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