Gloria a Dios

Country mice visit the big city

2012-01-27T00:03:00.002-05:00

Yes, we feel like those country mice... It's not until you leave your home that you realize certain things about your home.

1. Dirty clothes and dirty feet and legs are normal to us but sure stand out in the majestic Ministry of Health building!

2. Flipflops and T shirts have become standard wear but we sure look shabby!

3. Cheese and meats options at the grocery store made me want to dance around.

4. A slightly air-conditioned store made me linger.

5. I felt the need to shower and dress up just to go out of the house in Kampala.

6. I forgot I was in Uganda momentarily. (Couldn't remember WHAT country I was in, but Kampala isn't the Uganda I know!)

7. It took us 20 minutes to decide what to eat at the food court in a mall (more than ONE option?! In Gulu, if you go to a restaurant, you don't need the menu, you just ask what they have that day because they likely only have ingredients for ONE dish, if that.).

8. I frantically looked around for the fans in the home we're staying in: NONE! But it's cool at night! You don't need them!

Kampala looks very different too - it's a city of hills, it's much more lush right now thanks to Lake Victoria (Gulu, we now realize, is BROWN in the middle of dry season), there are more diverse birds...

Culture shock within our own country! ;-P

Cottage Cheese

2012-01-18T07:00:00.005-05:00

In honor of my dad, who can't stand cottage cheese, I made some today. (haha!)

Really simple, actually.

1. Heat milk to simmering.

2. Add white vinegar bit by bit. (I did NOT use rennet as called for in most recipes and it worked just fine!)

3. As soon as it separates and curdles, remove from heat.

4. Strain through cloth and strainer.

5. Rinse the curds.

6. Break up curds and salt to taste.

There you go! Some recipes say to stir in half and half or cream... I don't have that, so for now, it'll be more like farmer's cheese - a little drier than store-bought cottage cheese.

I'm not sure yet what I'll do with the whey - smoothies? Ricotta cheese? Feed to the dogs for protein? Nothing today though - one project is enough! Hopefully the electricity will stay on long enough to chill the whey and keep for tomorrow.

Solar tomato sauce

2012-01-17T08:37:00.002-05:00

I'm very excited about this! I made solar tomato sauce today. I haven't built a real solar oven yet, since I don't have the supplies, but here's what I did!

1. Kick the kids out of my "solar oven" (haha!).

2. Chopped up half dozen or so tomatoes, added pepper, salt, two cloves fresh garlic, oil, and small onion. Covered clear bowl with plastic wrap and poked some tiny holes in it for a little bit of moisture release. I lined my black bin with what foil I had and tried to bake some bread - didn't get hot enough.

3. I left it out all day - it didn't get above 150 degrees F, so my "solar oven" is limited until I get a piece of glass for the top, BUT it stewed my tomatoes! It smelled SO good as soon as I took the plastic off!

4. I mashed up the tomatoes for more of a sauce, but it could certainly be served on bread as bruschetta type topping, etc. Josh thinks it tastes as good as any restaurant sauce!

Medical work

2012-01-17T07:59:00.003-05:00

"Auntie, can you give me medicine for the flu?"

"The flu? Well, tell me more about what you are feeling..."

Blank stare. Sister comes to the rescue.

"Auntie, she needs medicine for the flu."

After much poking and prodding, it sounded like every day she had a congested nose, especially at night. No fevers, no cough.

My diagnosis: allergies (the air is thick with mango pollen and smoke from burning fields and trash).

Not a day goes by that I do not use my medical skills. There is so much GERD (acid reflux) - interpreted as chest pains - so I treat GERD A LOT! This season there are also a lot of allergies - interpreted as "the flu" - so I'm treating allergies too. Mostly, my "patients" are people who come into my home. I haven't put out a shingle; I don't want a general patient population. I'm here to work with children with disabilities once I have learned the language and culture. That is my passion, my heart's desire, and even my training!

But it does keep my mind in the game to have new symptoms posed to me in new ways, in a new culture, in a new language! I found a pharmacy that I trust and can communicate with, so that is very helpful as I am still exploring what medications are available here.

Grief in the joy

2012-01-16T07:38:00.004-05:00

There is no place we would rather be than in Gulu right now. God is so good to us to allow us to serve him here, have compassion for people here, and live here.

But there are times that there is grief mixed into the joy and peace that God has gifted to us. Those times revolve around once-in-a-lifetime moments in family life. Like the birth of our new nephew last night, or the hospitalization of a family member; our baby niece and nephew sitting up for the first time and giggling; and even the everyday moments that could never be captured in an email or letter or photo.

God has taught me a lot about prayer through our directors who LIVE in prayer. They stop and pray at any moment and it is so powerful. Their relationship with God is real and present and immediate. So, as we live this exciting life on the other side of the world, I am so grateful for a God who listens to my heart and cares for His children omnisciently, omnipresently, and omnipotently! I can pray to the Almighty God for my family and friends who I miss so much and I know that God is listening and caring for us!

Baking lessons

2012-01-16T07:15:00.004-05:00

I remember as a child, attending a girls' club with my mom and sister, through our local church in Cote d'Ivoire. I specifically remember my mom teaching baking lessons and sewing lessons... Now it's my turn!

My teenaged helpers have been interested in my baking. They are fascinated by baking and love the taste of all the sweets that come out of the oven. So, I promised them baking lessons. Now that my washing machine is working (I LOVE IT!) we had a lot more time in our day today. So, our first baking lesson: brownies!

The girls read a recipe for the first time - completely in the dark about 1/3 c and 1/4 tsp. So, first some basic math - really basic! Then, following the directions, the importance of mixing baking powder in well with the other dry ingredients, cracking eggs on the side of the bowl... so many little things to teach... that are very important!

They jumped around in excitement every time the timer rang (I didn't quite get the temperature right on my min-max gauge on the oven, so we had to keep checking). They could hardly wait for the finished product! They each made a batch - one batch to go home with them and one batch to feed us! :)

She survived... where next?

2012-01-14T11:25:00.003-05:00

At church last Sunday, I quickly noticed a young girl with Down Syndrome and watched her discreetly (?) the whole service. Maybe 7 or 8, she was kept close by her 9 or 10 year old sister. Her older sister, literally kept her by her side at all times. When they stood together, she draped her arms over her shoulders. When they walked, she took her hand.

I asked the pastor if this girl attended school and she does! This is such a unique situation for several reasons. First of all, the child survived infancy. Down Syndrome is associated with low tone, poor feeding, heart defects... every child is different and God blessed this dear one with just the right combination and right family and community that she survived past infancy. She also survived a horrendous war! Secondly, she attends school. School is not free and often school is reserved for those who are seen to have potential to go somewhere with their education. Thirdly, her older sister clearly adores her AND is likely a huge reason that this sweet girl is alive today!

I don't know this sweet girl's limitations, but she did not speak when I saw her. Her older sister spoke for her. This may simply mean that she is slower to speak, shy, or just used to her sister speaking for her. But I praise God that He has placed this girl in that church, that community, that school, and I pray that through her life, through her sister's care for her, GOD WOULD BE GLORIFIED!

God does not make mistakes in creating nor in sustaining. This precious one survived, sustained by God - and now I wonder, what is her future in the village in Northern Uganda? Praise God that He is in control!

"O you of little faith" - on anxiety

2012-01-12T02:45:00.003-05:00

"Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, "The hand of the our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him." So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty. (Ezra 8:21-23)

And reading about Jesus calming the storm (Matthew 8:23-27), Jesus said, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

When I first arrived in Uganda, I was very fearful at night. I was fearful of people breaking in while we slept. So I did not sleep. In my anxiety, I reasoned that I could somehow prevent a break-in if I just stayed alert (makes sense, right?! ha!). It didn't help that the children didn't sleep well at first either, so I was up with a child every hour anyway. The outside noises were different, the inside noises were different.

One night, as I was gripped with fear, God broke through that fear and reminded me that GOD is greater than me, greater than "bad guys," greater than snakes and rats. Nothing that "bad guys" can do can prevail against God and His children without HIS permission. God brought us to Uganda and God will sustain us and protect us. Anything that happens is NOT outside of God's control.

Three months later, in my Bible reading plan, I read through these two passages (above) on the same day. It's interesting to me that Ezra was "ashamed" to ask the king for protection because of what Ezra had told the king about God. I suppose that's a whole different topic, but interesting nonetheless. So, instead of hiring men to watch over them, they asked God to protect them. Afterall, what can man do against God?

In the same way, as the disciples panicked in the boat in the storm, supposing that they would perish as Jesus slept, they also forgot the sovereignty of God. Do you suppose that as Jesus slept, God might have allowed the storm to swallow the disciples, let alone Jesus?!

It is so easy to lose sight of the power of our God. But, "if God is for us who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) A night guard cannot protect me more than my God. A band of soldiers could not have protected the Israelites more than our God. A bigger boat could not have protected the disciples from the storm more than our God.

This does not mean that we are foolish and fail to exercise caution. We lock up the house, we do not flaunt expensive items, we do not leave our children unattended. The Proverbs are full of charges to pursue wisdom and not folly. So we pursue wisdom and trust the Lord to care for us that GOD might be proclaimed as great through that care. We may lose our lives, our possessions, our health, but this will not be a surprise to God and we can trust that this is the best for HIS kingdom.

Praise God for HIS care, HIS protection, HIS sovereignty. There is so much more to life than my fears and my feeble attempts to hold it all together. There is eternity! Praise God!

Gracie day

2012-01-06T02:57:00.002-05:00

Today I focused on Gracie's homeschooling. I've had some struggles with... motivation... for Ana this week, but she's doing better with that, so I was able to give Ana her handwriting work and then let her play StarFall while I worked with Gracie.

Gracie's work is revolving around the Ipad that we were gifted for her. I have an old baby mitten that I cut a hole in to help her isolate her pointer finger. Today, I put a tube of foam inside her hand for her fingers to wrap around as this sometimes cues her to keep the other fingers closed. Then her hand and the foam went into the mitten and her pointer finger out the hole. It worked pretty well.

We started with an easy shape game (Shapes for Toddlers app) - she rocked that one! I still have to hold her elbow so she doesn't overshoot the Ipad - I'm working on a set-up for this. So I even closed my eyes so that I wouldn't be subconsciously guiding her. She KNOWS her shapes - did awesome!

Then we moved to a different game that was a bit more complex ("which one is round" etc.) and she did pretty good. She got stuck on things that didn't surprise me like, "which ones are pets."

Finally, we worked on her actually communication app (Proloquo2). She was tired by then but caught on to getting hugs, kisses, and tickles for touching the right icons. The Ipad definitely holds real promise for her if she can get her fine motor under control!

Then we did read alouds and cooking - all in her wheelchair with tray for good positioning.

What a bright girl!

Dek mit!

2012-01-05T11:49:00.003-05:00

I picked up the boys for a day at our house today. As soon as I pulled the car up to Home of Love, Moses climbed in. The mamas wanted to bathe them and put clean clothes on them, so I waited till fresh clean boys reappeared and off we went. Moody thoughtful Brian was quiet as this time around I actually buckled the boys in instead of letting them sit unrestrained in the car. (we've progressed in our relationship!) I wondered what he was thinking. Enthusiastic Moses was no mystery.

Especially as he grinned at me and said, "dek mit!" (good food!)

I groaned inside and outside and tickled him. As one of my friends said to me after describing the boys glued to my body as I prepared food, I'm "the food lady." Nothing more than that! (Although I also feel like the rule lady!)

I stood my ground today and, although I had a few bananas and I boiled a dozen eggs and had some chapatis that I know they LOVE, when they refused to eat my nutritious (and not unsavory) lunch, I refused to feed them a snack for another two hours. You don't eat lunch, you don't get a snack right away. It was hard as they lurked about any time I happened to go into the kitchen, ready to eat ANYTHING (besides rice and beans and veges, of course).

We walked them back to Home of Love. It's a bit of a walk (but I measured it on Google Earth to only be one mile - surprising!) with the double stroller with 3 children in it and Josh carrying Moses who is like a lead weight. But in the cool of the evening it was a lovely way to be out and about in the community.

Unfortunately, when we were finally leaving the boys at Home of Love, they cried, clung to Josh, and looked pathetic. Nearly broke my heart! They spend their whole day trying to get food from me, pushing limits, being aggressive with Noah (who is apparently the main feature at the Rattin petting zoo - poor child!), but they have started forming some attachment, at least with Josh. The boys NEED a father figure!

So the good news is that they apparently enjoy coming to our home and don't mind our rules and structure. The bad news is that they apparently enjoy coming to our home but they live at Home of Love! Pray for these two boys and for wisdom in our relationship with them! Praise God that we get to be in their lives!

Standing in line

2012-01-04T12:14:00.003-05:00

The pharmacy had a fragrance of diarrhea and those in line near me were coughing. They were clutching their notebooks which they had carried from the local clinic. Inside each notebook (essentially a patient's chart) was the "prescription" written for the pharmacist to fill. The doctor in me fought the pragmatic mom in me as I knew that I had to step into the crowded pharmacy and get to work on getting Gracie's meds in Gulu. I stepped in and realized that this was going to take awhile... I was NOT willing to stand in line properly so I WAS going to get cut in front of repeatedly. I settled in for the wait.

Proper line-standing-etiquette is deeply ingrained in Americans. You stand a certain distance away from the person in front of you. You stand confidently, avoid eye contact, and shift your weight to keep that place in line. You don't cut in front of someone else - that's a lesson taught to toddlers in the USA.

I have yet to figure out HOW to stand in line in Uganda in a way that makes me comfortable. I have discovered that it raises my ire to be cut in front of in the line. (I feel like a 6 year old as I feel myself getting upset that people are cutting in front of me!)

The reality is that I'm simply not standing in line properly, which means that I am inviting others to step in front of me. I am supposed to stand touching the person in front of me. Yes, literally snuggling the person in front of me in line. This signals that I am in line and that the space in front of me is not open for others to step into. I like my space... but I think I'll have to give up some of my personal space if I want to make it anywhere in line!

"Apwoyo matek!"

2011-12-25T13:32:00.004-05:00

I made the most delicious Christmas stollen I've ever made! I found dates and raisins in Gulu so we enjoyed the bread for breakfast this morning, sipped our Via coffee (thank you!), made a quick milkshake (horray for electricity and my blender!), and got the children dressed in their Christmas best in record time. We drove to Home of Love with the plan of meeting the rest of our missionary team there and walking to the local church. The local church never opened its doors... (???)

So Josh led us in a service which was just perfect for our large "family!" Then we ate a meal that Candis prepared at home and brought to us (wow!) and the children played on familiar ground. We had a cake (Jesus' birthday!) and some small gifts from our directors. Finally, exhausted, we headed home with yet another part remaining to our Christmas day - stockings for all the children!

They were a little surprised and mystified but soon caught on to unwrapping all the little presents - the best, of course, being match box cars from Mimi and Papa in the States!

Little Moses, full of life and enthusiasm always, kept saying "apwoyo matek!" (thank you very much!) in this goofy voice.

They hit a sugar high and then the end-of-Christmas-day mania. Once we corralled them all to bed, they crashed and were snoring before we hardly even could turn out the lights. What a treasure to have these two precious boys with our family this year for Christmas day!

(Snoozing on Baba Josh - when this little guy lets his defenses down, he's a real snuggle bug!)

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T15:08:00.002-05:00

Christmas Eve finds Josh unusually sentimental. I'm the sentimental one usually. But Christmas Eve holds so many memories and traditions. Christmas Eve in the States has involved a Christmas Eve service that we have usually been heavily involved in with the music, Josh's sister's birthday (usually celebrated at Jessi's prime time: midnight, after the Christmas Eve service!), lots of delicious food by Josh's mom, and a sense of family togetherness.

This year is different - so very different! We had to keep reminding ourselves that it's Christmas Eve!

So here is how we celebrated Christmas Eve. Josh took the day off to be home with us, which was so nice, although we kept way too busy with the kids to actually enjoy each others' company!

We had a good old fashion water-play-time-in-bins and rowdy water fight - perhaps a first for our visiting boys, but they figured it out soon enough!

For dinner, we had chapati burritos - again, perhaps not our boys' favorite food since they had never had anything like that before, but I gave them some other food once they had at least tried it. The rest of us loved it (and the dogs enjoyed the boys' leftovers! I guess the dogs are tired of Acoli food too?). I served Fanta which the kids went crazy over. For dessert we had ICE CREAM! It was a very enjoyable meal, even if it wasn't my mom's traditional beef stew, Russian tea, and stollen or Josh's mom's vege pizza, spinach puffs, italian beef, or any other of the delicacies that she is surely making this weekend.

We wrapped stocking presents for "our" five children tonight. Tomorrow, our "plans" (we live in Africa, so you never know what will ACTUALLY happen!) are to attend church in the morning at the church where the Home of Love children go each Sunday. After church, we'll join the rest of our missionary team and two other Home of Love children (older boys) at Home of Love for Christmas dinner. I'm taking a snack to have after church (crackers, avacado, boiled eggs, biscuits, chapati) and our director's wife will run off to heat up dinner and bring it back to us at Home of Love. In the evening, we'll open stockings (the boys have never really received any gifts on Christmas, so they don't really understand what's in store tomorrow! fun!) and we have one game for the family that we'll open. Later in the week we'll have a Rattin family Christmas to do more American type things and have an excuse for a private family day.

It's a different Christmas, but promises to be full of blessings as we celebrate Christ's birth!

Children for the Holidays

2011-12-23T00:32:00.000-05:00

In Uganda, there is a law that the childrens’ homes (orphanages) should empty out over Christmas holiday. That means that the social workers work very hard at finding a relative to take each child during the holiday. For some children, this serves as a trial run to see if that living situation might become later a permanent one. The social worker will make an assessment visit to see how the child is doing. If the relatives show a real interest in the child and the child does well, eventually that child might be “relocated” to the relatives. To date, this has been one of the highest priorities from the government regarding the placement of children. This has been especially pertinent in the years immediately following the war when many of the children in orphanages were actually displaced and not orphaned. It took a long time to find the scattered families and reunite them. For other children, perhaps they were ill and very young and the extended family was not equipped to care for a particularly vulnerable child.

So, this year at Home of Love, all but 3 children were able to join a family member for the holidays. The oldest boy is a street boy with significant issues and was not suitable to stay with us and our young children. The other two are the two boys that we currently are hosting. We are hosting them so that the Mamas at Home of Love can have a break. They are TIRED and they spend a lot of time away from their own families to care for our Home of Love children.

It has been an adventure, to say the least!

This is the first “mzungu” home that the children have ever seen, let alone stayed in. So, we had to explained through everything: electricity, outlets, gas stove (my worst fear with all the kids!!), mzungu toilets, bathtub, what water is safe to drink, don’t open the fridge (our poor fridge really serves as a cooler so we open it as little as possible)… The boys have actually done great with all those new things.

What they are struggling with most (or am I?) is orphanage behavior that is not appropriate in a home and a family. Grabbing for things, hoarding, throwing food on the floor, manipulative behavior…

And of course, there’s the language barrier. My Acoli has really taken off in the last two days! But I do feel bad for the boys who can’t communicate effectively with us. Our teenaged Acoli helpers have been around but I do long to communicate directly with the boys.

Pray with us that they would feel the love of Christ despite limited communication! Pray that I would be patient and tolerate chaos J! Pray that everyone would be safe (two injuries in two days so far…)!

The great jackfruit adventure

2011-12-20T08:34:00.003-05:00

In the market, I bought a knife dedicated to this adventure to save my one and only knife from the stickiness that is...

Josh brought home a huge jackfruit. Our Acoli friends decided that it was not quite ready yesterday, but today... today was the jackfruit day!

I am SO grateful for our Acoli friends who managed the jackfruit for me! This extremely sticky but yummy fruit is a lot of work to prepare! For Americans who are averse to any food that requires substantial work, jackfruit is NOT the fruit for you (hence why I am so grateful for our friends!).

The flesh is so very good raw, but, having some time, some friends to wrangle children while I cook, and some Acoli teenagers who are amazed at what I can do with a gas stove instead of charcoal, I wanted to try my hand at making jackfruit chips.
ALSO yummy! NOT healthy for you! A little tumeric, salt, and water thrown into the oil while frying and here's a simple but delicious way to cook jackfruit.

Skill #253: Wild dog handling

2011-12-16T12:53:00.005-05:00

The dogs that came with the house are still alive and present. So we finally found a vet (or so we think) to come see the dogs. When Josh went to the vet's office, he was told the vet was out and then suddenly they produced this other man, so we're not sure if he is a vet or not... such is communication most of the time!

The dogs do not trust us much (they have clearly not been treated well in the past) and we don't trust them much. So we have hardly ever touched them. Keep this in mind....

Josh called me two days ago and said that he had found a vet and that this man could come right then to see the dogs. Do I want Josh to come home or am I okay without him? I thought I could handle it, especially because I had two teens with me who could watch the kids while I dealt with the dogs.

I started looking for the dogs. Bob (the male) was in Josh's "new" office - he's not allowed in there, but likes the shade, cool tile floor, and the isolation. Bob is pretty sick. So, I closed the door and left him in there. At least Bob is contained and I know where he is.

Now, Sala, the female dog... She is so skittish and scared that when I try to pet her and she just whimpers and runs away. She was nowhere to be found. The guy at the gate for the compound said that he saw her run toward the other houses, so I took a little walk... no luck. She walked into the yard a short while later and so I tried to tie a rope to her collar and she freaked out. And I freaked out so she got away. 'sigh'

The vet arrived soon thereafter and he examined poor Bob. He decided that Bob needed three injections for three days. Ok. Then he asked me to "restrain the dog" while he injected him. WHAT?! I'm a doctor, I'm a mom, not a vet, not a wild dog handler. I asked for his advice on "restraining the dog" and he just looked scared of the dog. 'sigh' So I used my most sweet comforting mommy voice, got behind him, and held the base of his skull as if my life depended on it so that he couldn't get his head around to bite. For a terrifying 30 minutes... no really probably 3 minutes, but it felt that long... the vet nervously injected Bob while Bob growled, snarled, and tried to evade my death grip on his skull. Finally, Bob, recognizing that he was overpowered by mommy-doctor-wild-dog-handler, just laid down and gave up.

Then Sala... I could not catch her, try as I might. So, after asking 10 different times, 10 different ways if there were tablets to deworm her (instead of injections), the vet said that there were tablets to deworm her. Great! Bring those tomorrow!

Day 2: the vet returns. Josh stays home to meet him to do the dog handling. Bob suffers the indignity of more injections with less snarling and is still friends with us. Sala eats all the meat (the precious meat!!) and leaves the tablets... argh! Then, the vet informs us that he needs to inject her still with a second medicine... WHAT?! argh. Josh corners poor trembling Sala who never growled or tried to defend herself and she gets an injection. It's 9:00pm and her pills, re-disguised in yummy food, sit uneaten. Shoulda given her the second injection. Again... communcation problem!

Day 3: hopefully will be less eventful! Already Bob is perking up, eating again, and wagging his tail to see us come home.

Side note - the rumor is that Sala had puppies this past year... oh brother! here I was hoping she was spade...yikes....

O come let us adore Him

2011-12-14T12:37:00.003-05:00

O come let us adore HIM,

CHRIST the LORD!

Advent

2011-12-12T03:29:00.004-05:00

I've been struggling to make Christmas season feel like Christmas here, in the heat, away from the commercialism of the North American stores and culture. It's refreshing in one sense, but I'll readily admit that I miss Christmas season! My mother-in-law and I could together keep the Christmas season going for months! :)

But I made an advent wreath (still in progress - photo above) and the kids and I make Christmas crafts once I find craft supplies that are affordable. A friend has been feeding us Advent readings (thank you, Gina!) and I had a good enough internet connection to download sheet music for Josh to play guitar Christmas songs. I've been playing Christmas music non-stop on my computer - we're already about tired of my few Christmas albums (haha!).

I think I have a nativity set on the container that is now in Kampala (good progress!!) but will not probably arrive here, let alone be unpacked by Christmas...

BUT, I found brown sugar and ginger, so I should be able to make gingerbread (not to mention all the REAL ginger - haha!). And I have a stash of toilet paper tubes to make crafts out of... I just miss North American Christmas - plain and simple!

WHY parent?

2011-12-08T00:43:00.003-05:00

It came to me in the night that I didn't explain WHY we expect obedience, trust, respect, truth, and happy hearts from our children. WHY do we discipline? WHY do we rebuke? WHY do we interfere when they are hitting another? WHY do we comfort?

We believe that God sent up the family to show the Gospel to the world. I could talk about that for a long time, but down to parenting... We are to teach our children to obey, trust, respect, tell the truth, and have happy hearts to teach them to obey God. If my child learns at an early age that she does not have to respect authority, it will be so difficult for her to respect God. If my son learns as a toddler that my instructions are just suggestions, how will he hear God's words, the words of the almighty creator sustainer?

It's our job to teach children from the very moment they can comprehend so that they learn how to interact with our amazing Savior and gracious Father. It's our responsibility. When I tire of it (and I do!), Josh reminds me that THIS is why God made me to be a mother. Not for the joys of motherhood (although those joys are SO great!). Not for the snuggles (and those are so sweet!). Not for the easy days (those are so few at this stage in our young family). Not for the obedience (and that is so rewarding). But to TRAIN our children and usher them into a right relationship with God.

So, the children at Home of Love, likewise, need this training and this very well might be one reason that God has brought us here!

Mama Modeling

2011-12-07T13:58:00.004-05:00

The mamas at Home of Love are at a training this week, so during the day, older teens have been brought in to watch the children. The first day, half of the teens slept under a tree and the other half looked bewildered as the younger children ran wild. Today, over the course of a LONG day, I noticed a change in them.

Most of my time is still spent hanging back so that I can observe what is done culturally, what is appropriate, and learn how to behave myself. When it comes to children, it's difficult for me to allow some things to pass. So, through many discussion with Lucy, the matron of Home of Love, she has given me full reign to parent the children at Home of Love as if they were my own. Well, I don't take it that far (yet), BUT, I was certainly stepping in today.

Breaking up fights... lots of fights.

Talking to children about not fighting, hitting, or kicking each other.

Hugging, snuggling, kissing the crying ones... wiping those tears away.

Trying to figure out WHY a child is crying.

These are all things that are not routinely done by the mamas, so the teens have not seen this type of mothering modeled for the most part. Through the course of time with me, two of the girls started doing similar things and I was so proud of the maturity that they showed. They could have ignored it and let the kids fend for themselves. They could have yelled harshly. But I saw them tenderly hold a crying child, take a fighting one aside to talk to, and demonstrate in several other ways that they had a tender love for the children instead of a duty to keep them from killing each other.

I am, by NO STRETCH of the imagination, a perfect mother. But I do shower my children (and others!) with affection and expect obedience, respect, trust, honesty, and joyful hearts from my children. It will be interesting to see what happens at Home of Love as parenting is modeled by us and by families that are joining our team in the next year!

The cow path

2011-12-06T12:55:00.000-05:00

I chose carefully which side of the rift to perch the car on in our descent. Some holes in the road are best tackled by going directly through, others by trying to straddle with the car wheels, and others by avoiding all together. I apologized to my riders as we bounced over the ruts, rifts, holes, and dry streams like hyper children at a party. I plunged into the ditch, to avoid a pile of dirt and rubble that had been dumped in the middle of the road for a future road-repair project, and emerged victorious on the other side.

I squinted at the cow path and glanced at my companion. She nodded nonchalantly, pointing with pouty lips to a tree, no… to a rock, no… to the goat?

“So I go there?” I asked, just to clarify. Babra nodded. I swallowed. “Does she remember that we are in a vehicle?” I thought to myself. I dove in, trusting that some other car must have done this in the past. I cringed as the branches scraped along the roof and sides of the van. We emerged into a circle of huts. Relief to be in an open space with clean-swept, hard packed dirt underneath our wheels was quickly replaced by concern that a car was perhaps not supposed to be in someone’s home.

Babra was unconcerned and pointed to a fence. From the open car window, she greeted the mzee who was relaxing under his tree. He grunted his appreciation for the polite greeting. She pointed again to the fence. I saw an opening. An opening that was just the width of my van. An opening threatened by a piece of barbed wire on one side and a solid tree on the other side. I scooted the van around through various non-skilled maneuvers in order to approach the opening as directly as possible without using a hut as a launching pad. Feeling like a wimp, I finally asked Babra to jump out and pull the barbed wire out of the way. She complied and gave the fence post a complimentary tug as the van did its part in shoving it aside. I plunged in.

A lady carrying wood as big as multiple small trees on her head detoured off the cow path into the tall grass between two trees to let us pass. I smiled and greeted, hardly daring to take my eyes off the path, let alone lift a hand off the wheel to wave.

We emerged into another homestead. I focused so hard on not running into children, chickens, and goats, that I only later realized that I passed under a low clothesline to my parking spot. I was eager for this journey to end, so I jumped out, pulled a collapsible wheelchair out of the back of the van and left the one year old and two four year olds in the back seat briefly to go get Stephen. We found Stephen sitting in the front of his auntie’s home and, in my eagerness to retrace my steps (I was nervous that I would not figure out how to turn the van around), I loaded him into the van more quickly than a mzungu should.

We waited some minutes until Babra returned to the van and we were off again. I took out someone’s clean laundry (sorry!) and a stump (sorry car!), but succeeded in not scraping the bottom of the car at a point in the road that neither Josh nor I had succeeded in the past.

When we finally got back to Home of Love, Stephen’s beaming smile was reward enough as the children called his name and eagerly waited for me to open the door. I pulled out the wheelchair, lifted Stephen out of the van and he was wisked away before I could even settle him properly in the chair. I had a better understanding of why Stephen, with spina bifida, was left at home every day all day when I thought of the time, energy, fuel, and car damage that had gone into this trip just to bring Stephen to play with his friends. I prayed that this small act of love would show him Jesus’ love.

Missionary team

2011-11-30T12:18:00.003-05:00

Many of the ministries here are run by Acoli staff who do a marvelous job! But it is also important to gather as a missionary team to pray, fellowship, and support each other. Having a team in ACTION Gulu is really a new thing (and a team that is only growing as the Riegers plan on arriving out here late Jan/early Feb!) so we're all still trying to figure out HOW to be a team. Please pray for us as we work through HOW to be a team, HOW to support each other, HOW to support our directors (the Binghams), etc.

We celebrated Thanksgiving together as a team, including a visiting couple, and had a wonderful time! What a feast (mostly thanks to Candis)!

"Gradation"

2011-11-25T11:49:00.003-05:00

Today's cultural experience was quite a new one for us. Nursery school graduation (called "gradation"). Like many special events, it was an EVENT!

We hurried to get to the school by 9:00am, but given the gloomy cold rainy weather we figured that we would not be late for the "9:00am" start. On top of that, the head teacher broke his leg a few weeks ago and is still in the hospital in traction, so he was not around to "make things happen." So we helped put up the tent and decorations. I'm not sure when it started, no earlier than 10:00am. There were speeches, a sermon with an altar call (two folks came forward!

Pray for these two souls!), presentations by K1 and K2 (songs and recitations), a full debate by the older children's debate team, a drama and songs by the graduating K3 class... By 3:00pm, lunch hadn' t been served yet and we received the go-ahead to leave. We were grateful since we were exhausted!

The most interesting part was the presentation of the certificates to the young graduates. A name was called, a parent and relatives emerged from the parent's tent, grabbed the child, dragged or carried the mystified child at a near run to the presenter while the women in the escorting group let out a shrill yelping exclamation of joy. (We'll figure out how to get a sound file for you to hear this Acoli sound of joy, also used in church services to praise God or to greet a visitor in a group if the visitor brings particular joy.) The children looked bewildered at the scene but had a quiet sense of pride once they were back on terra firma looking at their certificate.

(One of our two Home of Love graduates with her certificate. It is VERY special that she has her hair braided - usually it is nearly shaved short.)

First thanksgiving... in Uganda

2011-11-24T12:17:00.006-05:00

(our first Thanksgiving in Uganda)

We have SO much to be thankful for!

Our first thanksgiving in Uganda was spent out and about. We had a prayer walk with the team and staff at the nursery/primary school and Home of Love orphanage. Ana was thrilled because that meant that she spent the day with Fortunate, Brian, Moses, Innocent, and her other friends. She was off with her friends most of the day, even sitting in Fortunate's class and crying when it was time to leave.

Back to the rest of us.

Since this prayer day involved people coming from various locations and since it was raining (Acoli DO NOT like the rain!), the start was delayed until Gracie was much too hungry and tired to participate. So I sat and fed her porridge (maize porridge is served mid-morning for "breakfast" at the school) during the first part of the prayer walk. Now, the porridge is stored in a thermos to stay hot as it is walked from the cooking shelter to the office and while people get around to serving themselves. The thermos is VERY effective, so, as our co-laborer Angie put it, it comes out as molten lava. Those of you who have ever fed Gracie know that Gracie does not tolerate molten lava, nor steamy, nor hot, nor warm... no, she only likes lukewarm food. It takes a long time, lots of stirring, pouring, blowing, to get molten lava down to lukewarm.

Needless to say, I failed.

Her whining and arching turned into full blown wailing just a few yards from the open-windowed classrooms. Poor screeching Noah was very ready to get down from my back but there was no way that I could keep up with VERY active Noah loose on his own two feet while getting my big girl out of her wheelchair and getting her to stop wailing with her big girl lungs.

My daily crises! :)

The prayer walk continued without us (the kids and I eventually joined). The group of local pastors, mamas from the orphanage, and missionaries went into each classroom and prayed for the children. Each of the 530+ students were prayed over by someone as the group wandered through the classrooms touching each student's bowed head, praying. Some classes started their prayer time with precious songs to the Lord.

We eventually made our way to Home of Love (near where we live anyway), stopped for samosas at the bakery to prevent another melt down (Gracie is a every-two-hour-eater), stopped at the market to pick up some sweet potatoes for dinner, and took a long time going over the dirt roads that are in pretty bad condition now at the end of a long rainy season. (If you splash someone, you have to give them equivalent of around $1 so they can go buy laundry soap. Pedestrians glared and scowl at puddles as you pass by in a car, as if watching to see if the puddle is going to leave it's boundaries and splash them.)

We ate posho (stiff maize porridge) and beans (Home of Love cooks make the best beans!). Ana ran wild with her friends, wasting lots of bore-hold water, running around barefooted, and using the pit-latrine on her own (where did this fearless child come from?!). Gracie screamed and giggled with her adoring young fans, never alone in the eating shelter. Noah, well Noah is the one who keeps me hopping. But some older boys were home so they watched him so I could participate in the praying at Home of Love. We touched each bed in both the boys' and girls' dorms and prayed for each child, the mamas, the cooks, the administrators.

We finally wrestled Ana into the car and got home to start cooking. Josh went into town for the second day in a row to try to get his motorbike. Today he was told that the bike is here. Yes, the bike is here, but still in an unbelievably tiny box. Tomorrow it will be built. Come back tomorrow. Fine.

Josh came home to rescue me from crying Grace (hmm, lots of crying today - poor kid!), not-napping-Noah, needy messy Ana (too much wild time with friends!), and lack of electricity for too long which meant that I had to cook any and all meat that I had in the fridge. (We just have a large dorm sized fridge for this very reason and we don't have meat very often. But Josh had found "mince meat" (ground beef) so he had bought a fairly large quantity for me.)

So, long story short, for Thanksgiving we had meatloaf (a treat for sure!), stuffing, and sweet potatoes. I sat down at the table incredulous that I only had 3 dishes prepared - I was sure that with all that work I had prepared more dishes! Everything is so labor intensive! It was delicious nonetheless!

The kids and I made turkey candleholders and a "Thank you God" container which we could have filled to overflowing! God has been SO gracious to us and given us SUCH an easy transition into this new life. We are so grateful to BE in Uganda after so long of preparing and so grateful to be part of the ministry of the Gospel here.

Church

2011-11-20T10:20:00.003-05:00

We went to the church that is just near Home of Love today. We really enjoyed the worship time - we haven't learned enough Acoli yet to understand the songs, but it was beautiful to be witness to the dancing and singing to the Lord!

(Here we are walking to church with the Home of Love children. Gracie has a group working on getting her wheelchair through the clay and mud and ruts and Ana is glued to her best friend!)

Ana went to the children's service with her best friend, Fortunate, and they caused problems with all their hugging, giggling, and goofing off together! They are peas in a pod, those two!

(This picture started as a cute hugging picture till Fortunate decided that Ana should jump on her back while Brian quietly and sedately watches the circus!)

(Gracie got taken "home" by the older girls after church and we found her, some time later, by following her joyous yells and a chorus of giggling children. The girls had taken her into the shade of the eating shelter at Home of Love and she was having a blast!)