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More Photos

Filed in Uganda, July 26, 2010, 4:51 pm

There are lots of photos from the trip here.

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Back on American soil

Filed in Uganda, July 16, 2010, 3:44 pm

Hello all! I am back in SC. I had missed all of my connecting flights, including the ones that were rescheduled. I guess the plane from Amsterdam to Entebbe hit a bird, so they had to turn around. We had to wait for that flight to come in. We ended up leaving Uganda around 1am, 5 hours after we were suppose to. We were rescheduled all the through to the States. My flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta was delayed 2 hours. One reason is because Pres. Jimmy Carter was on my flight. He arrived late,  but made up for it by shaking almost everyone’s hands on the plane. I got a great pic of the back of his head as well as a video. Since I left Amsterdam late, I missed my connecting fight to Charleston. Luckly it was only a 40 minute flight. I finally got inot CHS at 8. I had to bum a phone call from a guy in Atlanta to call Tommy to  pick me up. Luckly he got my message.

I am adjusting ok to the time change. I picked up a bit of a soar throat yesterday. I spent 6 weeks in Africa and never felt this bad. Oh well. At least I’m home and safe.

About the bombing in Kampala. I had no clue it happended till the next morning. The news isn’t that great there. It happened at 10pm (3pm EST). I was about 15ish minutes from one of the site, but never heard a thing. When we all were finding out info, we learned more from calling our family back home than watching the Ugandan news. I picked up some papers on Tuesday, which are very interesting. Americans are very sheltered with their media than many other places. They printed pics of everything, no sensoring. My group and I stayed low that day. We went to a school to do our program in the morning, but didn’t do anything after that. We ended up going past the restuarant the next morning. One couldn’t tell anything happened. It’s all a shame. I hope to post more pics later on. Right now Tommy and I are hitting the pool.  :)

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Lucille and Party are Safe

Filed in Uganda, July 12, 2010, 1:48 am

Norm here.

I just got a call from dad, that Lucille had called Tommy and all are safe. We were really worried that they were with the mission group from Pennsylvania in the restaurant that was targeted by the attack. Praise the Lord that all are safe and continue to pray for safe travel throughout the rest of their journey.

I don’t have any more details at this time but will keep you updated as things progress.

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two must check out blog sites

Filed in Uganda, July 11, 2010, 4:12 pm

Pastor Jake’s blog. We didn’t want to tell him our sites, but he told us he would figure them out. He figured mine…right after Courtney told him. Scroll down to see what we’ve done. He also has a link to my blog.

ugandaconnection.wordpress.com

Also check out Courtney’s blog.

courtneysafricanadventure.blogspot.com

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Is it over already?

Filed in Uganda, , 11:49 am

When leaving Tommy in the Charleston airport and boarding my first flight to Uganda, I thought that 6 weeks would feel like eternity. As I took my first car ride in this new place, I thought to myself  “Self, what have you gotten yourself into?!?!” After taking my first, cold bucket shower and being introduced to a squat outdoor toilet, I knew my time here was going to be an adventure. At that point I didn’t know whether it would be good or bad, but an adventure it was. I absolutely can’t believe that in 2 days time, I will be boarding to fly home. Did it feel like eternity? Nope. Am I regretful for coming? Absolutely not. I cannot begin to recount the laughs, friends, and life inspiring moments I have obtained. Now, my time here wasn’t as flowery as I painted above. I also dealt with tears, heartache, and much frustration.

The last time I was able to write, it was a little more the 2 weeks ago. In short, I had the thrill of my life while rafting the Nile. I also conquered craft stalls and customs once again while traveling to and from Kenya. I learned much much more about African life while working in Busia and village life became no sweat to me while ministering to our last schools in the Kayunga district.

I have so many stories and many pictures to accompany them. Throughout all of my travels around Uganda, I have been reminded time and time again of how great God is. He is doing amazing work with the people here. Unfortunetly, the devil has had his play too. So if you ask me how life is here, I’d say that spiritually it is the same as the US. Everyone has struggles, everyone has their blessings. The two countries just differ in what they struggle with and which blessings they receive.  I am greatly looking forward to sharing my time here with everyone who will listen. When I get back to the US, please still continue reading my blog. I will be writing more post on my stories, pictures, and thoughts. I haven’t had much time to do much blogging while here and expect to have more when at home. I do not think for one moment that I was sent on this trip for God to use me to witness to only the people of Uganda. I know God is also using me to speak to my home country about my experiences. I pray that he uses me to continue his work with all the stories I share with all of you and all the others who didn’t get the pleasure of following me on this blog. If all the plans in my head work out (I still have to ask), I hope to talk with Grace’s congregation(SC) on Sunday, July 25. I also plan to talk to Bethany’s congregation (OH) on Sunday, August 1. Please pray for my safe journey this Tuesday (9pm Uganda time) and arrival Wednesday (3:30 EST). Praise God from whom all blessing flow!

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Change of plans

Filed in Uganda, June 27, 2010, 2:18 pm

Like everything here in Uganda, plans always change. We are now not going to the west. There was a little trouble with the natives planning our schedule. We were suppose to be traveling today, but will probably move tomorrow instead. So things are up in the air. Tentatively, we are going to visit schools that are close to Kampala, then go white water rafting in Jinja, and finish the week with traveling to Kenya. Courtney is really excited to have us visit the people and places she stayed at in Kenya. Next week we will make a slow trip back to Kampala before our flight home. We will stay in two different villages between Kenya and Kampala.

I know I just made a post saying that I haven’t gotten sick, but I have been having a bit of a sore throat. I pray it doesn’t turn into a cough or worse. I think I spoke too soon!

I know you all are wanting more pictures, but it is hard to load them up because I am usually at a internet cafe. You can never trust a cafe to be free of viruses. I may not be able to put up any more pics until I return to the states. I will try though.

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Lira, Masindi, and safari at Murchison Falls

Filed in Uganda, June 25, 2010, 3:21 pm
Greetings my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ! I am doing great and still adjusting well to African culture. It has been 2 weeks that I was able to post anything. Sorry to those whom I have kept waiting. I have been traveling to Lira where my team and I spent 1 week. Lira was ok. We spent time with Austrailians who also happen to be in Lira, but working through a different program. They dealt with trama from the tribal wars a few years back. The girls and I were able to do our program at 3 different school all of which are not Lutheran schools. One of them was Muslum funded which asked us to return and please send Bibles. Most of the staff and children were Christian though. Anyway, we were able to see each school twice. This was great because the second day the kids are so much more energetic and looking forward to our return. We normally only see the school once, so this was a blessing. The girls and I learned much about African culture while traveling and being in Lira. It has made us stronger missionaries, but to say the least, we learned from our mistakes. We then traveled to Masindi. The three of us agreed that Masindi was our favorite place to visit so far. The town was decent and the school were the best we encountered. Our translater Dennis was wonderful as well, especially when we had to change our plans because we planned a trip to a safari which was very close to Masindi. As always, I wish to go into great detail about everything I have expreienced, but I don’t have the time. Lord willing, you will hear all of the small stories when I return. Let me talk a little more about my time at the safari. Wow, wow, wow. If you ever happen to be in Africa, don’t pass up a safari. We saw 2 lions, tons of garaffi, buffalo, beautiful birds, elephants, hippos, and the lists goes on. We did not get to see all of the big 5, but well worth it. We spent the moring on a game ride and the afternoon/evening on a boat ride. All guided of course. I think my favorite was the boat ride where we saw many animals come to get water. I also really enjoyed the walk by Murchison Falls. It is not by any means the same size of Niagra Falls, but still breath taking. Some small highlights before I go: traveling to Lira, I was in the back of a small pick up truck with 2 women, 5 men, lugage, a bag of coal, and 6 goats. We got stuck in the mud 5 times, ran out of gas, and broke down. We finally got to our final destination on bota’s (motorcycles). This is all too typical of African transport. I haven’t gotten sick. I been to the market where I think I have mastered bartering. Courtney, Brenda and I have become as close as sisters and take care of each other really well. We know what the other needs sometimes before we know it ourselves. I received a pet name from natives in Masindi because they treated us like family (most Africans do). Akiki is my pet name which means one who brings people together.  And the last highlight is that I scared a little native boy because he was following us while walking to Pastor Jake’s house in Kampala. Many little kids follow us every where because we are white. This one time I was a little frustrated (I think becuase I was hungry and just plain tired be being called Mzungu, white person), so I decided to get rid of him and said BOO really loud. I think he almost peed his pants and ran off. The neighbor kids and adults laughed at him. Where will I be traveling to next you ask? We are traveling to the west on Sunday where we will spend 3 days, 4 nights working with children as well as young girls. We have not had the opportunity to work in a small group with youth, so we are looking forward to it. Then we will travel back to Kampala on the 1st and we are not sure where we will go after that. This place which has yet to be determined will be our last village to visit in Uganda. Can you believe that?  The girls and I plan to travel to Kenya the last few days we are in Africa to do our program for the last time and to just plain see Kenya since we are so close. Courtney has friends that live there, so we will be well taken care of. I hope to be able to get back to write yet another blog in one week when we return from the west. Keep praying for the people here in Uganda and all the wonderful children we encounter through our program.

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Lucille Added Photos

Filed in Uganda, June 11, 2010, 3:54 pm

Norm here doing a little house keeping. Lucille added some photos to the photo gallery and I just had to …bleep bloop (technical talk)… so check the pictures page (see link above).

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Iganga

Filed in Uganda, , 9:11 am

So we have completed our first trip. It was a great start being in Iganga. We were hosted by a great family. The father was named Noah who just so happened to be the president of the Lutheran Church Mission Uganda LCMU. He is a fabulous man and has such a wonderful family. David is one of his sons that was our translater in the villages. He was great with talking to him about the differences and explainations of the African culture vs the American. We all will miss him greatly in this aspect. Anyway, I have so many stories about life here in Iganga and it’s surrounding villages. We visited either Lutheran schools or churches. Usually the church had a school. Whenever Africans have visitors, they really do a wonderful job at welcoming them. Especially if you are white, which means to them that you have power aka money. Here is an example story of what it was like to enter into a village. In one of the villages, they bambared the car. We barely had space to get out. They came singing and dancing. A side note, they have a very interesting way to dance here, I’ll have to show you when I get back because I have been taught. It is always funny to watch a white person dance because we can’t. Anyway, I was very overwhelmed at the loud singing and dancing which lasted a good 5 minutes. They also love to shake your hand. Hand sanitizer comes in handy. Even the children, but with them we resort to high fives becuase there are so many of them. Eventually we went into their church which was an oversize hutt made of mud. We sat in front and they read a passage and had long speaches about God being so good to them to have bought us to their village. Then they introduce everyone, including the head mistresses and so forth. It might be followed by another speach from one of them and then it was our turn to be introduced. Finally, it was time for our VBS program, usually 45 to one hour after we arrived. This left us with only 15ish minutes. We did a puppet show that the kids loved to see. We talked about God’s love and how to show it. Mostly our message was that God loves them, no matter what. Some people even thought they are Christians, teach that if you are bad God will not love you. Anyway, it was fun making things up on the spot during the show. Brenda and I did a fine job. Then we sang Jesus Loves Me but with a faster tempo. The don’t sing very many slow songs which is unfortunate because most of the songs we sing in the US are slow songs. Then we ask them to sing us a song which usually they dance with it too. It is quite a show that I have filmed. After that, we usually say our goodbyes. But at the particular place I have been describing, they gave us sodas and crackers. This was a bit awkward because we had to eat it in front of all the village people, knowing that they don’t get much food, especially nice food like we were eating. Christine explained that if we refused, it would be a sign of distrspect. If we offered it to the kids, we would be known as the white people who bring them food or candy, not that we bring the gospel. So we resorted to quickly eating all of it to make it better. It was one of the worst feeling I have felt here. There are so many more stories like this that I can tell, but I don’t have time to or space for that matter. Most of it is written down in my journal which I will share upon my return. Not all stories are unhappy. For example, we got our van stuck in the mud on our way back from a village. I got most of it on video. It was amazing to see how may people came from all over to help. In 10ish minutes we were on our way. Being in Iganga was a great first trip. We hope to see David and Noah again, but doubtful. Tomorrow we are off to Lira where we will see a wedding and many more villages. This time we will have more time and multiple contact with the same children which is beneficial for everyone in the long run. We already added to our program and can’t wait to get started. Thank you to all of you who have commented and have read this blog. Stay tuned for more. Oh and I appologize for my grammer and not great writing. I don’t have much time to write. Again, I don’t know when or if I will be able to post picture. One would get a virus if used the cafe computers. I’m working on it.

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Also

Filed in Uganda, June 7, 2010, 10:18 am

Thanks for all who have commented. I love seeing them and they give me great encouragement. Yes, even Chad who tells stories about my car. It all brings me comfort.   :)

p.s.  I miss you Tommy!