anyhow!
*We went on a field trip to the Coca Cola Bottling company to learn about their recycling and environmental efforts to preserve our world. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take cameras inside there, but we took a couple of pictures outside with our tour guide, Nicholas.
*We're doing "book projects" every month and we got to present our first ones to the class.
Curt read "Moccasin Trail"
Kiho read "A Cricket in Times Square"
Eric read "The Sign of the Beaver"
Herin read "Misty of Chincoteague"

School Christmas

2006-02-25T17:51:00.000+03:00

On December 14, the preschool, kindergarten, P2 and P4 students put on a Christmas program for their parents in the evening. Some kids read scriptures, some played the keyboard, some the recorder, and of course we all sang lots of Christmas carols.

Thursday, December 15 was our last day before the Christmas holiday. We had a "progressive" combined party, where we started out in the P2 classroom doing crafts, then we travelled up to the P4 classroom, where we played some fun games and even exchanged gifts with each other. We ended our party at the Kindergarten classroom, where we ate some yummy treats and watched a fabulous movie, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"

Be sure to check out my pictures website: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos to see lots of pictures of our Christmas celebrations!

Can school be fun!?!

2006-02-25T16:47:00.000+03:00

Way back in November and December, we did a big unit on some Laura Ingalls Wilder books and Native Americans. We ended our Laura Ingalls Wilder unit by having a big "Pioneer Day," where we made several different treats to eat and played some Pioneer and Native American games. It was quite funny to see the faces of the students as they tasted some of the foods, like vinegar pie, cornmeal mush, fried cornmeal mush, etc. They DID enjoy making the ginger molasses cookies (because they got to roll them out and carve out shapes with knives), but they didn't really like eating them so much. As we made our own butter, the kids commented how thankful they are for "Blue Band" (the Ugandan margarine gook that doesn't need to be refridgerated or anything!) because their arms were tired of shaking the cream. Plus it just didn't taste that great!

Also, as we studied Native Americans, the students created Alphabet books and we did many other different activities. We made a class totem pole, created clay coil pots, tried to do some rain chants/dances, "weaved" paper mats, and even made Navajo fry bread (which was a HIT!). There are some pictures of my P4 students reading their Native American Alphabet books with the P2 students.

Please make sure to check out my picture website (http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos) to see some of the pictures!

p.s. Pioneer Day never could've happened without my sister, Debbie's, help! THANKS DEB!

Kids say the darndest things...

2006-02-17T18:47:00.000+03:00

So, in a journal entry, one non-English speaking student of mine wrote about how much she enjoyed our Folk Lore unit, where we kept all our papers in a "blindfold" and turned them in at the end of the unit.

We've recently been working on complete sentences, run-ons and of course fragments. They had to determine which each was, and then correct if necessary. The "sentence" was:

Although the fish were biting.

One student said, "That's a fragment. So I changed it to, 'Although the fish were biting us."

Another student said, "Although the fish were biting us, we told them to stop fighting."
A second try was, "Although the fish were biting, they were not angry."

A smile in any language...

2006-02-13T14:01:00.000+03:00

So, I've been walking a lot lately--for exercise--not just to get where I need to go (since I have no car). If I'm walking alone (as opposed to walking with one of my teammates/wonderful walking partners), I just grab my ipod and hit the "track" around our glamorous golf course here in Mbarara. The trick of walking here is knowing which side of the road to walk on because piki-pikis might just zoom up behind you. Of course with my ipod blaring in my ears, it's even more difficult to be ready for them.

Anyhow, I get lots of "looks" from Ugandans as I'm walking. I think this is mainly because I'm a muzungu (white person). And I'm not just talking about a glance here and there...I'm talking about full-out STARING. When I make eye contact, they don't usually even look away. So I decided to try smiling at everyone I passed as we made eye contact. I'll have to admit that I was pretty discouraged that most people didn't even smile back. . .

UNTIL, I remembered that people in Uganda often use and smile with their eyebrows. So I started doing the same thing. I raised both of my eyebrows as I smiled at everyone I passed. And it worked! The smiles started coming faster than you can say, "Power's out."

I guess smiles aren't always universal...unless you know what's considered a "smile".

the simple things that make me smile =)

2006-02-07T20:24:00.000+03:00

When I was babysitting the Baker children and the power was out, I stood out in the hallway while the kids were supposed to be going to bed. I happened to “overhear” bits and pieces of their conversation. HOW PRECIOUS!
While I was walking to town church from the Bakers’ house, I passed my house and there were kids playing in our tree-house. It was the neighbor’s kids who called out to me, just a friendly hello. As I kept walking, passing our neighbor’s home, I heard someone calling to me again. This time it was Fahd, calling from high up in the tree. When Fahd what he was doing up there, he replied matter-of-factly, “Eating chocolate.”
One night when power was out, I left from the Bakers’ home to run home and get another change of clothes. Because the power was out and it was overcast, it was pitch black. I guess I sort of “forgot” we have a dog and must have jumped a mile when she came running up to me. Apparently Livingstone was sitting outside and saw the whole thing and just died laughing.
So, I was riding this piki piki (moped-type bike) on the way to the Fouts’ house the other night and my driver tried to get up their steep driveway. He was spinning his tires pretty badly and I was worried the bike was going to just fly out from underneath us. So instead of waiting to crash, I kind of jumped off the piki piki, but the driver tried to grab me to hold me on the bike and I ended up falling off. Livingstone saw this one from our house too. I guess he gets all sorts of laughs because of me!

Super Bowl -- live from Africa!

2006-02-07T20:14:00.000+03:00

So, our house has DSTV (don’t get too excited, we only get about 25 “African” channels about 75% of the time), and we had the chance to watch the super Bowl live from UGANDA! The only catch was that it started at 2 am! It was a long night…but a lot of fun.

Lori and David showed up around 11:30 pm, and then Jay came around 12:15 am, followed by Shane and Carole at 12:30. Everyone brought all sorts of treats—Chex mix, M&Ms, Hershey’s Miniatures and more!

Most of us lasted throughout the whole game—even that lovely half time show! I think it might be time for Mick Jagger to retire!

The game was pretty good, although I think the refs made some pretty bad calls, all in favor of the Steerlers! We were worried about the power going out at 6:00am (and the game wasn’t over yet!), but luckily we escaped that power load-shedding. The power stayed on and we were able to see the whole game without the deafening generator.

Luckily, we were able to sleep in this morning a little bit too. Then this afternoon, ESPN Africa replayed the game around 4, but we had to start the generator because out power went out at around noon. Curt Baker came over and watched most of it by himself. He had his own little Super Bowl party…make sure you see the pictures on my picture website. It was very cute. He even asked if we could fast forward the commercials!

Lake Mburu with Debbie

2006-01-28T17:16:00.000+03:00

One day, Terri drove Debbie and I to Lake Mburu (only about 45 minutes away from Mbarara) to the National Park, where lots of zebras live. On the way to the park, Terri hit a bird, which got stuck pretty good in the grate of her truck. When we got to the park and were going through the gate, the park ranger told us we might have to pay since there was a bird stuck in the truck. He said some park rangers might think we hit it in the park and charge us money! Terri told him, essentially, that it was too bad because we weren't touching it!

Since she has a roof rack, we decided to ride up top; unfortunately we weren't warned to bring something to sit on so we ended up with grate-shaped bruises on our rears. Even as we grimaced through the pain as we flew over bumps, we were smiling all the way. It was like riding a roller coaster. I think I only ate a couple of bugs...and thank goodness I had my Hollywood shades on to protect my eyes!

When we got to the end of the drive, there is a beautiful lake where hippos live. There was a beautiful buffalo with lots of birds on it (see my pictures at: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent). I tried to pet a warthog...oops! He was NOT happy, so he snorted at me and tried to get me! We didn't see any hippos at the place where they usually are, so we walked over to another piece of shoreline and heard them. We got a couple of pictures and then heard some rustling in the bushes next to us. Two ladies from the UK told us that the most dangerous animals are hippos and that it sounded like there were some in the bushes next to us--OOPS! We got out of there pretty quickly!

Anyhow, it was a great afternoon. Debbie and I both kept saying, "Wow! It's so beautiful!" or "Everything is so green!" or "I can't believe I'm in Africa!" Those are things that I find myself saying pretty regularly. Well, not the green thing anymore...since it's currently dry season.

We saw an amazing sunset and there are lots of pictures of that too...unfortunately, pictures can only capture about 50% of the true beauty. Sorry...but please enjoy the pictures anyhow!

My sister comes for a visit. . .

2006-01-16T14:57:00.000+03:00

On December 10th, my younger sister, Debbie, came for a short visit. Leading up to her visit, I had been VERY busy, with preparations for the holidays and all that comes with that. Logistics of getting out to Entebbe to pick her up were a little fuzzy because plans seemed to change continually. I had reservations for us to go rafting on the Nile River on Sunday, but they kept telling me that there wouldn’t be any trips on Sunday since they didn’t have enough people to make a run down the river.

Anyhow, in a nutshell (since I don’t have much time because power is out, yet again, and I’m not sure how long my battery will last), Lori finally decided to take me to Entebbe to pick up Debbie. On Friday around 2pm, she said, “Can you be ready to leave in 30 minutes?” Of course, I had not planned on leaving until the next day after team worship. I hadn’t eaten lunch or packed or even cleaned my room up in preparation for Debbie to arrive. But I managed to grab some things together and be ready to leave with Lori. We got to Kampala in the midst of lots of traffic and ate a late dinner at a nice little Italian place. Then we went and crashed at Ellen’s house, a Kampala missionary. Saturday, we spent the day shopping in Kampala and then drove the remaining hour to Entebbe to pick up my sister at 10pm. Of course, her flight came in late and it seemed like we were waiting FOREVER! Finally, she arrived and we headed back to our hotel in Entebbe, where I celebrated Christmas a little early (at least, it sure did feel like that, with all the goodies Debbie had brought me from America!). Debbie and I were up talking until early in the morning. I would guess we got about 3 hours of sleep total. Debbie will tell you that the reason we didn’t sleep much was because I was talking, but I will stick to my story that it was hot and the fan oscillating back and forth between us was not doing a good enough job of keeping us cool and mosquito-free.

Luckily, the rafting people said that a few others had signed on to go rafting so they would indeed be taking a trip on Sunday. So we had to get up and get on the road to Kampala so that we could make it to our rafting bus at 730 am. From there, we went to Jinja, where we spent a great day rafting the Nile River! (read more about this in another post, which I will hopefully do soon!)

After rafting, we spent the night in Jinja with the Bogels, another missionary family. We headed to Kampala early in the morning to catch ANOTHER ride “home” to Mbarara. We made a quick stop at the equator, where we took some pictures and even saw the demonstration of how water drains in opposite directions on each side of the equator. (My dad wanted video of this!) When we finally arrived in Mbarara, we stopped at home and threw on skirts so that we could run to a Christmas party held at Amy Naramore’s home for our Ladies Town Church Bible Study group. Eventually, we made our way to the Bakers for dinner. We stayed and visited with them until late in the evening and then got a great night’s sleep finally!

Tuesday, Debbie went to school with me and helped me with my “Pioneer Day.” (Read more about this later in a post…if I ever get around to it!) Her help was invaluable and I never would have been able to pull it all off without her help. I think we had dinner with the Naramores that night, but I can’t be totally sure.

Wednesday, Debbie went to the hospital to check up on one of Danny’s friends and to just get a glimpse of the health-care situation here in Uganda. That night, we headed to the Glissons for our school Christmas program. (Read more about this later!)

Thursday was our last day of school and we had our Christmas party (combined kindergarten, 2nd grade and 4th grade). Debbie ended up going to the village for a short visit with Lori though. Thursday afternoon, Debbie and I headed to Ladies’ Bible Study (late of course) only to leave and head out to Nyakinengo, the village where we were going to do our bonding. (Of course, read more about this later!)

Friday around 3 pm, we left Nyakinengo to go straight to the hospital so I could give blood for Isaac, Danny’s friend. Then we went home, SHOWERED and kind of just crashed! We headed to the Glissons that night to watch a movie, during which I fell asleep!

I think on Saturday, we had a low-key, mellow-kind-of day. We didn’t do much. I think we went swimming with the Baker kids and Debbie played soccer with the neighborhood kids for “Sword and Soccer.” We had dinner with the Bakers again, and even got to play Pinnochle! Can you believe that ?!? Debbie and I stayed there until 4 am enjoying our time with Jay and Andrea.

Sunday, we went to town church, lunch at Lakeview Hotel, and then headed out to Lake Mburo to see the animals. It was really cool! We got to ride on top of Terri’s truck. (Of course, we didn’t bring pillows or blankets or anything, so our rear-ends were SORE by the end…especially since Terri seemed to really enjoy speeding over bumps and looking at us with a big grin on her face!) We saw TONS of zebras and lots of other animals. (See my pictures, which I’ll get around to posting SOON, hopefully at http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos ) Terri’s highlight was seeing a warthog (man are they UGLY!) try to charge me…guess I got a little too close to him. I was only trying to pet him. Oh well, lesson learned. The scenery and sunset were BEAUTIFUL! Debbie and I kept saying to each other, “Man it is SO green and pretty!” Unfortunately, I don’t think you can fully experience the beauty without actually being here. Sure, pictures are worth a thousand words, but they really don’t capture the true beauty I am able to see and experience here. Man, I feel so blessed!

Okay, Monday Debbie and I hung out and spent lots of time at the Bakers’ compound most of the day. Not much to share about that day. Oh, we took Hannah and Curt into town to shop for our white elephant gifts. We visited with Isaac at the hospital again. He seemed to be getting worse, but there really wasn’t anything we could do, but pray. His family asked for a pastor to pray over him and I looked to Debbie. (She IS a nurse, you know, who has experience dealing with sick and dying people.) But she just looked back at me and told me I was a missionary teacher. She reasoned that since I had the word “missionary” in my title, I should be the on praying for him. It was sad, and there wasn’t anything else to do, so I laid my hands on him and prayed for him as best I could. Hopefully the Holy Spirit interceded here on my incompetent behalf. We ended Monday having dinner with the Glissons.

Tuesday, we left early for Queen Elizabeth Game Park and returned from there Wednesday night. (Read all about this after I write about it an post it! Also, you‘ll have to go to my picture website to see all the amazing pictures we took--LOTS of great elephant pictures!)

Wednesday night, Amy and her family got in and we had dinner with them.

Thursday, Terri, Amy and her family got up and left early to go the Game Park. Debbie and I spent most of the day baking cookies for the cookie exchange at the Bakers’ house. Thursday night was a POWER OUT night, but we finally made it to the Bakers for the Christmas white elephant gift exchange and cookie swap. It was a fun night, which included a surprise visit by Santa Claus and a special version of “Twelve Days of Christmas” sung to us by Nick and Renee.

Friday morning, Debbie and I headed to Kampala for some souvenir shopping. Around 6, she was on her way to Entebbe to catch her flight home and I was on my to Ellen’s to sleep for the night.

This concludes the “QUICK OVERVIEW” of my sister’s visit. (Surely, you know that I’m not so good at telling stories…they always turn into novels!) Hopefully, I’ll get around to writing more specifically about some of the events that took place while she was here SOON. I’m also hoping to post lots of pictures soon!

Kampala Team Retreat

2006-01-16T14:54:00.000+03:00

When our team went to Kampala for a team retreat the last week in October, we stayed at the “American Club,” a nice hotel that serves many American foods--like icecream!
Anyhow, it is a goal for our team to have 2 retreats each year. This particular one was focused more on “work,” as everyone worked hard to edit an existing team policies document. As teachers, Amy and I were in charge of caring for the children for a couple of the morning sessions. I planned one morning, where we learned about spiders and did several activities which centered on spiders. For example, we made spider cupcakes, created spider webs out of yarn, did some spider dances and even made spiders on the sand volleyball court. It was lots of fun and very challenging to find things to keep kids aged 18 months - 4th grade entertained for several hours.
One night, the adults all went out to dinner at Mamba Point, a VERY fancy Italian restaurant.
Sunday morning, after taking MANY agonizing team pictures (which turned out great!) we had some worship time together as a team. Then we headed to the quarterly meeting Fall Festival.
It was a fun “get- away” from Mbarara and a great time to bond with my teammates.
*See the pictures from Team Retreat at: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos

Fall Festivals Were Successful

2006-01-16T12:11:00.000+03:00

Halloween is not a holiday that is celebrated or even known about here in Uganda. As Americans, we had to come up with an alternate plan for celebrating this holiday. So, on Sunday October 23rd (yes, I know that’s a whole week BEFORE Halloween), we had a “Fall Festival” for all of team and school kids. It was kind of interesting--that is, trying to explain these crazy American customs-- to our Korean and Japanese students.

The kids showed up in costumes, and we played lots of fun games, earning candy as prizes. In adddition to the traditional carnival-type games, there was apple-bobbing (my personal favorite), face-painting and even cookie-decorating. (Man, I wonder who was the unlucky person who had to make so many pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies!)

After the children exhausted all of the game stations, they piled into Danny’s trailer which was filled with HAY! Haha…just kidding! It was filled with BANANA LEAVES, the next best thing! They drove around town a bit, singing some silly songs and just having a grand ol’ time. While they were doing that, most of the adults were busy preparing our supper by cooking “sausages” (read: “hotdogs”) over a bonfire, which we ate with homemade hotdog buns…since you can‘t get them here in Mbarara. We had all sorts of interesting picnic-type foods, including home-made potato chips and jello salads.

Great time for the kids and I think some of the adults even had fun! See the pictures I’ve posted at my picture website: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos

The following weekend, we put on another (very similar) Fall Festival for all the missionaries’ kids at our quarterly meeting in Kampala. This one was much closer to the actual date of Halloween. We didn’t get to go on a “hay-banana leaf ride” but we did have a MOONBOUNCE! Some of us even took the opportunity to wear a DIFFERENT costume! (For those of you who know me, you know how much I hate Halloween, primarily because I hate coming up with good costume ideas. So in Mbarara, I was dressed as a fly-swatter…complete with a couple of dead flies hot-glued to my shirt. In Kampala, I was dressed as a “twin” to Hannah’s African princess. We later decided to call me the “African Queen” and Hannah the “African princess.”

The only thing missing from our Halloween celebrations was decent candy… Reeces anybody??

Final Fun Time with Cousin Kati

2006-01-15T23:32:00.000+03:00

During my first three months in Mbarara, Cousin Kati (Jay Baker’s first cousin, once removed, or something like that) was a fixture here. It is really strange that she is not here any more…but I guess I’m getting used to it. While she was here, Kati and I spent a lot of time together. She helped with school and at the Bakers a lot. Before she left, we went to Queen Elizabeth National Park for safari, where we stayed at Jacana Lodge. We had a great time. We stopped at the Tea Plantation on the way and enjoyed a nice cup of tea and even had the chance to see lots of beautiful birds. Thanks to Lori, we were able to identify several of them.

We stopped for a quick photo opportunity on the way. It was a real “Lion King” moment, complete with the song, courtesy of my singing! Kati, Lori and Andrea swear up and down that my version was not right . They think my Swahili (if that’s even the language at the beginning) is a little off…hmm…what do they know?

Anyhow, on our way to the lodge, we saw lots of baboons (which, because they had red bottoms, were in heat) and monkeys. The lodge itself was really nice--very rustic. But I liked it. We stayed in our own little “log cabin” and there was no electricity (although there was running water). They ran a generator from 7 - 10 pm and provided us with candles. Andrea found a huge scorpion on her bed and we had quite a laugh trying to kill it!

We hired a guide from the National Park to go with us in search of lions and elephants and all sorts of other wild animals. Caleb was our guide and he was quite beautiful, but I guess that wasn’t enough…because we still didn’t see any lions and the elephants we saw were pretty far away. After a lovely dinner and a LONG night playing with my I-pod, Kati and I finally crashed around 3 am.

We decided to get up for an early morning attempt to see the lions, but our breakfast tea and coffee was delivered late. So we figured we wouldn’t make it before the sun came up and would probably not see any cats anyhow. Andrea and I took a walk through the woods to a bat cave. It was really interesting to learn about the woods we were walking through and the Queen Elizabeth National Park. I would love to tell you all about it, but quite honestly, I really don’t remember much of it. I do remember that the bats were kind of creepy and they smelled bad. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the python, but that may have freaked me out a little too much. While we were on our hike through the woods, Kati and Lori were out looking for lions. . .unfortunately, I don’t think they had much luck.

We spent the afternoon swimming at Jacana, where there were lots of pretty blue and green jumping lizards that apparently bite. Then we headed on home. It was a great time and I’m glad I had the chance to see some of the beautiful scenery here in Uganda. The company wasn’t too bad either. . .hahaha…ninzani--meaning “just kidding.” The company was the best part--just the girls!

Thanksgiving--Mbarara Style

2006-01-15T23:15:00.000+03:00

The night before Thanksgiving, I was sitting in the dark, peeling and cutting potatoes with the help of Mark Long (a missionary from Kampala). I was one of two people assigned to make mashed potatoes for everyone. The next morning, my sore little hands were peeling and cutting apples so I could make apple pies. I spent the morning battling for the use of our oven (since Terri was cooking the turkey and making dressing--with a BLENDER!).

RUSH, RUSH, RUSH…you know me, always running late. I finally got my things made for our Thanksgiving feast (including 2 apple pies with homemade crusts) and made it to the Bakers’ home in time for our 1:00 lunch. It was my first time in the downstairs part of their house, since they have been getting their kitchen re-done (termites, I think!). Interestingly, the tradition of our team is to have ribs, because the turkeys are small and expensive (mostly imported from America?) and just aren’t too great. (In the past, some teams have even tried to raise and kill their own!) Everything was delicious and the company was great too. It just didn’t really feel like Thanksgiving, because it wasn’t cold, there wasn’t any football, and we didn’t even have sweet potato pie. . .

After our scrumptious meal, we had the chance to see the team kids perform a few holiday songs and even a little skit. Then we headed to the Naramores’ home to play some flag football, kickball and some other outdoor relays and games. It was lots of fun. We made our way back to the Bakers’ home to eat leftovers for dinner and then we had a great devotional, followed by lots of fun party games.

Overall, Thanksgiving 2005 was a wonderful time with good friends and good food. I am thankful for the good friends I have made here in Mbarara so far. I am especially thankful for the opportunity I have to be here, experiencing all that I am experiencing.

QUICK UPDATE

2006-01-14T22:45:00.001+03:00

The place to view my pictures has changed. Please check:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bethellent/my_photos

I am really working to add lots of pictures and update my blog SOOOOOOON......I promise!

Until then...

School started last week, with extended hours from 8:30 - 3:00 Tuesday - Friday. Plus we have school committee meetings OFTEN...trying to get new policies in place.

Power goes out every OTHER night now.

I've started teaching piano lessons to 2 kids.

I've also started teaching the Ladies Bible Study every Thursday at town church.

I babysit one night a week on a rotating basis for families on our team.

I've started getting up early to walk about 2 mornings a week and am trying to hit the "gym" for Ugandan aerobics twice a week.

I'm also planning our team worship for the next two weeks.

All this to say that I'm a little busy!!!

BUT I REALLY WILL TRY HARD TO UPDATE THIS WITH MEANINGFUL STUFF SOON!

School Update

2006-01-05T22:27:00.000+03:00

SO sorry that it has been so long since I have updated this blog. . . I’m sure we all agree that the holidays season is always a busy time!

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here only FOUR months…it seems like so much longer! And yet, most of the things I want to update you about seem to have happened FOREVER ago…hopefully I can remember them all accurately and with sufficient details!

Let’s start with a school update. It has been a new kind of challenge for me to be teaching 4th graders…especially since I only have FOUR of them and I am in the classroom with them for only 20 hours a week. For this reason, I want to maximize every second that we are together, which of course, means extremely careful planning and lots of preparation to make sure that there is never any “dead time“ during the day. Those of you who know me well are probably finding this all a little funny, especially as you recall that the procrastinator in me usually takes over and I generally fly by the seat of my pants where teaching is involved! I guess I am saying all this to let you know specifically why I find teaching here to be one of my greatest challenges.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT, though! My four students are truly wonderful children, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, charms and annoyances. I guess, however, that this is no different than any other classroom full of students! The difference is that the relationship I have with each student is magnified a lot more due to the fact that there are only four students. Since we’re all foreigners in this country, we have that in common and I have become friends with the families of my students. I have been able to eat dinner with the families of three of my students and have had two of the families to my house for dinner. I feel blessed to have new friends in addition to be learning more about the Korean and Japanese cultures.

Life is not without changes, and neither is school I guess. Our school committee has been diligently meeting for the past few weeks as a follow-up to some professional advice from one of visitors over the Christmas season. Dr. Eloise Hughes met with all of the teachers in preparation for a sabbatical she is planning on taking in the fall to study how Christian colleges and universities can better prepare teachers who would like to teach in a mission field. One immediate change that will occur is that school hours will be extended. My new hours, as of January 10 will be 8:30 am - 3:00 pm. I am very excited about this and look forward to spending more time with the kids in the classroom, doing more fun activities and of course, learning!

Christmas Letter

2006-01-03T18:07:00.000+03:00

I can’t believe how quickly the past 4 months have flown by! I heard from many people that I would have so much free time here and that I would go through many periods where I am “bored out of my mind.” I guess you could say I have yet to experience that aspect of life in Africa. While there is a slower pace here, everything takes much longer to do here: planning and preparing meals, planning and preparing school lessons, laundry, travelling places, etc. Add to that my desire to “not miss anything” and maybe you get a small picture of my life over here.

Although school is only in session 20 hours a week, I would guess that I spend at least 30-35 hours doing school work, even if that’s just walking to town to print things out at a computer center or making photocopies! I am absolutely LOVING my students and I sometimes fear that I am learning more from them than they are learning from me. I’ve had the chance to share meals with my students’ families on several occasions, which has been so culturally educational. (Two of my students are Korean, one is Japanese, and one is American.) Teaching 4th grade is definitely challenging me…especially with only four students! I always feel like I should be doing more with them in the classroom than I am. This causes me to overanalyze things and spend SO much time contemplating the way we do spend our time in the classroom, always trying to maximize the time we are all together in school. We do have lots of fun, though. We recently had both “Pioneer Day” and “Native American Day” as culminating activities of a couple different units we were studying. We made all sorts of tasty treats, did some crafts, and even played some games! We spent themonth of December preparing for our Christmas program. I worked with the 2nd and 4th graders as we collaborated to create a school program for all the parents to come and see. It included some scripture readings, piano solos, songs played on the recorder and of course the singing of some traditional Christmas carols. The program went well and ended with some festive treats!

The upcoming semester begins January 10th. I’m really excited to be setting up a computer (that was donated by a family here) in our tiny classroom (I’m still trying to figure out WHERE to put it!) so that I can start teaching them some computer skills—not thatI’m extremely qualified, but I should at least be able to teach them some basic keyboarding and some of the basic programs. My students will be super excited that we finally got our penpal letters (from Michigan) in the mail! We’ve also been invited to work on a collaborative project with First Colony Church of Christ (our overseeing church) where my students will attempt to create a powerpoint presentation about what it’s like to be a missionary’s kid in Uganda. I’m looking forward to another busy, fun-filled semester with my 4 fourth graders here in Mbarara!

In addition to school, being involved in “team” life seems to take up lots of my time. “Team” is made up of 6 family units and the 3 single teachers. We really are like one, big, happy family! In addition to our team worship/meeting/lunch times every Saturday, I see team members daily and probably share meals with different families at least 3 times a week. The team has been a huge blessing to get to know and has been such a support network for me. Outside of the team circle, I have been blessed to make other friends—both Ugandans and other “Bazungu”. Working with the Ladies Group and Youth Group at the town church have been wonderful ways of connecting with several people here. I’ve also travelled to several different villages and had the opportunity to meet some wonderful friends that way!

Travelling here (as mentioned before) sure does take a long time, and has given me a greater appreciation for the roads and even traffic in the states! I’ve had the chance to go to Kampala (the capital city) a few times, for weekend “shopping” trips. (FOOD shopping, that is…we go to Kampala to stock up on foods—mainly meats that you can’t get here in Mbarara, unless you like the big hunks of cow hanging in the open air market or the live chickens that you have to kill and cook yourself!) Twice, I’ve had the chance to go to Jinja, the source of the Nile River, so that I could go white water rafting down the Nile River! Twice, I’ve gone to Queen Elizabeth National Game Park for safari. Travelling only about an hour away, I’ve been to a beautiful tea plantation and also to Lake Mburo (a National Game Park where there are TONS of zebras). One of my most memorable trips was a weekend trip to Rwanda, where I got to meet go to the orphanage that Ros Carr runs.

My younger sister, Debbie, came to visit for 2 weeks just before Christmas andI had a great time visiting with her and showing her around. She sure did keep me busy…but most of that was me wanting to show her as much as I could in the short time she was here.

You’ll have to check out my blog: http://bethinuganda.blogspot.com to read more about my adventures here in Uganda and http://photos.yahoo.com/etunick@sbcglobal.net to see all the pictures I post online. Also, you can email me at: beth@everydaychurch.net or send me snail mail (or packages!) to PO Box 518, Mbarara, Uganda. Please keep in touch and let me know how things are going for you and your family. I sure do miss you all, especially at this holiday season when I would normally get to see many of you, even if just for a short visit.

Hope you and yours had a blessed holiday and a wonderful start to the new year!

Music to my ears

2005-11-20T04:51:00.000+03:00

Friday nights are "Youth Night" at town church. Sometimes we go play volleyball--which is just HILLARIOUS to watch! Sometimes we play games. Once we showed the movie "Invisible Children" about the children who are being kidnapped and forced into "armies" up in northern Uganda. We joined with some other local churches and then followed this up with a fundraiser movie ("The Gods Must Be Crazy") where we raised money to send up north for the children.

Last night, we just sang! And it was just amazing to hear young people singing praises to GOD in a language that is not their first language! It sounds a little funny, and sometimes they sing the songs wrong, but it is just beautiful. I especially LOVE how they add "hand motions" to several songs which I didn't know even had hand motions (like Blessed be the Name of the Lord)! I am so thankful that I get to experience this little piece of heaven here in Mbarara!

Work in progress...

2005-11-19T17:46:00.000+03:00

Still updating and adding lots of pictures (and captions) to my picture site:

http://photos.yahoo.com/etunick@sbcglobal.net

Make sure you check it out soon!

on my way to a new place...

2005-11-19T17:28:00.000+03:00

On Saturday November 5th, I had an amazing opportunity to travel to a small country just south of Uganda: Rwanda!
Friday afternoon, Darla and Mark got here from Kampala. One of my roommates, Amy, had a kidney stone, so she wasn’t able to go with us – or cook dinner! So, great-in-the-kitchen-cousin-Kati (She’s great other places too, but I think she really excels in the kitchen and can make ANYTHING taste delicious!) was drafted into helping me prepare a meal for us and Mark and Darla. Of course, the power was doing a strange thing…it was out all day and supposed to stay out until 7ish at night. SO, we took all the ingredients to make chicken, mashed potatoes and zucchini to the Bakers so we could use their gas oven and stove. FINALLY, we walked over in the dark with a delicious meal, but it was much later than expected. Bedtime couldn’t come fast enough for me…although I still had to pack!

Departure for Rwanda was at 6:30 am, which sure did come early. Darla and Mark were driving in her truck with a trailer behind it and Terri, Kati and I were in Terri’s truck. It took about 3 hours to get to the border of Uganda and Rwanda, with one "potty" stop. (*It was my first time using a "cho" – a hole dug in the ground over which you squat!) The border was a little hectic and confusing. Lots of people wanted to be our "runners" to help us across or sell us Rwandan phone chips or change our money for us into Rwanda francs. They all just came up to the windows of the car in search of our "business." We had to fill out a couple of papers on each side of the border and the trucks had to be registered and insured and all sorts of other junk. I got to go with Darla to have all our passports stamped. One man tried to direct us to the front of the line, but Darla was pretty adamant that we would wait in line like everyone else, instead of receiving special treatment because of our skin color. We finally made it through the border…took about an hour. (It’s NOTHING like crossing the border from Michigan into Canada where you can just stay in your car and drive right through a window!)

The first thing I noticed in Rwanda is that they use ALL of their land, right up to the TOPS of the hills/mountains. Any farmable land is being farmed. There are tiers and tiers of crops and vegetation growing. (*The only place NOT being farmed seemed to be valleys with lots of lava rock!) IT WAS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!

Now, I know you want to know MORE about this trip….don’t worry! More is ON THE WAY. So check back later to hear all about meeting 93 year old Ros Carr and my experience at the Imbabazi Orphanage playing with the most beautiful children in the world!

In the Process of Adding Pictures and Updating...

2005-11-18T16:39:00.000+03:00

Okay. I really am trying hard to keep up with this blog...after all, there is SOOOO much that I have the opportunity to do and see here in Mbarara. And of course, you know how much I love sharing it all with you, it's just that I'm staying SO busy! (I really think that everyone who said I would have so much free time was LYING!)

I guess I forgot how much time it takes to teach full-time! I think I subconsciously thought that since I was only teaching 4 days a week (and a total of 20 hours), I would have TONS of free time. But everything here takes longer and requires planning WELL in advance (you know, since I can't just run to make copies in the office during a lunch break or something). You all know me...I am NOT a "plan-in-advance" kind of girl (at least in terms of school stuff)...and I tend to procrastinate. But I think this is becoming a good learning experience for me because I am being forced to plan and prepare more in advance for things--specifically school and meals!

PLUS, in terms of school, I think having less time and fewer students to teach, I am spending MORE time planning for activities to keep them all engaged and to cover all the material in a fun and QUICK way. And, no offense to any secondary teachers, I do think prep for elementary teachers is a little more time consuming than teaching the same thing 6 times a day!

Anyhow, gotta run. Check back soon and check out some of my new pictures. More of those to come soon too!

A couple of funnies...

2005-11-02T04:32:00.000+03:00

Well, this past weekend I got to travel to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, for a team retreat/quarterly meeting. Our team stayed at the American Recreation Association, a very nice Embassy-run hotel/club. I had some of the best food since arriving here....I had a banana split! They also had really good salads and things like potato skins!

Our first night there (Thursday), we had a buffet with roast beef, chicken, potatoes, etc. There was this bowl of white stuff with the sauces and dressings. I was told it was sour cream. Since the sour cream we get in Mbarara is really runny and kind of icky, I was pretty excited. So I decided to put some on my baked potato. It did taste a little funny, but meh...what are you going to do? Came to find out (later in the evening, thanks to Carole!) that is was MAYONAISE! YIKES! Can't believe I couldn't tell! Guess I was just so excited....

Later that night, Lori asked me to go with her to take our Ugandan women to a hotel nearby. (They came with us to help watch the kids during meetings and such.) She said we were looking for a place called something like "Carenda Guest House." So we drove up and down the street looking for this hotel---several times, reading all the signs we could see (it was, of course 10:30 and dark). . . "The Calendar Hotel" seemed to be a nice looking place. I tried convincing Lori to let us just take the girls there or to stop and ask for directions... finally, we did. We were told that the "carenda" hotel was right where we had been driving. In fact, it sounded like we had passed it four or five times. Julie, one of the girls in the back seat finally spoke up and said, "Lori, we think that the way we say the word "calendar" is different than the way you say it." We about DIED laughing! See, they dont really have L's in their language here....they roll them to sound like Rs. And I guess the accent was placed on another syllable. Anyhow, it was HILARIOUS! But, I guess you'd have to have been there!

Overall, the weekend was great. I took a piki-piki from our hotel to the Garden City Mall one afternoon. It was a little scary, but fun and exciting too. The drivers are CRAZY! The 10-15 minute ride turned into a 30 minute ride because my driver didn't know where he was going. OOPS! I was only genuinely scared for my life 2x--once when we were trying to make a right-hand turn (They drive on the opposite side of the road here, so it's like making a left-hand turn!) and the other time was when we picked up so much speed --maybe 40 mph-- going down this big hill and then had to brake suddenly and weave in between a couple of cars. There really are NO laws for driving here....well, I take that back. There are laws, I just think they aren't enforced. My trip to the mall was fun, though! I found Dr. Pepper and Snickers! Plus the Aristok store is the closest you can get to an American bookstore. It's no Barnes and Noble, but I still love it!

I very much enjoyed meeting the missionaries from other areas in Uganda at our quarterly meeting on Sunday (after our retreat was over). I feel like I've made some new friends and even some "contacts." Already, there is a plan to go to Kenya to visit some of the girls who are moving there next week to work with Christian Relief Fund next week. It was just good to meet other people and learn about them and what they are doing here...

This weekend, I'm heading to Rwanda. I'm SOOOOO excited. I'll get to meet Ros Carr and help at the orphanage in Mugongo. I'm sure I'll take lots of pictures, which, by the way I already have tons of more to download, but I probably won't get around to it until next week or later...

Think that's all for now...

PICTURES!

2005-10-19T18:39:00.000+03:00

Check out the following link to see some pictures:

http://photos.yahoo.com/etunick@sbcglobal.net

I'll try to keep it updated or let you know as I update it and add more pictures.

Giving what to whom?

2005-10-16T00:27:00.000+03:00

I’ve been reading Land of a Thousand Hills – the biography of Ros Carr in Rwanda, and there’s a part where she went to this Jubilee for the new king or "mwami." He is presented with so many gifts but is very nonchalant and not at all grateful for them. Ros was shocked to see that the gifts are not acknowledged and expresses her thoughts to her Rwandan friend, Edouard. He responds quite matter-of-factly (and I quote):

"'But, Madame, everything in Ruanda belongs to the mwami! The land, the crops, the people, and the animals are all his!' Why, indeed would a person be grateful for a gift that already belongs to him?"

Hmmm.....

Then today, we were singing a song in team worship:
"Jesus, what can I give? What can I bring?
To so faithful a friend, to so loving a king?
Savior, what can be said? Oh, what can be sung?
As the praise of your name for the things you have done
Oh, my words cannot tell, not even in part
Of the debt of love that is owed...by this thankful heart."

It just made me think back to what I read yesterday......I mean, really what can we give?

FYI

2005-10-10T18:40:00.000+03:00

Just wanted to let you all know that I will try to keep this updated better. I posted several things the past few days I made up different dates (so that there wouldn't be too many posts on the 10th of October), so make sure you scroll all the way down to the bottom. I've even managed to add a few pictures. It just takes FOREVER! I'm working on it though....maybe a link to a photo publisher. So just be patient. . .

my bedroom

2005-10-10T18:24:00.000+03:00

This is a picture of my bed in my bedroom, complete with the mosquito net I bought shortly after arriving. I only sleep under the mosquito net when the power is out and I don't have a fan blowing on me to help keep the mosquitoes from buzzing in my ears. Notice the Camp Wamava afghan (is that spelled right?) on my bed. . . also, notice the tan and white flowered bag that yearbook/student council kids gave me last year. I carry that bag with my EVERYWHERE!!!

I'm still searching for a bedside table. That little stool just doesn't work well. . .

a new experience. . .

2005-10-10T17:53:00.000+03:00

On Friday night, October 7, I was feeling a little adventurous (and hungry) after a LONG car trip from Mbarara to Kampala. After sitting in SERIOUS TRAFFIC for a LONG time, we finally made it to Sam’s Restaurant at around 8:00pm. (We left Mbarara around 2:30pm.) I decided to try something new. So I ordered grilled crocodile tail. I think that the texture was okay, sort of like chicken. But the taste was a little fishier and saltier. It was a little tough to eat too. There were three round pieces. You could actually see the tail bone through the middle with some smaller bones spiked off the circular bone in the middle. There was also a large layer of fat/skin kind of around the circumference of the pieces. Overall, not horrible. Not wonderful. Just different. I probably wouldn’t order it again—but that might just be because I’d want to try something new!

Rafting on the Nile River

2005-10-09T23:28:00.000+03:00

What an amazing adventure and opportunity I had to go whitewater rafting on the Nile River this weekend. Starting in Jinja at Lake Victoria (the source of the Nile), we rafted 30 kilometers up the river through 12 major rapids (grade 3, 4 and 5), plus lots of lower graded runs. I’ve been rafting in the states, and it is NOTHING like rafting THE NILE!

I met a van at Garden City (the mall) in Kampala (the capital city) at 7:30 am. I had a can of Red Bull, sunscreen, chapstick and a change of clothes with me. The hour and a half trip to Jinja was pretty uneventful. Kati (the cousin of one of my teammates) was the only one I knew, but of course I love meeting new people! So I met Natalie and Chris, a couple who has arrived in Kampala from British Columbia about 2 weeks ago. They will be working with a hospital in Kampala for the next 9 months. Working with them is Russ (who also arrived recently) and Peter (who’s been in Kampala for about 3 months and will be leaving around Christmas time. (I think both of these guys are also from Canada.) The other guy in the van was Andre from Italy, who is on his first “vacation” since being in northern Uganda working with the “Doctors without Borders.” All of these people were very interesting and fun to get to know.

We arrived in Jinja and had some breakfast (pineapple, watermelon, hard-boiled eggs, and chaapati) at the Nile Explorer Headquarters. There were tons of foreigners there. I always find it amazing to meet new people and learn “their stories”—or at least how they ended up here in Uganda. Many of the rafters were from Canada and the states and are studying in Kenya at an international school; many others were on a holiday from working in Uganda or other nearby countries for a year; and others still were on a 2-week vacation/trip to Africa.

Anyhow, we finally headed out on a little bus, which took us to our put-in location with our life vests and helmets. All the little houses and villages we passed were peppered with little kids running out to wave at the bus as we drove past. When we stopped, we got our paddles and handed over our bottles of sunscreen—or whatever else we wanted in the dry-bag. There were many Ugandan women and children hanging around, several of whom were washing clothes in the Nile. But they also seemed to be there just to see us off. Some of the children even jumped in the river and started walking after us, smiling and waving!

Kati and I ended up in a boat with 5 people on a tour (maybe called the “Exodus Tour” but I’m not 100% sure) based out of England. Two of the guys were from California; the other three (2 girls and a guy) were from London. Paulo, one of three guys on the Ugandan Kayaking Team, was our rafting guide. He’s been to Switzerland and Australia for kayaking competitions. It was, of course, fun to get to know them all a little bit as our day progressed.

So, we took our raft into the river and practiced our paddling and were tested on our abilities to follow directions. Some of the commands were things like, “paddle hard, stop, hold on, get down” or “paddle hard, stop, lean in.” Of course, we had to remember where to put our paddles each time, whether to bring them in the boat or hold them outside so we didn’t hit people with them. We had to jump out of the boat and swim the first rapid (only a grade 1—kind of like floating down the “lazy river”). We had to get under the flipped raft, make sure we could breathe under it, and practice getting out from under of it and back into the raft. It was fun and pretty simple stuff to do, but it didn’t really prepare us all that much for when we were trying to do these things in the rushing rapids.

We went through the first few rapids pretty easily. (The two guys from California were pretty disappointed that we didn’t flip.) However, on our first grade 5 rapid, Bujugali Falls, our raft did flip. I accidentally forgot all of the directions (man, there were SO many!) and I ended up pretty far away from the raft. But at least I still had my paddle! A nice safety kayaker came and picked me up and took me over to my raft where the others were still trying to get back into our raft.

Throughout the day, we hit four other grade 5 rapids. We managed to stay upright and in the boat for all of those. There was one grade 4 rapid that we made it through safely and they let us go back through it, whereupon we flipped. I, of course, managed to stay closer to the raft this time, but I lost my paddle. Luckily, one of the guys in my raft grabbed it for me!

It was a great day. The scenery was JUST BEAUTIFUL along the banks of the Nile River. There were many local people hanging around to watch us and wave at us as we rafted past them. Ladies were washing clothes on the banks. Young boys were herding cows or goats. Other young children were splashing along the banks or just playing nearby. A few times during the day, we were allowed to jump out of the raft to swim/float along if we wanted. Of course, we then had to get ourselves back into the raft, which was always a fun chore.

About halfway through, in a big stretch of calm water, all 5 rafts gathered around the safety boat and we were given a “lunch” of fresh pineapple, watermelon, and “glucose biscuits” (graham crackers). There was a drink of lemonade if we wanted, but I already drank enough water from the Nile River to satisfy my thirst! We did a lot of paddling the second half of the day, and we weren’t allowed to swim as much because there had been sightings of small crocodiles nearby. Finally, when we could take it no more, Paulo did let us jump off the rafts for a quick “lavatory” break. Our raft was the only one which seemed to let people out at this particular spot. We were told later that apparently there is a crocodile that lives nearby. And it is NOT a small one anymore! I guess Paulo did say to stay close to the raft and if we felt anything to get back in the raft immediately… There were no crocodile sightings and no hippo sightings either, although one guy was certain he heard hippos a couple of times.

Probably one of the highlights of the day was going over an 8-foot waterfall. It was SO amazing! There really aren’t words to describe it! Part of the fun each time was watching the other rafts go through each rapid either before or after us. The final rapid was a grade 5 immediately following a very cool-looking grade 6. We weren’t allowed to raft the grade 6, although we did get to see a couple of the safety kayakers raft it. We had to get out of the rafts and walk (barefoot—I surely do not know how some people can walk so quickly over the hard ground and rocks!) around the grade six to a new put-in place (at the tail end of the grade 6). Here we had the option of going through the last and final rapid of the day, called “the bad place.” We were told how we were going to raft it and that most rafts flip and then get stuck in the rapid for a good 2 – 6 minutes. We were instructed that if we get flipped to just let go of the raft and “float” with the current until picked up by a safety kayaker.

Of course, I went through this final rapid. Unfortunately, we did not flip. I was a little bummed and relieved at the same time. We climbed out of the Nile and up a huge hill to where they had a barbeque for us. I changed out of my wet bathing suit, shorts and t-shirt on the bus. It sure felt good to be dry for the first time all day! Then we were bussed back to the starting point office, we picked up our “valuables” that we had left at the office, and jumped back into the van which took us back to Kampala.

Overall, it was a great day. The Nile River is just beautiful and definitely worth seeing, if not rafting. The bruises and cuts I have on top of my hands across my knuckles (from the guy in front of me constantly slapping his paddle on top of my hands when we had to “hold on and get down”), the big bruise on my leg, the huge amount of Nile River water I swallowed or inhaled (I was still blowing the reddish brown river dirt out of my nose the next morning), the slight sun-burn (it was cloudy and little rainy for part of the day), my lost bottom to my bathing suit (Don’t worry, I didn’t actually lose the bottom while I was wearing them. It must have fallen out of my bag sometime between changing and arriving back at the hotel.), and of course sore muscles are all things I would be willing to suffer through again for the chance to raft the Nile River again.

Ladies Day 2005 in Mbarara

2005-10-06T23:30:00.000+03:00

Lori, one of my wonderful teammates, works with the women in the villages that surround Mbarara. It has been a dream of hers to have a Ladies Day for the past several years. Last weekend, September 30 - October 2, her dream came true. . .

5 common smells in Mbarara

2005-10-04T23:13:00.000+03:00

#5: Fresh popcorn available on the street
#4: “Meat on a stick”—available at various places along the street (can be chicken, pork, etc.)
#3: Burning, always burning…usually (of people’s trash)
#2: The most beautiful flower smell I have ever smelled…I think it comes from this beautiful red-flowered bush/tree/shrub
#1: Body odor: it’s just totally different body smells…or at least the smell of unclean clothes on the bodies of people who are unable to wash their clothes regularly

My first visit to the village

2005-09-15T02:00:00.000+03:00

On Thursday, September 8th, in lieu of the regularly schedules women’s Bible study at the town church in Mbarara at 5pm, we met at the church at 930am to go to the village of Kishasha for a town-village ladies’ day.

The women were awaiting our arrival at their small church building—nothing more than a dirt floor, walls of mud and reeds, and a tin roof. While our hostesses were preparing meals for us, the 17 ladies from town sat on the 8 small benches inside or on the big straw mat on the floor; before long, we broke into songs—well, they did. I hardly knew the songs (and the Runyankore language is very difficult). They did sing a few in English: "Soon and Very Soon" and "This is the Day". Slowly, ladies and children from nearby villages trickled in and greeted us (the visitors). They served us a mid-morning meal of hot steamy posho (corn mush—like porridge) and sweet baby bananas. (I’m pretty sure there were some dead flies that had gotten mixed in with the posho, but I don’t think I actually swallowed any!)

Then we got down to business and did some serious praising of out Lord. Man, do these people know how to celebrate and praise the Lord! There was singing and dancing and clapping and even a drum for some added acoustics! There is so much "free-style" singing that takes place too. It is very cool to see and hear!

It was beautiful to see so many women from different places praising the Lord together. Our hostesses sang some songs welcoming the visitors and then asked us to sing some songs for them. In this way, we were able to see some differences, whether in language, culture or knowing different songs; more importantly, we were able to see the most significant commonality: a great love for our amazing Lord!

We had the opportunity to hear 3 women speak to us. First was Jane (from Nyakinengo village) who shared about how to trust that Jesus knows our every care and worry and will take care of us (like with a sick child). She spoke from the gospel of Mark and with such excitement it was contagious. So, we sang and danced some more; following the "singing sessions" people just broke out into prayer. . . individually and out loud. It was such a cool thing to hear, even though I couldn’t understand it at all.

Next, they asked for a volunteer from the town church or a missionary to preach to us. Thankfully, Jadress (from MCC) shared with the ladies about the many blessings women have in our Lord. I can’t imagine just getting up and speaking without any preparation, but she did a fantastic job! More praise and worship followed, along with everyone standing and introducing themselves.

Finally, they wanted a missionary to preach to us. So Amy Naramore felt moved and wanted to speak. She shared a story of a Ugandan friend who claims to be a Christian, but he doesn’t think he is saved because he still sins. She left us with a message of God’s grace and salvation through Jesus Christ.

Our hostesses served us a typical Ugandan meal, with HUGE portions of posho (corn meal-type stuff), matoki (looks like bananas but you cook it and it tastes kind of like potatoes), and beans. It was different—a little bland, but very filling. Everything had a different texture than I am used to. .. . overall, not a bad experience for my first taste of the local food here.

It is difficult for me to compare this day in the village to worship in town, because I have been here such a short time and only been to one church service. However, in speaking to the women from Mbarara Church of Christ, they felt blessed to see the joy of the Lord in our sisters’ hearts as we all worshipped Him as one body. I, too, feel blessed to have been in the presence of Jesus with such beautiful women.

General Information about Mbarara

2005-09-11T03:20:00.000+03:00

Mbarara is the fourth largest city in Uganda, but that isn’t really saying much. Our area is considered to be tropical, but it isn’t like the rainforest and it’s not like the desert either. We are located near the equator at the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains, so rolling hills surround us. (It is BEAUTIFUL!) Our elevation is about 5000 feet and we are pretty far from any large body of water. Because of this, the humidity here is much lower than many of the other cities in Uganda. The temperatures are usually in the 80s during the day and the 60s in the evening, with only two seasons: rainy and dry. During the rainy season, it can rain for 10-20 minutes in the morning and be beautifully sunny in the afternoon (or vice versa). It can, of course, rain for much longer periods of time too. But so far, it hasn't been too bad.

There are 3 "nice" restaurants in town (I’ve eaten at 2 of them.) It takes at least 30 minutes to get the food, and just because an item is on the menu doesn’t mean that they actually have it. They serve local food, slight variations of "American" food (like hamburgers, sandwiches, and pasta dishes), and even some Indian foods. "Local food" includes the main staples of the Ankole people: bananas, matoke (cooking bananas, which oddly enough taste sort of like potatoes), posho (cornmeal mush, from which you can posho chips—Ugandan-style tortilla chips), rice, and beans. Other foods which they have here in abundance are: sweet potatoes, peas, ground nuts (like peanuts I think), avocados, cabbage, greens, tomatoes, pineapples, mangos, papayas, watermelons, pumpkins, guavas, and passion fruits.

We pretty much have to make everything "from scratch." (I’ve learned to stop saying, "This is so good… is it made from scratch?") It is rare to find cake or muffin mixes; soup packets or even canned soups; seasoning mixes; no frosting, pudding, jello; and hardly EVER ice cream—at least in Mbarara. In the Kampala, the capital city about 3 hours away, you can occasionally find things shipped over from the states—like cocoa puffs instead of just rice crispies or cornflakes. That is where I got a jar of salsa and some taco seasoning, a couple of oranges, grapefruits and some string beans (which I probably should cook before they go bad), along with some meat. The only meat really available in Mbarara is hanging up outside in the open air market—sometimes with the tail still on! Also, let me tell you about the bread here. Apparently, Ugandans like stale bread. They actually poke holes in the bags for it to get hard quickly! Isn’t that strange!?!

Let’s see...what else can I tell you? Power is scheduled to go out every 3rd night for several hours, roughly from 7 – 11pm. This is because Uganda sells electricity out to some surrounding countries and the nation’s electrical source (the dam at the source of the Nile in Jinja) just doesn’t produce enough electricity for those countries and for us. I believe they are still working on the construction another dam, but until then it looks like we will be "power-sharing" with some other cities/towns in Uganda. For this month, they actually put the schedule in the newspaper. I guess we will see what happens in October.

ignoring immigration

2005-09-10T17:59:00.000+03:00

This is a picture of the sunrise over the Entebbe Airport on Friday, September 2, 2005.

When we finally arrived in Entebbe (Uganda) on Friday, September 2, 2005 at 5:45 in the morning (10:45 pm Thursday eastern time), we (Amy and I) were so exhausted, but equally excited to finally be in Africa, that we accidentally ignored the immigration lines and just snuck our way into the beautiful country of Uganda. Let me explain...

We had been sent an email from Emily (a new team member picking us up from the airport) explaining what we should do so that we could find her, get our bags, go through customs, etc. She told us to "hug the left wall and ignore the three lines" because eventually everyone would end up going to the last line where we would need to pay for our visas and enter through immigration. So we did what we were told and just acted like we knew what we were doing. We didn't see any other line or anything, so we just decided to go get our bags, which were already spinning on the baggage carousel. After finally getting all EIGHT (total) of our tubs onto little trolley carts, we headed out. We were stopped by a man from customs who was interested in knowing exactly what was in our huge tubs. So we had to open several of them to show him all of our school supplies. Of course, the first two tubs he opened had clothes on top. He seemed to be a bit frustrated--almost like we were trying to slide something through. We kept assuring him that if we dug further, he would see them.

Anyhow, we made it through customs and all and went out to meet Emily, her husband Scott, and the 2 most precious, tiniest babies I have ever seen. (Emily and Scott are foster parents for newborn babies who've been deserted or had their mothers die, but are too little or unhealthy to make it in an orphanage.) We told them we didn't even show our passports to anyone yet and they just laughed and said we had to go back through.