Busy Weekend

Thursday we celebrated Ugandan Independence Day. This is Ugandan’s 52nd year of independence. The Ugandan staff and GSF Primary school students were off for the holiday. The missionary kids still had school that day, but the teachers worked to make it a fun day at school. The students had a photo scavenger hunt, competed to see who could fill in the most countries in Africa, and school ended early that day. That night we had a GSF family dinner with all of the housemoms, missionaries, and kids. We ate traditional Ugandan foods including rice, matoke, potatoes, chapatti, and pineapple. We had pork and chicken too as a treat! Afterwards we spent the night at the Fish family house, played board games, watched episodes of one of our favorite tv shows, and in the morning they cooked pancakes for us! J

The missionary kids coloring the Ugandan flag and wearing the country's colors

Friday was sports day at GSF. This was the third annual event.  The sports day is not for the kids. It is for the adult employees at GSF. The kids at GSF could come to watch, and school was canceled for the event. The week before teams were posted on the sides of different buildings around campus. We had team meetings to decide who was participating in what events, and then we had practice every day that week from 4-5. The teams were split by roles on campus like childcare verse the school teachers. The missionaries were all separated from their spouses.  Cody participated in the marathon, which was just running to the gate and back (not quite the distance of a typical marathon…) Katie participated in the marathon and sackrace. The events included Egg on a spoon, 100 Meter relay, 100 Meter run, blind walk, and Bible quiz along with the big sports of Netball (like basketball) and football (soccer). Our friend and co-teacher, Lisa, was the only female to play football, and she played as goalie. She was awesome! The day was all about building relationships, teamwork, and thanking our staff for what they do. It was a very successful day.

The students and staff cheering on their teams 

One of the competitions included a race for pealing matoke which is like bananas

            On Saturday Cody and I went to a hotel to have some time away together. It was just what we needed.  The place we went had a pool, private rooms, good internet, and warm showers. It was very nice. We had great time to talk, reflect, plan, relax, and eat good food together! Sunday evening we had a relaxing time at home watching a movie, eating popcorn, and drinking hot chocolate and apple cider. Overall we feel much more on the same page after taking time together and enjoying each other’s company. It was a great blessing, and we are so glad we took the time.

The view of the porch outside our hotel room

The view from our porch

Prayers-

relationships,

discipleship (people we work with, live near, and get to know,)

designing special needs programs and schedules

 next steps in ministry, our future here, and listening to what we are supposed to do

Praises-

Time away together,

furthering relationships,

Visa’s renewed (sorry guys, we are not coming home for at least 3 more months J )

people coming to have personal relationships with Christ through Light of the World  church

improvement and growth in missionary kid students,

Funnies-

Culturally you wave at people on the road because you are seen as rude if you do not. On accident, I was so busy waving at people that I waved at a goat.

President Mussebini was reported to have said  not eat our brothers and sisters, the monkeys, so we will not get Ebola (which is not even in Uganda).

The other weekend Cody was coming back from Jinja on a Friday night with Robb (another missionary) around 9 p.m. at night. Just out of Jinja, Robb’s steering on his car, which he had just picked up from a mechanic, went completely out. After 45 minutes of waiting for the mechanic and Robb’s driver to arrive, Robb and Cody flagged down a boda (motorcycle taxi) and asked him to take them to GSF. Then after about 30 minutes of riding, the boda broke down in a stretch of sugar cane fields between Nyenga and GSF. The driver apologized, asked for partial payment, and then drove off, leaving Robb and Cody stranded. After this second breakdown of the night, they walked a mile in the dark until they came upon a group of boda drivers at someone’s house after a long day of driving. Cody and Robb thankfully were able to hire one of the drivers to take them the rest of the way to GSF (even though he seriously was not a very good driver…), and they made it safely to GSF—2 broken vehicles and a mile walk later—right at 11 p.m.

Cody got his hair cut by 2 9^th grade Missionary Kids…He looked like a Page boy or Martin Luther…Thankfully Lisa Fish fixed it. He said it was worth it for the bonding experience.

The Page Boy in all his glory...Don't worry. It does not look like this now.

I was washing clothes and dishes in Nyenga and my neighbor who has a newborn baby came over and told me I was working to hard and needed to rest. I took that as a compliment from her J

The missionary nurse, Kim, discovered that she had a rat living and eating in her house. Katie, Kim, and housekeeper Betty were in the house at the time the rat was finally seen, and all three shamefully screamed. Kim ran to put on her rainboots and grabbed a broom. (I am not sure what purpose these serve) Betty ran to shut the doors. Katie went look to see where exactly the rat was. We trapped it in a drawer. This process was very loud, so Lisa Fish came over to see what was going on. Once she heard the story she went to go get her husband David who had “taken care of” one before.  Everyone was prepared for action when we opened the drawer, and the rat was gone.  A little while later Betty found it again. David had gone back to teach class, so we called one of the guards, Richard to come help us.  Sure enough Richard was successful at “taking care” of the rat. We were asked how many Americans does it take to kill a rat. The answer is none…

Lisa is prepared in case the rat gets past the guard under the sink.

Kim in her rat gear...rainboots and broom...

Remembering

As most of you know, my family lost my grandmother, Nan Singletary on Saturday morning September 20, 2014. She was 88 years old and lived an amazing adventure of a life. She is now reunited in heaven with the Creator of the Universe, adoring husband, and young son, which, in the words of my little brother, is “a pretty great day. “

            We had an amazing relationship. She called me her favorite granddaughter (yes, I was her only). My mother calculated that in my 25 years, I have lived next door to her for 21 years. Many people talk about her as loving, kind, generous, selfless, and she was all those things! BUT those were not my favorite qualities about her. I loved her sassiness, spunk, and sense of adventure. I think I value these so much because I love that ALL of these qualities existed in one person. To be kind and loving is awesome, but to add curiosity and wit to the mix is magic. It is exactly like I want to be when I am 88. I don’t want to worry as much as she did, but it is also an endearing part of how much she loved people. I know people talk about people after they are gone like they were saints. In a lot of ways she was…but I think many of the parts that made her human were my favorites”:

My grandfather was spending too much time at the church and not prioritizing his family, so she told him he had his halo on too tight. J

When we took Grandma on a cross country road trip right after we got married, and our favorite night was pizza and beer in St. Louis, but Grandma wouldn’t let me post the picture because she didn’t want to be seen with the beer. J (Sorry Grandma for ratting you out).  For more of this see... www.grandmaandthenewlyweds.blogspot.com These are just two of MANY incriminating examples but I am only brave enough to post two here.

A Picture From Our Roadtrip

            Grieving from afar has been a difficult and weird experience. We said goodbye with the knowledge that it might be “goodbye.” She told me not to cry but we both teared up. She prayed for us every morning at 9:00 am (4:00 pm here).  I called home a lot towards the end. Each phone call, she told me she loved us and was proud of us. She told Cody to take care of me on their last phone call. It was hard not coming home, but Grandma would have HATED it if I had showed up! I would have been in SO MUCH TROUBLE with her! I just wish I could have been there to tell/hear stories and be with my whole family. I felt like a bad granddaughter for staying and wondered what people at the celebration service would think about me being the only family member not there. In my heart, I know I did what she would have wanted. Facebook and telephones are wonderful inventions I need to thank Alexander Graham Bell and Mark Zuckerburg when I get a chance. Thank you so much for your prayers, facebook messages, facebook posts, and phone calls. I appreciate them so much! They are really helping in the grieving process. I tried to be a part of it as much as possible at home with helping Cody edit the obituary, picking out outfits, and adding pieces to the service. Here I had great prayer support and friendship from the other missionaries.

            When my grandfather was dying, I did not cry about it, but I SOBBED because I did not get a piece of chocolate cake at dinner! Yes, I was projecting the problem, thank you psych majors. We were in a restaurant when my grandmother died, and all I did was nod to my friend to say she was gone, and a few minutes later there was a giant piece of chocolate cake at my place! She had remembered the story and wanted to make sure I got my chocolate cake! J Anther friend here took me off campus one afternoon, took me out for lunch in a garden gazebo WITH Internet J, and gave me an opportunity to tell Grandma stories, and it was wonderful!

 Just before we left Grandma had some friends over
to hear about what we are doing in Uganda.

She used her international decorations
to create a beautiful setting.

            










          I am so glad that she is not suffering. I know she is thrilled to be reunited with her husband, and I cannot imagine her joy at seeing her son after 60-plus years! I am jealous that she is with her creator and Savior and all of her animals that she is convinced are in heaven with her. Her theory is that God has everything she needs in heaven, so clearly he has her animals there. J