Saying Good-bye is hard to do.....

Well, we are down to our last week here. I will be honest with you, at this point, I feel like I am counting down the days till I leave. Although it is hard to be leaving, for me the hardest good-byes have already been said. About two weeks ago, we left Gulu which is where we spent most of our time and where my heart remains. It is in Gulu that my babies live, it is Gulu where my favourite volunteer remains, and it is in Gulu where I got to know the nannies the best. Gulu is in Northern Uganda. Yes, it is too hot, too dusty, has too many geckos’…but it is where some of the warmest people I have ever met live. These people have been so impacted by the LRA, a form of a terrorist group who did so much harm to the people there but yet, they remain some of the happiest people I know. It was my pleasure to be able to serve along beside them.

Most of the babies that came into the home in Gulu came because their mother had died while giving birth. It was alarming how common it was for this to happen. Saying good-bye to my little girl one of the toddlers that lived at the babies’ home was without a doubt my hardest good-bye. She also is there because her mother died due to complications after the birth of her youngest daughter. My little girl Rose was a handful. To her, everything was a game. She would take things from the other children and when you tried to scold her she would just laugh her mischievous laugh and run away looking forward to the chase; her only disappointment would be if you did not run after her. I do not know yet if she will be going to the children’s village as she does have family that Watoto will try and reunite her with before they choose to take her to the village. If she goes to the village, she will become one of my sponsored children. If she does not go to the village, then, she will forever remain in my prayers. If it were my call, the choice would be clear…she would be coming back to Canada with me but that is not an option. I will however hang up so many pictures of her around the house that I am sure many will think she is one of my own children. I sincerely hope I will come back again and that although this good-bye is one of my hardest, I really do pray it is not the last one I have to say to these dear children. For now, I comfort myself with the thought of how I will be able to eat poutine to my heart’s content upon my return to Canada.

So there, you have it…my final entry for this journey. It’s been an amazing 3 months. I am very excited to be coming home and be able to share the full stories of what our time here has been like. I can’t wait to be able to show off photos and brag like the proud momma I am how many milestones I got to see in these children’s lives. To tell you the time we seen them take the first step, say their first word, get their first tooth, celebrate their first birthday. It has been one of the most remarkable 3 months of my life and time that I will always treasure. My only regret is the fact that I have to say good-bye.   My greatest joy however is that I got to be in their life even if it was for a brief season. We will always look back with fond thoughts of our time here with them. We are so grateful to Watoto for rescuing these precious children of God and allowing us to play a small part in this amazing work they are doing. Poutines everywhere watch out because here I come!!!

Alison

Some fun in the sun

Well, we did it! We got to do our white water rafting on the Nile River and what a fun time it was! One of the reasons I made sure to fit this into our busy schedule was so that we could have the bragging rights that we rafted on the Nile River, and bragging rights we definitely have! It was an amazing day right from the drive to Jinja to the time we spent on the water. We went with a company called Nalubale Rafting which was a decision we did not regret. We spent the day with a great team who were fun, knowledgeable, friendly, and even made sure we were fed and well taken care of out on the river. We started our day off with breakfast at the Nalubale office, and then we drove to the Nile where we had our safety lesson getting the briefing on what you need to know to survive white water rafting.  Let me start telling you about the heart of our day, the stories you all want to hear about, our time in…(and I do mean “in”) the water!

We went down 8 rapids all together. Lawrence, who was braver than I, went right for the grade 5 rapid, whereas I decided to stay with the safety boat and went down the grade 3 rapid. I was glad that I had made that decision as I watched the boat capsize while going down its second rapid. I hope I always remember the look I seen on Lawrence’s face of pure fear and excitement all mixed into one…it was epic!  Soon I was back with Lawrence on his raft to go down some more adventures rapids than the general routes the safety boat takes. We paddled along the Nile to get to the next rapid we would be going down, enjoying an amazing view along the way. It’s astonishing that there would be such tranquility and chaos hitting so quickly after another! We even had our guide pointing out the wildlife and answering any questions we had about the land.  It wasn’t too long before we reached our next rapid for another action packed ride. We went down a few more rapids and then it was time for a well-deserved lunch which was just what we needed after our busy morning.  After lunch, it was back on the water for some more excitement! The last rapid of the day was called “Nile Special” and is rated a grade 3 but because the water levels were so low it acted more like a grade 5 causing our boat to flip over with all of us flying into the water. Being carried down to the bottom of the river by a fast moving current was quite the rush, just when it seemed like I was running out of air, I made it back to the top of the water but only for a brief second before another wave came crashing down on me again. Soon though it was all over and we were back to the bottom of the rapid to the calm river water. It was a great way to end a fantastic day!

This was one of our last adventures on our trip to Africa, and it was so much fun. Uganda is such an amazing country it really is a Pearl in the heart of Africa. I strongly recommend anybody wanting to come to Africa look at all the things to do right in Uganda. I have loved it here, right from the amazing scenery, fun times, and great return for your dollar but the thing that leaves me wanting to come back is the people. The people here are so welcoming it really makes it a trip to remember. I have loved our time here and hope that I get to come back...and if I make it back, I would love to be able to find time to do a second round on the Nile taking on the currents but next time, I will be sure to bring my sun screen lol.

For those interested in Sponsorship……

Well for people who have been following our blog on a regular basis I’m sure have figured out by now that I am in love with the work that Watoto is doing! If me saying it all the time wasn’t a big enough hint then wait till you see all the pictures from our trip and how much I’m glowing from being here. I love it, and I love my babies…..if I could I would be taking these babies home with me! Unfortunately that is not an option but I am blessed to be able to sponsor some of the babies that have become my personal favourites. It was too hard to narrow it down to one child so Lawrence and I have decided we will be sponsoring 3 babies when we return back to Canada. I’m not going to lie it’s not all with pure motives that I am choosing to make a commitment of sponsoring 3 kids, it is in part because these children have become so dear to me that I want some type of loop hole to get regular updates on them!!! I also have a goal of finding 10 sponsors for some of my other all-time favourite babies. So for those interested in considering the option of supporting Watoto personally I wanted to take the time to give you some more information on how you too can become a sponsor!!!

There are many ways that you can get involved with supporting Watoto. If you are interested you can sponsor a child on a monthly basis. It takes 8 sponsors in total for each child to cover the cost of things like medical expenses, education and daily living cost. Children don’t have personal sponsors until they are old enough to go to the village. If all my talk about the babies home has you interested in supporting the babies home then that is another area where you can give….(which I may be biases but I do think that would be a tremendous investment). There is so much work and cost that goes into running the babies home. Often when the babies come to the baby’s home they are quite malnourished and need extra medical attention to help them get the best start they deserve. Do keep in mind babies themselves don’t get individual sponsorship, but you can choose to support all that the babies home is doing on a monthly basis. If your heart and passion is more towards the Women in Africa then I have what you’re looking for because that is another area open for sponsorship! You could get involved with sponsoring the Watoto Mothers or be involved with Living Hope. Each village mother has 8 children that she is responsible for and lives full time in the village where as Living hope is working with ladies who are HIV positive or have been victims of the LRA. For those who want to support but for whatever reason don’t want to make the monthly commitment of sponsorship then you could always look at doing a one-time donation or even taking the time to pray for these precious people. This is a growing organization that is doing amazing work here in Africa. Having the support to be able to do the things they are doing is really making a difference. I have had the privilege of seeing the work they are doing first hand and will be forever changed because of it.

This is such a brief summary of what Watoto is doing. I encourage you to go on their website and see for yourself all that they are doing. Or better yet when the children’s choir comes to a community near you be sure to check them out! I promise you will be blown away by the stories they share, the choir does a great job but being here I find what they are doing is on so much more of a bigger scale then I imagined! Please if anybody has any questions about sponsorship feel free to ask. Like I said earlier I have 10 children who I would love to find sponsors for. Anybody who is interested I would love to share their personal stories with you, then you can be sponsoring a child that somebody you know has personally met, and maybe even you could have the amazing chance of meeting your sponsored child yourself. The children have become so special to me and I really am excited about what God will unfold in their life! I myself am hoping God allows me to come back again and see my own sponsored children in their later years.  For now I am going to enjoy the little time I have left with them before I leave Uganda.

Safari Adventures!

Alison and I enjoyed our Safari experience and we went with a few other volunteer friends which made the experience that much better.  This safari trip was done at Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, actually just a few hours’ drive from Gulu!  Upon arriving at the gates of the national park, we seen our first open air elephants and crocodiles…it was exciting!  We were starting to see the animals in their natural habitats and we had not even yet started the safari game ride!

Now let me take you on a journey sharing with you a little more about our exciting two day safari adventure…….

The lodge where we stayed at was called Paraa Lodge.  It was beautiful! Located right on the Nile River you could hear the hippos snorting from our room; in fact, there have been times when they have found hippos swimming in the pool! (We didn’t get to see that but the idea of seeing a hippo in the pool put a smile on our faces.)  The food was great. It was such a treat to have dishes more like things we would eat at home…we even got to have lasagne one night.  The first thing we did when we got there was enjoy lunch and then we had some time to relax. I enjoyed a refreshing swim in the pool and then we were off for our first game drive. We did an evening game drive and then left early the next morning (6am) for the morning game drive. Apparently, it’s during the night and early morning that the animals are most active. Unfortunately, we did not see any hyenasL.  We did however get to see a lion which is a rare sight in the area (I got this great shot of Alison with the lions in the background!) We also got to do a ferry safari ride on the Nile where we got to see the hippos and crocodiles and other wild life up close.  I must be honest with you…when your floating past the hippos and one turns its attention towards you with just the eyes peering above the water, and then suddenly submerges…lol…it can be a little intimidating!  Some of the activities we we’re going to do got rained out because ironically enough when we did the safari, it was also the only weekend the whole time we have been in Africa when it rained for a full day…..(Africa is now entering its rainy season). Although the rain was a little bit disappointing, overall, the safari was an amazing experience and something I hope to one day be able to do again.

In another couple of weeks, we will be doing our next African adventure…white water rafting on the Nile River! So we will be back soon to share on more of the fun times we got to have in our what seems like an ever shorter time here in Uganda.  

~Lawrence

Now what???

Well I was going to wait till I leave to write this but the planner inside of me just won’t let this question rest. Going overseas has been such a major dream of mine and now I‘m here and just knowing that makes my heart smile. I love it here!! As much as I want to enjoy every moment here and I don’t want anything to take away from that I keep finding myself asking God now what direction do we go in? God has given me small pieces of the puzzle but I find myself without the full picture. Which is understandable if we had all the answers where would the trusting God part come in? I did however what to take some time to share some of the things that has been stirring in my heart.

Although I don’t think at this season in our life God is leading us to serve as a full time missionary in a foreign country I find it hard to think I will not play a part in serving God globally. It is something I am too passionate about and I can’t help but to think it’s a passion God has given me so I feel there must be a reason that it is there. As well Lawrence is so amazing with the locals it really is impressive to watch. He is picking up the language and you see the locals lite up when he says things to them in their own language. You can tell they really appreciate it; he has such a humble attitude when he approaches them and he really takes the time to learn about the culture from them.  He really is so natural at it; I would hate to see this talent wasted. So I go back to the question now what?? Where God are you leading us?? One of the things I feel strongly God speaking to my heart about that I’m really quite excited about is the idea of taking a youth team to experience Africa first hand. I love the idea of taking kids from the North and letting them come be a part of something here. Now like I said earlier I don’t have the full picture of what this will look like, and I’m not saying I’m going to go home tomorrow and start rallying up the youth…….it is however something I believe and trust will one day come to pass. I strongly think when the season is right God will give us the green light for this project and we will begin to build a team of youth from the north to bring to Africa. I never want to do anything out of God’s season so I am more than willing to wait for God to tell us when his timing is for this project. I do however ask that if you’re reading this and it is something that stirs you that you would pray with me. Pray for that open door that God would allow things to fall into place so that this could happen. We need to have people to support the vision in order for it to come to pass.

For myself personally I find it quite exciting to think of what the future holds. God has been so good to Lawrence and I the last 10 years have been filled with all kinds of adventures. I really do look forward to all that God will do in the next 10 years + ahead of us. This time in Africa has truly been life changing but then whenever you open your heart to a child it is sure to never quite leave you the same.  I really don’t know what has shaped us more the time that we are spending here or the time God spent preparing us to come here. In a lot of ways I feel it was saying yes to God and allowing him to mould us to be where he wanted us to be was when the biggest changes took place.  My heart cry has not changed I still say yes to all that God has for us, knowing that all that I am will go further when placed in the hands of my maker. I look forward to seeing all the ‘small pieces’ in my life come to pass, and am glad I could share one of the small pieces of the puzzle with you tonight. I am going to continue to enjoy the precious time I have left here and as much as I would love to share more it is time for me to go and gaze at the amazing night sky here in Africa. Look forward to sharing more when I get home.

A little bit about the babies......

As you may or may not know, Watoto Ministries was founded by Gary and Marilyn Skinner of whom I have had the brief honour of meeting as he was making a visit to Gulu. Gulu is located in Northern Uganda and it is currently coming out of the aftermath of the war conflict with the rebel army, the LRA.  This rebel group has been the source of tremendous loss, heartache and pain for many here in Northern Uganda.  It is very exciting that Watoto has come and initiated outreach ministries, trauma rehabilitation services and many other amazing things.

Watoto has 3 babies’ homes in total, the location we are helping with now is the newest one located right in Gulu and it just opened April of 2010.  The home has 5 units, 2 which are being occupied with many lively babies and the others to be fully utilized in the near future.  Right now, the home has about 35 babies and it is growing fast; just today two new babies came into the home.  We had the privilege of being here to help with the opening of the 2^nd Unit called the “Preemie” Unit to make space for more children.  I got to help do things like putting up the mosquito screen for this second Unit with two of the staff Jeffrey and Arthur (these men do a wide variety of jobs such as maintenance, cleaner, gardener, being a father figure to the babies, and probably a few more that I don’t know about…hats off to these guys!) It was a pretty interesting day but we were able to get the job done!  The last little while, I have been working a lot with these men and have become very fond of them; they really have a passion for God and I have been able to learn a lot from being around them. But the ones I love being around the most are my babies!!!  They’re the biggest success story of all! Let me take some time to let you hear about how special they are!

All the kids here are adorable! They are smart and intelligent! And yes, they are also a handful! :-D. Morris, let me talk to you about him for a second…I have nick named him “Morris the Explorer.” I love this kid so much! He is everywhere! He never sits still in one spot. Is he ever with his own group? No.  You have to keep your eye on him lol. Joy and Scovia are two adorable girls who have both recently begun to talk! It was play time and I had taken them for a walk in a “tiny tikes” toy car. I was holding Joy in my one arm and Scovia was in the car toy…Peter came running up beside us and I said his name….just then, Joy repeated me by saying “Pee-terr.”  Scovia also said it then too! It was so exciting to hear them form actual words.  I yelled over to the other nannies “listen!” it was an exciting day! Alison has since then taught Joy to say “Canada” as well lol.  One day, Alison, another volunteer and I took Rose and Mercy to the pool at Acholi Inn for the day.   They both loved it!  They were playing around in the water as we supported them above the water…it was great!  There are many other stories I could talk about, but some stories will have to wait till I get home.  Before going, I would like to mention just one more…Caroline. Please keep her in your prayers.  The first day that Alison and I arrived at the Gulu baby home, we were asked to help with the babies in Isolation.  This group is kept away from the other babies until they are feeling better.  Caroline was sitting up with her eyes half open and her arms were aimed upwards but both her hands hanging limp…right then and there she stole my heart.  Her health would seem to be getting better, but then she would be sick again.  This seems to be happening on a regular basis.  Last week, it was decided that they would take her to the hospital in Kampala (which is about a 5 hour drive from here).  She was supposed to be back this week, but was kept for further observation and treatment.  We love all the kids here so much and will miss them dearly when it is time to say goodbye.  Who knows?  Maybe we will see them amongst the Watoto Children’s Choir children when they tour back to our city!

Trade that $5 for $10,000???????

One of the things that it took me awhile to wrap my head around was the currency here in Uganda. It is so different from Canadian dollars. They call it Shillings and for about every one Canadian dollar you get 2,000 Shillings. Basically, when you go into a store to buy something you take away the last three zeros and divide it into two. Easy enough right??? Well, let me tell you when you’re getting use to everything at once those extra 0’s can throw you off a little…..hence some interesting looks from the locals the first few times I bought something. Let me take you back to our first week here.

Our first full day and the head volunteer coordinator took us to the grocery store to get some of the basic things you need.  We filled our cart up with your everyday food supplies like toilet paper, sugar, fruits and vegetables….I’m sure you get the idea. Anyways, by the end of the shop, I had about $80 worth of food supplies. Well, me thinking that all these extra zeros on the bill makes it look like quite a lot of money and not yet have anybody explain the currency made paying for those groceries an interesting moment. When it is time to pay, I handed her a 1,000 Shilling bill……which in my mind seemed like a lot of money. I was then told I needed to give her more money, so I hand her another 1,000 Shilling bill……so now I’ve given her a total of $1.00. Still not enough, but it looks like lots to me. So finally, the volunteer coordinator steps in takes my stack of bills and hands pretty much the whole thing over to her.  It seemed like a lot of bills to me compared to the currency I’m use to back home, but I can imagine it would have taken a long time if I had kept paying her 50 cents at a time.

Some things can be very expensive here as a lot of things we consider back home as basic needs are really luxury items here. The other day, I was in a local store that wanted 25,000 shillings (12.50) for a box of Kellogg’s cereal. Well, I can tell you that the cereal did not come home with me that day. It can be very frustrating to try and do a grocery shop here as it always hard to decide what to eat. A lot of the food we enjoy in our diet on a daily basis you can’t get here and some of the things you can get is very expensive compared to what you would pay at home. Yet other things are so cheap compared to what we pay. For example today Lawrence and I went out for breakfast, we both got had an omelette and drink, we paid $20,000 Shillings for the meal. So for a sit down meal it cost $10 a total of $5 each.  This however is a luxury that many Ugandan’s simply can’t afford; some of the locals only make about $10,000 Shillings a week which would mean they are living off of $5 a week. That makes something as simple as pineapple which sells for $3,000 Shillings ($1.50) a treat some can’t afford. It makes my frustration about the lack of “good things” to eat because I’m annoyed with things like eating a meal of beans and rice……AGAIN seem really immature. (One could say a spoiled western girl tantrum).  I love how this country is growing, and you can see how it is changing and building itself. However, the poverty line I see here truly does break my heart. I can no longer agree with the excuse that we have issues back home to deal with before we can look at global issues. The issues here can’t begin to be compared with the issues we have back home. Although we need to be quick to help those next door it’s no reason to ignore those down the street. Being here really makes me so grateful for all the resources that we do have at our finger tips. My only question now is how to find a way to share those resources we have been entrusted with???

Alison