Nairobi and then back home.

This past week I was in Nairobi, Kenya. I could write for days about what I did in Nairobi but I won't. I just will give a brief summary:

1. Nairobi is just like America. It was a weird feeling to know that I was still in Africa, but had most of the conveniences of America. Coffee shops to relax in, tv to watch at night, shopping malls, free wi-fi fast food, and American candy. As nice as it was to have all these things it made me really appreciate where I live in Uganda. I get to live without all these things and it is actually really nice.

2. The giraffe center and the elephant orphanage are probably the two coolest places I have ever been. I mean….who doesn't love hanging out with giraffes and baby elephants? 

3. Lastly, I ate at a restaurant called Carnivore. For those of you who know, this is kind of ironic considering I was a vegetarian for 6 years. What an experience! Meat upon meat until you "surrender" by putting your flag down. Until then men come around carving all sorts of meat onto your plate. I can now say that I have tried Ostrich and Crocodile. Oddly enough both were really good! 

Look at all that meat!

As always it is the most amazing feeling to return back to Acheru. It makes me realize how much I have grown to love the people here, and how much they love me in return. The moment they can see me walking up the road I hear my name shouted, children come running out to help me carry my bags. mothers come running out of their beds to hug me, and the staff have the biggest smiles on their face as they welcome me back. Ugandans are some of the most loving and welcoming people one will ever meet. In fact, as I was walking to town this afternoon I was talking with my roommate about how when you first see a Ugandan they seem so hard and cold, but the moment you say hello their face lights up and they genuinely welcome you. 

When I was gone some of the children left. It is always a bit sad when you know they are gone, but you also know that it is good thing. It means they are healed. The two that left when I was gone this time have both been here for over a year. They have been away from friends and family for over a year as they heal. 

Lubowa was the first child I met here at Acheru. He came to Acheru with a horrible case of Osteomylitius. When he came he was wheelchair bound. After a year he is running and walking around as if nothing had happened. 

Fiona was the next to leave. Fiona is a typical teenage girl. Loves her fashion, loves her boys, and loves her makeup. I'm not exactly sure of Fiona's backstory, but she has had one of her legs amputated and was here at Acheru healing from bed sores and an open wound on her other leg. As much as I will miss her I am so excited that she gets to return back to her family.

I am also excited because I get to spend a lot of time here at Acheru. I have no plans to go anywhere until the end of next month. I really miss this place when I am gone. It has become my Ugandan home.

Teddy and Okello also went home

We took the staff swimming one day. 

My class right now :) Learning how to recognize their names.

Fearfully and Wonderfully made

For this post I wanted to highlight some of the kids that have come through Acheru the past three months I have been here. Some of these children were here before I arrived and some came during my time here and have already left for home. 

Jemimah

Jemimah is a bright and bubbly young girl. You'd never imagine that she has suffered multiple burns on her both of her legs. Jemimah and her mother were in a taxi accident that left Jemimah severely burned in both her legs. At the young age of 6/7 Jemimah has undergone multiple skin grafts and fixators in order to correct her legs. Her story is an amazing testimony to God's protection and healing. Every morning I can guarantee to have a huge welcoming smile and "emmmillllyyyy" come from Jemimah.  Jemimah is now doing exercises daily to work on being able to walk again.

 

Lillian

Lillian was one of the first girls that I met here at Acheru. She is a girl that I made a point to visit daily. Being a teenage girl here she loved the same thing any teenage girl would love. She loved her nail polish, her fashion, her friends, and her crushes. I always knew I could count on Lillian to bring laughter to my day. She is a brilliant young girl who aspires to become a nurse when she grows up. Lillian came to Acheru with Osteomylitus in her leg, but recently left Acheru to return home. She has been completely healed!

   

Mildred, aka My Best Friend

Mildred was a spunky 4/5 year old girl here. Mildred suffered from burns on her hand. This burn had webbed her fingers together. After surgery her fingers become apart but she still suffered from muscle damage in the fingers. Every morning it was guaranteed that Mildred would be waiting for us to come out and play. She has this little smirk that she will give you when you come to greet her and than she would run straight into my arms. I spent a lot of time just hanging out with Mildred on our porch. Even though she spoke close to zero English, we always seemed to entertain ourselves. Mildred recently left Acheru and my morning has lost a special piece to it.      

Kevin

Kevin was another mischievous but innocent 6/7 year old here. Kevin came to Acheru with a severe contraction in her knee. She had been severely burnt on her leg and her knee contracted into a bent position. After a long stint of having a fixator and then cast, Kevin has gone home and is now learning how to walk on her leg again. Kevin was one of my students that I saw tremendous progress in. When I first took hold of the class she was a quiet girl who struggled with her academics. After a couple of weeks she really did a 180. Kevin was motivated to come to school, she consistently wanted to answer the questions, and would talk non-stop. She was always the first kid to come and greet me when returning home from a trip.

Okello Allan

Okello is…..wow how do I even describe Okello? He is the most charismatic child here at Acheru. He loves to cuddle and is always seen running and jumping from person to person. Okello is still here at Acheru healing from Osteomylitus on his leg. Before coming to Acheru, Okello had never been in school before. I wasn't even sure how I would work with him because he was so far behind the other students. His attention was nonexistent and he rarely could sit still long enough to be in class. Within the past 2 weeks Okello has wowed me. He is the one student who comes to class every day and will stay up until I tell him he can go. He used to not know how to form any letters when writing, and now he can write his name nearly perfectly (he sometimes still messes his N up but will correct when I show him). This week he perfected how to count to 10 without missing any numbers. I couldn't be more proud of this little boy.

These are just a few of the kids that I live with on a daily basis. This past week during our Wednesday night service I realized how much of a blessing each one of these children have been in my life the past 3 months. They have been my family here at Acheru. Even though they may come into my life for a few days or a few months, they have blessed every day. I always say you would never know what these kids have been through or what pain they are in, because joy just comes pouring out of them. Excitement for life is evident in their days here. Each one of the kids here at Acheru has made this place an amazing home for me.

Pain and Peace.

" For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness"

                              -Hebrews 12:11

Majority of my time here comes very easily to me. I wake up, do some teaching, eat lunch, do chores, spend time playing with kids or talking to adults, help fix dinner, and end the day spending time with my 4 roommates. Other days I miss home, I miss structure, I miss the chances of being by myself and not having to entertain, and silly enough..I miss fast food. Those days it is harder to be here. It's harder to get up in the morning and be ready to entertain for the next 10 hours. There are days when you hear stories that just rip your heart apart and you're not sure if you can handle hearing anymore. There are days when you feel completely helpless add useless when people are coming to you for  help for a child in their village who needs immediate medical attention, but it seems there is nothing I can do. There are days you see a child who appears so traumatized from her past that all she can repeat is "leave me alone, move, don't pinch me, don't hit me".  These kind of days it is hard to see the joy and the peace. They are more painful and heart breaking. 

It's during these days that I have to remind myself that this is not the end. God has not finished his work here. He might not even finish his work in my life time and some of this suffering may end in pain. But there is a time when He will finish His work and there will be joy. There will be life. There will be love. There will be peace. Does this make the painful days less unbearable? Not always. Does this mean I can understand the reason for it? Not even close. 

So what can I do? What should I do? The only thing I can….love. Love the kids who drive me crazy during the school day, love and listen to their stories, love them well during their suffering, love them well during my suffering. 

________________________________________________________________________________

This past week most of my roommates were gone. It was just Luke and me here at Acheru for a couple days. It was a special time for me as I spend most of my time out with the mothers. I no longer had the comfort of fellow "americans" at home. I was forced to spend time out of the house. I got to know some of the people here better in those two days than I have in the past 2 months. I was actually sad to leave them for a few days when I headed to GSF. 

I spent the rest of my week at GSF with Julie. We checked in on all the kids with special needs there. I was amazed to hear that one little boy who I worked a lot with last summer in school (he has always had troubling in school, behaviorally and acadmecially ), had made amazing progress. The teacher was actually bragging on how well he works in class, how well he can sit in class and not disturb, and how he has taken on the responsibility of making sure others are doing the right thing as well! I could have cried right then and there! 

Personally I knew it was a good time to go to GSF. I needed the distraction and needed a comfort of home. I also know when I get to spend time with Kenny I am overwhelmed with a sense of peace and calmness. That little boy brings so much joy to my heart. He teaches me more about God, more about love than he would ever possibly know. 

In two more weeks I will have hit the 3 month mark here. Can you even believe that? 

They killed our chicken for us...and then we ate it.

Emmy and I decided to have craft day with the kids during the holiday. Can you see the wreaths behind us?

Two cuties. Charlotte and Julian.

Kenny and Solo. Love these boys.

Change of scenery..

This past week I went up to Gulu (northern part of Uganda) to visit the Acheru outpatient center. A lot of the patients that we have here come from around the Gulu area. Before they come to us here in Mukono they go to this Gulu center for treatment. If their case is severe enough where they need to come to Kampala for surgery they will come to us for preparation and then back to us for care and rehabilitation after their surgery. 

It was interesting for me to drive through where so many of these kids come from. It's hard not to notice a complete change in scenery when driving from Central Uganda to Northern Uganda. If you know anything about Uganda's history, you have probably heard of Idi Amin or Joseph Kony. Both of these men terrorized Uganda, especially Northern Uganda.  Driving from the luscious land of Central Uganda, where there is vegetation everywhere, people out and about, town centers lined with buildings and homes, life happening….to driving to Northern Uganda where there is a clear lack of vegetation, people are sparse, and mud huts are found lining the streets. Although, Gulu is an established town with many people around the land surrounding Gulu is a much different story. It reminded me a lot of Mukono, but the stretch I had no idea how poor some of these patients are or what it was like in their home town. It never ceases to amaze me how much joy they have in life. From my american mind-set we think we need things..we need this and that to have joy, but in reality we need nothing apart from Christ. I'm taught over and over again how much joy one can have in life even when you may have just 1 pair of clothes to your name. 

Some of the things we did when in Northern Uganda:

1. Distributed two wheelchairs to an older women and a teenage boy. The teenage boy, Dennis, was 16 and had to drop out of school when he was in P6 (Sixth grade) because he could no longer get to school. Dennis had his legs amputated when he was 4 years old due to being severely burned. Now with his chair Dennis is hoping to finish P7 and then go into vocational training. 

2. We dropped by a school and passed out re-usable pads to the girls. It was such an experience for me to watch training on how to take care of these pads. To us it seemed something so small and silly, but for these girls it meant the ability to go to school during this time. It meant not having to feel embarrassed about wrapping up in towels or old clothes.  Again, something so simple that we take for granted in America...disposable pads/tampons. 

I am now back at Acheru and my class size has grown! I now have around 8 students in my class. I had to divide it up into two smaller groups due to the different levels that the kids were at. I now have my kindergarten class and my first grade class. It leads to very hectic days as I'm constantly hearing "teacher! Teacher! Teacher!". In the states I could easily tell them to hold on one second, but here where I have only learned to say wait in one language (Len-da-co Na-Way) it makes it hard to express that to those who don't speak Luganda. 

Prayer Points:

1. Continual patience within the classroom. As much as I enjoy being in the classroom it is still very different and difficult for me somedays.

2. Our team here at the guest house is growing. We just got a new physical therapist who will be here for 8 months. That we will continue to have good communication and unity.

3. For the children here. Many will be going home soon and this is sometimes a joyous time for them and other times they don't want to go. 

This was the first wheelchair we dropped off. 

Dennis and his new chair!

This is what the road was like getting to Dennis's house.

The baboon that stole our bread straight from our car!

Kids at the school.

I SAW A GIRAFFE!!!!

Aren't they lovely?

Murchison Falls. We climbed up to the top of that.

Living and working together.

:: May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them::    -Matthew 17:23

Unity… this word has been popping up in my mind all week long. We recently had a retreat for the Kampala unit missionaries within AIM. During our weekend retreat our focus was on teams. What are positive aspects to working in a team, what are negative aspects to working in a team, and what are some biblical references to teamwork. 

It made me realize how there are all different teams here at Acheru. Not only do we have the staff as a whole team, but each part of this staff is their own team. The nurses, the administration, the kitchen staff, the security, the teaching staff, and the maintenance staff. Acheru would not be able to function with the absence of any of these teams. It just wouldn't work the same. Without the kitchen staff we wouldn't have food, without the nurses no one would get their dressings changed, without the administration funding wouldn't happen, without teaching the children wouldn't learn, etc. 

I got to thinking about how the body of Christ is just like Acheru. We are told in Ephesians 4:16 and again in 1st Corinthians 12: 12-31, that the body of Christ is made up in many parts (us). "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body." This body would not function without every single part. 1st Corinthians 12:27 states "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."  

With this body we are told to go out and show Christ's love. If we are not united together and loving one another, we can not show the love of Christ. As a staff here at Acheru we need to work together to be united in all our different parts and show the love of Christ. If we don't, then our team won't work. If we are not doing everything in HIS name, we can not show the love of Christ. Our body won't work.  We must be united in the same love. HIS love.

On a side note…this week at Acheru has been good. None of the kids have been discharged so the classroom has been full. I have seen a lot of progress in some of my students. It's so awesome to see them progress. We are nearly finished with knowing the days of the week! We celebrated our house mothers birthday on Thursday. We invited her over for dinner and had made brownies for her. Birthdays are not normally celebrated here in Uganda. A lot of the time people aren't even to sure about when their actual birthday is. It was nice to share with Margret a little bit of American tradition with birthdays. We also started to complete our painting job on the PT wall. We had the children come and paint their hand prints to be the flower petals. It's been a busy week at Acheru!

Justine (our cook) and her daughter Resty.

Planting some G-Nuts with the mamas!

Jemimah putting her hand up.

Painting day!

Margret and Daisy.

Fiona and Ebenezer

One day we had a 20 minute sing a long with the kids from the north.

Mountains, Safari, and back home!

Another two weeks have passed here in Uganda. Sometimes I sit back and think how quickly this month and a half has gone by. Since returning back to Acheru, after a week of being down in the south western part of Uganda, I have really noticed how important and strong our relationships with the staff and families here at Acheru are. Coming home is always like a big party with everyone running to greet you and tell you about the week. It is a nice feeling. A feeling of being home. 

As I stated above I was down in Southwestern part of Uganda this past week. We started our trip driving to a town called Kasese. We spent three nights in Kasese at a school/organization called Rap-CD (Rwenzori Association of Parents with Children with Disabilites). Rap-CD is quite an amazing organization. It was originally founded by parents around the Rwenzori district that had children with disabilities. This is a rare occurrence to find parents being advocates for their children here. From that small founding group they have now developed a school for children who are blind or deaf, they have a community based rehabilitation group which goes into the mountains to provide training for parents who have children with Cerebral Palsy, and they have weekly zonal meetings for parents with children with disabilities. We were there to assess the place and make a connection for Julie to see if in the future AIM could place people there to work.  

During our time at Rap-CD we traveled around with the teachers to visit students up in the Rwenzori Mountains. It was holiday time for the children. The teachers were visiting their students to make sure that they were being taken care of and enjoying holiday. When I say we went up the mountain…I mean we went UP. Two days of walking up and down up and down the mountain for 4/5 hours! I was so proud of all of us that we made it the whole way (even though during some parts I thought for sure my body would just stop moving). It was a little embarrassing for us bazungu (white people) when we would be struggling up the mountain and we look beside us and small children were running up the mountains with ease. During this time we met many families who were so excited to see us at their house. Everytime we left a house the families would walk down with us just to say goodbye. We always had a trail of about 15 Ugandan's behind us. We were also able to meet the families who receive support from the community based rehabilitation. Many kids with Cerebral Palsy were found in these mountains. Many parents have found encouragement from this program, but we also struggled with parents receiving inaccurate information about their children's situation. They have been told that with the stretching and rehabilitation their children will be able to walk, and that unfortunately is not always the case. Many parents have become discouraged when they haven't 'seen progress in their children, but are unaware of how important these stretches are for their child's future. They have given up. It was hard to hear these mothers, but we just hope that God will provide encouragement for them. 

We were able to meet one girl who was an orphan. She had been taken in by her distant sister's family. She was about 12 years old, did not speak, and was deaf. She had never been to school before. After talking with the family for a bit, the pastor decided he would enroll her in school. She would begin the 16th of September. As all this was happening I just kept thinking how this girl has no idea how much her life is about to change. How many doors are going to open for her because she now has the chance for an education. She will now be given the chance to learn a language where she can communicate with others. She will now see that she is not alone and that there are many kids who are just like her.

After our time at RAP-CD we went on a safari! A few quick notes about the safari:

1. Animals we saw (because I know you are interested!): Lions (male and female!), LOTS of elephants, hyenas, crocodiles, buffalo, hippos, baboons, red-tail monkeys, Black and White Colubus Monkeys, wart-hogs, Cob (ugandan's national animal), many bird species, and Water Buck.

2. On the second game drive we ran into an elephant who enjoyed chasing our car. We were behind the elephant and every time we reversed he would come running after us. Eventually he got to close  and we had to drive off track and hide in the bushes. What a failed attempt this was as the elephant came around the bush looking for us! We finally got in front of the elephant, which I learned is the safest place because we can not out drive an elephant while in reverse. After being in front we were able to speed away before we were charged.

3. Male lions were out! We wanted to get up close, but since they were spotted the game park rangers were out and about ready to fine anyone who got off track. We found better luck with the female lions the previous day. Our fearless driver, Isaac, took us off the course really quickly to get super close to the female lions. It was so amazing, we could have gotten out and touched a wild lion! No worries though, we are smarter than that and stayed in our vehicles.

4. Unfortunately there are no giraffes in the southern part of Uganda. I will have to travel up north to see them. Our driver was a fellow giraffe lover and at the end of the trip he felt bad we didn't have any so he went and bought me a wooden giraffe. 

5. I crossed the equator line!

Now I am back at Acheru and just enjoying being home. I have started back with my classes (though as always the children are different). Colin has left (if you remember my little buddy from the previous post), but there are many new kids to love on. Recently I have really started to get to know the women from the north. Three of the mothers from the north have even started coming to school! They decided that they were tired of not knowing how to sign their name and so they have been coming to class and I have been working with teacher on helping the ladies learn to write their names. It has really been a special time for me. I have learned so much about their families and backgrounds during our class time. Many older women have never gone to school. They married young and began working at home. The husbands saw no need for their wives to be educated. These women now see the importance of just knowing how to spell your name. They are so excited to arrive every morning and work until 4 every day! Outside of school I have spent a lot of time just sitting with these women. After a while they may begin to teach me a song and 15 minutes later we are jumping around while singing that song at the top of our lungs. 

Uganda continues to be a blessing everyday. As much as I miss home, I couldn't imagine being anywhere else right now. Everyday is a new experience and everyday there is a new blessing. 

A few fun facts:

1. I am becoming quite good at using a squatty (a whole in the dirt) as a toilet. There is a trick to it!

2. I also have learned how to take a bucket bath, and learned what time of day is the best so you don't freeze. Luckily both 1 and 2 are only needed when traveling.

3. I am learning to cook a bit! 

4. I have learned how to wash clothes properly now. No more damaged fingers for me!

5. My language skills are getting much better. Just today I went into town and was able to greet and bargain for prices in Luganda! Here and there I stumble around, but the people always have grace for my language. They just love that we try. 

Our elephant friend who chased us. He is really this close. Not zoomed in.

The Acheru group at the equator!

The female lions!

Daddy Lion

Waves of goodbye from far away

Our followers

Teddy. One of the adult students

Aidah, Lilian, and Teddy

Cultural Teaching.

As most of you know, I am helping teacher Juliet here at Acheru. I thought I would write a post about what teaching is like here compared to teaching in America. 

Teaching has been one of the areas that I find to be more frustrating than anything else here. It's not that I find things to be wrong here, but it is more of a shift in how to teach here. Back home in America it is ingrained in our heads as teachers to have the students be interactive during class. Answering questions, figuring out answers for themselves, having hands-on activities. Now with the common core in the states the students are pretty much to become the teachers. They are expected to be involved in their own learning and if we as teachers are not implementing the students into the learning than we are "doing it wrong". 

Here in Uganda, not only is the curriculum something to get used to (there is no phonics…for those of you who know how much I love teaching phonics!), but the style of teaching is different. Different…not wrong…just different. It has been very hard for me to put aside my western idea of what schooling is and turn more into a Ugandan way of teaching. Here students very much copy and repeat. There is not a whole lot of interaction within the classroom. For me this is very hard. For the first couple of weeks I found myself being very bored with the lessons because it was me standing up saying something, having the kids copy it, and then repeat it. We worked on one subject the whole day. On the spot I was having to think of  how to teach writing for 4/5 hours. I found this extremely difficult, but at the same time I was there observing and building a relationship with teacher Juliet and did not want to offend her in anyway. 

Recently Teacher Juliet has given me reigns to work with the primary kids. It has given me an opportunity to mix the western and the Ugandan way of teaching. At first the kids were a little unsure of what to do when I asked them to interact or gave them positive reinforcement. After a few lessons on what a "high-five" is and being overally dramatic about them the students really began finding encouragement from it. So much so that after everything they do they now lift their hands in the air waiting for a high-five and give the biggest smiles after they receive their high-five. It's been a good way to show Juliet a little of what teaching in America is like, and how we can combine the two styles. 

The other day we went through all the teaching materials together and talked about how we could use in class. She has observed me using marbles to play the "scoop and count" game with the kids (they just put their hands in the bag, grab as many marbles as they can, and then they have to count how many are in their hands). She has observed me using puzzles to teach kids letters. She has seen me doing multiple subjects in a day spending 30 minutes here and 30 minutes there on a subject. It's a big shift for the both of us, but I am praying that since our friendship is growing that we will be able to work together and combine our teaching styles. To use both of our strengths to give the kids the best education they can get here.

On a side note (my teacher friends will feel my pain on this…): Planning here at Acheru is very difficult. It is almost impossible to plan a day ahead. With the kids constantly coming and going from the hospital, you never know who will be in class. One day I may have 3 or 4 students and the next day I may have no students. Or one day I have a student who speaks some English, and the next day I'm there with students who speak no English. It is definitely teaching me to be very flexible and spontaneous. 

Prayer Points:

1. That the relationship between teacher Juliet and I will continue to grow and that we will be able to learn from one another.

2. That I have patience and appreciation for the days where I find frustration with the differences of schooling.

3. I am leaving on Monday to travel around Southwest Uganda (to Kassese..a town near the border of Uganda and Congo). Pray for safe travels and for the places we are going to visit. On another side note….I'm going on a safari then too!

4. For all the kids here at Acheru and the ones not able to come. We have a very long backlog of kids needing to come here. With limited bedding we are not able to house all the kids who need to come here. We have had to become more picky with who can come. Making sure the more severe cases get sent first.

  

One day we brought the kites out for the kids

Nancy was a pro!

Elijah and Colin playing "Scoop and Count"

The kids interacting and teaching.

Juliet preparing her lesson.