2 Weeks Home

Oh man... A lot has happened. I flew into Chicago on May 12th at 2:30. My flights were entertaining. Upon boarding in Entebbe, Uganda, 2 men got in a fight on the plane. Then when we were in the air a woman a couple rows in front of me stood up, walked by me and passed out right behind me. Just fell back and was completely out. The flight attendants and the doctor who happened to be on board got her to a seat and nursed her back to normal. When I landed in Chicago, they lost one of my bags. So my aunt Sara was doing laps around the airport outside in her car while I was filling out the forms for my bag. Then all of a sudden they found it in another terminal and brought it to me. So I rushed outside and was thrown start into the deep in with American life. Sara was stressed out about time because she was having an open house/new opening of her new studio in Chicago. I was feeling really sick but I wanted to help. When we arrived I was greeted by my grandparents and it was so so so good to see them. We all pitched in to help Sara get things ready and it was really awesome. I'm probably one of the biggest fans of Sara's work, so I'm glad I got to do something. She is in this new building that used to be a macaroni factory and now the building has been redone and is filled with other artist types. The building itself is a work of art.

Grandma Sobkoviak and I on the roof of the building.

So then I found myself standing on the roof of the building with a glass of wine in my hand watching a fashion show. What the heck?! Just the day before I was walking the streets of Jinja and then I'm watching this fashion show with the cityscape of Chicago behind me. I felt like I was living in another body. As if at any moment I would wake up and would be laying in my bed on the island. To go from Africa to this situation was like being slapped in the face.

Fashion show on the roof.

Grandpa Sobkoviak in Sara's new studio space.

Sara makes the best Sangria, seriously. No joke.

Panoramic view of the cityscape behind me.

My time at home was filled with mixed emotions. I was happy to see everyone, especially my family. It was great. But to live in the American way of life again was incredibly hard. The worst moments were when I would be talking to someone and they would ask me about my trip and they don't really care at all, they are just being polite and then end up changing the subject to something new they bought while I was gone. A piece of furniture or something useless. Calling material objects their baby. I wanted to upchuck. I got to spend Saturday with my dear friend Laura and it was incredible. I loved every minute. On Sunday I went to church and played my monitor lizard skin drum and I was in heaven. Of course being at my grandparents was filled with all kinds of awesome things. Strawberry season. Need I say more?

Strawberries from my grandparents garden.

 While I was house-sitting I was put on strawberry pickin' duty. Before they left however, my grandma taught me the old fashioned way to can strawberry jam. You make the jam like you normally do but then you can use canning jars or even just glasses. You melt paraffin wax and poor it on top to seal it. I'm totally doing this next time I make jam.

The wax for sealing.

Strawberry jam with the wax hardening on top.

A project I worked on while I was there was trying to finish my quilt. I did about 4 straight days of hand stitching while watching reruns of Rosanne. Love that show. Hilarious. Of course I had Dusty the cat as my quilting/snuggle buddy during those long hours. I even got a blister on my thumb. That has to earn me points amongst the quilting community, right?

Dusty waiting for me to sit down.

Hand stitching.

This was his favorite spot. I allow it until he starts batting at my thread.

A lot of hand stitching. All done!

And yet another project I did was actually doing something with the goat hide that I got from the goat I butchered just before leaving the farm in Waco. I did a blog about it. I decided to make a sheath for my awesome tanning knife, gifted to be by the farm community. I made a template on paper based on the size of my knife.

Paper template cut out.

Then I took the paper template and placed it on the goat hide and traced it. I cut it out of the hide and began to work with it. I decided to just leave the hair on instead of shaving it off. I sowed the belt loop piece to the back and then folded it and sowed that together. I glued and clamped it first so it was easier to sow. I pre-punched the holes to make sowing easier. Then I shaved off any extra leather and rubbed the edges with a deer antler to make them shinny and smooth. And then I was done!

Finished product.

Angela (maid of honor), Tasha, and me.

One of the hardest things for me while I was home was being in a wedding. I would like to say though, that I'm so glad I did it and was able to be there on Megan's day. I would absolutely do anything for her, even wear a dress with a big bow on it and I did. It was hard though to just come home from Uganda and then be a part of this. It was a lot of people constantly and I was so overwhelmed. It was a lot to take in. I did break down once. It was a weekend filled with lots of laughter as well.

Cavyguy, the ultimate geocacher.

One thing I was really excited to finally get to participate in was geocaching. It was awesome. For those of you who have not heard of this, let me briefly explain it (a.k.a. copy and paste the definition from the website) or you could even go to the official website: http://www.geocaching.com/ "Geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online." So you find these caches, which are hidden all over the world and I guarantee there are at least 10 close by your town, and you sign the log inside and then find the next one! So I went on my first geocache with my friend Kristel and one of the youth group girls Sam, who is a great kid and by kid I mean she just graduated high school so she isn't really a kid anymore. While on the very first hunt we ran into this man. He is from Alaska and has done over 2,000 geocaches in 25 different states. It was actually quite fun. He looked like Santa but talked and sounded actually like Zach Galifianakis which was weird.

 Our 2nd hunt led us to this cemetary and we were absolutely stumped. Cavyguy, that's his geocache name showed up and we worked together to find it. The post on the left held the cache. See that bolt down at the bottom of the post? That's it.

The bolt head was magnetic and the log was rolled up inside.

Another geocache bolt on a road sign post.

This was so much fun and we did do it again another day and I plan on doing it with my family when I get to Balmorhea, TX and maybe with a few friends in Waco.

I have to also mention this. I went to see my oldest friend, Stew. We have known each other since we were in diapers. He does hair now and lives in Kankakee with his fiance Neil and their little dog, who is the cutest stinkin' thing I've ever seen. I love visiting Stew because he is so comfortable. I was absolutely touched that he shared how he read my blog while I was in Uganda and kept up with me. I think him saying that meant more to me than anyone else telling me they kept up with the blog. Love this guy and wish I could see him more often. So this is my shout out for you STEWIE! My brother from another mother! Love you! 

Stew and I after he highlighted and cut 5 inches off my hair.

Well, that's all I have for now. Next blog will be about my journey back to Texas and all that is happening there. Hope you all continue to keep up with the blog as I continue a life of ministry. Whether it is in Illinois, Uganda, Mexico, Texas or where ever! My life is just to simply share the good news of Jesus Christ. Until next time.

Lost Thoughts

The last few days here have been very restful although I haven’t been sleeping much at night. Today Michelle and Janae took me out to lunch and gave me a going away gift. It is a wood carving of Uganda with all the districts. I’m so blessed by this family and how much they give. I had ordered some paintings on fabric when I first got here and I called Nyiro today at the art studio and he still hadn’t done them even though I told him so many times the day I was leaving and he said he would have them. I had put a down payment on them. So I took my receipt and went in to see if I could just take something else that was the same price as the money I already paid. They said it was no problem so I got a small drum. Really excited about it, except I had ordered 10 of those paintings as gifts for people so sorry about that folks at home. After I made the exchange, I walked out onto the street and just took it all in. The bodas lined up on the street. People walking and talking. Muzungus sitting outside the cafes with their aviator sunglasses sipping coffee. Kids in rags running up and down the street. The regular homeless guy that has schizophrenia. Horns honking. Venders with all their goods set up on the sidewalk. The smell of the nearest supermarket and the nearest dumpster. The sun bright and hot. All the cement buildings chipped with fading paint. Just the smell… the smell of Africa. With all this going on, it seemed so peaceful to me and comfortable. I walked down the street practicing my true African amble as if I was stalling to be somewhere. With each step I knew it was a closer one to America and bringing me further from Uganda. I strolled and thought about how much I love it here. It’s so beautiful and yet so frustrating… 

 

I realized I’m about to be thrown into a different world all over again. I’ll be visiting people and saying hello to many. I have to be prepared for the 30 second “how was your trip?” answer I will have to give because most people glaze over after that not understanding or having anything to relate this place to. I’ll show souvenirs from an exotic land. It reminds me of the movie Legends of the Fall when Tristan travels the world and comes home with gifts from different places. Everyone was almost the same yet he was so different and had left part of himself out there. Yes, I just did a movie reference. You know me. I’ll be sitting in comfortable living rooms talking about the suffering of others. I’ll be engaging but my mind will be elsewhere… wonderings the islands of Lake Victoria or roaming the paths of the central market or eating fresh fruits or thinking about the details of the faces of the Ugandans I have grown to love so much. I can’t explain this place to you, just like someone couldn’t describe China to me. You have to experience the world for yourself. I urge you. I beg you. Go somewhere. Step outside your bubble. Experience something that seems out of this world. Life is too short to let the days slip away.

Visting Julius in Myugay

The other day I went to Myugay to visit Julius and his family. Let me tell you what a day that was. I only had 6,000 shillings in my pocket and Julius told me it takes 3,000 by Mutatu and then boda (motorcycle) fare to his house. I didn’t have enough money to get there and back. So I went to the ATM to get some shillings for my journey and be able to buy a gift for them because that’s the custom here. I had plans to pick up a pineapple or some kind of fruit for them. I went into the ATM room and there is a guard with a rifle at all the ATM’s and she declared to me there was no money in the machine and I would have to go down the street. This is the only machine that works for my debit card though but I went down the street anyway. Of course that ATM didn’t work for me so now I’m stuck. I’m starting to run late. So I call Julius and explain that my ATM is out of money and I don’t think I can make it. He says, No, you just come. Don’t worry. So I trusted they guy. I thought, I’ll have to skip the gift to be able to just make it there. So I wondered over to the taxi park. Taxi parks are always a big cluster cuss. So I just start telling people I’m going to Myugay. One guy finally takes me to a Mutatu and I get in the front. Mutatus are taxi vans that are licensed to hold 14 passengers but they squeeze more in there. I sat and sat and sat there. Waiting for departure. They kept saying 2 more passengers! 2 more passengers! The lady next to me had already been waiting an hour when I got there. She finally said, I’m losing my patience, let me go. So I got out and she followed. She was immediately swarmed by the driver and 2 other guys. They tried to persuade her to stay but she just dodge the arms being put around her shoulder and the silver tongues and walked away. I remained. I too sat there for an hour and then phoned Julius. He said to remain on the taxi and wait. So I waited some more. We finally left after we got 2 more passengers and loaded the taxi with about 10 huge bundles of newspapers. Yes, inside the taxi, not on top, in. We finally started off. Now from here it’s about a 2 hour drive to Myugay… in a private car. Taxis are constantly stopping and letting people off and picking up new people. Julius starts calling about every 15 minutes. Then as I get closer he starts calling every 5 minutes then wants to talk to the driver. The driver talks to him and laughs. I tell Julius, I’m coming, I’m coming! The he wants to talk to the driver a 2^nd time. After the driver hangs up he says, “That guys worries much! Haha! I told him I’m coming!” We had a good laugh in the taxi about it as Julius calls again… I finally reach and am greeted by Julius and his little 2 year old boy Andrew. Seriously… cutest African kid I’ve ever seen in my entire life! Andrew instantly greets me and calls me Amanda which is the other white girl who used to be here. The taxi driver asked for my fare so I handed him 5,000 and he doesn’t give me my balance back. (It’s called balance here not change). He says the fare is 5,000. Oh crap… how am I supposed to get back now. I’m left with a 1,000 bill and some coins. We got on a boda and Julius paid my fare for that. Julius’ wife, Ruth, is such a beautiful, gracious, humorous, joyful woman. It’s funny to think that I’m 5 years older than her. Julius is 36 and Ruth is around 21. She doesn’t seem any younger than him in maturity though. They presented me with a mountain dew, a rolex (fried egg in a chapti) and some roasted g-nuts. Such a feast! We ate and laughed and Andrew continued to call me Amanda and Ruth continued to correct him. I felt so bad that I didn’t have a gift and I started thinking of things in my book bag that I could just give them. Then as we were wrapping things up, Ruth presented me with one of her crafts. She even put it in a box and wrapped it. Oh man, do I feel like a pile of dirt now. So I racked my brain and then I remembered I had a torch in my bag. Oh torch here is what they call flashlights. I had planned on keeping it but it’s just a torch, big deal. So I called Andrew to come over to me and I reached in my bag and gave him the torch. He was so excited to have his own torch! Newly bought gifts are nice but they are extra special when it’s something that actually belonged to you. That means so much more to people here. So we said our goodbyes and Andrew was bawling because he didn’t want his daddy to leave. Julius and I traveled back to Jinja together because he had to go back to the island. We jumped in a car and headed down the road. When we reached the next town we got out and I found a 500 shilling coin on the ground. That’s a fortune to find here on the street. We then hopped in a Mutatu and made it back to Jinja. I felt like a sardine packed in the back of the mutatu. We finally reached Jinja and Julius covered all the cost. He even handed me boda fare when we reached Jinja even though I could have walked to the Peterson house. Oh and don’t worry I paid him back and plus some because the ATM was working when we reached! I just was blown away by the giving of his family and of him. He didn’t expect to be paid back. He gave freely and now he will be blessed with a little extra. Cutest family ever. Julius, Ruth, 2 year old Andrew and 4 month old Joseph. I’m so happy I got to finally meet his family and I hope to return and see them again!

Preparation for Home... Not Home... America

Tonight as I write this, I'm feeling an extreme sadness. It comes over me in waves. It hit me tonight as I was being driven back to the Peterson's house by Andy after spending time making milkshakes with Keeky and hanging out. It was night and there is something different about Jinja when it's dark. It's not scary to me, but more peaceful. I don't know. There's just something in the air that feels refreshing. I love driving through main street at night. As we were driving with all the sounds, sights and smells, it just hit me that soon I will be in this alternate universe. I can't even think about being in Chicago on Friday and then in church on Sunday in Watseka, IL.... AMERICA. What is that place? It seems so foreign to me now and like that life I had there doesn't really exist and the life I have here is the real thing. What did I even do before this? What kind of person was I? How should I interact with people? What do I do with myself? I don't feel prepared to dive back into American culture. I know I will be frustrated a lot. I know I will also be happy to see family and be missing those I left here in Uganda. I feel like I'm divided into two people now. Part of me is here and some of you will never see it and part of me is there and people here will never see it. If any of you are hesitant to travel... to go preach the gospel some where... don't be. Just go. You will regret it if you don't and you won't have any awesome stories to tell. Don't waste this life being comfortable. It's time to get a little uncomfortable.

Last Week on Lingira

On Tuesday I had an agriculture seminar in Katonga village. I was the only teacher for this seminar and Julius just interpreted for me. I taught on goat health and treatment as well as poultry vaccinations. We got there right on time and of course no one was there so I just set up a bench under the big tree by the shore and played with all the kids there. The seminar was soon underway and all was going well. I had noticed that it is a custom here to keep the baby goats away from their mother all day. So I saw one of the little ones was really weak and I could see all of its ribs. I had someone go and fetch the baby goat for me and I began to speak against this custom, explaining how the relationship between momma goat and baby goat works and the feeding habits. I also said it will make the mom dry up quicker if you do it like this. They also don't make any water available to the little ones all day. You would have thought I just introduced the most earth shattering idea. It created this huge argument. We were all standing up and it was flurry of Luganda and English. Julius basically blew the whistle on the meeting and we said our thank you's and walked away. Haha. But over the next few days of visiting the village, I saw fewer and fewer baby goats hanging around. Either they were with their moms or they hid the goats from the crazy muzungu.

On Wednesday was my last prayer meeting for Katonga village. There is a culture thing here that always breaks my heart. The fact that kids are just an annoyance. It's so frustrating. They get chased away from church with switches broken off the nearest tree. During prayer meetings they crowd around the door and then get yelled at to leave. Children here are just dispensable and replaceable and unimportant. At the beginning of this prayer meeting the children began to gather around the door and pastor Phillip got up and walked toward the door. I braced myself for the heartache of watching the kids get shooed away. But something different happened... Phillip grabbed the first kid and pulled him inside and popped him right in the middle of the floor and then went after the next one. Then Olivah stood up and helped Phillip usher in ALL the kids and had them sit on the floor. So the room was packed with adults and the kids took up every square inch of floor space. I was over the moon excited about this. I couldn't believe the obedience and love for Christ that was flowing from these two Africans that they would go head on with their culture and do things differently. Phillip was later asked about this by Keeky and he replied, well of course I would do that. It says in the Bible... And he continued to, on the spot, quote the whole passage about Jesus talking about the children. I was so excited to be able to tell a story from the Bible with all the kids there. So I told the story of Elijah on mountain with the 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah and with the two alters. I emphasized on the whole speech that Elijah gives about, "How long will you waver between two opinions?!"  It was good for them because some of the very practices that the prophets did in the story actually happen with witch doctors today, even the cutting of their own bodies and everything and their gods didn't answer them. But the Lord answered with power. Then I challenged them, how long were they going to waver between two opinions? Like the woman I heard about on the village that is a born again but still does witch craft for her business. She totally didn't see what was wrong with that. It was awesome to tell the story and then hear the responses. They even asked me to tell it over again. Haha.

On Thursday I went down and taught some of the women how to hoof trim their goats. What I think happened though was they got a someone to trim their goat hooves for free. Haha. But any time spent in Katonga village is well worth it. Oh also this week was my going away meal. We had chicken and fish! What a treat! And no bugs! Al least, not that I knew of. Then I spent the weekend just hanging out and reading. Then Sunday was my last church service on the island. It was great. I wish I had more time because I love how the kids now come in and fight for a spot next to me and we have fun drawing in my notebook. After that all the ladies of Katonga walked me back to the base and we said our goodbyes. I cried as I walked back to the building knowing I might not see some of them again on this earth, but I'm thankful for the hope in Christ that we will be together in eternity with Him. Then I hopped on the boat with my few bags and headed back to the mainland to spend my last few days in Jinja with the Peterson family. My flight leaves here Thursday night at 11:30 pm, so that's 3:30 pm back at home for those of you who want to pray for my flights. Then I should land in Chicago around 2:30 pm on Friday afternoon. Can't wait to see everyone, but I so want to just stay here... Can someone just ship my family over here? Thanks. Haha.