When I was was in the village, I would do little things like eat cassava or maize, help someone carry their water, or use one of their grass brooms and people would say to me, "You're really an Atesot" or "You're a true African woman now." I take it as a highest compliment, even though I know it's not true. The people I spent my time with are strong, hardworking, and resilient. They tolerate so much and they still have so much joy. Injury, serious illness, and death is a daily reality for them, but their faith and reliance and worship is so true and genuine.
Christine, my sweet cook and African mama, had a husband who died years ago of AIDS, only after cheating on her and then passing the HIV to her. She was left with two children who she works so hard to put through school now. She would sincerely apologize to me when she didn't have time to mop the floor one day or when she had me eat beans and rice for two meals in a row because there was still food from lunch left that she couldn't waste. Her needs are always put behind others, her heart is truly a servant's heart.
There was a woman who came to the clinic who was in labor. She was fully dilated and had been having contractions for over 24 hours but hadn't begun pushing. The nurse was worried that because of her prolonged labor, different complications could happen - infection, exhaustion, even death for the baby or the mom. So she wanted to refer her to Amuria where they have the facilities to do a c-section. The woman didn't want to go because of the cost of transportation and care, but the nurse convinced her that it was important to go. So they got a boda boda and got ready to go.
I've only ridden on a boda one time but I know that as a women who has to ride side-saddle on dirt roads that are in terrible condition, it's not suuuper easy. But this woman climbed on for a 30 minute ride to the hospital, along with the driver, her sister, her sister's toddler, their supply bag, aaand a giant basin, while nine months pregnant AND in labor on. one. motorcycle. Completely unreal.
The nurse told me later that the woman continued to labor for another 12 hours because she really didn't want to have to pay the money for surgery, so she kept delaying. They finally told her she was going to have to go in for the c-section and as they wheeled her bed into the OR, she pushed with everything she had left and delivered her baby boy at the very last minute.
The women of Ateso can bury their children or their husband, spend the day of the funeral intensely grieving, and then the next day, they have no choice but to continue with life. They get up early to work in their gardens, go back home to cook lunch for their 4-10 children using charcoal, wash clothes, care for their children, and organize their homes. They sleep for a little while and then get up to do it all over again.
If I were a widow with HIV, I can't say that I would apologize for not mopping your floor. If I were in prolonged labor, I can't say that I would be worried about the money I would have to spend on health care or that I would ride on a motorcycle that was crammed full. If I buried one of my closest family members, I can't say that I would care about caring for those around me. I can't say that I am that strong. I'm not really like an Atesot or an African woman. But their strength is something to consider, to admire, to praise. Jesus, let me be more like the women of Oditel.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Without anything specific to write about today, I'll just share a random collection of my favorite and funniest experiences so far...
There's a 15 year old boy at the mission, Otim Peter, who was also here last year. Then, he was a shy, kind of awkward boy, but this year he's more confident and outgoing and almost everything that comes out of that boy's mouth makes me crack up. So I'll give you some of my favorite Peter quotes -
On what to do with a "cryful" baby (he's spent "many years" caring for babies) -
"Because they're just crying and crying and nothing makes them happy, you just pinch them to take the crying up another level so that they'll get it all out. They think they know what's best, so you just have to teach them a lesson."
As we were sitting down together one night waiting for dinner to be ready -
"You four can sit on that bench. But me, I will remain standing because if I also sat on that bench, it would just surrender!"
After turning on the radio and starting to dance -
"Hey Betty, you come down here and we'll have a dance competition. I will just beat you a hundred times even with only one leg!" (as he started dancing while standing on one leg)
Besides being a pastor, Pastor Andrew also own a shop in the center and has a four year old boy, Jacob, who loves to play with Bruno. As we sit together before dark and watch the kids play, Bosco always translates the most amusing parts of the boys' conversations for me. Yesterday, we sat at the soccer fields watching a game and I greeted a man who rode past on a bicycle. He didn't say anything back to me but just kind of nodded his head. Bosco started laughing and told me that Bruno must be a little defensive of me because he said "Hey that guy is a fool! He doesn't even know how to respond to yoga noi!"
Bosco was also entertained enough to tell me about this conversation between Jacob and Bruno -
Jacob - "I think your shoes are too big for you."
Bruno - "Ok, then you give me yours. Those ones will fit me better."
Jacob - "No, you can't have mine. But you can come to my shop and I'll sell you some for 120 shillings" (= less than 6 cents)
A lot of times, we'll talk to the boys in English to see how much they understand and also to help them learn more. Bosco told Bruno to sing his ABCs and he did. But like most little kids, he skipped a few letters and repeated a few others, so after he was finished Bosco said, "Well done, Bruno. Next time better." Bruno didn't quite understand everything that Bosco said so he replied, "Ngai bo next time?" (Who is next time??)
When I was here last year with five other white people, we would space out our showers to save water and I also just felt like since we were in Africa, it was just a normal thing to be a little dirty. Being here by myself though, I've been more aware of how things really are in this culture. When I was in Soroti, I had gone a day without showering, which had been totally normal on our first trip. I still didn't see anything wrong with it until I heard Ann (Joseph's wife) talking to their son, Zoe. "Zoe, why have you not bathed today? You go and bathe... You are not a missionary!" I decided then it would be best to shower more often, at least while I was still in Soroti.
Then I got to Oditel where I thought surely I wouldn't be bathing so much. But since I'm here by myself this time, people (specifically Christine) pay more attention to what I'm doing. Christine came in our first night there after bathing and asked if I needed water to bathe. I ignored her pressure and told her I was just going to go to bed. The next night, she asked me again. It had been a cool day and I really hadn't planned on bathing, which again wasn't out of the ordinary for our last trip. When I told her that I thought it would be too cold to bathe now that it was night, she offered to warm up water for me, so I felt like i had to give in that time. Because I'm by myself, I feel more pressure to try to do what the people around me are doing, which is bathing every day or even twice a day. Against my wishes, I've been peer pressured into bathing more in Africa than I do in the US and if you really know me, you'll know I'm pretty disappointed by this. Don't worry too much about me though - since the people here don't know what's normal for white people hair, I can still get away without washing my hair too often :) (Kati - Day 4, curly, down - put it in the record book)
Sometimes in Uganda, people will use words that are just a little different than words we use at home. For example, "having diarrhea" becomes "diareeting" (which they talk very openly about, FYI). So sometimes, you just go along with what someone says until you can figure out what they're really talking about (fake it till you make it is the rhyming phrase I'd use to describe this ;)
So the other day, I was talking with Pastor Andrew about the microfinance project here so that I could get an update for the River. He described a couple of things people were using the money for, including solar panels for a saloon down the road. I thought it was a little strange that a pastor who never drinks alcohol would think it was a good idea to make it more convenient for the alcoholic men in the village to drink in the dark at a bar. But I figured I would talk to Wil about it first since I don't know much about the microfinance project.
Since we've been without power, they haven't been able to pump up water for showers, so we bucket bathe. I've asked Christine to help me wash my hair though since that's a little harder to do in a bucket. She helped me feel a lot better about what Andrew had told me when she picked up my shampoo and asked if I was ready for her home saloon. Ooooh right, SALON... I feel much better about getting solar panels so that people can get their hair cut.
And last of all, some of the most amusing and frequent statements/questions that come from the agricultural people of Teso:
-"You can see that that is a very healthy cow there." (Nope, I can pretty much only see that it's not dead.)
-"What crops do you grow at home?" (Uh, sometimes I pick tomatoes from the plants my brother planted...)
-"You'll notice that the rain has made the posho plants very high here." (First I'd have to know what a posho plant looked like to notice that.)
-"You hear this rain now? It's coming straight down because there's no wind. It's a good rain because none of it's being wasted." (Wait, rain can be wasted by wind??)
-"You will see the difference of vegetation as we enter into the Kapelebyong area." (It all looks pretty green and plant-like to me)
-"Do you heap/dig for potatoes?" (No, but I do peel them, boil them, mash them, fry them, or bake them... Does that count for anything?)
-"Chicken, get out of the road or I will knock you with my car!" (My favorite of all...)
Ok, that's all the Ugandan wit I have for you for now... Headed back to the village in the morning for my last week and a half!
Love you all,
Caitlin
There's a 15 year old boy at the mission, Otim Peter, who was also here last year. Then, he was a shy, kind of awkward boy, but this year he's more confident and outgoing and almost everything that comes out of that boy's mouth makes me crack up. So I'll give you some of my favorite Peter quotes -
On what to do with a "cryful" baby (he's spent "many years" caring for babies) -
"Because they're just crying and crying and nothing makes them happy, you just pinch them to take the crying up another level so that they'll get it all out. They think they know what's best, so you just have to teach them a lesson."
As we were sitting down together one night waiting for dinner to be ready -
"You four can sit on that bench. But me, I will remain standing because if I also sat on that bench, it would just surrender!"
After turning on the radio and starting to dance -
"Hey Betty, you come down here and we'll have a dance competition. I will just beat you a hundred times even with only one leg!" (as he started dancing while standing on one leg)
Besides being a pastor, Pastor Andrew also own a shop in the center and has a four year old boy, Jacob, who loves to play with Bruno. As we sit together before dark and watch the kids play, Bosco always translates the most amusing parts of the boys' conversations for me. Yesterday, we sat at the soccer fields watching a game and I greeted a man who rode past on a bicycle. He didn't say anything back to me but just kind of nodded his head. Bosco started laughing and told me that Bruno must be a little defensive of me because he said "Hey that guy is a fool! He doesn't even know how to respond to yoga noi!"
Bosco was also entertained enough to tell me about this conversation between Jacob and Bruno -
Jacob - "I think your shoes are too big for you."
Bruno - "Ok, then you give me yours. Those ones will fit me better."
Jacob - "No, you can't have mine. But you can come to my shop and I'll sell you some for 120 shillings" (= less than 6 cents)
A lot of times, we'll talk to the boys in English to see how much they understand and also to help them learn more. Bosco told Bruno to sing his ABCs and he did. But like most little kids, he skipped a few letters and repeated a few others, so after he was finished Bosco said, "Well done, Bruno. Next time better." Bruno didn't quite understand everything that Bosco said so he replied, "Ngai bo next time?" (Who is next time??)
When I was here last year with five other white people, we would space out our showers to save water and I also just felt like since we were in Africa, it was just a normal thing to be a little dirty. Being here by myself though, I've been more aware of how things really are in this culture. When I was in Soroti, I had gone a day without showering, which had been totally normal on our first trip. I still didn't see anything wrong with it until I heard Ann (Joseph's wife) talking to their son, Zoe. "Zoe, why have you not bathed today? You go and bathe... You are not a missionary!" I decided then it would be best to shower more often, at least while I was still in Soroti.
Then I got to Oditel where I thought surely I wouldn't be bathing so much. But since I'm here by myself this time, people (specifically Christine) pay more attention to what I'm doing. Christine came in our first night there after bathing and asked if I needed water to bathe. I ignored her pressure and told her I was just going to go to bed. The next night, she asked me again. It had been a cool day and I really hadn't planned on bathing, which again wasn't out of the ordinary for our last trip. When I told her that I thought it would be too cold to bathe now that it was night, she offered to warm up water for me, so I felt like i had to give in that time. Because I'm by myself, I feel more pressure to try to do what the people around me are doing, which is bathing every day or even twice a day. Against my wishes, I've been peer pressured into bathing more in Africa than I do in the US and if you really know me, you'll know I'm pretty disappointed by this. Don't worry too much about me though - since the people here don't know what's normal for white people hair, I can still get away without washing my hair too often :) (Kati - Day 4, curly, down - put it in the record book)
Sometimes in Uganda, people will use words that are just a little different than words we use at home. For example, "having diarrhea" becomes "diareeting" (which they talk very openly about, FYI). So sometimes, you just go along with what someone says until you can figure out what they're really talking about (fake it till you make it is the rhyming phrase I'd use to describe this ;)
So the other day, I was talking with Pastor Andrew about the microfinance project here so that I could get an update for the River. He described a couple of things people were using the money for, including solar panels for a saloon down the road. I thought it was a little strange that a pastor who never drinks alcohol would think it was a good idea to make it more convenient for the alcoholic men in the village to drink in the dark at a bar. But I figured I would talk to Wil about it first since I don't know much about the microfinance project.
Since we've been without power, they haven't been able to pump up water for showers, so we bucket bathe. I've asked Christine to help me wash my hair though since that's a little harder to do in a bucket. She helped me feel a lot better about what Andrew had told me when she picked up my shampoo and asked if I was ready for her home saloon. Ooooh right, SALON... I feel much better about getting solar panels so that people can get their hair cut.
And last of all, some of the most amusing and frequent statements/questions that come from the agricultural people of Teso:
-"You can see that that is a very healthy cow there." (Nope, I can pretty much only see that it's not dead.)
-"What crops do you grow at home?" (Uh, sometimes I pick tomatoes from the plants my brother planted...)
-"You'll notice that the rain has made the posho plants very high here." (First I'd have to know what a posho plant looked like to notice that.)
-"You hear this rain now? It's coming straight down because there's no wind. It's a good rain because none of it's being wasted." (Wait, rain can be wasted by wind??)
-"You will see the difference of vegetation as we enter into the Kapelebyong area." (It all looks pretty green and plant-like to me)
-"Do you heap/dig for potatoes?" (No, but I do peel them, boil them, mash them, fry them, or bake them... Does that count for anything?)
-"Chicken, get out of the road or I will knock you with my car!" (My favorite of all...)
Ok, that's all the Ugandan wit I have for you for now... Headed back to the village in the morning for my last week and a half!
Love you all,
Caitlin
Friday, August 19, 2011
Esaru Joel
I was talking with Amoding Cecilia a couple weeks ago. She's this beautiful, talented, brilliant 15 year old girl who's friendly and outgoing. I was walking back to the mission wit her and one of the girls I sponsor, Agiro Diana. I don't know why I hadn't said anything about it yet, but I hadn't really told anyone that Kati was coming to visit me.
So as we were walking, Cecilia asked me if I knew when Kati would be coming to visit again. I gave her a smile and said that Kati was actually coming to visit in just over a week and that she'd be staying in the village for about five days. Cecilia's face lit up and she clapped her hands in excitement, "She's really going to come?! You know, for us, your sponsor is like your mom or your dad." Diana shared in Cecilia's excitement and added, "When we hear one of you is coming to visit, we all get so excited. We really love our sponsors so much!" We kept walking as Cecilia added a happy bounce to her step and continued to ask me details about Kati's trip.
This is Esaru Joel. He's a sweet but quiet 14 year old boy who I see almost every day but is a little too shy to ever come up to me. He has a younger brother (Ongwara Aaron) and a 17 year old sister who goes to school in Soroti. Their father died about five years ago in Jinja so he and his brother live with just their mother. Their mom currently sells bread at the center of the village - what little money is left after her daughter's school fees, she uses to care for her two other children.
Joel is unfortunately one of our little peanuts in the program, he's right around the 5th percentile for his age group, so please pray that Jesus would put some meat on his bones. Joel is also unfortunately one of the children at our carepoint who does not have a sponsor yet. I would so love for Joel to have that same excitement and joy that Cecilia and Diana talked about that comes with having a sponsor, that even if that sponsor never gets the chance to visit, there's someone who loves them, supports them, and prays for them, who gives them a reason to work a little harder in school.
If you ate in instead of going out to eat a couple times or if you decided not to get that one new shirt, you could be the one to show Joel that you care about him. If you can give $35/month, then I'd really love for you to be the one. Please let me know if this is something you'd be interested in and I would love to help you get started.
Love you all!
Caitlin
So as we were walking, Cecilia asked me if I knew when Kati would be coming to visit again. I gave her a smile and said that Kati was actually coming to visit in just over a week and that she'd be staying in the village for about five days. Cecilia's face lit up and she clapped her hands in excitement, "She's really going to come?! You know, for us, your sponsor is like your mom or your dad." Diana shared in Cecilia's excitement and added, "When we hear one of you is coming to visit, we all get so excited. We really love our sponsors so much!" We kept walking as Cecilia added a happy bounce to her step and continued to ask me details about Kati's trip.
This is Esaru Joel. He's a sweet but quiet 14 year old boy who I see almost every day but is a little too shy to ever come up to me. He has a younger brother (Ongwara Aaron) and a 17 year old sister who goes to school in Soroti. Their father died about five years ago in Jinja so he and his brother live with just their mother. Their mom currently sells bread at the center of the village - what little money is left after her daughter's school fees, she uses to care for her two other children.
Joel is unfortunately one of our little peanuts in the program, he's right around the 5th percentile for his age group, so please pray that Jesus would put some meat on his bones. Joel is also unfortunately one of the children at our carepoint who does not have a sponsor yet. I would so love for Joel to have that same excitement and joy that Cecilia and Diana talked about that comes with having a sponsor, that even if that sponsor never gets the chance to visit, there's someone who loves them, supports them, and prays for them, who gives them a reason to work a little harder in school.
If you ate in instead of going out to eat a couple times or if you decided not to get that one new shirt, you could be the one to show Joel that you care about him. If you can give $35/month, then I'd really love for you to be the one. Please let me know if this is something you'd be interested in and I would love to help you get started.
Love you all!
Caitlin
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Patience Pays
The "maternity ward" at the clinic here consists of one room with one bed, a curtain, and cement walls and floors. The one decorative thing in the room is a sign that says "Patience Pays." The nurse and I were sitting in the room with a woman who had been fully dilated for about 3 hours but hadn't felt like it was time to push. As we waited through each contraction, getting more and more antsy, the nurse looked up and laughed. "Patience pains! But yes, patience really will pay in the end!"
I left to go to the carepoint for the kids' lunch but came back an hour and a half later. Still no baby... I went back to the mission, ate lunch, read, and rested. When I got back to the clinic, the nurse had just finished cleaning up the mom and baby. I was sad to have missed the delivery but YES! The baby finally came! It seemed like such a long time of waiting - 6 hours - an eternity to the laboring mom. But in the end, she had a precious, healthy baby boy. Her endurance and patience paid off.
My first few days in the village were really hard. Adjusting to no power at the mission, missing all of you so much, finding Bruno getting over malaria, not seeing my friends from last trip for a few days - it was rough. I'm not the type of girl to tap out first, but if one of you had called me and said, "We miss you too much! We just need you to come home..." I wouldn't have rejected your request. "Well, ok fine... I suppose if you really need me..." I would have said leaving everything behind to jump on the first truck back to Soroti.
Nate told me that the first week would be really hard but that I would adjust. He was telling me that I needed to be patient and I didn't want to be. Now the power's still not back and I miss you all just as much, but Bruno is healthy and precious, I've gotten to spend more time with Angela, Bosco's back from school, and I'm busy with the work I'm doing here. I'm actually enjoying my time here! I can't say I was the perfect picture of patient waiting, but I didn't pack up and head home and it has paid.
I remember how I felt after I got home from the first trip to the village. I felt so helpless. I need to do something! What can I do now? What if the rain doesn't come? And what if more people die? What if they think we're just another group of white people who came to visit but won't come back to help? What can we do when there's so many people who need so much help?! It didn't happen overnight but a year and a half later, things are really happening here. There's a distinct change since that first visit.
We've built a beautiful carepoint where a couple hundred kids get fed every day. There's a well that we built right near there so that the children have water for drinking and cleaning their dishes after eating. They all recently had medical exams and those in need were sent for further treatment. If any of them have malaria or another common problem, they can be treated at the local clinic without worrying about the cost. There are also way fewer kids with the patchy fungal infections on their heads and the reddish hair from malnutrition.
But my favorite change - on our first trip, you would hold up your camera to try to get a smiling picture from these precious kids and they'd stare at you straight faced like you were crazy. They'd play with you and they'd want to be around you, but a smile was not eaasy to come by. Now this time is certainly different. There are still a few of the little kids who aren't quite sure what to think of a white person, but nearly every smile I get is returned. When I pull out my camera, they know exactly what to do. We still have plenty of work to do here, but our precious children are quick to smile - a sure sign that our patience has paid off.
Romans 8 says that all of creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now as we wait eagerly for our adoption and redemption. I've seen only a glimpse of the pain and suffering in this world and it has been more than enough to make me groan. Please Jesus! I'm ready for You to come back, for You to wipe away every tear, for all things to be made new, for no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. And yet, Romans 8 also says that the sufferings of now are not worth comparing to the glory that is going to come. I know He is drawing more hearts towards Himself, calling more people to come to Him, and that it will happen in His perfect timing. But if you're the one He's waiting on, please hurry up and give your life to Jesus! And if you've already done that, give me a call and we'll wait patiently together. Because I know in the end, our patience will pay :)
Headed to the village with dearest Kati (who's recently been given the Ateso name - Amulen :), no more internet for a while...
Love and miss you all!
Caitin and Kati
I left to go to the carepoint for the kids' lunch but came back an hour and a half later. Still no baby... I went back to the mission, ate lunch, read, and rested. When I got back to the clinic, the nurse had just finished cleaning up the mom and baby. I was sad to have missed the delivery but YES! The baby finally came! It seemed like such a long time of waiting - 6 hours - an eternity to the laboring mom. But in the end, she had a precious, healthy baby boy. Her endurance and patience paid off.
My first few days in the village were really hard. Adjusting to no power at the mission, missing all of you so much, finding Bruno getting over malaria, not seeing my friends from last trip for a few days - it was rough. I'm not the type of girl to tap out first, but if one of you had called me and said, "We miss you too much! We just need you to come home..." I wouldn't have rejected your request. "Well, ok fine... I suppose if you really need me..." I would have said leaving everything behind to jump on the first truck back to Soroti.
Nate told me that the first week would be really hard but that I would adjust. He was telling me that I needed to be patient and I didn't want to be. Now the power's still not back and I miss you all just as much, but Bruno is healthy and precious, I've gotten to spend more time with Angela, Bosco's back from school, and I'm busy with the work I'm doing here. I'm actually enjoying my time here! I can't say I was the perfect picture of patient waiting, but I didn't pack up and head home and it has paid.
I remember how I felt after I got home from the first trip to the village. I felt so helpless. I need to do something! What can I do now? What if the rain doesn't come? And what if more people die? What if they think we're just another group of white people who came to visit but won't come back to help? What can we do when there's so many people who need so much help?! It didn't happen overnight but a year and a half later, things are really happening here. There's a distinct change since that first visit.
We've built a beautiful carepoint where a couple hundred kids get fed every day. There's a well that we built right near there so that the children have water for drinking and cleaning their dishes after eating. They all recently had medical exams and those in need were sent for further treatment. If any of them have malaria or another common problem, they can be treated at the local clinic without worrying about the cost. There are also way fewer kids with the patchy fungal infections on their heads and the reddish hair from malnutrition.
But my favorite change - on our first trip, you would hold up your camera to try to get a smiling picture from these precious kids and they'd stare at you straight faced like you were crazy. They'd play with you and they'd want to be around you, but a smile was not eaasy to come by. Now this time is certainly different. There are still a few of the little kids who aren't quite sure what to think of a white person, but nearly every smile I get is returned. When I pull out my camera, they know exactly what to do. We still have plenty of work to do here, but our precious children are quick to smile - a sure sign that our patience has paid off.
Romans 8 says that all of creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now as we wait eagerly for our adoption and redemption. I've seen only a glimpse of the pain and suffering in this world and it has been more than enough to make me groan. Please Jesus! I'm ready for You to come back, for You to wipe away every tear, for all things to be made new, for no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. And yet, Romans 8 also says that the sufferings of now are not worth comparing to the glory that is going to come. I know He is drawing more hearts towards Himself, calling more people to come to Him, and that it will happen in His perfect timing. But if you're the one He's waiting on, please hurry up and give your life to Jesus! And if you've already done that, give me a call and we'll wait patiently together. Because I know in the end, our patience will pay :)
Headed to the village with dearest Kati (who's recently been given the Ateso name - Amulen :), no more internet for a while...
Love and miss you all!
Caitin and Kati
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Another Update
From July 19th
You guys are really gonna be tired of me when I finally get a chance to post...
First of all, let me say that sometimes you would think that all of my family and friends were the ones who are living in the bush - you guys are not so easy to get a hold of! I can always get a hold of at least one person though so I can't complain :) (And Kati gets MVP all star winner for almost always answering AND being my stellar international personal assistant)
I think I'm through the worst of adjusting to being here now. Sometimes you get sad when you're the only white person for miles around and you miss your wonderful family and friends and there's no power so you're in the dark with just a flashlight. But I've gotten used to quiet and dark and I've been spending more time outside at night with the Ugandans (covered in extra layers and bug spray to avoid malaria mosquitoes :) so that's definitely helped. Aaand Bosco comes tomorrow - the Ugandan that I've kept in touch with the most, one of my closest friends from my last trip, and a seminary student who will be on break until I head back to the US - so I'm very excited for that!
So now I'm gonna tell you about one of my most proud accomplishments up to this point... When it comes to meat in Uganda, I'm a chicken. After being a vegetarian for 10 years, I really hate biting into a piece of fat or having to chew any piece of meat for too long. And in Uganda, there are no tender bites that go down easy, you have to work to get your protein. It also doesn't help that you can tell exactly what part of the bird you're eating and that you have to pull off the skin and pull apart the bones and joints to find the meat. But as one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes says, it's wonderful what you can do when you have to...
Last night, I decided I needed a little more sustenance than white rice and potatoes, so I was determined. And I really didn't want to offend Christine by not eating the meat she had worked so hard to find and cook. So I took a deep breath and started pulling my piece apart to to my surprise, I actually found white meat! I think it was the chicken breast but as soon as I started trying to picture where it would have come from (based on the wing attached to it) I had to stop :) So I chewed and chewed and ate almost the whole piece until my weak little teeth couldn't chew anymore... You may be unimpressed, but I'll pat myself on the back :)
Today, I spend my first full day at the clinic in teh village. The nurse I'm working with (Mary Goretti) is really nice, smart, helpful, aaand she speaks great English. We did antenatal visits and let me just say that I now believe that nursing programs should seriously send their students to Africa for clinicals because there is plenty of experience to get here. I got to feel more pregnant bellies today than I felt in a whole semester of school. So I'm actually figuring out what different parts of the baby fel like when they're still inside. Also, if you can figure out how to start an IV on a two year old with dark black skin who's dehydrated from severe malaria, you shouldn't have too much trouble starting an IV on anyone else...
So anyways, thank you to everyone who's prayed for me, emailed me, and talked to me on the phone. Your prayers are being heard! My teeth are feeling good and I'm feeling much less paranoid about them :) I've been totally safe and protected everywhere I've gone, I'm feeling healthy, and I'm starting to really do the work that I came to do. So please keep the prayers coming!
Love you all,
Caitlin
You guys are really gonna be tired of me when I finally get a chance to post...
First of all, let me say that sometimes you would think that all of my family and friends were the ones who are living in the bush - you guys are not so easy to get a hold of! I can always get a hold of at least one person though so I can't complain :) (And Kati gets MVP all star winner for almost always answering AND being my stellar international personal assistant)
I think I'm through the worst of adjusting to being here now. Sometimes you get sad when you're the only white person for miles around and you miss your wonderful family and friends and there's no power so you're in the dark with just a flashlight. But I've gotten used to quiet and dark and I've been spending more time outside at night with the Ugandans (covered in extra layers and bug spray to avoid malaria mosquitoes :) so that's definitely helped. Aaand Bosco comes tomorrow - the Ugandan that I've kept in touch with the most, one of my closest friends from my last trip, and a seminary student who will be on break until I head back to the US - so I'm very excited for that!
So now I'm gonna tell you about one of my most proud accomplishments up to this point... When it comes to meat in Uganda, I'm a chicken. After being a vegetarian for 10 years, I really hate biting into a piece of fat or having to chew any piece of meat for too long. And in Uganda, there are no tender bites that go down easy, you have to work to get your protein. It also doesn't help that you can tell exactly what part of the bird you're eating and that you have to pull off the skin and pull apart the bones and joints to find the meat. But as one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes says, it's wonderful what you can do when you have to...
Last night, I decided I needed a little more sustenance than white rice and potatoes, so I was determined. And I really didn't want to offend Christine by not eating the meat she had worked so hard to find and cook. So I took a deep breath and started pulling my piece apart to to my surprise, I actually found white meat! I think it was the chicken breast but as soon as I started trying to picture where it would have come from (based on the wing attached to it) I had to stop :) So I chewed and chewed and ate almost the whole piece until my weak little teeth couldn't chew anymore... You may be unimpressed, but I'll pat myself on the back :)
Today, I spend my first full day at the clinic in teh village. The nurse I'm working with (Mary Goretti) is really nice, smart, helpful, aaand she speaks great English. We did antenatal visits and let me just say that I now believe that nursing programs should seriously send their students to Africa for clinicals because there is plenty of experience to get here. I got to feel more pregnant bellies today than I felt in a whole semester of school. So I'm actually figuring out what different parts of the baby fel like when they're still inside. Also, if you can figure out how to start an IV on a two year old with dark black skin who's dehydrated from severe malaria, you shouldn't have too much trouble starting an IV on anyone else...
So anyways, thank you to everyone who's prayed for me, emailed me, and talked to me on the phone. Your prayers are being heard! My teeth are feeling good and I'm feeling much less paranoid about them :) I've been totally safe and protected everywhere I've gone, I'm feeling healthy, and I'm starting to really do the work that I came to do. So please keep the prayers coming!
Love you all,
Caitlin
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
First days in Oditel
Hey everyone! It's really me writing this time! FYI - I've been writing since I got to the village, so I'm just gonna go back and post from when I first got there and hopefully get through what I've written by the time I head back to the village. You guys are gonna be sick of me by the time I'm done :)
From July 17th
I had my first Sunday in the village after a year without and the singing and dancing and worshiping here still makes me smile uncontrollably - the same way it did a year ago. This Sunday was a little different though because I got up and sang in front of the church with only Angela (my dearest friend in Oditel) and her friend Ruth. As if I don't get stared at enough here, Angela pressured me into singing in her little trio - a song I've never heard before with four stanzas that I learned the night before. (In case you're reading this and we've never met, I have very little musical talent and Angela is 1 of about 0 people in the world who could convince me to do such a ridiculous thing.) But I made it thorugh without being laughed at or passing out, so that's good enough for me :)
But for some honesty, life alone in the bush is hard and I've only been here three days. I have no way to stay in touch with home besides my Ugandan phone which costs twice as much in the village as it does in town. Also, since the solar panels at the mission I stay at were struck by lightning, I haven't had any electricity (current update - after promising it would be fixed for over a week, someone came from Soroti to fix it, only for it to not work the next day. So still no electricity, but *hopefully* it will back this week). As if being across the world from you guys wasn't enough distance, having such little communication does no make the distance feel any shorter. But I have mostly adjusted to no power now, so I'll just be happy with anything more than what I have!
I've also come to believe that any person who willingly chooses to be famous has to have something wrong with their brain. I don't find any pleasure in being constantly stared at or having my every move watched - where I'm walking to, how/what I'm eating, what I'm going to take out of my purse (another current edit - I was a little grumpy then, obviously... I promise there are more positive blogs to come :). But I suppose in the end, I did actually sign up for this and I can't deny that there is, in fact, a little something wrong with my brain!
And now for the positive side of honesty - I'm getting back in the African swing of things. Since we don't have power, that means no pump to pump up water for the gravity shower. So I've become quite an expert at bathing out of a bucket with a tiny bit of water.
I still love my Angela just as much as I did on the day that I last left. We make each other LAUGH and she is just so precious to me. I feel a serious bond with her and we've connected in a way that I didn't think was possible for two women who have such completely different lives. I really love that dark-skinned sister of mine :)
My boy Bruno is just as sweet and precoius and hilarious and naughty as ever. our first meeting left much to be desired though - he had just been discharged from the clinic after being treated for malaria. So he still had a terrible fever and was totally exhausted. He sat on my lap for a few minutes, gave me one smile, then told his grandmad that he was going inside to sleep (c.e. - he actually has malaria AGAIN right now and it is really the saddest thing... Please pray for him!)
The next day though, his health was restored and so was my faith that he did actually still love me :) When he's sitting in my lap or standing next to me, I'll usually scratch his back or tickle him. So today as I was reading a book and he was sitting next to me, I saw him reach his hand up to my side. I started to scold him because I thought he was going to tickle my arm pit (which my brother-in-law knows is a good way to lose a hand). Then I realized he was actually going to scratch my back - I think I actually scared him when I made a squeal of happiness :)
He's also been coming to eat lunch with me at the mission adn he has all the table manners you'd expect from a four year old boy with no parents who's growing up in the bush :) He spits out his onions onto the floor because he doesn't like them, he chugs his water and spills it all over himself, he gets food all over his face and lap, and he has very little mastery of the fork. Fortunately, we have some time to work on these things! (c.e. - We've actually given up on the whole fork thing. Almost no adults eat with forks here, so he has resumed eating with his hand :)
And then there's Christine - my precious cook (personal chef as I like to call her, or my bush mama as the people at the mission like to call her). I know that she has really been a huge blessing to every person from our church who's come here and the blessings continue to come. Her biggest accomplishment so far as certainly been making food that I somewhat enjoy. Considering the heat and how different the food is and how weak my stomach is in general, it would even be an accomplishment to just make food that didn't make me nauseous!
More than the food though, she keeps me company for my meals and she shares a room with me to make nights completely unlonely. SHe tells me funny stories about her kids and she sings and prays with me at night. But my favorite thing about her is the way she really cares about children, particularly Bruno. She takes care of him and teaches him in way that I woulnd't know how to because of the language barrier and differences in culture. She tells him to eat his food before he drinks his water so that he'll eat more and she translates all the ridiculous things he says to me.
Today after lunch, she stripped him down naked, laid a blanket on teh floor, and told him to take a nap to which he promptly laid down perfectly still and closed his eyes. As he spend two hours sleeping, she washed his clothes (apparently the only outfit he has now that fits him), let them dry, then sewed up the giant hole in his pants. When he woke up (yes, his little naked, sleepy-eyed was just as precious as you could imagine), she bathed him and scrubbed him down, put lotion on him, and then put him in his freshly cleaned clothes. Bruno put on his proud look (Jaynie - the same one he had when he was wielding the stick in teh church) and as much as I love kissing his sweet little face when it's dirty and posho-covered, I REALLY love kissing his clean, soap-smelling face. And for that, I'm so so thankful for Christine.
Ok, I'm up way past my bed time now considering my early morning departure to Entebbe to pick up my wonderful, Kati Hultman!!! Hopefully you'll hear from me again tomorrow :) Love and miss you guys!
Caitlin
From July 17th
I had my first Sunday in the village after a year without and the singing and dancing and worshiping here still makes me smile uncontrollably - the same way it did a year ago. This Sunday was a little different though because I got up and sang in front of the church with only Angela (my dearest friend in Oditel) and her friend Ruth. As if I don't get stared at enough here, Angela pressured me into singing in her little trio - a song I've never heard before with four stanzas that I learned the night before. (In case you're reading this and we've never met, I have very little musical talent and Angela is 1 of about 0 people in the world who could convince me to do such a ridiculous thing.) But I made it thorugh without being laughed at or passing out, so that's good enough for me :)
But for some honesty, life alone in the bush is hard and I've only been here three days. I have no way to stay in touch with home besides my Ugandan phone which costs twice as much in the village as it does in town. Also, since the solar panels at the mission I stay at were struck by lightning, I haven't had any electricity (current update - after promising it would be fixed for over a week, someone came from Soroti to fix it, only for it to not work the next day. So still no electricity, but *hopefully* it will back this week). As if being across the world from you guys wasn't enough distance, having such little communication does no make the distance feel any shorter. But I have mostly adjusted to no power now, so I'll just be happy with anything more than what I have!
I've also come to believe that any person who willingly chooses to be famous has to have something wrong with their brain. I don't find any pleasure in being constantly stared at or having my every move watched - where I'm walking to, how/what I'm eating, what I'm going to take out of my purse (another current edit - I was a little grumpy then, obviously... I promise there are more positive blogs to come :). But I suppose in the end, I did actually sign up for this and I can't deny that there is, in fact, a little something wrong with my brain!
And now for the positive side of honesty - I'm getting back in the African swing of things. Since we don't have power, that means no pump to pump up water for the gravity shower. So I've become quite an expert at bathing out of a bucket with a tiny bit of water.
I still love my Angela just as much as I did on the day that I last left. We make each other LAUGH and she is just so precious to me. I feel a serious bond with her and we've connected in a way that I didn't think was possible for two women who have such completely different lives. I really love that dark-skinned sister of mine :)
My boy Bruno is just as sweet and precoius and hilarious and naughty as ever. our first meeting left much to be desired though - he had just been discharged from the clinic after being treated for malaria. So he still had a terrible fever and was totally exhausted. He sat on my lap for a few minutes, gave me one smile, then told his grandmad that he was going inside to sleep (c.e. - he actually has malaria AGAIN right now and it is really the saddest thing... Please pray for him!)
The next day though, his health was restored and so was my faith that he did actually still love me :) When he's sitting in my lap or standing next to me, I'll usually scratch his back or tickle him. So today as I was reading a book and he was sitting next to me, I saw him reach his hand up to my side. I started to scold him because I thought he was going to tickle my arm pit (which my brother-in-law knows is a good way to lose a hand). Then I realized he was actually going to scratch my back - I think I actually scared him when I made a squeal of happiness :)
He's also been coming to eat lunch with me at the mission adn he has all the table manners you'd expect from a four year old boy with no parents who's growing up in the bush :) He spits out his onions onto the floor because he doesn't like them, he chugs his water and spills it all over himself, he gets food all over his face and lap, and he has very little mastery of the fork. Fortunately, we have some time to work on these things! (c.e. - We've actually given up on the whole fork thing. Almost no adults eat with forks here, so he has resumed eating with his hand :)
And then there's Christine - my precious cook (personal chef as I like to call her, or my bush mama as the people at the mission like to call her). I know that she has really been a huge blessing to every person from our church who's come here and the blessings continue to come. Her biggest accomplishment so far as certainly been making food that I somewhat enjoy. Considering the heat and how different the food is and how weak my stomach is in general, it would even be an accomplishment to just make food that didn't make me nauseous!
More than the food though, she keeps me company for my meals and she shares a room with me to make nights completely unlonely. SHe tells me funny stories about her kids and she sings and prays with me at night. But my favorite thing about her is the way she really cares about children, particularly Bruno. She takes care of him and teaches him in way that I woulnd't know how to because of the language barrier and differences in culture. She tells him to eat his food before he drinks his water so that he'll eat more and she translates all the ridiculous things he says to me.
Today after lunch, she stripped him down naked, laid a blanket on teh floor, and told him to take a nap to which he promptly laid down perfectly still and closed his eyes. As he spend two hours sleeping, she washed his clothes (apparently the only outfit he has now that fits him), let them dry, then sewed up the giant hole in his pants. When he woke up (yes, his little naked, sleepy-eyed was just as precious as you could imagine), she bathed him and scrubbed him down, put lotion on him, and then put him in his freshly cleaned clothes. Bruno put on his proud look (Jaynie - the same one he had when he was wielding the stick in teh church) and as much as I love kissing his sweet little face when it's dirty and posho-covered, I REALLY love kissing his clean, soap-smelling face. And for that, I'm so so thankful for Christine.
Ok, I'm up way past my bed time now considering my early morning departure to Entebbe to pick up my wonderful, Kati Hultman!!! Hopefully you'll hear from me again tomorrow :) Love and miss you guys!
Caitlin
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Quick Update
Sadly, this is still Kati, not Caitlin yet. But I just had a chance to have a good length conversation with Caitlin this afternoon and wanted to share a couple of quick updates:
~ Good report on the teeth!! Caitlin says that she's feels like the teeth she had filled are doing well. She still has a little bit of sensitivity, but she's not fearful of an infection at all. Praise God!
~ Caitlin shared that she's been working at the clinic helping with intake for several expectant mothers. She said that when she did her clinicals in college, she didn't have a lot of opportunity to get her hands on a mama's belly to feel the baby for its position and to recognize hands, feet, spine, etc. She laughed that "there is nooooo shortage of pregnant women in Oditel," so she's getting lots of good experience in the maternity ward. (Sounds to me like her wish to help with a birth while she's there has a good possibility of becoming a reality!)
~ Usually when Cait and I connect, it's midday here, which means it's nighttime in Oditel. If you've ever been out in the country on a starry night, you have a little bit of an idea of how many more stars are visible when there is so little "light pollution." Right now, there isn't any electricity at the mission where Caitlin is staying, so it's very, very dark at night and the sky is full of stars. As we were talking today, Caitlin suddenly said, "Oh! I just saw a shooting star!!" No sooner had "Aww..." come out of my mouth and she said "WAIT! I just saw ANOTHER ONE! Oh my goodness!! What is going on - another, ANOTHER...4!?! 4 Shooting stars?! oh my gosh I saw anoth - oh wait...wait...um, there's a good chance...yep...okay, yeah two of those were lightning bugs...hahaha" Still...two shooting stars right in a row - not a bad night. :)
~Caitlin might try to get on her phone tomorrow to type up the blogs she has prepared and hopefully get them emailed to me. I don't mean to foster false hope, but let's hope and pray that we can hear from Caitlin HERSELF in the next blog!
Shalom,
Guest Blogger/International Secretary Kati
~ Good report on the teeth!! Caitlin says that she's feels like the teeth she had filled are doing well. She still has a little bit of sensitivity, but she's not fearful of an infection at all. Praise God!
~ Caitlin shared that she's been working at the clinic helping with intake for several expectant mothers. She said that when she did her clinicals in college, she didn't have a lot of opportunity to get her hands on a mama's belly to feel the baby for its position and to recognize hands, feet, spine, etc. She laughed that "there is nooooo shortage of pregnant women in Oditel," so she's getting lots of good experience in the maternity ward. (Sounds to me like her wish to help with a birth while she's there has a good possibility of becoming a reality!)
~ Usually when Cait and I connect, it's midday here, which means it's nighttime in Oditel. If you've ever been out in the country on a starry night, you have a little bit of an idea of how many more stars are visible when there is so little "light pollution." Right now, there isn't any electricity at the mission where Caitlin is staying, so it's very, very dark at night and the sky is full of stars. As we were talking today, Caitlin suddenly said, "Oh! I just saw a shooting star!!" No sooner had "Aww..." come out of my mouth and she said "WAIT! I just saw ANOTHER ONE! Oh my goodness!! What is going on - another, ANOTHER...4!?! 4 Shooting stars?! oh my gosh I saw anoth - oh wait...wait...um, there's a good chance...yep...okay, yeah two of those were lightning bugs...hahaha" Still...two shooting stars right in a row - not a bad night. :)
~Caitlin might try to get on her phone tomorrow to type up the blogs she has prepared and hopefully get them emailed to me. I don't mean to foster false hope, but let's hope and pray that we can hear from Caitlin HERSELF in the next blog!
Shalom,
Guest Blogger/International Secretary Kati
Sunday, July 17, 2011
TIA (guest blogger)
Hello, fellow Caitlin Miller enthusiasts! Kati here - guest blogging on Caitlin's behalf (and with her permission). I know you're all hoping to hear from Caitlin (so am I), so I'll try keep this short and sweet, but I asked Caitlin if it was okay for me to post a quick update to let you know a little bit about how she's doing.
It doesn't take living in Uganda for a month (or two) to learn the catch phrase "TIA" (This Is Africa). It's what you say when the running water you weren't even expecting to have actually cuts off in the middle of your shower and you try to decide if it's fortunate or unfortunate that you chose to wash your body before your hair. It's what you say when you go to the grocery store and have the random option for a very tiny grocery cart (and maybe NOT the option of a normal-sized grocery cart). It's what you say when you stop the bus on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and scatter behind trees and in weeds for a little "privacy" for a pit stop. It's what you say when you're in the bush at night with no electricity and you look up at the sky and see more stars than you ever knew existed. Aaaaand...it's what you say when at the last minute, you realize that you're not really going to have any internet access in the village and you end up not really being able to blog and facebook as you'd planned.
If you're anything like me, you got a liiiiiittle spoiled with the amount of internet access Caitlin had while she was staying in Soroti before heading to Oditel. Unfortunately, the internet situation in Oditel is...well, it isn't, actually. So that's why you haven't seen any blog posts or facebook posts from Caitlin since she arrived in the village. Thankfully, she has been able to make a couple of phone calls a day and remain a little connected that way, but, as you can imagine, cell phones in the African bush also present certain challenges. :)
I have been able to talk with Caitlin a few times and am happy to report that she is doing well and getting settled in the village. She has spent her first few days getting re-acclimated to Oditel. After her first full day in the village I asked her what the best part of her day was and she said, "Well, playing with Bruno for sure." Needless to say, it has been precious for her to reconnect with her sweet baby boy. Today Caitlin told me that she'll be making her first visit to the health clinic tomorrow (Monday) and, after a few days of visiting with her friends and getting caught up, she is ready to get started with her work. She also told me today that she has a blog written up (I think hand-written) and we're HOPING she can manage to get it typed up on her phone and emailed to me to post here. I know we'd all love to hear from her in her own words, so pray that she's able to get enough connectivity to make that happen (and pray that it's fast enough that it doesn't cost her like a bazillion dollars of international data coverage on her phone).
While we anxiously await to "hear" from our dear Caitlin, please continue to be in prayer for her overall health and well-being, for her teeth, for effectiveness of her work as she digs in at the clinic, for meaningful relationships to be cultivated and grown, for protection from loneliness, for strength (in body, mind, and spirit), and for her deepening intimacy with Christ for the sake of those around her. Here's hoping that the next blog is from Caitlin and posted within the next couple of days!
Blessings,
~Guest Blogger Kati :)
It doesn't take living in Uganda for a month (or two) to learn the catch phrase "TIA" (This Is Africa). It's what you say when the running water you weren't even expecting to have actually cuts off in the middle of your shower and you try to decide if it's fortunate or unfortunate that you chose to wash your body before your hair. It's what you say when you go to the grocery store and have the random option for a very tiny grocery cart (and maybe NOT the option of a normal-sized grocery cart). It's what you say when you stop the bus on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and scatter behind trees and in weeds for a little "privacy" for a pit stop. It's what you say when you're in the bush at night with no electricity and you look up at the sky and see more stars than you ever knew existed. Aaaaand...it's what you say when at the last minute, you realize that you're not really going to have any internet access in the village and you end up not really being able to blog and facebook as you'd planned.
If you're anything like me, you got a liiiiiittle spoiled with the amount of internet access Caitlin had while she was staying in Soroti before heading to Oditel. Unfortunately, the internet situation in Oditel is...well, it isn't, actually. So that's why you haven't seen any blog posts or facebook posts from Caitlin since she arrived in the village. Thankfully, she has been able to make a couple of phone calls a day and remain a little connected that way, but, as you can imagine, cell phones in the African bush also present certain challenges. :)
I have been able to talk with Caitlin a few times and am happy to report that she is doing well and getting settled in the village. She has spent her first few days getting re-acclimated to Oditel. After her first full day in the village I asked her what the best part of her day was and she said, "Well, playing with Bruno for sure." Needless to say, it has been precious for her to reconnect with her sweet baby boy. Today Caitlin told me that she'll be making her first visit to the health clinic tomorrow (Monday) and, after a few days of visiting with her friends and getting caught up, she is ready to get started with her work. She also told me today that she has a blog written up (I think hand-written) and we're HOPING she can manage to get it typed up on her phone and emailed to me to post here. I know we'd all love to hear from her in her own words, so pray that she's able to get enough connectivity to make that happen (and pray that it's fast enough that it doesn't cost her like a bazillion dollars of international data coverage on her phone).
While we anxiously await to "hear" from our dear Caitlin, please continue to be in prayer for her overall health and well-being, for her teeth, for effectiveness of her work as she digs in at the clinic, for meaningful relationships to be cultivated and grown, for protection from loneliness, for strength (in body, mind, and spirit), and for her deepening intimacy with Christ for the sake of those around her. Here's hoping that the next blog is from Caitlin and posted within the next couple of days!
Blessings,
~Guest Blogger Kati :)
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Biabo jo?
(Disclaimer: This blog is long and completely unedited and my journal had so many arrows moving different paragraphs around that there's a good chance what you are about to read will confuse you at some point :)
Ok so I have an hour and a half before I'm supposed to leave for Oditel. And I'm hoping that because I've had a nap and because I have a deadline, I'll somehow get out all the words I want to say that they'll make sense and it will be a complete thought - but I make no promises.
When I was in Mississippi about a month ago, I saw that my cousin RIna was reading a book called Bittersweet. I read the back cover of it and it sounded like something so perfectly written for the season of life that I've been in for the past few months. I didn't even say anything to her about it (I was afraid she'd just give it to me, like she does with everything because she's wonderful, but I just wanted her to keep her book for herself :) So I went on Amazon and bought it because she's my Rina and I really don't need to know anything about a book besides the fact that she's reading it!
Now you'll have to forgive me because I feel like Shauna Niequist has stolent all my thoughts and put them into a book (she even lived in southwest Michigan for 6 years!) So now I'm forced to come up with something new to say and to fit it all into one blog :)
So I started reading this book on the flight from London to Entebbe - about a woman and this time in her life when so many hard things were happening for herself and for those around her and how she had to learn to find the beauty and the good and to see what she coul learn from each terrible thing. (Please don't let me garner your pity by making you think my life has recently been terrible. Instead, you should know it's been marked by seeing the pain and burdens and struggles of so many people who are closest to me.)
I'm not even half way through Bittersweet and have thought at least 20 times that I wanted to blog about something she's written. But this is what I read today tha tmade me literally drop my Kindle to start writing. In talking about dealing iwth people who are going through a hard time, she said, "Say something, every time, and ask the simplest questions: How are you? What was it like? What can I do?"
This is a lesson I've learned over and over recently, particularly and patiently from my dear friend, Michelle. Sometimes you ask, and thne you ask again to see what the real answer is. SOmetimes you know you should ask again, but you don't because you're not willing to spend the time and energy that you know you should. And sometimes, people really are just good.
So yesterday, I was with a woman named JoAnn (she's a year older than me, lives at Joseph's house, and has befriended me and helped me many times in my few days here). As we walked into Joseph's house, I said "biabo jo?" ("how are you?" in Ateso) to another woman who lives at Joseph's. When we got inside, JoAnn laughed and said, "When we say 'biabo jo?' to someone, we only say it as we pass each other. But when you say it, you always stop and look so concerned and serious."
I'm living in an area of a third world country that has been marked by poverty, starvation, corruption, war, not enough clean water, and not enough real men for a long time. It makes me sad that it really stands out so much that I would want to stop for someone when there are so many people who need someone to stop for them. And I'm quite certain that in the next two months, someone who answers "etamit" ("I'm fine") will not actually be fine. Though I don't think I'll ever be able to finish the conversation in Ateso, I hope there's at least one person who knows I really am serious and concerned, that they really do answer my question, and that I really do stop to listen to them.
We live in a broken world with so much hurt. While it's easy to rejoice with those who rejoice, I'm just now learning to mourn with those who mourn. Some people have unimaginable pain and some people have much less, but I hope that for today, you'll talk and listen a little more honestly.
Time to go see my baby boy :)
Love and miss you all!
Caitlin
Ok so I have an hour and a half before I'm supposed to leave for Oditel. And I'm hoping that because I've had a nap and because I have a deadline, I'll somehow get out all the words I want to say that they'll make sense and it will be a complete thought - but I make no promises.
When I was in Mississippi about a month ago, I saw that my cousin RIna was reading a book called Bittersweet. I read the back cover of it and it sounded like something so perfectly written for the season of life that I've been in for the past few months. I didn't even say anything to her about it (I was afraid she'd just give it to me, like she does with everything because she's wonderful, but I just wanted her to keep her book for herself :) So I went on Amazon and bought it because she's my Rina and I really don't need to know anything about a book besides the fact that she's reading it!
Now you'll have to forgive me because I feel like Shauna Niequist has stolent all my thoughts and put them into a book (she even lived in southwest Michigan for 6 years!) So now I'm forced to come up with something new to say and to fit it all into one blog :)
So I started reading this book on the flight from London to Entebbe - about a woman and this time in her life when so many hard things were happening for herself and for those around her and how she had to learn to find the beauty and the good and to see what she coul learn from each terrible thing. (Please don't let me garner your pity by making you think my life has recently been terrible. Instead, you should know it's been marked by seeing the pain and burdens and struggles of so many people who are closest to me.)
I'm not even half way through Bittersweet and have thought at least 20 times that I wanted to blog about something she's written. But this is what I read today tha tmade me literally drop my Kindle to start writing. In talking about dealing iwth people who are going through a hard time, she said, "Say something, every time, and ask the simplest questions: How are you? What was it like? What can I do?"
This is a lesson I've learned over and over recently, particularly and patiently from my dear friend, Michelle. Sometimes you ask, and thne you ask again to see what the real answer is. SOmetimes you know you should ask again, but you don't because you're not willing to spend the time and energy that you know you should. And sometimes, people really are just good.
So yesterday, I was with a woman named JoAnn (she's a year older than me, lives at Joseph's house, and has befriended me and helped me many times in my few days here). As we walked into Joseph's house, I said "biabo jo?" ("how are you?" in Ateso) to another woman who lives at Joseph's. When we got inside, JoAnn laughed and said, "When we say 'biabo jo?' to someone, we only say it as we pass each other. But when you say it, you always stop and look so concerned and serious."
I'm living in an area of a third world country that has been marked by poverty, starvation, corruption, war, not enough clean water, and not enough real men for a long time. It makes me sad that it really stands out so much that I would want to stop for someone when there are so many people who need someone to stop for them. And I'm quite certain that in the next two months, someone who answers "etamit" ("I'm fine") will not actually be fine. Though I don't think I'll ever be able to finish the conversation in Ateso, I hope there's at least one person who knows I really am serious and concerned, that they really do answer my question, and that I really do stop to listen to them.
We live in a broken world with so much hurt. While it's easy to rejoice with those who rejoice, I'm just now learning to mourn with those who mourn. Some people have unimaginable pain and some people have much less, but I hope that for today, you'll talk and listen a little more honestly.
Time to go see my baby boy :)
Love and miss you all!
Caitlin
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Still in Soroti
Hey guys! Just thought I'd do a quick blog before I head out to the village today... Nothing exciting to say but I feel like I should take advantage of the internet that I have while I still have it :)
Yesterday, I went to town with Anne to go to a prayer meeting/time of fellowship. Anne spoke for part of it and we sang and prayed, it was awesome :) I even knew two of the songs! I also napped more - I've definitely been more jet lagged on this trip than on my last two trips. Then I went on a walk with Joseph's three boys (Elotu Joseph is the guy in charge of all of the carepoints in Uganda and it's his house that I've been staying at since Monday).
Joseph's four-year-old boy, Zoe, is one of the funniest little boys I've ever met. He laughs at everything and says the strangest things. To him, everything is "like a pig." In the past 24 hours I've heard him say that someone fainted like a pig, faked like a pig, feared like a pig, and when I yawned this morning, he told me that I blew like a pig. He'll also come and sit next to me in the chair and just squeeze my arm over and over and I can sometimes trick him into tickling it for me... Even as I went to post this, he came and laid down next to me and fell asleep holding my arm :)
In the 5 minutes that I've spent writing this, my plans have now changed... I won't be leaving for the village until tomorrow morning now :( But I've waited a year, so I guess I can wait one more day to see my little man :)
Please continue to pray for my teeth, and also for a strong mind and stomach - my teeth were hurting yesterday, but are feeling better today, and after eating about five meals with eggs, I've pretty much exhausted my tolerance for them :/ I know that there are many eggs to come in the next eight weeks, so I'm hoping to be able to tolerate them more than just gagging them down :)
Love and miss you all, thanks for your prayers and support!
Yesterday, I went to town with Anne to go to a prayer meeting/time of fellowship. Anne spoke for part of it and we sang and prayed, it was awesome :) I even knew two of the songs! I also napped more - I've definitely been more jet lagged on this trip than on my last two trips. Then I went on a walk with Joseph's three boys (Elotu Joseph is the guy in charge of all of the carepoints in Uganda and it's his house that I've been staying at since Monday).
Joseph's four-year-old boy, Zoe, is one of the funniest little boys I've ever met. He laughs at everything and says the strangest things. To him, everything is "like a pig." In the past 24 hours I've heard him say that someone fainted like a pig, faked like a pig, feared like a pig, and when I yawned this morning, he told me that I blew like a pig. He'll also come and sit next to me in the chair and just squeeze my arm over and over and I can sometimes trick him into tickling it for me... Even as I went to post this, he came and laid down next to me and fell asleep holding my arm :)
In the 5 minutes that I've spent writing this, my plans have now changed... I won't be leaving for the village until tomorrow morning now :( But I've waited a year, so I guess I can wait one more day to see my little man :)
Please continue to pray for my teeth, and also for a strong mind and stomach - my teeth were hurting yesterday, but are feeling better today, and after eating about five meals with eggs, I've pretty much exhausted my tolerance for them :/ I know that there are many eggs to come in the next eight weeks, so I'm hoping to be able to tolerate them more than just gagging them down :)
Love and miss you all, thanks for your prayers and support!
Monday, July 11, 2011
So I've finally arrived in Uganda and I'm now in Soroti - with the Teso people that I love so much. I think I'll be here for maybe two more days before I get to the village, which will be a good time of rest because I am exhausted! I'm significantly more tired this time than I was my last two trips from a lot of travel and lay overs and not enough sleep.
I arrived in London about 9 am their time with Katy (a friend who I was able to fly over with but who will stay in the capital city/SW area of Uganda while I'm in the NE area). We had a 12-hour layover and she had mentioned going out into the city to do some sight-seeing. Katy is a much more adventurous person than I am and the mention of doing this might have given me a mini-inner panic attack even though I held it together on the outside - "Oh sure, I hadn't even thought about doing that. That would be fun!"
So before we got off the plane into the London airport, I made one last remark hoping she would have changed her mind about going out into the city - "I really didn't get any sleep on that flight... Maybe we should just stay in the airport and sleep." My remark was mostly and rightly ignored :)
Then it came time for the transition, figuring things out, waiting - where should we go? what should we do? how much money will we need? and how will we get there? As we figured out answers, with each new question I would think "Well we're not gonna be able to figure this out. We should probably just go back to the terminal now." Even as we sat on the Underground on our way into London with everything figured out, I still wanted to turn around and go back to the safety and familiarity of the airport.
In the end, we had a good time - we saw Big Ben, the eye of London, Trafalgar Square, and Buckingham Palace, we ate jacket potatoes, saw people wearing the strangest things (including a woman who couldn't have been over 30 who had dyed her shoulder length hair completely gray), and saw a group of guys doing parkour - all very interesting :)
I'd like to think that if it hadn't been 4 am Michigan time and if I'd slept a little more on the flight and if I'd had a bigger breakfast, I wouldn't have been quite so neurotic about the whole process.
But really, the unknown is never easy. I never like to be stretched or to wait and slowly figure things out. Fortunately, I know I'm not alone in this - some of my closest friends are in seasons of not knowing and waiting for the unknown and they're not crazy about it either (though to their credit, they've been in a much longer season of waiting than just a few hours :)But in the end, it is good and it is worth it. (You're gonna have to forgive me - when I started this blog, I really had much bigger plans and hoped for a much more thought out ending, but my brain is feeling squishy and I'm tired of it sitting on my screen while I try to think of something more poignant to say... So you'll just have to think up your own wise ending :)
As for my time in Uganda - it's been great! I arrived at around 4 pm to Soroti. After about 6 hours of driving on terrible Ugadan roads, we pulled into Joseph's driveway and I was soo relieved. Then someone came to the gate and talked to the driver and we pulled back out! We drove over to the TCON house (the house where our big teams stay when they come here) and I thought Joseph was going to make me stay there by myself! Then I saw a big bus in the yard and found out there was a team of mzungus here from Atlanta coming to see their carepoint for the first time :) So I got to spend last night and this morning talking to and laughing with them and listening to them talk about their experiences from their first trip, which were all so unsurprisingly similar to our first time :) But it was so exciting to see their passion and I can't wait to see what they are going to do in Adachar :) Ok I'm finally going to wrap this up now and you guys can pray that my next blog is a little more concise and less long-winded :)
Love and miss you all!!
Caitlin
I arrived in London about 9 am their time with Katy (a friend who I was able to fly over with but who will stay in the capital city/SW area of Uganda while I'm in the NE area). We had a 12-hour layover and she had mentioned going out into the city to do some sight-seeing. Katy is a much more adventurous person than I am and the mention of doing this might have given me a mini-inner panic attack even though I held it together on the outside - "Oh sure, I hadn't even thought about doing that. That would be fun!"
So before we got off the plane into the London airport, I made one last remark hoping she would have changed her mind about going out into the city - "I really didn't get any sleep on that flight... Maybe we should just stay in the airport and sleep." My remark was mostly and rightly ignored :)
Then it came time for the transition, figuring things out, waiting - where should we go? what should we do? how much money will we need? and how will we get there? As we figured out answers, with each new question I would think "Well we're not gonna be able to figure this out. We should probably just go back to the terminal now." Even as we sat on the Underground on our way into London with everything figured out, I still wanted to turn around and go back to the safety and familiarity of the airport.
In the end, we had a good time - we saw Big Ben, the eye of London, Trafalgar Square, and Buckingham Palace, we ate jacket potatoes, saw people wearing the strangest things (including a woman who couldn't have been over 30 who had dyed her shoulder length hair completely gray), and saw a group of guys doing parkour - all very interesting :)
I'd like to think that if it hadn't been 4 am Michigan time and if I'd slept a little more on the flight and if I'd had a bigger breakfast, I wouldn't have been quite so neurotic about the whole process.
But really, the unknown is never easy. I never like to be stretched or to wait and slowly figure things out. Fortunately, I know I'm not alone in this - some of my closest friends are in seasons of not knowing and waiting for the unknown and they're not crazy about it either (though to their credit, they've been in a much longer season of waiting than just a few hours :)But in the end, it is good and it is worth it. (You're gonna have to forgive me - when I started this blog, I really had much bigger plans and hoped for a much more thought out ending, but my brain is feeling squishy and I'm tired of it sitting on my screen while I try to think of something more poignant to say... So you'll just have to think up your own wise ending :)
As for my time in Uganda - it's been great! I arrived at around 4 pm to Soroti. After about 6 hours of driving on terrible Ugadan roads, we pulled into Joseph's driveway and I was soo relieved. Then someone came to the gate and talked to the driver and we pulled back out! We drove over to the TCON house (the house where our big teams stay when they come here) and I thought Joseph was going to make me stay there by myself! Then I saw a big bus in the yard and found out there was a team of mzungus here from Atlanta coming to see their carepoint for the first time :) So I got to spend last night and this morning talking to and laughing with them and listening to them talk about their experiences from their first trip, which were all so unsurprisingly similar to our first time :) But it was so exciting to see their passion and I can't wait to see what they are going to do in Adachar :) Ok I'm finally going to wrap this up now and you guys can pray that my next blog is a little more concise and less long-winded :)
Love and miss you all!!
Caitlin
Monday, July 4, 2011
Here I go again :)
Well I guess I've procrastinated writing a new blog post long enough now. To be fair, I still have four days left before I leave and getting something written four days early in high school would have been a miracle :)
I leave this Friday to go back to our precious village of Oditel for two months. While I'm there, my plans are to work in a nursing clinic in the village, re-weigh the orphans (to hopefully see that less of them are underweight now that so many of you are sponsoring them!), tutor in the schools, and of course, kiss Bruno's face off :)
While I'm gone, I'd be so blessed if you would pray for me...
-that I would be able to share the good news of Jesus with everyone I meet
-that I would be a blessing to the villagers not only spiritually but physically, emotionally, and mentally
-for peace and comfort for my family and friends that I'm leaving at home, especially my precious babies and their mommies
-for protection from satan and his schemes and attacks
-for my teeth while I'm there - there's a chance I'll need root canals on a few of my teeth and I'd rather not have any abscesses or tooth aches or dental work while I'm there :)
Thank you so much for your interest and investments in my trip. I'm so blessed by the support I've been given, so sad to leave my loved ones here, and so excited to see my loved ones there. I'll try to update as often as I can while I'm there. Please please comment and email me as often as you please - I will be so glad to hear from you :) - caitlinhmiller@yahoo.com. Love you guys and I'll see you all soon!
Caitlin
ps - If you'd like to donate to my trip, I'll gladly accept your gift :) You can either send a check to the River with "Uganda - CM" in the memo line or donate to the pay pal account on my blog. But be warned, I may be so grateful that I'll kiss your face off just like Bruno's :)
I leave this Friday to go back to our precious village of Oditel for two months. While I'm there, my plans are to work in a nursing clinic in the village, re-weigh the orphans (to hopefully see that less of them are underweight now that so many of you are sponsoring them!), tutor in the schools, and of course, kiss Bruno's face off :)
While I'm gone, I'd be so blessed if you would pray for me...
-that I would be able to share the good news of Jesus with everyone I meet
-that I would be a blessing to the villagers not only spiritually but physically, emotionally, and mentally
-for peace and comfort for my family and friends that I'm leaving at home, especially my precious babies and their mommies
-for protection from satan and his schemes and attacks
-for my teeth while I'm there - there's a chance I'll need root canals on a few of my teeth and I'd rather not have any abscesses or tooth aches or dental work while I'm there :)
Thank you so much for your interest and investments in my trip. I'm so blessed by the support I've been given, so sad to leave my loved ones here, and so excited to see my loved ones there. I'll try to update as often as I can while I'm there. Please please comment and email me as often as you please - I will be so glad to hear from you :) - caitlinhmiller@yahoo.com. Love you guys and I'll see you all soon!
Caitlin
ps - If you'd like to donate to my trip, I'll gladly accept your gift :) You can either send a check to the River with "Uganda - CM" in the memo line or donate to the pay pal account on my blog. But be warned, I may be so grateful that I'll kiss your face off just like Bruno's :)
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