This Girl's Heartbeat

So I guess I've decided to keep going with this blog. Surprisingly, I'm finding that I like writing on this thing. My thoughts are mainly for me but maybe someone might feel the same about things and it helps to know you're not alone sometimes :) (At least for me it does) Ill try to keep it shorter than my blog from Africa though lol. So the big T. Wonder what that is? Transition. Spiritual transition. For me this word makes me want to cringe and be excited at the same time. My life has been in this faze for over a year now and it feels as though the emotions of it all are increasing daily. It's a mixture of excitement, wonder, and frustration all at once. Now I know frustration isn't what   god gives us but I've been feeling it. It's like I'm standing at the edge of the cliff wanting to jump, not sure what Im jumping into, but ready and not afraid, yet someone is holding my shirt and saying not yet. There's two things pulling me; knowing that t

I've been home now for almost seven days and I've experienced so many emotions in such a short time. I miss me friends from Uganda and I miss the country in a way I didn't miss it when I left. Before I left, and a few times while I was there, I prayed and asked god to help me with my emotions. I am very soft hearted and I knew what I was about to experience would be an intense emotional experience and I didn't want to make a fool out of myself. I didn't want to embarrass myself but most importantly I didn't want to disrespect my African friends. It would be hard for me to explain to them the reasons behind my feelings. So I asked god to protect my heart and keep me in check. At times, although being there was amazing, I felt a little disconnected from things. Like I was walking in someone else's shoes. When I left, I was worried that the trip hadn't impacted me as much as I thought it would. I thought I was abnormal. I prayed and asked god if this was h

Random observations about Uganda 1. The people here are absolutely gorgeous. The women are some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life and the men are so handsome. Their skin is like porcelain. And their smiles are gorgeous.  Everyone could be a model  2. They work hard. The manual labor is intense. Everything is done by hand. The staff at both of our hotels mop with a towel with their hands. They bend over the entire time. First they mop with a soapy towel and then they dry the floor with another.  3.  The food is really good.  We eat a lot of fruit and everything has no preservatives so its all natural. There are bananas everywhere and they taste like candy. I wish I could bring some home with me. The hotel cooks some kind of rice and gravy that has a lot of the same favors from back home. There's this bread called chipota that's like a fried flat bread that's really good.  the beef I ate at the bishops house the other day was very gamey. I think it's

Wednesday I'm sitting on the plane in Nairobi, Kenya right now. This plane is huge. 10 seats wide and there is a second story to the plane. We will be traveling for a total of 30 hours I believe. By the time I post this ill be in Amsterdam. We have a four hour layover there. I would give anything to have a longer one so I can visit Anne Franks house but it doesn't look like its going to happen. Leaving the bishop and his children was hard   Its crazy how much they feel like family. Matthew came find me through all of the people in the crowd and gave me a big huge. I love that kid. I had a dream last night that we took him home with us. I wish I could.   Leaving Ugandan soil caused such mixed emotions. Happy to be going home but sad to be leaving this land. It's people have won my heart. It's hard to think we are leaving a land to go to a place that is so different. America is a blessed nation in so many ways. My eyes have been opened to that these past 10 days. But Amer

We woke up this morning and went to the new property where we are building the new orphanage. I was a little confused about some things but I'm good now. Let me explain. Kekabu is where the old orphanage is right now. It has about 600-700 kids. It's actually two orphanages in one right now the new orphanage is in kachomo. These are little villages. As we pulled up the the new site, women and children greeted us. It too is in the middle of a little village. The grounds are really big and it's amazing to see what refuge and Thibodaux and our other friends on the trip have helped to build. We were able to walk on the land that refuge purchased for farming. Such a surreal moment to realize that if our community hadn't pitched in to purchase this, that this opportunity would be non existent. The people over the orphanage are so excited to learn about how to use farming gods way to cultivate the land for crops ( www.farminggodsway.org ) we were able to send four people to the

Tuesday We went straight to the orphanage today and had service. Today was baptism day. The preacher dismissed the Americans an then dismissed the children who wanted to baptized. So many lined up and I couldn't possibly fire out how we were going to do this. We had one big bus,one small one and a bishops SUV. Josh ( leader of our group) sd that only 20 people could go and there were about three spots left after those who had to go. I was really disappointed because I really wanted to be there to witness it but I prayed " we'll lord there must be a reason that you not want me to go". And the I thought " got in the trunk!"  So I grabbed three of my friends and we alla pull-ups in e trunk of the SUV. It was hilarious. You see, the water hole were we're going to baptize these kids was about ten minutes down the road and we had about 200 children to baptized and room was limited. We had to try to fit as many children as we could and bringing more adults mean

Sent from my iPad Monday The days are all jumbled together and I had to ask someone what day we were on. This morning we went straight to the orphanage and had service. There's this little boy Matthew that we met the first day in Kampala. He was with bishop and is an orphan from the orphanage. We were told that he was sad and lonely so mama bishop took his with  her for a few days. He is back at the orphanage and let me just tell you, ya boy can dance. Haha. I have video of him I hope I can show you. It's great! Lol.  Service was really good. They ( including the children) started singing Jesus loves me in Lugandan and the spirit of god fell I that place. The children worship to passionately. Imagine 3-8 year olds weeping with eyes squinted and closed, arms lifted high praying to Jesus. Breathtaking.  I didn't stay in the service for long because I went help Ronnie and mandy with medical assessments. This made me see things in a while new way. Before they  were children wit

Sunday Today was our first day at the orphanage. As we rode up we were greeted by the children again running with branches shouting hallelujah!  Still so powerful.   We went straight into church and had service. Worshipping with so many children is the best thing. Thankfully I wasn't as emotional today as I was last night. I was just so happy.  I think I smiled all day :). The children just want to touch you. The just want to shake your hand. Some are brave enough to just want to hug you and hold on to you. There were a few who were scared on us but some of these children have never seen white people before. As a sign of respect, the children and workers at the orphanage curtesy or drop to their knees when the shake your hand. Today I had a child of about 2 years old drop to their knees to shake my hand and I   had a lady about 75 years old curtesy to me and every age in between.  Of course I immediately drop to my knees to do the same for them. They treat us with so much respect.

Saturday We were up and ready for 730 for the bishops and his crew to pick us up. He didn't show up till 12 lol. That's Uganda time for ya! The ride to the Mbale took about 6 hours and we stopped in Jinja to use the bathroom. I was looking out for Katie Davis but didn't see her. We were hoping to randomly run into her lol (  www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com ).  The ride there was nice. We got to see a lot of the country side. It's really beautiful and full of rolling hills covered in sugar cane and tea trees. I sat by my friend Elijah and got to learn a lot about what I was seeing. He told me about the tree that we always see in Africa pictures. They are super tall and he said that they produce really good wood. We road through the biggest forest in Uganda. He said there were many snakes, tigers, and panthers but we didn't see any. Our African friends sang a lot of the way there. I think heaven will have Africans singing. Their voices are so beautiful. I can listen

> > I'm going to attempt to explain this day but its not going to be easy. We left this morning and went to the market and bought souvenirs. I've seen so much of this city in the last few days And yet I'm still amazed and can't take my eyes off of what I'm seeing from the bus. There are people everywhere in the city. People walking, hanging out on the side of the side of the streets, driving, weaving in and out....it's packed. We call New York the city that never sleeps but NY ain't got nothing on Kampala! It's so busy and alive with action yet so laid back. Today small children were running up to the bus asking for money with huge smiles on their faces. They were alone; no parents in sight. As we rode through he city you could occasionally hear "muzuungu" ( ma-zoong-goo) being shouted from the crowd. That means white man LOL. There are tshirts they sell with muzuungu written on it. It's great. :) After that, We came back to the

I've learned a few things during this short time here 1. Ugandans do not view time like we do lol. We were supposed to leave for 11 or 12 but didn't get out of here till 2. Ugandans don't really rush about like we do. There's no time schedule just a "round about" time. It's so laid back and there doesn't seem to be much stress at all about sticking to a schedule. It's kinda nice. 2. I want a motorbike. Not like a harley but a bike like the ugandans have. Everyone has them around here. They fit up to three grown men in one bike. I think it would be neat to ride around Thibodaux on one of these. I'd save on gas :) 3. Red dirt stains. My hands are a " I stayed in the tanning bed a little too long" shade of orange. The dirt is a beautiful deep burnt orange. Picture do not do it justice. 4. It's not "as hot as Africa". The weather has been really nice and I am not dying of heat stroke. 5. I don't NEED all the stu

We touched down at 10:30 pm Uganda time which is like 1:30pm Thibodaux time. A total of 25 hours of flying and traveling! Wow. That's all I can say lol. I was able to sleep and the planes were really nice. We each had a tv to watch movies so that made the time pass by quickly. The Bishop and his sons met us at the airport. I was finally able to meet friends I have been talking to through fb. The people here are so beautiful, inside and out. The men grabbed our bags and we didn't have to lift a finger. Probably 50+ bags of luggage, and about 50 people fit in one bus. Lol. We just packed in like sardines. Lol. We arrived at the hotel and unloaded and then went to bed. The rooms are a lot nicer than I expected and we are very comfortable. Mareshah and Ashley are rooming with me. The weather is warm but surprisingly there's a coolness in the air. Today we are going to the market and an Internet cafe. We are going to hang out with the bishop and his people. Can not wait to