My every day in Africa.

Hi friends and family!

I am very sorry I have not kept up a blog better.. I did hope to.. but blogs just don't write themselves!

I feel like I should update you on the weather first since I am currently quite cold. It is "the rainy season" here in Uganda. This means that it rains almost everyday whether in the middle of the day, the middle of the night, or all day long. Having it rain more frequently brings "cold fronts" in at times and also makes the mornings and nights very chilly. By very chilly I mean the nights can go as low as 60 degrees. For this Floridian, that is cold!

Now onto my days.
Most days I am home with the three little girls. We are all usually up and going by 7:30, we eat breakfast which can take up to 2hrs if the girls eat at their slowest paces. After breakfast they play either outside or downstairs until 10am when I start them with school. But only if they have been very good! (It is still a treat to them at this age.) I think teaching school has been my biggest challenge. How do you go back that far and teach all of the basics? You can't practice drawing numbers and letters until you practice drawing simple straight lines. And you can't expect a child to recognize numbers just because they can count, etc. Trying to keep three little girls ages 4, 3 and 2 focused and interested long enough to learn and practice a specific skill is quite the challenge!

After school we do lunch and nap time. For all but little M, the two yr old who is a little energizer bunny. She can't take naps during the day or she will stay up to 2am! So we have our own little quiet time where we watch Cinderella or Peter Pan (her favorites) and color. Then after naps its time to play outside for as much of the afternoon as they like or until they get too mischievous. :P And sometimes, just sometimes, we will do a special project.

Last week there was a team that came in which meant that Kelsey and Kirby were significantly busier, but it also meant that we (the little girls and I) got to go out and see new friends. The team did lots of work while they were here including build brick and cement platforms for large water tanks outside of the church in Bwerenga. (I'll write more about Bwerenga in another blog) I always love an opportunity to work on a project and I got to help build the platforms for the water tanks, it was a good day!

My biggest accomplishment of late is learning to cook meals without recipes and from scratch. Last night I made a vegetable stew that turned out really well! I know it is not a hard meal to make, but it has  increased my sense of independence and makes me feel more at home here in Africa. :] If you have any tasty meatless recipes or meal ideas, please send them my way! The biggest challenge is figuring out what to make. :)

Anyway, I will now bring this post to a close. I just wanted to give you all a taste of my everyday life and I will try to take more pictures and post them soon! I love you all and I am so thankful for each and every one of you! Thank you for being such a huge part of this journey for me! <3

Answered Prayers

Tonight before I go to bed, I am thinking about all of my past prayers regarding Africa. All of those days and nights struggling for direction, knowing that eventually I would be in Africa but not knowing how or when. My heart longed for this continent that I had never set foot in but that I desperately loved. I knew that it was a God given love and a God given calling, but I did not know anything past that. Remembering the wrestling in prayer I did with God this summer, the desperation of my prayers, and the complete lack of direction I had going into what I thought would be just another semester of school.. Part of me was miserable all summer dreading going home to school.

But then, God answered my prayers. Doors had closed and opened here and there that had made me very confused until I saw the reason. A door had opened to go to Uganda for three months. It literally just fell in my lap. Sure, three months doesn't help me map out the rest of my life, but here I am in Africa. Isn't that what I asked for? This gives me the hope I need to continue waiting for the rest of my life to fall into place at the right time.

I asked and begged the Lord to send me to Africa. "Let now be the time, let me go now!" He said, "trust Me that I have not given you this desire in vain," so I dreamed. He said, "be patient," I did my best. And my prayers have been answered! Here I am at my two week mark in awe of what God did bringing me here. I keep wanting to experience everything at the same time, yet have everything slow down so I can truly understand and take it all in. What an amazing adventure of a life I am getting to live! :]

For all of you that helped me get here, THANK YOU! A million times over.

Also, I will post pictures and blog about my safari adventure of last weekend when I find my camera cord!

Getting in the swing of things

Hello from Kampala!

This really is a beautiful country. I wish I could write a whole blog just about that.

I'm sorry I haven't written sooner though! It has been a very busy couple of days! I will give a quick run down of each day.

Day #1, after going to bed at 2am, we left the house in the morning at 7:40 for a long day of visiting two of the children's homes, M2 and M3. I can't quite put that in words yet. The first home we went to they gathered the kids and introduced us. After quite a bit of talking, we got to watch the kids have their MDD (music, dancing, drama) time which was really cool. The second home we went to, I got to hold a little boy while we waited out a rain storm and he fell asleep on me. Obviously my favorite part of the day!
Day #2, I got to sleep in, unpack, go on a mini shopping trip at the market down the hill, and relax!

Day #3, PASSION KAMPALA! Hello, awesome. My ears are still ringing. I went on my first very short boda ride, met many friends, and worshiped with lots of Ugandans. It was such an incredible experience! Plus, it was a beautiful night weather wise as well.

Day #4, my first Ugandan wedding. It was quite the experience! An all day event. I was surprised at how many things were similar to American weddings. I wonder where all the structure and ceremony that we have in weddings today came from. But two things are still important no matter where you are, food and dancing.

Day #5, Spent the day with the little girlies. Fairly low key, minimal incidents, and some fun thrown in there too. I'm just glad they like me! :] We also went out to eat for dinner. I think the drive there was the craziest part of the day! Also, tonight was the first night I saw the starts. So happy! :]

Tomorrow I will get to go back to M2 with a new team that is here and we will do some painting.

Some things I have learned, my body needs protein and I get carsick. Mazungu means white person, nedda means no, tuula means sit. I never get to complain about traffic in America again. :P

I will write again soon!

Traveling..

I'm sitting on the floor on the airport in Amsterdam. HOW IS THIS NOT REAL TO ME YET?! I am still in a crazy fog. When will it set in, I wonder? Hopefully soon! I don't want to wander around for the next three months in a dream world. I guess it might help if I get some sleep. ;)

The time from home is 3:15am, the time here is 9:15am, bummer. I think I slept for 15 min on the last 8hr flight, maybe I'll catch a bit more on the next one? :D Despite my sleep deprivation, I'll have to admit that the movie choices are rockin.

Those of you who know me know that I am only thinking about food right now. I supposedly got dinner and breakfast on the last flight but I'm always game for another meal! Peace out for now while I try and figure out if I can get some food before the next flight!

Lovelovelove,
Kate

Step by Step

"Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise you
And I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You'll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days."

The Lord is teaching me so much it gets overwhelming sometimes trying to figure out what to fix first. What a wonderful thing to I know that my Savior doesn't expect me to fix everything in my life all at once. Step by step He's leading me. Thank You, Lord, for all that You are doing and all that You are.

Where to start?

So I don't post often, hardly ever. I just can't seem to find the attention span to write about my life. It comes easily to me now when I have so many things to say.

Most of you know that I spent the summer in Michigan working as a camp counselor for middle school girls at SpringHill Camps. Hands down it was the best summer of my life thus far. I can't put into words everything I have experienced this summer and all that the Lord has done. I am now more wealthy than I was at the beginning of the summer- a few quality friends richer, a few new experiences richer, and richer with a new depth in my relationship with Christ.

Highlights: Meeting incredible friends. Having the most fun possible and getting paid at the same time. Getting to have incredibly deep conversations with my campers. Learning what it means to not be able to make it through the day without God. Working with campers with special needs. Knowing what it feels like to give all you have and still have joy to spare. Praying so hard it hurts. Seeing the Lord provide in incredible ways. Hammocking. Having the opportunity to welcome a new friend into God's eternal kingdom. Plus SO MANY MORE.

Here's what I know: If I hadn't experienced every bit of this summer the way I did, I wouldn't be ready for what's coming next. One of the biggest lessons I came away from this summer with is that it isn't always scary or crazy to trust God. Sometimes it is, but other times He works it out so it all falls into place and the only thing we are left with is, "okay, God, I can do that." Which brings me to my next point.

Since 2008 I have felt the Lord calling me to missions overseas but besides that I have been in the dark about my future. So I know that missions is in my future but I don't have any clue how I am going to get there.. wherever 'there' is. One thing I have known for awhile is that my heart beats for Africa. I have never been there, but I know that's where I need to be. Another thing I know is, school is not for me. I have been struggling with these things for years.. continuing my education, finding a skill or a major that can help me help others, feeling no leading towards a major, struggling through school, yelling at God for not telling me what I'm supposed to be doing. I have had many plans and ideas about what I should maybe do or what God maybe wanted me to do, but all of them fell through. Nothing was clicking. All for a good reason, my darling, all in the right timing, my love.

The last month or so of camp Africa was so heavily on my heart, as was the heavy burden of going back to school. Why was my heart being pulled and tortured like this? Because God in His timing is good and perfect. The last week of camp my mom told me about an opportunity to go to Uganda, Africa for three months. WHAT?! The day after I talked to my mom I got a text from my sister saying, "I dropped your class for you so that you could go to Africa!" What?!? So my friends, I am going. I am going to Kampala, Uganda at the end of September and returning the week before Christmas. Its crazy, its soon, but it is completely God orchestrated. Praise Him who knows me so well; well enough to place something like this in my lap. All I had to say was, "okay, God, I can do that." And, "Thank you!" :D

Please join me in prayer about this new adventure!