The Truth

People have said to me that they're proud of me or have praised me for being here and doing what I am. I'm very grateful for the emotional support, but it's not me who should be praised.  This is the truth of it all is this- the Lord and Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.  He is truth and He is THE truth.  I'm not in Africa doing my work, I'm in Africa doing HIS work.  This is my testimony- that Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of Heavenly Father.  He is a Lord of mercy, grace, and love.  I feel so humbled by His incredible power, yet His tenderness.  The amount of love that He has for me it's literally tangible   I can't believe that someone would love me, ME, full of imperfections so fully and completely.  Jesus Christ died on the cross, knowingly taking upon Himself the sins of the world so that we may obtain happiness through forgiveness.  We can live in that same eternal happiness in the presence of our Heavenly Father because of that sacrifice.  We can live with our families forever!  What a blessing that is.  I couldn't think of a better way to spend forever.  Because He conquered death, we can live once again.  His hand is constantly outstretched, waiting to help lift us to our best selves. Sometimes I become caught up looking at all the people in the world around me and I think, "How could someone be consciously aware of each individual person?"  I testify that Heavenly Father DOES know and is attentive to each of our thoughts, needs, and emotions.  Thousands of prayers are answered each day because simply put, He is the Christ.  He created each of us and who better to know us than our Creator.  Sometimes we may feel lost, lonely, or confused but He is our rock to stand on- the foundation for when the storm brings its strongest and heaviest winds, if we cling to our foundation we will not fall.  We will rise steady and sure.  Heavenly Father is a God of patience.  He is waiting, but is up to us to let ourselves turn to Him.

My heart is so full right now, I feel as if it may burst.  Today I watched the movie, The Other Side of Heaven, at the local church building for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The movie includes the story of a Mormon missionary- his struggles, sacrifices, and experiences that he has with the people of Tonga and his encounters with Christ.  I felt the Spirit of Christ more tonight than I have in a long time.  As I sat and watched, I couldn't help but relate the missionary's experience to my own.  Seeing his love for the locals, I couldn't help but to think of my love for people of Uganda.  More importantly however, I couldn't help but to think of Christ's love for the people of Uganda.  A complete love.  At one point in the movie the cast sings "God be with you till we meet again."  As I was listening to the reverent hymn I looked around me- There I sat in the newly constructed church building, with a room full of saints from a third-world village in the middle of Uganda of all places, watching a movie about missionary work and the love of God, a full-time missionary from Botswana was sitting in front of me and began to sing along with the movie- it was honestly the most beautiful moment in my entire life.  It was such a testament that Christ loves ALL of His children.  The amount of peace I felt at the moment, I can't even describe.  I was also so thankful to the missionaries who were there.  No one would leave so many luxuries and comforts to live, the honestly extremely hard life that we are living in Uganda, to spread a lie.  It's truth, Jesus Christ and His redeeming Gospel.

I am so blessed. I AM supposed to be here in the wonderful country of Uganda.  I receive a greater witness of that every single day.  This is my mission and it is more than I could have ever imagined.  Christ had a calling for me, and I could not be more thankful for that.  I'm not sure what the future holds for me, but I take comfort in the fact that the Savior of the world has a plan for me.  He has a plan for each one of us.  Without Him I am nothing, but with Him I have the potential to be everything.  I am just so thankful, and want to praise Him forever.  I testify that Jesus Christ is the light, the life, and the way.

It's Been Awhile...

Hello all!  My next project will start soon, but I had a week to experience a few other things!  Rather than go on a rant about them, I decided to just post a few pictures.  Enjoy! :)

                        The orphanage.  Such a great place. :) The children are in better conditions here than 3/4 of the children in town with two parents.  The little girl on the left has Malaria and was sick during my visit.  What little angels!

                       The toddler room!  So adorable. I wanted to take ALL of them home with me.

                                                                    Lunch time!

       They get so messy after lunch that they strip them of all their clothes, give them a banana, and line all of their little toilets up in a row.  Cutest thing I've ever seen!

                             Sitting naked on the potty with a banana in hand.  The life. :)

                                                           All the ducks in a row!

                                                       "Bath" time afterwards

                                        The grand opening day of our Health Clinic!  These were the amount of people waiting to GET IN!  These are the people who are waiting outside, there are plenty more in the actual waiting room.  So many people in need and this health clinic will benefit countless people.

                                   An early morning surprise for my roommate Megan and I- our valentine's! hahaha

                                                            A surprise from my Ugandan valentine haha

                                              Making CHAPATI!!!!! The best Ugandan dish!

THE BIG PROJECT

HIV/AIDS Awareness Soccer and Netball Tournament
 (and Blood Drive)

It's finally here!!!!!!  I promise I haven't been just wandering around Africa the whole time I've been here, I've been working really hard!  I've actually been working on this project even before I arrived, and every day since I've been working on it.  I didn't want to bore anyone with the details of the day to day preparations, but the final product is complete!  This is my "baby" and I was the project manager and director so lots of effort was put into making this thing happen. :)  The key to development is relating to the people- you have to incorporate their interests in your cause in order to make them more interested in that cause.  And this is the story of how I tried to do that....
In Uganda, HIV/AIDS is an extreme problem especially in the slums called Namatala (population approximately 20,000).  They don't have any resources or counseling services offered to those suffering from HIV until this past year there was a group of brave community leaders that formed the HIV/AIDS Support Network- Namatala.  Many problems arise with HIV here because men see it as a "women's problem."  I've had men tell me straight to my face that they don't want to listen to me because it's not their problem and the women need to deal with it- even though they're mostly the culprit of its spread.  The medical misinformation here is unbelievable; people literally believe that if you jump up and down after sex you will not get pregnant.  AIDS is a shameful disease to the locals and almost every male who I talked to said they would rather not know their status because it's a death wish.  Medications called ARV's are a daily pill available to those who are tested positive that helps the immune system battle the effects of HIV, and a person who takes their ARV's on a daily basis could live as long or longer than someone who was tested negative.  The problem is that it's a culture thing- they don't want to be tied down to daily medication.  They say they would rather die than have to take a pill every day (something that I cannot fathom).  All in all, AIDS is a problem and with the lack of knowledge about family planning or sexual activity in general- it's spreading like rapid fire.
Here's where my plan came in!  Soccer is one of my greatest passions and in Africa it's not a passion it's RELIGION.  It's actually kind of insane how worshiped it is haha.  In Africa, however, soccer is a man's sport.  And that's where the light bulb turned on.  Hold a soccer tournament along with an HIV/AIDS testing and counseling day to especially target the young male population.  It worked!  They actually ran out of HIV tests and had to leave early.
However, it was far from an easy task.  We had so much to do including (and far from limited to) working with the HIV counseling group to set up everything, invite teams, book a location, build an entire field, arrange prizes, lunch/refreshments for everyone, have a local HIV testing organization attend, work with the Red Cross to arrange a blood drive at the tournament as well, get referees, and the list goes on and on.  Needless to say, I definitely needed this past month to get everything done.  The tournament was free (not normal) and we ended up also having a netball (similar to basketball) tournament for girls the same day.  That was another task all in its own!  We had 8 local Namatala soccer teams participate, and 4 Namatala girls netball teams.  And the boys LOVED it!  We had HIV/AIDS testing and counseling available throughout the day along with a very successful blood drive set up by the Red Cross.  The games started from 9 am- 6:45 pm and people stayed all the day long!  I was so grateful to the players, supports, Namatala community, and anyone else that came and helped to make yesterday a success!

Speaking to the players before the games started.  Eight teams of male soccer, four teams of girls netball

From ashes it arose!  We literally had to build this field.  Slash all the grass with a macheti, paint in all the lines, buy wood and construct goals posts, everything

                                                                        Warm ups!

                          THE REASON FOR THE SEASON! HIV/AIDS testing/counseling tent. Success!  There was also a big (and successful) blood drive set up by the Red Cross, but I didn't snap a photo of it. :(

                                                                     HIV testing

                                       

                                                                Watching the games

                                                         The finals!  (Didn't end until 6:45 pm!)

                                                                   Closing speeches

                                                        Congratulating the winners

                                          This wouldn't be possible without these amazing HIV counselors!

            BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT: My translator Martha while we mobilized and went around the slums advertising the testing, blood drive, and tournament.  She's such an amazing woman!

                                                           Mobilizing the tournament to the locals

                                                       Too cute little boy from the slums :)

                                                                        Location of the tourney

The Real Africa

Uganda is not a bad place, Africa is not a bad place.  Honestly, I feel more safe here than when I lived in Baltimore!  Things do happen, yes (mostly at night), but things happen everywhere.  I had no idea what to think about or picture before I came here, but it's nothing like what the Western world makes it out to be.  Life here is so similar to parts of the U.S...but different.  Everyone has their own struggles and their own successes, they're just manifest in a different light.  They have their own economy, their own romances, their own friendships, their own social structure.  People (who can afford it) dress way nicer than Americans!  They wear Sunday best every day!  Americans are actually notorious here for having terrible style, because we assume "Oh Africa, wear crappy clothing."  But that's so far from the truth.  Yes it does get dusty, but we look terrible compared to the locals haha.  Things aren't as nice and elaborate as they are in the states, but they're there.  (Except for common knowledge about medical issues- non existent!).

Honestly, I'm pretty ashamed at myself because I assumed that all Africans weren't very educated.  Boy was I wrong!  In the villages, it is very hard to come across well educated people.  Most don't have enough money for school fees and have to drop out of school by first or second grade.  In town, however, most people have at least graduated high school and many that I have spoken with have gone to University (which is 3 years after high school for them).  They know so much!  And not only that but most people speak THREE languages!  (English, Lugesu, and Luganda).  How many Americans can do that?!  

I've gotten to know a lot of people through networking, projects, my soccer team, etc.  I've become close with a guy named Emma.  His story illustrates how similar some of the issues here are to the U.S.  Emma is great!  He wears band t-shirts like "The Who", jokes around a lot, and is very eloquent in his speech.  He's pretty much a typical 23 year old man.  I love talking to him because he reminds me of boys back home.   He knows I'm oblivious to cultural differences (and makes fun of me for it) and he understands sarcasm (which btw, is NOT a normal concept in Africa- watch what you say!).  He's been graduated from University for six months now with a degree in Accounting, and he's very smart.  However, he's frustrated with his current situation because he's living at home with his parents because he can't find work.  He tells me how annoying it is because he hates having to ask for his dad for money when he's an educated man and should be able to fend for himself. In the U.S. people are struggling with the same issue- even those with high levels of education are finding themselves out of work.

It's not all rainbows and butterflies here, that's for sure!  But it's not all bad either. I have posted of a lot of scary and disheartening things, but that's kind of what I'm here to do- I'm in a Environmental Health internship so I see the worst of the worst.  There are people who could go through the U.S. as well and scrutinize (even though the conclusions might be lest drastic).  Every culture, nation, people has their own struggles- some are just more extreme than others. Even the villagers who don't seem to have a lot of basic concept of anything that would be deemed "common knowledge" in the U.S...the amount of drive that they have to do physical labor just fascinates me.  I have so much respect for them.  They are working machines!  They are willing to sacrifice their body, get literally three hours of sleep most nights, sleep on dirt floors, work barefoot..they just don't stop working!
Africans are not dumb, they're just uninformed.  Africans are not lazy, they just haven't been raised with time management or analytic thinking skills.  Africans ARE hard working, loving, welcoming, happy.

The last couple days have been extreme physical labor as we mixed and poured cement, carried rocks and launched them off the mountain, dug through the mountain side, painted walls, and much more to finish up our health clinic.  I'm very excited for this clinic!  It's going to be so impact full and will literally save many lives.

A restaurant had PANCAKES!!! American food?!  What a dream!

            This is my friend Emma that I wrote about in this post. Yes I am wearing makeup.  Yes this is rare!

                             This is the love of my life and favorite Africa girl- Brenda :)  We were hanging out up in her home village (where the clinic is) which is about an hour and half from our house in town.

                                                                   The market in Mbale

                                                                          BRENDA!

                                  

                                                                 Market in Mbale, #2

All white everything- white sheets, white blanket, white shirt, white shorts...all in a land that doesn't even have paved roads.  What was I thinking?!  It's legitimate work trying to keep this all clean at night especially since I'm usually covered in dirt (I just took a shower in this picture...a rare occasion to say the least.  No hot showers= no drive to shower).