Love Orphans

Greeting to all!
Instead of the "normal blog" i have a proposition for you....

While being here in Uganda i found an orphanage that was started by college age Ugandan . And one of the ways that the orphanage gets money for food, school fees, health care ect. is to sell paper bead necklaces that the children make. However, there is a little problem....everyone in Uganda makes paper bead necklaces therefore there is not a huge market for them here. Therefore, some of the GO ED students decided that we would take some of the paper bead necklaces back to the States to sell in order to make some extra cash for them, This would be a huge blessing for this orphanage because they are not sponsored by an outside source. I am really excited about helping out this group of kids that are trying their hardest to make it. However, i was wondering how many of my friends and family would be interested in buying a paper bead necklace for a cause such as this???

Maybe this is something just to think about...this blog is not about trying to get you to buy jewelry but this is just a silly idea we had to help out a group of kids and we will see if it will work

besides that Jordon and I are doing great! i think we just realize the other day that here in a two weeks we are really going home.
WOW it just seemed like four months flew by! This next few weeks we will be finishing up our classes and be debriefing our trip!
Not to mention Jordon 21st birthday is coming up!
If i were to be honest i can not wait until Monday gets here because this is when my economics research paper is due and i will have no worries!
on a random side note....Jordon and i have been in awe of all the random things that have been going on back at home such as: earthquakes, tornadoes, flooding, hail, snow storms, and the list goes on and on! man sometimes i ask my self in a joking manner.....is the world coming to an end???
So when we come home we can not wait to hear about all the things we have missed out on.
love you all and God bless!

BLOG?

Greetings Everyone!

Today has been a GREAT day! Jordon and I went to the Baby Orphanage. Where we were not allowed to take pictures but just believe me when i say these babies where so cute. These children at the orphanage were between the ages of 0-4 years old. There were about 40 babies there and all of them were abandoned. It was sad to pick up theses smiley, happy babies that you knew had either TB, HIV AIDS, or some other disease knowing that theses babies families could not take care of them. But i can honestly say we had the time of our lives.

So the last few days in Kampala has been crazy! All of the taxi's and boda's in the town are on strike and yesterday they had a riot! (and if you dot know about African riots....they are scary! it involves: killings, burnings and police blocking roads with bob-wire, ect.) Have no worries we are safe. But Long Story Short, all the taxis and boda's are upset at the government. They are upset because the gov. is making all the taxi and boda drivers get new vehicles. It is really sad because the taxi and boda drivers barely make enough money to feed there families let alone buy new taxis for themselves. Today's newspaper was really sad. Jordon and I bought a copy so we have to show it to you when we get home. But today it was hard to find transportation around town since all the taxi drivers are on strike. lol in spite of the transportation problems, this afternoon we went to a play at the National Theater. The Play that went saw was called The Black Momba.

Well, Jordon and I are really not looking forward to this week....we have to do an 15-20 page economic research paper, two economic test, and need to read books for class. But after this week we will be able to have fun again. lol!

Each day seem to go by so fast. I can not believe that in three weeks we will be back on a plane to go home. Although we will be glad to see our friends and family we are going to miss Uganda so much. Africa is a place that sometimes seems like home. God is rocking our world. However, we find it hard to express in a blog. We love you guys so much! Thank you for all the encouragment! We will write more soon!

Uganda means Buganda means Luganda!

Uganda means Buganda means Luganda!

We know that does not make much sense to anyone who has not been to Uganda, but Uganda is the country, Buganda is the area of the Bugandan Tribe (which is where we live) and Lugandan is the Language that they speak here! Kinda an inside joke to us, sorry bout that! Well, we are so glad to be back home here in Uganda. It has definitely been a life changing experience traveling and seeing other areas of Africa. There is so much that we have taken from this experience so far, most is not clear at this point. I feel like for us to come back the same people as we left is not possible. Our eyes have witnessed things that are so pleasing, but in other times things that could haunt a person for life. The way people worship here is incredible. Sometime we have to ask ourselves what makes us joyful and we realize by the people here that it is not in material posessions. It is difficult to explain the excitement and faith we have seen in the people here, just imagine having nothing, but at the same time having everything or praying with expectations when it seems that no one hears your cry. The faith that is taking place here in Africa is something that seems unwavering.

Let us tell you about two women that work here at our house. Their names are Grace and Howa. These women mean the world to us.

Grace is the woman on the left of Leah and Howa on the right. These two women are the most incredible women we have met in Africa. Introducing you to Grace, she is beautiful woman with heart of Gold. She is unmarried and on here free time she studies recipes to satisfy our American stomach. She is such an amazing cook, but she also has other great qualities. She loves to learn new cultures and I am tellin' ya she can do almost everything. She braids hair, she cooks, she is a stellar volleyball player, she has a contageous laugh, she tells jokes and keeps up on the daily news. She is one of the Africans that we met that is not afraid of Dogs. Overall AMAZING! The most amazing thing about this woman is that she is a servant of God and a devoted christian. She spends here time taking care of everyone. When she is not serving the Go-Ed students she is serving family and friends. She visits the hospitals to check on people and tends to her home village in order to provide for them. She is like an angel sent by God to watch over everyone. Sometimes we joke and say the reason why she is not married is because there is no man in this world that could compare to her. She is so great! Howa is her friend and a great servant as well. She loves to talk and is improving greatly on her English. She loves to learn and she has a smile that could turn anyones frown upside down. She is a divorced woman and has a wonderful 6 year old daughter named Shadia. It is a wonder that Howa doesn't quit, she cleans up after all 15 of us, keeping the house spotless; and let me tell you that is a chore and a half. She is such a kind hearted lady. She has the most incredible heart and she is such a beautiful person. Our prayer is that one day Howa can find her value and freedom in Jesus Christ. In that picture, Leah is striving to be like Grace and Howa. And of course the first step is having the same apron! LoL!

We could talk about those two people for hours-We thought we would share with you a little glimpse of the people that are making an impact in our lives. Sad to say we only have 4 more weeks left in Uganda and we have alot of loose ends to tie. Please pray that we will not get stressed over the work we have left to do and please keep both of these wonderful women in you prayers. In addition, please pray for Leah, she has decided to change her major to Sociology with an emphasis in social work...it seems a little late in the game, but she feels that without a doubt that is where she needs to be. She has done a lot of research on what it requires and it is manageable to still graduate on time. God is really molding us alot into the people that he has desired for us to be and we both feel that God has been working on this situation even before we came, it has just become obvious since we have been here. We will leave you with a few random photos to satisfy all of your photo craves. God Bless you all and thank you so much for reading our blog! We love you all!

P.S. Thank you so much Lisa Rohr for all your encouragement! We love you!

This is us on the Ugandan Equator

Leah on the northern hemisphere,
Jordon on the Southern....you just

cannot keep us apart. LOL!

This is right outside of our gate in Kampala, Ug.
Standing by the FH sign.

Leah and our house dog, Jack

- she states "Jack is not as cute as Jake"

Our favorite place to go for a good morning,

afternoon and evening snack!

Lion what is your name???

Let me just tell you the safari rocked my world....

Our safari was at Queen Elizabeth National Park which is located in Uganda.

We stayed at the game park for three days! In those three days we went on 6 safaris. We would wake up at 6:00 am to go on our first ride then we would go again at around 5:00pm for our night ride. Here are some animals that we saw during our African Spring Break!

Warthog~ they were EVERYWHERE and they are so funny! Not only did we see them during our safari ride but we could also see them when we walked around our hostel.

Baboons

So many Elephants. I just think that this picture is funny because the elephant is "just" crossing the road

Hippos

Water Buffalo- I hear they are really mean, but I thought they where so cute! They run so funny and I think this one has poop on its head.

I don't know what this is....but there are millions of them; they are beautiful! You can always know when a lion or leopard is around because these deer always just stand around and look at the predators.

These are mongees. They were all over our camp. Jordon and I would stock them around camp. They are funny animals!

Hyenas! We saw Three!

WE SAW SIX LIONS! AMAZING!!!!!

****IN ADDITION, WE SAW a leopard!!!

*This photo was taken when we were all on top of our bus waiting for the leopard to come closer... it never did but it was beautiful!

In addition to our stellar safaris we also went on a two hour boat safari! Jordon and I saw TONS of Hippos and BABY hippos, crocks, along with birds and more birds! We had so much fun!







The beginning of our African Spring Break has been AMAZING! Today after a 12 hour bus ride we are back in Kampala and it feel like home! It is good to be back! Please pray for us as we only have 4 1/2 weeks left and we have many projects! We love you all and miss you all very much!


PS. If Cob reads this blog.....The transfer file worked for a while but 10 minutes after you logged out the file failed b/c the internet quit! I'll try to be on the Internet a lot so that I could maybe get that song for my project Thank You!

Rwanda, Rwanda!

Greeting everyone!


We are both sorry that we have not been keeping up on the blog as much as we'd like to! Sometimes Internet is limited! However, we are learning so much and at the same time we are having the time of our lives. Therefore, in this blog we will briefly describe what we have been doing in Rwanda!!!

This last weekend we went into western Rwanda to celebrate Easter. We stayed in a hotel on the side of lake Kivu! It was a nice place to relax and reflect on what the true meaning of Easter is and in addition take time to reflect on the things we have learned about Rwanda and its past genocide. On Sunday we went to church and they asked the Go-Ed students to sing a song for the church. It was so much fun. Seeing how Rwandans celebrates Easter Sunday was very interesting. It was 100% focused on God. This was truly refreshing!

After the service we all went out on the lake. We took a boat to two different Islands. The first one was called Bat Island. On Bat island there are thousands and thousands of bats just flying around. IT WAS AWESOME. Then the second Island, 'Peace Island' there was a volleyball net, we went swimming and there was a monkey you could play with. Jordon loved the monkey so much! But the monkey got a hold of Jordon's shirt that he was not wearing and wanted to put it on. However, when the Jordon tried to get the shirt back from the monkey... the monkey made it very clear that he wanted the shirt! The monkey got mad when Jordon reached for the shirt and the monkey jumped at Jordon scaring him to death! Good thing it was on a leash tied to a tree...

*Yes these little black things are bats. This picture was taken at the highest point on Bat Island.

Last Monday, before leaving lake Kivu we went to a graduation of men and women that completed a reconciliation program while learning how to sew using a sewing machine! It was so encouraging to see an effort to rebuild Rwanda after the genocide.

**These are pictures of us at hotel Mel Collines. (which was the hotel in the the movie Hotel Rwanda) Becca, Jordon and I had a fun night out at the Hotel. We ate at the restaraunt on top which overlooked the entire city of Kigali (the capital of Rwanda) we ate soup and Ice cream, but it was kind of, okay...VERY, expensive! But worth it! Once we were finished we found this awesome place next door. Inside they has singing! We thought it was Karaoke so Jordon and Becca thought they would sing a song. It was so funny. Later we found out it was not Karaoke but it was an actual band performing and they just let Jordon and Becca sing for fun! Everyone thought they were famous and that they should get a record deal. We plan on going there again tonight to say good bye to our new friends! It is going to be sad leaving here.





The last three weeks in Rwanda has been difficult, emotionally challenging, but also so much fun. God has really open Jordon and my eyes and widening our horizon to see things differently. However, if I had to say only ONE thing that I have learned from Rwanda it is that there is HOPE. What Rwanda has been through the last decades is so terribly sad, but they are looking forward onto their future and it is really encouraging. It just blows my mind how wonderful the people are in Rwanda, they are full of love and forgiveness. God is continueing to transform our hearts. I am excited to see what God has in store for the future. Looking back and seeing how difficult it was coming here to Go-Ed I just Praise the Lord that Jordon and I are here. We are here for a purpose. I am so excited to see what the Lord will do with our lives through this experience. I can not say it enough...But thank you for all the prayers and support.

Intro to Our Rwandan Experience

A Glimpse of our Rwandan Experience...So far!

Alright, we are both in Rwanda. This place is amazing; there is a good climate, the land is green and people are very quiet and reserved. There is a place called Bourbon Coffee which is very nice, much like Starbucks, but it is very expensive! We enjoy going to Bourbon and just relaxing sometimes. It can be a good “get away” when we need a little western break from the Muzungu (white traveler) treatment. But to be honest, we could not have it any better here, we have made some friends and we have really enjoyed our class on Peace Building and Conflict Resolution. During our studies we have been able to visit many of the genocide memorials in which we were able to gain more knowledge and recognize the realization of this most tragic event. Here is an excerpt from my journal:
There were several things that left imprints on my heart as I ventured through this memorial museum. The first thing that struck me was the imagery of the machetes, guns and clubs used in the massacre; knowing that the tools that lay within reach of me were weapons that took the lives of men, women and most sadly children. The torture that was described in the journal entries, which expressed one of the most horrifying events in the history of the world, it was described that people were humiliated, tortured, beaten, mutilated, raped, then murdered. As I walked further into this diary of the genocide, I stood face to face with the clothes that were worn by victims at the time of their death, then photos of those who met their fate during this genocide. My stomach began to feel upset and I had to sit down in fear that I was going to vomit. The reality was beginning to hit the surface. These were real people, with real families, and real lives. They each had interests, fears, humor, and personalities each awaiting their future ambitions, goals, and dreams. The blanket of security that families found in each other, friends and their community was ripped away like that of a scab on a healing wound, by the same people which they found their security. I am disgusted and embarrassed by the sinful nature of mankind. I then stepped into a room filled cases that exposed the remains of the innocent. My mind has with drawn once more.

Although, studying the genocide can be extremely depressing it is best to focus on what is happening now in Rwanda. There are many NGO’s that are dealing with the reconciliation of Rwanda. There is one thing that I believe Leah and I have both have seen and that is how God is working through the people here to forgive one another. It is unbelievable the testimony that Rwandans have; here are a group of people that nearly wiped out half of there population due to genocide and the thing we noticed the most 14 years later is FORGIVENESS! It is incredible. Also, the people here are overwhelmingly accepting and nice to us. I have been greeted by children that run at me just to give me a hug, also men and women greet us in the most comforting ways. Today a young boy ran to me and in the little bit of English that he knew he said “May God be with you!” I think there is an ongoing trend here in Africa, and that is the value of people and hospitality that they have here. Leah and I are doing great and we miss everyone back home, but in all honesty we are having the time of our lives and feel that we are exactly where we should be. Thank you all for your prayers and support. Enjoy the photos and until next time Caio!

ETHIOPIA

Salam! That is Amharic for "hello"! For the past month I have had the most amazing opportunity to travel to Ethiopia, the second most impoverished country in Africa. In Ethiopia I taught 9th grade English in Tach Gayint - a small village in the middle of "no where" Ethiopia.
God really used this experience to teach me many different things. One of the the things that I learned was just how BIG our God is! I felt completely overwhelmed once I reached this village and had to figure out why in the world these students even have the desire to learn English. I felt like it was a pointless idea, but as I spoke to the students and the teachers I discovered that it was not only English that they wanted to learn, they wanted to develop their country. This seemed like an impossible thing for me to help with. As I stood on top of one of the mountains and looked down on Tach Gayint and realized how small it actually was and how little I was compared to that. This is when I realized that any change that I was going to bring to this place was going to have to come from God. I taught 2 classes and helped with starting up an English club for the students to develop their English better. Also, I taught computer skills to teacher. That was an experience, many of the teachers did not even know how to double click a mouse. But my friend Scott, another Go-Ed practicum student, helped and together we taught them to surf Encarta- b/c they had no internet! They really loved it once they got it figured out! Also, Scott and I helped with revising papers for some local Food for the Hungry projects. The picture to the top left is me with some of my students.

To the top right there is a picture of a beggar girl that lives on the streets of Addis Ababa- the capital city of Ethiopia. Many of the children are forced by their unemployed parents to beg for money. The children work all day asking anyone for change. I had a difficult time with this because I know that money will not solve there problem because they will just spend it and be righgt back to the same place. So, when I could I offered food to the families. Many times they were very grateful, but there were times when the children would just look at me and continue to beg for money. This was very disappointing. The children were only focused on money, they have been taught to accept only money. Please pray for the children in Ethiopia and all over the world that live difficult lives as these.

In this both of these photos above you can see just a little bit of the wild life in Ethiopia. There are wild camel that just travel in herds and then baboons. I also saw pelicans and hyenas. It was very cool. This was the Africa that everyone talk about when it comes to the scenery and animals. It is beautiful here, but it is very hot and dry. You can probably imagine just how excited I was when I saw all of these animals.

In these next photos, there is just a little bit of the scenery of in Ethiopia. At the left I am standing in the center of the two men, in the middle of a potato farm, directly in the middle of a beautiful valley. You can see the sun peircing through the mountains. On the right, I am standing in the middle in front of the Blue Nile Falls- just like what I imagine The Niagra Falls to look like. Here we saw some university students having a mud fight in the pools of the falls and decided to join them. They welcomed us in without question and we got as muddy as ever!!!

All in all I learned so much about my self and my relationship with God during this month long adventure. God is continually molding my heart and changing me for the better. I am so excited to now be back in Kampala, Uganda with Leah. We have been sharing all of our stories and we are excited to be with eachother again. Tomorrow we both leave for Rwanda, by bus, for 9 hours. It will be long and tiring I am sure, but praise God for this experience.
Continue to pray for both of us and we will try to stay in contact the best we can. Thanks and God Bless!!!