Well after my extensive sabbatical from writing on blogger, this will no doubt come as a shock to you that I am taking time today to update you, my dear readers on a little of my life.
Of course I had started out with very good intentions of routinely updating you all on all my African adventures, but one thing led to another and its very easy to find myself feeling too busy or too tired to write. Its not as if this is the only form of communication I use and by the time I am done updating facebook and instagram pictures, writing an email to my Mom or sisters, writing in the diary, prayer journalling, and keeping up on all my facebook messages from friends about the only writing I want to do is post a silly anecdote to twitter and call it a day. Somehow 140 characters seems much more manageable than an entire blog post.
Anyway, I am here today, so aside from the obvious apology which I've just made (and yes, it did sound more like excuses, oh well), let me just say that I have missed writing for you all, maybe as much as you have missed reading.
At present my heart and mind are too full to narrow down many stories for this page though, so let me just tell you a little about my nursing experience of late.
I have been working, as an orientation period for my nursing license, in the National Referral Hospital here in Kampala, called Mulago. I have worked on Medical and just finished Surgical rotations this last week. I have been so surprised by the tremendously warm welcome I received from the nurses on the wards (and the doctors, interns, and pharmacists for that matter) and their attitude towards me. Its truly been a blessing to get to know and work alongside these valuable health care professionals.
My first day I managed to faint during rounds, but they immediately came to my rescue and looked after me ever since. (I guess it was the closed room and standing too long... i don't know)
My favorite moment was when this last week one of the nurses said of me, "But Joanna, she fits in everywhere. She eats our food, doesn't complain about the work, she even has our accent; she just fits in. I think she's actually African."
Now people tell me that I am "actually African" all the time. I have my hair braided, and I got an nurses uniform that looks like theirs. My general philosophy is: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." The thing that I loved about this is that this sounds so close to what I picture Jesus would look like working on a hospital ward in Africa. He would just be Emmanuel, God with us. He would eat our food, talk like we talk, work hard, and shine light wherever He went.
Now I hope what she said is true and yet humbly admit that there are days I am nothing like Jesus on that ward. There are days all I want to do is sit down and there are days when I complain about the other nurses leaving me with too much work when I'm not even paid. But there are days when I get to smile or pat the hand of a patient, have them actually thank me for giving them an injection, or whisper a prayer as I go about my work and I feel that I really am being a light on that ward.
Those are the good days. Those are the days I want to remember. Those are the days I want to replicate. Those are the days I want to live.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Hubris
I have learned a new word from my Ugandan friends. The word is hubris. Webster defines it as:: exaggerated pride or self-confidence
So amount my small group of friends we have a running game going of giving people points for things that they say that are overtly self confident. I would like to say that I'm not currently in the lead, but Aki and I wrote this poem for our friend Patrick for his birthday, so.... Well you be the judge...
''We were thinking just the other day
And we hope you realize how lucky you are to have us in your life
In fact the more we thought about it
We aren't even sure how you survived all these years without knowing us
It's hard to imagine a single day of yours without us in it
Just think how sad and dismal that would be.
Surely you must realize by now how rare it is to find
Two girls with such excellent character
And what a true privilege it is to call them friends.
Not to mention this deadly combination of style and beauty is not easily found on any catwalk
And you get to keep us here on your arm making YOU look good.
Some men would call that heaven,
You get to call it your life.
So it's understood that daily mention should be made of how generally awesome we are.
Oh yeah and vice versa.''
So amount my small group of friends we have a running game going of giving people points for things that they say that are overtly self confident. I would like to say that I'm not currently in the lead, but Aki and I wrote this poem for our friend Patrick for his birthday, so.... Well you be the judge...
''We were thinking just the other day
And we hope you realize how lucky you are to have us in your life
In fact the more we thought about it
We aren't even sure how you survived all these years without knowing us
It's hard to imagine a single day of yours without us in it
Just think how sad and dismal that would be.
Surely you must realize by now how rare it is to find
Two girls with such excellent character
And what a true privilege it is to call them friends.
Not to mention this deadly combination of style and beauty is not easily found on any catwalk
And you get to keep us here on your arm making YOU look good.
Some men would call that heaven,
You get to call it your life.
So it's understood that daily mention should be made of how generally awesome we are.
Oh yeah and vice versa.''
When I Fail to Write
So I realize that it has been exceptionally long since I've posted anything on here and in the interest of good authorship I thought I should correct this inexcusable mistake. This is therefore my attempt to rectify that situation and also to pull some meaning from the last several weeks of my life.
First of all I should let you know that I am still not an official Ugandan nurse much to my chagrin. However I know that God's timing and plans are much better than my own so I will wait on Him.
In the meantime I am still working with my friend Aki doing decoration work for kwajulas and weddings. This last weekend we had a very muddy kwajula in Jinja. So many things went wrong it was almost comical if it hadn't pushed our time frame back so far that we weren't sure we could complete the decor on time. Then I got a migraine and ended up having to lie down for a while. It appeared to have passed, but as soon as I got up I had to rush to the side of the bush and lost everything I had that day. Needless to say I felt much better after that, but was still weak into the next day. We slept on the floor that night waiting for the tents to be done so we could complete our work on the insides. The next day dawned bright and early with lots to get done and we tackled it with zest. We actually managed to complete everything, but Aki and I were so worm out that we didn't even have the energy to attend the function like we were originally planning. Needless to say, we were in need of the relaxing day we had planned for Sunday. It was a friend's birthday and since we were already in Jinja we figured that we would make it a long weekend and do some sightseeing.
We got to go to the source of the Nile river and learned about is discovery. It's sad actually, there used to be a beautiful waterfall at the head of the Nile where it flows from lake Victoria, but they put ina dam for hydroelectricity and raised the water level the whole 15 meters over the waterfall, covering it completely. This also disrupted the rapids downstream which used to be one of the top places in the world door destination white water tag rafting. Now I support, in general, hydroelectricity as a clean and renewable source of energy, but when it comes to changing the natural landscape in such a manner, I find it a bit sad and a teensy bit irresponsible.
Anyway we got to go and stand at the edge of where the falls were and you can tell from the current there where they were.
I'll try post some pictures as soon as my computer is out of the shop and hopefully you can all empty them. I had never been east in Uganda except to Mwiri so it was fun to see a little different side of the country.
I
First of all I should let you know that I am still not an official Ugandan nurse much to my chagrin. However I know that God's timing and plans are much better than my own so I will wait on Him.
In the meantime I am still working with my friend Aki doing decoration work for kwajulas and weddings. This last weekend we had a very muddy kwajula in Jinja. So many things went wrong it was almost comical if it hadn't pushed our time frame back so far that we weren't sure we could complete the decor on time. Then I got a migraine and ended up having to lie down for a while. It appeared to have passed, but as soon as I got up I had to rush to the side of the bush and lost everything I had that day. Needless to say I felt much better after that, but was still weak into the next day. We slept on the floor that night waiting for the tents to be done so we could complete our work on the insides. The next day dawned bright and early with lots to get done and we tackled it with zest. We actually managed to complete everything, but Aki and I were so worm out that we didn't even have the energy to attend the function like we were originally planning. Needless to say, we were in need of the relaxing day we had planned for Sunday. It was a friend's birthday and since we were already in Jinja we figured that we would make it a long weekend and do some sightseeing.
We got to go to the source of the Nile river and learned about is discovery. It's sad actually, there used to be a beautiful waterfall at the head of the Nile where it flows from lake Victoria, but they put ina dam for hydroelectricity and raised the water level the whole 15 meters over the waterfall, covering it completely. This also disrupted the rapids downstream which used to be one of the top places in the world door destination white water tag rafting. Now I support, in general, hydroelectricity as a clean and renewable source of energy, but when it comes to changing the natural landscape in such a manner, I find it a bit sad and a teensy bit irresponsible.
Anyway we got to go and stand at the edge of where the falls were and you can tell from the current there where they were.
I'll try post some pictures as soon as my computer is out of the shop and hopefully you can all empty them. I had never been east in Uganda except to Mwiri so it was fun to see a little different side of the country.
I
Let's Write a Poem
Let's write a poem.
Let's make it say everything that we've been thinking and feeling
Let's put in all our disappointments and our joys
Let's spread am ample amount of fear for the future and regret for the past
Let's season it with the bliss of a first kiss and the excitement of a little one's arrival
Let's put in all the words we should have been saying to one another all along
Let's speak of noble things
Let's tell of change for our generation
Let's inspire hope of a better tomorrow
Let's be a voice for the one who has none and advocate for the downtrodden
Let's put all this down on paper
Let's give it a stunning title to make people think
Let's fill it full of alliterating prose and Oxford words
Let's fuse intelligence with eloquence
Let's blend the wisdom of the streets with the fullness of a library
Let's twist our thoughts into new written ideas
Let's empathize, emphasize, epigrammatize, enfranchise, equalize, essentialize, and epitomize
Let's give them something so unique that they snap to their feet
Let's write a poem.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Bless the Lord Oh My Soul
I encountered a number of setbacks related to getting my nursing license. It started with the fact that I came to Uganda on the date that they would have done the interviews for the license transfer. This meant that I had to wait an entire month to be able to go to the next interview.
I had tried to research qualifications and requirements for obtaining my license while I was still in the US, but unfortunately due to a very unstable website, I wasn't able to access the page that I needed to look at for what to bring as far as paperwork. As a result I only brought copies of a few documents that they wanted the originals to compare to.
Frantically I messaged my sister to see if she could get the documents from my Grandma's house and send them to me. Come to find out that was much easier said than done. (Have you ever tried to ship anything to Africa? Its not cheap!) So instead, my Dad emailed me the originals so I could print them out here.
This would have worked but I needed to get some nice resume paper to print it on.
In the heart of Kampala there is an entire street (Nassa Rd.) which houses basically a massive "Staples" broken up in different little shops. (Now those of you who know me realize this is way more tempting than the entire road that is a massive Hobby Lobby. I love office supplies, I just do!) However, I only needed 2-3 sheets of resume paper, and almost all the shops sold them by the ream. So after running all over looking for a shop that would let me buy only a few sheets, I finally found a place, even though I had to buy 16 sheets to get what I wanted.
Finally I was off to the printers. The friend that I was with had to run to another errand and had to leave me there in the good hands of the copy shop people. So I pull out my flash drive to print the files, and every single one is corrupted. Every. Single. One. And I had just put them on the flash drive that morning, so I'll never understand what happened.
The copy shop lady was really nice though, and helped me get a boda boda back all the way across town to Kitintale to get my laptop which still contained the original files. He would take me there, wait for me, and then bring me back, since I wasn't really sure how to get to where I was at the moment
We had almost reached Bugolobi, which is about 15 min walking distance from Kitintale when something goes thump on the boda boda. I look down and our tire has completely popped. So we limp off to the side of the road to find someone to fix the tire.
Thankfully we weren't far from a boda stage and there was a guy there who could easily fix the flat. Come to find out it wasn't the tire itself, but the inner tube which had popped, which was the good news. They told me it would probably be about 7 minutes to fix (which I took with a grain of salt, knowing about African time.)
The boda guy was really nice though and above that, he knew where I needed to go back to, so I was a little more than hesitant to part with him and get another boda the rest of the way. Instead I plopped down to wait it out and watch the proceedings.
Naturally a small band of bodas grouped around offering their friendly (but not terribly constructive) advice to the guy fixing the tire, and the boda driver. There was also some obvious amusement regarding the "mzungu" who had chosen to wait at the side of the road instead of rushing on to where ever she was bound.
Its one of those surreal moments when you look around at your situation and just have to laugh. That is exactly what I did. I sat on the base of a sign post at the boda stage and just laughed quietly to myself amid the growing confusion. I watched the taxis and bodas whiz past me stirring up clouds of red dust and sat there with my legs crossed wishing I had someone to take a picture of the whole absurd scene.
As I'm sitting there contemplating my fate, another friend (the one I'm staying with) swept past me on a boda. She did a double take wondering if that was me sitting there, then decided that there weren't any other white women in Kampala with braids like mine (she put them in herself.) She called me to find out if I was okay, but by that time I was safely back on the road.
The story gets better from there, as I was able to get everything printed after finagling the images a bit to get everything ready. I journeyed back home using the same boda guy for part of the way. (He gave me a good rate, saying I was now an old customer.)
I set off for the conference the next day feeling that everything was in order for the interview on Wednesday. I planned to catch a ride back to Kampala on Tues night and make sure everything was set for the next day.
Half way through the day on Monday, the guy from the nursing council calls me to make sure that I have everything ready to go and tells me that I also need to come with 20 US dollars for the interview fee.
**LONG SIGH**
I have $13 in my wallet left over from the US. I don't have $20. This means I have to leave the conference early on Tuesday to go to a Forex and get the money I need in US dollars.
I've had issues with my phone since I got here. Its one that I brought from the states, so it objects at times to doing anything in an expedient or convenient manner. In order to call anyone, I have to manually type in their phone numbers instead of pull them from the phone memory, and I can text the US, but for some reason my phone refuses to text locally. Add to this variable battery efficiency and highly questionable performance in all areas of general function. All evening at the conference I was unable to reach anyone in Kampala to tell them I was coming back early. So Tuesday morning, after a rather harrowing drive through the pouring rain, and a sprinkling wet boda ride, I found myself sitting outside the flat between the hours of 8-9 until I could raise someone from within from their slumber with my knocking. I tried calling, but my dependable blessed phone blacked out. I don't think I have ever been more tremendously cold in all my times in Africa as I was that morning. Even after snuggling under the covers with my housemate, my toes didn't thaw out until mid afternoon.
But there was no rest for the weary, as since I was there Aki dragged me off to help her babysit for a birthday party for her 1 year old nephew. Now personally I love kids so it really kills my soul when some of the kids in Africa get scared of me because I look funny to them. This is true for 1 of Aki's 3 neices/nephews. It just so happens that one is the 1 year old, so I was a bit apprehensive about meeting more kids of the same age that might have the same reaction to my presence. Luckily, all of the kids who came to spend the day at the house playing were older than him, so I was pretty much accepted.
Aki shares Janalee's idea that "sugar is good for kids". I saw soda, and a bouncy house and my heart dropped out of my chest with sheer panic! All in all though, I only made one kid cry so I'll consider the day a success in African babysitting.
That evening I was able to get the extra few dollars that I needed from a friend who came to the house and I was all set for the morning.
Wednesday morning dawned bright and early (and I mean early!). I had to be at the Nursing Council by 0800 hours, so I left my house around 0700 just to be on the safe side. Caught a boda to Wandegeya on the other side of town... and then I was lost. I had been to the nursing council once before, but where I thought it should be I wasn't seeing it. By the time we hit the second round-about that I didn't remember my boda guy had less and less confidence in me as well. He pulled over and waited for me to get my wits about me to remember which way to go.
Do you all know what flare pra'ers are? Cause I sent one of those up right then and there. Suddenly one of the roads looked familiar. We set off and less than a block down was the road that I needed. God is good!
Well after waiting for over 2 hours, they called me in to the interview.
Somehow they are confused about what I am going to do at the clinic since I am not a midwife, so they want to talk to Akiki before they agree to give me my license. We are supposed to go back this week together, so hopefully that goes well and I can give you a joyous report that I am finally a nurse in Uganda!
All in all, it has been an eventful week. Ridiculously exhausting. Fabulously worshipful. Incredibly comic. Rather long.
I am glad it's over, but very thankful for everything that God has brought me through. He continues to give me new strength every day, and to surround me with caring friends to encourage me.
I had tried to research qualifications and requirements for obtaining my license while I was still in the US, but unfortunately due to a very unstable website, I wasn't able to access the page that I needed to look at for what to bring as far as paperwork. As a result I only brought copies of a few documents that they wanted the originals to compare to.
Frantically I messaged my sister to see if she could get the documents from my Grandma's house and send them to me. Come to find out that was much easier said than done. (Have you ever tried to ship anything to Africa? Its not cheap!) So instead, my Dad emailed me the originals so I could print them out here.
This would have worked but I needed to get some nice resume paper to print it on.
In the heart of Kampala there is an entire street (Nassa Rd.) which houses basically a massive "Staples" broken up in different little shops. (Now those of you who know me realize this is way more tempting than the entire road that is a massive Hobby Lobby. I love office supplies, I just do!) However, I only needed 2-3 sheets of resume paper, and almost all the shops sold them by the ream. So after running all over looking for a shop that would let me buy only a few sheets, I finally found a place, even though I had to buy 16 sheets to get what I wanted.
Finally I was off to the printers. The friend that I was with had to run to another errand and had to leave me there in the good hands of the copy shop people. So I pull out my flash drive to print the files, and every single one is corrupted. Every. Single. One. And I had just put them on the flash drive that morning, so I'll never understand what happened.
The copy shop lady was really nice though, and helped me get a boda boda back all the way across town to Kitintale to get my laptop which still contained the original files. He would take me there, wait for me, and then bring me back, since I wasn't really sure how to get to where I was at the moment
We had almost reached Bugolobi, which is about 15 min walking distance from Kitintale when something goes thump on the boda boda. I look down and our tire has completely popped. So we limp off to the side of the road to find someone to fix the tire.
Thankfully we weren't far from a boda stage and there was a guy there who could easily fix the flat. Come to find out it wasn't the tire itself, but the inner tube which had popped, which was the good news. They told me it would probably be about 7 minutes to fix (which I took with a grain of salt, knowing about African time.)
The boda guy was really nice though and above that, he knew where I needed to go back to, so I was a little more than hesitant to part with him and get another boda the rest of the way. Instead I plopped down to wait it out and watch the proceedings.
Naturally a small band of bodas grouped around offering their friendly (but not terribly constructive) advice to the guy fixing the tire, and the boda driver. There was also some obvious amusement regarding the "mzungu" who had chosen to wait at the side of the road instead of rushing on to where ever she was bound.
Its one of those surreal moments when you look around at your situation and just have to laugh. That is exactly what I did. I sat on the base of a sign post at the boda stage and just laughed quietly to myself amid the growing confusion. I watched the taxis and bodas whiz past me stirring up clouds of red dust and sat there with my legs crossed wishing I had someone to take a picture of the whole absurd scene.
As I'm sitting there contemplating my fate, another friend (the one I'm staying with) swept past me on a boda. She did a double take wondering if that was me sitting there, then decided that there weren't any other white women in Kampala with braids like mine (she put them in herself.) She called me to find out if I was okay, but by that time I was safely back on the road.
The story gets better from there, as I was able to get everything printed after finagling the images a bit to get everything ready. I journeyed back home using the same boda guy for part of the way. (He gave me a good rate, saying I was now an old customer.)
I set off for the conference the next day feeling that everything was in order for the interview on Wednesday. I planned to catch a ride back to Kampala on Tues night and make sure everything was set for the next day.
Half way through the day on Monday, the guy from the nursing council calls me to make sure that I have everything ready to go and tells me that I also need to come with 20 US dollars for the interview fee.
**LONG SIGH**
I have $13 in my wallet left over from the US. I don't have $20. This means I have to leave the conference early on Tuesday to go to a Forex and get the money I need in US dollars.
I've had issues with my phone since I got here. Its one that I brought from the states, so it objects at times to doing anything in an expedient or convenient manner. In order to call anyone, I have to manually type in their phone numbers instead of pull them from the phone memory, and I can text the US, but for some reason my phone refuses to text locally. Add to this variable battery efficiency and highly questionable performance in all areas of general function. All evening at the conference I was unable to reach anyone in Kampala to tell them I was coming back early. So Tuesday morning, after a rather harrowing drive through the pouring rain, and a sprinkling wet boda ride, I found myself sitting outside the flat between the hours of 8-9 until I could raise someone from within from their slumber with my knocking. I tried calling, but my dependable blessed phone blacked out. I don't think I have ever been more tremendously cold in all my times in Africa as I was that morning. Even after snuggling under the covers with my housemate, my toes didn't thaw out until mid afternoon.
But there was no rest for the weary, as since I was there Aki dragged me off to help her babysit for a birthday party for her 1 year old nephew. Now personally I love kids so it really kills my soul when some of the kids in Africa get scared of me because I look funny to them. This is true for 1 of Aki's 3 neices/nephews. It just so happens that one is the 1 year old, so I was a bit apprehensive about meeting more kids of the same age that might have the same reaction to my presence. Luckily, all of the kids who came to spend the day at the house playing were older than him, so I was pretty much accepted.
Aki shares Janalee's idea that "sugar is good for kids". I saw soda, and a bouncy house and my heart dropped out of my chest with sheer panic! All in all though, I only made one kid cry so I'll consider the day a success in African babysitting.
That evening I was able to get the extra few dollars that I needed from a friend who came to the house and I was all set for the morning.
Wednesday morning dawned bright and early (and I mean early!). I had to be at the Nursing Council by 0800 hours, so I left my house around 0700 just to be on the safe side. Caught a boda to Wandegeya on the other side of town... and then I was lost. I had been to the nursing council once before, but where I thought it should be I wasn't seeing it. By the time we hit the second round-about that I didn't remember my boda guy had less and less confidence in me as well. He pulled over and waited for me to get my wits about me to remember which way to go.
Do you all know what flare pra'ers are? Cause I sent one of those up right then and there. Suddenly one of the roads looked familiar. We set off and less than a block down was the road that I needed. God is good!
Well after waiting for over 2 hours, they called me in to the interview.
Somehow they are confused about what I am going to do at the clinic since I am not a midwife, so they want to talk to Akiki before they agree to give me my license. We are supposed to go back this week together, so hopefully that goes well and I can give you a joyous report that I am finally a nurse in Uganda!
All in all, it has been an eventful week. Ridiculously exhausting. Fabulously worshipful. Incredibly comic. Rather long.
I am glad it's over, but very thankful for everything that God has brought me through. He continues to give me new strength every day, and to surround me with caring friends to encourage me.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Updates
I got to Google+ Chat with my family last weekend and that was a real treat even though it exhausted all the internet time that I was suppose to have for all month. It was fun to see everyone's faces, and of course play around with all the web-effects you can do with webcams. (We are all just big kids at heart)
It isn't very hot right now unless you are out between 12-3pm. Every couple of days it rains and makes things a bit humid, but unlike Kansas it doesn't stick around really, so that's nice.
Akiki had to come to Kampala for something this last week so I got to see and talk to her in person. For some reason its a bit harder for me to follow the accent when I am on the phone. I am much better at communicating in person. I guess I must be a lip reader or something. Anyway, it was good to see her. Julius is her manager for the clinic and he is going to try and help me with the visa so I can work there. I still have to get everything for my license squared away, and my interview is next Wed, so you could pray for that. Whichever way it works out I have confidence that God's will be glorified.
I am probably going to be part of the medical support team for an annual conference that the church in Bugolobi is putting on this next week. I'll leave from there to go to the interview, and then head back after that. The conference is like a miniature Faithwalkers from what I've heard in the past, so I'm interested in seeing what I think of it. :)
We have been eating a lot of fresh pineapple, which is simply amazing! Also, come to find out, they have really good carrots over here! (it must be something with the soil. who would have thought it?) We got lunch at a place in the mall one day that had a salad bar, and I really liked one of their salads so i've been making it a lot, and its a big hit with my housemates! Basically its just tomatoes, peppers and red onions with a little pepper and Italian seasoning. Super simple, almost like eating garden salsa, but its really good. Also, I got coffee yesterday from a place that roasts and brews their own local coffee. God really knew what He was doing, because African coffee has the exact taste that I really love in coffee. That couldn't just be coincidence, could it?
The other day they gave me some banana cake, and it tasted almost exactly like Mom's Famous Banana bread. It surprised me at first and then filled me with a teensy bit of homesickness.
Its been challenging and encouraging to share with my friends from the Bugos church. I don't know how many times now we've just been talking about something around the house and have to pull out our Bibles to argue our points from Scripture. It's pretty encouraging. They made me do a skit for church the other day about faithfulness in the workplace. I had to play the mean boss. Not my cup of tea, but I think we still pulled it off fairly well. The hard part is that when I am trying to portray emotion (and in front of people), I end up talking faster which makes me a lot harder to understand (having an American accent as I do...).
As far as what God's been teaching me, its been a bit all over the board... As you all well know, I am not good at dealing with disappointment, and so hitting constant setbacks on the road to trying to get things so I can work has been really hard. I know that the devil doesn't want me to have smooth sailing, but sometimes its easy to fall into the mindset that this is "just my luck", or something of that nature and forget that everything we do in following Christ is surrounded by a spiritual battle as well. I need to remember that more and trust God more that He causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Other than that, since I've had a lot of down time, I've been going through the end part of Ephesians and just started on Philippians. Ephesians 6:10-20 has been really good at sharpening my perspective for the above mentioned struggles. Its funny how God often has me read something that is exactly what I need for the day. But I'm sure He does that with all His children.
Blessings to everyone back in Kansas! Love you all!
It isn't very hot right now unless you are out between 12-3pm. Every couple of days it rains and makes things a bit humid, but unlike Kansas it doesn't stick around really, so that's nice.
Akiki had to come to Kampala for something this last week so I got to see and talk to her in person. For some reason its a bit harder for me to follow the accent when I am on the phone. I am much better at communicating in person. I guess I must be a lip reader or something. Anyway, it was good to see her. Julius is her manager for the clinic and he is going to try and help me with the visa so I can work there. I still have to get everything for my license squared away, and my interview is next Wed, so you could pray for that. Whichever way it works out I have confidence that God's will be glorified.
I am probably going to be part of the medical support team for an annual conference that the church in Bugolobi is putting on this next week. I'll leave from there to go to the interview, and then head back after that. The conference is like a miniature Faithwalkers from what I've heard in the past, so I'm interested in seeing what I think of it. :)
We have been eating a lot of fresh pineapple, which is simply amazing! Also, come to find out, they have really good carrots over here! (it must be something with the soil. who would have thought it?) We got lunch at a place in the mall one day that had a salad bar, and I really liked one of their salads so i've been making it a lot, and its a big hit with my housemates! Basically its just tomatoes, peppers and red onions with a little pepper and Italian seasoning. Super simple, almost like eating garden salsa, but its really good. Also, I got coffee yesterday from a place that roasts and brews their own local coffee. God really knew what He was doing, because African coffee has the exact taste that I really love in coffee. That couldn't just be coincidence, could it?
The other day they gave me some banana cake, and it tasted almost exactly like Mom's Famous Banana bread. It surprised me at first and then filled me with a teensy bit of homesickness.
Its been challenging and encouraging to share with my friends from the Bugos church. I don't know how many times now we've just been talking about something around the house and have to pull out our Bibles to argue our points from Scripture. It's pretty encouraging. They made me do a skit for church the other day about faithfulness in the workplace. I had to play the mean boss. Not my cup of tea, but I think we still pulled it off fairly well. The hard part is that when I am trying to portray emotion (and in front of people), I end up talking faster which makes me a lot harder to understand (having an American accent as I do...).
As far as what God's been teaching me, its been a bit all over the board... As you all well know, I am not good at dealing with disappointment, and so hitting constant setbacks on the road to trying to get things so I can work has been really hard. I know that the devil doesn't want me to have smooth sailing, but sometimes its easy to fall into the mindset that this is "just my luck", or something of that nature and forget that everything we do in following Christ is surrounded by a spiritual battle as well. I need to remember that more and trust God more that He causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Other than that, since I've had a lot of down time, I've been going through the end part of Ephesians and just started on Philippians. Ephesians 6:10-20 has been really good at sharpening my perspective for the above mentioned struggles. Its funny how God often has me read something that is exactly what I need for the day. But I'm sure He does that with all His children.
Blessings to everyone back in Kansas! Love you all!
Thursday, August 22, 2013
T.I.A. (This Is Africa)
Sometimes waiting is the hardest thing to do.
Pretty much always it is my least favorite thing to do.
God called me to Africa.
Africa is all about waiting.
God has a sense of humor.
So come to find out, in the process to get all my visa things sorted out and my status as a nurse in Uganda I am going to have to get really good at waiting. To start out with, I can't apply for my work permit visa until I have my nursing license issued in Uganda. The good news is that they have put me on the list for a 3 year permanent nurses license instead of just a temporary one. Bad news is I missed the deadline for nursing candidate interviews for August, as I was flying in to Entebbe the day that I would have had to have been in interviews. So the next day that I can go sit for the interviews is Sept 4. This gives me a fair amount of time that I can't legally work in Uganda, nor do I have any gainful employment. Even after the interview, I am going to have to work in a government hospital for 6 weeks as an "orientation" period (presumably non-paid). In that case there are a couple of different options for me. I can go live with Akiki in Kibiito and commute to Fort Portal to the hospital there for my 6 weeks, or I can stay in Kampala and work in one of the hospitals here. Even though I love living with the girls here, I am anxious to be going upcountry and getting settled in, so I'll probably end up doing just that.
Needless to say I really wasn't planning on this drawn out of a process before getting to work. I mean, I am kinda prepared for anything that I go to try and do in Africa to not exactly work out the way I intended, and I am used to meeting a fair amount of red tape in getting anything done here, but still...
Anyway, the good news is that in the meantime I have some really great friends to stay with and I have been trying to be helpful around the house and with errands to make myself useful. Aki work with event planning, so I've been assisting her a little with making decorations for a kwanjula (engagement/introduction ceremony) that's coming up this weekend. I'll probably end up helping her out with that a bit.
Other than that I've been hanging out with friends at home and church, traipsing across Kampala, cooking over charcoal stoves, taking cold showers, listening and dancing to African rhythms, and generally enjoying being back in one of my favorite places on earth!
In more fun news, I love how nothing changes even though you are on the other side of the globe. For example, on girls night we still laughed, talked, showed off dance moves, and watched Pitch Perfect. Last night we had a pillow fight which I'm not sure I got the better end of (I never seem to). I still love cooking, even if its food from a crazy looking outdoor market, prepared over a charcoal stove, and I have to sort the stones out of the rice before I cook it. I still get asked to answer all the medical questions. Everyone still loves FroYo. I still hate laundry and dishes. People still say crazy tweetable things. And last, but definitely not least, God is still moving and working and good... all the time!
Pretty much always it is my least favorite thing to do.
God called me to Africa.
Africa is all about waiting.
God has a sense of humor.
So come to find out, in the process to get all my visa things sorted out and my status as a nurse in Uganda I am going to have to get really good at waiting. To start out with, I can't apply for my work permit visa until I have my nursing license issued in Uganda. The good news is that they have put me on the list for a 3 year permanent nurses license instead of just a temporary one. Bad news is I missed the deadline for nursing candidate interviews for August, as I was flying in to Entebbe the day that I would have had to have been in interviews. So the next day that I can go sit for the interviews is Sept 4. This gives me a fair amount of time that I can't legally work in Uganda, nor do I have any gainful employment. Even after the interview, I am going to have to work in a government hospital for 6 weeks as an "orientation" period (presumably non-paid). In that case there are a couple of different options for me. I can go live with Akiki in Kibiito and commute to Fort Portal to the hospital there for my 6 weeks, or I can stay in Kampala and work in one of the hospitals here. Even though I love living with the girls here, I am anxious to be going upcountry and getting settled in, so I'll probably end up doing just that.
Needless to say I really wasn't planning on this drawn out of a process before getting to work. I mean, I am kinda prepared for anything that I go to try and do in Africa to not exactly work out the way I intended, and I am used to meeting a fair amount of red tape in getting anything done here, but still...
Anyway, the good news is that in the meantime I have some really great friends to stay with and I have been trying to be helpful around the house and with errands to make myself useful. Aki work with event planning, so I've been assisting her a little with making decorations for a kwanjula (engagement/introduction ceremony) that's coming up this weekend. I'll probably end up helping her out with that a bit.
Other than that I've been hanging out with friends at home and church, traipsing across Kampala, cooking over charcoal stoves, taking cold showers, listening and dancing to African rhythms, and generally enjoying being back in one of my favorite places on earth!
In more fun news, I love how nothing changes even though you are on the other side of the globe. For example, on girls night we still laughed, talked, showed off dance moves, and watched Pitch Perfect. Last night we had a pillow fight which I'm not sure I got the better end of (I never seem to). I still love cooking, even if its food from a crazy looking outdoor market, prepared over a charcoal stove, and I have to sort the stones out of the rice before I cook it. I still get asked to answer all the medical questions. Everyone still loves FroYo. I still hate laundry and dishes. People still say crazy tweetable things. And last, but definitely not least, God is still moving and working and good... all the time!
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