1st wave is almost over :(

There are many things in this world that I am thankful for.  One of the most important things I am thankful for is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Where ever I may go in the world, I can always find a place to go to church.  It’s a piece of home that I will never leave behind when I go to a new place.  The language may be different, I may not know anyone, each and every meeting may go over time, but it is the same everlasting gospel that I have grown to love and appreciate.  It is a constant that I am thankful for in my ever-changing life.

Last week was Stake Conference for the Jinja branch.  We met in a school which was a little ways away from the church in Jinja.  There were SO many people there!  And the team from Mbale came; because they are part of the stake (Mbale is about 3 or so hours away from Jinja).  It’s crazy how spread out a stake is here.  I’m definitely not used to it, especially after living in Utah almost my entire life.  In Southern Utah, we have two stakes in just the fields area.  In Provo, we have two stakes just in the Wyview area! Ha there were MANY many stakes, and MANY many wards.  It has been different going to church and seeing so few in numbers there.  And at stake conference there were SO many missionaries!!  It was great!  Next April, I can start my papers.  Next July, I can turn them in. :) I really want to go on a mission. :)

Murchison Falls

Today there were 3 baptisms that happened after church!  We had over 30 investigators at church today too.  It was crazy awesome!  Melissa and Lane both said that they never got that many investigators to church in their entire mission! haha :)

Church here is great.  I love it. :)

Safari Sunset

So they eye and dental camp are coming along just great!!  Wednesday, McCall and I started our day at 8am and ended at 4pm.  We were doing eye and dental stuff ALL day!  It was good!  We talked to a lot of people and figured a lot of stuff out.  We are going to partner with Mehta Hospital with their Health Camp that they are organizing for August 6^th-August 17^th!  An 11 day campaign!!  We are really hoping we can join them!  How awesome would that be??? :) And we are going to get an eye surgeon from Jinja to come to the Health camp and perform surgeries.  It is going to be grand.  I cannot wait! :)

Elephants! :)

AND (almost the best news on this blog post) Julia told me yesterday that the rotary club that her mom is in are donating (get ready for this!!) 300 prescription glasses and 500 reading glasses!!  800 glasses TOTAL!!!!!!!!!! It completely blew my mind!  I am so happy!  The only thing is getting them here now.  The dang airlines are being dumb and are charging a 3^rd bag $150 instead of $60.  Our 2^nd bags are supposed to be free and so that would make the 3^rd bag $60, but apparently they changed it just recently.  We are going to fight for it though.  But 800 glasses! :D I can’t believe it. :) I am so excited and happy!  And Deseret International Foundation is going to be donating around 400 glasses!! :) :)  Woot!!  Those will get to us in July.  The 800 glasses will get to us this week on Thursday! :)

HUGE Ants :)

We also are going to try and partner with Mehta Hospital with their Health camp that they are organizing.

PUMBA!! ;)

This past Tuesday was Musana’s Grand Opening!  You can read ALL about it on Melissa’s blog: http://melissasblisses.blogspot.com/ She is like the one who started it in 2009 and so she wrote all about it since she is here again this year working with making Musana a LOT bigger and making them international (a business in the US!) :)

Many Many Antelope

After the opening, Moses, Julia, and I went over to Sam (the epileptic boy who loves to sing) and gave him some musical instruments Moses had made for him.  He made two tambourines out of wire and bottle caps, and then a maraca as well out of a can.  It was cool to see Sam’s face brighten so much after he received those gifts!  He loved them!! :) He started singing right away once he got them.  I loved it.

Giraffes! They were so close I could almost touch them!

That Tuesday night, we went to the Rainforest Lodge and had a smore’s making party because Abby and Camille left us Wednesday. :(  The party was a blast. :) Melissa brought marshmallows from America and we got some chocolate from the supermarket and the closest thing we could to graham crackers (Nice cookies).  It was pretty darn good :) Not exactly a normal smore, but it came close. :)

The ants go marching one by one hurrah, hurrah! ;)

The lodge was gorgeous!  It was in the middle of Mabira forest and all you could here was the sounds of the rainforest.  SO cool it was! :) I loved it.

I'm doing the Titanic pose...

And since we worked so hard Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with Eye and Dental Camp stuff and the Musana Grand Opening, we treated ourselves to a 3 day safari at Murchison Falls! :)

Crocodile! :)

We headed out Thursday and drove all day until we reached Murchison Falls National Park.  We entered the park and not even 5 minutes later, we saw baboons! :)  After driving for a long bit, we finally reached the river where we were to ferry across.  The ferry wasn’t supposed to leave until 6 (it was 5 when we got there) so a few of us decided to explore!  There were some warthogs that we all took pictures by.  Pumba (off of Lion King) is definitely not a correct picture of what a real warthog looks like.  These ones were SUPER ugly.  And while Brianne and Kerri were trying to take their picture by the warthog, it growled at them and charged them!!  It was the funniest thing ever :)

Super pretty bird :)

Our next adventure consisted of walking off the road and through the bushes.  We turned after about 15 feet to go back to the road, but it was still fun :) I got some cool pictures of these HUGE ants who were marching into the forest.

Monkeys! :)

We left the road again for another adventure, crossed a huge lake (not really a lake, just a huge muddy puddle), and entered into an opening where there was a GREAT view of the river and the land across the river. :) While we were posing and taking fun pictures at this point, we heard the ferry….it left us.  We ran down the hill and watched as they crossed the river without us.  It was only 5:55 too!  Not even 6, and they said 6 was the EARLIEST time they would leave.  Welcome to Afican time, eh? ha.  But it just made our adventure that much more awesome.

Giraffes! :)

Our tour guide had waited for us, so we weren’t completely left behind.  Once the ferry came back, we crossed, and when we got to the other shore, we saw hippos just chilling in the water!! :) And then some more baboons! :)  Our bus had already left us and headed to the campsite where we were to be staying, so we walked up the road to camp.  It was quite the hike.  But it was fun.  Twas better than riding in that dang rickety and noisy bus! :)

Buffalo and his duck

That night, I slept great.  I was so tired and I didn’t even care about all the bugs that were flying around in our room.  During the night, apparently a group of hippos walked through our camp and started munching on the grass outside some of the girls rooms.  They woke up from it’s munching, it was so close!

Safari Sunrise

We woke up and headed on our safari at 6:45am. :) The first thing we saw were giraffes!!  Then elephants!!  We saw a lot of animals.  Giraffes, elephants, antelopes, warthogs, wildabeasts, buffalo, monkeys, baboons, birds, aannnnnnnd…a LION! :) We didn’t get a great view of the lion because he had just had an adventure himself and was limping back into the bushes as we drove by and saw him. :( But we still saw him! I got a somewhat decent picture of his behind as he walked into the bushes…hopefully you can see it. :)

SIMBA! :)

After the land safari, we headed back to the river and got on the boat and headed upriver towards Murchison Falls.  We saw hippos, crocodiles, elephants, more birds, and more monkeys! :) And holy cow.  Murchison Falls was GORGEOUS.  SOOO pretty!  I couldn’t believe it!  It was so great!  It was amazing.  I wish we could have gone closer to the falls, but we couldn’t.  At least some of our cameras had good zooms. :)

Baboon! :)

After the boat ride, we headed to our next place that we would stay the night.  It was a cute little place with legit African huts!  It was so cool :) And the beds were SO comfy!  I slept so well that night.  And I actually used the big fluffy blanket that they provided!  I haven’t used a blanket since I left the states!  It was crazy, but felt so nice! :)

Hippos!

That night we went into town and watched some cultural dances that some people put on for us.  It was so cool to watch and so much fun because they came and grabbed us to dance with them.  It was a blast.  We all got up and started shakin’ our booties with them.  It was the funnest thing ever!  They put a grass skirt around me and had me start dancing with them.  All the kids that were watching started screaming and laughing whenever a Mzungu would get up and start dancing.  It was the greatest.

Cultural Dancing

:)

The first wave leaves this next week.  I can’t believe that 6 weeks have already gone by.  It definitely seems like it shouldn’t be June 11 already!  A day seems like a week, but a week seems like a day.  It’s crazy.

Becca & Whit jammin on the drums!

Well that’s all for now!  We’re just working on getting the partnership with Mehta set up and we are going to start constructing equipment for the children with disabilities this week! :) Woot! :)

Mama Hippo and her baby!

Ta ta for now!

I'm touching both the USA and Uganda! I'm only a hug away. ;)

Worth it Moments :) and some pictures

Getting pictures with the kids is my favorite thing :)

Rafting the Nile - it was Beautiful!

Playing soccer with the kids. They love playing with me even though I totally school them ;)

My legs after playing soccer

I am learning to appreciate so much more than just the big regular things. (Showers, toilets, chocolate, mops, brooms, thick mattresses, air conditioning, paved roads, trash men that take the trash out of sight, police men that actually help when they see trouble...the list can go on and on!

At Seya, an orphan girl grabbed my hand and told me I was her Mama.

Seeing girls change from being afraid of being a girl to proud of being a girl.

While walking with the orphans of Seya, I started singing the song Eve and Rosette taught me and they started singing with me and clapping and we had a grand ol' time. :)

Seeing the smiles on children's faces as I wave to them.

Riding to Seya - the scenery is absolutely lovely.  Uganda really is the Pearl of Africa.

I have met amazing women who are widowed and they are so strong in keeping their family going and raising their kids.  They are the best.

I am constantly dirty, but no one cares because they are just as dirty!  We don't have to worry about what we look like here. :)

My team is awesome - we have the best conversations... ;)

Knowing that I am making a difference, even though sometimes I can't see the immediate effects of my work.

The longer I stay, the more I fall in love

Hey all!

I’m not sick anymore!  Wahoo!!  I went to the local Muslim health clinic and got a stool test last week, and I am one of the few out of this household who does not have a parasite in them at the moment!! :) It’s a great feeling.

And not being sick anymore is great.  I can actually leave this death trap of sickness and go places around town instead of lying in bed all day.  Like on Saturday, I got out of here by 9am and went to Seya.  There is an orphanage there and they have a school, but all it is a pavilion with no walls or even a cement floor.  It’s a dirt floor and for their classroom separations they have a reed sheet type thing.  It’s sad.  So we are helping them build an actual school.  We are providing the cement and some volunteer labor work, and the community is providing bricks and the other stuff and also labor and food.  It’s way awesome of them to help out so much!

Our shower!

 So Saturday, I went for the day to start helping with construction.  We started out with only 4 HELP volunteers there, but it soon increased to 11 volunteers.  However a couple hours of digging and hoeing trenches, 10 volunteers wanted to go back home.  I wanted to stay.  I had no desire to go back to that death trap!  Luckily 3 more volunteers showed up right at that time, so I was able to stay with them.  I hoed the dirt.  I shoveled the dirt.  I carried rocks on my head from the quarry on the mountain side to the construction site.  I played soccer with the kids for one of my breaks.  I dug some more and hoed some more, and carried some more rocks down the mountain again.  Near the end of the day, the trenches were all dug and we were able to put the rocks we had carried down the mountain into the trenches!  It was exciting to see that we had gotten so far!

Doing Laundry...

That morning, NONE of the trenches had been dug.  They had been started, but none were even near completion!  But a day of work later, they were all done.  It was amazing to see!  And that huge rock pile that had been worked on for a couple days, disappeared in only about 30 minutes.  It was cool to see the progress throughout the day that the community and we, HELP volunteers, were making!  It was a great day!  8 hours of work!  I was SO dirty by the time the day was over.  My legs were terribly disgusting and so were my pants, shirt, and arms.  Near my ankles, my skin was literally the color of an African.  I was black!  But only near my ankles!  haha I was SO dirty. :)

Across the street from our house and awesome thunderstorm clouds :)

Melissa and McCall got some outfits made! :)

Also, some good news: we are able to get glasses donated from Deseret International Foundation and Julia’s mom’s Rotary Club in the states!  Wahoo!  Deseret International will be sending them sometime before August, so we were thinking of doing an Eye and Dental camp in August before we leave.  With the Rotary Club, those glasses will be coming with a girl who is headed here for the 2^nd wave, so we will get those by June 14^th!  We will probably hold an Eye and Dental camp sometime in July.  So hopefully we will be able to do two Eye and Dental camps!! :)  I really hope we can.  The only problem now is fundraising and where.  We don’t know where we should do it still.  We are thinking one of the places we should do it is Najjembe.  The other place, maybe Lugazi in Kuwala Hospital, but we aren’t sure.  We need to talk to Josephine still about that.  But yeah!  I’ll keep ya informed on how the project keeps coming along! :)

Our squat pot. The stick thing is a cover for the hole!

This week is the grand opening for Musana Jewelry!! :) That will be a party:)  There will be music, food (I hope at least), entertainment, and the cutting of the ribbon!  The mayor will be there along with some other town council people!  It is going to be great!  I’m so excited for these women.  They are great women and definitely deserve all that is happening for them and their business :)

Abby, Eve, Camille, and Rosette :)

Wednesday we are doing a team talent show.  Without a piano, I have no talent!  What should I do??  Any ideas?? ;)  Maybe do a juggling talent like the one off of Baptists at our Barbecue?  I think I might have to end up doing that one…it would work, right? :)

Nile River:)

This Thursday we leave for our safari at Murchison Falls.  It’s a 3 day safari and I am SO excited! :)  I’ll get to see Lions, Elephants, and Zebras!  Oh my! :) It is going to be a blast!  I will definitely let you know how it goes next week!  That is, if I survive fighting a Lion just for a cool picture. ;)

Lugazi:)

I chatted with ALL of my family just this morning!  It was great :) There was a lot of making faces, laughing, and talking.  I love my family. :)

Well, it’s not much, but that’s all I have for you right now.  It’s not much because I was stuck home sick for most of the week.  Sorry!  I'll put more pictures up later!  For now, enjoy! :)