Merry Christmas!!!

No Christmas cards from this continent this year, I'm afraid! Just wanted to send out Christmas and New Years greetings to all who may grace this page with their friendly eyes. Know that if I know you, you are dearly missed and if I don't know you I hope our paths may cross in the coming year!

May your Christmas holiday be full of joy and peace - that Christ's love entering the world and the hope of that Love still to come will bring to you the full life that is promised.

Two of my favorite Christmas songs:

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.


O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O holy night, O night divine!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

Blessings to you all!

My neighborhood

This evening after work I took a walk & much to my surprise, it was a peaceful and serene event. The neighbors are getting used to me now. The ladies across the road from Medair seem more cordial, especially after I gave one of them a ride to the hospital a few weeks ago when she was too ill to walk. They wave & greet me, I smile & greet back. The children come running to shake my hand or just yell at the top of their lungs from wherever they are, “Mzungu!” and “Byebye”. Again, I smile & wave. I met one man along the way that does some work with Medair and found out he lives just around the corner from us. He asked where I was headed & my answer is typical to the culture here, “just to that rock there, on that side” as I point to my destination in the distance. Then I head on, with a few little ones probably no older than 2 years in tow as they can’t seem to unglue themselves from my hands. A bit further & they are called back home by someone. So I continue on my own, marveling at the beauty of Kaabong – boulders and rocks sprouting out of the earth randomly, huge cactus-trees, and an amazing sunset towards the west against the silhouette of many more mountains and rocks. I greet a friend, Christine, who helps us with some washing and cleaning a few days a week at our base – its good to see some familiar faces while I’m out and about. Another few minutes and I hear this distant shouting, “sister, how are you?” and two teenagers emerge from some gardens about 100meters away. “Where are you going?” they ask in really good English. I tell them I am walking to the rocks there & point that direction as I continue to walk – they say they will come too. So I tell them I will walk a bit slower, but they will need to walk a bit faster to catch up with me! They quicken their pace & in a few minutes we walk on together. Greeting them I find out they are sisters, Margaret & Joyce – 14 & 15 years respectively. They are in P6 class at the Pajar primary school just down the road from Medair. They have just come from their garden & were headed home. I ask them a bit more about themselves, but they seem content to just walk & not talk much – so we walk on in silence for about 20 minutes. Its nice to not be alone. Even nicer – when we turned around & came back to where they joined me to begin with, they said goodnight and headed home. That was it. Why is that so nice? Because almost every single person I meet here asks me for something. They want 100shillings or food or my shirt or my bag or my shoes…and they usually don’t just ask, they beg and demand. A normal phrase here is “You give me ….” Fill in the blank! Even the little ones who know just a bit of English can spit out “HowareyouI’mfinegivemeonehundred”. It’s exhausting…and I feel like a resource not a person. Yeah, so I was really grateful to take a quiet walk with some kind girls who wanted nothing from me – they walked away without a word other than goodnight. On my way back at the house of the man I mentioned earlier a crowd was gathering & some girls had some long vine-like branches tied together to make a jumprope. They had stopped for the moment, but when I showed interest they got very excited and wanted to show off their skills, so I stayed for a bit & then jumped in for a few rounds. The ladies thought it was the greatest thing – and still, no requests of me. I just got to be me and enjoy the company of the people here.

That was my evening walk, wish you could have been there too!

Holiday with friends

Sorry my posts have been delayed lately. I had some friends in the country over the past month & have enjoyed spending time with them. Here are some highlights:

The hippest new (read: only) coffee shop in Gulu, Uganda – the Kope Café. Opened by folks working with Invisible Children to raise money for a program to provide fun activities like dance and music to children in need. The place is beautiful, all the walls are muraled as you can see here. They took the verses from Ecclesiastes (some may quote instead from the famous Beatles tune as well) a time for … and a time for … and made banners along the whole wall. The kids chose pictures to depict each season mentioned – it is a powerful display! Plus the coffee is great and the people are really kind. Tif & I spent a few afternoons here sipping lattes and wondering if we were really still in Africa…

Ah, my good friend Brandi – only had a few precious days with her, but it was so wonderful! Glad we got to share a room & catch up from under our tents!

We spent Thanksgiving with some American & Ugandan friends while in Kampala. Here is Patrick, Tif, me, Julie, Alyssa, & Emma. Patrick, Julie & Emma all work with Come, Let’s Dance. It was so fun to celebrate Thanksgiving and enjoy a fabulous spread of American-ish dishes! Julie & Shane did an amazing job of making us feel like we were truly in the states and with family. This picture was taken a few days later off of Lake Victoria in Jinja. This is the source of the Nile River.

Some of Ghandi’s ashes were spread at the source of the Nile here, so there is a shrine. I don’t really think it fits with who Ghandi was or what he stood for – think it looks more like a shrine to the marble-tile god. If I were in charge, there would be many flowers, maybe a fountain, and a place to sit & ponder or meditate on peace and non-violence. But alas, they didn’t ask me my opinion before throwing a ton of money into this piece of work…

Another view of the source

Jared & I were thrilled to find a great coffee place in Jinja – yay for foam!!!



Tif, Alyssa, & I spent a few days hanging out in Jinja after the others left. What a relaxing few days we had. Here we are at Bujagali falls just about 6 km down from the source of the Nile. We could have rafted the Nile, but decided to not risk life & limb on that adventure. We settled for a very peaceful sunset canoe ride at the source instead – we were quite content with that option! These ladies brought me so much joy! I miss them so much already!