So it's my last full day in the village today. If you all were here with me now, there are a million things I'd try to tell you about - the things I've seen, the people I've met, the adventures I've had, and the foods I've eaten. But I'm a busy woman, you know, and I'd much rather tell you in person than to write them all down :)
So I'll just say this - I love this area of Uganda and I love these people. They have welcomed me and cared for me and worked so hard to help me accomplish what I came to accomplish. They've taught me how to worship, how to pray expectantly, how to have overflowing joy no matter the circumstance, and how to truly lean on the Lord as my Provider and Sustainer.
If the Lord wills, I desperately hope to come back to this village again and to spend a longer period of time here. As Angela and I were going way out into the bush to visit her village, someone was passing us and asked, "Is that woman your friend?" She laughed and said, "No, no. She is my sister!" And it's true, I've got a whole new African family over here just as big as my white family back home. So I'm looking forward to another reunion with my new family with the same excitement that I look forward to Hamilton family reunions!
So please be praying for me as I spend my last day and last hours here. Pray that the Lord would have mercy on my heart as I leave this place. Also pray that I would finish up the few last minute things I have to get done and that He would give me safe travels as I drive and fly.
See you guys soon!
Asio Cati
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
I'm still here!
Ahh! I don't even know when the last time I posted was, I'm sorry! I just know that the big group of 14 from The River has come and gone already. And so much has happened since then... I really enjoyed my time with all of them here. They were a lot of fun to be with, they were so open to listening to what the 6 of us had to say after being here for a month, and they jumped right into life in the bush. I didn't hear any complaining about the conditions and they seemed to get accustomed to Oditel much faster than I did on my first trip - walking down to the center with their new friends, riding or walking waaay out into the bush to eat mystery meats, and trying their best to learn some new Ateso words. I was very proud of them. Good work U2 :)
In case any of you didn't know, I decided to stay back for another week after all the rest of The River missionaries headed back to the US because I still had some work I needed to get done here. We tried to work it out so that someone else would be able to stay with me, but it just didn't happen. So I have trusted God to keep me safe here as a lone Mzungu - after all, if my dear friend Amelia can make it a year by herself, I should be able to make it a week :)
For those of you who have been praying for me these past few days, thank you, thank you, thank you! Your prayers have certainly been heard and answered! I was a little nervous at first because I had a rough start coming back to the village after dropping the big group off in Soroti. I took public transport back to Oditel - 4 hours in the back of something like a big pick up truck, piled with boxes and bags of supplies. Then people sit on top of those supplies, then more people sit around the outside edge of the truck, making a total of 40+ people in the back. The first 2 hours were ok but the last two I was really just miserable. I was crammed so tightly that I literally couldn't move to get inside my purse, move my legs at all, or even straighten my neck up. I don't know how Ugandans can travel like that!
Then once I finally reached the village, it had already gotten dark. Being a female Mzungu by myself, I really was a little nervous and pretty irritated. There were a few guys calling at me in Ateso after I got off and I wasn't really sure how to get them to take my bag down from the roof. And then I heard "Ayyy Asio!" (my Ateso name). I looked up and saw Andrew, a teenage boy who works/stays at the Catholic mission we stay at, walking down the road. Oooh eyalama Yesu for sending me that boy at that very moment! He helped me get my bag down and carried it all the way back to the mission for me. I also felt safe with him there even though the yelling didn't really stop. He laughed after someone yelled at him in Ateso "How much for that Mzungu?" I'm just glad he didn't name a price for the guy :)
So anyways, I've have been back at home in Oditel for 2 days now. And let me say that just like in America, I prefer being out in the country (or bush) instead of being in the city. I love the closeness and community here, there's always a familiar face nearby.
And for more answered prayers, I have felt completely safe, haven't felt lonely even a single time, and have stayed well fed :) One of the priests at the mission immediately invited me to eat every meal with them while I was here and Pastor Andrew has also offered me many meals.
As for fellowship, I've spent my days with the children, lots of time in the evening with the people from the mission - eating meals, even playing Scrabble with Father Opio, and then after church today, I spent the afternoon sitting at Pastor Andrew's store with a group of people from the church. I had such a good time with them, they were really funny, like they really had me cracking up! I didn't know Ugandans could be so silly. There was also some solid, profitable talks/discussions. After all of that, Pastor Andrew served me another delicious meal with the only meat that I really like to eat here, beef. Luckily, after struggling to ride a bike in my long skirt earlier in the day, I got someone to carry my back to the compound on their bike :)
So anyway, after a wonderful Sabbath day, I'll be back at it again tomorrow working on my remaining work here. Thank you again for praying for me and please keep praying for me - for continued protection, that I would get to meet up with all of the children and finish my work, and that the Lord would be preparing my heart to have to leave this place that I've come to love so very very much. Thank you again!
Amina eong yesi (love you guys!)
Asio Cati
In case any of you didn't know, I decided to stay back for another week after all the rest of The River missionaries headed back to the US because I still had some work I needed to get done here. We tried to work it out so that someone else would be able to stay with me, but it just didn't happen. So I have trusted God to keep me safe here as a lone Mzungu - after all, if my dear friend Amelia can make it a year by herself, I should be able to make it a week :)
For those of you who have been praying for me these past few days, thank you, thank you, thank you! Your prayers have certainly been heard and answered! I was a little nervous at first because I had a rough start coming back to the village after dropping the big group off in Soroti. I took public transport back to Oditel - 4 hours in the back of something like a big pick up truck, piled with boxes and bags of supplies. Then people sit on top of those supplies, then more people sit around the outside edge of the truck, making a total of 40+ people in the back. The first 2 hours were ok but the last two I was really just miserable. I was crammed so tightly that I literally couldn't move to get inside my purse, move my legs at all, or even straighten my neck up. I don't know how Ugandans can travel like that!
Then once I finally reached the village, it had already gotten dark. Being a female Mzungu by myself, I really was a little nervous and pretty irritated. There were a few guys calling at me in Ateso after I got off and I wasn't really sure how to get them to take my bag down from the roof. And then I heard "Ayyy Asio!" (my Ateso name). I looked up and saw Andrew, a teenage boy who works/stays at the Catholic mission we stay at, walking down the road. Oooh eyalama Yesu for sending me that boy at that very moment! He helped me get my bag down and carried it all the way back to the mission for me. I also felt safe with him there even though the yelling didn't really stop. He laughed after someone yelled at him in Ateso "How much for that Mzungu?" I'm just glad he didn't name a price for the guy :)
So anyways, I've have been back at home in Oditel for 2 days now. And let me say that just like in America, I prefer being out in the country (or bush) instead of being in the city. I love the closeness and community here, there's always a familiar face nearby.
And for more answered prayers, I have felt completely safe, haven't felt lonely even a single time, and have stayed well fed :) One of the priests at the mission immediately invited me to eat every meal with them while I was here and Pastor Andrew has also offered me many meals.
As for fellowship, I've spent my days with the children, lots of time in the evening with the people from the mission - eating meals, even playing Scrabble with Father Opio, and then after church today, I spent the afternoon sitting at Pastor Andrew's store with a group of people from the church. I had such a good time with them, they were really funny, like they really had me cracking up! I didn't know Ugandans could be so silly. There was also some solid, profitable talks/discussions. After all of that, Pastor Andrew served me another delicious meal with the only meat that I really like to eat here, beef. Luckily, after struggling to ride a bike in my long skirt earlier in the day, I got someone to carry my back to the compound on their bike :)
So anyway, after a wonderful Sabbath day, I'll be back at it again tomorrow working on my remaining work here. Thank you again for praying for me and please keep praying for me - for continued protection, that I would get to meet up with all of the children and finish my work, and that the Lord would be preparing my heart to have to leave this place that I've come to love so very very much. Thank you again!
Amina eong yesi (love you guys!)
Asio Cati
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Headed to bed, too tired to think of a title :)
Just a quick (hopefully if the internet cooperates :) update for you guys before I head to bed...
I went to the clinic today and got to spend some time talking with the nurse there today. She's this sweet older woman who has no doctor to work with and only has a couple people to help her. She has to deal with many of the same frustrations that nurses in poor rural areas in the US have to deal with, only on a larger and more desperate scale. There are the "frequent fliers" who come in for the same thing over and over, ie - the boy we brought in who had chigger bites from his feet to his lower back. The medications and creams can only help him so much when his living environment is so infested with the bugs. There's also the people who can't afford treatment for malaria but that she gives the medication to anyways. And thennn, there's the people who are given the malaria medication and then stop taking it a few days later because they're feeling better, only to have it come back worse.
She's a hardworking woman who really does a great job considering her circumstances and she's been very grateful to us for the work we've been able to do here. So would you pray for our sweet sister? Pray that she would not grow weary of the work she is doing, but that she would press on even when she's feeling overwhelmed. Pray also for a strong anointing of healing upon her, that the patients she encounters would experience miraculous healing of their bodies, minds, and souls.
I also got to spend more time working on assessing the kids today. Because of exams and a few other reasons, we were only able to check out a few kids, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but it does mean I got to spend more time playing with my babies :)
Working at the care point each day, I've gotten to spend a lot of time with Angela and Joseph, the two disciplers - villagers who have been hired by HopeChest to work with the children each day, making sure they are getting fed, singing with them, sharing the Gospel with them, and nowww caring for their medical needs :) They are certainly two of the people I've gotten closest with here and they are such a joy to me! They work so hard and they really do love these children. They looove to laugh at the Mzungus as we dance and as I do my Ugandan yell (not to toot my own horn, but I'm prettyyy sure I've gotten as good as the women here... That's right Judy, I might be better than you now :) And my favorite part about them is that after I tell a joke, and then take 5 minutes to re-tell the joke so they can understand it, and then I completely explain the joke to them, they laugh really hard :) So eyalama Yesu, that these children can have adults in their lives who really love Jesus and who are willing to work hard for the good of the children. Please also pray for Joseph and Angela, that they would not grow weary of doing good work and that through them, many would come to know Jesus as their Savior.
My last update for tonight - a Bruno story, of course :) When we were little, I always remember being in my pajamas and climbing into my parents big bed before heading upstairs to sleep. And my dad always loved to play our "kettle drums" - lifting up our shirts just enough to expose our little bellies so he could tap a beat on them. So today, after Bruno performed his daily magic trip of cramming a giant bowl of posho and beans into his tiny little body, I saw that bulging belly and couldn't help but play his kettle drum while that sweet little man laughed and laugheddd :)
Love and miss you guys!
Asio Cati
I went to the clinic today and got to spend some time talking with the nurse there today. She's this sweet older woman who has no doctor to work with and only has a couple people to help her. She has to deal with many of the same frustrations that nurses in poor rural areas in the US have to deal with, only on a larger and more desperate scale. There are the "frequent fliers" who come in for the same thing over and over, ie - the boy we brought in who had chigger bites from his feet to his lower back. The medications and creams can only help him so much when his living environment is so infested with the bugs. There's also the people who can't afford treatment for malaria but that she gives the medication to anyways. And thennn, there's the people who are given the malaria medication and then stop taking it a few days later because they're feeling better, only to have it come back worse.
She's a hardworking woman who really does a great job considering her circumstances and she's been very grateful to us for the work we've been able to do here. So would you pray for our sweet sister? Pray that she would not grow weary of the work she is doing, but that she would press on even when she's feeling overwhelmed. Pray also for a strong anointing of healing upon her, that the patients she encounters would experience miraculous healing of their bodies, minds, and souls.
I also got to spend more time working on assessing the kids today. Because of exams and a few other reasons, we were only able to check out a few kids, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but it does mean I got to spend more time playing with my babies :)
Working at the care point each day, I've gotten to spend a lot of time with Angela and Joseph, the two disciplers - villagers who have been hired by HopeChest to work with the children each day, making sure they are getting fed, singing with them, sharing the Gospel with them, and nowww caring for their medical needs :) They are certainly two of the people I've gotten closest with here and they are such a joy to me! They work so hard and they really do love these children. They looove to laugh at the Mzungus as we dance and as I do my Ugandan yell (not to toot my own horn, but I'm prettyyy sure I've gotten as good as the women here... That's right Judy, I might be better than you now :) And my favorite part about them is that after I tell a joke, and then take 5 minutes to re-tell the joke so they can understand it, and then I completely explain the joke to them, they laugh really hard :) So eyalama Yesu, that these children can have adults in their lives who really love Jesus and who are willing to work hard for the good of the children. Please also pray for Joseph and Angela, that they would not grow weary of doing good work and that through them, many would come to know Jesus as their Savior.
My last update for tonight - a Bruno story, of course :) When we were little, I always remember being in my pajamas and climbing into my parents big bed before heading upstairs to sleep. And my dad always loved to play our "kettle drums" - lifting up our shirts just enough to expose our little bellies so he could tap a beat on them. So today, after Bruno performed his daily magic trip of cramming a giant bowl of posho and beans into his tiny little body, I saw that bulging belly and couldn't help but play his kettle drum while that sweet little man laughed and laugheddd :)
Love and miss you guys!
Asio Cati
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Grandma Ham
For those of you who get my email updates, I got my internet back and my pictures all sorted out :) It took an hour and a half to get it up with the internet issues, I got rained on, a massive spider landed on my head after getting dive bombed multiple times by a giant flying worm, and the cat brushed up against me in the dark giving me my fifth heart attack of the night, but TIA... So I hope you all enjoy :)
On Saturdays, the children here are at the carepoint for most of the day, so we decided to get to work on a big part of my work here, assessing and making health histories for all of our orphans. I'll just say that trying to assess 260 orphans in an unlit church hut in Africa is not something that was explicitely covered in nursing school :) It took us a while to get a system going, but we ended up getting 33 kids done in a little over 5 hours... It was a looong hot day, although luckily the rain came in and made our last couple hours a little more comfortable (and after Dustin hung up his video camera light on the straw ceiling, we could see pretty well despite the rain clouds :) So I guess I have my work cut out for me for the rest of this week!
Unfortunately, after my long day of work, I came back to the mission to find out that my sweet grandma had died earlier that day. She was 94 and my mom had told me about a week and a half ago that she hadn't been doing well. Even though it was pretty expected, it was still a veryyy sad day. My Grandma Ham (as we affectionately call her) was absolutely one of kindest and gentlest people I have ever known. It tears me up to not have been with her in her last days and to not be with my family now, but I spent my day today living the way Irene Betty Hamilton lived...
She referred to everyone as "dear," one of my favorite sweet grandmotherly things to call someone. She'd always say things like, "Love you, dear," "God bless you, dear," and "Thank you, dear..." So a lot of the children I played with today got called dear. Even if they can't understand me, I'm sure they knew I was calling them an affectionate name :)
Especially in her last few years, Grandma Ham wasn't the type of person who always needed to be entertained. She was completely content just to sit and enjoy someone's company. I was fortunate enough to be able to do that with her a few times in the weeks before I left, to just sit up in her room with her as I organized my medical supplies and wrote up lists for my trip. So today, on our leisurely day of rest, I decided to spend some time down at the bore hole (where everyone comes to pump their water). I took some pictures and played with the kids, but mostly I just watched what was going on around me and enjoyed the people as they came and went.
Unlike my first trip to Uganda, I haven't made a habit out of snatching up random babies whenever I laid my eyes on them. But one of my grandma's most favorite things in the whole world was getting to hold sweet little babies. So today in church, I rocked my little Bruno to sleep and just squeezed his cute little body. Then as I sat down at the bore hole, a little girl who was probably about 7 was carrying her baby sister. She let me hold that tiny baby and she cooed and stared wide-eyed up at the first Mzungu she'd probably ever laid her eyes on. It's certainly not hard to understand why my grandma loved to hold little ones soo much...
One of my favorite stories of Grandma Ham is from when my mom was a child... I don't remember all of the details, but I think my Aunt Mary somehow managed to break a whole collection of my grandma's fancy dinnerware. Mary was sure she would be in big trouble and that Irene would be terribly mad at her, but instead she took a breath and said, "It's ok dear, they're just things." So today as we sat in church, Bruno picked up my Bible and started flipping through the pages. As he tried to turn the pages individually, his fumbly little fingers ended up crinkling up the whole page and tearing part of it. I thought about taking it back from him and setting it back on the ground, but instead I smoothed the page back out, flipped to a different section, and helped him as he continued to flip the pages one-by-one, still putting folds in most of the pages. After all, it is just a "thing."
And my last grandma moment for the day... In her last few years, Grandma Ham was so appreciative of every little thing each day and always so pleased by what people would do. She would say things like, "that was the best meal I've ever had," "that's the best bonfire I've ever seen," and "this is the best Mother's Day ever." Even if it was something that no one else would be impressed with, she was just tickled with whatever she had. So today, the team decided to go for a walk before it started to get dark. As we were headed back in from being way out in the bush, we looked up and saw this... The best "almost-sunset" I've ever seen :)
Love and miss you all,
Caitlin
On Saturdays, the children here are at the carepoint for most of the day, so we decided to get to work on a big part of my work here, assessing and making health histories for all of our orphans. I'll just say that trying to assess 260 orphans in an unlit church hut in Africa is not something that was explicitely covered in nursing school :) It took us a while to get a system going, but we ended up getting 33 kids done in a little over 5 hours... It was a looong hot day, although luckily the rain came in and made our last couple hours a little more comfortable (and after Dustin hung up his video camera light on the straw ceiling, we could see pretty well despite the rain clouds :) So I guess I have my work cut out for me for the rest of this week!
Unfortunately, after my long day of work, I came back to the mission to find out that my sweet grandma had died earlier that day. She was 94 and my mom had told me about a week and a half ago that she hadn't been doing well. Even though it was pretty expected, it was still a veryyy sad day. My Grandma Ham (as we affectionately call her) was absolutely one of kindest and gentlest people I have ever known. It tears me up to not have been with her in her last days and to not be with my family now, but I spent my day today living the way Irene Betty Hamilton lived...
She referred to everyone as "dear," one of my favorite sweet grandmotherly things to call someone. She'd always say things like, "Love you, dear," "God bless you, dear," and "Thank you, dear..." So a lot of the children I played with today got called dear. Even if they can't understand me, I'm sure they knew I was calling them an affectionate name :)
Especially in her last few years, Grandma Ham wasn't the type of person who always needed to be entertained. She was completely content just to sit and enjoy someone's company. I was fortunate enough to be able to do that with her a few times in the weeks before I left, to just sit up in her room with her as I organized my medical supplies and wrote up lists for my trip. So today, on our leisurely day of rest, I decided to spend some time down at the bore hole (where everyone comes to pump their water). I took some pictures and played with the kids, but mostly I just watched what was going on around me and enjoyed the people as they came and went.
Unlike my first trip to Uganda, I haven't made a habit out of snatching up random babies whenever I laid my eyes on them. But one of my grandma's most favorite things in the whole world was getting to hold sweet little babies. So today in church, I rocked my little Bruno to sleep and just squeezed his cute little body. Then as I sat down at the bore hole, a little girl who was probably about 7 was carrying her baby sister. She let me hold that tiny baby and she cooed and stared wide-eyed up at the first Mzungu she'd probably ever laid her eyes on. It's certainly not hard to understand why my grandma loved to hold little ones soo much...
One of my favorite stories of Grandma Ham is from when my mom was a child... I don't remember all of the details, but I think my Aunt Mary somehow managed to break a whole collection of my grandma's fancy dinnerware. Mary was sure she would be in big trouble and that Irene would be terribly mad at her, but instead she took a breath and said, "It's ok dear, they're just things." So today as we sat in church, Bruno picked up my Bible and started flipping through the pages. As he tried to turn the pages individually, his fumbly little fingers ended up crinkling up the whole page and tearing part of it. I thought about taking it back from him and setting it back on the ground, but instead I smoothed the page back out, flipped to a different section, and helped him as he continued to flip the pages one-by-one, still putting folds in most of the pages. After all, it is just a "thing."
And my last grandma moment for the day... In her last few years, Grandma Ham was so appreciative of every little thing each day and always so pleased by what people would do. She would say things like, "that was the best meal I've ever had," "that's the best bonfire I've ever seen," and "this is the best Mother's Day ever." Even if it was something that no one else would be impressed with, she was just tickled with whatever she had. So today, the team decided to go for a walk before it started to get dark. As we were headed back in from being way out in the bush, we looked up and saw this... The best "almost-sunset" I've ever seen :)
Love and miss you all,
Caitlin
Saturday, August 7, 2010
it's a Miracle!
We've finally used some voodoo witch magic and got our internet to work, although who knows how long it will last for (just kidding about the voodoo, by the way...) Sorry I don't have time to write too much or post any pictures, but tomorrow I'm going to try my hardest to get something else up.
We're all doing well here though, right in the middle of all of our work, getting a lot of good stuff done :) And eyalama Yesu, we've all been able to stay pretty healthy besides Deb and me having a cold and Jaynie having some allergies. Idid have a little scare the other day at the breakfast table...
when we were sitting down at the table, my head was all clogged and apparently I wasn't thinking straight so I picked up our big canteen of hot water by its twist-on lid (instead of its actual handle). And when I did that, the lid came off and splashed burning hot water (like it was literally boiled and then poured straight into this canteen) all over my arms. Luckily, our shower is right behind our breakfast table, so I jumped up and got into the cold water for a while. I prayed while I was in there and laid my hands on my arms because I knew it could be a pretty nasty burn since the water was so hot. But 12 hours later, it pretty much just looked like a sunburn, although it does still hurt pretty bad to get touched. Then the next morning, my arms felt about 95%, still just barely sore but not red at all. So amazing :) And so thankful for the miraculous healing that Jesus can bring!
I've been doing my best to pick up as much Ateso as I can while I'm here and a few locals have tried to convince me that I could be fluent if I stayed another month :) I think they're just tickling my ears but maybe I'll have to come back for a 2 month trip to really find out :)
And last but not least, I have to give you an update on my sweet little man, Bruno. I cannot even begin to explain how much joy that boy brings me. He never leaves my side if we're in the same area, he sits patiently next to me at the carepoint as I work with other children (although he will occasionally pull my skirt, play with my hair, or make me jump by tickling me :) I rock him to sleep for a nap every chance I get and make him crack up by throwing him in the air or pretending to drop him. And then everyday when I have to go back to the mission, he criessss his sweet little eyes out. I promise you I would let him snuggle in my bed every night with me and that I'd pack him in my suit case to bring home if I thought I'd get away with it! I really can't even think how sad it will be to have for this Mzungu mama to leave her sweet little African baby...
Well I better not push my luck since my internet is still working right now, but hopefully I'll get another update out after church tomorrow!
Love and miss you all lots!
Asio Cati
(my new Ateso name, as dubbed by the priest at the mission we stay at :)
We're all doing well here though, right in the middle of all of our work, getting a lot of good stuff done :) And eyalama Yesu, we've all been able to stay pretty healthy besides Deb and me having a cold and Jaynie having some allergies. Idid have a little scare the other day at the breakfast table...
when we were sitting down at the table, my head was all clogged and apparently I wasn't thinking straight so I picked up our big canteen of hot water by its twist-on lid (instead of its actual handle). And when I did that, the lid came off and splashed burning hot water (like it was literally boiled and then poured straight into this canteen) all over my arms. Luckily, our shower is right behind our breakfast table, so I jumped up and got into the cold water for a while. I prayed while I was in there and laid my hands on my arms because I knew it could be a pretty nasty burn since the water was so hot. But 12 hours later, it pretty much just looked like a sunburn, although it does still hurt pretty bad to get touched. Then the next morning, my arms felt about 95%, still just barely sore but not red at all. So amazing :) And so thankful for the miraculous healing that Jesus can bring!
I've been doing my best to pick up as much Ateso as I can while I'm here and a few locals have tried to convince me that I could be fluent if I stayed another month :) I think they're just tickling my ears but maybe I'll have to come back for a 2 month trip to really find out :)
And last but not least, I have to give you an update on my sweet little man, Bruno. I cannot even begin to explain how much joy that boy brings me. He never leaves my side if we're in the same area, he sits patiently next to me at the carepoint as I work with other children (although he will occasionally pull my skirt, play with my hair, or make me jump by tickling me :) I rock him to sleep for a nap every chance I get and make him crack up by throwing him in the air or pretending to drop him. And then everyday when I have to go back to the mission, he criessss his sweet little eyes out. I promise you I would let him snuggle in my bed every night with me and that I'd pack him in my suit case to bring home if I thought I'd get away with it! I really can't even think how sad it will be to have for this Mzungu mama to leave her sweet little African baby...
Well I better not push my luck since my internet is still working right now, but hopefully I'll get another update out after church tomorrow!
Love and miss you all lots!
Asio Cati
(my new Ateso name, as dubbed by the priest at the mission we stay at :)
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