Osobola okukikyuusa? Otulo tunnuma, enjala ennuma njago nsesema naye Ndi kirungi! (SECRET CODE)
Hello friends...how are you doing? It's a privelage for me to of been able to get here in Kampala without using a toilet or asking the taxi driver to pull over. For four days, starting Tuesday i think, i was unable to keep my food and drink down and it decided to come out both ends of my body! Nice...i know!
I went to practice for the Christmas production on Thursday and in the middle began feeling ill again, i ran out the door and fainted to then find myself waking up on a bed at the hostel with about 20 hands on me ... praying. I felt so ill and i kept passing out, there was a lady pouring water over me and they were saying i had a fever. Ali was sitting next to me one side and Hannah the other. They were saying i needed to go to hospital because i was getting worse. I woke up for the final time, whilst others were arranging for a doctor but then later that night after sleeping it off in the hostel i woke up able to walk home. JOY!
So…yesterday (Friday) I woke up and then I felt so ill, I didn’t feel I had energy to get out of bed. I spoke to Helen and she said she would call Pastor Stephen Jota and ask to take me to hospital. So that is what we did. I went and spent the whole day at the hospital. Fun! Not….I had to do a stool test and I had to have blood tests and stuff. They basically said I did not have malaria. I was glad! I have been bitten about 6 times per night this week although my net is probably the best and it only has a few holes which have been taped! Who knows! Anyways….. so the hospital said I could go and they were not able to tell me what it was but they have given me tablets and medication. It has started to help, I have only been sick once since starting them and I have only visited the toilet once to! What a relief….a few hours sitting on the toilet and then leaning over it every day was beginning to get me a little livid!
I have not been cooking for the tem obviously for a few days because obviously not wise but the team are begging me to cook tonight. Looking forward to it! In fact…… I will let you in on an amazing experience I have been able to have here in the past few weeks. A few weeks ago, fasting was mentioned a few times by separate people and it made me want to look more into it. I read many things in the bible about fasting and I felt that many people in the bible have used fasting as a way of learning to depend on God in all situations. I decided that God was teaching me about this and wanted me to perhaps learn to trust in him this way. I then spoke to Helen about fasting because I thought that she had just finished her time of fasting in recent days. She then told me that she is still fasting and will do until January 1st. She fasts 12 hours a day and while she is fasting she just drinks water. I told Helen that I felt God prompting me to fast and she said that we could do it together. This has been amazing; I feel so close to god. Fasting is something that I never imagined I would do and I hardly ever thought about it before. I have been fasting for 2 weeks today and it is amazing friends! It is something that is personal and between you and God. The team is unaware that I am doing it really and it is such a personal thing with God. I feel so close to God and I pray with Helen most days and read the bible with her. It is incredible! I am learning so much to depend on him and even this week when I was unwell, it was easier for me to fast in the way that I couldn’t eat anything at all but harder that I had t depend on him for strength and perseverance. I feel like God may be telling me that my fast is nearly over but I am being patient and continuously praying even when I am making the team eggy bread or pancakes!
Next Friday was supposed to be the day the kids all break up and go home for Christmas to their different tribes and villages but the school has gone bankrupt and so the children had to leave last Friday. It was so sad because we didn’t really know until Monday and all our kids are going and I was unable to say goodbye to some of them and a lot of them do not know I won’t be teaching them in February because I am going home! I am lucky that my favorites live near by but I love P4 so much! They were great! I love teaching them. This week I have just been going into school occasionally and getting papers to mark and then taking them home to mark! I hate marking but it’s a must. I just kept finding myself waking with a paper and pen stuck to my face!
I really have spent a lot of time with the street kids this week, playing games with them whilst I was ill and teaching them a bit of English. I am learning more and more Luganda and it’s great that the communication with them is building!
Infact before I came here today, I gave two of the little ones my washing as they were begging! I said to them in Luganda….i will give you little children some washing but do it well and I will reward you! I hope they haven’t run off with them! We think that Aveline’s alarm clock was snatched from our window this week but it was a close one because my camera and memory cards were also there!?!? We are learning that windows need to be shut at all times!
The heat is ridiculous and so is the color of my skin! It has not changed in the slightest! Although, I have lost a bit of weight this week but that will change with the amount of chapatti’s I will eat before I will come home!
We are still not sure what our holidays will bring us and where we will go but I know that God is taking our team down a path of growth and experience. I believe that the team is slowly getting stronger as the devil knows that we are each very strong. He has been trying to challenge us and divide the team in past weeks but the team can see it clearly.
Just please pray that all our team will fix our eyes on God and have straight priorities and please pray for all our Health. Everyone else is okay, a little snotty here and there but okay! And I am getting better again! Although I have had enough of paying loads of money at the hospital!
How can I forget……James! James arrived on Wednesday morning, he has slotted in very well! He is good fun and like minded to all of us! He is very brave for jumping in the middle but I am proud of him! I think that he is a bit confused at what is happening in the house but he will learn quickly enough what is going on etc! I am acting as his translator at the mo, it well fun! Love it! He keeps saying…..raaa, looks at that and was like what! And he will point at a random thing like a cow running alongside of a car or something, we are getting used to it obviously!
Err…nearly got attacked by a huge cow with horns AGAIN! Scary….a mother in the village keeps bringing her baby to the smile house and says I can have her for a bit! Each time, the baby falls asleep on me and cuddles up, it’s only about 6 months old, she is adorable and is called Joaan! Adorable as! I actually want her and when I take her back to her mum or her siblings she cries so much! She loves the white I think!
I have been practicing the song that I sent last week with Eric and we are setting ourselves targets each day. I am finding it really hard but in a good way! Trying to get to the next level of singing and music when you have no background of singing lessons or whatever….it’s hard! But it is amazing, although the bridge is very high and Eric is trying to train me to reach the notes but at the moment I am just jumping up and down shouting and so close to pulling out my hair. He is very patient with me!
What else do I tell you…..erm….taken the animal look alike hair out, it began getting a little loose? It took 6 hours to take out! Jokes! The wedding last week was amazing, the bride looked beautiful, and they go to extremes to make the bride outstanding. She didn’t smile a lot though! The wedding was very long and we wore dresses of Helens. Africany but not that much! Was great!
