The Proof You've been asking for

Some of you asked for a picture (in Uganda, pictures are called "snaps") of me on the boda boda. Thanks for my roommate, Kristi, now you have the proof you've been waiting for. She was ahead of me on another boda, going slow enough to be able to snap a picture. Of course, you can barely see me, but I assure you, it is in fact me :) More to come later, I'm sure...after all, I'm here for a year...there's plenty of time for photos.

Sidenote: In this picture, the road is paved. Keep in mind, however, that many roads around here are not, and those roads are EXTREMELY bumpy and filled with holes. Here, workers add speed bumps to the road whenever they feel like it. I believe I've heard that within a one kilometer stretch between my house and another WGM leader, there are 17. Just one more reason to hang on for your life :)

A good, but challenging year ahead.

Several stories to share after the first day of school....

- School: I survived. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't amazing, and it pretty much went as expected. My class sizes were 1, 3, 3, and 9. The 9 will be a challenging class, as according to the other teachers, they're known as the "troublemakers who could care less about school." One student, Bhavik, practices the Jain religion, and seems to be a math genius. He was the one student all day who admitted to liking math. He was the only one in grades 10-12 who was actually willing to talk to me, though, and asked immediately if I am a Christian. When I said yes, he replied, "Figures, all the teachers are." The curriculum is still changing, and I still don't know for sure which classes I'm teaching and which books I'm using. This may sound stressful to some, but for my procrastination habits in lesson planning, it works well, as I haven't planned lessons for any of the classes yet! :) All in all, there's a lot to get used to, and my conclusion after day one is that this will be a challenging year....a GOOD, but challenging year.

I also found out today that I give devotions to the 8th graders three times a week,and that they're supposed to be 20 minutes long. That's both really exciting, and really scary. Reading from a book each day would be an easy task, but 20 minutes? Seems like a mini-sermon. I imagine I'll try and involve the kids as much as possible and ask them to participate as well. Any ideas from those of you who are creative would be much appreciated, though!! Heritage International is the only Christian international school in Uganda.

-Youth Group: At Heritage, each teacher is required to participate in at least one after school activity. My chosen (err, assigned rather, since I just happened to be in the meeting at the right time) activity is youth group. The youth group is basically any of the secondary students who want to attend, and we meet basically every other Friday after school. We also go on a three day retreat in September and have a couple of overnight activities. We'll do short Bible studies, and play lots of fun games. I'm really excited to be a part of this ministry, and look forward to building even closer relationships with the students through the youth group events. Our first meeting is this Friday after school. Please pray it goes well and kids show up!

-Bodas: For those of you who have asked, no, the passenger on the boda (me) does not wear a helmet. I have only seen a few boda drivers wearing helmets, and passengers never do. That is likely the reason accidents are awful when they occur. I pray for the Lord's protection every time I get on one, which has been a total of three times so far. Today after school three of us went to town to buy ice cream, and since our car is still in the shop (and we don't yet know how to drive), we took bodas. I was told it is VERY inappropriate for a woman wearing a skirt to "straddle" the boda seat. That's why we typically sit sideways. However, on the way home from the market, when I sat down sideways, the driver looked and said, "NO, you sit like a man!" So there I was, wearing a skirt, straddling a boda. A sight to see, for sure! :)

-Health: As a quick prayer request, I'll share that I've been sick at some point throughout the day every day for four days now. The majority of the days I feel fine, and then for about an hour each day, I feel awful. I don't know what's causing it, as we're trying to be super careful with all of our food and water. Prayers would be much appreciated!

And now it's 7:30pm and I have yet to start planning tomorrow's lessons. In my defense, I only arrived home twenty minutes ago, but I must get to work so eventually I can get to sleep! Continue praying for a positive experience this week at school, for the students, and for their brand new math teacher :)

Hanging on for dear life!

Last year when I was in Uganda, it was a USP (Uganda Studies Program) rule that we were NOT allowed to ride boda bodas (tiny motorcycles that Ugandans use as a main form of transportation). Traffic here is AWFUL, and many of the roads are in pretty poor shape, but these bodas are convenient because they zip in and out of traffic get around the traffic jams quickly. They're also a leading cause of death in the country, because they're not always that careful, and when they have an accident, its usually a terrible one. Many students rode them anyway, but I was not one of them. I was completely terrified of them and was never even tempted to get on one. Walking was just fine by me. Today, however, on my fourth day in Uganda, the leaders of the USP program were visiting friends several miles from where I live, and they asked me to take a boda to come meet them. Now, I'm going to have to learn to drive here at some point, and I'm not really looking forward to it, but the thought of taking a boda terrified me. I considered not going, but it they live an hour away, and may not be around again soon, and I figured it would really be nice to see some familiar faces. So I got up the courage, walked down my street to the boda station where at least ten bodas waved at me and wanted my business. I found one and asked, "Can you take me to the Shell station at Bunga Hill?" He responded, "yes, of course! Please, sit!" Here women sit sideways on the bike, because it is not culturally acceptable to straddle the seat, so I nervously hopped on, trusted that this man knew where we were going (because I had no idea where Bunga Hill was), and held on for dear life to the little bar crossing the back of the seat. As bumpy as the roads are here, I can see why boda accidents are common. I lifted off the seat a couple of times, and could definitely picture myself falling off as we went along the rough roads, but eventually he stopped and said, "We are here." I asked him how much, and he told me 4000 shillings (a little less than $2). What I didn't realize until after he got off was that we were not at the Shell station. He did not know where the Shell station was, so he had taken me to another petrol station in the area. So, being the very experienced boda rider that I now was, I got another boda and had him take me to the Shell station. I met my friends and had a wonderful time. I asked the people I met with how much it should cost to take a boda from Kynsanga (my town) to Bunga, and they told me 1200 at the most. I laughed and told them I'd paid 5000 between the two bodas. They told me I need to learn how to bargain with them, because they try to charge muzungus (white people) more. I'm a terrible bargainer. That's something I'll have to get better at, and soon! And thus concluded my first ever boda boda experience. We will have a car, yes, but I expect there will be many more boda rides in my future. After all, having now ridden two bodas, my reaction is "THAT WAS AWESOME!" Just make sure you hang on for your life....

For those of you without Facebook:

Gone are the days of clean feet...

Well, for those of you who read this (if anyone)and haven't already heard, I made it to Uganda safely. After a long journey through Chicago and London, I arrived at Entebbe airport early Wednesday morning. I met someone from WGM and she drove me to my new home in Kampala. An hour or so later, we went to the school, where I saw my classroom and started decorating. I had some orientation, but have yet to be fully filled in on what all goes on at the school and what my responsibilities are. Slowly by slowly, I continue to learn more. After a long day at school, the other WGM missionaries went to a leader's home for dinner and spent much of the evening talking and laughing. It was a relaxing, but tiring first day.

Now, for those of you who have been asking, I'll talk about the house. For starters, WOW! Life here as a missionary in Kampala certainly looks much different than life as a "local" in Mukono looked last year! I live in a 3 bedroom, 2 story house. Ours is gated all the way around and has a guard on duty 24/7. From what I understand, there are various missionary houses all around here. Currently I have one roommate, Kristi, from California, who also just arrived and will teach 6th grade at Heritage. We will gain another roommate in September. We each have our own bedroom, and Kristi and I share a bathroom. For four months last year, my "bathroom" was a hole in the ground, but rest assured, this time I have a real toilet. I also have electricity, running water, HOT WATER (if you turn the heater on 1 hour in advance), and a fully furnished kitchen (stove, fridge, microwave, etc). We also have wireless internet throughout the house. We have a housegirl who cleans twice a week and does our dishes and laundry if we ask her to. Apparently this is very common here, but it seems a little strange to have someone else doing all of the work for us. In some ways, it almost feels as if I'm living in America, until I walk outside, or take a look at my feet, which will likely not be clean until a year from now when I return home. The black shoes I wore to school today are now stained red, as are my feet. I'll be cleaner than I was last year when I showered from a bucket, but there's really no getting rid of that dirt. No matter how much you clean, everything is dirty. Everything. Now, I imagine I should be excited and very thankful to have such wonderful living conditions, but in all honesty, I think a part of me misses the simplicity of living as a Ugandan. I can already see what the missionaries we spoke with last year meant when they talked about living in a "bubble" and having difficulty really engaging in the Ugandan culture. Other than my 10 minute walk to and from school, I could easily stay inside and keep to myself if I so desired. Hopefully that will not be the case. All in all, it is nice to have a place to come back to at the end of the day and just relax.

I'll provide more details of the school setting later, because its almost time for dinner (we're eating at another missionary's house again tonight...tomorrow night we'll go grocery shopping and start the adventure of cooking for ourselves), but for now I'll just ask everyone to pray for the start of school on Monday. My classroom is mostly decorated now, but I am not entirely sure what to do for lesson plans, as we are not supposed to really start teaching until week 3 due to many students arriving late. Pray for peace, as starting a new job obviously causes a little bit of nervousness. Pray for the students as they get to know me and I get to know them. Pray for positive relationships to develop.

Thanks, as always, for your continued prayers and support! More to come later, for now, time to eat (which is another story for another time, but the food as a missionary is also drastically different than as a local)!