Best Seat in the House

Posted on August 22, 2013 by archafrica

There’s this spot on our front porch that I sit at every morning.  I bring out my Bible, notebook, and cup of coffee.  From here, you have a whole view of the front yard.  And it’s the best view of everything.  It’s the best view because of the people I can see from here.  People whom I treasure and love so deeply.  From here, Katie sits next to me busting out worship songs on her guitar.  To my other side are Mallory and Ashley singing and smiling in joy.  Timothy is banging out on the drum with all his might, eyes closed in worship.  Esther is sitting in front of me with the biggest toothed smile, while Baby Sam is falling to the ground from dancing so hard.  Bwanika is playing goalie while the other boys are kicking the soccer ball to him.  The ball just passed epically under his legs as he starts laughing.  Sam is home from school and while waiting for his turn to kick he is rocking out the air guitar.  Morris is setting up the ball for his kick with the biggest guttural laughter.  Ivan is practicing his handstands against the wall and Richard is singing in the yard with his new full-toothed grin.  Fred is racing to put his one shoe on to get out and play futbol with his brothers and Edwin is dancing on his crutches.  The dogs, James and Aka Saigo (means little guy) are busy taking turns chasing each other and chasing all the chickens about the yard.  Yet whenever one of the cats comes out, they cower in fear.  Just a Saturday morning.  This is my view, and I love every minute of it.  I have the best seat in the house.

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Alabaster Jar

Posted on August 22, 2013 by archafrica

There are days when I feel defeated.  Where I feel weak.  Where I feel as if I can’t manage.  Where I ask myself, “what am I even doing here?”  I’ve had many breaking points.  Many while I’ve been here.  And there are times where you don’t simply feel broken, but you feel shattered.

We talked the other day in church about Mary and Martha and Mary’s alabaster jar.  This jar was Mary’s most precious possession, worth a year’s salary, and she chose to break it to put the perfume on Jesus’ feet.  Our pastor concluded by asking us what it was that God wanted us to break in our life?

There are days when you just feel so choked by all your thoughts, it’s hard to breathe, hard to even put one foot in front of the other.  You feel so tangled by all the lies filling your mind…

Why are you even here?
What have you got to show?
You’ve done more harm than good.
Have you made an impact on anyone’s life?

Your mind becomes so weighed down by this entanglement of lies it seems all you can do is collapse while your face becomes drowned out by all the tears and snot.  You’re so choked, you don’t even know what to say to God.  What to pray.

There is a phrase here in Uganda that says, “God is good all the time.  All the time, God is good.”  We cannot determine God’s goodness, His faithfulness based on our circumstances.  But rather praise Him for He is our Father and He loves us.  There’s this song that came to mind in the midst of this…

“Will Your grace run out if I let you down?
Cause all I know is how to run.
Cause I am a sinner, if its not one thing, its another.
Caught up in words, tangled in lies.
But You are a Savior, when you take brokenness aside and make it
Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL.
Will You call me child, when I tell You lies?
Cause all I know, is how to cry.
Cause I am a sinner, if its not one thing its another.
Caught up in words, tangled in lies.
But You are a Savior and You take brokenness aside and make it
Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL.
You make it BEAUTIFUL.
You make it BEAUTIFUL.
You make it BEAUTIFUL.
You make it BEAUTIFUL.

I am a sinner.  I don’t always make the right choices.  I hurt those I love the most.  I hold my anger as if it’s a shield with my fists clenched walking down the street.

But God uses our tears, our snot, all our pains and hurts and failures and makes them beautiful.  You know, He is the potter and makes us into this beautiful, ornate alabaster jar.  But even when we shatter it, He delicately picks each piece up and places it in just the right spot, to then stand back and see this gorgeous mosaic that He’s made in our brokenness.  We are all sinners, in desperate need of a Savior.  He takes our brokenness and makes it beautiful.

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Burundi

Posted on June 17, 2013 by archafrica

I’m sure many of you have heard of the quant little country of Burundi.  Well, in case you haven’t, Burundi is a small country just west of Uganda and directly south of Rwanda.  Many of you have probably heard about the war that was in Rwanda during the 90’s between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes.  Well, the same type war was occurring in the Burundi during the same time.  There are two tribes residing in Burundi; the Hutus who are farmers and comprise about 85% of the population and the Tutsi who are nomadic cattle herders and comprise 14% of the population.  Burundi is historically dominated by the Tutsi as when the Belgium colonized Burundi they favored the Tutsi into power.  It was very much a feudal system as Tutsi ruled and in exchange for protection the Hutus would give crops.  Burundi got its independence from Belgium in 1962 and in 1965 the Hutus began an uprising.  In 1972 the Hutus initiated another uprising and 300,000 were killed in 3 months.  In response the Tutsi killed all educated Hutus.  In 1988 there was another Hutu uprising killing political leaders.  The Tutsi army then massacred everyone in that province of the Hutus.  In 1993 there was an election were a Hutu was president for 3 months before they were assinated by the Tutsi.  In response there was unrest in Burundi with Hutu rebels until 2004.  During that time, 300,000 died.  There were two distinct rebel groups, the CNDD and the FNL.  In 2004, the CNDD signed a peace treaty.  The current president of Burundi was the head of the CNDD and actually preaches at Kigobe Mission Station 3 times a year.  The current government is 60% Hutu and 40% Tutsi.  Today, there is much peace in Burundi between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes.  Kigobe Mission Station was a place of refuge for many during the war.  At one point the site had over 10,000 people seeking a safe place.

We had the wonderful opportunity of working with Kigobe Mission Station (CEEM) during our time in the capital of Burundi in Bujumbura.  On their current property at Kigobe they have a church for over 1,000 people, Discovery school (primary school), Bible school, clinic, Ephphatha school for the deaf, and multiple housing units for both staff and missionaries on site.  During our time there, we were to do a full site survey.  Meaning, we had a team of 8 doing a survey of the property, documenting all the electrical wiring throughout the site, checking out waste water and drainage systems and doing a full building survey of all the structures on site.  So for over a week, Clark (our volunteer architect on the trip) and I drew and measured over 50 buildings on the site, so that when we brought it back to our office, I could draw up all the plans and elevations of the buildings on site.  It was great work because it allowed Clark and I to be outside each day interacting with all the children on site and all the workers and missionaries that we got to meet as well!

One of the coolest parts of walking around the site all day, was getting to see the same kids everyday and forming relationships with them.  The Ephphatha School, on site, is a school for children who are deaf.  On another site that CEEM has, they have a school for children who are blind.  Unfortunately, in African culture, it is very common for any child with a disability to be unacknowledged by their own families.  Many times, the parents won’t even acknowledge that they have the child and will keep them in the house so no one will see them, as it brings them shame in their culture.  Kigobe Mission Station is one of two schools in all of the Burundi that gives children who are deaf and blind an opportunity to get an education.  It was so great getting to interact with them each day!  They had patience with me and taught me sign language throughout the course of the two weeks we were there.  I had one buddy, who every evening, before we left the site would come over to say hi and give me a hug.  Whenever I tried signing to him, asking what his name was, he just signed my name back to me though.  Maybe I was doing something wrong, haha!

The kids at the Ephphatha School had so much love!  And whenever Clark and I were over there with the tape measure taking building measurements, they were right there with us, ready to help!  It was so great getting to work with this mission and the encouraging thing about it, is it wasn’t just a one time trip, but we got to go back!

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Easter

Posted on April 8, 2013 by archafrica

My Easter this year was quite a memorable one.  Filled with laughter, joy, and fellowship with my Ugandan family here.  It was such a blessed day and I’m excited to share it with you!

We had a long holiday weekend, so we had off on Friday and Monday.  So on Friday, was a huge Good Friday worship event at the university, where all the churches in the area came together to worship our Lord.  It was awesome!  There were probably over 20,000 people there.

Paul and I had been talking the last few weeks about getting a lamb for Easter.  So on Saturday, Paul went out and got a lamb for the slaughter!  It roamed around our yard all morning (loudly might I add), so it wasn’t that sad to see it go J  We go over to our friends house every Saturday for worship night (and that’s where we were doing Easter), so we slaughtered the lamb on Saturday.  And by we…I mean Paul and the boys slaughtered the lamb, while Katie and I hid in each other’s arms.  The older I get, the less I can do blood!  Paul did a great job with it all, and had it hanging and marinating by 9pm!

Easter Sunday was such a great day.  Most of us attend the same church, so we got all dolled up and headed to church.  We headed to DOORS after church to start all the cooking!  DOORS is the other ministry I help out with.  They have a school in the slum and they have a home with about 10 boys, who before, were living on the street.  All the boys are amazing, and I’ve loved getting to know all of them so well over these last 6 months.  They have become my family here.

I had made my mom’s famous cheesy mashed potatoes the day before, and we were able to heat them up over the fire.  And when I say my mom’s potatoes, I mean it!  Because in the states, they take about an hour to make.  Here, it’s a little different.  Instead of instant potatoes (what I grew up on), you get real Irish potatoes.  So you get them, then it took three of us an hour to peel all of them!  Then you have to wash them (they’re covered in dirt) and boil.  But then…the other main ingredients are ranch dressing, chives, and dill.  So then you have to make your own Ranch (last time I had to home make the sour cream for it), and then cut the chives from the plant growing outside.  All I have to say, is it take about 5 times longer, so it makes for a special treat!

The boys were such a huge help in the kitchen!  They were helping Paul with the grill and I was teaching some of them how to make deviled eggs, which they’ve never had before.  Sam was just eating the filling out of the bowl he loved it so much!  And in my family, its always tradition to have a bunny cake, so that was a special treat to have that as well!  Along with some other things, we had homemade tzatkiki sauce for the lamb, roasted pumpkin and matoke (the typical banana looking Ugandan potato).

The day was filled with fun and laughter.  After our meal, the boys got to decorate eggs and do their first Easter egg hunt.  We also got to do relay races!  And of course what’s Easter in Uganda without a game of futbol!  We finished off the night by all watching Hook, sprawled out in the living room.  It was quite a wonderful Easter!

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Kilimanjaro!

Posted on March 4, 2013 by archafrica

Wow!  Kilimanjaro was an amazing experience!  One of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but definitely so worth it!  To see God’s creation like that was just mesmerizing!  Sorry that this post is so incredibly long compared to all my others (I wrote it as if I was talking to my sister).  You’re welcome Jenny 🙂

Our team consisted of 14 members; 7 of us from our Kampala eMi office, 2 from our Colorado Springs office, and 5 who had either been on project trips with eMi in the past or had some connection with us.  It was a great mix of people!  Katie, Rose, and I held down the fort in terms of the females!  Some of us left 2 days early to settle into our hotel in Arusha, Tanzania (the country Kilimanjaro is in) to be able to prepare and finalize getting all our gear together before the climb.  Another group from ClimbKili (the group we went with) was at our hotel, so it was fun getting to meet them and then be able to have a relationship with them for the whole climb too!

Day 1:  Today was the day we set out!  And after checking and rechecking my bags for the billionth time, I felt I was finally set.  Paul gave me good packing advice, “as long as you have things that will keep you from dying, you’ll be ok.”  Haha!  Words to live by!  We left the hotel and it was about a 2-3 hour drive through Moshi, to the base of the Lemosho trail that we were taking up.  The Lemosho trail is an 8 day hike (8 days to allow your body get more easily adjusted to the altitude) has about an 80% success rate to the summit (that’s a higher success rate than other trails, one of the reasons we chose this route).  We get to the trailhead and ClimbKili has a table and chairs set up for us for lunch!  As we eat we see the hundreds of porters signing in for the climb.  Some of the things I might say might not sound like camping at all, it might sound like “plush” camping, but without the help of the porters and all they did for us, none of us would have even come close to making it to the summit.  Praise God for our porters!  To give you an idea of what they did for us…

In our daypacks, we carried water for ourselves for the day, camera, snacks, and an extra layer of clothes.  For the 14 of us, we had 3-4 guides with us on the hike, and about 30-40 porters for our group.  What they carried (on their heads by the way) was their own belongings, our duffle bags with the rest of our stuff, all of our food for the week, our tents, chairs, toilet tents, and cooking supplies!  Basically we would leave each camp while they were still packing up our stuff, pass us on the trail to the lunch site, have lunch cooked and set up for us, we would head out again, only for them to pass AGAIN, then have our tents and everything already set up at camp by the time we got there and cook every meal for us!  Meals usually consisted of porridge, eggs, and toast for breakfast; soup, and some kind of carb and fruit for lunch; and soup, carbs (rice, vegetables, fruit) for dinner.  And always had coffee and tea available.  The only time I’ve not felt guilty eating so many carbs!

So we finally hit the trail around 2pm and had about 4-5 hours of hiking to our first camp, Mti Mkubwa (which in Swahili means big tree) which sits at 7,742ft.  The climb up Kilimanjaro goes through 5 climate zones (rainforest, heath, moorland, alpine desert, and artic glacier).  All of day 1 we hiked through the rainforest, with not a single sight of the mountain itself!

Day 2:  Our typical mornings consisted of waking up at 6:30am to being served with coffee and tea, at 7am we got a hot bowl of water for washing, by 7:30am we were in the tent for breakfast, and usually by 8:30am we were on the trail.

We headed out of camp being in the rainforest, to end up in the heath zone a few hours later.  The heath zone consists of a lot of low laying brush, with views to all the surrounding mountains and fields.  After hiking in the morning for a few hours, we approached a clearing around 12:30pm, only to find a table and chairs set up before us with lunch awaiting our arrival!  We were in shock!  And so grateful!

Later in the afternoon, we finally got a view of Kilimanjaro!  We were just in awe of the view of the mass that we were about to the climb for the next 7 days!  We were almost at our camp for the evening when we saw a huge group of karens set up as trail markers (I think they’re really just alien life forms, set up like Stonehenge!).  We arrived at Shira Camp (11,500ft) about 3:30pm (usually the time we would get into camp) to find coffee, tea and popcorn waiting for us and an incredible view of the mountain before us!

Day 3:  We continued trekking through the heath this day.  The bushes were even lower than the day before and you could easily see the trail ahead of you.  It almost looked like Arizona desert or something.  However, you really can’t compare anything you see on Kili to anything you’ve seen before.  Kilimanjaro has soooo many plants and wildlife, which are only unique to Kili itself.  It was incredible to see!  In the beginning of the hike for the day, we passed over a stream, something that was only calling Paul’s name!  One of his goals for the climb was to jump in a stream, so he did!  We camped Moir Camp (13,650ft) for the night, and you could look up at the rocks to see the peak of Kili peaking out.

Every night after dinner, we would each take turns leading devotions and just diving into scripture and get to hear how everyone was feeling and what they’ve been learning.  Usually at every meal we would measure our heart rate and how much oxygen we had in our blood stream as we continued up to higher and higher elevations.  For Christmas my Grandpa, gave me an oximeter, and boy did that come in handy!  Our typical RESTING heart rate for the climb was about 110 bpm, and my oxygen levels were typically 83.  Just a little fyi, below 80, you typically need to be on oxygen.  For the climb, they said if you went below 65, you would have to turn down the mountain.  The lowest I ever measured, was around 72, and that was a day or 2 before the summit!

Day 4:  Today we climbed up to 15,000 feet of elevation to have lunch at Lava Tower.  The purpose of this was to hike to high elevation to help get acclimated, and then climb back down to sleep at a lower elevation of 12,950ft at Barranco camp.  This was the first day I was starting to feel a little bit of the altitude sickness.  I had a strong headache and lightheadedness at lunch.  Others were taking altitude medicine (something I would recommend).  I never had had much experience hiking at high altitudes so I didn’t really know how my body would react.  I’m used to preparing and training my mind mentally and my body physically, but when you throw a curve ball of something I can’t control, it throws you a bit off.

The hike down from Lava Tower to our campsite was probably one of my favorite hikes of all time!  I mentioned earlier that a lot of what you see on Kili is specifically unique to the mountain itself.  And our climb down to camp was through the moorland, or what I renamed it as “Mario Land.”  It literally looked like a level out of Mario!  Now I know where they got the inspiration for the game!  Even the colors you would see, you’ve never seen before except in a Crayola box!  God’s own imagination and creativity in creation is definitely the inspiration of all!

Day 5:  Today we climbed up Barranco wall!  At first I didn’t believe it!  We camped in the shadow of it, but I didn’t realize we were climbing it until the morning!  But if you looked close enough, you could see a small little trail doing a complete switchback all the way up. Ok, I’m not much of climber, but lets do it!  The wall itself ended up being a lot of fun!  I’m usually not a fan of actual climbing, because I’m so unbalanced, but the fact that we had a pause every 5 minutes (literally) to allow the porters (who have huge bags balanced on their heads) to pass you with a few hops from step to step, gave us opportunity for breaks.  Most of the day was spent ascending the wall and other rocky climbs to make it to Karanga camp (13,200ft).  This was probably my favorite camp because when you looked down at the town of Moshi (that was below the clouds by this point), it literally looked like you were on another planet.  Photos don’t do it justice, but you would look out and the horizon line would be skewed to look like it was above you and you’d be higher than the sunset itself!  It kinda would trip you out, that you felt the curvature of the earth like that.  Literally from one of those sci-fi movies!  Another reason it was my favorite camp was the awesome conversations I got to have with people (something that happened daily), but this particular night some of us got to hang out and play cards and really get to know Richard, one of our porters and servers for meals.  Many guides have summited over 150 times!  This was only Richard’s 5th time as a porter (you work from a porter to a guide) as he was trying to earn money to go to college.  We got to talk about Jesus too, and it was great getting to talk with him throughout the week!

Day 6:  Today was one of the shortest hiking days because we had to get to camp to rest for summit night!  Ahhh!  So we hiked through the alpine desert (which looks again, like another planet, or a scene from war of worlds where everything around you is obliviated!), until we reached our campsite (Barafu camp- 15,200ft) around lunch.  We were supposed to get to camp and eat lunch right away so we could nap before dinner, but the group who had summited the night before was still resting (yes, an 1pm) from their summit.  So as we sat and waited, it began snowing!  Seeing the snow and being so cold (about 25 degrees F) around 1pm kinda makes your heart race a bit for what its going to be like for summit.  We ate lunch and then “tried” to nap till 4:30pm, when we would eat dinner.  The nap was a bit restless, since everyone else on the campsite (i.e. the porters) were wide-awake and playing Bob Marley songs!  After dinner you’re supposed to sleep from 5pm -10pm before the summit.  All I could hear was Katie and I rustling around in nervousness.  You were so nervous you couldn’t sleep, and the fact that you weren’t falling asleep made you panic more, and therefore not fall asleep!  I think I finally fell asleep around 8 (I tried not to look at my watch) and then what seemed like seconds later was woken by Katie saying, “Meggie!  Its time to get up and do the summit!  I’m freaking out!  I didn’t sleep at all!  What am I going to do!”  Haha, quite the alarm J so what started as a panic, turned into a rich time of the two of us praying together in our tent for the summit and our hike up.  (Katie and I met at eMi orientation in August and she works in the Colorado Springs office.  God blessed us with an awesome 3 weeks together, visiting her in London, climbing Kilimanjaro together, and then her getting to spend a week with me in Kampala).  After our prayer we slowly walked up to the meal tent to eat our breakfast at 10:30pm, only to begin our summit climb at 11pm…

Day 7:  Today was the day!  Summit night!  We left our camp at 11pm, hoping to make it to Stella point (about 45min. below the summit, but on top of the crater) by sunrise at 6am!  Gahhh!  7 hours of hiking up over 4,000 feet up to the summit at 19,340ft!  Just to give you an idea, planes can fly at that altitude!  And every view we had of the mountain through the coarse of the week, NEVER looked like it would be an easy one!  So we headed out with our headlamps, lightened packs, and about one guide per climber!  Haha!  Some of the porters came along for the summit climb, strictly to be encouragers and carry our packs for us.  The pace we took going up the mountain was about a snails pace, literally!  It was basically take a step with your left foot, inhale, take a step with your right, exhale.  All you could really focus on was your breathing, and taking huge deep breaths!  The guides recommended that you never look up at the summit, but at the feet of the person in front of you, as to not get your hopes up for what you think you see as the summit, cause most likely what you think you see is not even really the summit.  As everyone is climbing at a snails pace in silence, all the guides are carrying OUR backpacks (sometimes 2), taking routes up the trail that are harder, and all having plenty of oxygen in their lungs to be able to laugh in conversation with each other or sing songs!

For me, I was definitely feeling the altitude.  All I could do was put one foot in front of the other.  Every time we stopped for a break, all I could do was catch up my breathing, not really thinking about putting on extra layers (which, I was basically wearing every layer I brought because it was about 0 degrees F) or eating a snack, I just wanted to make sure I was getting enough oxygen!  God taught me a lot on summit night.  He definitely reminded me of how stubborn I am.  A guide offered to take my pack for me about 3 times, before he finally just came over and took it off my back.  I wanted to be strong enough to do it myself, but I didn’t even have enough strength to fight it when he took it.  If he didn’t carry if for me, I’m not sure I would have made it, correction…I wouldn’t have made it.  There was literally nothing going through my mind, other than one foot in front of the other.  I found encouragement in the worship music Paul had playing and Katie would turn around to me and tell me she was praying for me.  That meant so much to me, and that’s what I held on to.

I kinda had my athletic mentality going up the mountain.  Depending on my own strength more often than on God’s strength.  I figured my mental game was strong enough, that if I wanted to make it to the summit, than I would.  I knew I wouldn’t give up, but I was fearful that the guides would see something (low oxygen or vomiting) or anything and would tell me I had to turn around.  Paul’s worship music gave me clear focus on the Lord, because that’s really the only thing I could hear and focus what little energy I had on.

We were about 30-60 minutes out from Stella point, when I really started feeling nauseous.  I felt like I was going to Ralph (Katie’s terminology) several times, but wanted to keep it in out of fear the guides would see me and tell me to go down the mountain.  Right when I looked up to see the sign for Stella point, I Ralphed.  The porter with me, Emmanuel, immediately started encouraging me.  He gave me some water and stood with me supporting me by the arm.  He then said, “Alright, come on, your making it to the top, lets go.”  That’s what I needed to hear.  It was about another 45 min hike to Uhuru peak (that sits at 19,340 ft.!).  I had 3 other guys from our team walking with me and encouraging me to the top.  Even though I could barely talk, their encouraging words gave me motivation to keep in step with them.  Once I could see Uhuru peak in the distance, I ralphed again.  Ya know, this is how I see it…you gotta leave your mark somehow right?  Why not leave your DNA as proof that you were there.  Makes sense to me!  Haha!

We stood up at the peak for a whole 10min.  Literally, 10 min.  Enough time to take a picture and then head back down.  Standing up there for a few minutes, I was finally able to catch my breath and let some of the nausea subside.  Right when we got up there, was when the sun was rising.  It was a glorious sight!  To be so high above the clouds that even the clouds looked like a city far below!  It was incredible!  And sunrises on one of my favorite things.  I walked back down with Paul and Emmanuel.  Without Emmanuel, I would not have made it to the top.  It was by God’s grace alone.  The whole hike down was along screed or loose gravel.  I called it African skiing, cause you would just put your heal in and slide about a foot or 2 at a time.

Back at camp, we had about 2 hours to rest and eat lunch before continuing our journey back down the mountain.  We basically just sat there on the ground, looking up at the mountain, not able to get up.  It was an incredible feeling of looking up and seeing what we had just done.  Out of an 80% success rate, all 14 of us in our group made it to the summit!  Praise God!

Day 8:  Today was short and sweet!  The night after summit, we went from 19,340 feet, to about 9,000 ft. for camp (Mweka camp) in one afternoon!  The height that we spent 6-7 days ascending, we spent a day descending!  Crazy!  So this day, we got up and all our guides and porters performed a thank you dance for us as a celebration!  Without them, we would not have gotten anywhere on that mountain!

The hike down was only a few hours, and quickly we went back through the heath and into the rainforest again.  At the end of the trail, there was a gate that felt like a finish line that felt so good to cross.

God revealed a lot to me on the mountain and I feel like many things I’m even still processing and He’s still revealing to me.  He showed me His glory and majesty in His creation.  He showed me that even while I’m still stubborn and think that I can do it on my own, He walks with me in patience.  The climb was definitely more about the journey than the end goal.  I mean it was 8 days of the journey vs. 10min of being on the summit.  And the summit was definitely glorious, but it was the whole journey of the conversations, fellowship, and God’s majesty of His creation that made the whole trip worth it.

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Gnut Butter

Posted on November 20, 2012 by archafrica

Meet Monica.  Monica used to work at eMi, but has just recently stopped so that she could start her own business.  She makes homemade gnut butter (or peanut butter).  Here they call them gnuts, short for “ground nuts.”  You want real all-natural peanut butter- she’s the one to get it from!

Monica is such a joy to be around!  Every time you see her, she has the biggest smile on her face and ALWAYS has something she is praising God for!  She is so encouraging to be around.  Her testimony is an incredible story as well, to hear some of the things she’s been through and yet still praising Jesus in everything she does each day.  Monica is about 31 years old and has an eighteen year old daughter, whom she adores and is incredibly close with.

She comes into our office every Friday to sell gnut butter and roasted gnuts.  I kept telling her how I wanted to learn how to make it, since my dad and I are into our peanut butter at home.  So she invited me over for a day to learn how and go through the whole process with her!

Now in Ugandan terms, we you agree to hang out for the morning, it really means the whole day.  You learn here, that if you are going to do anything with a Ugandan, you really need to block off the whole day and not schedule anything else.  Maybe that will help me at home, when I try to schedule 10 different things into a single day 🙂

So Belinda and I got spend the day over at Monica’s.  We had breakfast, where we got to try her Sim Sim butter (butter made from ground sesame and mixed with honey), hang out and then start the process of making the gnut butter.  We started by peeling all the gnuts and then sifting all the peels out by taking them out into the wind and tossing them up into the air.  Next we had sort out any left over shells and burnt nuts.  The next step was putting the nuts in the grinder and grinding away!  Monica put on her favorite music and started busting out the dance moves!  You can come up with some pretty great dance moves, turning the grinder!  Out of the grinder comes the butter!  Monica then only adds a bit of salt and oil and then puts it in a jar and its ready to go!  All natural gnut butter!

Belinda and I even got to help her price out profits and costs for her sim sim butter to sell.  She will now add her new product Simmy butter to her market!  It was an awesome day of getting to make and learn how Monica makes her gnut butter and to get to hang out with such an incredible woman for the day!

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A Day in the Life

Posted on November 14, 2012 by archafrica

I wanted to give you all a little glimpse of what a day in the life here for me here in Africa is like. It has been an absolute blessing to be here and the people and experiences have forever changed my life.
So first of all, upon leaving our house in the mornings, we greet our guards, Jackson or Ali. They are simply AMAZING! And what I love about African culture is you don’t simply say hello, you say hello, then ask how they are, and then how their family is doing. A greeting here is not simply one word, but an exchange of your lives. At home I often love bumping into people and catching up, but with the hustle and bustle of American culture, someone is often darting off to the next thing. So usually upon leaving or coming home, we have a warm smile from our guards to greet us and we get to learn about their lives.
We’ve gotten to cook dinners with Ali a few times. We made him instant fettuccini alfredo and lemonade (which he proceeded to add an additional 4 scoops of sugar to) and he taught us how to cut and cook matooke (African “potatoes” but they look like bananas). Jackson, our other guard, always has the biggest smile on his face. And something that made my day was the other week I got to teach him how to throw a baseball! He had never played baseball before, let alone put on a glove. Now every time I mention it, he wants to throw more! He gets better each time ☺
So jumping back to my routine (or whatever it is), my walk to work. My walk to work is only about 8 minutes. But on the way I get to pass the school kids and then all the bota (our means of transportation) drivers at the stage and get to say good morning to them. Here in Uganda, you might pass someone on the road with a stern look on their face, but once you say hello, their face immediately turns into the biggest smile! I love it! You need only to put yourself out there and greet them.
We’re usually in the office from 9 to 5. We start every morning off with daily devotions for 30 minutes together as an office and do worship together on Fridays. Mondays we have Bible study and Tuesday nights some of us play pick up basketball at the local school with some other missionaries but mostly locals. Usually it’s just me and only one other girl out there, so it makes for some good competition ☺
But all in all, I’d say my favorite days are Wednesdays and Fridays, because I get to go down to this school in the slum started by a ministry called DOORS. DOORS is a ministry that serves as a home to local street boys. They currently have 10 boys living with them and have started this school in the local slum. So on Wednesdays I get to go in and do tutoring for Ramadan and Vivien. Even though it’s only these two who need tutoring, usually another 4 to 5 come in too, ya know, just for some extra schooling. Did I mention it’s during their lunch break? And instead of playing outside, several want to come in for more learning. Blows my mind! And then Fridays, I get to co-lead a girls Bible study at the school with Sydney (who is with DOORS). The girls in the study probably range from 9 to 14. And boy can they recite scripture! It’s so encouraging! They get so excited to see what the new passage for the week is. The kids are just precious, so I hope you enjoy the video I’ve attached ☺
As for the weekends, we usually get to hang out with some of the locals on Saturdays and then Sundays is church. The church I’ve been going to is called Gaba and I am one of the few Muzungus who attend.
It is so encouraging to see how Ugandans worship in church. First of all, even though they may not have much, they always wear their best outfit on Sundays for church. During tithes and offerings, I usually see everyone put something in, despite many having so little. It makes me think of the end of Mark 12, where the woman gave out of her poverty. And then there’s the worship. Usually during worship, everyone in the church is clapping their hands and dancing around. Everyone is stoked to worship their King! During one service in particular, the pastor asked if there were any praises anyone wanted to share. And immediately this little boy (about 9) raced up the microphone and praised God that he was sick but now he is better and he is at church. How often do we praise God when we get over a sickness or praise Him that we get to attend church? Another little boy, a bit younger, then followed up behind him and praised God that he goes to school, for his parents, and that he is alive. I mean shouldn’t we praise God everyday for the simple fact that we’re breathing air yet another day? A common phrase here in Uganda is “God is good…all the time. All the time…God is good.” And I love resting on that simple fact. Our God is good and that is something that will never change.

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Rafting Down the Nile!!

Posted on October 14, 2012 by archafrica

So this past weekend we did an intern weekend in Jinja; known as the adventure capital of East Africa!  Jinja is about a 2 hour drive from Kampala, so we left work early on Friday and made it to town just in time to do a sunset river cruise on the Nile.  We stayed at a river camp with Nile River Explorers which was right along the Nile River with gorgeous views of the river!  The camp is basically like a hostel with options to stay in tents or bunk bed dorms.  It was filled with other Muzungus, and so it was so much fun getting to meet and hang out with others and hear about some of the ministries they are serving with.  Even met a few other girls who have led Young Life before!

So then Saturday was just a full day of rafting along the Nile.  One thing I’ve noticed about Uganda is there aren’t as many (well, really none) restrictions and safety regulations here.  So rafting here, is going down several class 5 rapids and flipping several times.  Whereas in America, they strong urge not flipping and if you get out of the raft you get back in asap.  Needless to say, rafting on the Nile was an absolute blast!  Also learned that after we felt proud and accomplished for surviving a rapid without flipping, we came to learn that it was ALL our guide Josh, that allowed us to flip or stay upright!  Haha!  We were all in his control.  He was great and a lot of fun though!  I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Sunday was just a relaxing day of walking around the town of Jinja and seeing the source of the Nile.  Jinja was an awesome place and a great refreshing weekend!

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Passion for a $1!!

Posted on October 12, 2012 by archafrica

Passion came to Kampala last weekend and our tickets were less than a dollar!  If you don’t know, Passion is an amazing Christian conference held each year in Atlanta, and different cities all across the world!  Worship usually includes Chris Tomlin, Khristy Knockles, David Crowder, Gungor, Matt Redman, and then Louie Giglio heads up a sermon.  The one in Atlanta also usually includes John Piper, Beth Moore, Francis Chan, and Andy Stanley.  So Chris Tomlin, Khristy Knockles and Louie Giglio are doing a world tour and they happened to come to Kampala!  It was AMAZING!!!  Another really cool thing was I got to meet up with one of my friends from Virginia Tech, Kelsey, who is now living in Rwanda, at Passion too!

We got there early and were pretty much front and center.  Once the music was about to begin, the crowd literally packed in like sardines!  Literally, you couldn’t move an inch the whole time, you were smack in between people on all sides of you the whole time!  But it was just an amazing thing to get to see the community of Ugandans worship our Savior.  By the time Louie came on to speak, there were about 40,000 people packed in Makerere University’s athletic field.

There were about 60 Muslim men and women who came from our local refugee school as well!  Praise God!  Louie gave an amazing sermon about the difference between knowing about God and knowing God.  That we could know a lot of different things about God and know all the facts, but God wants us to know Him personally, to have a relationship with Him.  Just like you would know the ins and outs of your spouse or best friend, to just constantly be amazed in knowing the ins and outs of God.  He also spoke on how all of creation worships God, from the stars spinning on their axis to the whales sounds during migration.  We get to be a part of the symphony of worship to our Lord and Savior!

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Murchison Falls!!

Posted on October 10, 2012 by archafrica

On the last day of our project trip, we got to go to Murchison Falls!  It’s a safari game drive just a short distance from Restoration Gateway.  So we spent the day driving through the game park.  It was awesome!!  We saw so many animals!  Elephants (my favorite), giraffes, water buffalo, hippos, and even a LION!!!  Yep, we were about 10 feet away from a lion! It was an awesome day for a game drive.

We got to stop at a lodge for some lunch and unfortunately right after lunch, before we got on the ferry to cross the Nile to go to the falls themselves, it started to pour.  So as we started making our way up the only dirt road that goes to the falls, we started getting stuck in the mud.  So before we ended up like the car in front us, being stuck in the mud all night, we unfortunately had to turn around.  But it was a fabulous day in the park seeing all the animals and enjoying the African landscape!

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