Week 24 | Uganda

Mikwano jange (my friends), I apologize I'm getting very behind in my blogging the past few weeks, and then I almost forget the things that happened when I'm halfway through the next week.

There's been some pretty amazing days and I know I'll never just fully be able to share and put to words what I feel in my heart and sometimes, like someone told me, I think I forget how abnormal my life is here and the things that seem crazy to people back home, but now seem normal to me. But it's good for me to be reminded of this because it allows me to see the beauty in all these small things that I've been privileged to be a part of. 

Like on Sunday afternoon we walked back to school and spent the evening with the kids and shared the cookies we baked after church with our friends. We went down to the banana plantation with the kids to get their matooke for dinner and also brought a ffeene (jackfruit) back with us. As we're sitting the the veranda of Hammy's house eating our jackfruit our friends, enjoying the cool evening breeze, Haylie and I glance over at each other as if we knew we were thinking the exact same thing. And we were. (Not surprising though, as our minds seem to be in sync with each others, and we always catch onto the same things at the same time. It's kind of weird. Does this mean we've been living together for to long? lol) 

How did we find a place that feels so much like home right now? I finish my fruit and help Hammy and Angel peel the matooke they'll have for dinner and they laugh at me because of my uneducated ways of trying to prepare the local food. 

The dry season is now upon us which brings some sunny intense heat during the day, but strangely enough the nights and early mornings are very cool. Either I've officially become Ugandan and can't handle anything below 70 degrees fahrenheit or it's colder than I think it is. But the dry air brings a nice cool breeze in the mornings and I found myself wearing a long sleeve t-shirt and sweats as I did my morning devotions today. 

  

Walking through the Bukeka jungle on our way to school and we had to stop and commemorate this moment. 

One thing that Haylie and I have done is stopped taking our malaria pill, because of the way it made us feel and settled for a more natural route. Papaya leaf tea. We did a fair amount of research and felt very confidant that it would be considerably better than taking a pill especially with all the extra health benefits it has. We noticed immediate results and are now making it for others and telling everyone about it. So we'll take all the leaves just not the papaya fruit. I think that is probably the only food that both of us will for sure not eat.    

My sweet girl celebrated her birthday last week. This sweet one is growing up so fast and I've loved that I've been able to see her grow up this past year and a half. 

The sky over Suubi one evening. We were sitting around a bonfire one evening when I looked up and beheld the majesty of our God. We sat close to one another, ate our roasted corn, and had good conversations. Soon after, the drums were brought down from church, I stood back watched and listened as everyone praised our great God in song. What a blessing.