Sports

Last month included sports day for the students at God Cares Nursery and Primary School. What did that mean for this term: track & field. Well, at least they had track. The students trained for about 2 weeks in events such as 100 m, 200 m, long jump, discus, and many more. Finally, the day came...it was Friday the 13th. Unfortunately the host school was not well prepared for the event. They did not have any of the things needed for the field events. We were really disappointed as the studnets trained very hard for those events. Not all have the ability to run. As we competed in the track events, I found some shining starts in our school. We placed in many of the events, but the most exciting for me was to watch the 100 m and 200 m. Two of our boys shined in those events. Shafiq was amazing in the prelims for the 100m. He was so far ahead of the rest of the pack in his heat that they called a rerace maybe there was a false start or something, but as he ran again, he smoked the pack again this time coming from maybe two meters behind to pass everyone. Both him and Kalega shined as well in the 200 m both coming from behind in the stretch run to pass other competitors. Word has it that the host school had secondary members competing against our primary memebers. But could that stop us...no way. Our school finished on top of all the other schools in our region. A few of our students went on to the next few levels of competition, but none to the national level. Either way, it was fun to watch and root for our kids.

On another shining note if you hadn't already heard: the University of North Carolina Tar Heels are the mens National Champions for basketball. I think they just wanted to drive me crazy this year becuase I couldn't be there to watch all those games. However, I did get to watch a few via Skype through friends (thanks Trenton and the Kirchners) and listen to games through March Madness on demand. Only later to find out that all the games were broadcast on ESPN here in Uganda. So next year I have to get satellite TV so I can watch march madness!!!

Finally, I have also had the opportunity to play basketball over the last few months as well. It's not the competition that was present in the US, but it's still playing. Hopefully I'll get to the university soon to play against some other people.

African Idol or Karaoke?

At the end of February, we had a big kickoff event at the church to show the youth the new changes to the ministry and announce events for the upcoming year. We had planned to begin at 10:00 am so we told the people we were starting at 9:00 am. Wouldn't you know it that most people didn't show until almost 12. They knew that lunch was provided for free so they didn't want to miss that so as usual the planned schedule here does not work because of lack of an audience. I think next time we will start with lunch and if they come late, sorry Charlie.

Anyway, one of the things they do here is they love to sing. It doesn't matter if they can sing or not, but many have no self-esteem issues and will get in front of the crowd and belt away. I can't find myself enjoying any of this for many reasons. First of all, you usually can't tell if the person can sing anyway because they are singing over a track. What I mean is that they have a song on CD that already has someone singing and yet they play that and get up and sing over the CD vocals. Secondly, I'm embarassed for the people that get up there. The people that won't get up there and sing still think they can sing better (though it's not true for most) will just sit and laugh at them. If you've been to Uganda and you know some of the people, then you know the person I am talking about, but most likely you think that person is awesome so i won't mention names. Third, it's just painful to hear not only because of the fact that many cannot sing, but also because in Uganda, they have no clue how to mix a sound board. They turn the highs very high and the lows very low (or up if you know what I mean) and then pierce your ears with that. I don't think they've yet discovered what midrange is for. So in a nutshell, I didn't stay for the end of the event as all they were doing was singing. So I guess it's like African Idol, but only the first few days when they show the people who can't sing. It's not even like karaoke because they could just lip sync the whole song and some people might never know. I guess it's too bad that Milli Vanilli spoiled their opportunity to be successful in the world when they were outed as lip syncers not singers.

Computer crash!!!

Ok so I looked at the date of my last post and I've definitely slacked. Not that everything was my fault. I had some mishaps along the way that derailed me as well. First, I found my computer not working. Apparently there is some sort of faulty chip that Nvidia gave to Apple where the chip will go bad and therefore...nothing on the screen. The good news is that they will fix it for free. The better news is that somehow I was still able to retrieve critical files on my computer after that. The bad news, I have to send it back to the US to get it fixed. Lucky for me, Pastor Dongo leaves at the end of this month to go to the US and a few weeks later a team from Westmont will be coming to visit. So in the meantime, I am very thankful that my friend, Mark, gave me another computer to bring to Uganda when I was back in the States. So here I am on a much slower computer, but very thankful that I can still access the internet and connect with friends. There were a lot of things to write about over the past 6 weeks so I'll be trying to catch up on all those things over the course of the next week! Thanks for all your continued support.

The Introvert

So one of the biggest things that I have been reminded as I am here in Uganda is that I am very much an introvert at heart. Take for example tonight. It's Valentine's Day (or as I like to call it...everyone's favorite Hallmark holiday or See's candies favorite holiday...anyway I digress). I am content at being here at home by myself much like every other night spent in Uganda.  Well technically, I live with about 160 students here at the school, but I can choose to be with them or just hang out in my guest house. Most of the time I choose to be in the guest house. So for my special night, I prepared matooke and g-nut sauce for my supper. Of course I had to have a Mirinda Pineapple (thanks Michael for introducing me to my new favorite drink here) with it. After supper, I played Wii (by myself) for about an hour. Then I took a shower, and now I'm writing this just before I will watch the newest episodes of Lost and The Office. Looks like the perfect night for me. I'm content with that.

On the other hand, my counterpart, Ashleigh who is here working at the school as well, went home and got ready to go to a wedding reception with one of the Ugandans from church. She was pretty excited. All I could think of was how I could be stuck there for hours with tons of people that I didn't know and many of which I could not communicate with. I mean I don't really much care for parties when I'm at home in the US unless I know a significant number of people there that will make it less awkward for me.

Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with friends and family. And many of you would disagree that I am an introvert becuase I am so comfortable around you that I'm not really introverted at those times. However, I've seen it in me more and more during my stay here in Uganda. There are numerous opportunities to do things with other ex-patriots here, but often I choose to stay home and just hang out...me and my best friend, my computer. Some of you might be thinking how sad that is, but until God provides the right woman for me, I'd rather hang out with my computer...

Ugandan Food

This week was an eventful week as far as food was concerned. I've been yearning to learn how to make some Ugandan food since I've been here, but there were unfulfilled promises made by one of pastors' daughters for many months. Now I have a few new friends who were able to teach me to make some different foods. I was blessed by the mom of one of the boarding students with bananas for making matooke. The problem...I didn't know how to peel or prepare the matooke. My friends Brian and Thanx helped me to learn to prepare the matooke with meat. Although I'm not proficient in peeling the bananas, I was able to do it. Cooking it was super easy. The problem...after that meal, I still had over half of the bananas left (even after feeding 4 of us for lunch). Next step...g-nut sauce. I was just waiting and waiting for a few days hoping someone would come to help me prepare g-nut sauce. Finally, Teacher Deborah who stays at the school decided she would come and show me to make the g-nut sauce. So tonight another feast of g-nut sauce and matooke. Did I mention that matooke is my favorite thing to eat here in Uganda? So I'm left with learning how to make chapati and then my life as a Ugandan cook will be fulfilled.

On a different note, I may have mentioned what I normally eat when I eat with the kids: posho and beans. So I was talking with Pastor Richard and Brian and they explained to me that years ago no one ate posho. I didn't really understand how it went from no one eating it to now everyone eating it. However, they told me that posho was so cheap that it wasn't considered food for people, but instead it was what they would feed the dogs. So basically every day I eat the equivalent to Purina puppy chow! Pretty exciting stuff. The scary part, I guess, is that I actaully enjoy it many days during the week. I think what really gets me is having the same meal over and over again. So if the Westmont team is reading this...get ready for dog food lunch!

Adult Conference and Clean Feet

So I've been back living in Uganda exactly 8 days. It really seems like I have been back for a few weeks, but it's only been 8 days. This week was a pretty stressful week in that there was an adult conference being held here at the school, Monday thru Friday. Now, I'm not sure how I can paint this picture, but there were about 300 people here every day with most of them staying the night at the school. During the day, they preached almost non-stop. Well, I guess they stopped for meals though the timing of those meals was much later than traditional (eating lunch at 3 and supper sometimes at 9) In between those meals...preaching. Now if you don't know what it's like in other countries, they get a huge soundsystem and then blast it. They even had an outdoor speaker which made it sound somewhat like the Muslim prayer call at times. In the mornings, they would begin waking at 5:30. Not the screaming and yelling of children I am used to but instead a choir of babies crying as many mothers brought them to stay the night. I have a new appreciation for you new parents. All in all, we were blessed that they left Friday morning. Friday afternoon we basked in silence and praised the Lord for it!

So let's return to the fact that I've only been back 8 days. In all honesty, I had missed a part of the US that I think I never really appreciated until now: clean feet. For those that know me, they know I love my rainbow sandals and will wear them even when it's snowing outside in Tahoe. But I took a good look at my clean feet as we touched down on that airplane a week ago...and waved goodbye to that idea. You see here in Uganda, dust is everywhere. For someone suffering from a little OCD, that could do you in. For me, I am just reminded that much of the time I need to be a two shower a day kind of person at minimum. So there can be times that I take a shower, wipe off my feet and walk around my place for an hour only to find brown feet that are well on their way to the potential of being black. This picture doesn't do my feet justice. Because of the flash, it doesn't look like my feet are very dirty, but they are semi-black. Anyway, I can't help but think of the disciples when Jesus washed their feet. They had probably walked on streets such as I encounter every day, but for many consecutive days. Their feet and even legs were probably filthy. Yet Jesus got down and washed their filthy feet. I can only hope to be such a servant as i do my work here in Uganda. So clean feet, I bid you adieu until June when I will scrub and scrub and embrace you again for a week, but until I will use my dirty feet to remind me that I came here to serve as Jesus did.

Back to Uganda

So many of you know that I've been in the States for the last 6 weeks or so. I had an incredible time visiting family and friends. I traveled to SoCal, the Bay Area, Reno, Sacramento and many other towns in California. Six weeks sounds like a long time and it certainly felt like a long time. Honesty I was ready to return to Uganda after about 4 weeks.However, I regret that I didn't get to spend time with everyone that I wanted to. So to those that I was not able to spend time with and give you an update, I apologize. It was my heart's desire to see everyone. The problem: everyone is busy!!! There are just so many meals available in 6 weeks and only a select few that work for the schedules of both parties. Unfortunately, I may not get face to face time with many of you over the next 18 months. Although I will be back in June, it will be a very short visit only to see a few high schoolers graduate. So please keep in touch over email, facebook, skype, or whatever other means of communication possible. Thank you all for your love, prayers and support of the mission God has given me in Uganda.

To those who I was able to spend time with, thank you so much for taking care of me during my stay in the States. I am so blessed to have friends and family that love me so much. Many of you have become better friends during my time at home and I hope that distance will not separate the bonds that have been made. To my adoped family (the Aherns), I never realized how much I am a member of the family until I came back this time for a visit. I love you all so much and was heartbroken to have to leave that behind. Thank you for giving me a better picture of how much God loves me unconditionally. I will miss you the most. Thanks to my mom for being so generous and allowing me to use her car during my time in the States. You are a blessing from God.

I'll end with this. I have heard that so many of you enjoy reading my blogs. I had no idea. I'll try to write more so you can keep track of all the trouble I'm getting myself into. God Bless you all and I pray that 2009 will be full of His blessings.