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:)

the sabbath.

today was sunday, and so we got to have the adventure of church this morning. i was anticipating for it to actually be much worse than it was. lol. normally it would be much hotter than it was today (thank the Lord), crowded as it was today, while the people of uganda do not have/use deodorant, but THANKFULLY! (haha) we were able to sit in the front rows by the open door, the weather was fairly nice with a continuous breeze, so i was very happy to be in church even for those.. 3 to 4 hours. Josh (a member of our team who's a pastor back home) gave the sermon this morning and it was great - he spoke on Gideon and the fleece. there were numerous people in the church who felt immensely touched by the lesson and it was great!

while ms kathy and i had the babies and p. 1 kids this morining (p.1 = about first grade or kindergarden), the lesson on creation went very well. we taught the kids "jesus loves me", "God is great", and a song about a spring and they loved all that. after passing out little animal cards in the end, all the children were crowded around their native teacher, a baby that one of the girls had just layed in the grass a short ways away (very tiny - couldnt crawl or anything yet) started crying. all the kids ignored it, so i walked over and picked the little thing up. she was wet and i quickly realized - the kids here dont have diapers... but the baby stopped crying and played with my beads while i held her. the kids all started grouping up to leave, and i was like "uhm.. who's baby is this..?" lol - all the kids were jsut going to run off without her. finally the teacher called over them in their native language to find the baby's sister or brother. a little girl in pink finally came forward and claimed the child somewhat bored with the idea of the baby. ms kathy grabbed me a few minutes later to purell like crazy because she had seen 2 ringworms on the baby's head.. but after my shower tonight and as much purell and cleansing wipes as i used i feel sufficently clean lol. the baby was so precious though.. the kids at the church we visited in mbale come mostly from the slums area of the little city; its so amazing to see these children who have so very little praisign the Lord at the top of their lungs in church.

after church and lunch at the church this afternoon, we headed back to the hotel briefly before setting off for the home again. all the kids were SO excited to see us there today - and they all looked great, dressed up in their sunday clothes. pheobe (the little girls name who i couldnt rmr yday), zulfa, aidha, and juliet all wrote me notes today as well. they are all tooo priceless. bernard, flavia and gift were all quick to find me right after i got out of the van too to give me hugs:)

were almost done with the library and just waiting on one last shelf.

while we were carrying books in between the sorting room and the library - one of the books full of encyclopedias was very heavy, but little joesephat (one of the little boys who has helped us organize books the past couple days) was determined to carry it. he was struggling as ms mary handed it to him, so i grabbed the other end and held it up. i was holding the majority of the weight but let him have just enough to feel like he was still helping. he insisted "oh this is not heavy!" i laughed and chided "oh yes it is" just giving him a hard time. when we reached the library he came to the conclusion that "you are weak! you are much too weak!" i jus laughed and said oh i must be. but after he left i made a connection with that experience and my own spiritual walk. little joesephat didnt understand the full weight of the box because i was holding so much of it, but I knew that if i let the box go while he was still holding it, he would fall over for sure. but he was quite proud in the fact that he had it all under control and knew he could withstand the weight. in the same way, within the past year i exhibited the same trait as he did - after a full year of being so close to the Lord, where everything was going so well for me, i began to take pride in myself rather than Him after a while subconciously. i would think that i would never slack enough to let my grades slip beyond my straight A streak, nor would i ever give into any sexual temptation - that i would save my first kiss for the alter and such, that oh no, these girls getting into all sorts of shananagins and being so ridiculously stupid would neeeverr be me. but the moment that mindset set in - my grades slipped to colorful progress reports i thought i'd never own, with little hope of moving them higher than a mid B. i was tempted and gave in with somewhat very little resistance in my relationship - i started to become the very girl i never wanted to be. the Lord knew that all the things i go through in everyday life were immensely more difficult than i thought them to be because he was holding 99 percent of the burden, allowing me to endure just a few small things to remind me this was indeed still life and not a dream. haha. but the moment i became proud in "my" abilities to stay focused and remain stubbornly unmovable in my convictions, is when He said "alright, you're so strong? lets see just how strong you are when you try to carry it yourself for real." and i immediatly fell apart. just like the verse - "pride goes before a fall" as well as the thousand foot krutch song "falls apart". the main line in the chorus is "everything around me, falls apart, when i walk away from You." and oh how true i know that statement to be.. it was great the way the Lords used the little things through this trip to help me recognize Him in it all.

"dance for us bekah!" "ha. no."

today was another good but exhausting day.
we finished putting up all the secondary-fiction books in the library and have most of the non-fiction organized now. (theres only the monstrous "500" section that we'll have to finish tomorrow before we can start stacking the rest of those on the shelves as well.) the guys are jsut about done with all the shelves in the library now and its really taking shape. all the kids are really excited to read.
today we also passed out dresses to all the girls in the home. we had partnered with a woman who has a non-profit organization back in the states called Little Dresses for Africa (littledressesforafrica.org) who has women from all over the states make these little pillow-case sundresses for the kids and then send them to her to distribute among mission groups who travel to africa. mary (our leader's wife) contacted her and was able to get 8 boxes to bring with us for the girls. after sorting them all out by size this morning, the girls came in by class in the afternoon to "shop" for their new dress! the little girls mostly just picked the first things that caught their eye, but the older girls searched through the piles of dresses with a specific idea of what they wanted in mind. after everyone had found their dresses we took pictures of them all clad in their new attire. we still have a ton of dresses left, and plan on distributing them to the little girls in some of the nearby villages within the next half a week or so.
(2 from the left is little flavia and the 5th little one is the other who's attached herself to me but her name currently escapes me.. darn short term memory lol.)
today was slower and so after lunch sometime i made my way over to where the kids were playing in the field. gift (one of the little "TOPS" (5 yr olds) girls) and bernard (one of the older boys) were quick to follow me and invite me to play. we ended up sitting in the grass instead a while, talking about sports - they LOVE futbol (soccer) and netball (which is basketball but with more of an ultimate frisbee sort of rule system) - talked about how to spell everyone's names, as well as what everyone's favorite colors are. most of the girls love pink, and im plannin on trying to make some of them bracelets by monday. gift was too cute - at one point she looks at me and asks "what is mathematics?" hahaha. she's younger and so isnt as advanced in her school work just yet. her and bernard speak english almost perfectly which is awesome especially for her age. all of the children speak lluwandan as a first language, but are taught mostly in english and are encouraged to speak it the majority of the time. however the younger children are still learning and so it is not always as easy for them to understand what we are saying.

while we were sitting in the grass talking though, little flavia (shes in the "babies" group - which is mostly 4 yr olds) hurt her toe - the nail had snagged on something at the corner and pulled back. so i carried her over to where "nana pat" was so she could get all fixed up. it was the first time i hadnt seen that bright little smile of hers dancing on her face. thereafter though she attached herself to me - holding my hand everywhere i went, and telling me i should stay at home with them tonight instead lol. one of the other little girls somewhere around her and gift's age, also attached herself to me - she spoke english a tad more fluently than flavia which was also impressive. both girls are just the cutest little thing, and i already know its going to be hard to leave them at the end of the trip.

today josh's phrase for me (the pastor in our group) was "dance for us bekah!" haha. jerad (the music teacher at the school) had just finished explaining to josh that everyone can sing - whether or not they can sing with the music and if it is plesant to everyone else may not be the issue, but God's given eeeveryyone the gift of song. well then of course josh proded him to sing for us which jerad cleverly avoided. but then josh insisted that if he wouldnt sing for us he should dance, at which point jill and audrey (2 more of our group) piped in: "bekah can dance!" The night before, while we were waiting for everyone to make it down to the dinner hall, the bar/shack was playing a bunch of american songs like "walk it out" and "no air" etc, so true to form lol i of course started jammin and dancin. well then josh came to the conclusion: "well great! jerad can sing and bekah can dance for us!" hahaha. yeah ok. i refused but then of course throughout the day he used every opportunity to insist i dance for them all lol.

tomorrow is sunday so we'll spend most of the day in church. it supposed to begin somewhere around 9:30 in the morning (though depending on the uganda clock, there's no promises) followed by about an hour sunday school, and then the main service which usually runs about 2 hours. we'll eat at the church and then head back to the hotel or the home depending on how tired everyone is. its bound to be yet another new experience for the books thats for sure. i'll do my best to blog tomorrow too:)

"if your skin is black like mine, get out! if your skin is white like theirs, stay here!"

day 2 in mbale, and i dont feel as exhausted (like..sleepy) as i did yesterday, but my body aches more today haha.

the men had much more luck with the wood today and were able to finish 2 of the 3 open walls of shelves in the library. we filled them with the easy-reader books as well as the fiction. &we sorted through the secondary fiction before we headed out for home.

haha -- at one point all the kids filed into our sorting room after music time becuase i suppose they were finally bored with their instruments and curious to see what we were doing. they were all extremely eager to help, but with so many of them after having helped us with the books we needed moved to the library, they started trying to take all the ones that werent ready! Jerald, the music teacher who was extremely fun to be around- very funny- came in and announced to all the children that "if your skin is black like mine, get out! if your skin is white like theirs, stay here!" hahaha; it was too funny.

but all the kids listened - they filed out quickly and obidiently and went back to their music classes.

this morning after filling the book shelves on the only available wall at the time, stefani, audrey and i (the two other girls closer to my age - stefani's 23 and audrey's 16) headed over to the playground to play with the kids that were on break there. there was a group of three girls who took to me, and thus i gained more friends in the home:) their names: zulfa, juliet and aihda. such beautiful girls, with the most priceless smiles. after stef played with them on the slide a good while, they showed us their own merry-go-round type deal as well as the swings. the kids knew ring-around-the-rosies so we played that, but they had never heard of london bridges. so audrey and i showed them that game as well. a few of the littler ones would just go through and then hold on to my skirt, waiting for our arms to come down over them as we sang the "lock her up" part. it was too cute. they also taught me how to play their version of red rover. i wish i spoke the language so that maybe i could have learned the song. the boys lined up on one side and the girls on the other. each side draped their arms over the others shoulder and they chanted individual songs as they walked forward and kicked and walked back. then whoever's turn it was (the boys or the girls) would call one of the kids from the other side out, at which point the particular boy and girl would meet in between the two lines and hit hands singing a new song. at the end of the song they'd try and pull the other to their side (with of course the help of their teamates lol.)

lunch was different from yesterday but still good. the food here is different from most things ive tasted but not yet in a bad way - ive enjoyed all of it. today was "irish" mashed potatoes (haha - its just what they call white potatoes), with a beef stew of sorts, greens (spinach today) and then the constant bread and soda. today they'd prepared watermelon for us as well.

we got to sit in on the childrens worship service today too. it was awesome. they all have such beautiful voices and my little faith grace lead many of the songs - she has an amazing voice. prayers followed and to see all the kids so into their praise and worship time was great.. the little girls closest to me had nothing but praises to lift up to the Lord in prayer - even when compared to us they have so little..

Nana counted 416 bikes on the way to the home this morning just on her side of the van. i had only about 75 on my side of things so a rough total of close to 500 bikes. its insane. most people ride bikes or walk; very few ride in vans in the country-side. most of the bikes are boda-boda (bike taxis) where the women ride side-saddle behind the driver, or as many as 3 people may pile onto the small seat behind the main one of the bike driver. definately an interesting way to travel.

"Mzugu, Mzugu!"

first full day in Mbale:)
soo much i have to say, but i'm going to try and condense it as much as possible. its during the wet season here right now and the weather is beautiful - a much welcome change from the 100+ weather back home. its stayed mostly in the 70's, getting cooler as rain comes and goes throughout the day.
its a whole nother world here in uganda but one that fascinates me incredibly.
some of the customs ive already learned about include:
shaking hands at the wrist
hugging and touching cheek-to-cheek on both sides of the face
men hold hands as a sign of friendship but men and women never hold hands
the children bow to their elders as a sign of respect
the children are not allowed to speak at meal times to one another until they are finished eating, and no one begins their meal until everyone has been served
the children in the home (for that is what they are insistent on it being -- "how can this be an orphanage when the children have a father; i am their father, and there dorm mothers are their mothers"- Edward (head master at lluwanda childrens home)), are immensely respectful, grateful, joyful and loving.
the first classrooms we visited on our tour when we first arrived were of the youngest classes. after having welcomed us as a whole into their class, they left their seats to come hug us and tell us their names. a small group of them announced to me that i would be their friend and proceeded to ask me my name and tell me all of theirs - they were so incredibly happy!
later on in the day, one of the beautiful little girls, Faith Grace, gave me a note sharing how happy she was that i was here and how much she loved me and how God had called us all to love one another. i hope later to maybe post a picture of it. i was so amazed by their genuine joy and compassion.
as well as their fascination with these "mzugu" (which is lugandan for white foreigner, haha.).
working today to sort all of the books was a monumental task. the books that we organized today were just the easy readers, and it was surprisingly tiring - by the end of the day i was practically falling asleep at the table, waiting for the rest of the men to finish packing up for the day. they had had an even more difficult task than we did building shelves. they had technical issues with some of the supplies they were using as well as difficulty working with the immensely hard mahogony wood. but in the end they were finally getting a handle on things thanks to the Lord's grace and should (hopefully) be able to move even quicker tomorrow.
the food here has been different, but its been fun tasting all these new flavors and combinations. i might make a seperate entry later on just about all the food ive even tasted thus far. (haha i laughed - when we were on our drive to Mbale the first day we got here, where did we stop for lunch but a chinese restaurant - Ling Ling's lol).
the animals we've seen thus far have been a variety all the way from goats to huge 3 feet tall storks. goats, cows and chickens roam free through the cities and rural areas. some of the cows are in better shape than others but can be constantly seen grazing all over the place. there is even a sort of long-horn type cattle with insanely immense horns. there were 2 bats in the cactus-tree outside our hotel too - ha, Edward and Bella flew down to Africa;). ive yet to see the national bird but i've heard they're even bigger than the storks.
well i hope to post again soon with even more tidbits and pictures! please keep praying that everything flows smoothly!

"well thats a pretty little poppet you have there"

so sorry to everyone who's been trying to follow my blog lately, my days are all messed up and we havent had much time lately to update since the wi-fi in the airport in london was far from free and last night i could barely stay awake through dinner haha.

this is the update i wrote while on our 10-hour layover in London though:

our plane took off a little before 9pm last night for London, and we arrived in the UK roughly 9 hours later. It would have been around 7:30 houston-time when i checked after sitting down to breakfast/lunch in the heathrow airport in London. But it was after 1 in the afternoon local-time. Nana and i shared a basil, mozzerella and pesto baguette in the little italian cafe they had a short way from our terminal.

i love listening to all the british accents here tho - that and the austrailian accents are prolly my favorite. haha - the man who was checking our passports and boarding passes when we first arrived in london looked up at me and grinned when he'd finished, and pointed to my necklace sort of chuckling to himself - "thats a pretty little poppet you have there". gotta love it -- oohhh the comments i get about my pop tabs.

last night on the plane was definately an experience - note to leah: i finally know where they get the planes with the 3-column seating on all those commercials/movies; they're for the international flights like to london:)

the meal they served on the plane was surprisingly decent - maincourse, salad, roll, dessert, an extra chocolate and all. i was pleasantly surprised - especially considering my past experiences with plane-food.

take off was cool too - hadn't ever flown at night so that was new. the runway looked really neat all lit up and then the cities all full of lights from so high up - it was pretty awesome. ha or maybe im just easily impressed. it was actually around sunset when we took off, but because of the rain, it looked like it was night already. but once we got above the clouds, you could see the sun just sinking beyond the horizon - it was really pretty with a bright orange reflecting on the clouds nearest to it. God's a pretty talented artist;)

sleeping on the plane though i'd have to say was a bit of a different story. haha, i've never slept very well, if at all on planes, but i managed. if all else fails theres always the 6 hour drive from Entebbe (where we're flying in) to Mbale to try and catch up on some z's too.
well we'll prolly be going off to eat soon, and then boarding soon after. ill try and keep yall posted. prayers are still much appreciated- thank you all for your support!:)

And So It Begins

So tomorrow i will be heading out with about 7 other people to Mbale, Uganda.

thus far all i know about our trip is that:

-the journey will consist (roughly) of: an 8 hr flight to london, a 6-7 hr stay in the london airport, another 7-hr or so flight into uganda, and then a 6 hour drive to the hotel to complete the journey for a grand total of... : 28 hours.. roughly. lol.

-we will spend much of our 2 weeks at the Lulwanda Primary School (the orphanage.)

-i wont be able to wear pants/shorts very often, if at all while there (skirts all the way. whoo! lol)

-i will be returning to the states on july 13th

-i am immensely excited to go and cannot wait to see what God will teach me while i am there:)

i will not have my phone throughout any of the trip becauuseee a brief trip to the at&t store, informed us that it costs me $3.50 a minute if someone calls me - if they leave a minute long voicemail, thats 3.50. if i answer the phone for only a minute - 3.50. and text messages are roughly a dollar a pop. SO! needless to say, i will be leaving my phone at home for the next two weeks to avoid any unnecessary charges:)

grandad will have his laptop though and so hopefully i will be able to update on every days goings on evey day or every other day if possible. we'll have a dial-up connection while in uganda so facebook connection is basically out of the question lol.

though im definately not complaining bout not having my phone or fb:) i think it will be MUCH better that way.

but i will try and make some sort of post tomorrow in london.. whatever time it may be there.. haha.

excited face! whoooo!

(yeah crappy picture but you the idea:))