Little Moments of Love, Little Moments of God

Webale dear friends!

So, I just thought I would enlighten you with some of the wonderful things that make me smile every day here... for instance, one of my neighbors, named Jonah, is in kindergarten here, and every day when I come walking home, he comes running down the street, if I'm lucky, or at least just running from his house to meet me before my house, yelling, "NANA!" and then jumps into my arms. Then this is the common conversation that happens:

Jonah: "NANA!"
Me: "Jonah!"
Jonah: some words in Lusoga that I don't understand but he seems to think I do, because I do a good job of nodding and smiling.
Me: "How is the day?"
Jonah: "The day is good."
Me: "How was school?"
Jonah: "School is Monday." (No matter what day of the week it is, school is always Monday)
Me: "Noooo..."
Jonah: "School is, um, Saturday."
Me: "Noo..."
Jonah: "School is ... Friday?"
Me: "No... "
Jonah: "School is SUNDAY!"
Me: "No..."
Jonah: "School is cloudy day?"

So no matter what, he always seems to forget the actual day of the week it is... so I whisper it in his ear after all this, then he yells it proudly. But I'm pretty sure from now on for the rest of my life, whenever I hear someone ask how school was, my response will be, "School is Monday!"

Other than that, the day was good... I showed up to teach, and walked in for my hour, when I found out the half hour before me, the class didn't have a teacher (typical). Today's lesson was, "Join these two sentences using "...and..." When I finished that, it was break, then I was supposed to teach again, but another teacher decided to go in for an hour. After that hour, I asked the teacher next to me whether he wanted to teach the first or the second half hour next, to which he told me to just teach both. This kind of situation is pretty common here... but for the most part I don't mind. Especially because it's really hard to get any topic across in just an hour, to teach them and have them do exercises, which they have to do every day, otherwise they are very upset with me. Today was about finding the area of irregular shapes, so it was good to have the extra time. But the kids were being really frustrating today, and so I was about at the end of my rope when I was sitting outside, marking their books.

And here enters God: One of the children from baby class came up, and I was just too tired to say much more than, "Hi!" and then look back at my marking, entirely wrapped up in my frustrations and I'm not proud to say, not making too much of an effort, when the girl asked me, in a question I haven't heard my entire time I've been here, "Are you ok?" (It's just not a common Ugandan question). I looked up and my heart melted as the girl just pulled me into a hug, gave me the greatest hug in the history of all time, and then skipped off on her merry way. This is just one example of how when I'm tired/frustrated/homesick, God just steps in and tells me I'm so loved.

Sending all that love your way, hope you're all well! Praying for you!

Love, from Uganda.

Gas Crisis...

So I figure I can write long posts and wait for a long time in between them now...  or I can also write shorter ones that keep everyone up to date on a quicker fashion. So, sorry, fans, for being so MIA from the blogging nation... poor electricity and teaching means that internet time is generally limited, but I'm glad to at least know that whoever is following me now is for sure the real fans, right? Because you're still with me!

Anyways, all joking aside, the big thing right now (other than Gaddafi being killed, which is HUGE news over here, not sure what the sitch is in the US?) is that all of East Africa is in a gas crisis. Ok, in America, a gas crisis means that gas prices have risen to a ridiculous price. Here it means that there is literally no gas to buy. So, since we have a gas stove, this posed some... interesting predicaments... this last weekend, when we ran out of our last of two tanks of gas. We DO have a small charcoal cooker, about the size of a pot, so, we have had some interesting run in experiences with that. First of all, we have to boil all of our water so we don't get typhoid/other water borne illnesses. So... boiling water on a charcoal cooker? Less than easy. But we figured it out. Then Saturday, cooking dinner was an adventure. We decided that we would do our occasional Mexican night (surprisingly easy considering how far away we are from Mexico, due to the large amounts of rice, beans, and avocado in Uganda, plus there’s a fair number of tomatoes, hot chilis, green peppers, onions, and limes… what else do you need? Then we get some chapati and it’s ALMOST like they’re tortillas). So, Matt got some fresh beans and figured out how to start up the cooker and cook the beans, which took a lot longer than we expected. Then I started the rice, where the water wasn’t QUITE simmering, but it was hot? So it worked to a certain extent. Then Shane and I started the veggies, but realized that almost all the heat was gone from the cooker. Turns out apparently you’re supposed to keep adding charcoal. Who knew? Not us, that’s for sure. So, we added more charcoal. Which didn’t catch on fire or heat or whatever the correct terminology for that is. So then we added some paraffin (like lighter fluid? Is how it was described to me). Then cooked the green peppers and onions. Now I’m imagining that all of you who know how to use charcoal are laughing at us now… because APPARENTLY anyone who knows anything knows that you’re supposed to wait at least 20 minutes before cooking anything when you add charcoal and paraffin. A. We didn’t know that. And B. Dinner was already WAY late at this point because it had taken us so long, so we were a little impatient. So, we finished cooking, the veggies still a bit crunchy due to our impatience, and sat down to eat. Luckily we popped one of the veggies in our mouths before throwing them on our burritos… because it tasted exactly like lighter fluid. In an almost toxic sort of way. So… as one of the nuns who I told this story to said after she stopped laughing enough to get words out, you learn something new every day. So I hope you’ve all had a good chuckle at the things I learn while living in Uganda.

And since then, we’ve gotten an electric water boiler thing (my great way with words is coming out with this description), which we were actually talking about before, since we realized about 2/3 of our gas tank goes to boiling water, so we were thinking about pricing/conservation options, which has made having tea/coffee in the morning AMAZING, provided we have power. So, things are pretty good. And then gas is supposed to be back starting tomorrow (hopefully that’s real time and not Africa time), so my newfound knowledge will go latent for a little while. But I’m coming out of this experience wiser, and thinking that I might have been able to set my burp on fire.

I miss you all and am praying for you. Sending love from Uganda!