Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart

Day 100!
Happy Belated Thanksgiving Friends!
These past couple weeks have been full of chaos and madness but it has been so good! Two Fridays ago, (the 19th) we went up north to Lira. Lira is part of the northern region that was ravaged by the Lord’s Rebellion Army (LRA). While there we visited an orphanage, a café, and a woman’s shelter. The orphanage and café were western run and the shelter was run by a Ugandan woman who used to be on the police force here. I guess I shall start with the café. The café is not run for any specific evangelical purpose, but the owners started it up simply to create jobs and educate Ugandans on the art of customer service. While I was not overly impressed by their business plan and the fact that long term they always saw the need to have a westerner on staff, they had great milkshakes. Or perhaps I am just ice cream deprived. Either way, it was interesting to see an organization that is just here. Not to bring the light or nurture it, but to provide jobs. The following day, Saturday, we went to an orphanage/water project/school/vocational training center/church/etc. run by a retired couple. It was a huge drastic change from any school or such place we have visited. The orphanage reeked of wealth. The entire campus was on a generator and all of the huts that house the orphans had electricity all the time. Let me quantify this. I do not have electricity every night. Is running a generator a necessary expense for an orphanage? Not to mention an orphanage that is completely donor sponsored? That was another aspect of Otino Waa that I did not believe made them very sustainable. They are almost 100% donor funded. The small café run by their vocational students is self sustaining, but other then that donors. Another factor is that the donors are not even churches, but most are individual people. The couple is almost 70 and planning on retiring in the next two years, but they also feel the need to always have a westerner on staff. What happens if no one wants to take over after them? What happens if the donors for the children stop giving? It takes three donors to fund each child. And most of the donors have personal connection with the couple working there currently. What happens to the children if the orphanage fails to maintain the current standard? The next place we went was the woman’s shelter. Hellen was a member of the Ugandan Police force and while serving in Northern Uganda in the IDP (Internally Displaced Peoples) camps she saw the need for someone to help the women who had been abused. Its was certainly been interesting to compare the Ugandan run organizations with the western run and funded ones. We spend so lavishly even as far as aid is concerned.
Next highlight. Thanksgiving. Corn. Turkey. Fantastic. We started the day baking cinnamon rolls or Wesley, Lacey and I did. Pumpkin cinnamon rolls. They were pretty great. That adventure was followed by football. Also very fun. Then dinner and a cornhole/baggo/bean bag toss tournament. Prolly one of the most memorable thanksgivings I have ever had. It was really cool for us all to come together and be like family to each other. Thank the Lord for family and my family back home.
Then safari. Last weekend was crazy fun! I cannot remember the last time I had so much excitement in one weekend. I spent an entire Saturday morning doing a game drive hanging off the roof of a van. Mommy, don’t worry it was semi-safe. We saw elephants, water buffalo, antelope, giraffe, bush monkeys, and hippos and lots of fun birds. Then in the afternoon we went on a water safari and saw more hippos, elephants, birds, and even some crocodiles. The game park we were at was the Murchison falls national wildlife preserve. We also got to see the namesake falls. They were pretty spectacular.
Which brings us to this week. Its been so crazy how fast this week has gone. Monday was a full day of classes and the last history class, Praise the Lord! Yesterday I went into Kampala with Wesley and Angelina for a project that Angelina needed to finished. We got rained on, lost, hit on, rode like five taxis, and finally after three hours arrived at the malaria consortium. It was a crazy long day but we got some icecream which clearly made it all better. Tonight we are headed to a cultural dance in Kampala. It is supposed to be really good. I am pretty excited about it.
15 days from now I will be back in the states. I am not sure that I am ready for it. Please pray that I invest greatly in the last two weeks that I have left here.
Happy Wednesday to all!

Last Trip of the Semester?!?!

Uganda Day 88

Today we leave for the last trip of the semester. That is just crazy...We are headed to Lira in the north. This area has been ravaged by the LRA and rebels in the past. We will visit some organizations that are run by Westerners and then at least one that is run by a Ugandan woman. It should be really interesting to see the difference between a 'need' filled by a native versus a westerner. And the funding aspect of something funded from the inside and something western funded.
Please pray for safe travels and great experiences!
(and time to do all the homework that has to be done for next week...)
Have a beautiful weekend!

Shilo, Eliannah, and I

Straps and Souls

Uganda Day 86

Yesterday, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit a company called Sseko.

Sseko shoes is an organization that helps Ugandan girls fresh out of secondary school earn enough money to pay for the first year of university by making sandals. Sseko works with a specific secondary school outside of Kampala and employs about nine girls for each 9 month period. The way that the Ugandan school system works is that primary through secondary school calendars run February to November and then the University calendar runs, like ours, September to April with 9 months built in so that students can earn some cash for school fees. (School loans are practically non-existent here) Anyhow, Sseko steps in an gives these girls, who have aspirations to further their education, the opportunity to work and earn the money for the first year with opportunities for further employment and scholarship. One of the cool aspects about this company lie in their goal to eventually, on the Ugandan side, be totally Ugandan run (but since their main market is western there will always be some design logistics done by a westerner). They have only been in business for about 2.5 years and have a full time staff of about 30 in Uganda and the two owners, in the states, act as salesmen and all the other fun stuff.
So the question, why women? The thought behind that lies within the saying,

"If you educate a boy, you educate and individual, but if you educate a girl, you educate a nation (or the future)."

And the train of thought that follows: a woman will pass her education on to her children or will at least push for her children to be educated. Another reason, education seems to be one of the best forms of birth control. An educated woman is more interested in achieving something herself than she is in just having babies. Especially in a society that is so male dominated like Uganda a program like this is unique, epic, and cutting edge. If a family has money to send one child to university, it is going to be a son. For a son has the responsiblity to provide for his parents whereas a girl, once she is married, is more responsible to her husband's family (traditionally, mind you. Things are changing here like everywhere else but...tradition and culture still hold strong). A boy would also be in the work world longer for he will not stay home with children after they are born. In theory, he has a better return on investment. But does he?
Sseko makes sandals. The soles of their shoes have five loops through which one passes a straps of fun colors. They are pretty cute. I did, indeed, buy myself a pair.

{Soles..}

Sseko is not a Christian ministry. They do not claim to bring glory to Christ through their organization. It was just a revelation for me. We have spent so much time talking about ministries and sustainability and the success or lack there of in ministry.
{And Straps.}

But this is a dichotomy that I'm not sure where it falls. Its like this semester, I came to Africa and I am not doing missions. Does that happen? Apparently it does. So then I have to ponder...can God get the glory from a company, an organization that does not set out to glorify him? I feel that he can. If even one girl gives him glory for the opportunity that is more than enough. And even if no one does, can God get glory out of the coincidental good that happens in his world? I say he must.


To God be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

My Little Sweets

Just a few pictures as a glimpse into my world.
Welcome Home.

Eliannah.

Shilo.

I tried in vain to get a picture of both of them together, but in each picture, one would look and the other wouldn't so I gave up. These sweet girls bring joy to my life and a smile to my face.



Happy Friday to All!

A Hundred Shillings Worth of Saturday's Thoughts

Written Saturday Night
Day 75

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. –Anais Nin.

What is next? I have been blessed with so many great opportunities. How many college students have the chance to spend a semester in Mexico, tour Europe, and study in Uganda. What are these experiences preparing me for? I am a firm believer that God is using each one of these experiences to shape me into the woman that I am to become to best serve him…with knowledge comes responsibility. I have plans, goals, and dreams for after college, but those are up in the air contingent upon God. What if I graduate only to fall on my face and not know which way is up? Not understand my role in this life, in God’s great plan? I fear failure. I fear never achieving success. But what is success? What is true success? What makes a person successful or not? I have my own definition of success. Will I ever achieve it? Can I come to a place where I am moderately successful? Is success all or none? Can one gain partial success? I see myself five years from now. Graduated. Married. Involved in a ministry. Open. Excited. Striving for a joyful future. Motivated. Passionate. – Here I sit on the floor in my room in a cement house in Mukono in Uganda in Africa. What does this experience change? I have knowledge. I have passion. But what good is that if I do not have a venue for it? At what point does my knowledge converge on my passions and become productive? Every college student dreams of graduation, some with dread and others with joy and trembling, but how many come face to face with the reality there might not be a job by which one can define one’s self waiting for them. What do I pursue after graduation? A career, vocation, or identity? Who am I, and what am I looking for out of the eighty or so years that I have been given? What drives me? What keeps me going when my resolve is burning low? What makes me any different? God made me a unique person with my own dreams, hopes, and passions. Where does he want me? What does he want from me? We talk of how all God wants is our love, but really, is that all? Love. All encompassing, all consuming love that will motivate me to do other acts, that will drive me to new ends and new reason. Will I ever get to a place where I am so in love with my God that everything I do stems from a desire to express my love to him? I am certainly not there now. And still, he showers me with so much blessing, so much joy, so much love. Why me? Who am I that I am worthy of such blessing? The things that seem so simple are boundless when placed in the right perspective. What did I do to deserve this? Perhaps the only answer is that God is good. It is of nothing that I have or will do. I will never be worthy. I will never be justified by my actions. The best I can do is take what I have been given and use it to bless the children of God, the people that populate his world. I have been given these opportunities, this knowledge, a sound mind, a nationality that opens many doors, passion, and the grace to see it (perhaps not in the best perspective, alas). I guess all that is left is to raise my hands in awe and wonder and say Lord, use me. Wherever. However. Whenever. Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Let me bring glory to your name with what you have graced mine with. I am but clay in the potter’s hands. May I become something that may be filled and poured out. Thank you Father God for all I have been given. All in abundance, in excess. I am truly blessed.
Who am I?