A Day for Accomplishments:

 Today, we went down to work on the library, all of us.  As we accomplished our  task in the library kids started to show up.  We taught a few of the older kids the method Judy and Julie created so the older kids could teach the younger kids.  After reading to the kids a little we headed to the Worship center where the school choir was going to preform.  I sat down in an empty row and a few kids sat around me.  After a good twenty minutes the choir was ready to preform.  (the choir has a competition the 23rd and they wanted us to watch their dress rehearsal.)  The entire thing was surrounded on the fact that young marriages and young pregnancies should NOT take place.  They were amazing, all the songs they sang were ones they wrote and they danced and did poetry.  It was so good, they danced and sang so beautifully.  During a short intermission some kids were dancing, Sue decides that next intermission we were gonna dance for them!  I was not too happy about that, but some how Tamara got out of it! I just wanna know how that even happened.  Well, once we got up on the stage I had no clue what to do, so I just wiggled my hips then the kids started to come up and dance with us.  Once the intermission was over we sat back down, then the choir finished.  The choir has made quit an accomplishment today and I know they'll do great in their competition.  After the choir preformance we headed back to the room so that the mural group could change into our paint clothes.  After we changed we went down and put the few finishing touches on the mural.  The group consisted of me, Liz and Hannah for today.  We finished up leaves and the kids in the tree, we finally accomplished the mural!  When we finished we planned on going to the market.  While we were waiting to here from Kyemba we sat in the breezeway connecting our rooms and some of the boys that live at Musana came over, Tony, Grace, Ezekiel<(goes to Musana, mom works at Musana), Betty<(i honestly do not know much about Betty).  Tony wanted to take pictures on my phone so I let him take a few because honestly it isn't very smart to give the kids your phone but me being me I did.  I got my phone back and then Tony and Ezekiel decide that they want to tickle me!  I finally got them to stop tickling me by tickling them.  Once we heard that Kyemba was on his way we walked to the gate to meet Kyemba to get in the van, and we headed to the market. 

(IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE GRUESOME TYPE STUFF I WOULD RECOMMEND NOT READING BELOW THIS!!!)

Right as we drove into the market, it was like BANG! Meat, every where, normally I am pretty okay with meat but I'm talking like 10 carts in a row full of meat... with tails.  Some intestines here and there, it was pretty gross.  I could only look for so long, just reminds you not to eat most of the meat here because it sits out pretty much all day long.  

(OKAY CARRY ON WITH READING! I PROMISE NO MORE NATSY)

Once Kyemba parked and we went into the inner market it was good.  The inner market was mainly fruits, vegetables, kitchen utensils and brooms.   Once we got out we checked out the few fabric shops that were open.  Few shops were open because today was ED, a muslim holiday symbolizing the end of Ramadan.  After a few group members made their fabric purchases we got back in the van and headed back to Musana.  When we finished eating me, Judy and Hannah got to talk with Haril for a little bit and it was so sweet!  After we finished talking we headed down to the fire one of the interns, Jamie, had made.  It was good until the smoke gets all in your eyes and you gotta move, but it was fun to sit and just be there.  Not many people can say they've had a Ugandan camp fire?! :)  I got up and came to the room, I smell very smokey. ;)  Now, I'm here typing out this blog for you people to read, I say it like that cause i have no clue who all reads this but.. HI PEOPLE!! :)   (: And that is how my day went, hope you enjoyed reading our adventures this week, I can't believe we are gonna leave in a few days, its crazy!  Well anyways, BYE PEOPLE!! :)

Have mercy! ~ Emily Marquez

(for those of you that don't know "have mercy!" is a quote from the TV show Full House, I just felt like putting that quote there) (: 

The Barefoot Olympics

Tonight was Trivia Night at the Sol Cafe, so it's a late evening for us.  More on Trivia Night later.  

The morning had us working in the library a bit more, (It's beginning to sound like it's a major job, which it is, but we only have an hour or two at a time to work on it at a time,  so it seems like we're always "working on the library").  I personally am excited about how it looks after pulling off shelf after shelf of books that are either pieces and parts of books, or in the completely wrong section (adult fiction books in the math section, easy to read books in the science section, etc,).  We even had to sweep tiny shards of glass off the floor from a window that had broken last week.  We've marked the books by reading level and sorted the textbooks that are stored in the library.  We all realize, however, that the first time the kids use the books, it will all be chaos again.  

The Musana kids were competing in a soccer and netball tournament today, which we were fortunate to be able to attend and lend a cheering hand.  Netball is similar to basketball, except that the players do not dribble, they pass the ball around a smaller court, and they score by getting the ball into a circle around the "net" and with one hand, try to get the ball up into the "net" (there is no net, just a circle of metal on top of a pole).  There are rules about shifting their stance as they shoot, and the other team cannot block the ball from the goal as they shoot.  The blocking is done as the ball is moved down the court.  Think ultimate frisbee meets basketball.  It's played mainly by the girls and the Musana girls won both of their games.    

The boys soccer (football here) team dominated in the first game and won 2-0.  They had a little more competition from their next opponent, but still won 1-0.  The field was enormous, sloped down on one side, had holes to avoid, and they played in their bare feet.  There were no parents yelling that the ref was an idiot, or bringing little orange slices for the boys.  

It was a lot of fun watching them play and watching the other students were were there from other schools.  The host school had a number of younger kids watching the games, but they were more interested in watching us Mzungus (white people).  The school had a number of deaf students, two of which made friends with our driver, Kyemba.  He showed his sign language skills again with the five-year-olds and made their day. 

Thursday is always Trivia Night at the Sol, so off we went to dinner in downtown Iganga.  Hannah and Sam were the question writers.  Our group divided up into two teams, and with the other people who played in the restaurant, my team came in third.  Who knew that India was the largest producer of bananas in the world, or that a cockroach farted every 15 minutes???

We're pretty wiped out from our day in the sun at the games and are not going to take long trying to fall asleep. We continued to see the fruit of Musana's labors today in the coaching, kids' behavior and sportsmanship.  

Blessings, 

Judy

From sunrise to sunset

The morning began early, at 6am, for a hike to watch the sunrise from Pride Rock. We walked through the village until the highway. As we were walking, the Lord brought to my attention the crowing of roosters. That heartfelt cry is like his cry for us. Just a bit past the highway we stumbled upon this giant chunk of some type of granite, out of nowhere. We made it to pride rock, watched the amazing sunrise, and took a zillion pictures. We then had Vicki lead us into a sweet devotion, that applied to stumbling during our hike as well as walking on smooth pavement. We are all in need of Jesus, "Through the calm and through the storm."

 

We came back to Musana for breakfast and split off for our assigned projects. The artists (and Jen) started a mural on the Nursery building wall while the bookworms (and Sue) went to work in the library.  Hannah had drawn out a sketch of a beautiful landscape that our Musana friends loved.  They got to work, one stroke at a time, which several hours later produced an amazing, sweet God inspired painting. They have a still a few details to finish tomorrow. 

 

Meanwhile, us nerds hit the books. Musana has been blessed with a room full of books however we wanted to help out in organizing them.  Judy and I were giddy as we ran across many of our favorites. Vicki shared her love of Bear Snores On, Sue stumbled upon Owen and Tamara relived her girls' past reads. We made great progress in a few hours but will need to spend just a bit longer to finish up.

 

We were graciously served lunch and got to eat with the teachers during their hour long and duty free lunch. After a quick potty break, the adventurous afternoon began…WE RODE ON BODA BODAS! Yes, through the streets of Uganda! What a memory I will cherish! We went to visit a Musana women's project that makes tie dyed fabric and is added to the many crafts sold for sustainability. We were welcomed with singing, clapping and dancing. Edward, a Musana social worker, introduced everyone. Then the work began! They showed us how the process is started, all the steps in between and we were shocked with the end result. Simply beautiful!

 

We all had unique perspectives by the time we returned. Through my eyes, I witnessed tender love given to the babies of these strong, hard working, resourceful women. I don't know if I've ever seen such beautiful love as I've seen here in Uganda. It is indescribable. How blessed I am to have been brought here to witness love like this!

 

May G-d bless you and keep you!

 

Love,

Julie

 

 

 

When you put Americans to work at a Ugandan clinic

When you put Americans to work at a Ugandan clinic…

 

First of all, hi Mom! Happy anniversary! 30 years is a such a huge accomplishment. Hope Dad got you something sweet!

 

This morning was a running day for Liz and I. Tuesdays are our "short" day, with only a 3 miler. Our little road was much busier this morning starting out, since it wasn't the weekend. Boda bodas (motorcycles), bikes and kids were everywhere, getting ready for business and school! But only a few minutes in, the streets cleared out, and it seemed as if it was just Liz, the red dirt & I. I still cannot even believe that we are training here. It is such a sweet gift!

 

Today was the day we were taking the "tour" of the Musana Community Clinic that is under construction. Kyemba picked us up (on time) and we started our way down to the school. We were lucky to have Andrea come with us! We drove down and picked up Florence, one of the social workers from Musana. We drove the quick drive to the clinic, and met Haril and Edward.  I noticed Florence and Andrea get some stuff out of the back of the van, but didn't think much. We then started our tour. We heard all about the vision of the community clinic, putting a big emphasis on the community part. They want a safe place for people to come here in Iganga, where there is not quality health care. They first took us through the downstairs portion of the clinic, which will have a small emergency room, the waiting room, records room, cashier, pharmacy, a room for a fluoroscopy (x-ray) machine, a surgical unit and patient rooms.  The second story will consist of a pediatrics & maternity ward, pediatric pharmacy, dental area with x-ray machine, board room/training facility & staff area. The whole place is functional, beautiful, and such a lovely story of God's fruit. Haril said he hopes the new clinic will raise the bar for Igangan health care to bring in more quality facilities & staff. The building is able to add on more stories and they have enough space on the land to expand to 2 more buildings when needed. They will be hiring all Igandan workers and are currently looking for a couple  of American doctors to come help train the employees that will hire, for a year or so. They are really emphasizing the care that these people will receive, not only quality medical care but the compassion and love to go with it.

 

After our tour, those things that I saw strangely appear in the back of the van, came out! For the next 4 hours the 10 (plus Florence & Edward) of us swept (the 3 inches of dirt) with stick booms, scraped up chunks off the tile by hand, swept again, carried water up the stairs, scrubbed, squeegeed, scrubbed and squeegeed some more. It was really sweet to watch us all work, take turns, switch jobs, encourage each other, and help each other to knock out a big 'ol job of cleaning.

 

Today was a beautiful picture of the way God works on us. Here we were, looking this big huge dirt pile in the clinic, thinking it was going to take forever to clean. It reminded me of me. I look at what I have going on, and think, wow, that's going to take forever to clean up! But, little by little, with some shoveling, some sweeping, some scrapping, and a whole lot of people that God brings in my life, it all gets cleaned up. And just like the upstairs of the clinic today, life gets a little dirty again, but we continue, through Him, and keep on keeping on.

 

After the clinic and lunch, we returned back to Musana. Some of us worked on organizing the library, some played with the kiddos, and some went to the market to gather supplies to paint a mural.

 

We are hitting the sack early for a 5:30am wake up call to go hike Pride Rock to watch the sun rise. Can't wait!

Cows, Bananas and Piglets .... Oh My!!!

Happy Monday Everyone,

After a wonderful Sabbath with our friends at Musana, we took on Monday. Today, we were able to travel and see how Musana is empowering the community around them. We started the day with a farm visit. For those of you who have not been to Iganga, it is a beautiful, rich agricultural community. Seriously, I picture the Garden of Eden or the Promised Land looking much like this fertile land. The avocados are the size of a child's head.  OK now back to the farm..... It was about 40 acres and included banana trees, elephant plants, corn and a tomato nursery along with goats, milk cows and pigs. Sue even got to hold a screaming pig. It was amazing to see how efficiently they used every piece of the land.

From the farm we were able to do home visits with the Musana social worker, Edward,  who oversees Project Restore. This a program that walks along side some of the most vulnerable individuals and gives them the tools and resources to be successful. Not only do they provide for the individual but they also educate the family and the entire community on horticulture, hygiene and community programs. We were able to meet amazing people who through God's strength are defying odds and changing their communities. Along the road, we met a mother and her 4 month old baby who had not been nursing for 3 months and had been living on tea. The sweet little girl had a bad rash and looked malnourished.  It was nice being with Edward and knowing he would educate the family and provide them with the resources to help the child regain it's health. 

We ended the day at the Buwongo Woman's group. This inspirational group of woman greeted us with singing and dancing. They even got our crew to wiggle their hips and dance a bit. Praise God no one got this little treat on video. We figured out that between the 10 of us we had a total of 12 children. The 12 ladies we met had a total of more than 100. These woman are not only mothers, they are leaders in their community and small business owners.  They shared with us how they had received an interest free loan from Musana and were able to start businesses in sewing, brick making and a piggery. One of the women even built her own house using the bricks produced by her business. We were truly honored to spend the afternoon with these gracious, hard-working women.

So we end the day excited and humbled to see all that God is doing here in Iganga...

- Tamara

A Sunday in Uganda

Hello Everyone,

Today was a good day. We got to worship with the students at Musana's chapel. After an hour of singing and dancing, we had a wonderful lesson from Susan, a staff member at Musana. We read Psalm 119:94-105, and Susan spoke on the importance and blessings of reading God's Word consistently. She did a beautiful job of making the lesson understandable to the kids, but also applicable for anyone else listening. After church, the team had a quick rest and lunch. We then got some really good quality time with the students of Musana. We got to help them sort beans for that week's meals. They poured out bags and bags on the tables and we took out all of the grass and 'bad beans' from the good beans. Honestly, that was one of my favorite parts of the day. It was really therapeutic and I got to make friends with the kids at my table. We got to go to the library later on and read some good books to the kids. I was handed a book on spiders to read to a group of girls. Some of the pictures were a little too much for us. For the scariest pictures, one of the students Sharon would say, "Oh, I have fear!" Could not have said it better. Spiders: yuck. For dinner we walked through the village and went to Sol Café. Once we got back to our little compound at Musana, the team and some other American visitors made a fire and ended the day with some good old smores. Today, God really spoke to me about being at peace in the midst of a busy day. Being calm and not allowing chaos into your heart and actions is a choice. God has blessed our team with yet another day filled with opportunities to build relationships and love on some of His kids (and learn about spiders). Thanks for reading (and hello to my family, I love you!!) - Hannah

 

Agricultural kind of day...

      Today we got to go with some of the kids from Musana to the Agricultural Fair in Jinja, just an hour away from Musana.  On our drive to Jinja the kids on the side of the road if they saw you they would yell "Mzungu bye!!" or just "Mzungu!" it was so sweet.  Also we took Florence, the social worker at Musana, and her sons Tony and Grace, also Betty who watches Grace when Florence works.  Grace, who is 3, would look out the window and smile the biggest smile and just laugh and crawl around people, at one point he stuck his head out the window.  When we got to Jinja none of the kids were there yet so we got to explore a little before they came.  We got to learn how they turn sugar cane into sugar, then we were walking over to the wildlife section and met up with a small group of the kids.  On the way we saw three camels, I really wanted to ride one, maybe next time ;) We made it to the wildlife section and went in it was a pretty small section but not that small, anyway, the first animal was a Leopard, then a Peacock and three Grey Parrots, after them was a Leopard Turtle and the Ugandan bird, which is the Crested Crane,  next a Lioness and lastly an Ostrich.  As we walked around in the section we saw a BIG python!  Sue, Judy and a three of the Musana kids decided to walk over and have the two snake handlers put the python around them!! (i promise this all really happened)  After that we left and when we walked out through the exit curtain and right there was the Nile, maybe not RIGHT there, but close.  Anyway, we took a few pictures and the kids got ice cream.  As we were walking back to the fair we realized Florence wasn't with us, so we stopped and waited.  While we were waiting Sue found a beautiful butterfly, of course she just had to take a picture and so she handed me her water bottle and went into full photography mode.  After that we found Florence and went to find the kids, they had gone to see the different types of Cows, Goats, Pigs and Chickens.  Then we went to see the plants while the kids were still looking at the animals.  At the plant section we saw some corn, snake beans, rice plants and banana trees.  Then we went to go check out the swing rides they had there because Tony and Grace wanted to ride them.  Once we got to the swings Tony hopped in a swing, Grace was scared at first then Betty got in a swing with him he rode the whole ride head down and eyes closed.  When they got off he actually enjoyed it!  He walked back over to a swing and tried to push a little girl out of the swing so he could ride again!  Then one Musana kid came up to us and said he was lost from the group we had no way of contacting the teacher because our phone ran out of minutes.  A short  while after we found another Musana kid so me and Sue decided we should look around.  We walked around the carnival area and found a few Musana kids but they were there with their parents and not a teacher.  We continued our search for about three more minutes but then decided we should head back to the group or else we'd probably get lost.  When we got back we decided to go back to the van and use the other phone to call the teacher.  On the way out we found a group of Musana kids gathering by one of the buses and left the kids with them.  We made it to the van and got in, we headed over to the Source Café for lunch.  After lunch we headed back to Musana, when we got back we went and played with the nursery kids, nursery is like 3 to 5 year old kids.  Three little boys stuck to me and all they wanted to do was walk around and see what everyone else was doing.  None of them spoke but they did smile and laugh and they had the sweetest little smiles and the cutest little laughs.  I called them my posse that doesn't speak :) After playing with the kids for about an hour or more, we came back up to our rooms to clean up for dinner.  Later, after dinner we went back down to watch a movie with the kids, we were supposed to watch Pink Panther the movie, they ended up showing like 2 minutes of different movies, Transformer, then some movie that was in Chinese, and Real Steel.  After all that they finally got Pink Panther rolling.  About 10 minutes into the movie me, Tamara, and my mom Vicki decided to head back up, because I had to blog tonight and my mom got peed on by a little person sleeping in her lap.  And that was the day in my point of view!! - Emily