The Girls

Hey Everyone!!!!

As promised here is another blog!!!!!!

Since my life has slowed down...actually, my life hasn't slowed down, it's just that the stuff I'm doing now is not very photogenic. I don't think you want to see pictures of the stacks of information that I'm going through to write job descriptions, concept papers, manuals, etc, etc...ect. So I decided to introduce you to the girls of the house. I caught the girls washing when I took the pictures.

Esther

Left to right: Christine, Joana and Naomi

Juliet

Naomi

I stay in a room at Faith's house (the Director of Bringing Hope to the Family); Faith's house is always full of people who come and go: visitors, family, missions teams; but the girls always stay. There were 5 girls here when I came and now there are 8 girls staying here. Three of the girls (Christine, Esther and Liz) are Faith's nieces. Most of the girls are here because their parents can't provide for them, and they range in age from about 6 to 15...I think. In Uganda age and birthdays are not very important.

Many times, I come into the house, and they are singing. The other day I came in and the younger ones were singing the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song in their broken English. It was AWESOME!!!!! I don't know where they learned it, but I decided to join them. So here we are in the middle of a village in Uganda singing the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air song. Absolutely hysterical!

This event led to a repeat concert the next night, but it became so much more. The girls (Christine, Esther, and Liz) decided that they were going to teach me Rutoro; a great gesture, but they speak only broken English and, as I found out later, poor Rutoro. So we enlisted Juliet to help. I now have a list of many Rutoro phrases that, I'm sorry to say, I haven't been practicing.

Juliana and Liz with Andre

Today, Liz and Juliana decided that I needed to share my room with them. So they came in and went though some of my things asking what is this? and what is that? Then they found "Andre" (my garden gnome...a spoof off of Travelocity.) Juliana said he was Father Christmas; Liz decided that he was a sculpture of my father. So, I showed them pictures of my family and what my father really looks like. Liz promptly decided that Andre was my grandfather instead. I haven't been able to convince her differently. :0)

Talk to you again soon.

Love,

Joyce

New Places

Hi Everyone!!!!

Sorry it's been soooooo long since I've written; sometimes it's difficult to find something to write about. Life isn't always exciting and blog worthy. I still find it ironic that I'm writing about my life and people are reading it...but that's just me. Thanks for your support! :0)

Life has slowed down since Dorcas is on break. I'm still in the process of doing some technical writing for Bringing Hope to the Family. It's a slow process.

This last week we took a trip to Rwanda, so I could renew my visa; it was an adventure. Katie, Chris, Kolby, Logan, AJ, Ana and I piled into the Pajero and took off on the adventure.

Me at the equator.

Rwanda is the land of 10,000 hills... literally. All the roads were s-curves up one side of a hill (small mountain) and then s-curves down the other side of the hill; then repeat this for 350 miles...it took us 12 hours...long day in the car.

Me, Katie and Ana in the Pajero.

We were making great time until we stopped at Kibale (a city just north of the Uganda/Rwanda border). Quick service is foreign concept in most restaurants in Uganda...the Little Ritz is no different. It took 2.5 hours to get our food...but in their defense the food was pretty good.

Next stop...the border. 1.5 hours later, 4-5 places to check-in and removal of window tinting and we were across and into Rwanda. Rwanda is a beautiful country, very clean and orderly, but they don't have many tourist attractions other than gorilla trekking and volcanoes. But if you like beautiful scenery then Rwanda will satisfy you. Their terrace farming is amazing; I've never seen anything like it anywhere else in the world.

Kigali, Rwanda in the morning mist.

We stayed in Kigali, the capitol, the first night. The city is built on two hills. It has beautiful views. The next day, we went from Kigali to Gisenyi on Lake Kivu. The drive was beautiful; we passed by the Volcano National Park and saw some smoking volcanoes.

Terracing on the road to Gisenyi.

Bamboo forest and road construction.

Lake Gisenyi is nice. It is a little hazy, but the water is warm; I think it's due to the closeness of the volcanoes. We spent the next day at one of the nice hotels using their pool and private beach. I decided not to swim in the lake...as we were driving to the hotel there were about 10 people bathing in the lake, so I decided swimming in the lake wasn't necessary.

We only spent one day in Gisenyi, then it was back to Uganda. AJ and I ended up getting sick on the day we came back, which made the trip even more memorable. LOL! All in all it was fun exploring a new country, and doing it with great friends made it even better.

I did learn a few things about traveling to and from Rwanda. So if you ever travel between Uganda and Rwanda here are some tips: Rwandans speak French...so learn some French, it is very difficult to exchange Ugandan Shillings in Rwanda...so exchange money before you go, Rwanda is more expensive than Uganda...so plan accordingly, and the biggest thing I learned is when renewing your visa, the Uganda border only accepts US$, not Ugandan Shillings...so make sure you take American money with you, or you'll be taken by a money changer at the border. :0)

We had a good time. I was nice to get away and explore a new place.

Talk to you again soon...I promise. :0) .

Love,

Joyce

La Gringa

Normal again...or maybe not.

Hi Everyone!!!!!

Life in the village is getting back to normal. It has slowed down some, since the missions teams have gone home.

This week Dorcas finished their term. Finals did not go as well as I had hoped, but in each challenge I learn more about the girls. Many of the girls were taken out of school at an early age to care for sick family members or to care for their brothers and sisters after their parents died. These girls are described as “uneducated;” they haven’t been taught how to study or that they can be successful. This truth became evident in their final examinations. I was sad at first and thought that it was my fault as a teacher.

Then I took a step back and realized that as a teacher I didn’t give them the tools that they needed to be successful. I taught them the things that they needed to know, but I didn’t teach them how to study and retain the information that they were given. I hope to start a study group at the beginning of the next term; maybe through this group the girls will learn how to study and retain the information they are taught. Please pray for these girls and for the staff at Dorcas they are facing many severe challenges financially, emotionally, spiritually and socially.

Since Dorcas is on break, my job here has changed for a little while. I will now be helping Bringing Hope to the Family (Dorcas’s parent organization) write job descriptions and a boilerplate, so that they can have these as reference materials whenever they apply for grant funding or they have new hires. I’m excited to help out in this way, and for the local community to see me as more than the “Cake Baker.”

Just for fun I thought I’d show you my new home. It’s very different from American homes, I miss lying on the carpeted living room floor and taking hot showers from the showerhead, but it hasn’t been a difficult adjustment. I’m thankful for what I have.

The Kitchen

The Courtyard - I stay in a room in the building on the right.

The Showers and Restroom - Showers on the left and restrooms on the right

My Room - It has one less bunk-bed in it now.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Talk to you again soon.

Love,

Joyce