you know you're in Africa when...

Life here is an adventure!  I have spent nine of the last twelve days with either the medical team or the dental team doing rural clinics.  The first five days I participated in the medical clinic and it was wonderful to be doing nursing again! I took blood pressures, temperatures, patient histories, gave injections, ran errands for the providers and on rare occasions, sat with one of the doctors as they treated patients.  It was a crazy week, but wonderful to be doing medicine and to be with people who love the Lord, love people, and are great encouragers. 

This week I spent a couple days with four pediatric residents who are working on a vaccine project.  The mornings were spent at the local project and during the afternoons they were patient with me as we made use of their hired vehicle and ran around buying shelves, groceries and other random stuff. The next two days I spent with the dental team.  I am now an expert in sterilizing dental tools, so if nursing doesn't work out for me...I have a back up plan.  The dentists were also kind enough to let me pull a few teeth.  I learned that molars take extreme strength (which I don't have) to pull and that I really appreciate dentists (like these) who really love their jobs.  I could never do it, but I watched their faces light up as they talked about their patients and the teeth they had pulled!

I am finally settling into life here.  We have a gas cylinder and I cooked dinner two nights ago.  It's nice to finally have the ability to cook and we're slowly acquiring utensils and staple items.  I met one of the doctors who runs the AIDS clinic here in Masindi.  He's very well connected and has promised to introduce Mandie and me to people at the hospital so that we can start working there.

For all of my irrational fears about transportation, how life works here, and learning the culture and language, I have been blessed with answers already.  I have the phone numbers for a couple of trustworthy taxi drivers and my house helper is a wealth of information regarding culture language and where to find things.  She spent one month in England and understands the difficulty of being in a different culture and has been gracious about cultural faux pas.  What a blessing!  The Lord truly has answered my prayers for being settled here!

Last but not least, I had two opportunities to share Jesus this week!  The first was with the van driver that the team has been using all week.  He has a Muslim name so I asked him one day about it.  We had a twenty minute conversation where I shared what being a Jesus follower meant to me and he shared that he had converted from Catholicism to Islam 10 years ago.  Please keep Herruna in your prayers.  I don't know when I'll see him again, but if you know me well, you know my heart is drawn to Muslims and I hope for more opportunities.  The second was at the dental clinic two days in a row.  Two hundred people came each day to wait in line to see the dentist.  I had a captive audience and was able to share with them why we come and offer these services.  It was a great opportunity to testify how the Lord has worked in my life and the lives of the dentists and why we would come around the world to take blood pressures or pull teeth.

Thanks for your prayers and your emails!  What a blessing you are to my heart!

oh...and you know you're in Africa when:

Your headlamp becomes the bathroom light.
Sleeping under a mosquito net is no longer elegant and classy.
The morning discussion during mobile clinics includes the quality of the latrines as compared to yesterday.
Someone says "hello" and you respond with "fine."

Landing in Africa

After several days of trying to get on the internet, I finally succeeded! :) Internet and power are both things I will now never take for granted!

I made it to Kampala (the capital of Uganda) on Tuesday night with no troubles.  Mandie and I had smooth connections and slept a lot of the way.  Random funny moment of the trip: on our way from Amsterdam to Kampala we both fell asleep with our tray tables down.  We woke up to find a slip of paper with a man’s name and phone number on my tray table.  We have no idea who this man was so we decided to leave the paper on the plane when we got off.

Tuesday night we spent the night in Kampala with a family from Water Mission.  It was a good introduction to the country.  They live in a nice house at the top of a hill.  The stars were amazing!  I could see the Milky Way cloud better than I ever have.  It was beautiful!

Wednesday morning, Michael and Amanda (the couple overseeing the building of the hospital) and Mandie and I set out for Masindi with a pit stop to exchange money, buy cell phones, and buy lunch and a few snacks.  I had saved a set of plastic silverware from the plane that we used to make tuna sandwiches.  When we arrived in Masindi the power was out, but the bishop welcomed us and introduced us to our new house.  Mandie and I unpacked our small suitcases and lamented all the things that we forgot, but overall it was a good day.  Michael took us to buy water and a few other necessities.  We bought a couple packages of ramen, but returned home to find out that even if the power came back on, we have a gas stove and no gas to boil water.  Fortunately, we had bought two cans of tuna and so ate tuna again with a small bottle of wine that we had gotten from the plane.  Mandie had just enough power on her computer that we watched The Proposal.  The power came back on around eleven in time for us to go to bed.

We have a wonderful three bedroom, two bathroom house.  It’s way too big for just two of us, which means it’s perfect for visitors (hint, hint, hint).  Mandie and I were both feeling a bit lost last night so we ended up sleeping in the same room last night.  It’s a double bed, but now our goal is to figure out how to move the twin bed into the room and then we’ll just share….meaning, we have two guest rooms!

We spent Thursday going from shop to shop looking at things we need to set up our house.  We came home with trash cans, a frying pan, knives, oatmeal, scrub brushes and pads, a mirror, and a pan.  Slowly we’re getting equipped.  Now we just need a gas cylinder so that we can use our stove and oven!

This summer I've been doing the Beth Moore study on the Tabernacle.  I am a few days behind because of packing and travel, which was ended up being perfect timing.  The first morning in Africa, these are the verses that I read:

"Your ears will hear a word behind you, 'This is the way, walk in it,' whenever you turn to the right or to the left." Isaiah 30:21

"I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, In paths they do not know I will guide them.  I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains.  These are the things I will do, and I will not leave them undone."  Isaiah 42:16

"Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily bring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the L*rd will be your rear guard (italics mine)."  Isaiah 58:8

So many times in this process of moving to Africa, I have been reminded that this truly is a plan from G*d.  These verses above should be my theme for the year, in times of discouragement or culture shock or frustration.  I know that He has a plan and I know that His glory will be my rear guard! What a promise!  I didn't think culture shock would hit as quickly as it has, but arriving in Masindi and not having power or gas to cook with or any food, and not knowing the language or the culture, it hit....and these were good verses to remember.  Things have gotten better now that the power has come back on and I've eaten a few real meals! :)

The team arrives tomorrow with all of our stuff and I'm looking forward to having more than one skirt to wear!

Thanks for praying! I have felt so loved!  I'm hoping to be able to get online every couple of days, but if I don't respond right away, don't be worried! Life is just a little more complicated here than it is in the US.

7 days, 2 hours, 58 minutes and counting

I have one week left at home. It's a busy week that includes spending time with people, shopping, sewing, and tying up any loose ends. I'm way behind on my emails and if I said I'd do something for you and haven't done it...you should probably remind me.

 I was using the foyer downstairs as my packing location, but then Robbie moved his apartment home while he looks for a job and now the foyer is his storage closet. So, I've moved my stuff into my room:

 So as time winds down this is my laundry list of things to do:

• Purchase seeds for an herb garden
• Buy Walmart out of toiletries
• Find a black pair of scrub pants
• Sew a lining into four or five beach cover-ups skirts so that I don't flash the world.
• Find a skirt/dress or two that I actually like.
• Finish packing and meet Mandie with my trunks on Thursday
• Write thank-you notes
• Sign power of attorney forms for my parents
• Register for Moody classes
• Find my brain (lofty goal...I realize)
• Enjoy the week

For all you Jane Austen haters lovers, these are high on my packing list.