PA DTS Graduation

Today was an exciting day at the base, because the Performing Arts Discipleship Training School had their graduation.  This is the first time a DTS in East Africa has had the focus of performing arts, and it seems like it was very successful.  They learned a lot of dramas, skits, and dances, many of which they performed at their graduation.  Most of them were representations of Gospel stories or concepts, and some of them were very powerful!

Me and Geofrey, who I sponsored

I'll be somewhat busy this weekend.  Tomorrow we are supposed to check the machines that we use to make blocks for Homes of Hope, and I am also hoping to go visit an orphanage across the street.  As I was in the prayer garden a few days ago a teenage boy came and talked with me, and he lives at the orphanage.  I want to do some research about opening an orphanage anyway, so I said I would come and visit the place.

Then next week we have more meetings (Homes of Hope meetings on Mondays, VTS meetings on Tuesdays, staff meetings on Wednesdays), and then on Thursday I will fly to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, with the VTS team.  The YWAM base in Dar Es Salaam has a good VTS, so we are going there to check it out and get ideas.  We will return to Uganda on May 21, and then on May 25 I will travel to Rwanda with Geofrey to spend some time doing research about orphanages and also to visit the YWAM Kigali base to see their VTS.

So, busy times are ahead!  I'm looking forward to seeing some more of East Africa :)

Healthy enough to slash

The antibiotics that I received seem to have worked well on whatever I had, and I am feeling much better now.  I'm well enough to participate in work duty again, which is on Mondays and Tuesdays.

I volunteered to be on the slashing team for work duties.  I've always loved slashing.  It's how they maintain the grass here, instead of using a machine.  A slasher is similar in shape to a golf club, but the ends are very sharp.  You just swing it and it chops the grass.  I find it pretty fun, although you get blisters pretty quickly.

We also had a birthday party tonight for one of the boys in School of Biblical Studies.  They bought chickens from the Discovery Center here at Hope Land and cooked them.  Watching them cook chicken always takes away my appetite for chicken.

 But it was a fun little party, and plenty of extra food!

 

I'm feeling blessed to be healthy again.  I've been attending some meetings for Homes of Hope and Vocational Training School, but right now there are a lot of ideas flowing but not a lot of assignments to do.  The other few people involved in VTS are flying to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania next week to visit a YWAM base with a VTS and get more ideas.  Once they return from that trip, we should be able to move forward and start some more solid planning.  

Update on sickness

Well, I've now had the pleasure of experiencing a Ugandan hospital.  Although this one was run by Turkish doctors who don't speak English very well.  But it was very new and clean, and great Ugandan nurses.

I was diagnosed with Tonsilitis, so I have some IV treatments and antibiotics to take.  I should be feeling better soon!

 

Sickness

Well, the past few days have been very uneventful because I've been sick. Tuesday afternoon I started to feel like I had a fever, and I've been in bed ever since. High sustained fever, headaches, sometimes dizziness but that is mostly gone now, sore throat, swollen lymph node. I tested negative for malaria. So they think maybe I have an infection in my throat, but we don't know. I might go to a clinic today or tomorrow. I hope to get better soon; I'm getting tired of my bed!

Arrived in Uganda

Hello from Uganda!  I have safely reached the YWAM base here in Jinja.

Many things feel different this time. I am living in a different area of the base, at a building called the Lighthouse.  It's away from all the hustle and bustle of DTS dorms and staff, so it's quiet here... but I don't know where everything is yet.

Right now the girls' side doesn't have running water, so I'm getting used to that again right away.  But we have electricity, which is nice.  I'll be living in a small room with a girl that I met last time I was here, a lovely Tanzanian girl who is here to staff the School of Agriculture that starts in July.


The Lighthouse has the classroom and the dorms for the School of Biblical Studies (SBS), so I'm close to my friends who are here finishing their SBS term.

It's rainy season here again, so everything is very green and extremely humid.  It wasn't this humid last time I was here… it feels like a rain forest!



There are new puppies here again, and they are adorable!



So, things are the same but also very different.  I can tell that it will take me a few days to adjust… it's harder when you are the only one who is adjusting.  I don't have a class full of students who are also learning how to live here; it's just me who is new.  It feels uncomfortable right now, this new setting and the humidity and mosquitoes, but I think that during the week I will start to remember how much I loved this place and will start to feel comfortable here again.  For now, I am just trying to relax today, figure out where things are on this side of the base, remember how to live without running water, catch up with friends who are still here, etc.  And for now I am really leaning on God's promises to use me here, to do good works through me, and to help me learn a lot about Africa for my future endeavors.