home, sweet home:)

well we made it back home safely!
thank you all SOO much for your prayers throughout my journey, thanks to those of you who sent money to help support the trip, and thank you to everyone who just continually offered their support and encouragement throughout. you have no idea how appreciated it all was!
please continue to pray for the board of the seminary here in the US that they would make wise decisions that would influence the school and its abilities in uganda to reach an even greater population as soon as possible! please continue praise for all the lord was able to accomplish through us while we were there as well - especially considering the library that is now available to all the teachers, staff, children and community around the lluwanda childrens home.
thank you all SO much once again:) God bless

"parlez-vous français?"

today was our adventure into oxford. it was about an hour and a half's drive from london, but the bus we rode there was insanely comfortable. it was another double decker but with the top completely covered. the seats reclined and there was wi-fi available on the bus lol.

the drive through the country side was pretty darn beautiful too. lots of sheep and cows of course.

when we got to oxford, we hopped on the tour bus and rode it to Christ Church - where they filmed various scenes from Harry Potter (specifically all the Great Hall scenes - in the dinning hall; dono if they had some of the outdoor corridor/courtyard scenes filmed here too or not. the whole church/surrounding area was beautiful. ill be posting a bunch of pictures of all the stained glass etc on fb when i get home.

(the dinning hall:))

after leaving Christ Church, we hopped back on the tour bus back to the station where we grabbed a bite to eat at the giraffe:) - great place; serves all kinndds of stuff. then came the ride back into london.

while grandad figured out how to print our boarding passes as well as work out the seating arrangements and transport to the airport tomorrow, nana and i went out on a last-opportunity picture spree, nailing all the things we hadnt gotten a pic of that was an absolute must. we got the.. :

guard (he was super nice, joking w/me and bein sympathetic to all the picture taking lol. i was kinda surprised.)

telephone booth (which reeked of urine, and i swear SOMEthing peed in the corner.)

the super narrow halls of the hotel

and our "executive suite"

newest experience for the day - on our way back from taking a picture with a guard, ya know you pass all kinds of ppl on the street. well theres a cute black guy walkin toward me and all, and well he walks past and smiles and says hey. so i recipriocate it obviously and he stopped SO fast lol. and he quickly says: "parlez-vous francais?!" all expectantly and i grinned and was just like noooo! sorryyy...!! haha. so he walks off lookin back and all. i was like dang do i look french to you or something?! lol helloooo! AMERICAN accenttt!! hhahaha. but yeah. it was cool. lol

tomorrow's the flight back home so i only have one more entry to go. keep up the prayers - im not home yet! lol

wicked.

[starbucks run:)]

first full day in london and it was lovely:) it was nice and cool outside - prolly in the 60's - and overcast, raining off and on throughout the day as is typical of london weather lol.
after a nice breakfast in the hotel this morning, we set out to buy our wicked tickets for this evening from the theater a couple blocks away. after purchasing them, as well as our big bus tour tickets and tickets for the tower of london, we walked over to buckingham palace to watch the exchange of the guard. it was cool and the palace is beautiful. (changing of the guard)
after watching the procession, we ventured over to catch the our bus at the first stop on the tour. we spent our morning thereafter atop the big red double-decker bus:) as we rode about, i rmred how hot it's been back home and was SO greatful to be in the chill of london haha. the architecture here is great and im already planning out a weekend adventure to carry out by myself if i ever get the chance to venture back here when im older (say college age?) lol:)

[little chilled/damp, but happily so:)](the biggest apple store in the world. sick. i know)(st paul's cathedral. beautiful.)
a little before we got to the london tower though, i started cramping like freaking craaazzyyyy.. it was horrible. like.. i cant even tell you. it was really frustrating too bc it was kinda ruining my time there - and london tower was one of the main things i'd really been interested in exploring. tho after the basic tour (which didnt rly go into any of the buildings except the one chapel) i was so miserable, we were just going to go see the crown jewels and then head over to the boat tour to finish our day. but the line into that attraction was like down and around the huge.. idk palace-structure? lol. it was loongg.. and i was like dang.. should we even do this (bc nana and grandad have both already seen this stuff). well nana (true to form) of course goes into the gift shop and starts talking to i guess one of the ladies at the counter, asking if there are any crown jewels left in the buckingham palace museum and if not if she could maybe just get me a book with the pictures of them in it bc i was so miserable etc. well, long story short, the lady (just being incredibly nice) asks her manager permission and then took us through the back into the exhibit and back through up to the front so we wouldnt have to wait in the line. i was SO greatful. Lord is good:) my advil was taking an UNNATURALLY longgg time to kick in and so getting through the exhibit and still getting to see it all was perfect. He always comes through haha; thank goooodness.

(london tower - where we began our boat tour)

the boat tour was next down the river, from the london tower all the way down to big ben. it was great and i got some really great pictures along the way. it helped the experience that my advil did finally kick in and our tour guide was hilarious. (big ben from the river)
after riding back into buckingham palace and walking maybe a block to our hotel, we prepped up and headed to dinner at a little nook-in-the-wall italian restaurant just down the road. it was great food, and we were all glad to have something a little different from rice, beans and range chicken. lol.
with dinner done, we headed back to the hotel to change into something slightly nicer and then over to the theatre for our show to complete the night. i think new york was still a tad better, but tonights performance was still great and nana really enjoyed it. grandad appreciated the music but was a little lost in all the story line - of the connections between it and wizard of oz and so forth. today was great if somewhat tiring. tomorrow im not exactly sure what the plan is. oxford i believe? but i dont know much past that..ill keep ya'll updated tho. goodnight!

safely in london

well were finally here:) after an 8 hour flight from entebbe into heathrow airport in london, we have indeed arrived. we're staying at "the rubens at the palace" hotel - a couple blocks away from buckingham palace! the hotel is gorgeous, tho more compact (just like everything else here) than im used to, but its great! im loving every second of it.
were staying in the "executive suite" and its very nice (tho like i mentioned before very compact haha). i have a quaint little sofa bed in the front room and just up the steps is nana and grandad's bedroom - with a king size bed and the bathroom branches off from that. its soo nice to have such a beautiful bathroom after the past week in mbale lol.
after checking into our room and consulting with the concierge and so forth, we headed out to check out ticket pricing and times for a show tomorrow evening. im not sure which show we'll be seeing just yet - but it will be either wicked or billy elliot (a specifically british broadway musical). when we arrived back at the hotel, we had dinner in the front bar - it was so great. felt sort of elegant and welltodo sitting there in the front window in the lounge seats with our meal before us. it was all too lovely - with a great view into the buckingham muwz and for people-watching in the great window. ill have to try and post some of the pictures later.
its a totally different world from uganda - its like im visiting two extremes of wealth back to back - the extremely impoverished and then the very wealthy. both coutnries are beautiful but in very different ways. im hoping and am sure the Lord will have something to teach me even in a place like london over the next couple of days and we shall soon see just what he serves up:)
keep up the prayers and ill do my best to update again tomorrow!

the final day

today was our last day in mbale and at the lluwanda children's home. it was sort of bittersweet.

in the morning, we headed over to the home to wait on momma ida and edward before our trip to a nearby village. we ended up mostly waiting around all morning but it was nice to have a break. mary and mike were teaching the final class about the library this morning in the meantime.

a group of us put all of the childrens' names in individual bibles - one for each of them and passed them out after lunch. nana and i took this time to pass out the bracelets we had made too. all the kids were really excited about the bracelets; it was awesome:) hopefully someone got some pictures...

after handing out backpacks full of supplies to each of the staff members/teachers, we all packed into 2 vans and drove off with mama ida to a nearby village. it was prime picture time and i think i got some great shots that im really excited about. the village experience was different, but all the people that we visited along the way were extremely cheerful and happy to see us. all the children loooveedd the camera and were eager to get in as many pictures as possible. they were all immensely respectful - bowing before us all as is customary. one of the women along the way was so excited to see us, she called out in joy with the call of "ay, ay, ay, ay, ay!" it was interesting to be a part of. it was crazy to see how little these farmers have - with just their mud huts and farms of anywhere from a few chickens to a whole heard of cows and goats (the latter being the more wealthy). the bathrooms - wow how greatful i am for the porcelain thrones back home. lol.

after our village visit, we headed back to LCH for the dedication of the library and a celebration afterwards of music and prayer and dance, followed by a "snack" (which looked a lot more like dinner lol) of goat, irish potatoes, greens, flatbread and a fried sort of egg-roll type deal in a triangle shape that had beans, peas and corn in it. all of it was good - even the goat. it was different but definately good haha.

i was sad to leave all of my kiddos - gift, naula, pheobe, flavia, morgan, joel, aidha, zulfa, juliet, and bernard. i was sure to find each of them and hug them goodbye. bernard gave me a note right before we left too - which was new - i had only recieved notes from the girls before but i was happy to get it:) theyre all such sweet kids and i cant wait for the next opportunity to come back! (Lord willing) but i know theyre in good hands and have a brand new library to journey into now:)

(little gift, munchin on tonights meal)

tomorrow we head out of mbale and off to visit nana and grandad's friends. so i doubt ill be updating for at least a day or two. hopefullly ill be able to update once were all settled in london, but no guarentees!

keep up the prayers; we appreciate them greatly:)

books to covenant

today the library was completely finished and so mike and mary spent the morning teaching the seperate classes how to use/treat the library as well as how to check out books. the rest of us sat in on individual classes this morning to experience the uganda classroom setting. it was cool - the kids are all really eager to learn and answer whatever questions the teacher asked; it was cool to see.
after a lunch of flat bread and beans again, and a little playin with the kiddos, a group of us headed over to covenant. we loaded a couple boxes of books into each classroom - some class sets and some individual, random readers. the littler children seemed extra excited to recieve the new books.
nana and i did finish the rest of the bracelets today (including the community students), so we'll pass them out to the kids tomorrow afternoon at the library dedication.
tomorrow morning were goin to visit a nearby village - so that should be priiimee picture time as well as another eye-opener opportunity. im lookin forward to it and cant wait. only a couple days left in uganda, and i know im gonna miss it and the kids like crazy. this has been such a great experience all-round.

"macarena!"

today was different from the other days so far, as nana and i went with josh and grandad to the seminary school this morning. my job as photographer today was to capture the poor-ness of the facilities here with covenant primary school and the seminary. and they definately are not adequate; grandad's job as a board member back home is to help them get newer, better-suited facilities for over here in uganda. so my pictures of the bible college here will be in his report to hopefully get a new building or at least an extention of the current one as soon as possible.
the facility is actually backed up to a morgue, and before they had built a wall to seperate the two properties, the morgue would sometimes just dump bodies in the back and the stench would often times be unbareable. the school houses p.5 thru p.7 are still backed up right next to the morgue but thanks to the high brick wall that has been built between them it makes the situation that much better..
the kids at covenant are a lot less well-behaved and the teachers do not supurvise them any where nearly as much as at LCH. but the some of them still do have manners and know to respect visitors. hahaha - it was great - at one point one of the little boys came up to me wanting to dance so i showed him how to cha-cha. and then i was telling the kids how we have alllll kinds of dances back in america, and the simplest dance that popped into my head to teach them was the macarena:) soooo i taught the kids the macarena - most of the p.1/2 girls caught on really fast. they loved the jump part at the end haha. i only wish we could have gotten some video of it. i was so proud lol
this afternoon nana and i spent workin on crafts for the LCH kiddos tomorrow. i just finished the 45 bracelets for the girls and nana's currently workin on the other 45 for the boys. we decorated all the felt bookmarks to pass out tomorrow too so we should be all set to go. cant wait to see my girls faces when i give them their bracelets tomorrow:)