Now in Gulu, Northern Uganda!

Gosh, I cannot believe I am in Northern Uganda!! It is so indescribably incredibly BEAUTIFUL!! There are banana plants and sugarcane and greenery everywhere. It's everything I pictured when I was 12 and God gave me a passion to come to Africa. Whenever I dreamed about africa, this image is what I dreamed of.

There are mud huts with thatched roofs in clusters with sandy grounds and they are tucked away between lots of banana plants and cool trees. I cannot get over how pretty it is; ESPECIALLY the fields of sunflowers!! ahh

Gulu town is much bigger and more developed than I expected. The LRA haven't been around here since about 2006 so in the last few years a lot of construction and rebuilding has been happening. It's way bigger and more developed than Masindi town. It's really cool; I like it.

We arrived yesterday by bus. The bus drove 60 km on bumpy dirt road...so there were a few 'oh my gosh the bus is going to tip over' moments but it was all good lol. Every time you stop in a town, all the people selling food rush up to the bus to sell it through the window. I bought a corn on a cob, it was pretty nice. In one town a guy pointed at me and said "I'll take her." I was like what? and Kate said "I think he wants to marry you,"
"ohh" I laughed. It's common to get marriage proposals here.

Wow I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Gulu listening to Hillsong music. At the moment it's playing "Mighty to Save." How cool!

We're staying at St Judes Orphanage which is a ten minute motorbike ride away from Gulu town. Riding on the back of motorbikes is awesome; feels very fun and adventurous, especially through this beautiful countryside :)

I've met a few kids at the orphanage, not very many. It's quite big. They have visitors accomodation which is really nice. We even have a fridge and a stove! I did not expect to come to an area so devastated by war and find all this. It's quite amazing to see all the new developments and how quickly they've come up.

Being here is not without its challenges though. It's exhausting coming to a new place and a new orphanage and starting all over again...building new relationships, getting used to teaching in a new school and class. But I know God gives us all the strength we need to do what he calls us to do. So I think that is very cool.

Well I better post this so I don't lose it all. Thanks for all the messages and emails, I love hearing from everyone! Tomorrow we're having an orientation with the orphanage and I"ll probably start teaching on Tuesday. This week we'll be going to see the Invisible Children office and hopefully Watoto Gulu and we'll go to the Watoto KPC church on Sunday.

And for the last time, the countryside is absolutly beautiful!

We finally got a photo of the boda bodas! These are quite fun to ride on the back of. Although with no helmets, I would never try these in Kampala! But it's a nice ride on the dirt road past all the banana plants and greenery. It takes about 5 minutes to ride from town to the orphanage.

The quality of the photos has been reduced when I resized them so that they wouldn't clog up all the time on the computer. The actual photos are much better quality so I'll upload them when I get home in 5 weeks.

There are some new little goats at the orphanage, very cute photo with this little guy (the most adorable kid on the planet!).

There are a lot of misconceptions people here have of muzungus. We've had quite a few people try to befriend us in order to get our support for their organisation or help them get to Australia. You have to politely say no in a suttle way! It does get tiring answering all the "how are you" every 5 seconds when you go for a walk, but I do love the friendly atmosphere that is here. The people are very friendly and a lot of fun. But there are some things about this culture that are confusing and I will probably never really understand.

There's a lot of corruption in Uganda and so many fake organisations where people have set up a website and have been donated all this money which they then use for themselves to buy a new car or house. So you do have to be careful.

Gosh there's so much to write and so many different thoughts. I am very excited about going to Gulu on Saturday. That is where my biggest passion is.

I think this trip I am really learning what it means to trust God and depend on him for all the strength and joy and love that you need to do this work. I can't do it without God. And with him, it becomes so so worth it. I seriously wouldn't want to live for anything else because he is too amazing for words! I am learning how beautiful he really is that he cares so much about how we feel and the things we go through.

Challenges

Wow, can't believe I only have one more day left at the orphanage! It has been absolutely amazing, but not without its challenges. Even when you are in a place that is your biggest passion and you meet and love all these amazing children, you still get exhausted and frustrated at times.

That's life I guess. Nothing's perfect. I had an extremely challenging class today, teaching year 3 maths. They're usually great but today their behaviour was so hard to handle. I had to walk out and come back in after 10 minutes and then discuss with the kids how being disruptive can make the teacher and others feel, and how they would improve their behaviour for our last class tomorrow. Fingers crossed they took it in!

The English class which has been quite challenging has turned out really well.
We've been reading a story called the Hungry Giant which they absolutly love! Today we came up with ideas for our own story and tomorrow we're going to put in adjectives to make it more interesting. I love it once you really connect with the class and they understand your expectations and you're on a better wavelength with each other...if that makes sense.

It's hard when you're only there for 2 weeks to really get into a good routine with the class and implement effective behaviour management strategies. You can implement some but the most effective ones are a process which take time.

As you can tell, I'm learning a lot! It's been such great practice teaching every day and I'm so glad I have the opportunity to practice this before I get into full time teaching. On good days, teaching is the most rewarding thing ever.

The kids drew pictures to illustrate their story about the angry lion that wanted some bananas and how the people ran but couldn't find any bananas. So the giant roared and the people ran to a house and got some meat and gave it to the lion. Then the lion was happy. Then the people were happy and they all became friends.

Cute story! Here is a picture of me with that class. It's year 4; they're awesome kids. They have the most awful life stories but it's so, so great to see them love learning and engage in the activities and have fun.

Beautiful kids

The children here so, so beautiful. I am so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to love them! You never get tired of them. Especially after knowing everything they have been through.

It's hard to believe I only have one more week left at Masindi Orphanage. It's been amazing and teaching has been going really well.

I have been doing a lot of filming and photography too. It's still really hot but I'm used to it now, and love it! I don't have much to write but I think the pictures speak tons more.

Funny stuff

19-year-old Josephine asked me if we had "sky-crappers" in Australia. I was like haha yeah they're called birds :P
Nah I didn't say that, she was actually meaning sky-scrapers so I burst out laughing and told her the correct way to say it and she kept saying "Sky-crappers". People here are very fun to hang with.

When I was sitting in a restaurant one time a little boy walked past. When he saw me I smiled at him. This massive grin spread across his face, he was so busy grinning at me that he wasn't watching where he was going and tripped on the pavement! He looked up a bit foolishly and then turned to grin at me again while crossing the road, and almost ran into a biker!

More names of shops:

The God's Will Drug Shop

The Angel Wise laundry and cleaning services

the Jesus Cares Restaurant

The Hosanna Decent Lodge

The Queen Elizabeth drug shop

I think they think these kind of names make them look good. It's quite hilarious.

More pics

I'm having trouble with facebook with this slow internet connection so sorry if I haven't been replying. I'll keep trying, and also keep uploading photos.
Here are some more photos of the beautiful kids at the orphanage.
Teaching maths in class 3 went SO well today! I was teaching division, and played a fun activity where they were divided into two teams. When one team won, they went hysterical...they all jumped up and cheered at the TOP of their voices i was laughing so hard, they were screaming and shouting "YEAHH!!!" Man they were excited.

Children at the orphanage

Yesterday the suffering of these kids really hit home for me. One girl about 6 years old at the orphanage was throwing up; they weren't sure if she had malaria or just a stomach bug. For most of the morning she lay on a straw mat on a concrete floor. Later I came back and a little boy about 6 years old was whimpering in pain. He had tears running down his face so I asked someone what was wrong and she said "He has HIV/AIDS and sometimes he gets boils on his skin. This one on his chest is hurting him. When he squeezed it, a worm came out."

Gosh, all I could do was kneel down and put my hand on his shoulder and try to comfort him, but there was nothing I could do to make the pain go away.

Another boy was also crying. He had ringworms on his head.

I went and got a sticker for them. I managed to get a small smile out of the little boy who had a boil on his chest. But it really broke me just how much these children suffer.

And that wasn't all. I then started to collect stories of the children and take their photos. Some of the stories were aboslutly horriffic. Children had had their dads kill their mums. A lot of their parents had died from AIDS. Some were forced into prostitution, some lived on the street. Some fled the war in Northern Uganda when their villages were attacked by the LRA. One girl who is 8 years old now had her village attacked by the LRA when she was two. Her parents were burnt in their hut alive and she narrowly escaped. She was brought to the orphanage when she was 3 years old.

Another girl who is HIV positive was forced to work in the garden for her uncle all day every day, often starting at 5am with no food. She was only 9 years old and her parents had died the year before. She's 10 now and only came to the orphanage last year.

Another boy who I teach in my class was abducted by the LRA and forced to become a child soldier. He escaped after 3 months.

Looking at these children at first and even teaching them in class, you would never
in the world guess what they have been through. They are so happy, so friendly and so like any other children. They laugh and cry and play and argue.

When you hear stories like this from the other side of the world and you don't know the kids, it's very surreal and distant. We're so used to the statistics on AIDS and stories of war. It's almost like we're immune to it. But looking into the eyes of a child who has seen her parents die...that is an entirely different thing altogether. It's so real and so raw. It's shocking.

I could never imagine what these kids have been through physically and emotionally. But they are standing there and I am talking to them; they are not just distant pictures in a World Vision ad or national geographic magazine. They are real people. People who deserve a better life. And that is why I am here; to help in any way I can, and most of all to love them and show them that the way they have been treated in the past will never define who they are. There is hope for them.

More photos

Relaxing weekend

I got my hair braided African style! It didn't hurt much. Today me and Kate went to a church called the Miracle Centre Church. It was SO good! I loved it so much. The pastor got us up the front to ask us welcome us and ask us some 'get to know you' questions. Everyone was so friendly and alive. Man Africans can groove, I love it!

The church is really big; there would have been a few hundred people in our service, but they have more than one service.

We had another pretty relaxing day and are getting ready for the week ahead at Masindi Family Spirit Orphanage. I'll be teaching English and maths and also filming and doing photography for a website they're putting up. I'll also be collecting and editing stories of the children at the orphanage and taking their pictures so they can be put up on the website too. Everyone has a story and some of them are so heart-breaking but amazing the way the orphanage has turned their lives around,

The kids are absolutly beautiful and I'm looking forward to hanging out with them lots this week and being as much of an encouragement to them as I can.

They have a beautiful song they sing to welome visitors. Part of it goes "we are lacking parents, parents in our school." It's so sad to see that so many of them have had both parents die. But
the head of the orphanage and principal of the school is an amazing man and everyone calls him "Daddy". At lunchtime he said "I'm just going to sit with my children." Family Spirit is a great name to describe the place because everyone treats each other like family and there is so much love there.

I think I'm getting more used to the heat now. I am so stoked I get to miss out on 8 weeks of winter in Australia!

More about Masindi

Me and Kate have a free day today so we've been exploring Masindi town...the markets, the hair braiding place (we might get our hair braided this afternoon!), we're looking for a church to go to tomorrow, and right now we're at an internet cafe because it's extemely hot outside. Too hot to do any more walking.

The names of the shops are really funny "God is Great Alleluia Restaurant and Takeaway", the "God's mercy cosmetics".

Everyone LOVES muzungus! (white people). it's very easy to make them smile, especially the kids. At the orphanage we always have a crowd of kids rushing up to us to hold our hands.

I wrote a whole blog post before but it didn't work so I had to start again. Keep emailing and commenting, I love hearing from everyone!

Photos

These are unedited photos, hard to tell how they look exactly because of bad quality computers lol...

First few days in Masindi

Well it's been a crazy few days at Masindi, very amazing and overwhelming at the same time. We went to Masindi Family Spirit Orphanage and met all the kids and teachers. There is such a beautiful family atmosphere there and the kids are SO cute! I always have 6 hanging off my arm at once. They all want to hold my hands and feel my white skin. It's so easy to make them smile.

We've been riding on the back of motorbikes (they're called boda bodas) to the orphanage and back. Sometimes we walk back. Yesterday I drove on the motorbike and my cap flew off and then it started pouring with rain so he had to pull into a shelter, and then someone stole my hat i think, so I don't have it anymore lol. Oh well.

I've been teaching maths and english to year 3 and 4 at the orphanage and it's been fun; challenging at the same time because they don't speak much english, so trying to explain activities is difficult! But it's awesome when they get it.


I have heard some amazing and heart-breaking stories. Everyone here has a story. There are about 13 kids at the orphanage who are HIV positive, and you can tell because they are so thin and their eyes are sunken in. One girl is only 7 years old. It makes you wonder what they must be thinking and how they cope. There is a lot of stigma attached to AIDS here and so much abuse and neglect of children with AIDS.

Masindi orphanage is doing an amazing job and really helping these kids. Some of the stories of the kids are awful, but they are doing so well at the orphanage.
Sarah has looked after us really well through VSN and has been a huge help in adjusting to the culture. I would definitely reccomend VSN to anyone because volunteering individually in Uganda can be very overwhelming at first, and VSN provides professional and personal support.

It's been really hot but our guesthouse is really nice, it's called Karibuni guesthouse and it's a really good place.

So much has happened I probably won't remember everything to write in this blog, and sorry if the photos are a bit dark.

In Masindi town, Uganda

We've arrived in Masindi town in north-western Uganda! It's a great little town I think...has everything we need while we're here.

Gosh there's so much to write about I don't even know where to start. VSN is awesome; Sarah has looked after us really well and gave us a morning of training on Ugandan life/culture/things we need to know while volunteering. We've been having chapati, tea and omelets for breakfast every morning. Chapati is kind of like a pancake. You have it with egg and vegetables etc.

Our accomodation in Kampala was basic but great. Pit latrines and a bucket for a wash. Takes a bit of skill to get used to but you learn fast :P

The dust is very red but the vegetation is so green, it's beautiful. The city is extremely overcrowded and poor and busy. We went in the afternoon to change money, go to an internet cafe and buy a sim card. The traffic is CRAZY! I don't know how they don't crash or run over people every 5 minutes. There are soo many beggers in the city and a lot of lame people because of polio. I saw a little boy who was only about 4 or 5. He was sitting on the street with his hands cupped in the air; looking emotionless. There are a lot of street kids and many of them come from an area near the border of Congo where there's a lot of fighting and abuse.

The night life is very vibrant...it's a pretty cool vibe. Kampala is way way safer than Nairobi. There's hardly any crime and it's safe to walk around at night. The food seems safe too. We've been having local food at local roadside restaurants down the street.

This morning we got all packed and took a bus with Sarah up to Masindi. It was a 3 hour ride with a psycho bus driver! I seriously thought we were going to fall into a ditch a few times, and I was sitting right next to the open window :P it was quite fun actually and really interesting to see the landscape change. We drove past a few slums and then more into the country. There are banana plants and palm trees everywhere, it's so so GREEN and tropical. I love it! People out here live in mud huts and mud shacks (apart from in town).

It's still the rainy season but it's been very sunny and hot. There was a thunder shower just before but it's stopped now.

We're staying in a really nice guesthouse in Masindi. It has a proper shower, toilet and power! Tomorrow we're going to Masindi Family Orphanage for the first time and we'll be riding on moterbikes to get there and back (they're called boda bodas). Can't wait to meet the kids!

I'm in Uganda!!

I finally made it to Kampala. It's HOT! So hot I have to keep drinking water to keep from over-heating. The dust is very red and poverty is everywhere and so are the crowds. We went to a cheap local restaurant down the road for lunch today and had rice and vegetables.

I'm feeling extremely light headed because of the altitude...

Tomorrow we're driving 3 hours up north-west to a place called Masindi and we're volunteering at an orphanage there for 2 weeks.

We went through Johannesburg on the way here and stayed the night; it was great to break up the flight. I'm suffering from lack of sleep as you can probably tell by the randomness of the order of this blog post. Hopefully photos will be up soon!