2 weeks in counting in the country I love.. Uganda

Hey everyone !! 

So I know a lot of you have been wondering what is happening on my trip and rather than messaging you each individually I have decided to start a blog! I will update it maybe twice a week and fill you guys in on all the amazing things happening in my life ! 

So shall we begin !

I am not sure where to start! I have been here for just over two weeks now , and to say it has been amazing would be an understatement , this country is full of beauty and life, and so many wonderful people who have been waiting for people like us to come and change there lives. So my first week I was here I was living in a city called Kampala . It was a beautiful but crazy insane city ! I like to call it Toronto gone wrong ! The driving was insane, you walk down a one way street and you have to look both ways because you cant trust any of the drivers. A round about is 6 lanes in Kampala. There is no street lights or stop signs just police men guiding traffic. It was wild and crazy but a good experience to start off there and get the crazy over with before i settled to anything else. So I worked in a babies home there. They had mostly ill babies since it was a city it was where they could get the most treatment so when village babies are sick they are sent to this babies home. I saw so much in that babies home that in a normal life i would never see ! I saw a 2 year old we called him big joe who had an eating problem that when he ate he would gain insane amounts. needless to say he was 60 pounds at 2 years old. He was very sick and was under constant watch because he was growing way to much for his health. There was also another baby her name was Hope, she was a new born premature baby born at 5 months in the womb, she weighed 100 grams when she was born and was alive for a month and was only loosing, i have never seen such a small baby, she ended up passing away. It was hard on the babies home but we all know she is in a better place. 

So normally when you come into this program you are to stay one month in Kampala and then you are sent to another village. So we had our monthly meeting when i was only there a week and they said things are confusing we will call everyone tomorow and let you know where your being sent, but vanessa dont panic your here another 3 weeks to finish your one month. So everyone else pack just incase. So i prayed that night and said God send me where you want me to go..
 I got a call the next morning saying '' we have never done this and im not sure why but your being sent to Gulu '' So it wasn't even that it was insane I was leaving since i had only been there a week, but the more crazy part is only people who have been here for 2 or 3 months are sent to Gulu because it is 5 hours away and out of the spot light and they cant check up on you so they only send trust worthy people.. 

So my roommates were confused especially since the one girl who has been here a month ended up staying in Kampala. So everyone didnt understand and calls were being made on my behalf trying to figure it out and people were telling me i wouldn't end up being sent cause they made a mistake probably messed up the names, so i skyped my mom and little sister that day very upset and they gave me amazing scripture to look at and i prayed to god and said i will be obedient i will go where you need me... whatever happens i will follow you...

needless to say IM IN GULU !!!!!

So it's been insane ! There is a reason i'm here, God switched to many rules around to send me here for no reason ! So now im just waiting to see how it all plays out. But so far im in love with this village. It is Africa. It is beautiful and has so much history! I am not sure if you all know about the war that happened here in Uganda with the LRA and the child soldiers but if you do , it all happened in the village im living in wich is so insane but so amazing !! 
so i work at a babies home here with beautiful children i love, 

i met a five year old boy here whos little brother is also here who is about 8 months i believe, and he is always checking up on his brother he always leaves his group to see him he helps change and feed and put him to bed, he is an amazing brother and at only five i had to know why he was the way he is. So i asked a nanny and she told me they found Joseph and dont his little brother in a mud hut, there mother was dead they think about two weeks dead and they found the little brother latched onto his dead mothers breast trying to breast feed from her... Turns out she died of aids which both boys have as well. In the two weeks joseph took care of his little brother and kept them alive, so that is why he is so protective over his brother. 

Every kid in this babies home and every person on the street has a wonderful story and I want to know them all. The war only ended 5 years ago so logically most people living in this village experienced it. Im often fighting myself trying to just walk past people even though I want to ask them all about there story!!  

So we have made an apt with invisible children, they are an organization who works with rescued child soldiers and sends them to school and we hope to get a tour and see the schools and meet some of the children. My roommate also has sponsored one of the child soldiers for a year now i believe so she hopes to meet him ! We are also going on a tour of living hope which is a organization for women who were victims of the war, and they give them work and they work with them to re gain dignity. They make dresses and bags and lots of beautiful things !! 
Since being here we have also started fund raising for a village in town, it is small and it's name translated to english means grave yard village because it is so poor. My roommate started this and has raised about 300$ and we are going to buy big bags of clothes and groceries and we have paired up with a donation agency who will help us hand it all out at the village and make an event out of it to prevent riots and fights. So some super cool things are going on here and I cant wait for it all to happen. Although i am working with these babies all day it is not enough so me and the roommates are going to continue to do stuff like this, there is to much need in uganda to only do one thing and hope everything is better. God has to much of a plan for this country and we will fight to see it happen!!  

SO from here i will keep you posted !! :)

JOB 5:8&9 - But if i where you i would appeal to God i would lay my cause before him. He preforms wonders that cannot be fathomed, Miracles that  cannot be counted.

I read this verse almost every night to remind myself at the end of the day im tired and i feel like working with these babies and being puked on is really not doing anything for the country but i read this and i remember patients, and that God preforms amazing miracles and me being here is one, and now i just have to work and do what i can and be all i can be through god and i will witness more and more miracles everyday. Because seeing this village called the grave yard may be over welming but with gods help me and the roommies are going to change it.

OH and ps.. My roommate has spoken with the pastor of a church there and they have teamed up to get the name of that village changed !!!!! HOW COOL IS THAT, so i will be behind her every step. Names are important and we want to encourage life in that village and not have them reminded every day of the negative. 

I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED MY LONG BLOG I will post more in  a couple of days :):)

MUCH LOVE FROM AFRICA!

and thank you all again who supported me, everyday im grateful that i can be here.