GOODBYE UGANDA

hey guys!! hope everyone is doing so well!

so i am writing you all this as i sit here getting my hair braided, i don't have internet but im writing this in hopes ill get to an internet cafe in time to post this before i am home!

So to update you a little bit on how things have been going! i did my lap top fast and let me tell you that you have no idea how much you are attached to a material item until something like that arrises.. i honestly at times felt like a drug addict every time i saw my lap top i would have to fight myself not to go on the internet! see something wrong with that? ahah! but i managed to do my week of no computer and it was amazing cause i had so much time to spend with god, all the beautiful moments like sitting on my porch over looking the mountains on facebook? now i spent those moments thanking god that he is so wonderful! so its safe to say it went well and i suggest it to all of you! if there is something you do daily recreationally if you can replace that and spend time with god instead for a while i would try! you never notice how much time you spend doing that thing until you take time away! 

But the countdown is going and everyday i wake up nervous because the number of days until i go home are only getting smaller.. and weirdly honestly terrified of going home! how strange is that? but  i have been here for so long and come acostom to this life style im nervous of what lifes going to be like when i go home, back to reality.. It frightens me.. but i am so excited. I have been trying my best to enjoy every single thing that happens here and really soak up all the black baby love i can get! im doing okay though! it seems thats a common question '' how are you feeling'' well im feeling scared but im at peace. God is closing this chapter of my life but that doesn't mean im finished.. this just makes me so much more excited to see whats next.. God brought me to Africa! that is something that always sat in the back of my head as a un touchable dream! but i got my dream, i lived it! and its been so wonderful here.. it just shows me that god can do anything! something i always knew but i never truly grasped it until now.. no dream is to big for God, he always has a hand on us.. and no matter what we do that we feel we don't deserve these gifts from god he is patient with us and he waits.. and waits.. and waits because he looks down on us and sais i want them.. i have great plans for her/him.. and that rocks my world! hahah! so for now im sad, scared, nervous but  excited! i think im ready! im ready to go home and take the next step in my life!! and share to all of you what amazing things i have seen and done over here !! the worlds only as big as you make it

One thing i have noticed though is my love for the babies keeps getting deaper.. and it makes me happy but nervous because for some reason in my last week here these babies have completely stole my heart! i didn't think it was possible to love them any more than i already do, but apparently it was! i love them all individually and i will never forget all of these babies.. they changed me! who knew a baby could change and bless a nineteen year old girl so much! but they have! they are the reason for my happiness here! God has such an awesome plan for the kids in this program and i ask you to keep not just the babies and even me but this program in your prayers! they are seriously doing some wonderful things over here and there changing lives! there changing uganda!! and god has had such grace on them and he isn't finished! he is just getting started! so if you think of it please think to pray for them! they need all the prayers they can get! its not easy to run this of course !! 

So i have al of you to thank for everything about my trip i can't thank you all enugh!! i have survived a mud hut, monkey trecking , safari , weird food everything with safety and i have been blessed and not been sick once! and that is all thanks to you guys over in canada praying like wariors! i am very lucky to have had such safety during the un rest here and the sickneses going around so thank you all so much for being so supportive of me being here and always having my back with this! i will never ever forget how lucky i am that my church was behind me and i was able to go all the way to uganda and live my dream! finally!! as a little girl sitting in front of the tv watching world vision thinking when i grow up i will be there and help those kids i never truly thought i would! so the little girl inside me is jumping for joy right now thinking that this trip just actually happened! 

so like i said thank you everyone so much for everything !! i think and pray about you all all the time !! and i leave in three days so i am so excited to come home and see you all and show you in person how thankful i am! 

be blessed everyone and ill see you next week!!!!!! :) 

this is a random addition a tribute to uganda,.. these are my thoughts on my whole trip and the things im thankful for and am happy for 

in my trip i have experienced things that the average person wouldn't get the chance to see in uganda.. I thank god every day that when he was making the plan for my life he perfectly fit uganda in there.. I have fallen in love with this country, every day i wake up happy knowing i will see so many amazing people and be blessed enough to daily hold gods children. This country has brought me a happiness i never thought i would be lucky enough to get! i wasn't in the best place before i came here i was searching for happiness searching for my place in god and where i belonged but being here i have finally found who i am in myself in god in everything! i am so thankful that i have had these 4 and half months to find who i truly am, and to have lived this life in this country. this is one of the most beautiful countries i have ever been to in my whole life! the beauty here is in the nature of course the nile and the trees and the rolling hills and the fields but its so much more than that. its in the people! there people in this country are beautiful i have never met people like Ugandans. and the babies! man! they are seriously amazing they will steal your heart with one look i promise ! so if you ask me about my time with watoto and if i would come back my answer is yes! i will come back! i love uganda and i suggest to everyone to come here if you ever have the chance! love you all so much! 

Let the countdown begin!!

Consider me to seriously love you guys! im sorry i don't blog so much but in my new location Suubi we can only access internet outside and unfortunately for me i work the late shift so only time im on is at night.. let me tell you ! African mosquitoes are scary and they travel in packs so im getting eaten alive so im going to try to run through this with a large attempt to make some sense!!

So to fill you in on my transition .. let me tell you it hasn't been easy! Gulu was my home for three months so being in another location loving other babies i feel like im cheating ! hahah ! but at the same point its been wonderful! its kind of beautiful because all the babies i started my trip off with in kampala have all been moved here. So its nice to end my trip with the same babies that i poured all my cuddles and tears into when i first arrived! Being here has had challenges for sure but in the end it has been so much more rewarding. The location of this place the only way you can describe it is peaceful! it has a beauty here that can only be explained by one word.. God.. Everything i see in this land i see God's face shining through it because beauty like this can only come from him! I wake up every single morning to a beautiful porch over looking mountains and a sunrise to die for! and on top of that i walk down a couple of stairs and get to love on God's little babies! and living in the village with all the children and walking around and all you can do is honestly thank god that all these kids were given a second chance! Its bitter sweet because you feel remorse that such beautiful kids were abandon but at the same time you see God's love in that because he never forgot about them. He never abandon them! They are here with a better chance at life! There each blessed with a beautiful home and a mother and a safe village and a school and people to teach them about god! Its beautiful! 

   This country isn't the way the tv makes it seem. People assume that everyone here is crying and bugs on there faces but really living here and thinking of home i feel bad for people at home. Most people have never experienced joy like people in Uganda. Walking around the villages and seeing poor children there laughing more than i am! There happy! Maybe they don't have a WII and an I Phone and a cupboard full of food but at the end of it all there happier than most people

    I came here to teach and to love on people and to show them God and i have but looking back on my trip i see that they have taught me! they have showed me love! they have built up my relationship with god because everytime they give me a smile or a little child runs up to me just to touch my hand i see God's face in there smile! 

Today was a perfect example, me and my roomates went on a walk off the village and three little boys came running up to us giggling, they didn't speak a word of english but they ran up to us and each grabbed one of our hands and just walked on our walk with us giggling and holding our hands! they had no idea what we were saying but they were just happy to touch our hands and walk with us! It was the most amazing moment and all i could do was thank god for bringing me to this moment! 

but as for anything new here we had an awesome christmas and new years of course one for the memories! it was a lot different than back home i mean i ate pasta on christmas but it was a memory i will never forget! New years we got to go to an all night sing at the watoto church! there had to be like 3000 people there it was so packed! it had 3 over flow rooms packed and the street packed and the inside of the stadium packed! it was an awesome way to start the new year with so many people worshiping god right into 2012! so that was one of my best new years i have had i think i will never forget that!! 

Also i have new roomies and everyday i thank god for them! there so amazing we all have so much fun together and we click so well its wonderful god has really blessed me with amazing people to surround me always! it is truly awesome ! 

Lastly!! watoto will be planting a new church in south sudan! We got the update this morning! this is so awesome and so exciting there is a lot of need in sudan especially with all the war and stuff so please keep that in your prayers for them! it is a hard mission but so rewarding and i know god is going to do amazing things there seriously!!! 

SO i guess you could say i'm loving my last little while here. Im trying to really soak up every second because i know that the days are numbered and i only have a couple weeks left and ill be back in Canada. The thought is bitter sweet because i am so happy to see my family and hug every person in my church and be able to bless people the way uganda has blessed me! But at the same point everytime i think of going home my eyes fill with tears. This place has changed me for the better! I will be sad to go but i know that this is a stepping stone onto better things! so i ask everyone please pray for me as my last days are coming close! its a scary thought coming home but im so looking forward to it as well! Of course ill miss not waking up to cute little black babies every morning but hey! Good thing my sister has twins! :) hahah, but i just want to thank you all for what your doing for me, your prayers your support it all means so much to me and not a day goes by that i don't think about it and smile and thank and pray for you all! you guys are a big part of this and i will never forget that! Thank you !!

ill be seeing '' most '' of you in 17 days!!! :) im looking forward to it!! hope you all had an awesome christmas and a happy new year!!

OH AND PS.. WATOTO CHURCH IS DOING A NATIONWIDE FAST FOR FIVE DAYS AND PERSONALLY THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GIVE UP FOOD SO THEY CHALLENGED US TO GIVE UP ANYTHING ELSE THAT IS BLOCKING US FROM SPENDING TIME WITH GOD AND THAT WOULD BE FACEBOOK/MY LAP TOP FOR ME! SO THATS WHY IM BLOGGING NOW AND I WILL NOT RESPOND TO YOUR COMMENTS UNTIL SATURDAY! WISH ME LUCK :) xxooo! 

Merry Christmas !!

MERRY AFRICAN CHRISTMAS MUZUNGU'S

Hello everyone!!

so this blog is close to the last one i must say i am pretty proud of myself for not forgetting to update you all on my life !! Now i'm going to try to focus as hard as i can to write this as my roomie is having a funny noise off with a friend on skype so im super trying to focus ahhaha.

so! what is new in my african life since i last wrote you all.. I had to leave my beloved GULU! ahhh.. let me tell you right now no offense to my beautiful canadians this ripped my heart out ten times more than any goodbye! I think what was so hard was that i can't guarantee that i will see them all again.. I can try but a lot will go to there mothers or leave town or anything can happen so the only hopes i can hold onto is one day seeing them in heaven! But it was so hard Gulu is my home. I was there my whole trip so every problem or hardship or anything i have had in Africa i have experienced in Gulu.. So saying goodbye was so hard and i hope to never have to do it again! So i am happy with the work i have done there and i know the difference i made there and i felt in my heart leaving that God was pleased with my work and he was telling me it was okay to go.. but it still hurt me so bad... 

BUT.. i am here now in Suubi! so let me tell you about this place.. this is Suubi so this is a children's village so all the cute little choir kids you see singing '' I AM NOT FORGOTTEN' i am living with.. yeah... im pretty pumped about it! so they are moved here after babies home and they get a house with a mother and there is bout 6 kids per house, and they go to school there is a clinic and church and everything.. It is segregated off its not a town its just watoto houses here gated in, its on the top of a big mountain/hill its beautiful. So there is 4 children's villages and this is the only with a babies home so i am working in the babies home and living above it. So i will soon find out what its like to wake up by screaming babies daily! So the beautiful thing bout my new location is that this village and babies home is the same that is on the watoto sites all the photos and videos is all from this village.. So when i came to africa in my mind this is the places i was headed.. and after 3 months i am finally where i thought i was coming! So not that i didn't love the rest of my trip but it is just such a beautiful way to end the trip you know. Arriving here the sun was setting and we were driving up the hill and the palm trees and kids playing and the beautiful homes and the gardens i started to cry. God just said to me as i arrived '' it's ok, i want you here, and your here for a reason'' and that was the confirmation i needed because when i left Gulu i thought my trip is over .. This month is going to drag cause i am done in Uganda. But driving up here i had such a peace and a happiness and i just can't even wait to see what insane things God pulls out here! :) Also we live on a second floor so we have a beautiful patio over looking rolling hills/mountians covered in grass and trees and such beauty. And if your wondering why i call them mountian hills is because there bigger then a hill cause you can't drive over them, and smaller then a mountian cause theres no snow on top. SO therefor there mountain/hills hahaha! So it is truly amazing i have heard the sunrises are wonderful! I can't wait till my morning shift tomorrow to sit on my patio like the old lady im not and drink coffee and watch the sunrise and thank god that he is so awesome! 

So on the note of wonderful things some of you may know i connected so much with a baby my first week here in kampala and she was wonderful i fell in love and when she was moved here to the village i am at i cried and cried and begged god that one day i would get to see her again, i don't know what it was about her but she comforted me when i needed her most when i arrived here and i was scared and i just needed a baby cuddle she was my girl, so i have felt so attached to her always. SO on the most fantabulous note i arrived today and i went to the babies room and THERE SHE WAS!!! my girl standing smiling at me as if she was waiting for me to come!! I picked her up and held her so tight i felt like i was being re-united with my long lost daughter the way i held her! I think she recognized me because she was smiling and laughing and wrapped her arms around my neck while i hugged her and allowed me to endlessly hug her and kiss her so i think she still knows me! If not its ok because she let me love her so were good! So its safe to say im a happy little muzungu over here! happier than ever to know i see her daily! its nice as well because all the babies from when i first got here other than just her there all here as well! so i am ending my trip with the same babies i started with, its kind of beautiful! So i will be spending a lot of time with them im happy that im living with them so i can get as much black baby cuddles as possible before i leave here and am surrounded by white people :P So life is so wonderful!!

so now i need to go onto my happy little cindy lou hoo self! i most likely spelt that wrong.. sorry. SO! i am so happy because i finally got my christmas! FINALLY RIGHT i was waiting because i have not been in the christmas spirit and i wondered if i ever would! So we had a volunteer christmas party but also attending was all the people who work with watoto internationally but live there now, so basically a lot of mazungus and so everyone dressed nice it was in a wonderful location nice room with nice christmas decorations and christmas trees and christmas carols! and A SANTA!! yay yay yay!!! but for the record anyone seen a black santa? cause i did after this.. HAHAH. but he came and we went up one by one and sat on his lap to get a gift, it was so much fun the little girl inside me was freaking out! also we got to have a nice big dinner, not typical canadian style but it was a feast of canadian style foods it was so awesome and desert!! yumm! and then later that day we went to the christmas cantata !! It was so awesome !!!! It was a play type thing of the christmas story but it was also dancing and singing and a big choir it was so awesome the dancing was wicked they did all different styles some lyrical and some crazy hip hop break dancing stuff and some african style it was seriously wonderful! TO TOP IT OFF they had a light that went around the whole stadium and it made white dots all over us so it looked like it was snowing in the room ! and on all of the walls was a video playing of a snowy street so it was seriously wonderful i was so emotional the whole time i was so happy I GOT MY WHITE CHRISTMAS !! So im happy because my one thing was having my first christmas alone was scary for me, but it seems like god has it in his hands because that day made my whole christmas. So as for my Christmas day ill be skyping my parents to open some gifts! and than me and my roomies will take our favorite babies to church ! and then the babies home is having a nice lunch than for dinner we are cooking ...MEXICAN!!!? i know that is the same face i made! so since we dont have the right resources here to make a typical meal the girls are cooking up a big mexican feast. I mean hey as long as your feasting on christmas its all cool beans right !! So i am happy with the way things are going and im doing ok im trying to soak up every moment im here cause i come home in 5 weeks! ahh so insane ! i am so looking forward to seeing all of you who have been supporting me daily! i can't wait ! It will be nice so please keep me in your prayers! and thank you for everything !! 

so i am going to add a song this is some lyrics in the cantata that Marry and Joseph sang in the play when marry found out she would be bearing jesus , they sang this and it was beautiful and it really encouraged me in my life to keep doing what im doing and coming to suubi i question god like are you sure you want me there cause i love gulu and i could do so much more, but coming here i saw i am to be here. So although its so hard to trust in God cause we have so many questions but in the end who are we to question cause he knows the plan he knows what is best for us he knows what we need so we just have to let go and let him decide. 

be unto me according to your word I give myself to thee just a servant in your land, though i don't understand 

your purpose or your plan still i say be unto me..

thank you guys for reading and your prayers! xxoo!

have a merry christmas all of you ! be blessed spend lots of time with your famlies they truly are a gift from god! enjoy the food and the presents and don't forget God on christmas! LOVE YAs

Consider me a Local!

HELLO MAZUNGU'S 

so im here with my coffee on my day off and very ready to blog to all of you and fill you in on everything thats been happening!!

SO as you all know i went to the IDP camp, so let me just jump right into it and go ahead talking about what it was like !! Let me tell you it was the absolute high light of my whole AFRICA trip, maybe even a large highlight of my life.. other than my birthday cause thats a wicked day! :)

but to start off when we arrived at the camp we were informed that this camp was taken over about 10 years ago and was used by the LRA ( child soldiers) joseph coney and his soldiers pushed out everyone in the village or killed and used it as there base land to stay and to sleep.. So that was of course the most comforting news to hear that the mud hut im about to sleep in could have been slept in by a LRA soldier. But hey i just kept positive and had faith that God was on my side. So of course this whole week was a lot to deal with! I experienced things i have never experienced in my life. Like going to the washroom in a nice HOLE? that was an experience. You see im spoiled with some things and for me i would like a nice bathroom. So it was for sure a stretching experience to be in a out house with no door and just a hole in the ground.. But i managed to find it normal by the end of the week.. Also we showered with buckets, no running water.. Not only that but we showered in a grass hut type thing accept it was just grass walls no roof. Oh and of course no door.. So it was facing a bush. That would be ok in Canada, but in Africa its normal to be walking through the bush always.. So we had a few watchers who watched us shower so we were just sure to bathe in baithing suits. The whole experience of it was a once in a ilfe time experience so i always remember that when i get bitter about showering with a bucket and having random black children watch you do it!! 

But while there we got to sleep in a mud hut!! SO AMAZING! i am seriously thinking of building myself one back home ! they are so warm and cozy its like sleeping in a bullet proof tent! it was wonderful!! I think the most beautiful part was waking up every morning to have children screaming your name outside of the hut waiting for you to come out!

 Speaking of children. This trip would not have been the same without them! The kids in that village were perfect. I could not have pictured my time going any better with them! It was so nice to live were they are living because i really got to get involved and see there everyday life and see how they live and what they do daily. It was beautiful to see how hard working and happy everyone is. The love that they have for eachother and other people is compelling! The village is like one big happy family, it is wonderful makes me wish that we had villages like that home, Every child hangs out together they all play together its like a daily school play ground just at there home, its awesome ! So every day the children would come and hang out with us, we couldn't talk much because of the language barior but for anyone who ever has traveled to a place like this you know photos are what makes you bond with them the most! So everyday we just took millions of photos with them, and of course they loved it and would giggle and smile they were happiest when we took there photos! Also even when we were just reading our bible or going anywere we always had an audience. It was hard to ignore at first but you learn to, cause they just want to watch you. They don't want to talk they just find you so interesting. Especially since this village has not seen white people since the british were here years ago! So they found us facinating! Also at night time every night all the kids came to our hut and our little land and would play with us, we played tag, Occtopus, jump rope lots of things it was so much fun to play and bond with the kids and love on them and help them to take time out of there day to feel like real children again. It was wonderful.. 

While being there we did a class everyday. The point of us going in there is to work with the people and teach them trust, how to love, how to talk about the bad things that has happened to them, how to let go, how to move on. So many things because the people in the village have experienced some seriously un thinkable things so for them to forget and to move on after years is a challenge. So thats were the team steps in the work with them and try to help them, At the end of the first week they begin to incorperate God into it. They look back on all the things they talked about with them and show them were god comes in that and what he can do to help us and what not, and the second week is all about god and at the end they give the people in the village a chance to give there hearts to the lord ! So unfortunately i wasnt there to witness people giving there hearts to the lord but i was there for all the tust building and the stress releiving and some testimonys. So it was a really amazing experience

So also while being there we had a class about trust, and about trusting people around you and being able to share your experiences with other people. So i was asked to share my story with the teen group ages 13-25 so unfortunately my group was 80 percent men, so i asked if i could tell my story to only the women after class. So after the session all the women stayed behind and i got to tell them my story. After my testimony they all got the chance to ask me any questions they wanted. It was so nice to sit down with them and talk to them personally and i think they really enjoyed the chance to have one on one time with me. 

Now, one thing that i find comical now but at the time i didnt think was funny. We were asked by a man in the camp if we wanted to go see some monkeys. Well as mazungu tourist we thought AWESOME YES! well turns out it was a horrible walk through the jungle ( unknowing we wore sandals and skirts) no trail just bush high grasses vines bugs spiders and snakes! The good thing is we did see the monkeys! thank goodness so the trip was worth it! so longest blog short this trip to the IDP camp changed my whole life, it was the highlight of my trip and im so blessed that i got the chance to tag along and experience it all!!

on a side note of things that have happened since , the home sickness is hitting me now im so happy here but im missing my family a lot so please everyone pray for me for peace and patients to end my trip the way god intended

Also this looks like it's going to be my last week in Gulu! This is where my whole trip has been so it will be a very hard goodbye since Gulu is now home, but i'm really looking forward to spending my last month here experiencing so many new things at a new village! I will also get to see all my favorite babies i started working with when i first came to Uganda !! 

I also want to wish everyone a most merry christmas this year and i pray you all have a white christmas! Although the christmas spirit around Uganda is dimmed i am counting on a christmas re-make with my family when i am home! but i am throwing a christmas party at my house tomorrow with some teens and the pastor from the village i have done so much work with ! Me and my roomie will be cooking them up a nice big Canadian/American meal! Everyone is super excited to try our food and im looking forward to having a bit of canada for a night!! 

and my goodness i almost forgot to fill you guys in , pastor from the village i have worked with so much randomly called me and my roommate up and asked us if we would like to be his guest speakers at a youth conference he is holding half hour out of town! WOW right! so we accepted and had only 24 hours to come up with something! so we came up with a whole sermon and when we got there and began we didn't say anything we had planned! it was pretty cool! it went super well the people took it well and seemed to react awesome to it, so i am so happy we got the opportunity to do that, im so happy with all the things i have been able to experience in this country and i have all of you to thank for keeping me in your prayers and supporting me financially without that i wouldn't have been able to do half the things i have! I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH !! im so lucky to have such a good support behind me!! Thank you everyone..

but as for me and what i have been learning is how much God really answers prayer.. He answers even the smallest prayers that we pray just to pray , we don't think he will really grant them but since being here i have really seen the power in prayer and have seen some wonderful things come from it!! I have a small praise report as well ACTUALLY HUGE, one of the times we decided to go around in the village to pray for people in there homes we came across a lady in her home who was very old about 90 and she was so small she looked like a skeleton and she was very ill and had a leg problem that prevented her from being able to walk, we went in and all laid hands on her and prayed. And we got the call about a week later that she is now walking and attending church and bible study regularly now!!!! HOW AWESOME RIGHT.. God seriously heres us every time we call out to him with a genuine heart and God really does miracles.. Its a miracle everyday you wake up and are still breathing and we can't ever forget to thank god for another day. I read an interesting tweet that said '' dont forget to pray to god before you go to bed at night because he didn't forget to wake you up this morning' and of course we should pray for more than that reason but it is just funny because he really has never forgotten about us for one second, so who are we to live amazing moments even like waking up in the morning or seeing healing or a beautiful day or even having 3 meals a day and not thank him for not forgetting about us and not ever stopping lovin ! g us no matter what insane things we do he never stops. THIS GUY ROCKS!!! so that is some things that you learn your whole life but since being here i have really taken the time to re think over them and really appreciate god and just be in shock of his love!! 

Thank you guys for reading hope you enjoyed!

xxxoooo much Ugandan love

Bugs are Food not Friends

HELLO EVERYONE so i realise this blog again is way past due and i am so sorry for that i am extremely busy lately were in a large transition so i am bad with trying to strap myself to this lap top and tell you everything i know you all have been waiting to hear!!!

so you are most likely all wondering what is with the title of this, but ill get to that later :)

SO WHERE CAN I BEGIN? this blog like many others will be very scatter brained. hope i don't confuse you all

So since i have last blogged we have done some pretty wonderful things. Me and my roommates have met up with a pastor in a local community and he has been getting us involved with stuff he is doing for people in need, we just really feel god calling us to do more than just work with the babies. instead of sitting in the house on our days off this pastor has helped us have something to do to get involved and use our skills usefully. So this is the same pastor we got to go through to distribute clothes and food to the village close by. So since we have paired up with him and got to witness 2 baptism services. One in a pool and one in a village about an hour away in the river! in that day we saw a total of 79 people be baptised!! it was one of the most emotional days here in Africa. It is always an emotional day when you get to see God truly move in other places other than home. The people who were baptised would walk to the side of the river and worship out loud with no instruments. they worshipped through the whole baptism, it was so amazing to watch people so passionate about God even through there struggles in life they still look up.

Also in that day we got to experience Africa to the fullest!! We were at a village and the team we were with were building a school for children because the closest school is 5 miles away so children would have to walk all that way to attend school. So they built a school there for them! So amazing. So while there we got to work with all the kids in the village we did songs and bible stories there was around 200 kids. We also got to work with ladies of the village . They took us on there every day work tasks, hand washing laundry, walking to the well, pumping water from the well, and yes carrying large yellow Gerry cans on our heads... my face was the same as yours I'm sure. These things felt like they were 400 pounds and when they put it on my head.. instant migraine... hahah that was if i could even balance it. But i couldn't very long till i had to give it back to them to carry. They would carry it like it was feathers and dance and walk with out holding it. African women are tough let me tell you. So many random things that happened in that day that just shaped my whole trip, like walking to the baptism with a pack of 200 people and having races with the little boys, and walking holding hands with the little girls, and taking photos with old ladies. It was a wonderful day and i will upload lots of photos as soon as i can so you can all see as if you were there with me !

So on  a new note me and the girls were bored and the power was out so we decided to clean out our closets of all the clothes that collect dust and the shoes we never wear and take them to the village to meet the same pastor. He met with us and introduced us to 6 youth girls who took us around the village to the most in need people in the village who could us the small amount of clothes the most. Also we got to go inside the mud huts and pray for the people living in there. We prayed for a women who was paralysed in the legs. We prayed for a old lady laying in bed so sick that she couldn't move. Even in that moment the whole time we prayed she thanked god for everything he does in her life, and thanking him for blessing her. It was so amazing because she was on her death bed with nothing and she still thanks god everything she has! So we prayed for some amazing people and prayed a lot of healing over people who asked for it . it was a really wonderful day!!  Also while being there we have plans to help clean out the village well with a team because it was ruined and now the water is brown and the village people still drink from it because they have nothing else, so we will be going next week with a team to help clean it out and get it working properly again. We also will be helping him with a youth conference he is hosting at the church we will help doing games and songs and sitting in and getting to know the girls and the teens. It will be so nice I'm looking forward to all the plans god has for me in Africa!!! 

So back on a watoto note! We were in Kampala and we actually got to see the children quire practising to sing at a hotel for the first lady! it was super cool that is what i have been waiting for is to see the kids singing in Africa! it was heart melting i was the happiest in that moment. Also i got to go along with a couple of watoto people and take a little girl who is about 2 to the children's village! it was so much fun because she is very shy and takes time to warm up to people and she was very comfortable with me and liked me a lot so they asked me to take her for comfort, and when we got to her new mother her mother cried receiving her. she was so happy !! it melted my heart knowing that she was going to be so loved by this mother. For all who don't understand ill explain. We have a babies home and the kids come in there first depending on there age we take them to about two or three depending on there development and maturity. and then we take babies, and when they are older to about 2-5 we take them in groups to the children's village which is all the kids you see in the choir, they have school a house and a mother and brothers and sisters there and a clinic its beautiful there is 3 in total, so we take them there when there old enough. So we took her and leaving her was very hard she was crying and screaming so my heart was ripping. But the upside of being there i got to see all my toddlers we had previously brought there, and they all remembered me they all ran up to me and hugged me! it was so nice to see them because i miss them everyday, but of course leaving them all for a second time ripped my heart out. 

So onto the title of my blog here. me and my roommate are on a very important mission and that is to eat a cricket! i know gross right. But Africans eat these like popcorn you can buy them off the street by the cup and people walk around munching them. So you know what they say.. when in Africa do as the Africans do right! so we are searching for ones to get. we have been told not to get them just anywhere because if there not cleaned they will taste like dirt, but if cleaned they taste good. so we are waiting for the person who looks the most educated on cooking these, so i will be sure to let you know exactly how that goes. I am not nervous all I'm scared of is getting a leg or an eye stuck in my tooth. then we have issues. 

So on a last random note i feel its needed to tell you all what we ate last night. We had a BBQ at the house, and we had burgers. Sounds normal, but they were hand made with oatmeal in them, and then when cooked and ready to eat for toppings you put a BBQ pineapple and a fried egg, fried onions and BBQ sauce on it.................................................................... i hate to admit it was SO GOOD i highly recommend to all of you. only in Africa once right.

but before i rap this up its safe to say that I'm seriously in the Christmas spirit although its hard with no snow out side. but we have decorated our house with a tree and tinsel and stockings and lights all over the house and Christmas candles and so much more, so i am excited its feeling like Christmas around here.. i still wish i was building a snow man and drinking hot chocolate by the fire but hey I'm drinking ice coca cola in front of a palm tree ! its a nice change i suppose :P 

So this blog doesn't come with any life lessons i have learnt lately cause every day has its own challenges and i learn something new every single day about my self and about god, and it makes me so excited and remembering all of you supporting me back at home is really what keeps me going knowing the love and prayers i get so thank you all so much!

so i hate to say it will be a week until another blog but i have a good reason ! me and my roommate are going with the watoto rescue team to a IDP CAMP which is '' internally displaced people'' so this is  village built especially for people effected by the war and who fled or lost everything during. So the rescue team goes out two weeks in every month to a different idp camp and work personally with everyone in the village teaching them trust, and teaching them to talk about the things they have been through and accept guidance , so they do games and stories and testimonies and have someone on the team who does private council sessions with anyone who needs them. So they don't incorporate god into it until the second or third day of classes in hopes to gain trust from people because a lot of people in this situation are quick to ignore when they hear god, so they teach them trust and love and how to deal and later introduce that you can't get any of it without god. So needless so say we are going for five days and yes.. we will be living in a mud hut!! I'm pretty excited that's one thing you need to do in Africa is live in a mud hut. so we will be living in the mud hut cooking over a fire peeing in a hole showering with a bucket behind a tree, truly puts camping to shame! so that means no lap top no cell phone none of the good stuff, so you will all need to pray for me. The men are loving telling us horror stories about wild lions and pythons that have been an issue in this place so I'm nervous but i have been wanting to do this since my first month in gulu. two months ago. so i am seriously excited! so i will be telling a lot of people my story and teaching a lot of people how to deal with there issues and i will be listening and working one on one with people who have seen truly horrible things in this war or have done horrible things, so please pray for mine and my roommates hearts that we would truly be prepared and we would handle this completely with gods love and really change lives out there. 

So sorry for talking your .. eyes off.. lol i had a lot that i haven't been able to tell you all about !! i hope you enjoyed the blog!! thanks everyone for your prayers !! 

MUCH AFRICAN LOVE!!

A little bit of everything, and a whole lot of something

So everyone I fully take notice that it has been way to long since the last time i blogged and i am  very sorry! Life has been a little more crazy then i had hoped so i am hoping to just let my fingers go and write you all a very random blog about everything that you have missed since i have last written to you . 


I wanted to start this blog to pay a tribute to Mrs. Botting.. She passed yesterday and i want to talk about her for a little while. If you live in my town the town of Bracebridge you know Mrs. Botting. She was my first and third grade teacher and she changed my life and many others. She wasn't an average teacher she took pride in her students and treated them like they were her own children. She loved us and taught us nothing less than to shoot for our dreams. She has still been in my life and has watched me grow up while being in public school and still to this day we would keep in contact. She is a big part of why I am here in Africa because as a kid i always had insane ideas about life and she never laughed but always listened and told me my ideas were beautiful. I remember at a grade 5 science fair i made a tooth brush dryer. I know cool! and every kid laughed at me saying i was silly. I was so upset and crying and Mrs. Botting took me aside and told me my idea was wonderful and she would pay big amounts of money to buy it! She always encouraged us and she continued to encourage me while being here in Africa. 
One thing she loved was my blogs. She was always reading them and encouraging me to keep doing what I am doing and to keep writing about my experiences and to keep bringing life to those kids and since that i couldn't help but think she deserves to be appreciated. Although I never really got to tell her how much she meant to me and how much i loved her and how she changed my life and my way of thinking at such a young age. That lady taught me to read. Someone like her i will never ever forget. 
I am graduated and as i go on she will always be my favorite teacher because she taught me what a book can't. She was a beautiful lady and she changed lives. She encouraged others and always brought smiles everywhere she went. The memories of her will forever ring through my mind and although i wish i could have been able to say goodbye i know that it was all in Gods plan, and its not that she died . The point is that she lived. And she was wonderful and she impacted my life in a way most people couldn't .. she was an angel. My personal gift from God and i wish her family and close friends and anyone who knew how amazing she was like i did i wish you peace and happiness that she lived and that she touched so many and she left this world happy. I know she loved me, and i wish i told her more often i loved her as well but im glad i had a women like her in my life, i was lucky. So i pray everyone remembers her and remembers to pray for her family every time you think of it because i know loosing her is a great  loss... needless to say I love you Mrs. Botting and I miss you, and i thank you for everything you did in my life and in so many others, i will never forget you, no one could forget someone who had a personal skittle machine :):) Rest in peace.. <3  




Since paying my respects to one of the most wonderful people in my life i guess we should move on to the current and the not so sad going on in my life!
So what have you missed !! so since i have blogged i went back to the big city of Kampala for our big monthly meeting with all the volunteers, it was really good and was really nice to see everyone again! While being there we found out our next placement and i found out i would be STAYING IN GULU wich is such an amazing gift from God because i prayed and prayed i would get to stay in Gulu and look where i am! Also an answer to prayer is that my roommate from before in gulu was also sent back to gulu with me along with a friend from the other village that we both had prayed all month that we would be put in the same placement and we did ! so god is wonderful and he really does answer prayers even the small ones we think are silly! so i am super excited and now living in gulu is a dream ! 
So i stayed in kampala after my roommates went back because i was going on Safari with four other girls ! turned out to me such an amazing time and such a bonding experience with God!! we saw so many amazing animals and we saw beautiful sunsets and sunrises along the river nile and saw murchison falls. It really brought me closer to God because i got to see the beauty of the earth and in the animals , when you think of Africa you think of poor children and mud huts but there is so much beauty in this country so it made me see to really thank god for everything he does, it is beautiful the world truly is amazing. 
So after safari i was stuck in kampala for another week waiting for them to find me a ride back to Gulu so it was very frustrating cause i really just wanted to go home to Gulu, but it was good because we had five new girls come so i got to spend some time with them and take them around and show them africa, and the church .. Also my ultimate favorite little boy who is five was in kampala for a doctors check up same time i was there ( he is from gulu) so i got to be with him while he was in kampala and also i got to take him to church with me so it was still really nice. I loved his face when we arrived at church he was so shocked looking around at everything and he was clapping and dancing and worshiping at church it was amazing, the innocence of a child is beautiful , its inspiring. 
So i am finally back in Gulu only to find out that my group of babies i work with everyday were moved up to the toddlers section, and i love my babies but 55 toddlers, vrs one volunteer and 1 nanny please someone pinch me.. So i am brave and yesterday i did it i took on the toddlers. i made it through 7- bout 12pm without having a breakdown, then i took lunch break and re gathered myself and i was able to make it through the rest of the day.. They are all wonderful just so many of them can really be a headache.. but we ended up on lunch break being able to talk to the management and have a meeting and discuss if there was anything we would like to change so we expressed that we would like to make a schedule for the toddlers and make a designated reading and color and painting and singing and bible times instead of eat sleep and play all day in and day out. So she was all on board with the idea and she gave us there eating schedule and said if you can make some kind of a schedule into this then we will buy the equipment to do these things and you will be in charge. so between the three of us volunteers we are brain storming and coming up with something we are super excited about it ! i think the toddlers really need this it will be good for there development like kinder garten ! so we are excited gods good cause we have prayed about this and expressed this to other managers and they never took notice they just said thanks for your opinion so that they finally listened is an answer to prayer !! 
so today was my day off and i wasn't up to doing much because i am still dealing with the death of mrs. botting and my roommates told me i need to turn this to god or i wont get through and thats something i always hear and i know but i was just having a really hard time because all i wanted to do was cry. 
But then i finally got out of bed and the power went out. my lap top died within 5 minutes of me being on it, my i pod died within five minutes of me listening to it.. and then i knew.. i knew i charged all those things before so this is God. He is telling me in a aggressive way smarten up, its time to focus and give your sorrows to me. So i started to pray and i lost it, i just balled and i prayed to god and i begged him to help me, so i started to read my bible and pray and i was coming across so many verses that were helping me and they were everything i needed to hear.. So i also spent some time reading my book forgotten god and also in that there was so much it was like god perfectly planned everything i needed to read, so i spent some time praying and god really spoke to me today so i started to write notes so i wont forget everything he taught me today, but this all really showed me that things happen and they suck .. i have lost people before like loosing that baby and i learnt a lot from that death and it was almost like my faith and the belief i had through christines death was being tested now, and i had to stand up in that test. I was sad and i was asking why because people who impact your life so much are not supposed to die, its not fair.. and i felt a lot of guilt and regret from our relationship but today i learned it all i learned that i can't question and i looked back at my past blog and reminded myself everything i knew before.. but one thing i really learned was things get rough and its natural for us to want to try to fix them ourselves and then look to god later when we think about it. But really we are nothing without god. we will get no were without him, and we will forever be stuck in that problem it will never properly go away unless we hand it to god. and i really needed to see that cause it felt like all i could do was sit and cry but all i needed to do was sit and cry out to god. In bad things its so hard to remember but we need to drop to our knees in that moment and beg god to help us get through it or else we wont. 
I will never understand why i am being faced with death and being tested so much with how to deal with it while i am here, but i can understand that god wrote the plan, its not my plan its his.. so although i dont understand that doesn't matter.. we weren't made to understand everything God does or everything he is going to do because if we did there would be no point in life.. some things are meant to be un- known and those things hopefully will toss you into the arms of god in remembering his love for you.. One day in heaven all our burning questions will be answered. And i pray that mrs. botting was saved and maybe my blogs spoke to her, and i will see her again, but i will never know till that day comes.. and while im still here on this earth i need to remember that i am alive for  a reason.. God doesn't keep us all on this earth cause we are cute, he has a purpose so if i sit in my room and be sad about the lost i will never fufil gods plan for me.. So im Sad about the death i have been faced with and im human and it hurts .. it hurts  a lot but i am turning it to god every time it burns in my heart i take a second to pray cause i wont get out of this without his love and mercy behind me.










PS.... most exciting random news is that my favorite baby took 6 steps yesterday! im such a proud mommy i counted !! heheh im so excited about it !!! 


but anyway i promise promise i will not wait so long to write another blog, i am sorry for that long delay! so i love you all thanks for your patients and i will write soon! xxxoooo

Not every Negative has to be a Negative .

hello hello!!

so todays blog i dont think will be so long, but you never know my fingers get key happy when i start to write these things !! hhah

so this week has not had the best start in the world ! Yesterday one of our babies died. She was 8 months old and perfectly healthy and beautiful and chubby!! We dont know what caused it all we know is she had a high fever that put her into having sesures  and then she passed from internal bleeding.. So with the doctors not having enough technology we don't know what killed her and we probably wont find out... it hurts my heart a lot becuse we have lost a baby before but she was very ill and we all knew she was going to pass. But this baby was perfect she never had any problems she was happy healthy 8 month old baby.. It was hard .. 

I find that as a western country we are very sheltered from death.. It isn't a common thing for people around you to die so often, we aren't used to it. As for me i have lost very few people in my life, and have never seen a dead body before. 

We had a funeral and an open casket  for her. She was the first dead body i have seen. It was impossible not to break down because she looks how she looked when she goes to sleep but i had to remind myself she wasn't asleep.. I didnt react to it well .. my stomach turned and i had to go to the washroom and throw up. 

It was a hard day for us all , especially when you put so much time into a baby trying to raise them to be a future leader and a wonderful person and you loose them.. 

But i dont want to look at her death as a negative. At first me and the girls all we could say was why.. God why did you need to have her so young.. But honestly.. It isn't up to us.. It never was. We are just passing through on this earth.. its up to God when we go.. And he was looking at her and he said its time, i want her to come to me. And who are we to ask his reasons.

 So i like to think to myself of the positive. she was a happy fat baby who loved her food and loved to play in the water, so i know she is in heavin now playing in the water and eating all the food she wants with jesus right by her side. So it is hard to think that an innocent soul was taken, But in the end we should really look at her and be like '' wow, she is so lucky she gets to be with jesus'' so i can't say i didn't cry and question and wish she was still here.. But now im happy and im at peace with everything that has happened.. and i think through time we all will. We will say her name and laugh and picture a little naked girl playing in the water with more rolls then you can count and smile knowing she is with jesus now !

 The pastor also wrote a story and he wrote it about what she is doing in heavin right now, and it was nice at the end he said when it is our time we will go to heavin and we will see her singing on the choir praising god with all the angels, and she wil run to us and jump into our arms and thank us for taking her to this point until she got to go home to God. That was all we needed to hear to lift our spirits and be happy and rather than mourn, be happy and celebrate. And i think thats something we should all think of when we think of our loved ones who have passed. think of all the fun there having up there, and think of how there just arranging a good spot for you till the day God decides to take you home. 

So enough about death or celebration of life, but things have since almost looked up, it has taught us all to appreciate everything in these babies and every moment we get to teach them and direct them towards god and love them. Even though they fart and sneeze on you, and they always bight my knees and kick me and slap me, there wonderful!

 let me tell you they really test my patients but since that funeral i have learned to be calm. we have one baby who was mad at me and slapped me, but when she was done i hugged her and kissed her.. took all my strength but i had to remember were these babies come from, i have no idea the things they have seen growing up before they got here. So i have to love on them and show them how to love until the last day i have with them! 

so i guess since this whole thing has happened i am learning how short life is, and learning that God has us here for a purpose and everything that makes you angry you need to turn it around with love. 

A prime example would be our cleaning lady, we have had a lot of problems with her lately and it has caused us not to talk to her anymore and to almost ignore her and today i was home alone and i was about to watch a movie, and she was scrubbing our toilet and i went to her and asked her if she wanted to take a break and watch a movie with me. Man did her face light up, and she did she watched the movie with me and it was nice to sit with her and have peace and forget about the past issues and just have a nice day together. Now of course i can't tell my roommies i let her stop working to watch a movie but i think it was needed. We need to show gods love every second we can cause you never know when that second will be over. So watching a movie with her on a tv she most likely does not have back at her home just made her day, she was smiling and singing worship songs the rest of the day while she cleaned, and she cleaned the house better then i have ever seen ! So it was really nice. 

So its been hard but i learn something new every day. sometimes not in a positive way.. like a baby passing randomly, or a child drinking dirty water, or a 10 year old  girl left to take care of her baby sister alone.. It is not always positive, but God takes those things and makes us learn something amazing out of them, and puts a seed and hopes you will take what you have learnt and do something truly amazing with it. As soon as we see all these things and allow ourselves to look to God in all the bad and learn from negative things is the sooner we will grow and accomplish truly amazing things for him! 

There is so much to do out there, its not even doing something drastic like coming to Africa, There is so much more than that..there is an opportunity everyday.  There is smiling to the trainee at tim hortans who totally just made your black coffee a triple triple and telling her its okay we all make mistakes and give her a tip.. ( i know tough right.. ) or its seeing that bum on the street and giving them the extra change in your pocket even though i know all of you walk past a bum and say '' they just want the money to buy booze'' trust me i have done it, and maybe they do. But atleast you were selfless enough in that moment to show love to someone who wants alchohol so bad that they would sit on the street and beg for it! hahah ! so i dont really know what i just said in my blog i think my hands went crazy i dont even know if it all made sense! but hopefully it did and you guys liked it ! and hopefully it put a smile on your face and maybe even taught you something :) love you all much much ! and hope no one messes up your coffee this morning !! :P 

xoxoxooxoxo