How do you say goodbye to kids that you have taught you more in life over three months more than then you have ever known? What do you say to the question of “are you going to come back” when your heart screams “January” but your head says, “you have no money or job”? The first 10-20 verses in basically all of Paul’s letters in the New Testment mean a whole lot more to me now. He says things like “I always thank my God for you” and “I have not stopped giving thanks for you” Take Corinthians, Paul lived and worked there for 2 years and then dropped it all to continue to follow God’s call. I think I may have just found a little taste of what that rollercoaster is like…
12-4-10 Spend the whole day with the kids just hanging out. They have these “holiday packets” which are pretty sizeable homework packets that they have to do over their “Holiday,” so I help out with some of those. After the day is almost finished I’m eating dinner up with the kids from the Love house and they say that they are going to prayer. I’m not really sure of this program because most Saturday nights we watch a movie but we have watched the last two and will kill the battery if we do it again. So we head over there and on the way there I am thinking about how we only have one full day left with the kids when I walk into a kerosene fire lit room with about 20 kids (so far) literally jumping for joy, dancing and singing about how good God is. I can’t even believe it. In 36 hours these kids will be back in places they don’t want to be, with not enough food, and really hard work ahead of them for almost 2 months and this is the scene. Once again, I am blown away by how much a 22 year old can be taught about his Savior from 10-14 year old kids who have been through the worst of the worst and still are facing daily back breaking work and beatings from relatives that don’t want them, and it looks like a party. This is a real living God. After our Dance party I head back and go to bed.
12-5-10 Last full day with the kids. The girls take a trip into town with our other Mizzungo friend “Lauren” because she is apparently leaving, and me being my always-informed self, find out after words. Sorry Lauren if you read this. It was great meeting you. Do anything and everything with the kids, play cards, sort rice, give them my phone to take pictures with, play their version of checkers and listen to a story from Akello Scovia. Still blows me away that these kids lived through the things that they did, but more importantly that they are so full of life and joy now even after. Girls run into a few problems in Bewyale but eventually make it back. Rose shows up around 3 and its always a treat to see her. The girls and I join the kids for their meeting with Rose for a little bit but it is all in Acholi so we bail out and get some dinner. Eventually the kids finish their meeting around ten and I head up for my last night of sleeping at the houses.
12-6-10 It had to come. We wake up early (6am) and the kids start doing some few chores to help get the houses in shape. I start my morning hanging out at Mercy before heading over to the next house, Grace. I don’t know what time they are leaving at but I want to go to each house for some time. After Grace is Hope and then Love. As I am walking up to the Veranda of Love the 3 buses pull up to transport the kids. I walk up asking the question, “how are you?” Most of the time the answer is “I am fine,” Today; “I am not fine.” Also me. I cant even take standing there with them for more than 2 minutes. I leave before I start crying as you can see in the composure on the kids what’s going through their head. I leave and head over to hang with some of the others gathered. After about 20 minutes the kids start to bring their stuff out to the vans. Now it hits me, this is happening. Its not just an idea or a maybe or a date or words anymore, its physical and emotional life. We create a line and hug each kid as they load into the first van. I am doing fine and then one of my favorites comes through, Apiyo Stella. I break. “Don’t cry otherwise I will cry too,” she says to me. I Eventually I get ahold of myself just long enough to look up and see another one of my favorites, Apiyo Kevin. (Kevin is a girl’s name in Uganda FYI) Eventually they load into the van and I realize this is just the first of three. Then next two I do better with only breaking once when another favorite, Kwotek Simon, comes through. For the last two months things have been so good that I have said almost daily, how can this be life. How can this be life has a whole new meaning right now. All of the kids get loaded in and then in typical African fashion it takes literally 45 minutes for them to leave. Nobody is ever sure what the delay is but it always takes time. We go around to the windows telling the kids we love them, that we will pray for them and that we will miss them. The first van leaves. The second van leaves. The third van starts, then stops. This van is loaded with all of our favorite kids too. We then spend the next 10 minutes, which feels like forever sitting, watching waiting for it to all be over. The whole time I keep stealing glances to Apiyo Stella but she always catches me so I try to hide my pain with a smile but she can see right through me. I know that she knows and she knows that I know that she knows. Finally the van leaves and it is all over. I head back to the hut and lay and think for the next hour or so. How can this be life? Amidst all the pain and fear of never seeing them again, I reach for my bible and seek my rock and my salvation. God is good all the time.
-Collin
Monday, December 6, 2010
Offical Last Blog
How do you say goodbye to kids that you have taught you more in life over three months more than then you have ever known? What do you say to the question of “are you going to come back” when your heart screams “January” but your head says, “you have no money or job”? The first 10-20 verses in basically all of Paul’s letters in the New Testment mean a whole lot more to me now. He says things like “I always thank my God for you” and “I have not stopped giving thanks for you” Take Corinthians, Paul lived and worked there for 2 years and then dropped it all to continue to follow God’s call. I think I may have just found a little taste of what that rollercoaster is like…
12-4-10 Spend the whole day with the kids just hanging out. They have these “holiday packets” which are pretty sizeable homework packets that they have to do over their “Holiday,” so I help out with some of those. After the day is almost finished I’m eating dinner up with the kids from the Love house and they say that they are going to prayer. I’m not really sure of this program because most Saturday nights we watch a movie but we have watched the last two and will kill the battery if we do it again. So we head over there and on the way there I am thinking about how we only have one full day left with the kids when I walk into a kerosene fire lit room with about 20 kids (so far) literally jumping for joy, dancing and singing about how good God is. I can’t even believe it. In 36 hours these kids will be back in places they don’t want to be, with not enough food, and really hard work ahead of them for almost 2 months and this is the scene. Once again, I am blown away by how much a 22 year old can be taught about his Savior from 10-14 year old kids who have been through the worst of the worst and still are facing daily back breaking work and beatings from relatives that don’t want them, and it looks like a party. This is a real living God. After our Dance party I head back and go to bed.
12-5-10 Last full day with the kids. The girls take a trip into town with our other Mizzungo friend “Lauren” because she is apparently leaving, and me being my always-informed self, find out after words. Sorry Lauren if you read this. It was great meeting you. Do anything and everything with the kids, play cards, sort rice, give them my phone to take pictures with, play their version of checkers and listen to a story from Akello Scovia. Still blows me away that these kids lived through the things that they did, but more importantly that they are so full of life and joy now even after. Girls run into a few problems in Bewyale but eventually make it back. Rose shows up around 3 and its always a treat to see her. The girls and I join the kids for their meeting with Rose for a little bit but it is all in Acholi so we bail out and get some dinner. Eventually the kids finish their meeting around ten and I head up for my last night of sleeping at the houses.
12-6-10 It had to come. We wake up early (6am) and the kids start doing some few chores to help get the houses in shape. I start my morning hanging out at Mercy before heading over to the next house, Grace. I don’t know what time they are leaving at but I want to go to each house for some time. After Grace is Hope and then Love. As I am walking up to the Veranda of Love the 3 buses pull up to transport the kids. I walk up asking the question, “how are you?” Most of the time the answer is “I am fine,” Today; “I am not fine.” Also me. I cant even take standing there with them for more than 2 minutes. I leave before I start crying as you can see in the composure on the kids what’s going through their head. I leave and head over to hang with some of the others gathered. After about 20 minutes the kids start to bring their stuff out to the vans. Now it hits me, this is happening. Its not just an idea or a maybe or a date or words anymore, its physical and emotional life. We create a line and hug each kid as they load into the first van. I am doing fine and then one of my favorites comes through, Apiyo Stella. I break. “Don’t cry otherwise I will cry too,” she says to me. I Eventually I get ahold of myself just long enough to look up and see another one of my favorites, Apiyo Kevin. (Kevin is a girl’s name in Uganda FYI) Eventually they load into the van and I realize this is just the first of three. Then next two I do better with only breaking once when another favorite, Kwotek Simon, comes through. For the last two months things have been so good that I have said almost daily, how can this be life. How can this be life has a whole new meaning right now. All of the kids get loaded in and then in typical African fashion it takes literally 45 minutes for them to leave. Nobody is ever sure what the delay is but it always takes time. We go around to the windows telling the kids we love them, that we will pray for them and that we will miss them. The first van leaves. The second van leaves. The third van starts, then stops. This van is loaded with all of our favorite kids too. We then spend the next 10 minutes, which feels like forever sitting, watching waiting for it to all be over. The whole time I keep stealing glances to Apiyo Stella but she always catches me so I try to hide my pain with a smile but she can see right through me. I know that she knows and she knows that I know that she knows. Finally the van leaves and it is all over. I head back to the hut and lay and think for the next hour or so. How can this be life? Amidst all the pain and fear of never seeing them again, I reach for my bible and seek my rock and my salvation. God is good all the time.
-Collin
12-4-10 Spend the whole day with the kids just hanging out. They have these “holiday packets” which are pretty sizeable homework packets that they have to do over their “Holiday,” so I help out with some of those. After the day is almost finished I’m eating dinner up with the kids from the Love house and they say that they are going to prayer. I’m not really sure of this program because most Saturday nights we watch a movie but we have watched the last two and will kill the battery if we do it again. So we head over there and on the way there I am thinking about how we only have one full day left with the kids when I walk into a kerosene fire lit room with about 20 kids (so far) literally jumping for joy, dancing and singing about how good God is. I can’t even believe it. In 36 hours these kids will be back in places they don’t want to be, with not enough food, and really hard work ahead of them for almost 2 months and this is the scene. Once again, I am blown away by how much a 22 year old can be taught about his Savior from 10-14 year old kids who have been through the worst of the worst and still are facing daily back breaking work and beatings from relatives that don’t want them, and it looks like a party. This is a real living God. After our Dance party I head back and go to bed.
12-5-10 Last full day with the kids. The girls take a trip into town with our other Mizzungo friend “Lauren” because she is apparently leaving, and me being my always-informed self, find out after words. Sorry Lauren if you read this. It was great meeting you. Do anything and everything with the kids, play cards, sort rice, give them my phone to take pictures with, play their version of checkers and listen to a story from Akello Scovia. Still blows me away that these kids lived through the things that they did, but more importantly that they are so full of life and joy now even after. Girls run into a few problems in Bewyale but eventually make it back. Rose shows up around 3 and its always a treat to see her. The girls and I join the kids for their meeting with Rose for a little bit but it is all in Acholi so we bail out and get some dinner. Eventually the kids finish their meeting around ten and I head up for my last night of sleeping at the houses.
12-6-10 It had to come. We wake up early (6am) and the kids start doing some few chores to help get the houses in shape. I start my morning hanging out at Mercy before heading over to the next house, Grace. I don’t know what time they are leaving at but I want to go to each house for some time. After Grace is Hope and then Love. As I am walking up to the Veranda of Love the 3 buses pull up to transport the kids. I walk up asking the question, “how are you?” Most of the time the answer is “I am fine,” Today; “I am not fine.” Also me. I cant even take standing there with them for more than 2 minutes. I leave before I start crying as you can see in the composure on the kids what’s going through their head. I leave and head over to hang with some of the others gathered. After about 20 minutes the kids start to bring their stuff out to the vans. Now it hits me, this is happening. Its not just an idea or a maybe or a date or words anymore, its physical and emotional life. We create a line and hug each kid as they load into the first van. I am doing fine and then one of my favorites comes through, Apiyo Stella. I break. “Don’t cry otherwise I will cry too,” she says to me. I Eventually I get ahold of myself just long enough to look up and see another one of my favorites, Apiyo Kevin. (Kevin is a girl’s name in Uganda FYI) Eventually they load into the van and I realize this is just the first of three. Then next two I do better with only breaking once when another favorite, Kwotek Simon, comes through. For the last two months things have been so good that I have said almost daily, how can this be life. How can this be life has a whole new meaning right now. All of the kids get loaded in and then in typical African fashion it takes literally 45 minutes for them to leave. Nobody is ever sure what the delay is but it always takes time. We go around to the windows telling the kids we love them, that we will pray for them and that we will miss them. The first van leaves. The second van leaves. The third van starts, then stops. This van is loaded with all of our favorite kids too. We then spend the next 10 minutes, which feels like forever sitting, watching waiting for it to all be over. The whole time I keep stealing glances to Apiyo Stella but she always catches me so I try to hide my pain with a smile but she can see right through me. I know that she knows and she knows that I know that she knows. Finally the van leaves and it is all over. I head back to the hut and lay and think for the next hour or so. How can this be life? Amidst all the pain and fear of never seeing them again, I reach for my bible and seek my rock and my salvation. God is good all the time.
-Collin
Friday, December 3, 2010
Maybe last blog...
This will probably be my last blog, 4 months flies when you are having fun ☺ I don’t know how our internet situation will be once we leave the Land here on Wednesday so I may not be in contact from Wednesday until I get back.
11-26-10
Wake up feeling heavy from the huge meal last night so I decide to work it off by going with Mike for a ride into town to pickup some brick. In town there are lots of people running around with election stuff so the vibe is a little scary but it is okay. After the brick, which is all loaded by hand, I head back to find the internet not working so I just type the ol’ blog and then play cards with the P3 kids that have finished exams. Lunch is mixed in there somewhere and then the kids get out so we go down to the well to pump some water. Its just crazy down there. Everyone is super happy to be done with exams and so it is a lot of fun. We watch “Up” with the kids and they liked it a lot. Before bed
11-27-10
Internet is really bad again but the girls are working through it and we get some stuff figured out. Thank girls because I was just playing with kids ☺ Around lunchtime I post my blog and then eat. After lunch I hang out at the girls’ house and make some yarn deals that they call Whoo-Chee. Hang till dinner, then watch a Nigerian film called Sofia in London. No words to describe it, just look it up on YouTube. Kids love it though. I sleep up at the kids houses in one called Grace.
11-28-10
Suz leaves before church and it are very weird feeling. It just feels like she is in the office or just doing something else not that she is actually gone. We will miss her. One of the dogs here has been pregnant for the last 2 months and she began having her puppies this morning and of all the places, she is having them in the girl’s hut! Church in the morning goes well and then a huge chill fest with the kids. By lunch time it is super hot out, Momma dog has had 10 puppies and one of them died and it still feels like Suz is just on the phone or something. Eventually dinner comes and goes and I get online and get to do some light chatting with my mom because the Interweb is really, really bad. Bedtime!
11-29-10
Get a bunch of small things done this morning; move Momma dog and the 9 puppies to a new location, wash clothes, listen to music, read chat with the teachers about a computer class. Work on some of the film stuff till a new mizzungo shows up. Lauren is 25 and was a teacher in Rwanda for 2 years. Really neat girl. We go and hang with the kids and the girls give Lauren the tour. Eat and chat around the fire with our new friend before bed.
11-30-10
Work some more on the video today and start compiling the really fun shot, which is the kids dancing, 3 cameras and their three mics plus my separate 3 mics, I love it. Watch a movie with the kids at night before bed.
12-1-10
Finish the video stuff for the dance in the morning and it looks really cool and sounds pretty okay as well. Wash clothes before lunch and then after lunch do a computer class with the teachers. Imagine teaching a computer to people that have literally never touched a computer. Actually is pretty fun and they enjoy it. Hang out with the kids after the teacher’s class and spend the night at one of the houses, kids do not have school this week so its been good.
12-2-10
Girls made some banana bread yesterday so we have that for breakfast and its super good. Go to the office and type up some things for the teachers before going back to my room to doze. Eat and then do another computer class with the teachers, this time teaching them a typing program. We have it on two computers so they start to get competitive with each other and its like a kid in a candy shop. After class go hang out with the kids before watching “Flubber” with the kids. They love every time that anyone is getting knocked in the head so this movie is perfect. Bed time!
12-3-10
Do some blog typing this morning and check the internet before heading back to my hut to practice some music. Post blog so rest of the day is the up air.
That’s how it all went down. I might shoot one more update out on Tuesday before we leave the VOH land but after that I’ll see ya state side. Thanks to all who have been reading or if this is your first time, thank you too. I can but cant wait to see all of you and am very excited to hear about what God has been doing in your life the last 4 months. Love you all,
-Collin
11-26-10
Wake up feeling heavy from the huge meal last night so I decide to work it off by going with Mike for a ride into town to pickup some brick. In town there are lots of people running around with election stuff so the vibe is a little scary but it is okay. After the brick, which is all loaded by hand, I head back to find the internet not working so I just type the ol’ blog and then play cards with the P3 kids that have finished exams. Lunch is mixed in there somewhere and then the kids get out so we go down to the well to pump some water. Its just crazy down there. Everyone is super happy to be done with exams and so it is a lot of fun. We watch “Up” with the kids and they liked it a lot. Before bed
11-27-10
Internet is really bad again but the girls are working through it and we get some stuff figured out. Thank girls because I was just playing with kids ☺ Around lunchtime I post my blog and then eat. After lunch I hang out at the girls’ house and make some yarn deals that they call Whoo-Chee. Hang till dinner, then watch a Nigerian film called Sofia in London. No words to describe it, just look it up on YouTube. Kids love it though. I sleep up at the kids houses in one called Grace.
11-28-10
Suz leaves before church and it are very weird feeling. It just feels like she is in the office or just doing something else not that she is actually gone. We will miss her. One of the dogs here has been pregnant for the last 2 months and she began having her puppies this morning and of all the places, she is having them in the girl’s hut! Church in the morning goes well and then a huge chill fest with the kids. By lunch time it is super hot out, Momma dog has had 10 puppies and one of them died and it still feels like Suz is just on the phone or something. Eventually dinner comes and goes and I get online and get to do some light chatting with my mom because the Interweb is really, really bad. Bedtime!
11-29-10
Get a bunch of small things done this morning; move Momma dog and the 9 puppies to a new location, wash clothes, listen to music, read chat with the teachers about a computer class. Work on some of the film stuff till a new mizzungo shows up. Lauren is 25 and was a teacher in Rwanda for 2 years. Really neat girl. We go and hang with the kids and the girls give Lauren the tour. Eat and chat around the fire with our new friend before bed.
11-30-10
Work some more on the video today and start compiling the really fun shot, which is the kids dancing, 3 cameras and their three mics plus my separate 3 mics, I love it. Watch a movie with the kids at night before bed.
12-1-10
Finish the video stuff for the dance in the morning and it looks really cool and sounds pretty okay as well. Wash clothes before lunch and then after lunch do a computer class with the teachers. Imagine teaching a computer to people that have literally never touched a computer. Actually is pretty fun and they enjoy it. Hang out with the kids after the teacher’s class and spend the night at one of the houses, kids do not have school this week so its been good.
12-2-10
Girls made some banana bread yesterday so we have that for breakfast and its super good. Go to the office and type up some things for the teachers before going back to my room to doze. Eat and then do another computer class with the teachers, this time teaching them a typing program. We have it on two computers so they start to get competitive with each other and its like a kid in a candy shop. After class go hang out with the kids before watching “Flubber” with the kids. They love every time that anyone is getting knocked in the head so this movie is perfect. Bed time!
12-3-10
Do some blog typing this morning and check the internet before heading back to my hut to practice some music. Post blog so rest of the day is the up air.
That’s how it all went down. I might shoot one more update out on Tuesday before we leave the VOH land but after that I’ll see ya state side. Thanks to all who have been reading or if this is your first time, thank you too. I can but cant wait to see all of you and am very excited to hear about what God has been doing in your life the last 4 months. Love you all,
-Collin
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Winding Down the Time
Winding down the time ☹ A big change that came this week was that it is official now that the government is going to make the kids move back into the camps so their last day on the land is December 6th. So we now have two blank weeks. We plan on spending a few days packing at the land after the kids leave, then we are going to do a feeding program in Jinja, Uganda on the 11th of December and then we will be leaving Uganda the night of the 12th. With the upcoming election in February we got some advice that if we do not have any reason to be here, don’t play with fire. So I will be coming back home a little early, like 5 days, and the rest of the girls are going to do some light traveling in Europe for the last few days. So I think my official arrival date is either the 13th or the 14th of December instead of the 19th.
11-21-10
Do the church thing in the morning and we get a warm welcome back. Then spend the whole day hanging out with the kids. I finally break through to the last house which I have never really connected super well with. Eventually a few of the girls from that house and I go down to the well and pump some water. I carry my two jerry cans (plastic containers that weigh 40 pounds when filled) back and have to stop a couple of times. Now I know why the girls only carry one and they carry it one there head. After dinner I go to the kids study time (prep) and work on some English with some of the kids. This upcoming week they have their end of the term exams so it is getting to crunch time.
11-22-10
Slow day, then the kids get out and we hang out. Then prep time before bed. Sounds boring but was a great day, just no highlights ☺
11-23-10
I go with Mike today to pickup some sand because the workers have started building another staff house for the 8 new teachers that will be coming at the end of January. We are opening our school up to the public and adding a few more grades to our school so we thought it would be nice if the new teachers had a spot to live. Have a very good discussion with Mike about culture shock and also the idea that maybe my family should come out to VOH sometime… hint, hint. How that came up is that the kids have been telling me that they have been praying for my family and that next time bring them because they want to know them too. Eventually the kids get out and we have a good time. Teach a bunch of kids math at night and it goes very well. I hope they do well on their test with such a fine teacher ☺
11-24-10
Wake up and have a discussion around breakfast about how to celebrate thanksgiving tomorrow. Apparently I have been out of the loop because a full-fledged meal is already being planned. Sam (one of the workers) and I go out behind my hut and start digging a whole to make a makeshift oven for cooking the turkey. Yes, we are gonna have turkey. After doing some more prep stuff for tomorrow the kids get out and it is time for cards and last second questions before tests start tomorrow. It is Social Studies and English tomorrow. Good luck!
11-25-10
Thanksgivin’! Sam and I work on getting the pit ready. The idea is that we are going to start and fire to heat up rocks. After that we are going to wrap the bird in banana leaves and then the rocks with steam heat the bird. Going to take about 8 hours total. After we get the fire start we slaughter the turkey. Yes, I watched. One good machete to the neck we do just about anything in. We then de-feather the bird, which I helped with and then weighed it. 20lbs. Not to bad. We get that ready and then put it in the pit and cover it. The youngest kids (P3) have already finished their tests, so I play cards with them until dinner. For dinner we have, turkey, pumpkin, stuffing, carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie and no-bake cookies. Maybe the greatest Thanksgiving ever.
That’s it. It was a very good week and I have about 17 days left. I can’t believe how short of a time that is. Tom made it home safely and had a job interview the morning after he got back. He said it went okay but be praying for him for that as he is now doing the job hunt thing with a heavy heart. Suzie is also leaving on Sunday morning and we are all going to miss her so continue to pray for our team and for Suzie as she will have long travel time back to Hawaii. Thanks as always for reading. See you sooner than you think!
-Collin
11-21-10
Do the church thing in the morning and we get a warm welcome back. Then spend the whole day hanging out with the kids. I finally break through to the last house which I have never really connected super well with. Eventually a few of the girls from that house and I go down to the well and pump some water. I carry my two jerry cans (plastic containers that weigh 40 pounds when filled) back and have to stop a couple of times. Now I know why the girls only carry one and they carry it one there head. After dinner I go to the kids study time (prep) and work on some English with some of the kids. This upcoming week they have their end of the term exams so it is getting to crunch time.
11-22-10
Slow day, then the kids get out and we hang out. Then prep time before bed. Sounds boring but was a great day, just no highlights ☺
11-23-10
I go with Mike today to pickup some sand because the workers have started building another staff house for the 8 new teachers that will be coming at the end of January. We are opening our school up to the public and adding a few more grades to our school so we thought it would be nice if the new teachers had a spot to live. Have a very good discussion with Mike about culture shock and also the idea that maybe my family should come out to VOH sometime… hint, hint. How that came up is that the kids have been telling me that they have been praying for my family and that next time bring them because they want to know them too. Eventually the kids get out and we have a good time. Teach a bunch of kids math at night and it goes very well. I hope they do well on their test with such a fine teacher ☺
11-24-10
Wake up and have a discussion around breakfast about how to celebrate thanksgiving tomorrow. Apparently I have been out of the loop because a full-fledged meal is already being planned. Sam (one of the workers) and I go out behind my hut and start digging a whole to make a makeshift oven for cooking the turkey. Yes, we are gonna have turkey. After doing some more prep stuff for tomorrow the kids get out and it is time for cards and last second questions before tests start tomorrow. It is Social Studies and English tomorrow. Good luck!
11-25-10
Thanksgivin’! Sam and I work on getting the pit ready. The idea is that we are going to start and fire to heat up rocks. After that we are going to wrap the bird in banana leaves and then the rocks with steam heat the bird. Going to take about 8 hours total. After we get the fire start we slaughter the turkey. Yes, I watched. One good machete to the neck we do just about anything in. We then de-feather the bird, which I helped with and then weighed it. 20lbs. Not to bad. We get that ready and then put it in the pit and cover it. The youngest kids (P3) have already finished their tests, so I play cards with them until dinner. For dinner we have, turkey, pumpkin, stuffing, carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie and no-bake cookies. Maybe the greatest Thanksgiving ever.
That’s it. It was a very good week and I have about 17 days left. I can’t believe how short of a time that is. Tom made it home safely and had a job interview the morning after he got back. He said it went okay but be praying for him for that as he is now doing the job hunt thing with a heavy heart. Suzie is also leaving on Sunday morning and we are all going to miss her so continue to pray for our team and for Suzie as she will have long travel time back to Hawaii. Thanks as always for reading. See you sooner than you think!
-Collin
Monday, November 22, 2010
Kenyanzed
Highlights / Lowlights from this past week,
-I got Malaria
-Tom Left for home
-We went to Nairobi, Kenya to renew our visas
-We found out for sure when our last day with the kids is (Dec. 6th, thanks government)
-God is Good
11-12-10
Have some breakfast and type my blog. Try to get a picture of one of the kids, Morris (who never lets me take pictures of him), but the kids sell me out. Do some reading before lunch and after lunch we head into Bweyale with Mike. After getting our things we head back in and get stuck on the road when a huge Road grater tractor is stalled blocking the entire road. After waiting for about an hour and wondering if we need to go back in and get a hotel for the night the thing gets started and we head home. Help the kids out and prep time. Prep time is where the kids go to do some late night studying. It usually runs about 7:30 – 9:00pm. Most kids are there by 8:00pm though. After prep we hit the sheets.
11-13-10
After breakfast I do some shaving and the kids love seeing me with all my shaving cream on. So I then realize that I have almost 2 full cans of cream and 1 month to go, I grab a can of shaving cream, a camera and a mischievous smile and head up to the houses. After a little more than an hour and a whole can of shaving cream, I head to the office, armed with some good pictures for the slideshow tonight. Finish the slideshow and play some cards before setting up for filming the kids dancing. The rain comes so we postpone for tomorrow. Kids still dance just not in the uniforms. Its fun and we grab some food before watching Monsters Inc. I don’t feel well and sleep through the movie but luckily my buddy Tom helps do the tear down so I just go back to sleep.
11-14-10
Brynn and I do some film work in church this morning that goes very well. After church we setup to record the kids dancing again. Bright sunny day. Recording goes pretty well there too. I have a lot of fun just juggling logistics of stuff like that so that part was really fun for me. (Trying to figure my sound around 3 cameras) Play some soccer with the kids after dancing and then head to lunch. Hang out with the kids in the church building and do some “break dance” video of them to Michael Jackson and whatever else is on our iPods that they would know. Grab some food then head out to prep time.
11-15-10
Tom’s last day. We teach both sections of English today because of leaving for Kampala/ Kenya tomorrow which is really great. After lunch we do a quick video segment for a church called Bent Tree and grab some last few pictures to send with Tom. We hang out with the kids and then I skip prep time because Rose has come with a load of beads to send with Tom, so we help her sort those before bed. Im starting to feel a little feverish before bed.
11-16-10
Well morning world, I have Malaria and I’m going to Kenya today. I get some of the pills to take. There are 6 doses twice a day, four pills a time. We jump on a bus to Kampala in the morning and make it there around 2pm. Do some light eating and shopping before heading out to the bus. We say a tearful goodbye and watch as the person we have come to know as family heads for the taxi to take him to the airport. I wonder what’s going through his head right now? We get on the bus and head to Nairobi. Story behind this is that our Ugandan Visa only was good for 90 days and to renew in country to tricky, but not if you leave and then come back. So we are going to spend 3 days in Nairobi. The bus ride is 11 hours of horrible malaria sickness. Probably my worst travel experience so far in my life. The only thing good about the trip was as Brynn would say, “the most great.” At the border, I’m a zombie of sickness, and the girls are trying to figure out the papers to fill out and the woman in front of us in line turns around and says, “do you guys need help?” Her name is Nora, she is a Kenyan Native, that travels to Kampala and Finland often to help out churches. Nora had missed her first bus, so she was not even supposed to be on our bus but, (thank you God) she was. Our bus company was going to leave us at the border because the Visas were taking so long but she made them wait for us. If that is not a TIA moment, I don’t know what is. We make it to Nairobi and she helps us get on our Hotel’s shuttle and makes sure the diver is good and leaves us with, “call if you need anything.” God was just beginning to shower us with his gifts.
11-17-10
We arrive at Heart Lodge, our hotel at around 6am, the place is super nice and I fall asleep almost instantly on my bed. After sleeping on and off for most of the day until around 4pm I can finally feel the Malaria starting to slow down. I just have a fever left that I can’t get to break. The girls get back around 4pm from doing some touring in the city and feeding giraffes. I stay in their room and hang out a little bit before heading back to my room to give the girls some time alone before we head for dinner. It is crazy good, Carrots, Salisbury steak, fruit and a fruit pie desert. After dinner we chill a bit before heading to bed.
11-18-10
We wake up in the morning and meet some of the other hotel guests, Don and Pat. They are a 60s+ married couple from Denver that comes to Kenya about twice a year for 7 weeks each time. Don is a part of Rotary Club and they have been installing libraries and working with a few other programs in Kenya. They have one meeting to go to today at 1:00pm and they normally have a driver that they hire named Paul. But instead of that, they give us their driver and take a taxi to their meeting. Then tonight Don has one more Rotary meeting so we will pick him up for that. Paul take us to a huge slum in Nairobi called Kibera, where they have a program that they work with there called WEEP. Women’s Empowerment and Equality Program; WEEP. The woman we met there who is the director is named Gladys and she tells us that they have 15 women in the program that are all HIV+. They have them come to their center, which is in the slum, and they teach them to sew and make beads and do other craft type things and then they sell them to help them gain income. They also have a spot for the women’s kids to stay during the day if they are younger. It was a very cool to see all these women that are at the very bottom of the social totem pole, smiling and making a living and looking healthy. We heard Evelyn’s, one of the women, story about being HIV+. Once it is known that you are HIV+, you are shunned from your community like a leper. Nobody will touch anything that you have touched or buy anything and they are even nervous to go near your kids. So this center was doing a lot for them because it was changing the whole slum’s idea of what it means to be HIV+. Very cool to see. After we leave WEEP, we go and get some food and then do a “Safari Walk.” Meet an intern named Simon (spelled Symo) who shows us around and points out a bunch of different animals that we would have never seen without him. After the walk we head back to the Hotel to pickup Don for his meeting. While we wait for Don to finish his meeting Paul takes us to an Italian restaurant called Terattora. Nobody is mad about that. Go back to the hotel after eating and picking up Don for bed.
11-19-10
We again ride with Pat and Don to a meeting that they have at 10:30 and then Paul takes us to a supermarket to get food for sandwiches for traveling home tonight. The mall that the supermarket is in is unbelievably nice and it feels like we are in Eden Prairie Center back home. Eventually we go to a park and have a picnic and they go to another market in town. This market is nuts because literally every person talks to you and asks you to come in and just look, “don’t buy just look.” Crazy bartering experience. Eventually it is time to go to our bus station. The ride back is much nicer than the ride there except that we are in the back of the bus this time, think elementary school type huge bumps. But we do get some sleep and we get into Kampala around 8:00am where our friend Shammah picks us up.
11-20-10
Shammah takes us back to “Good African Coffee” where we have some light breakfast before heading over to her church for a bit just to see it. Her church has a couple of programs going today and one of them is that all the compassion kids from the area are there writing letters to their sponsors. After that we head to the bus station and head for home. We finally get back to the land around 4pm and we see the staff and the kids and everyone is happy to see us. It is Saturday so we spend the rest of the day hanging out with the kids. I end up sleeping over at Mercy, one of the kid’s houses, and actually sleep really well.
So this is a really long one but Kenya was very cool. If anyone ever wants to go there call me. I know a few people there and some really cool spots to see ☺ So now that I have gotten Malaria, I think I have officially been to Africa. The big change for the upcoming month is that the government is forcing the kids to go back to the camps on their break that is coming up. So that means that for the last 2 weeks the kids will not be at the land so we are trying to figure out what we will be doing for the last few weeks because Rose did not think it was a good idea to go to Gulu and try to see them each day. So pray for wisdom for us for what to do and how to handle it especially emotionally when the kids leave the land. Thank for reading!!!
-Collin
-I got Malaria
-Tom Left for home
-We went to Nairobi, Kenya to renew our visas
-We found out for sure when our last day with the kids is (Dec. 6th, thanks government)
-God is Good
11-12-10
Have some breakfast and type my blog. Try to get a picture of one of the kids, Morris (who never lets me take pictures of him), but the kids sell me out. Do some reading before lunch and after lunch we head into Bweyale with Mike. After getting our things we head back in and get stuck on the road when a huge Road grater tractor is stalled blocking the entire road. After waiting for about an hour and wondering if we need to go back in and get a hotel for the night the thing gets started and we head home. Help the kids out and prep time. Prep time is where the kids go to do some late night studying. It usually runs about 7:30 – 9:00pm. Most kids are there by 8:00pm though. After prep we hit the sheets.
11-13-10
After breakfast I do some shaving and the kids love seeing me with all my shaving cream on. So I then realize that I have almost 2 full cans of cream and 1 month to go, I grab a can of shaving cream, a camera and a mischievous smile and head up to the houses. After a little more than an hour and a whole can of shaving cream, I head to the office, armed with some good pictures for the slideshow tonight. Finish the slideshow and play some cards before setting up for filming the kids dancing. The rain comes so we postpone for tomorrow. Kids still dance just not in the uniforms. Its fun and we grab some food before watching Monsters Inc. I don’t feel well and sleep through the movie but luckily my buddy Tom helps do the tear down so I just go back to sleep.
11-14-10
Brynn and I do some film work in church this morning that goes very well. After church we setup to record the kids dancing again. Bright sunny day. Recording goes pretty well there too. I have a lot of fun just juggling logistics of stuff like that so that part was really fun for me. (Trying to figure my sound around 3 cameras) Play some soccer with the kids after dancing and then head to lunch. Hang out with the kids in the church building and do some “break dance” video of them to Michael Jackson and whatever else is on our iPods that they would know. Grab some food then head out to prep time.
11-15-10
Tom’s last day. We teach both sections of English today because of leaving for Kampala/ Kenya tomorrow which is really great. After lunch we do a quick video segment for a church called Bent Tree and grab some last few pictures to send with Tom. We hang out with the kids and then I skip prep time because Rose has come with a load of beads to send with Tom, so we help her sort those before bed. Im starting to feel a little feverish before bed.
11-16-10
Well morning world, I have Malaria and I’m going to Kenya today. I get some of the pills to take. There are 6 doses twice a day, four pills a time. We jump on a bus to Kampala in the morning and make it there around 2pm. Do some light eating and shopping before heading out to the bus. We say a tearful goodbye and watch as the person we have come to know as family heads for the taxi to take him to the airport. I wonder what’s going through his head right now? We get on the bus and head to Nairobi. Story behind this is that our Ugandan Visa only was good for 90 days and to renew in country to tricky, but not if you leave and then come back. So we are going to spend 3 days in Nairobi. The bus ride is 11 hours of horrible malaria sickness. Probably my worst travel experience so far in my life. The only thing good about the trip was as Brynn would say, “the most great.” At the border, I’m a zombie of sickness, and the girls are trying to figure out the papers to fill out and the woman in front of us in line turns around and says, “do you guys need help?” Her name is Nora, she is a Kenyan Native, that travels to Kampala and Finland often to help out churches. Nora had missed her first bus, so she was not even supposed to be on our bus but, (thank you God) she was. Our bus company was going to leave us at the border because the Visas were taking so long but she made them wait for us. If that is not a TIA moment, I don’t know what is. We make it to Nairobi and she helps us get on our Hotel’s shuttle and makes sure the diver is good and leaves us with, “call if you need anything.” God was just beginning to shower us with his gifts.
11-17-10
We arrive at Heart Lodge, our hotel at around 6am, the place is super nice and I fall asleep almost instantly on my bed. After sleeping on and off for most of the day until around 4pm I can finally feel the Malaria starting to slow down. I just have a fever left that I can’t get to break. The girls get back around 4pm from doing some touring in the city and feeding giraffes. I stay in their room and hang out a little bit before heading back to my room to give the girls some time alone before we head for dinner. It is crazy good, Carrots, Salisbury steak, fruit and a fruit pie desert. After dinner we chill a bit before heading to bed.
11-18-10
We wake up in the morning and meet some of the other hotel guests, Don and Pat. They are a 60s+ married couple from Denver that comes to Kenya about twice a year for 7 weeks each time. Don is a part of Rotary Club and they have been installing libraries and working with a few other programs in Kenya. They have one meeting to go to today at 1:00pm and they normally have a driver that they hire named Paul. But instead of that, they give us their driver and take a taxi to their meeting. Then tonight Don has one more Rotary meeting so we will pick him up for that. Paul take us to a huge slum in Nairobi called Kibera, where they have a program that they work with there called WEEP. Women’s Empowerment and Equality Program; WEEP. The woman we met there who is the director is named Gladys and she tells us that they have 15 women in the program that are all HIV+. They have them come to their center, which is in the slum, and they teach them to sew and make beads and do other craft type things and then they sell them to help them gain income. They also have a spot for the women’s kids to stay during the day if they are younger. It was a very cool to see all these women that are at the very bottom of the social totem pole, smiling and making a living and looking healthy. We heard Evelyn’s, one of the women, story about being HIV+. Once it is known that you are HIV+, you are shunned from your community like a leper. Nobody will touch anything that you have touched or buy anything and they are even nervous to go near your kids. So this center was doing a lot for them because it was changing the whole slum’s idea of what it means to be HIV+. Very cool to see. After we leave WEEP, we go and get some food and then do a “Safari Walk.” Meet an intern named Simon (spelled Symo) who shows us around and points out a bunch of different animals that we would have never seen without him. After the walk we head back to the Hotel to pickup Don for his meeting. While we wait for Don to finish his meeting Paul takes us to an Italian restaurant called Terattora. Nobody is mad about that. Go back to the hotel after eating and picking up Don for bed.
11-19-10
We again ride with Pat and Don to a meeting that they have at 10:30 and then Paul takes us to a supermarket to get food for sandwiches for traveling home tonight. The mall that the supermarket is in is unbelievably nice and it feels like we are in Eden Prairie Center back home. Eventually we go to a park and have a picnic and they go to another market in town. This market is nuts because literally every person talks to you and asks you to come in and just look, “don’t buy just look.” Crazy bartering experience. Eventually it is time to go to our bus station. The ride back is much nicer than the ride there except that we are in the back of the bus this time, think elementary school type huge bumps. But we do get some sleep and we get into Kampala around 8:00am where our friend Shammah picks us up.
11-20-10
Shammah takes us back to “Good African Coffee” where we have some light breakfast before heading over to her church for a bit just to see it. Her church has a couple of programs going today and one of them is that all the compassion kids from the area are there writing letters to their sponsors. After that we head to the bus station and head for home. We finally get back to the land around 4pm and we see the staff and the kids and everyone is happy to see us. It is Saturday so we spend the rest of the day hanging out with the kids. I end up sleeping over at Mercy, one of the kid’s houses, and actually sleep really well.
So this is a really long one but Kenya was very cool. If anyone ever wants to go there call me. I know a few people there and some really cool spots to see ☺ So now that I have gotten Malaria, I think I have officially been to Africa. The big change for the upcoming month is that the government is forcing the kids to go back to the camps on their break that is coming up. So that means that for the last 2 weeks the kids will not be at the land so we are trying to figure out what we will be doing for the last few weeks because Rose did not think it was a good idea to go to Gulu and try to see them each day. So pray for wisdom for us for what to do and how to handle it especially emotionally when the kids leave the land. Thank for reading!!!
-Collin
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Last week of full team :(
Big changes came this past and will be coming in the upcoming week. Last full week with the team because on Tuesday we are leaving to go to Kampala to bring Tom to the airport. We are going to miss him very badly. We were going to go to Kenya for a week to renew our Visas because it is very hard to get it renewed unless you leave the country. But eventually we decided to shorten that trip so that we could be on the land more. Now we will be gone Tuesday to Saturday morning. I am very excited about seeing Kenya though. The last big change is that Susie is going to leave early. She will be leaving the 29th of November. She has a few things that she needs to figure out at home before she moves from Hawaii to Colorado. So decided that it would be best to be home and tie up all the loose ends. But that’s all next week. Here’s how it went down last week…
11-6-10
This morning one of the kids, Apiyo Stella, finds me and tells me “I wash your shoes.” Notice the statement, not the question. After about an hour, shoes that look like they came out of the box again and also some clothes washed; she finishes. The kids here are amazing. After she finishes she says, (again notice the statement) “I wash your clothes next Saturday.” I head up to the houses and do some reading with some of the kids until cards and boxing distract us. Boxing is the Acholi English for boys fighting. Its fun to box 12-year-old boys ☺ Eventually we watch Jungle Book at night. “Now don’t start that again!” that’s for Mallory and Kaitlynn. That night I sleep in Grace in Fred’s room.
11-7-10
Go to church in the morning. They are using the keyboard that the Hawaii team brought them. Unfortunately, they are using this “great” organ setting. Other than that it is fine. After church I grab the camera with the zoom lens and do some photographing. End up chasing after a kid named Okello Morris for about an hour because he will not let me take a picture of him. After pictures we go and play soccer. Mike and Janelle get back from being down at Masaka at the bee school and we are all super excited to see them. Go to the kids prep time before bed.
11-8-10
Have pancakes that the girls make (which are super great) for breakfast. Do some reading in the morning and thinking about the Kenya trip. Load some pictures on the computer until lunch. Teach English to P5 today as well. Eventually go and hang out at Love once the kids are done with school. I also play some soccer before grabbing food and eating at Love with the kids. Off to prep time then I watch “War Dance” before bed. Good documentary about Uganda that is very weird to watch and be living in that culture.
11-9-10
After breakfast Mike and I talk about some bible history stuff because he studied at a school in Israel on bible history. Mike gets more interesting everyday and I am so blessed to know him. Teach English to P6 in the morning and it goes super well. After English we make a final decision about Kenya and decide to shorten the trip so that we can be back for the weekend with the kids. I’m very excited about that. It will be cheaper and we will get more time with the kids. Brynn and I do some filming after lunch. I take a nap before the kids get out of school and then go up and hang at Mercy. Eventually two of the kids, Solomon and Clinton, start “boxing” me. Eventually we finish with me sitting on both of them ☺ The best part about “boxing” is just saying, “I am going to cane you very seriously” Caning is the Acholi English word for beat. Julie has come to the land. I stay down at the fire and eat with Julie and everyone else. Prep time then bed.
11-10-10
Do some filming with Brynn of the kids in school in the morning as well as recording them ringing the school bell, which I think is going to be very cool. Go and talk to Julie in the afternoon and talk to her about recording the kids dancing this weekend. Recording the kids dancing is going to be a big production, 3 cameras, all my mics and all of the kids dancing; I’m really excited about it. The logistics alone are really fun. After the kids get out I go to Hope and tell them stories about Paul Bunyan and about building snowmen. I ask them to tell me a story but they get all-sheepish and don’t do it. Go to prep after dinner and then watch a movie with the staff called “The Expendables.” Tom and I spend the first 30 minutes trying to figure out why it looks poor and sounds bad, then on the screen we see a person stand up; got to love bootleggin.
11-11-10
Learn how to make Chapatti in the morning with Julie before typing up a form for the teachers. After lunch; Tom, Erin Brynn and I talk about how we will be filming the dancing on Saturday and what we will need from each of them. Logistics of recording, I love it. In the afternoon we go up and visit the Local counsel member, Orache Vincent. Super great guy, Mike actually lived in his house for the first 7 months of VOH. He did that because people will see a white person and come and try to take their money but in Vincent’s words “first they had to get through me.” He has 3 boys and 9 daughters. His life is what you would think of when you think of a staple family patriarch, that the whole family respects and listens to no matter what. Very nice guy that Mike and Janelle both speak very highly of. Has always worked to benefit us and always gone the extra mile for us. God is good. Get back in time for the kids to get out of school so I start playing some cards. After a game of cards at Love, I go to Hope and one of the Stella’s proceeds to tell me here life story about being abducted. I did not ask she just wanted to tell me. It is hard for me to believe the things that she says and see her standing her now. I thank her and then eat before prep and bed.
Thought for the last few weeks is this; how can this be life. How is life this good? Why I am so blessed. I have had thoughts about trying to sponsor a child here but the problem, it is $100 a month. For me that is huge, I can’t do that. But slowly God is challenging me not to choose one kid, but a couple. I think he is asking me to sponsor a couple of the kids here. I don’t know what that is going to look like at all. All I know is that is what I am hearing. I am also realizing that at the end of it all, I don’t know anyone who has said, “I wish I gave away less of my money.” I hope I am up to the challenge. Thanks for reading as always and only about a month left, big prayer for the emotions as they are running high even with Tom leaving this week. One of the kids, Joyce, was already crying in prep time on Tuesday, 11-9, because Tom was leaving. I cant even think of what it is going to be like when the whole crew leaves.
-Collin
11-6-10
This morning one of the kids, Apiyo Stella, finds me and tells me “I wash your shoes.” Notice the statement, not the question. After about an hour, shoes that look like they came out of the box again and also some clothes washed; she finishes. The kids here are amazing. After she finishes she says, (again notice the statement) “I wash your clothes next Saturday.” I head up to the houses and do some reading with some of the kids until cards and boxing distract us. Boxing is the Acholi English for boys fighting. Its fun to box 12-year-old boys ☺ Eventually we watch Jungle Book at night. “Now don’t start that again!” that’s for Mallory and Kaitlynn. That night I sleep in Grace in Fred’s room.
11-7-10
Go to church in the morning. They are using the keyboard that the Hawaii team brought them. Unfortunately, they are using this “great” organ setting. Other than that it is fine. After church I grab the camera with the zoom lens and do some photographing. End up chasing after a kid named Okello Morris for about an hour because he will not let me take a picture of him. After pictures we go and play soccer. Mike and Janelle get back from being down at Masaka at the bee school and we are all super excited to see them. Go to the kids prep time before bed.
11-8-10
Have pancakes that the girls make (which are super great) for breakfast. Do some reading in the morning and thinking about the Kenya trip. Load some pictures on the computer until lunch. Teach English to P5 today as well. Eventually go and hang out at Love once the kids are done with school. I also play some soccer before grabbing food and eating at Love with the kids. Off to prep time then I watch “War Dance” before bed. Good documentary about Uganda that is very weird to watch and be living in that culture.
11-9-10
After breakfast Mike and I talk about some bible history stuff because he studied at a school in Israel on bible history. Mike gets more interesting everyday and I am so blessed to know him. Teach English to P6 in the morning and it goes super well. After English we make a final decision about Kenya and decide to shorten the trip so that we can be back for the weekend with the kids. I’m very excited about that. It will be cheaper and we will get more time with the kids. Brynn and I do some filming after lunch. I take a nap before the kids get out of school and then go up and hang at Mercy. Eventually two of the kids, Solomon and Clinton, start “boxing” me. Eventually we finish with me sitting on both of them ☺ The best part about “boxing” is just saying, “I am going to cane you very seriously” Caning is the Acholi English word for beat. Julie has come to the land. I stay down at the fire and eat with Julie and everyone else. Prep time then bed.
11-10-10
Do some filming with Brynn of the kids in school in the morning as well as recording them ringing the school bell, which I think is going to be very cool. Go and talk to Julie in the afternoon and talk to her about recording the kids dancing this weekend. Recording the kids dancing is going to be a big production, 3 cameras, all my mics and all of the kids dancing; I’m really excited about it. The logistics alone are really fun. After the kids get out I go to Hope and tell them stories about Paul Bunyan and about building snowmen. I ask them to tell me a story but they get all-sheepish and don’t do it. Go to prep after dinner and then watch a movie with the staff called “The Expendables.” Tom and I spend the first 30 minutes trying to figure out why it looks poor and sounds bad, then on the screen we see a person stand up; got to love bootleggin.
11-11-10
Learn how to make Chapatti in the morning with Julie before typing up a form for the teachers. After lunch; Tom, Erin Brynn and I talk about how we will be filming the dancing on Saturday and what we will need from each of them. Logistics of recording, I love it. In the afternoon we go up and visit the Local counsel member, Orache Vincent. Super great guy, Mike actually lived in his house for the first 7 months of VOH. He did that because people will see a white person and come and try to take their money but in Vincent’s words “first they had to get through me.” He has 3 boys and 9 daughters. His life is what you would think of when you think of a staple family patriarch, that the whole family respects and listens to no matter what. Very nice guy that Mike and Janelle both speak very highly of. Has always worked to benefit us and always gone the extra mile for us. God is good. Get back in time for the kids to get out of school so I start playing some cards. After a game of cards at Love, I go to Hope and one of the Stella’s proceeds to tell me here life story about being abducted. I did not ask she just wanted to tell me. It is hard for me to believe the things that she says and see her standing her now. I thank her and then eat before prep and bed.
Thought for the last few weeks is this; how can this be life. How is life this good? Why I am so blessed. I have had thoughts about trying to sponsor a child here but the problem, it is $100 a month. For me that is huge, I can’t do that. But slowly God is challenging me not to choose one kid, but a couple. I think he is asking me to sponsor a couple of the kids here. I don’t know what that is going to look like at all. All I know is that is what I am hearing. I am also realizing that at the end of it all, I don’t know anyone who has said, “I wish I gave away less of my money.” I hope I am up to the challenge. Thanks for reading as always and only about a month left, big prayer for the emotions as they are running high even with Tom leaving this week. One of the kids, Joyce, was already crying in prep time on Tuesday, 11-9, because Tom was leaving. I cant even think of what it is going to be like when the whole crew leaves.
-Collin
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Two Week Post!
Sorry I missed last week. Been a bit of a weird slash lazy few weeks.
10-16-10
Work on some computer stuff in the morning until two of the students, Fida and Gloria (one of them) come up and give me a necklace and a bracelet. (I later find out the ridiculousness of the necklace but they just tie it on so I don’t really see it) We then play cards for most of the rest of the day. They teach me this card game of theirs that is kind of like Uno, but the rules are crazy and it seems like they make them up on the spot. After the card game go out and play soccer with the kids, for so long that I miss my Skype date with my parents. Sorry guys. Skype some till internet quits and then setup to watch Shriek with the kids; then the rain starts to come. Tom and I grab our rain jackets and create a shuttle service for the kids back to their homes using the girls’ umbrellas. Really fun because the rain is so thick that if you step in a puddle you can go up over your ankles. We get back dry off and hit the sheets.
10-17-10
Fun Sabbath with the kids that goes a little something like this; Church, then soccer and then some cards. After dinner the team gathers in the girls’ room and we watch “Quantum of Solace” on Brynn’s computer before bed.
10-18-10
Work on some computer stuff in the morning. We are working on getting a computer for the teacher and students setup. So I go through and get all the VOH documents off of it and on to an external hard drive until we go to teach English at 12:20. We teach P5 on Monday and it goes well. We have been reading a book by Roald Dahl called “George’s Magical Medicine.” It seems like the kids are not that good at reading, until you think about the fact that this is there second language. After lunch Mike and I work on smoking out some bees that are nesting in the staff housing. Then we take a team trip down to Ochan Gabriel’s (tangerine guy). Play some darts with the workers until bed.
10-19-20-10
Couple of lazy days. Only teach English to P6 on Tuesday in the morning and install some more of the software programs on the teacher/student computer. Just kinda waiting till we go to Gulu on Thursday. But of course, played some cards with the kids. I love playing that card game of theirs. ☺
10-21-10
Wake up and pack quickly before we head into town to catch a bus to Gulu. Literally get accosted by Taxi drivers looking to drive us there. Mike just walks up and says, “do not take a taxi. Might take you two days because they stop at every small town.” Thanks Mike. We wait for the bus and get on with no problems. Arrive in Gulu and hit up Coffee Hut and feel like we are back in America. Head to Roma and see some of our favorite staff again until we head out for Pizza at Sankofe.
10-22-10
Wake up to omelets and a good discussion about a book we are reading in the group called “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. We head out to Coffee Hut again to do some interneting and realize we forgot one of our adapters for charging the laptops. But we meet some friends in Coffee hut who let us use theirs. Go and pickup Bright (Rose’s son one in the pink listening to Shane and Shane with me on FB) with Charles (Rose’s husband) from nursery school and it is super fun. Just about every kid there is seeing a white person for the first time I think so they are all super excited to see us. Bright is his normal quiet self but it is super good to see him. Hang out at the hotel until I redo the Skype date with my parents. It goes well and works great; awesome to talk to them. Get some more pizza for dinner before heading back to Roma.
10-23-10
Tom, Erin, Leilah and Suz leave on the bus to go back to the land for the weekend and Brynn and I stay in Gulu for one more day to do some filming for the Beads of Hope project. It is a part of VOH where one of the IDP camps, Koro Abili, makes beaded necklaces out of scrap paper and then they get brought back and sold in the US. Brynn and I see Mike and Rose in Gulu. Mike is up in Gulu because he is waiting for the well company to meet him to test for water for the well on the Gulu land. Very exciting times for VOH to think about already starting a second plot of land and being able to move in even more kids. We eventually head out to the camp and see Azunta and our friends from the camp there and do filming for the beads. It goes very well and we get out of there before the rain comes. Brynn and I do Sankofe for the 3rd night straight and then head back to the Hotel.
10-24-10
Go to Coffee Hut in the morning because the power is finally back on after 2 days of nothing. We talk to Rose and she is going to Obiya IDP camp tonight and we decide to stay in Gulu and go to that camp with here to do some work on the Child Sponsership stuff. We have probably 90% of the 450 kids in the system done with picture and interview but getting that last 10% will be hard. We have a nice and relaxing day of going to the market and getting some of the details of our Kenya trip (in November) figured out before Rose picks us to head out to Obiya. Charles the driver comes with us and it is super good to see him. This is the camp with Oblyia Prossy. She is 12 years old and is in P7. (Most kids are about 14 in P7) She wrote a poem that Brynn and I filmed that is very good. Check it out on Brynn’s blog. We call Prossy the Ugandan Hipster. She is super great and it super fun to be back at that camp again. We talk with Rose about kids like Prossy going to secondary school. (equivalent of High School) Basically it sounds like she will probably not go because secondary school is much more expensive. It is like 300,000 schillings per semester for a good one and 100,000 for a crap one. Also there are three semesters. So when a person is making a salary of about 5,000 schillings a day, (a nicer standard of living) even if they worked 365 days a year, to it will be about half of a years wages to send one kid to a nice secondary school. So what will happen to Prossy, she will probably drop out and try to find work but will most likely get married off to someone. This is why there is such an urgency to get kids out of the camps and sponsored. Every year that passes is one more year that a kid will get closer to dropping out of High School. We just make it out before the rain and Brynn and I make a dash for Coffee Hut for dinner.
10-25-10
Wake up and meet Nighty and Azunta in the morning. Pack up quick and catch a bus back to Bweyale. Sit next to a man named Dennis, who is a very nice guy who is an engineer for a well digging company. Get to ride a motorcycle back from Bweyale to the land. It is really nice to be back at the land and to see all the workers and our friends. (we plan our timely arrival back with lunch) We missed our English lesson though which is very sad but Leilah helped out Erin so it went great. Do some washing of clothes and cleaning of the hut until the kids get out of school and then, yep, up to play cards. After dinner I head out to play darts with the workers. My first game I was on fire and actually won a game. I told them I was practicing in Gulu.
10-26-27-28-10
Couple of easy days. Just do some English, reading and taking some pictures for Les from the Hawaii team for his video that he is making. Once kids are done with school I play soccer with them. Brynn and Suz are both not feeling well so we are praying for them. On Thursday we have another huge snake find. 1.5 Meter longs. It came along the school building and one of the teachers walked out and saw it. All the kids ran out of the classrooms and grabbed the landscaping bricks and starting throwing them at it. Pretty exciting. We hear of a sighting of a huge one, probably 8-10 feet long that is hanging out down by the well. Everyone is pretty nervous about it. Take a walk out to Gabriel’s on Thursday.
10-29-10
Wake up to cows in the Casava fields in the morning. So Mike and some of the guys go out around 4am and round them up into our pen. We find out in the morning they are a neighbors and the cowboy who was watching them was not paying attention. They walked in down by the well and then headed through the camp to the fields. It’s a good thing we had our fence up or they would have gotten into more. But we still need to get the last section done which would just be a fence gate for down by the well. So that makes for an eventful morning. Go and do some typing of the blog before getting online and do my Internet time. Go and do some reading and forget to post my blog. Kids get out of school and we play some futball until dark. Dinner and then just some quality chill time with the kids while they are at prep. Prep is kinda like an organized Homework time. So we usually get to do a lot of one on one teaching which is really fun. Hit the sheets afterwords.
Thanks for reading this far, this upcoming week will be interesting because Mike and Janelle will be gone until next Sunday at least because Mike is doing a Bee Hive school with the agriculture guy Geoffrey. Very excited to taste VOH hunny!
10-16-10
Work on some computer stuff in the morning until two of the students, Fida and Gloria (one of them) come up and give me a necklace and a bracelet. (I later find out the ridiculousness of the necklace but they just tie it on so I don’t really see it) We then play cards for most of the rest of the day. They teach me this card game of theirs that is kind of like Uno, but the rules are crazy and it seems like they make them up on the spot. After the card game go out and play soccer with the kids, for so long that I miss my Skype date with my parents. Sorry guys. Skype some till internet quits and then setup to watch Shriek with the kids; then the rain starts to come. Tom and I grab our rain jackets and create a shuttle service for the kids back to their homes using the girls’ umbrellas. Really fun because the rain is so thick that if you step in a puddle you can go up over your ankles. We get back dry off and hit the sheets.
10-17-10
Fun Sabbath with the kids that goes a little something like this; Church, then soccer and then some cards. After dinner the team gathers in the girls’ room and we watch “Quantum of Solace” on Brynn’s computer before bed.
10-18-10
Work on some computer stuff in the morning. We are working on getting a computer for the teacher and students setup. So I go through and get all the VOH documents off of it and on to an external hard drive until we go to teach English at 12:20. We teach P5 on Monday and it goes well. We have been reading a book by Roald Dahl called “George’s Magical Medicine.” It seems like the kids are not that good at reading, until you think about the fact that this is there second language. After lunch Mike and I work on smoking out some bees that are nesting in the staff housing. Then we take a team trip down to Ochan Gabriel’s (tangerine guy). Play some darts with the workers until bed.
10-19-20-10
Couple of lazy days. Only teach English to P6 on Tuesday in the morning and install some more of the software programs on the teacher/student computer. Just kinda waiting till we go to Gulu on Thursday. But of course, played some cards with the kids. I love playing that card game of theirs. ☺
10-21-10
Wake up and pack quickly before we head into town to catch a bus to Gulu. Literally get accosted by Taxi drivers looking to drive us there. Mike just walks up and says, “do not take a taxi. Might take you two days because they stop at every small town.” Thanks Mike. We wait for the bus and get on with no problems. Arrive in Gulu and hit up Coffee Hut and feel like we are back in America. Head to Roma and see some of our favorite staff again until we head out for Pizza at Sankofe.
10-22-10
Wake up to omelets and a good discussion about a book we are reading in the group called “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. We head out to Coffee Hut again to do some interneting and realize we forgot one of our adapters for charging the laptops. But we meet some friends in Coffee hut who let us use theirs. Go and pickup Bright (Rose’s son one in the pink listening to Shane and Shane with me on FB) with Charles (Rose’s husband) from nursery school and it is super fun. Just about every kid there is seeing a white person for the first time I think so they are all super excited to see us. Bright is his normal quiet self but it is super good to see him. Hang out at the hotel until I redo the Skype date with my parents. It goes well and works great; awesome to talk to them. Get some more pizza for dinner before heading back to Roma.
10-23-10
Tom, Erin, Leilah and Suz leave on the bus to go back to the land for the weekend and Brynn and I stay in Gulu for one more day to do some filming for the Beads of Hope project. It is a part of VOH where one of the IDP camps, Koro Abili, makes beaded necklaces out of scrap paper and then they get brought back and sold in the US. Brynn and I see Mike and Rose in Gulu. Mike is up in Gulu because he is waiting for the well company to meet him to test for water for the well on the Gulu land. Very exciting times for VOH to think about already starting a second plot of land and being able to move in even more kids. We eventually head out to the camp and see Azunta and our friends from the camp there and do filming for the beads. It goes very well and we get out of there before the rain comes. Brynn and I do Sankofe for the 3rd night straight and then head back to the Hotel.
10-24-10
Go to Coffee Hut in the morning because the power is finally back on after 2 days of nothing. We talk to Rose and she is going to Obiya IDP camp tonight and we decide to stay in Gulu and go to that camp with here to do some work on the Child Sponsership stuff. We have probably 90% of the 450 kids in the system done with picture and interview but getting that last 10% will be hard. We have a nice and relaxing day of going to the market and getting some of the details of our Kenya trip (in November) figured out before Rose picks us to head out to Obiya. Charles the driver comes with us and it is super good to see him. This is the camp with Oblyia Prossy. She is 12 years old and is in P7. (Most kids are about 14 in P7) She wrote a poem that Brynn and I filmed that is very good. Check it out on Brynn’s blog. We call Prossy the Ugandan Hipster. She is super great and it super fun to be back at that camp again. We talk with Rose about kids like Prossy going to secondary school. (equivalent of High School) Basically it sounds like she will probably not go because secondary school is much more expensive. It is like 300,000 schillings per semester for a good one and 100,000 for a crap one. Also there are three semesters. So when a person is making a salary of about 5,000 schillings a day, (a nicer standard of living) even if they worked 365 days a year, to it will be about half of a years wages to send one kid to a nice secondary school. So what will happen to Prossy, she will probably drop out and try to find work but will most likely get married off to someone. This is why there is such an urgency to get kids out of the camps and sponsored. Every year that passes is one more year that a kid will get closer to dropping out of High School. We just make it out before the rain and Brynn and I make a dash for Coffee Hut for dinner.
10-25-10
Wake up and meet Nighty and Azunta in the morning. Pack up quick and catch a bus back to Bweyale. Sit next to a man named Dennis, who is a very nice guy who is an engineer for a well digging company. Get to ride a motorcycle back from Bweyale to the land. It is really nice to be back at the land and to see all the workers and our friends. (we plan our timely arrival back with lunch) We missed our English lesson though which is very sad but Leilah helped out Erin so it went great. Do some washing of clothes and cleaning of the hut until the kids get out of school and then, yep, up to play cards. After dinner I head out to play darts with the workers. My first game I was on fire and actually won a game. I told them I was practicing in Gulu.
10-26-27-28-10
Couple of easy days. Just do some English, reading and taking some pictures for Les from the Hawaii team for his video that he is making. Once kids are done with school I play soccer with them. Brynn and Suz are both not feeling well so we are praying for them. On Thursday we have another huge snake find. 1.5 Meter longs. It came along the school building and one of the teachers walked out and saw it. All the kids ran out of the classrooms and grabbed the landscaping bricks and starting throwing them at it. Pretty exciting. We hear of a sighting of a huge one, probably 8-10 feet long that is hanging out down by the well. Everyone is pretty nervous about it. Take a walk out to Gabriel’s on Thursday.
10-29-10
Wake up to cows in the Casava fields in the morning. So Mike and some of the guys go out around 4am and round them up into our pen. We find out in the morning they are a neighbors and the cowboy who was watching them was not paying attention. They walked in down by the well and then headed through the camp to the fields. It’s a good thing we had our fence up or they would have gotten into more. But we still need to get the last section done which would just be a fence gate for down by the well. So that makes for an eventful morning. Go and do some typing of the blog before getting online and do my Internet time. Go and do some reading and forget to post my blog. Kids get out of school and we play some futball until dark. Dinner and then just some quality chill time with the kids while they are at prep. Prep is kinda like an organized Homework time. So we usually get to do a lot of one on one teaching which is really fun. Hit the sheets afterwords.
Thanks for reading this far, this upcoming week will be interesting because Mike and Janelle will be gone until next Sunday at least because Mike is doing a Bee Hive school with the agriculture guy Geoffrey. Very excited to taste VOH hunny!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Week 8!!!
Week 8. Time files when you are having fun.
10-8-10
Get a nice morning wake up to the sound of a rat in our ceiling. So what do Tom and I do, sleep till morning. After breakfast we talk to Mike a bit because it is really quiet around here with all the workers being gone for the holiday. (Ugandan Independence October 9th) Mike tells us about his life his life and the piece that hits home for me is “I’m 56 and I’m still discovering that life is getting better the closer I get to God.” I want to be 56 and talk like I have got my whole life in front of me. Mike is a cool guy. Besides that just a read and hang out day.
10-9-10
Ugandan Independence! So we celebrate by having pancakes that the women in my life so graciously made for us. Thanks Ladies! Play with the kids all day, from shooting slingshots, to having them tell me I don’t know how to clean my shoes, to reading my bible with them. We have spaghetti for dinner then a movie with the kids on the projector. Tonight we sleep with the kids. There are four houses. I sleep in Grace, Tom sleeps in Mercy, and then the girls split between the two girl’s houses Hope and Love. That is super fun. These kids basically get to have a sleepover everyday of there life. Awesome.
10-10-10
Sleep turns out good in the kids’ house. I brought my mattress up and slept with that on the floor. Wake up and go to church. After church play soccer till lunch. Read and sleep until dinner. Try to use internet to Skype home but it is still down. Sorry guys.
10-11-10
Do Mike and Janelle’s interview in the morning for the documentary and that goes very well. I read some reading until lunch and then make a bookshelf for the library after lunch with Tom. Do an English lesson with the kids at 2:30 with P5, which is the second oldest group and it goes pretty well. Hang out till dinner because the workers will not get back until tomorrow. George gets back from Kampala after dinner and we figure out the Internet before heading to bed.
10-12-10
Wake and hear people! The workers are back! Hang with them at breakfast and kill time on Brynn’s computer fixing a few things till English at 9:50 with P6. I love P6! They are a lot of fun and I really like the age group. (12-15 years old) After English, show Brynnn the few changes I did on the computer and figure out the problem with Mike and Janelle’s Internet. Head back and help do teardown of one of the temporary huts to make a permanent one with the work crew. Eat and have a little activity of hunt the cobra after lunch. The workers find a Cobra in the grass about 100 feet from our eating area and proceed to hunt it down. Bosco eventually finds it and killings it with a six foot tall piece of wood. Pretty exciting! Do some reading before Solomon and I go for a walk into town to get some tangerines and get his pants fixed. In town we pay 600 schillings for 12 tangerines or a little under 25 cents per tangerine. Then we meet a boy named Opio and who takes us back to his hut for more. We meet his dad, Gabriel, who speaks great English and is very nice. We get a taste test of some of the tangerines at no cost and eventually brings us a bucket full of them and says 1,000 schillings. We get 50 tangerines for less than 50 cents that we picked right before our eyes. It does not get any more fresh or good than that. We head back for dinner and then bed.
10-13-10
Breakfast, reading and then help Kinyera Geoffrey with the fencing until lunch. The rest of this week will be interesting because Mike told the three heads, Bosco of the masons, Ochen Geoffrey, of the woodworkers and Kinyera Geoffrey, of agriculture team, that we are going to do some weeding out and to make a list of the workers that are not good and we will let them go. After lunch help some more with the fence until we run out of the nails close to quitting time and head back in. I find out then that I got really burned. It would be great if I was Acholi and did not have to deal with that.
10-14-10
Have a bad night of sleep but have French toast in the morning so it is all good. Do some laundry after breakfast and do it until I rip open a cut on my hand and have to give the rest to one of the cooks, Grace. She gladly accepts because it means extra money in her paycheck. After laundry go to the office and work on loading the pictures of the kids into the child sponsorship excel sheet until lunch. I finish up with that after lunch and am very happy that it only took about an hour to do. I thought it was going to be like a four hour process. Go back to the hut, read and nap. I wake up to Brynn saying that we are going to do Joyce’s interview in like an hour! I shake out the cobwebs and get ready. Joyce is a big one because she is the one of the kids we followed around for a day. The interview goes well from what we can tell because it was all in Acholi and it was clearly hard to tell her story just from her body language. But was really great see her perk up when we asked about her future and what she wants to do. Brynn and I are going to be doing Rose’s interview tomorrow morning so we get everything down to the office to get charging again. Do dinner and then team meeting about planning a trip to Gulu and possibly to Kenya as well. ☺
10-15-10
I know I usually do not do today but did Rose’s interview in the morning and it was very hard. We chose a spot that was not ideal for sound so lots of background noise that we had to redo stuff for but all things said and done it is good. After the interview all of the workers have gone home for the day because there has been some complications with the wire transfer for the money from the states so we just shut down for the day. Adam arrives here and is gonna spend one of his last few days in Uganda with us. We are super excited to have him here and are really gonna miss him when he has to go. Rose leaves after dinner to Gulu and takes a few of the workers with her. Could be a long weekend once again. Hang out with Adam and the girls the rest of the day I guessing but if anything important happens I’ll let ya know.
That’s it. It looking more and more like Tom will be leaving in November and not staying for the whole time so that is a bummer but being a friend’s wedding is pretty important too. Besides that it has been really good here and the time is really starting to go quickly. I can’t wait to see what comes of the next few months and also now that we have all of our main interviews done we are going to be going into editing phase and so pray for diligence in getting that done and for having the patience to get that done. Thanks for reading. I have to figure out a way to give a prize to people who read all of these… you guys are so great.
10-8-10
Get a nice morning wake up to the sound of a rat in our ceiling. So what do Tom and I do, sleep till morning. After breakfast we talk to Mike a bit because it is really quiet around here with all the workers being gone for the holiday. (Ugandan Independence October 9th) Mike tells us about his life his life and the piece that hits home for me is “I’m 56 and I’m still discovering that life is getting better the closer I get to God.” I want to be 56 and talk like I have got my whole life in front of me. Mike is a cool guy. Besides that just a read and hang out day.
10-9-10
Ugandan Independence! So we celebrate by having pancakes that the women in my life so graciously made for us. Thanks Ladies! Play with the kids all day, from shooting slingshots, to having them tell me I don’t know how to clean my shoes, to reading my bible with them. We have spaghetti for dinner then a movie with the kids on the projector. Tonight we sleep with the kids. There are four houses. I sleep in Grace, Tom sleeps in Mercy, and then the girls split between the two girl’s houses Hope and Love. That is super fun. These kids basically get to have a sleepover everyday of there life. Awesome.
10-10-10
Sleep turns out good in the kids’ house. I brought my mattress up and slept with that on the floor. Wake up and go to church. After church play soccer till lunch. Read and sleep until dinner. Try to use internet to Skype home but it is still down. Sorry guys.
10-11-10
Do Mike and Janelle’s interview in the morning for the documentary and that goes very well. I read some reading until lunch and then make a bookshelf for the library after lunch with Tom. Do an English lesson with the kids at 2:30 with P5, which is the second oldest group and it goes pretty well. Hang out till dinner because the workers will not get back until tomorrow. George gets back from Kampala after dinner and we figure out the Internet before heading to bed.
10-12-10
Wake and hear people! The workers are back! Hang with them at breakfast and kill time on Brynn’s computer fixing a few things till English at 9:50 with P6. I love P6! They are a lot of fun and I really like the age group. (12-15 years old) After English, show Brynnn the few changes I did on the computer and figure out the problem with Mike and Janelle’s Internet. Head back and help do teardown of one of the temporary huts to make a permanent one with the work crew. Eat and have a little activity of hunt the cobra after lunch. The workers find a Cobra in the grass about 100 feet from our eating area and proceed to hunt it down. Bosco eventually finds it and killings it with a six foot tall piece of wood. Pretty exciting! Do some reading before Solomon and I go for a walk into town to get some tangerines and get his pants fixed. In town we pay 600 schillings for 12 tangerines or a little under 25 cents per tangerine. Then we meet a boy named Opio and who takes us back to his hut for more. We meet his dad, Gabriel, who speaks great English and is very nice. We get a taste test of some of the tangerines at no cost and eventually brings us a bucket full of them and says 1,000 schillings. We get 50 tangerines for less than 50 cents that we picked right before our eyes. It does not get any more fresh or good than that. We head back for dinner and then bed.
10-13-10
Breakfast, reading and then help Kinyera Geoffrey with the fencing until lunch. The rest of this week will be interesting because Mike told the three heads, Bosco of the masons, Ochen Geoffrey, of the woodworkers and Kinyera Geoffrey, of agriculture team, that we are going to do some weeding out and to make a list of the workers that are not good and we will let them go. After lunch help some more with the fence until we run out of the nails close to quitting time and head back in. I find out then that I got really burned. It would be great if I was Acholi and did not have to deal with that.
10-14-10
Have a bad night of sleep but have French toast in the morning so it is all good. Do some laundry after breakfast and do it until I rip open a cut on my hand and have to give the rest to one of the cooks, Grace. She gladly accepts because it means extra money in her paycheck. After laundry go to the office and work on loading the pictures of the kids into the child sponsorship excel sheet until lunch. I finish up with that after lunch and am very happy that it only took about an hour to do. I thought it was going to be like a four hour process. Go back to the hut, read and nap. I wake up to Brynn saying that we are going to do Joyce’s interview in like an hour! I shake out the cobwebs and get ready. Joyce is a big one because she is the one of the kids we followed around for a day. The interview goes well from what we can tell because it was all in Acholi and it was clearly hard to tell her story just from her body language. But was really great see her perk up when we asked about her future and what she wants to do. Brynn and I are going to be doing Rose’s interview tomorrow morning so we get everything down to the office to get charging again. Do dinner and then team meeting about planning a trip to Gulu and possibly to Kenya as well. ☺
10-15-10
I know I usually do not do today but did Rose’s interview in the morning and it was very hard. We chose a spot that was not ideal for sound so lots of background noise that we had to redo stuff for but all things said and done it is good. After the interview all of the workers have gone home for the day because there has been some complications with the wire transfer for the money from the states so we just shut down for the day. Adam arrives here and is gonna spend one of his last few days in Uganda with us. We are super excited to have him here and are really gonna miss him when he has to go. Rose leaves after dinner to Gulu and takes a few of the workers with her. Could be a long weekend once again. Hang out with Adam and the girls the rest of the day I guessing but if anything important happens I’ll let ya know.
That’s it. It looking more and more like Tom will be leaving in November and not staying for the whole time so that is a bummer but being a friend’s wedding is pretty important too. Besides that it has been really good here and the time is really starting to go quickly. I can’t wait to see what comes of the next few months and also now that we have all of our main interviews done we are going to be going into editing phase and so pray for diligence in getting that done and for having the patience to get that done. Thanks for reading. I have to figure out a way to give a prize to people who read all of these… you guys are so great.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Lubangakene Collin
It has been another good week. Big news from this week is that I am an official Acholi now. I got an Acholi name. It is Lubangakene Collin Schultz. It is pronounced Lew-bong-a-ken-eh. It means God Alone. It is the namesake of Kinyera Geoffrey’s kid too ☺
10-1-10
Do some Internet and then hang out and read before lunch. After lunch I head out and help Kinyera Geoffrey with the fence that is being put up around the land. After that we get back just in time for the new team from Hawaii to arrive. The Hawaii team includes Susie’s parents; Rich and Margie, Pastor Mike and his son Mark, Les and his wife Lisa, then Helen and Carol. They are great people and we take them to the office to open up the suitcases they left on Wednesday. After the opening all of the suitcases and seeing all the stuff I actually felt a little bit culture shocked from just the shear amount of food and stuff. Just have not seen anything like that for a long time. But we are very happy for the food and the notes from home. Great to see mom’s handwriting ☺ After we open the Christmas presents, I mean suitcases, we have some dinner and I talk to Les, who is a sound guy for a new station in Hawaii. After an hour or so we head to bed.
10-2-10
Wake up and eat with the new team before they do a program with the kids in the new church building. It goes well and they give all the kids journals, which is great. After the program we do lunch. Then we get to bust out a huge 25-person parachute and play with the kids after lunch. It is super fun. The kids just love it and they love having a beach ball in the parachute and just trying to keep it in. It’s the little things in life. The kids are split into two groups and one group is learning a song while the others are playing with the parachute with us. After the groups switch we do some dancing. Dancing is always unbelievable how much fun it is. All of us from us Brynn’s team and Mark from the Hawaii team join in the dancing. Charles driver shows me how to play this hard pumpkin instrument for the girl’s dance. Getting a little music fix. ☺ We shower, eat and head to bed. Brynn talked to our friend Adam and he might join us tomorrow.
10-3-10
Church day! Pastor Mike from the Hawaii team does the sermon. Adam arrives right at the end of church. Really good to see him post his Malaria bout. After church we sit down and discuss what the afternoon will hold with Cindy and the Hawaii team. We have lunch after lunch we do a few crafts with the kids including puzzles, seashells glued on paper crafts and some other things. Hit up some dinner and then Skype session with Scotty ☺ before bed.
10-4-10
We wake up and do some English lessons with the kids. They go well. After the second English lessons we go to their prayer session before lunch. After prayer Pastor David shares that his sister was murdered last night so to pray for her. During lunch we pray for Pastor David and give a “Love Offering” as Pastor Mike calls it. Meet and plan our day tomorrow in the afternoon. The teachers have a teacher’s day tomorrow so the kids don’t have school. They guys; Mark, Adam, Tom and I play soccer with the staff that night before dinner and bed.
10-5-10
Wake up and Adam leaves to head back to Adoc. Very sad to see him go because he is a lot of fun and also balances out some of the estrogen in the group. ☺ After breakfast we do some relays with the kids. First one is with oversized clothes and the next one is a water relay, which turns into a water fight. Momma Cindy gets sneak attacked and gets soaking wet. We setup the Volleyball net before lunch but it takes while so we resume after lunch. Brynn and I do some dishes and then eventually join the rest of the crew who have transitioned the kids into crafts again. Hit up some dinner and do some reading in a book called “Radical” by David Platt. If anyone has not read that book, read it. It is very convicting.
10-6-10
After breakfast the team leaves and it is very sad to see our friends go. Cindy goes with them but has a new plan that she might be back in November so we are hoping for that. Tom and I clean out the room and I am just about to go and help Kinyera Geoffrey with the fence when I see him leave for town to get more nails, so I read instead until lunch. After lunch, I go out with Geoffrey and work on the fence. We get back and it begins to rain pretty hard so we have dinner in the kitchen, which is nice and cozy. That night I get my Acholi name from Geoffrey, Solomon, Kenneth, Agie and Grace. Lubangakene, God Alone. After that I head to bed.
10-7-10
Wake up at 5:30am to a large mouse, that is latter deemed a baby rat, sitting about a foot from my head. Tom and I wake up to try and hunt it down but somehow it is gone. After breakfast I head out and do some fencing with Geoffrey and come back after a half-day. It is Uganda’s independence day on Saturday so the crew gets a long weekend. Have finished “Radical” so I start reading “Half the Sky.” After lunch the work crew leaves and it really quiet around. In 72 hours we have seen 10 white people and around 40 workers leave the site. We play some Nertz and then hang with the kids before dinner. After dinner we help them with their school work and pray before bed. Make plans to sleep at the kids’ house (I will sleep in Mercy with Simon and Alex) next, next Saturday so we are pretty excited about that.
That’s it. Fun to have the crew here and the next few days will be very quiet with all the crews gone but will be good to be rested up again.
10-1-10
Do some Internet and then hang out and read before lunch. After lunch I head out and help Kinyera Geoffrey with the fence that is being put up around the land. After that we get back just in time for the new team from Hawaii to arrive. The Hawaii team includes Susie’s parents; Rich and Margie, Pastor Mike and his son Mark, Les and his wife Lisa, then Helen and Carol. They are great people and we take them to the office to open up the suitcases they left on Wednesday. After the opening all of the suitcases and seeing all the stuff I actually felt a little bit culture shocked from just the shear amount of food and stuff. Just have not seen anything like that for a long time. But we are very happy for the food and the notes from home. Great to see mom’s handwriting ☺ After we open the Christmas presents, I mean suitcases, we have some dinner and I talk to Les, who is a sound guy for a new station in Hawaii. After an hour or so we head to bed.
10-2-10
Wake up and eat with the new team before they do a program with the kids in the new church building. It goes well and they give all the kids journals, which is great. After the program we do lunch. Then we get to bust out a huge 25-person parachute and play with the kids after lunch. It is super fun. The kids just love it and they love having a beach ball in the parachute and just trying to keep it in. It’s the little things in life. The kids are split into two groups and one group is learning a song while the others are playing with the parachute with us. After the groups switch we do some dancing. Dancing is always unbelievable how much fun it is. All of us from us Brynn’s team and Mark from the Hawaii team join in the dancing. Charles driver shows me how to play this hard pumpkin instrument for the girl’s dance. Getting a little music fix. ☺ We shower, eat and head to bed. Brynn talked to our friend Adam and he might join us tomorrow.
10-3-10
Church day! Pastor Mike from the Hawaii team does the sermon. Adam arrives right at the end of church. Really good to see him post his Malaria bout. After church we sit down and discuss what the afternoon will hold with Cindy and the Hawaii team. We have lunch after lunch we do a few crafts with the kids including puzzles, seashells glued on paper crafts and some other things. Hit up some dinner and then Skype session with Scotty ☺ before bed.
10-4-10
We wake up and do some English lessons with the kids. They go well. After the second English lessons we go to their prayer session before lunch. After prayer Pastor David shares that his sister was murdered last night so to pray for her. During lunch we pray for Pastor David and give a “Love Offering” as Pastor Mike calls it. Meet and plan our day tomorrow in the afternoon. The teachers have a teacher’s day tomorrow so the kids don’t have school. They guys; Mark, Adam, Tom and I play soccer with the staff that night before dinner and bed.
10-5-10
Wake up and Adam leaves to head back to Adoc. Very sad to see him go because he is a lot of fun and also balances out some of the estrogen in the group. ☺ After breakfast we do some relays with the kids. First one is with oversized clothes and the next one is a water relay, which turns into a water fight. Momma Cindy gets sneak attacked and gets soaking wet. We setup the Volleyball net before lunch but it takes while so we resume after lunch. Brynn and I do some dishes and then eventually join the rest of the crew who have transitioned the kids into crafts again. Hit up some dinner and do some reading in a book called “Radical” by David Platt. If anyone has not read that book, read it. It is very convicting.
10-6-10
After breakfast the team leaves and it is very sad to see our friends go. Cindy goes with them but has a new plan that she might be back in November so we are hoping for that. Tom and I clean out the room and I am just about to go and help Kinyera Geoffrey with the fence when I see him leave for town to get more nails, so I read instead until lunch. After lunch, I go out with Geoffrey and work on the fence. We get back and it begins to rain pretty hard so we have dinner in the kitchen, which is nice and cozy. That night I get my Acholi name from Geoffrey, Solomon, Kenneth, Agie and Grace. Lubangakene, God Alone. After that I head to bed.
10-7-10
Wake up at 5:30am to a large mouse, that is latter deemed a baby rat, sitting about a foot from my head. Tom and I wake up to try and hunt it down but somehow it is gone. After breakfast I head out and do some fencing with Geoffrey and come back after a half-day. It is Uganda’s independence day on Saturday so the crew gets a long weekend. Have finished “Radical” so I start reading “Half the Sky.” After lunch the work crew leaves and it really quiet around. In 72 hours we have seen 10 white people and around 40 workers leave the site. We play some Nertz and then hang with the kids before dinner. After dinner we help them with their school work and pray before bed. Make plans to sleep at the kids’ house (I will sleep in Mercy with Simon and Alex) next, next Saturday so we are pretty excited about that.
That’s it. Fun to have the crew here and the next few days will be very quiet with all the crews gone but will be good to be rested up again.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
We have hit the official crazy person mark. I heard from some people that the hard times come around day 3 week 6 and half way are supposed to be the hardest times. That is when things really start to sink in on how long you are gone for and other bad thoughts. So lets see how I fared…
9-24-10
In the morning, one of the dogs here has had some bumps growing on her and Mike has been saying that she is going to be a real show. Well today is the day ☺ These bumps on her are fly larva. She must have laid on a nest one night and they crawl under the skin and start feeding off the host and growing. So you squeeze them like a zit when they are large enough and they pop right back out. Wiggling on the ground. It is very painful though. Mike does the popping and I do the holding down. It is quite a scene. After that incident it is breakfast time. Great food though with eggs and French toast. Life is good. After posting my blog and some other things Cindy (VOH founder and director) shows up almost right at 12. We eat lunch with her and after lunch, we just ask some of the basics of how VOH started what her story was and it is really good to meet her finally. It is super interesting to finally put some of the last pieces of the VOH puzzle together. She is really, really great. Very loving and the kids all come up and sing her a song when she arrives and she goes through and hugs each and every one of them. Great lady. Afterwords (pun intended), we go on a team walk and just kinda bond after a little bit of a crazy week. It is a good time. Dinner is up fast and then bed comes even faster
9-25-10
Nice little feast in the morning again now with Cindy and a team here they are pulling out all the stops. I head over to the office and do some cleaning and organizing while everyone else does some games and crafts till lunch with the kids. It is a very fun time and the kids make some really cool hemp and drawing crafts. The team brought some very good supplies to be able to do that so I think that everyone enjoys it. After lunch just do some generalized hanging out with the kids then they start dancing around 4 pm. It is really cool to see it with their outfits on and to see the VOH kids do it because they have some really good dancers in their crew. Dancing is really fun and lasts for probably about 2 hours until sundown. I do some playing of this pumpkin drum thing for one of the songs and the kids just laugh and laugh at me as I try to keep up with the changes in the song. It is really fun though. After the dancing we do a quick learning the worm session with Tom and Brynn. Dinner and then the ever fun, movie night. We have a twist this week in the form of a slide show of pictures from the week, the first picture they just howl. They think that every picture of just one person smiling is hilarious, then of the pictures of someone making a weird face… crickets. After the slide show that Erin so graciously put together, we show Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa. It is really fun and we finish up and head to bed.
9-26-10
Church in the morning in the new church building goes very well and is great because now the kids have space to spread out and dance. They love it. Chill and chat with Ronny (one of the team members) and Mike chatting about war books and stories till lunchtime. Type up a couple of the tests that the teachers are having us type for exams next week (they gave us four yesterday) and they finally give us the last one around 4pm, then ask if they can have them tomorrow. Almost funny. I find out from Bill (one of the team members) that he is a baseball fan and specifically a Padres fan. God works in mysterious ways. ☺ Have a nice little baseball chat before a community soccer game starts between our work crew and a team from a town nearby. It is really fun to watch and Tom plays a little bit too. After the game which ends in a 1-1 draw we take some dinner then bed.
9-27-10
The team leaves us in the morning to head out for a safari before their flight leaves on Tuesday night. I’m sad to see them go especially since I found out that Bill is a closet Padres fan and could have been talking baseball the whole time! After they leave I go and finish typing up the rests of the test and leave them for Erin to format. After lunch Brynn and I talk about Cindy’s interview that we will be doing tomorrow because she is going to go to Gulu with the new team from Hawaii on Wednesday and we want to get it done before the next team arrives. Get some really good insight after we go and talk to Cindy in her hut and also hear more about the individual kids and their individual stories. Some of them are just not able to be comprehended by my mind. One kid, who is an older boy and an unbelievable dancer, (I have never seen anyone who can separate the top half of his body from the lower half from the feet the way he does) we find out was abducted for 3 years by the LRA. 3 Years! I cant even imagine how far behind in school, how malnourished, how much trama from seeing that much death he must have endured. To see him now and think about how much of a leader and an influence he is to all the rest of the kids and just see this love that he has for Jesus, is just incredible. Whenever I have seen him in church I have always noticed him praying when the group prayers because he looks so focused. Now I know why. It makes me think of the story in Luke 7:36-50:
Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner." 40Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he said. 41"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[a] and the other fifty. 42Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" 43Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said. 44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." 48Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." 49The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" 50Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
Just this idea that someone can have more of a capacity to love and to understand what and who they are actually praising is amazing. After chatting with Cindy; Tom, Brynn and I go termite hunting. We grab a can of “Doom” and take down a lot of termites before dinner. After dinner I play darts with some of the workers and of course get schooled but it was still fun. After darts, I hit the sheets.
9-28-10
In the morning after breakfast, Brynn and I do Cindy’s interview and get a ton of good stuff that should go very well in the movie. It takes up until lunchtime. After lunch I do some reading and before I go and help Kinyera Geoffrey, the head agriculture guy that I have become very good friends with, plant some trees around the schools. Dinner and then bed
9-29-10
Breakfast and then finally get the last few tests printed off for the kids tomorrow before I head out to the fields to help Geoffrey again. We dig up some of the old fence posts and then dig a 2 feet by 2 feet hole for planting mango trees. We use for digging a Bolsco, which is essentially a piece of rebar with a tip on it to dig. It breaks up the ground and then we get in their with the spade (shovel). It takes us about 2 hours to dig the hole for the tree and to dig up the one fence post. Hard work under the African sun. Go to lunch feeling really good about the work we accomplished though. We have a team meeting after lunch that results in a game of Nertz. I think that I am actually getting worse at that game. A bus shows up with the teams suitcases because they will only be in Gulu for 2 nights so they have separate bags packed for that. We unload all of the supply bags and bring them to the office. I grab my box of goodies that mommy and Leilah’s parents sent me ☺ Very nice to have my boom, the extra battery and the book. Thank you!!!! Do some reading in the book mommy sent me, the Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, before dinner. The camp gets really empty for dinner because Mike, Janelle and Cindy all left with the bus to Gulu. So it is just us and the Africans. ☺ After dinner it is bedtime.
9-30-10
Really lazy day. Wake up and organize our room to try and accommodate the extra 4 bodies that will be in there when the team arrives tomorrow. Finish with that and do some reading before lunch. After lunch just generally hang out and play some Nertz. Yep, definitely getting worse. Help Geoffrey set up an email account before dinner. After dinner I go to the office and type my blog before bed.
So I don’t know if I missed the memo but I think I could live here. Things have been very good. ☺ Overall I think things are good for all of the team. Keep praying for us and always love to hear about how things are going back home. It is really fun to hear about it. Do it, flood my inbox. Thanks for reading this far. Love you all!
-Collin
9-24-10
In the morning, one of the dogs here has had some bumps growing on her and Mike has been saying that she is going to be a real show. Well today is the day ☺ These bumps on her are fly larva. She must have laid on a nest one night and they crawl under the skin and start feeding off the host and growing. So you squeeze them like a zit when they are large enough and they pop right back out. Wiggling on the ground. It is very painful though. Mike does the popping and I do the holding down. It is quite a scene. After that incident it is breakfast time. Great food though with eggs and French toast. Life is good. After posting my blog and some other things Cindy (VOH founder and director) shows up almost right at 12. We eat lunch with her and after lunch, we just ask some of the basics of how VOH started what her story was and it is really good to meet her finally. It is super interesting to finally put some of the last pieces of the VOH puzzle together. She is really, really great. Very loving and the kids all come up and sing her a song when she arrives and she goes through and hugs each and every one of them. Great lady. Afterwords (pun intended), we go on a team walk and just kinda bond after a little bit of a crazy week. It is a good time. Dinner is up fast and then bed comes even faster
9-25-10
Nice little feast in the morning again now with Cindy and a team here they are pulling out all the stops. I head over to the office and do some cleaning and organizing while everyone else does some games and crafts till lunch with the kids. It is a very fun time and the kids make some really cool hemp and drawing crafts. The team brought some very good supplies to be able to do that so I think that everyone enjoys it. After lunch just do some generalized hanging out with the kids then they start dancing around 4 pm. It is really cool to see it with their outfits on and to see the VOH kids do it because they have some really good dancers in their crew. Dancing is really fun and lasts for probably about 2 hours until sundown. I do some playing of this pumpkin drum thing for one of the songs and the kids just laugh and laugh at me as I try to keep up with the changes in the song. It is really fun though. After the dancing we do a quick learning the worm session with Tom and Brynn. Dinner and then the ever fun, movie night. We have a twist this week in the form of a slide show of pictures from the week, the first picture they just howl. They think that every picture of just one person smiling is hilarious, then of the pictures of someone making a weird face… crickets. After the slide show that Erin so graciously put together, we show Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa. It is really fun and we finish up and head to bed.
9-26-10
Church in the morning in the new church building goes very well and is great because now the kids have space to spread out and dance. They love it. Chill and chat with Ronny (one of the team members) and Mike chatting about war books and stories till lunchtime. Type up a couple of the tests that the teachers are having us type for exams next week (they gave us four yesterday) and they finally give us the last one around 4pm, then ask if they can have them tomorrow. Almost funny. I find out from Bill (one of the team members) that he is a baseball fan and specifically a Padres fan. God works in mysterious ways. ☺ Have a nice little baseball chat before a community soccer game starts between our work crew and a team from a town nearby. It is really fun to watch and Tom plays a little bit too. After the game which ends in a 1-1 draw we take some dinner then bed.
9-27-10
The team leaves us in the morning to head out for a safari before their flight leaves on Tuesday night. I’m sad to see them go especially since I found out that Bill is a closet Padres fan and could have been talking baseball the whole time! After they leave I go and finish typing up the rests of the test and leave them for Erin to format. After lunch Brynn and I talk about Cindy’s interview that we will be doing tomorrow because she is going to go to Gulu with the new team from Hawaii on Wednesday and we want to get it done before the next team arrives. Get some really good insight after we go and talk to Cindy in her hut and also hear more about the individual kids and their individual stories. Some of them are just not able to be comprehended by my mind. One kid, who is an older boy and an unbelievable dancer, (I have never seen anyone who can separate the top half of his body from the lower half from the feet the way he does) we find out was abducted for 3 years by the LRA. 3 Years! I cant even imagine how far behind in school, how malnourished, how much trama from seeing that much death he must have endured. To see him now and think about how much of a leader and an influence he is to all the rest of the kids and just see this love that he has for Jesus, is just incredible. Whenever I have seen him in church I have always noticed him praying when the group prayers because he looks so focused. Now I know why. It makes me think of the story in Luke 7:36-50:
Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner." 40Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he said. 41"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[a] and the other fifty. 42Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" 43Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said. 44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." 48Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." 49The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" 50Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
Just this idea that someone can have more of a capacity to love and to understand what and who they are actually praising is amazing. After chatting with Cindy; Tom, Brynn and I go termite hunting. We grab a can of “Doom” and take down a lot of termites before dinner. After dinner I play darts with some of the workers and of course get schooled but it was still fun. After darts, I hit the sheets.
9-28-10
In the morning after breakfast, Brynn and I do Cindy’s interview and get a ton of good stuff that should go very well in the movie. It takes up until lunchtime. After lunch I do some reading and before I go and help Kinyera Geoffrey, the head agriculture guy that I have become very good friends with, plant some trees around the schools. Dinner and then bed
9-29-10
Breakfast and then finally get the last few tests printed off for the kids tomorrow before I head out to the fields to help Geoffrey again. We dig up some of the old fence posts and then dig a 2 feet by 2 feet hole for planting mango trees. We use for digging a Bolsco, which is essentially a piece of rebar with a tip on it to dig. It breaks up the ground and then we get in their with the spade (shovel). It takes us about 2 hours to dig the hole for the tree and to dig up the one fence post. Hard work under the African sun. Go to lunch feeling really good about the work we accomplished though. We have a team meeting after lunch that results in a game of Nertz. I think that I am actually getting worse at that game. A bus shows up with the teams suitcases because they will only be in Gulu for 2 nights so they have separate bags packed for that. We unload all of the supply bags and bring them to the office. I grab my box of goodies that mommy and Leilah’s parents sent me ☺ Very nice to have my boom, the extra battery and the book. Thank you!!!! Do some reading in the book mommy sent me, the Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, before dinner. The camp gets really empty for dinner because Mike, Janelle and Cindy all left with the bus to Gulu. So it is just us and the Africans. ☺ After dinner it is bedtime.
9-30-10
Really lazy day. Wake up and organize our room to try and accommodate the extra 4 bodies that will be in there when the team arrives tomorrow. Finish with that and do some reading before lunch. After lunch just generally hang out and play some Nertz. Yep, definitely getting worse. Help Geoffrey set up an email account before dinner. After dinner I go to the office and type my blog before bed.
So I don’t know if I missed the memo but I think I could live here. Things have been very good. ☺ Overall I think things are good for all of the team. Keep praying for us and always love to hear about how things are going back home. It is really fun to hear about it. Do it, flood my inbox. Thanks for reading this far. Love you all!
-Collin
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Termites!
This week there has been a lot of progress made on the movie. It has been a very good week and we had a new team show up on Monday, I mean Wednesday. So couple of new things going down this week
9-17-10
Today is the Internet day so I check in on my favorite 9, (thank you Paul Allen) and see that they have had a great week and are about a game out of the best record in baseball. October baseball in MN here we come! After getting through everything that I needed to check into and some lunch, Brynn and I go over some questions that we have about the film. It is a good session and we decide how we are going to start the film. Dinner then bed. Pretty lame day sorry
9-18-10
Today is Leilah’s birthday so we go on an adventure to the Nile. We take the sketchiest boats ever across the world’s second longest river. It went something like this. 3 strokes away from shore, Me: does it seem like the boat is taking on water? African: Here is a can. You bail while I row. Its okay? About 5 gallons of water later we make it across the river to the other side. It is pretty cool to see the old town center that was there and to see all of the boat drivers that all they do is ferry people across. On our way back over (so about 2.5 gallons of water) we see another boat that is ferry a motorcycle. This is Africa. We head home for lunch and leave shortly after for Bweyale to pick up some things for the team coming on Monday. (this is the correct spelling. It was wrong last time) I buy some “Otak” sandals. They are sandals that are literally made from motorcycle tires. They last forever according to Mike. We come back from Bweyale and have dinner. After dinner we setup a movie night for the kids and watch Finding Nemo before bed.
9-19-10
Wake up for church in the morning and then chill until lunch. We play some nertz with our team before I head over to work on importing the sound clips and matching them up with the movie. Have dinner that night before a huge skype session with Mom, Dad, Kaitlynn, Mallory, Jared, Alicia, Aaron and Ariana. After that it is bedtime.
9-20-21-10
Long sound filled days. On Monday we wake up to the thought that the team will be here around lunchtime, but at breakfast we find out they will not be here till Wednesday. Work all day importing the sound and matching it up with the guide track. This is a lot of fun because I have to do it in Final Cut and not Pro Tools. I finish up on Tuesday before dinner and play some soccer. On Tuesday morning we also gave an English test to the kids so that we can figure out where each of the classes are for the English classes we will be teaching on Mondays and Tuesdays. Big deal for the night on Tuesday is some of the agriculture guys show up with Termite Queens. They are a delicacy around here. Erin, Tom and I eat the first round. They cook them in leaves on the fire. I don’t know how to describe the taste. After dinner they bring out more and Brynn and Susie have some too. I also have more so that I can get a picture and Leilah misses the first time. So after 3 bites of termite queen, I decide that I might try it again sometime. Mike tries it raw, maybe I’ll do that…
9-22-10
Today, Brynn and I will be doing some interviews with only sound to put at the beginning of the documentary. We interview Bosco, Andrew and Lillian and get about an hour plus worth of speaking. Get some very good stuff, sound wise and content wise. Team arrives today at 4:42 so Brynn wins our bet of when they will be here with her guess of 4:30. The team is great and includes six people; Tanya, the leader, Molly, Jo, Nicole, Ronny and Bill. The youngest one is probably 30 and the oldest is probably 60; so a very different group from ours. Charles driver and Rose are with them and bring more goodies in the form of chicken. Something other than beans and rice, so pumped! We have dinner (beans and rice ☹ and then head to bed.
9-23-10
Wake up to breakfast of French toast and bananas; I love when teams come. Brynn and I do another interview with Kinyera Geoffery. This is by far the best one yet. The story and the sound are perfect. We could make a whole movie just out Geoffrey’s story. I am really excited for it. It is a cloudy day so I head over to the shed instead of the office because the office only has 3 solar panels and the shed has 12. I charge Brynn’s computer because it is completely dead as well as charging my recording piece. I also import all of the sound from the interviews the last few days. Once all this is done it is lunchtime. After lunch I go and type up a test; the teachers have been having us type up their midterms. Then we go termite queen hunting with Geoffrey and Chrispoter. Yes Chrispoter. We unearth one and we watch them eat the normal termite workers. They just bite the heads off and “its nice.” Erin, Brynn and Tom all eat one too. After hunting, Brynn and I go and record some of the kids singing. Its goes very well and we come back to a feast before bed.
9-17-10
Today is the Internet day so I check in on my favorite 9, (thank you Paul Allen) and see that they have had a great week and are about a game out of the best record in baseball. October baseball in MN here we come! After getting through everything that I needed to check into and some lunch, Brynn and I go over some questions that we have about the film. It is a good session and we decide how we are going to start the film. Dinner then bed. Pretty lame day sorry
9-18-10
Today is Leilah’s birthday so we go on an adventure to the Nile. We take the sketchiest boats ever across the world’s second longest river. It went something like this. 3 strokes away from shore, Me: does it seem like the boat is taking on water? African: Here is a can. You bail while I row. Its okay? About 5 gallons of water later we make it across the river to the other side. It is pretty cool to see the old town center that was there and to see all of the boat drivers that all they do is ferry people across. On our way back over (so about 2.5 gallons of water) we see another boat that is ferry a motorcycle. This is Africa. We head home for lunch and leave shortly after for Bweyale to pick up some things for the team coming on Monday. (this is the correct spelling. It was wrong last time) I buy some “Otak” sandals. They are sandals that are literally made from motorcycle tires. They last forever according to Mike. We come back from Bweyale and have dinner. After dinner we setup a movie night for the kids and watch Finding Nemo before bed.
9-19-10
Wake up for church in the morning and then chill until lunch. We play some nertz with our team before I head over to work on importing the sound clips and matching them up with the movie. Have dinner that night before a huge skype session with Mom, Dad, Kaitlynn, Mallory, Jared, Alicia, Aaron and Ariana. After that it is bedtime.
9-20-21-10
Long sound filled days. On Monday we wake up to the thought that the team will be here around lunchtime, but at breakfast we find out they will not be here till Wednesday. Work all day importing the sound and matching it up with the guide track. This is a lot of fun because I have to do it in Final Cut and not Pro Tools. I finish up on Tuesday before dinner and play some soccer. On Tuesday morning we also gave an English test to the kids so that we can figure out where each of the classes are for the English classes we will be teaching on Mondays and Tuesdays. Big deal for the night on Tuesday is some of the agriculture guys show up with Termite Queens. They are a delicacy around here. Erin, Tom and I eat the first round. They cook them in leaves on the fire. I don’t know how to describe the taste. After dinner they bring out more and Brynn and Susie have some too. I also have more so that I can get a picture and Leilah misses the first time. So after 3 bites of termite queen, I decide that I might try it again sometime. Mike tries it raw, maybe I’ll do that…
9-22-10
Today, Brynn and I will be doing some interviews with only sound to put at the beginning of the documentary. We interview Bosco, Andrew and Lillian and get about an hour plus worth of speaking. Get some very good stuff, sound wise and content wise. Team arrives today at 4:42 so Brynn wins our bet of when they will be here with her guess of 4:30. The team is great and includes six people; Tanya, the leader, Molly, Jo, Nicole, Ronny and Bill. The youngest one is probably 30 and the oldest is probably 60; so a very different group from ours. Charles driver and Rose are with them and bring more goodies in the form of chicken. Something other than beans and rice, so pumped! We have dinner (beans and rice ☹ and then head to bed.
9-23-10
Wake up to breakfast of French toast and bananas; I love when teams come. Brynn and I do another interview with Kinyera Geoffery. This is by far the best one yet. The story and the sound are perfect. We could make a whole movie just out Geoffrey’s story. I am really excited for it. It is a cloudy day so I head over to the shed instead of the office because the office only has 3 solar panels and the shed has 12. I charge Brynn’s computer because it is completely dead as well as charging my recording piece. I also import all of the sound from the interviews the last few days. Once all this is done it is lunchtime. After lunch I go and type up a test; the teachers have been having us type up their midterms. Then we go termite queen hunting with Geoffrey and Chrispoter. Yes Chrispoter. We unearth one and we watch them eat the normal termite workers. They just bite the heads off and “its nice.” Erin, Brynn and Tom all eat one too. After hunting, Brynn and I go and record some of the kids singing. Its goes very well and we come back to a feast before bed.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
One Month!
One Month in and still going strong ☺ We have officially hit the one month mark of being in Uganda. We just moved down to the land in Masindi last Saturday so we have been on the land for almost a week now as well. The land is great and the staff have been really good to us. We are starting an internet routine so I will only be online on Friday or Sunday from here on out so if you post anything, don’t expect much until then but, here is how it all shakes down…
9-10-10
Adam leaves for Kampala this morning early to meet his parents. He leaves us a nice note and we are all gonna miss him because we probably wont see him again unless he comes to the land in Masindi. Tom and I did not sleep well so we sleep in today as there is nothing on the agenda for the day. The girls go to the market to get their dresses picked up that they bought on Wednesday, (custom made) in the morning. We head over to Coffee Hut our Caribou Coffee away from home around noon. Read and hang out till around 6 when we head back to the hotel. Make a quick run out to the supermarket to grab last minute things before we go to the land tomorrow. Bedtime and getting excited for Masindi.
9-11-10
We wake up and get the suitcases out of our rooms and take a lot of pictures with the staff, who we will miss dearly. They have been so good to us. We leave for Masindi around 11:30 that morning. It is a quick ride about and a hour and a half south. On the way we see some wild monkeys and stop for some pictures. We are definitely in Africa. We arrive at the land and a bunch of the kids help unload all of our suitcases. Tom and I have our own mud hut. It is really nice inside and we are very excited. The girls have the hut about 10 steps from ours. We have lunch and talk with Mike and Janelle about VOH. Mike and Janelle are the on site and live in a hut about 20 steps from Tom and I. They tell us how they got started with VOH, what the land looked like two years ago (African Bush, that’s right the whole place has gone up in 2 years) and funny stories on the way. We tell them our story and then we need to get some laundry done so we gather around for another fun filled afternoon of hand washing. One of the kids from the land, Fred, helps out with the laundry because he just couldn’t stand to see us stink at washing. Great kid. We finish just in time for dinner and a campfire. Life is good.
9-12-10
Church in the morning around 8am. That sounds nuts but it is actually not hard. When the sun sets around 7:30 and you are doing everything by flashlight, it is really easy to go to bed at 9pm. So 11 hours of sleep, I guess I’m not mad. Church is great and is translated into both Acholi and English. Brynn and I do some filming at church and It is really good. Some of the most authentic worship I have ever seen. After church we have lunch and have more discussion with Mike and Janelle. Mike starts to tell about some of the future plans for VOH as far as self-sufficiency for this land. It is really getting me excited for the future of VOH. Tells us about a potential for honey farming, mango farming, cattle farming. I get to play some soccer and there are some pretty good kids. Another campfire and find out that is a nightly thing. This is the best camping trip ever.
9-13-10
Wake up around 7am and do some Yoga before breakfast. Breakfast is literally going to be bread and butter for the next 3 months. Mike then takes us to the sandpit. A Muslim family runs the sandpit and Mike tells us they have been super good to them. For a truckload of sand that the family hand shovel in, it is 20,000 shillings or about $8.32. Mike says the sand is perfect for the concrete; they never have to sift through it. We come back dump off the sand and then get ready for lunch. After lunch I head over to the office and fix a few things on the office computer for Janelle before heading back to camp and having a great discussion with the head of the agriculture department, Geoffrey. Geoffrey tells me that he lost his dad when he was 13 and moved in with his Uncle, who then died the next year so they moved in with his other Uncle. He died the next year. Then the year after that his mom died. So from 13-16 he lost both uncles, his mom and his dad. Geoffrey was just finishing up some of his schooling and changed his path to be a mechanic so that he could afford to put the rest of his 6 siblings through school. He then proceeded to put his whole family through the rest of their schooling from his mechanic job and once he finished there he went back to school around age 30 and did what he actually wanted to do which is agriculture. This is a day in the life of a Ugandan. He now has been married for 11 years has 3 boys and is putting all of them through school. I tell him about how bad my life is growing up in Minnetonka with all of the opportunity in the world and everything that I could have ever wanted but maybe not like that before we head to dinner. It is stories like this that make me wonder why I have been so lucky and so blessed and would I be able to stand there like Geoffrey if that was my life? We have dinner and then, as I am getting used to, the sun is down so I head to bed.
9-14-10
Wake up at 6:20 and go for a run before breakfast. After breakfast Geoffrey takes us for a tour of the land and everything that they are growing. They have a total of about 25 acres of a variety of things planted. Unfortunately they had some problems with neighbors cattle running through their fields so this year’s crop has been a big disappointment. There is a fence that they have been putting up and is almost completely in place now so next planting season should see some much better results. Before lunch we do some brainstorming because we will be teaching an English class to the kids. After lunch I get some washing done, yes I am hand washing my clothes still, before I head out to play soccer with some of the guys. After getting pretty winded the whistle blows. Halftime, we are playing a full 90-minute game with stoppage time. Awesome. The 2nd half is actually much better because I scored. Not gonna lie, feeling really good about scoring a goal my first full game of soccer with a bunch of workers who are anywhere form 24-40 years old and play literally every day. After soccer we eat and bedtime.
9-15-10
Getting into a routine here, workout in the morning, breakfast at 7:30, bread and butter then head over to office and help with more computer stuff. 4:30 rolls around and we call it a day. I work on some of the video stuff after that. Rose and Charles the driver come in around 6:00 and everyone is excited. Great to see them and also because Rose always comes with a plethora of great food. Pineapple for dinner tonight, fresh picked this morning, never mad about that. We do some chatting with Charles and then head off to bed.
9-16-10
Like I said, Rose; bananas, bread and butter for breakfast. I don’t know if it is possible for life to get any better. Bananas! After breakfast we have a team meeting and it goes very well. Get to hear Erin’s testimony, which is great and also get to hear about some fun stories that are happening to other people. God is so good. Mike, Tom, Ochen, (the master carpenter) Bonnie and David (two of his workers) all head into town, Bweale, to pickup some wood for Ochen and his team. The town is very different from Gulu. Say stuff being sold but much cheaper. We buy two huge Avocados for 600 shillings. That’s about 25 cents for those of you keeping track. Ya know, quarters that we find on the ground, two avocados. For the same size avos in Gulu, that would have been about 1000 shillings. Lesson for the day; thing can get cheaper. Besides prices I find out from Mike that there are tons of different tribes represented at Bweale. So Swahili and English are the two main languages spoken. Very different to speak English to everyone and not try to through in the Acholi that we have learned. We come back and have a late lunch before a nap. After that nap, Tom and I head out for some more soccer. After soccer is dinner, a fire and bed.
And that’s how the cookie crumbles for the first month in Africa. I am really starting to learn some very important lessons about how much I can and should be doing with my time and money. Just seeing how even the smallest amount of money makes a huge difference here is incredible. Also getting to spend at least an hour with God everyday has easily been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I now wonder why I have never made it a priority before now to spend at least that amount of time is almost unthinkable. Life has been good and I cannot wait to see what is going to happen over the next three months. One thing is for sure, if I keep playing soccer for 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week, I will come back at about 100 lbs.
9-10-10
Adam leaves for Kampala this morning early to meet his parents. He leaves us a nice note and we are all gonna miss him because we probably wont see him again unless he comes to the land in Masindi. Tom and I did not sleep well so we sleep in today as there is nothing on the agenda for the day. The girls go to the market to get their dresses picked up that they bought on Wednesday, (custom made) in the morning. We head over to Coffee Hut our Caribou Coffee away from home around noon. Read and hang out till around 6 when we head back to the hotel. Make a quick run out to the supermarket to grab last minute things before we go to the land tomorrow. Bedtime and getting excited for Masindi.
9-11-10
We wake up and get the suitcases out of our rooms and take a lot of pictures with the staff, who we will miss dearly. They have been so good to us. We leave for Masindi around 11:30 that morning. It is a quick ride about and a hour and a half south. On the way we see some wild monkeys and stop for some pictures. We are definitely in Africa. We arrive at the land and a bunch of the kids help unload all of our suitcases. Tom and I have our own mud hut. It is really nice inside and we are very excited. The girls have the hut about 10 steps from ours. We have lunch and talk with Mike and Janelle about VOH. Mike and Janelle are the on site and live in a hut about 20 steps from Tom and I. They tell us how they got started with VOH, what the land looked like two years ago (African Bush, that’s right the whole place has gone up in 2 years) and funny stories on the way. We tell them our story and then we need to get some laundry done so we gather around for another fun filled afternoon of hand washing. One of the kids from the land, Fred, helps out with the laundry because he just couldn’t stand to see us stink at washing. Great kid. We finish just in time for dinner and a campfire. Life is good.
9-12-10
Church in the morning around 8am. That sounds nuts but it is actually not hard. When the sun sets around 7:30 and you are doing everything by flashlight, it is really easy to go to bed at 9pm. So 11 hours of sleep, I guess I’m not mad. Church is great and is translated into both Acholi and English. Brynn and I do some filming at church and It is really good. Some of the most authentic worship I have ever seen. After church we have lunch and have more discussion with Mike and Janelle. Mike starts to tell about some of the future plans for VOH as far as self-sufficiency for this land. It is really getting me excited for the future of VOH. Tells us about a potential for honey farming, mango farming, cattle farming. I get to play some soccer and there are some pretty good kids. Another campfire and find out that is a nightly thing. This is the best camping trip ever.
9-13-10
Wake up around 7am and do some Yoga before breakfast. Breakfast is literally going to be bread and butter for the next 3 months. Mike then takes us to the sandpit. A Muslim family runs the sandpit and Mike tells us they have been super good to them. For a truckload of sand that the family hand shovel in, it is 20,000 shillings or about $8.32. Mike says the sand is perfect for the concrete; they never have to sift through it. We come back dump off the sand and then get ready for lunch. After lunch I head over to the office and fix a few things on the office computer for Janelle before heading back to camp and having a great discussion with the head of the agriculture department, Geoffrey. Geoffrey tells me that he lost his dad when he was 13 and moved in with his Uncle, who then died the next year so they moved in with his other Uncle. He died the next year. Then the year after that his mom died. So from 13-16 he lost both uncles, his mom and his dad. Geoffrey was just finishing up some of his schooling and changed his path to be a mechanic so that he could afford to put the rest of his 6 siblings through school. He then proceeded to put his whole family through the rest of their schooling from his mechanic job and once he finished there he went back to school around age 30 and did what he actually wanted to do which is agriculture. This is a day in the life of a Ugandan. He now has been married for 11 years has 3 boys and is putting all of them through school. I tell him about how bad my life is growing up in Minnetonka with all of the opportunity in the world and everything that I could have ever wanted but maybe not like that before we head to dinner. It is stories like this that make me wonder why I have been so lucky and so blessed and would I be able to stand there like Geoffrey if that was my life? We have dinner and then, as I am getting used to, the sun is down so I head to bed.
9-14-10
Wake up at 6:20 and go for a run before breakfast. After breakfast Geoffrey takes us for a tour of the land and everything that they are growing. They have a total of about 25 acres of a variety of things planted. Unfortunately they had some problems with neighbors cattle running through their fields so this year’s crop has been a big disappointment. There is a fence that they have been putting up and is almost completely in place now so next planting season should see some much better results. Before lunch we do some brainstorming because we will be teaching an English class to the kids. After lunch I get some washing done, yes I am hand washing my clothes still, before I head out to play soccer with some of the guys. After getting pretty winded the whistle blows. Halftime, we are playing a full 90-minute game with stoppage time. Awesome. The 2nd half is actually much better because I scored. Not gonna lie, feeling really good about scoring a goal my first full game of soccer with a bunch of workers who are anywhere form 24-40 years old and play literally every day. After soccer we eat and bedtime.
9-15-10
Getting into a routine here, workout in the morning, breakfast at 7:30, bread and butter then head over to office and help with more computer stuff. 4:30 rolls around and we call it a day. I work on some of the video stuff after that. Rose and Charles the driver come in around 6:00 and everyone is excited. Great to see them and also because Rose always comes with a plethora of great food. Pineapple for dinner tonight, fresh picked this morning, never mad about that. We do some chatting with Charles and then head off to bed.
9-16-10
Like I said, Rose; bananas, bread and butter for breakfast. I don’t know if it is possible for life to get any better. Bananas! After breakfast we have a team meeting and it goes very well. Get to hear Erin’s testimony, which is great and also get to hear about some fun stories that are happening to other people. God is so good. Mike, Tom, Ochen, (the master carpenter) Bonnie and David (two of his workers) all head into town, Bweale, to pickup some wood for Ochen and his team. The town is very different from Gulu. Say stuff being sold but much cheaper. We buy two huge Avocados for 600 shillings. That’s about 25 cents for those of you keeping track. Ya know, quarters that we find on the ground, two avocados. For the same size avos in Gulu, that would have been about 1000 shillings. Lesson for the day; thing can get cheaper. Besides prices I find out from Mike that there are tons of different tribes represented at Bweale. So Swahili and English are the two main languages spoken. Very different to speak English to everyone and not try to through in the Acholi that we have learned. We come back and have a late lunch before a nap. After that nap, Tom and I head out for some more soccer. After soccer is dinner, a fire and bed.
And that’s how the cookie crumbles for the first month in Africa. I am really starting to learn some very important lessons about how much I can and should be doing with my time and money. Just seeing how even the smallest amount of money makes a huge difference here is incredible. Also getting to spend at least an hour with God everyday has easily been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I now wonder why I have never made it a priority before now to spend at least that amount of time is almost unthinkable. Life has been good and I cannot wait to see what is going to happen over the next three months. One thing is for sure, if I keep playing soccer for 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week, I will come back at about 100 lbs.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Nother Week in the Books
Nother week done. This one might be boring. Sorry :(
9-3-10
Wake up and have some cinnamon roll this morning that we got from Sankofe the night before. Sankofe is a restaurant that was started by a native Chi-townian. So they have pizza and burgers and milkshakes. Its awesome. Head to the safe house and move the beds out of the rooms so that they are ready to bring down to the land for when the kids start school on Monday. then we just do nothing till it is time to head out to Obia IDP camp. Tom and I end up joining a game of soccer. Some of the kids are super good. I hold my own and my team ends up winning against Tom’s 2-0. After the game a friend of mine Dennis, from the camp calls me, I quote “a good football player.” So basically I think I missed my calling to go whoop it up with the Americans in the World Cup. Head back for food and bed. Next couple of days are going be super chill. I’m excited.
9-4-10
Hang out most of the morning. I make a techno song on my computer before we head out to Tetuku camp. We have a new driver, Patrick, because our normal driver Charles is helping VOH move the kids down to the land. Patrick is great. We do close to 60 interviews at this camp and while waiting for them to finish up we talk to Patrick. He has a crazy story. His dad slept around so he has brothers and sisters everywhere around Uganda. He grew up with his Uncle and eventually worked his way as a mason down to Kampala. He eventually met his wife and saved up enough money to go to driving school. He got his license and drove for a few years for a few different companies. (A driver is a better paying position than a mason by the way) eventually he meets one of his brothers who work for the Uganda Bank who outright buys him a taxi van. The same van we rode up to the camp in. So now he is making good money, has been married to his wife for 21 years, has 4 kids that he will be able to get them all through school and is helping out his Uncle who raised him pay for some things too. He tells us point blank. I would have not got to where I am in life if I did not have Jesus. That story is so nice and refreshing to hear. Have to leave camp early because of a down pouring rain. Come back to the hotel and bed.
9-5-10
Church! Say hi to my buddy Solomon who loves my water bottle. Love that kid. After church, we head out to another IDP camp called Koro Abili. This is a favorite of mine. We only have a couple of interviews and pictures before we head home.
9-6-10
Wake up late and head out to a place called Coffee Hut where they have free wi-fi. We spend the whole day there because we have to enter all he information from the interviews. I did finish a great book called Lone Survivor. It’s a book about the Navy SEALS. Great book. I would recommend it. Eventually end up back at the Hotel that’s our day. Very American. We also went to Laroo IDP camp.
9-7-10
Well hate to say it but same thing. We wake up and go to Coffee Hut… all day. I read a book called “Just Do Something.” I loved it. Really great book and would recommend it to basically everyone I know. Get back to the hotel and Tom, Brynn and I go for a run. Just a quick like 2+ mile run. Definitely needed that after two days of sitting on my rump. Then bedtime
9-8-10
Power is out so I head over to Happy Nest next door and get plug into there generator to finish out entering the information into our computer. Finish that up around 11. And I skype with Joe for a bit before heading out to eat lunch. Internet is down all afternoon and I miss my skype date with Mom and Dad. Sorry. Tom and I go for a two hour run before dinner. That kills me. More of a story there but that is for a different time and place. I skype with Mom and Dad that night and then hit the sheets
9-9-10
Today we are going to go to Adoc and visit our friend Adam. His place is great and ill be posting a bunch of pictures showing that. We dig out a well hole and also make some bricks. We also see the largest spider I have ever seen. It was super gnarly. We leave for Tekuku to finish up our interviews there. Adam comes with us to the camp and we love having him with us. We head back after doing the interviews and get some food at Sankofe. Back to the rooms for quiet time and sleep.
Sorry this one is so boring.
Love yall,
Collin
9-3-10
Wake up and have some cinnamon roll this morning that we got from Sankofe the night before. Sankofe is a restaurant that was started by a native Chi-townian. So they have pizza and burgers and milkshakes. Its awesome. Head to the safe house and move the beds out of the rooms so that they are ready to bring down to the land for when the kids start school on Monday. then we just do nothing till it is time to head out to Obia IDP camp. Tom and I end up joining a game of soccer. Some of the kids are super good. I hold my own and my team ends up winning against Tom’s 2-0. After the game a friend of mine Dennis, from the camp calls me, I quote “a good football player.” So basically I think I missed my calling to go whoop it up with the Americans in the World Cup. Head back for food and bed. Next couple of days are going be super chill. I’m excited.
9-4-10
Hang out most of the morning. I make a techno song on my computer before we head out to Tetuku camp. We have a new driver, Patrick, because our normal driver Charles is helping VOH move the kids down to the land. Patrick is great. We do close to 60 interviews at this camp and while waiting for them to finish up we talk to Patrick. He has a crazy story. His dad slept around so he has brothers and sisters everywhere around Uganda. He grew up with his Uncle and eventually worked his way as a mason down to Kampala. He eventually met his wife and saved up enough money to go to driving school. He got his license and drove for a few years for a few different companies. (A driver is a better paying position than a mason by the way) eventually he meets one of his brothers who work for the Uganda Bank who outright buys him a taxi van. The same van we rode up to the camp in. So now he is making good money, has been married to his wife for 21 years, has 4 kids that he will be able to get them all through school and is helping out his Uncle who raised him pay for some things too. He tells us point blank. I would have not got to where I am in life if I did not have Jesus. That story is so nice and refreshing to hear. Have to leave camp early because of a down pouring rain. Come back to the hotel and bed.
9-5-10
Church! Say hi to my buddy Solomon who loves my water bottle. Love that kid. After church, we head out to another IDP camp called Koro Abili. This is a favorite of mine. We only have a couple of interviews and pictures before we head home.
9-6-10
Wake up late and head out to a place called Coffee Hut where they have free wi-fi. We spend the whole day there because we have to enter all he information from the interviews. I did finish a great book called Lone Survivor. It’s a book about the Navy SEALS. Great book. I would recommend it. Eventually end up back at the Hotel that’s our day. Very American. We also went to Laroo IDP camp.
9-7-10
Well hate to say it but same thing. We wake up and go to Coffee Hut… all day. I read a book called “Just Do Something.” I loved it. Really great book and would recommend it to basically everyone I know. Get back to the hotel and Tom, Brynn and I go for a run. Just a quick like 2+ mile run. Definitely needed that after two days of sitting on my rump. Then bedtime
9-8-10
Power is out so I head over to Happy Nest next door and get plug into there generator to finish out entering the information into our computer. Finish that up around 11. And I skype with Joe for a bit before heading out to eat lunch. Internet is down all afternoon and I miss my skype date with Mom and Dad. Sorry. Tom and I go for a two hour run before dinner. That kills me. More of a story there but that is for a different time and place. I skype with Mom and Dad that night and then hit the sheets
9-9-10
Today we are going to go to Adoc and visit our friend Adam. His place is great and ill be posting a bunch of pictures showing that. We dig out a well hole and also make some bricks. We also see the largest spider I have ever seen. It was super gnarly. We leave for Tekuku to finish up our interviews there. Adam comes with us to the camp and we love having him with us. We head back after doing the interviews and get some food at Sankofe. Back to the rooms for quiet time and sleep.
Sorry this one is so boring.
Love yall,
Collin
Africa AHH!!!
8-27-10
Breakfast, painting, food packing and then off to camps. A friend, Adam, that we met at church last week comes to the safe house and hangs out with us for a bit. He also gives us some oatmeal. Man does it look good. Adam has been here for about a month now and he is building a Hospital. Very cool kid. Crazy side story. Suzie is moving from Hawaii to Colorado a week after we get back to a town called Loveland for school. She knows nobody there and is very nervous about it. Adam is lives in Loveland Colorado. Adam has never been to the church we went to until that week. He just randomly decided to change (for one week) from the one he was going to about 20 minutes south of us. God is so good. Suzie basically goes to tears when we find this out. I love that girl. After packing some food we go to Koro Abili IDP camp. I love that camp a ton. Dennis and Wilson are two of the kids that I connect really well with there. They are great and both will be going down to the land ☺ We do some picture taking for setting up sponsorships so the kids have their name, age, grade and camp on these signs. We pass out the food and than head back to the hotel.
8-28-10
Not getting picked up until 1pm so we get a restful and God filled morning. I spend most of it in a quiet time. Amazing. One of the best experiences of my life. Get some food packed and head out to next IDP camp; Labora. More pictures and food handing out, before we head back for sleep time
8-29-10
Church! Love church again but we were having a discussion about mega-churches before church, worst decision anyone can make. It distracts me almost the whole time but I don’t completely waste it. Lunch, food packing and then off to the next camp; Te-Tuku. Hotel and bonding time in the guys room before bed.
8-30-10
Today is a little bit different, because we wash our clothes today at the safe house along with the painting. Pack up more food and head out to Obia. Great news. Van is finally fixed after about a week of it being down and Charles the driver is back which is a huge blessing. He is an amazing person. Suzie is not feeling well and we drop her off at the hotel so that she can doze, as the locals call it. Come back from pictures and food passing out. We also got some great footage today because at this camp is the first Ugandan hipster that I have ever seen. She is 12 years old and wrote a poem about children’s rights so we recorded her saying that. It is good and powerful and crazy to hear such insight from a 12 year old. Get a change of plans for tomorrow. Brynn and I were going to go and follow a specific VOH kid Joyce for her normal day life but Rose has a meeting come up so we are going to do it on Wednesday instead. Joyce has a crazy story. We will also be following another kid the following day named Solomon doing the same type of thing. Another change comes that now we have a bunch of interview questions to ask the kids along with the pictures. So now we have to go back to all the camps we have taken pictures at and do the interviews. TIA(this is Africa)? Gotta love it.
8-31-10
We have oatmeal for breakfast that our mizzungoo (mizz-ung-goo: white person) friend that we met at church Adam gave us. Great guy Adam. Than guess what; painting, food packing, and IDP camps. This one is called Laroo. (La-row) The one change is that we do interviews there as well as pictures. Come back and get some ice cream before bed. Early bed time for me cause of following Joyce tomorrow.
9-1-10
6am. Alarm. Horrible. I’ll skip the gory details but we make it make it to her camp around 7am and she is already up and moving. Joyce has a crazy story. She lives with her aunt because her parents were killed and she has a big scar on the side of her head from the incident. She was literally shot in the head and lived. Nobody has any idea how she lived but one thing is for sure; she loves Jesus. We shoot all day and its amazing how much work these kids do. She was doing any of the following for about 5-6 hours of the day while we were there; weeding, washing, cooking, gathering water, gathering potatoes, washing potatoes or getting firewood. 15 years old and could make Mother Teresa blush. After a bunch of good footage we head back and eat with the team. Great to be back with them and we play some cards before bed.
9-2-10
6a Alarm. Still horrible. Get to Alex’s (by the way Solomon is at his grandpa’s place so we switched to another VOH kid Alex) hut. Alex lives with his Grandma and Grandpa because his parents are dead. He was a child solider at one point for a bit before he got away and got into a camp. All I can think about from seeing this kid is how he is 15 and he has the demeanor of a 20 year old. Same drill lots of work just a different type. Planting, brick making and schoolwork. Good footage here too and we head out to meet the team at Laboro to do interviews and a couple of retakes. Do that and than head back for eats and bed. We will be getting picked up later around 10am tomorrow because both Brynn and I are starving for a time chill time
Needs:
Overall health of the team I think almost everyone is running at about 80%
Me:
My family. They are so good and just have some extra stresses that wisdom is needed for as well as an overwhelming Joy of my sister being engaged.
Love yall
Collin
Breakfast, painting, food packing and then off to camps. A friend, Adam, that we met at church last week comes to the safe house and hangs out with us for a bit. He also gives us some oatmeal. Man does it look good. Adam has been here for about a month now and he is building a Hospital. Very cool kid. Crazy side story. Suzie is moving from Hawaii to Colorado a week after we get back to a town called Loveland for school. She knows nobody there and is very nervous about it. Adam is lives in Loveland Colorado. Adam has never been to the church we went to until that week. He just randomly decided to change (for one week) from the one he was going to about 20 minutes south of us. God is so good. Suzie basically goes to tears when we find this out. I love that girl. After packing some food we go to Koro Abili IDP camp. I love that camp a ton. Dennis and Wilson are two of the kids that I connect really well with there. They are great and both will be going down to the land ☺ We do some picture taking for setting up sponsorships so the kids have their name, age, grade and camp on these signs. We pass out the food and than head back to the hotel.
8-28-10
Not getting picked up until 1pm so we get a restful and God filled morning. I spend most of it in a quiet time. Amazing. One of the best experiences of my life. Get some food packed and head out to next IDP camp; Labora. More pictures and food handing out, before we head back for sleep time
8-29-10
Church! Love church again but we were having a discussion about mega-churches before church, worst decision anyone can make. It distracts me almost the whole time but I don’t completely waste it. Lunch, food packing and then off to the next camp; Te-Tuku. Hotel and bonding time in the guys room before bed.
8-30-10
Today is a little bit different, because we wash our clothes today at the safe house along with the painting. Pack up more food and head out to Obia. Great news. Van is finally fixed after about a week of it being down and Charles the driver is back which is a huge blessing. He is an amazing person. Suzie is not feeling well and we drop her off at the hotel so that she can doze, as the locals call it. Come back from pictures and food passing out. We also got some great footage today because at this camp is the first Ugandan hipster that I have ever seen. She is 12 years old and wrote a poem about children’s rights so we recorded her saying that. It is good and powerful and crazy to hear such insight from a 12 year old. Get a change of plans for tomorrow. Brynn and I were going to go and follow a specific VOH kid Joyce for her normal day life but Rose has a meeting come up so we are going to do it on Wednesday instead. Joyce has a crazy story. We will also be following another kid the following day named Solomon doing the same type of thing. Another change comes that now we have a bunch of interview questions to ask the kids along with the pictures. So now we have to go back to all the camps we have taken pictures at and do the interviews. TIA(this is Africa)? Gotta love it.
8-31-10
We have oatmeal for breakfast that our mizzungoo (mizz-ung-goo: white person) friend that we met at church Adam gave us. Great guy Adam. Than guess what; painting, food packing, and IDP camps. This one is called Laroo. (La-row) The one change is that we do interviews there as well as pictures. Come back and get some ice cream before bed. Early bed time for me cause of following Joyce tomorrow.
9-1-10
6am. Alarm. Horrible. I’ll skip the gory details but we make it make it to her camp around 7am and she is already up and moving. Joyce has a crazy story. She lives with her aunt because her parents were killed and she has a big scar on the side of her head from the incident. She was literally shot in the head and lived. Nobody has any idea how she lived but one thing is for sure; she loves Jesus. We shoot all day and its amazing how much work these kids do. She was doing any of the following for about 5-6 hours of the day while we were there; weeding, washing, cooking, gathering water, gathering potatoes, washing potatoes or getting firewood. 15 years old and could make Mother Teresa blush. After a bunch of good footage we head back and eat with the team. Great to be back with them and we play some cards before bed.
9-2-10
6a Alarm. Still horrible. Get to Alex’s (by the way Solomon is at his grandpa’s place so we switched to another VOH kid Alex) hut. Alex lives with his Grandma and Grandpa because his parents are dead. He was a child solider at one point for a bit before he got away and got into a camp. All I can think about from seeing this kid is how he is 15 and he has the demeanor of a 20 year old. Same drill lots of work just a different type. Planting, brick making and schoolwork. Good footage here too and we head out to meet the team at Laboro to do interviews and a couple of retakes. Do that and than head back for eats and bed. We will be getting picked up later around 10am tomorrow because both Brynn and I are starving for a time chill time
Needs:
Overall health of the team I think almost everyone is running at about 80%
Me:
My family. They are so good and just have some extra stresses that wisdom is needed for as well as an overwhelming Joy of my sister being engaged.
Love yall
Collin
Thoughts from Africa
Just thought I would shoot out an update. We have now been in Africa officially for a week! It seems like it has been much longer in both good and bad ways. Tonight we had Chicago style pizza and milkshakes. It was crazy good. We heard about it from a friend we met through Village of Hope (VOH), Heather. All week we have had omelets for breakfast with bananas and toast, beans and rice for lunch and chicken broth and rice for dinner. No joke. One night it was grilled chicken instead of the chicken and broth, which was also crazy good. No idea what it is like to decide between different types of food until you lose that power. Also another new thing about food and restaurants; they have a menu but you need to ask them what they have each time. One place offered pizza, grilled chicken, beans and rice of course but when we went to order, “We have one piece of chicken, 4 pieces of goat and lots of fish.” We decided to go elsewhere. We got to London last week with no problems besides lack of sleep and gave ourselves a tour of the place. Couple of things stood out. One, Big Ben is amazing. Never been a sightseer, but Big Ben is worth the time. Two, London is super crowded and the streets are crazy. Three mind the gap.
Friday 8-20-10
We arrived in Entebbe with no problems and found all of our luggage, which was a big prayer answered and met Charles, Shama and Azunta for our 6 hour trip to Gulu. It was about 8 am when we left the airport. We picked up more friends, Mike and his lovely wife Janelle and promptly got a flat tire. After changing that with nobody ever getting out of the car we were on our way to meet Rose in Kampala. Driving is nuts and ask me more about it when I get back. We arrive in Kampala and meet Rose who treats us to Mr. Tasty’s, the food that makes you go hmmm. (no joke that is the actual slogan) We go to Shoprite, and get some money exchanged and head out. Oh ya, its about 1 pm now and are about 30 minutes from the airport. We begin to learn about African time. Shama gets dropped off right outside of Kampala but not before telling us that she was in the building that got bombed in Kampala watching the game. Crazy story, also ask about it when I get back. We make another pit stop at the land in Macindy and pick up some workers to bring to Gulu. On the way to Gulu we stop at a mobile market. You literally park the car and people flood your windows trying to sell you fresh food trying to get you to give them money. This is a wild experience when you have no money and are going on about 4 hours of sleep over 48 hours. One woman walked up with her baby of about 2 and was getting the baby to ask for money. We finally arrive in Gulu at 7pm that night American time and get into our Hotel. The place is great with running water, a shower and electricity. We cash it there with the information that tomorrow is a rest day.
Saturday 8-21-10
We wake up the next morning and check out the market with Julie. Julie is unbelievable and a pure joy to be around. That day she teaches us to wash clothes by hand. This is going to be a fun four months. That night at dinner Brynn shares her testimony, which is super cool to finally hear all of the pieces. We also meet one of the presidential candidates for the upcoming elections in February and get to talk to him for a while. We get to bed that night and will be going to an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp tomorrow after church.
Sunday 8-22-10
Horrible night of sleep. Realize that I forgot one of the pieces that is nice but not crucial for doing the recording. Awesome. Go to church feeling really down in the dumps and leave church recharged. God is so good. The camp is an amazing experience as they do about a half hour dance for us while we do a little presentation as well. After that we get about an hour to play with the kids. This is very good but very hard. Without going into detail, lots of kids are sick, some kids are mentally handicapped, some 7 year olds are taking care of 1 year olds and there is about 6 adults for about 50 kids. We get back to the Hotel Roma for bed. Wake up the next morning with a ride scheduled to pick us up at 10:30.
Monday 8-23-10
12:30pm the next morning we head out to the Safe house. It is a spot owned by VOH that houses about 20-30 kids regularly but with the government kicking them out it has about 6. The place has about a ten-foot high concrete wall around it with glass shards at the top jutting up. We sit down to eat lunch now and do some light setup work for painting the outside wall before heading out to another IDP camp. This camp has much younger kids at it but all the same issues as the last. We head back and get some food. Brynn and I talk more about the filming and decide to start tomorrow.
Tuesday 8-24-10
We get up at meet our ride at 9am and head out to the safe house. We begin painting and the kids at the safe house even help out. We have lunch there that Julie prepares for us. I share my testimony during lunch before we go to another IDP camp. Get some good stuff for the movie there before heading back to the hotel for the night. We all chill in the guys room and do some good bonding before bed.
Wednesday 8-25-10
Same drill… breakfast painting than a new IDP camp. This one has mostly older kids and they do about an hour and a half of dancing. Hard to meet kids there because they just always seem to be laughing at us but Brynn and I get some great footage for the film. Had a super hard time with the kids because they ask if they can have my water bottle. How do you who have everything tell someone who has nothing that they cant have one thing of yours? Its tough, let me tell ya. We eat and head to bed, but notice the Renovation audio is up so I take a listen to what is happening back in the Blaine side of things. Love just hearing Zach, David, Rachel, Joe and Josh’s voice. Makes me miss home a little.
Thursday 8-26-10
Well, wake up paint and than a camp… with one change. Brynn and I pull out her video editing program and spend a bunch of time importing and organizing clips and getting my sound to match up with it. This IDP camp is the best. Kids are super outgoing and we love them so much. I meet a kid named Innocent, who is disappointed when I forget his name so here is my way of remembering. We will be back there on Saturday so I have till than to remember. We feast on our pizza and milkshakes before heading back to the Hotel. Tom and I take an adventure and find a new power adapter because we only have one and lots of dead stuff. We get back and the charger for my computer is broken and not working. Awesome. We head out to bed and get set to do more of the same tomorrow.
Friday 8-20-10
We arrived in Entebbe with no problems and found all of our luggage, which was a big prayer answered and met Charles, Shama and Azunta for our 6 hour trip to Gulu. It was about 8 am when we left the airport. We picked up more friends, Mike and his lovely wife Janelle and promptly got a flat tire. After changing that with nobody ever getting out of the car we were on our way to meet Rose in Kampala. Driving is nuts and ask me more about it when I get back. We arrive in Kampala and meet Rose who treats us to Mr. Tasty’s, the food that makes you go hmmm. (no joke that is the actual slogan) We go to Shoprite, and get some money exchanged and head out. Oh ya, its about 1 pm now and are about 30 minutes from the airport. We begin to learn about African time. Shama gets dropped off right outside of Kampala but not before telling us that she was in the building that got bombed in Kampala watching the game. Crazy story, also ask about it when I get back. We make another pit stop at the land in Macindy and pick up some workers to bring to Gulu. On the way to Gulu we stop at a mobile market. You literally park the car and people flood your windows trying to sell you fresh food trying to get you to give them money. This is a wild experience when you have no money and are going on about 4 hours of sleep over 48 hours. One woman walked up with her baby of about 2 and was getting the baby to ask for money. We finally arrive in Gulu at 7pm that night American time and get into our Hotel. The place is great with running water, a shower and electricity. We cash it there with the information that tomorrow is a rest day.
Saturday 8-21-10
We wake up the next morning and check out the market with Julie. Julie is unbelievable and a pure joy to be around. That day she teaches us to wash clothes by hand. This is going to be a fun four months. That night at dinner Brynn shares her testimony, which is super cool to finally hear all of the pieces. We also meet one of the presidential candidates for the upcoming elections in February and get to talk to him for a while. We get to bed that night and will be going to an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp tomorrow after church.
Sunday 8-22-10
Horrible night of sleep. Realize that I forgot one of the pieces that is nice but not crucial for doing the recording. Awesome. Go to church feeling really down in the dumps and leave church recharged. God is so good. The camp is an amazing experience as they do about a half hour dance for us while we do a little presentation as well. After that we get about an hour to play with the kids. This is very good but very hard. Without going into detail, lots of kids are sick, some kids are mentally handicapped, some 7 year olds are taking care of 1 year olds and there is about 6 adults for about 50 kids. We get back to the Hotel Roma for bed. Wake up the next morning with a ride scheduled to pick us up at 10:30.
Monday 8-23-10
12:30pm the next morning we head out to the Safe house. It is a spot owned by VOH that houses about 20-30 kids regularly but with the government kicking them out it has about 6. The place has about a ten-foot high concrete wall around it with glass shards at the top jutting up. We sit down to eat lunch now and do some light setup work for painting the outside wall before heading out to another IDP camp. This camp has much younger kids at it but all the same issues as the last. We head back and get some food. Brynn and I talk more about the filming and decide to start tomorrow.
Tuesday 8-24-10
We get up at meet our ride at 9am and head out to the safe house. We begin painting and the kids at the safe house even help out. We have lunch there that Julie prepares for us. I share my testimony during lunch before we go to another IDP camp. Get some good stuff for the movie there before heading back to the hotel for the night. We all chill in the guys room and do some good bonding before bed.
Wednesday 8-25-10
Same drill… breakfast painting than a new IDP camp. This one has mostly older kids and they do about an hour and a half of dancing. Hard to meet kids there because they just always seem to be laughing at us but Brynn and I get some great footage for the film. Had a super hard time with the kids because they ask if they can have my water bottle. How do you who have everything tell someone who has nothing that they cant have one thing of yours? Its tough, let me tell ya. We eat and head to bed, but notice the Renovation audio is up so I take a listen to what is happening back in the Blaine side of things. Love just hearing Zach, David, Rachel, Joe and Josh’s voice. Makes me miss home a little.
Thursday 8-26-10
Well, wake up paint and than a camp… with one change. Brynn and I pull out her video editing program and spend a bunch of time importing and organizing clips and getting my sound to match up with it. This IDP camp is the best. Kids are super outgoing and we love them so much. I meet a kid named Innocent, who is disappointed when I forget his name so here is my way of remembering. We will be back there on Saturday so I have till than to remember. We feast on our pizza and milkshakes before heading back to the Hotel. Tom and I take an adventure and find a new power adapter because we only have one and lots of dead stuff. We get back and the charger for my computer is broken and not working. Awesome. We head out to bed and get set to do more of the same tomorrow.
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