I.. did not go to church today. I woke up feeling worse than I had all week. I didn't want to claim it, but it was official - I have a cold. Here's the evidence of said cold:
(@ Amani - the roll of toilet paper)
I slept in, then when I woke up from everyone getting home from church, I just laid in my bed until around 5.00pm. That's when I chose to take a shower. Whenever I go into the bathroom now, I do a quick scan for geckos, just to make sure they won't interfere with whatever it is I need to do in there. I saw none. So I was all ready for my shower, got in, closed the shower curtain, and BAM! a gecko was just staring at me on the little rock ledge. I'm not going to lie, I slightly (maybe more than slightly..) panicked, and ran out of the shower. After trying to get it to move by banging on the wall, Becky came in to move it, then Lauren came in. Lauren actually picked it up and took it outside. I was very thankful. Finally, I was able to shower. Later on, some of the girls wanted to go into town for rolex. The usual place where we get them wasn't set up, so we went on this mission to find another rolex stand. When we found one, they took forever! So half of us didn't even end up getting one - me being one of those people. But, we were invited to Surjio's by Tina to play Mafia with her team. I wasn't going to go, but I thought maybe being out would be better for me than just sitting around all night. I'm really horrible at this game, people always think it's me because I'm really quiet during the whole thing, but they're always wrong. The second round, I was the doctor - I hate being the doctor, I never know who to save. Later, I found out that I was saving the mafia pretty much the whole time because I believed them when they said it wasn't them. Anyway, Sara and I were ready to leave after the second game, so we walked back to Amani together. While we were walking, I was getting a little freaked out, so I suggested we walk a little faster. When we started walking faster, I noticed something at Sara's feet - and it was a giant toad. Which caused us to freak out for some reason, so we ran a little bit - and we were finally at Amani. However, our gate keeper wasn't there, so I had to climb over the gate. During the process, my foot got caught in my skirt - note to who it may concern: do not climb over a gate with a long skirt on. But, alas, I had made it over and found the key in the shack and let Sara in. It was quite the adventure for being so late in the evening.
Monday - June 18th
Today was also a bad day for my cold. I went down for preschool, played with the boys outside, and took a nap during my break. I had a 1:1 today, so I brought Eric upstairs and we watched A Bug's Life on my laptop at the kitchen table. I almost think I enjoyed it more than him. I haven't seen that movie in ages, we weren't able to finish it though, so that's something I may still do! After putting the boys to bed, we attempted rolex again. This time, we walked into town - which ended up being a lot longer walk than I thought it would be. But, our regular rolex guys, again weren't there - so Charles knew another good guy. And he was right, these rolex were delish. When I got home, I skyped Jeremy for a little bit, and then my nana. Then I thought sleep would be a great idea seeing as my body has been extremely exhausted from this cold. No pictures today - it really wasn't too eventful. Sorry ):
Tuesday - June 19th
I woke up this morning feeling miserable. My entire body was sweating, my nose was stuffy, my migraine came back, and apparently I developed a beautiful cough over night. There was no way I could handle children hanging on me this morning. I found Sandra and asked if I was able to just come upstairs and sleep after preschool, but she told me not to even come downstairs. I feel really guilty for having slept all morning, because I'm not able to do what I was called here to do. But at the same time, I would much rather not get the children sick. Which apparently almost all of them are anyway, Becky just told me. I know yesterday I was wiping a lot of runny noses, and heard quite a few coughs. Poor babies - but, I definitely know where I got it from. There's a couple teams here visiting, they've been helping out with lunch and playtime - they're just everywhere. It makes things a little chaotic, but they are really helpful when you're not feeling well. I wasn't aware of how many people actually knew about Amani, and how many people actual come here to visit. I think that's something I would enjoy doing later. Like with Tina's team - they work a lot at Amani, but they also visit other orphanages, and do more things with women. I'd like to be able to help out in more than one place. I can't help but already think of what else I would like to do. Granted, I still have 64 days here. Anyway, I skyped with Liz for a while today. She's going home in 12 days! I'm so excited for her - I know she's going to be super busy within the next couple of weeks, and when she gets home, but she can't wait! So after that, I felt the need to get out of the house. Everyone wanted rolex again, so that's where we headed. Also, we were having bible study afterwards, so it was perfect timing. I finally photographed the rolex process:
(@ Jinja - rolex stand)
(@ Jinja - rolex stand)
(@ Jinja - rolex stand)
Bible
study was absolutely amazing tonight. Tonight's topic was about how we
make decisions, and how we feel God helps us make those decisions. It
was really interesting to think about this, and to hear how other people
are led by God. When I sat down and thought about it, God's really
brought people into my life armed with opportunities that I feel God
drew me towards. For example, God brought Jeremy into my life when I was
trying to rediscover my faith - which led me to Parkway - which then
led to receiving the Holy Ghost and being baptized in Jesus' precious
name. It honestly amazes me how much I love all of the girls that I work
with daily. These bible studies have allowed us to open our hearts to
one another to the point of feeling like we've known each other our
whole lives. Sara blogged today and mentioned that it's very apparent
that God brought us all here at this time in our lives for a reason -
and I don't think I could agree with that more. Once we finished our
bible study, Sandra suggested that we sing a song. Which eventually led
to a 6 song worship session. I haven't felt so refreshed in such a long
time - worship is one thing that I miss most about being home.
Unfortunately, being sick, I'm not really able to sing as much as I'd
like. But the thing I find absolutely beautiful about this scene is that
there wasn't a single dry eye in the room, and hearing around 10 women
praying aloud. God definitely made his presence known in Helene's
apartment. I couldn't be more thankful for being surrounded by such
Godly women, and for just having this opportunity to dive deeper into
the Lord. He deserves all of the glory! (:
Wednesday - June 20th
I'm
finally back to work! I woke up feeling completely refreshed! I mean,
my nose is still a little stuffy, but this is the best I've felt all
week. I think the worship last night gave me the strength, and
encouraged me to trust in God in hopes that he would beat this cold.
Preschool was completely chaotic this morning. I feel like there were
way too many distractions for the children today. The internet stopped
working last night, as some of you may know. Hence this ridiculously
long blog entry (sorry). But, since I had nothing to do during break, I
was scrolling through old photographs on my laptop, trying to organize
them - because that's what I do when I have nothing else to do with my
time. I would have read my Bible, however, the Bible app I use on my
phone that has my reading plan requires the internet - so, that didn't
even work. I had rice and beans today for lunch. Along with Mama Cook's
version of spaghetti, I'm not entirely sure what's on it, but it's just
yellow spaghetti noodles - I absolutely love it. It's so funny how I
find myself so excited about certain things at lunch time. Normally I'm a
really picky eater (ask anyone who knows me..), but right away I dove
into the food, and loved it. Aside from the fish, and the chicken on the
bone, but, I don't really think they have boneless chicken breasts
here. I'll manage. But I really do love almost everything Mama Cook
makes us. During our break, I finished watching A Bug's Life - and I
enjoyed every minute of it, even if no one wanted to watch it with me.
Afterwards I was planning on taking a nap, but the teams here have been
doing Bible study with the Mama's outside - I could hear them all
singing outside. So, I laid in my bed, watching these beautiful Ugandan
women who devote all of their time to love on God's children, dancing
around singing songs of praise. It was probably one of the most serene
moments I've had since I've been here. I'm not really sure what it was
about it, but I loved it. Everyone that works for Amani has this amazing
peace about them, and they seem to always have a reason to smile. It's
so inspiring to know that these are the people that I'll be spending the
next two months of my life with. After no nap.. playtime was pretty
empty today - quite a few team members and volunteers took half of our
kids on a boat ride this afternoon, so literally there was only around
20 kids left to play with. It was nice though, I was able to hang out
with some of the older boys I normally wouldn't get the chance to
because of the little ones. But, it was nice when they all came back,
and the particular ones I love oh so much found their way to me in the
yard. I love feeling so loved. These kids will never allow anyone to
feel left out, or unloved - which is something I admire so much about
them. When it comes to bedtime, the boys for some reason took to
charging in the room and tackling us before we put their diapers and/or
pajamas on them. Then once they're all ready for bed, they come and hug
us and give us kisses on the cheeks. For real, my heart keeps growing in
size. Every single day. I kind of can't believe it. We went out
to eat again tonight - I know it seems like I'm going out all of the
time, and it's because I am. BUT! It's so much more affordable than
eating out in America. Tonight we went to Skewers, which is probably my
new favorite place to eat in Jinja. It's a kabob restaurant. I had a
chicken skewer which is embellished with pineapple, green pepper,
tomatoes, and onions. I'm not a huge kabob fan - but I seriously loved
this! I pulled out my camera to take a photo, but.. there was no memory
card in my camera. This is a common occurrence here, because I'm
constantly uploading photos, and then I just forget to reload my camera.
So, this is why I have no photographs for you guys today. I had wifi at
Skewers, but as soon as I got back to Amani - nada. Sandra came in
though, and saved the day. Apparently it was just an issue of something
being unplugged - all of us girls have been going crazy. I think it'd be
easier for me to get over it, if I just knew it wasn't available. But
since I know that it's here, I'd like to be able to use it as much as
I'd normally use it. I don't really go on facebook that much though,
aside to just check to see if people are trying to get ahold of me. I'm
not even bothering to try to upload any photos on there, because it
literally takes like, 3-5 minutes to upload one photo. Then when the
internet isn't necessarily stable, it might not even work in the end.
It's now 11.25pm in Uganda, and I'm exhausted. Again, I'm really sorry
that I haven't been keeping up with the blog as much as I'd like. With
being sick, and then the internet not working has made it a little more
difficult. But, I'm going to try harder to make more of an effort to
make sure I take photographs and to blog every night again. Thank you
again also, to everyone who reads my blogs as often as I blog. It means
the world to me to know I still have your support. And I just pray that
what I'm doing here, and expressing what God's doing in my life will
also make some kind of movement through your hearts. (:
No comments:
Post a Comment