Life has been very busy.
I have moved to La Jolla, CA and am attending Mesa Community College.
This is all very new to me.
I have my team around me every day which makes being home so much easier.
I am working on writings still!!!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
enjoy
Baby Michael
Mbale
Bible study, one of my girls, Gloria
Maria, met her at the market
Hellen
Isaac, my love
Prosasco
Prosasco
Fiona
Awari Joseph
Dennis
Tailor
Barlonyo, site of the 2004 LRA massacre
Barlonyo
Barlonyo
Sharon, Hellen, Santa
writing will come soon!Saturday, August 15, 2009
ENTEBBE-->DUBAI-->LAX-->HOME.
I just wanted to let all of you know that I have made it home safely.
My legs are extremely swollen.
I will be updating soon with photos [of my beauties].
Thank you for reading throughout my journey, I hope I brought joy to you through my writing.
Monday, August 10, 2009
los angeles, i'm yours
left for sipi falls today
last night was hard
update will come when i return home, no internet until America
good day
last night was hard
update will come when i return home, no internet until America
good day
Saturday, August 8, 2009
i can see a lot of bright in you
Our days are numbered. Two full days left in Lira. Mobile school ended on Thursday. I read Bible stories to my little ones and asked them if they wanted Jesus to come into their hearts. All of them prayed a prayer led by Dennis [national] and we celebrated after [jumping and clapping exercises]. I miss teaching them already.
I really admire the women of this land. They really work hard. Every chore here is a huge process. Washing clothes means filling multiple buckets up with water and scrubbing hard for hours to get the dirt out. Washing dishes is the same. Last night we cooked for all of our staff. Cooking is hard! We literally cooked for four hours over little fire pits. Our food consisted of grilled cheeses, guacamole, past with tomato sauce, and tortilla chips made completely from scratch. I think they all liked the grilled cheese the most. It was quite the adventure [buying the food from the market, trying to make things in huge pots with no recipes, and having to clean everything up]. I was satisfied [everyone else was as well]. Intern success!
We have been doing our souvenir shopping these last few days. There is so much beautiful fabric here! We have been picking out fabric and getting various things made at the tailor. I have gotten three purses made, one skirt, and my brides maid dress. I have bought free wear [loose fitting dress for mom], necklaces with paper beads, and some tea and spices that I am going to bring home to cook with. I love the market. It is so colorful and action filled.
We are in the process of making cards for all our children. We are also in the process of doing last minute communication projects. We have a seven hour layover in the Dubai airport. Blah. The rest of my team is at the children’s home right now but I am staying home with my Malaria infused Alisa doing communication stuff. I am updated the children’s profiles for the new COTN website. Check it out so far www.cotni.org!!
Amari matek_Jen
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
i can see a lot of life in you
My loves, i think i am starting to fall in love with this place. with ten days left I am realizing what a lovely place this place truly is, how much I truly will miss it. My children are pure gems. Saying goodbye to them is going to be so strange but I am confident that I will see them again [next year mom].
Mobile school was really good today. We learned shapes [triangle, rectangle, square, and circle]. I asked the children to tell me things that are these shapes and this little boy said a sambusa [triangular egg roll type treat]. It was precious!
This afternoon we did a photo shoot with the children. I cannot wait to post these pictures. These kids are gorgeous! I could gawk about them for hours. I have been learning many things about life on this trip. How short it is, how easy it can be, how hard we make it, how hard it can be, it is full of so much! I challenge you to live in the moment. Try, for just one hour, to be in that hour. Be there now. It is nearly impossible. Life flies when your moments are not solitary. Try try try!
Our room is being fumigated right now [every night since the malaria scare we have been spraying it down with some sort of insecticide]. I am sitting in the office with David, Hellen, and Lucio [nationals]. I like to listen to them speak luo and laugh and unknown humors.
10 days until I am an American again. I really miss family, Kona, friends, alone time, and soy lattes. gahh.
Google Sipi Falls. We are spending the 11-13 in a tree house there!!! It is gorgeous [from what google shows me].
amari
akello
Sunday, August 2, 2009
obanga mi gumm
My name is Akello Jen. I am in University. I have 20 years.
Our team fell ill over the past week and we still do not know what we got hit with. First, Elena gets typhoid. Next, Scott, Jill, and Alisa experience some aches and pains, which the clinic deems Malaria. About 4 days ago I slept for almost 30 hours, which resulted in a great concern for my health. Richelle and I get tested and what do we have? We have malaria. But do we really now? The answer here is this: Ugandan Health Care Clinics need some money, and when they see white people, we light up like little light bulbs in their heads. We have money! And they need it! So what do they do, diagnosis 5 of us with Malaria. We felt a bit ill; none of us obviously knew what it feels like to have such parasites, so we told our loved ones of our new friends. FALSE ALARM. Richelle went to a different clinic the same day to get tested [we felt our previous clinic was sketch] and she is Malaria free! [which resulted in an overall misdiagnosis for everyone] I do not have malaria. No one really does. Oh life!! How silly you are sometimes. We all still feel strange. IBUProfen has become our cure all.
Pleasantly, mobile school has been picked up again near the new COTN village construction site! I am in charge of the nursery children [preschool] which are anywhere from 2-6 years old. The language barrier is tough with these little ones, even with a translator. We have spent 3 days learning A, B, and C. We still do not know which letter is which, but I am perfectly okay with it! At first I became frustrated, felt like I was wasting my time, but then I began to see how intensely my little ones were trying. I will literally have them look at a big poster with the letter A on it and repeat A, A, A 30 times and then I will go back to it not minutes and they will all be dumbfounded by such a foreign script. I give them all a piece of paper with A B and C on it and have them copy the letters. The older ones do exceptionally well and are proud of their work. I smile as the little ones show me their scribbles. We often go on short jogs [to the tree and back] to release some of their ever-abundant energy. Their little legs are so quick. My love for them grew fast. We went over numbers 1-5, too complicated. We are dropping both letters and numbers and will be drawing shapes, playing balancing games, and learning about the Bible this last week.
Yesterday [Saturday] we went to the children’s home to help with chores. I sorted through rice for rocks with Adong Janet [one of the older girls]. I love watching the children cook. Everything is such a process some aspects more exciting than others. Dinner was going to consist of rice, chicken, and peas [lentils]. Chicken here does not come packaged from the grocery store. Chicken comes alive. The boys, especially Morris, enjoy the slaughter. We gathered the chickens and took them to the place of death [back of the house by their coop]. The boys start plucking the neck feathers and laughing a bit as we all cringe. The first chickens throat gets slit and blood gushes out like water from a broken pipe. I leave at this point. I think if chicken blood was a different color than human blood I would be okay. The slaughter took a while [five chickens died that day]. Oh the joy these kids get out of such daily routines!
A new team of 6 older women and 2 couples arrived yesterday. Some came from Malawi and others from the states. They will be putting on some sort of teachers training conference. It is nice to have other people in our house!
I have not blogged in a while due to our frequent and long lasting power outages. Sorry.
Have a nice day!
Jen
Our team fell ill over the past week and we still do not know what we got hit with. First, Elena gets typhoid. Next, Scott, Jill, and Alisa experience some aches and pains, which the clinic deems Malaria. About 4 days ago I slept for almost 30 hours, which resulted in a great concern for my health. Richelle and I get tested and what do we have? We have malaria. But do we really now? The answer here is this: Ugandan Health Care Clinics need some money, and when they see white people, we light up like little light bulbs in their heads. We have money! And they need it! So what do they do, diagnosis 5 of us with Malaria. We felt a bit ill; none of us obviously knew what it feels like to have such parasites, so we told our loved ones of our new friends. FALSE ALARM. Richelle went to a different clinic the same day to get tested [we felt our previous clinic was sketch] and she is Malaria free! [which resulted in an overall misdiagnosis for everyone] I do not have malaria. No one really does. Oh life!! How silly you are sometimes. We all still feel strange. IBUProfen has become our cure all.
Pleasantly, mobile school has been picked up again near the new COTN village construction site! I am in charge of the nursery children [preschool] which are anywhere from 2-6 years old. The language barrier is tough with these little ones, even with a translator. We have spent 3 days learning A, B, and C. We still do not know which letter is which, but I am perfectly okay with it! At first I became frustrated, felt like I was wasting my time, but then I began to see how intensely my little ones were trying. I will literally have them look at a big poster with the letter A on it and repeat A, A, A 30 times and then I will go back to it not minutes and they will all be dumbfounded by such a foreign script. I give them all a piece of paper with A B and C on it and have them copy the letters. The older ones do exceptionally well and are proud of their work. I smile as the little ones show me their scribbles. We often go on short jogs [to the tree and back] to release some of their ever-abundant energy. Their little legs are so quick. My love for them grew fast. We went over numbers 1-5, too complicated. We are dropping both letters and numbers and will be drawing shapes, playing balancing games, and learning about the Bible this last week.
Yesterday [Saturday] we went to the children’s home to help with chores. I sorted through rice for rocks with Adong Janet [one of the older girls]. I love watching the children cook. Everything is such a process some aspects more exciting than others. Dinner was going to consist of rice, chicken, and peas [lentils]. Chicken here does not come packaged from the grocery store. Chicken comes alive. The boys, especially Morris, enjoy the slaughter. We gathered the chickens and took them to the place of death [back of the house by their coop]. The boys start plucking the neck feathers and laughing a bit as we all cringe. The first chickens throat gets slit and blood gushes out like water from a broken pipe. I leave at this point. I think if chicken blood was a different color than human blood I would be okay. The slaughter took a while [five chickens died that day]. Oh the joy these kids get out of such daily routines!
A new team of 6 older women and 2 couples arrived yesterday. Some came from Malawi and others from the states. They will be putting on some sort of teachers training conference. It is nice to have other people in our house!
I have not blogged in a while due to our frequent and long lasting power outages. Sorry.
Have a nice day!
Jen
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