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
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
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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