Week four and five

So I guess I have like two weeks to catch up on.  In the past two weeks we did the topics of deliverance, nature/character of God, and fear of God.  They were good weeks with the teaching and everything else that happened.  With the deliverance teachings God started showing me some areas in my life that I needed to change; so that was neat but also hard.  Now that I realize what needs to change in my life, I have to maintain that change.  I hope that makes sense.

Last Tuesday evening we went to town for supper and then rode bota botas back.  Our drivers went so fast and I felt like my head was going to blow off.  It was a lot of fun though because we had two people on each bike so when we passed each other we would give high fives and scream and stuff.  Our drivers probably though we were crazy.  When we arrived back we had a special event with the DTS team.  It consisted of playing two games.  The first game was were one person got in the middle of the circle of people and that person held a small orange like fruit squeezed between the chin and collar bone.  Then that person would motion to another person and they would have to transfer the fruit from the one person to the other without using their hands.  So pretty much it is really awkward looking.  Then after that game we played musical chairs.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful other than the power went off for like two days.  It happens a lot now sometimes it will last for a day or two and sometimes just for a couple of hours.  But when the electricity goes off that also means no running water and of course no internet, which we hardly ever get here.  Oh, on Thursday we had game time for two hours so that was fun to play volleyball and some basketball.

On Sunday, me, Lucy (girl from UK), and one of the African boys from the base went to Lake Victoria but as we were walking there it began to down pour.  So we sloshed through the thick sticky red mud until we found some tree for shelter.  When the rain slowed down we started walking again but it again began to down pour so we finally found an old half wrecked building to stay dry under.  All in all, it was a memory making journey.  Our feet were like 5lbs heavier by the end because all the mud cakes itself to the bottom of our flip-flops.

Ok so all that was from the week of the 13-19.

This week was normal again; the power went off for at least a day and I don’t think we had internet at all this week.  On Tuesday night I had a really encouraging talk with one of the girls on the base.  She is from America and she has been here since February I think.  She did her DTS from February till July and then just stayed on.  Anyway I was able to share with her some of my struggles just with the culture and stuff and she faced some of the same struggles so she had some advice for me.

Friday night we had worship for an hour and that was a lot of fun.  We spent some time praying for each other and then we ended up just dancing around to praise songs.  Then on Saturday I did my load of wash as normal and went to town to skype my family!  That, of course, was so fun and comforting.  Sunday the 26^th, another girl and myself went on a walk/hike up a hill.  At the top was a huge boarding school.  We were able to walk around and finally see some monkeys.  We also admired the beautiful view from the top.

4th week!!

This week we had the topic of rejection vs. acceptance and a very quick summary on the Father heart of God.  It felt like the week went by very fast week, but I do not know why.  On Thursday we did not have class because it was a day of prayer and fasting for the whole base, and I had to preach a short ten minute sermon on Wednesday morning.  The preaching went pretty well, but I spoke too fast for a lot of the Africans.  It is hard enough for me to speak slowly in front of Americans but to have to slow down even more so that the Africans can understand is practically impossible.

Also for the past two weeks we had to memorize Romans 12:1-2 and make it into a song in our groups.  It was sort of frustrating for me because I was the only one in my group who actually memorized the verse and got the group together to make up the song.  The one guy in the group tried his best to memorize the verse and did help me make up a song but the other guy always had something else to do and would just say “hallelujah, be bold and make up song!”  or something like that.  Then the other girl in our group had been sick for a while so she tried to learn it like the day before we had to present.  Anyway, when we went to present the song to the group I was basically the only one singing.  The others were just supposed to repeat certain words or phrases but they hardly did that because they did not know the verse.

Last Saturday I helped make mandazi which is basically small fried dough balls.  We eat them almost every day at tea break.  They are really good, but probably not the best for you.  It was interesting to watch how they make them.  All that was in them was flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, water, and butter/margarine.  They just pour everything into a big bucket and start mixing with their hands and then kneading it for a while until it is formed into dough.  It was the first time it registered in my brain that they do not have mixing machines.  I did not help much with the actual mixing part but I helped to roll out the dough and cut it into small squares.  Rolling out the dough reminded me of making homemade bread (I miss your food mom!).  Then we took the squares and fried them in oil until they were nice and crispy.  All together it took like 4 hours to complete.  Another one of my favorite foods here is called chapatti, but we do not get it too often on the base so when we order food or eat out we get it a lot.  All it is though is flour, salt, and water or butter that is mixed together rolled out and fried.  I did not actually watch how they made it but someone told me how it was made.  It is kind of like a crepe except a little thicker and more chewy.

It feels like the days here are getting hotter but it still rains almost everyday.  I have been trying to wear the only one skirt a week and the least amount of shirts possible so as to cut down on my wash load.  I do not know if washing my clothes really does much at all though because they never really smell clean.  I am wishing I would have not brought so much clothing with me because I will probably only end up wearing like half of it.  I wish I would have at least brought more sweat pants because I wear my one pair every morning and evening because it gets so cold.  But I will just make do with what I have.  I have been getting a lot more mosquito bites recently and I think they normally get even worse during the dry season so when we are on outreach there might be a lot of mosquitoes.  Oh yeah for outreach I think I will be going to Tanzibar, Tanzania.  Our options are either Tanzania or staying in Uganda.  I think they said Tanzibar is a small island or something like that and we would be ministering mostly to the Muslim population.  But that is still like two and a half months away.      

Random things...

I have now been here for a week and a half, and I am finally beginning to feel comfortable and am getting used to the schedule. This is what my schedule looks like:


Monday through Friday we have devotions from 6-7am ( I really enjoy this time in the early morning although it is often times very cold out)

7-7:30 is breakfast

7:30-8:30 is class preparation time except on Mondays and Wednesday when we meet as a base for worship and intercession

8:30-9:30 is prayer/worship as a DTS

9:30-10:30 is lectures

10:30-11:00 is break tea as the Africans call it (I call it tea break)

11:00-1:00 is more lectures

1:00-2:30 is lunch/free time

2:30-3:30 is small groups Mon, Thurs, & Fri and is Bible study on Tues and Free time on Wed

3:30-5:30 is work duty

6:30-8:00 is supper/free time/ homework

10:00 lights out

Then we the whole weekend off which is really nice. I will probably do my wash on the weekends since it takes a while to wash clothes by hand. Also during the week we are supposed to clean our room almost everyday and cleaning means mopping, but it is not the way we mop our floors in America. Also along with Bible reading each week we now have three books to read in the next six weeks. So I keep pretty busy, but I am enjoying it. Although, all the sitting around is kind of hard for me. So at night time I always have lots of energy and get really antsy.

This week the teachings are on sin, repentance, forgiveness, and pride vs humility, but so far we have only covered the topic of sin. Last week we were taught on hearing God’s voice and how to have a quiet time, most of which was stuff I had already been taught. It was still good to hear again, but at the same time was kind of frustrating because I feel like I have such a hard time hearing from God, at least in the areas I want to hear from him. Maybe that doesn’t make sense, but I don’t know how to describe what I mean. (typical me)

Today, to my excitement and delight, I had the privilege of helping to cook supper. I know that really doesn’t sound too exciting but I enjoy doing it. We cook huge portions over fires and I got to cut up the cabbage, tomatoes, and onions. I basically made the whole cabbage slosh (I don’t know what else to call it) part of supper by myself which was fun. And since I helped in the kitchen I got to eat a few pieces of carrot. I really miss eating carrots every day like I did at home!! Haha, the little things in life that bring me joy! :o) Oh and on Saturday I helped make this big Indian dinner that us girls and a few other people ate. That was a lot of fun. We cooked everything over this small charcoal burner and I got to grind up spices and wash meat (yuck!) and cut up vegetables. Then I taste tested the really spicy dish. It was so hot!! My mouth and throat we burning for like five minutes. We made Indian food because our staff leader is Indian. We also made a fresh salad, but it was more like cole slaw. It was really nice to have a change of food. Then for dessert we ate a delicious warm chocolate cake. The whole meal was kind of a birthday meal for one the base staff so that is why we had dessert.

So yeah I think that is all I can think of to update ya’ll on. I hope everyone is doing well back home!!