I am now a resident of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. I live with 3 other wonderful roomates in a beautiful apartment in town. I work about twenty minutes from my home at a place called Gateway Rehabilitation Center as a full-time evening counselor. It is wonderful and so difficult all at the same time. But one thing I can say is, God is good. :)

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Hey everyone! it's been a while...when they said we would only get 2 hours a week on internet, they were exaggerating! ha. There is not internet here on campus and the closest cafe is a 30 minute walk. I am thankful though that i am not tempted to use it more often I guess. :)
so, this week has been wonderful. I am growing so much closer to the girls here, and have made some close friends already. The new dorms i am staying in are wonderful as well. Since we are muzungu...white person.....everybody knows where we live, and they all stop by every day and hang out. It's such a relaxed environment, and no one ever seems to have a time schedule. I feel so american when i look at my watch. the only thing they think about time for is class....other than that, they really have no care in the world it seems. Last weekend, we went to lake victoria and swam....it was the perfect temperature too. We swam a while and had a little retreat with some of the guys and girls from college. about 30 muzunguus and 30 ugandans. it was a good time to get to know more people. So, I chose what service project I will be doing. I will be working with an organization called open doors. Every week for about 7 hours one day, tuesdays, i will be working with teenagers on the streets. a guy named julius has had a passion to do this and has been working in the slums with teenagers either feeding them or doing stuff with them or just having worship with them. i really don't know what all we will be doing, but i'll keep this updated when it all starts to happen. i have orientation for it today...oh, and we might be visiting prisons as well.. woah.

ok, so i really have so much to say like how amazing the food is here(...we eat matoke..which grows on campus, sweet potatoes, casava, beans and rice, of course), and how we have fruit trees all over campus, or that a monkey ate out of my hand the other day, or that people always ask if I'm married because i have one silver ring on my hand....(by the way, that's not a come on either...it's just common to ask that cause no one wears rings around here unless they are mariried or engaged. ) or that classes are so much fun, but i have to concentrate so hard to understand the dialiect of the professors..And, i love that people sit anywhere and everywhere for meals and for tea. it does not matter if they are strangers...everyone is so welcoming to us. Today i had tea with a pastor. there are many older people here and they come back to get an education even though they have been pastors for many years. you can learn a lot from so many people.
so i will end with just one funny story. I was sitting outside a few days ago reading and trying to catch up on some homework and my new friend, Aggie saw me and sat down with me. she was also going to read, so we sat down, and suddenly right between us a huge bird drop landed on the table....it was huge, let me tell you, and it came from that weird laughing bird i told you about...anyways, we decided to move to the next picnic table and not even 2 seconds after we moved the bird pooped on Aggie's head!!! she started running around screaming and i eventually got it off of her hair....eww. it was so funny though, and she told me that an old traditional belief is that if a bird poops on your head, it means you will be the next king...haha, guess i'm friends with a kinng!!! I will talk to you all later! God bless, and thank you so much for your prayers. some prayer requests would be that I continue to learn and see through Gods eyes and not my own and be able to see the culture for what it it...that i continue to not be scheduled but relax and take advantage of every moment of learning and teaching that God gives me. love you all!!!