End of Soroti, soon off to Jinja.

So much to talk about!! Sorry about any rambling or being sporadic. Hehe.

Mondays are our day off, so we try to do something fun or touristy in town. Soroti has a GIANT rock with water tanks on it (yes, random), so we climbed that last Monday. It was soooo great. Treacherous, but very amazing. They have steps, kind of, going all the way up. As you get further and further up, the steps pretty much turn into rubble that you have to pray you don't slip on. Ha. In the middle, we saw MONKEYS!! It was so great!! The very top of the rock is a military base (man, this rock is getting more and more random!!), so it's hard to get all the way up. But David, one of the Soroti DTS students, talked our way up. It was gorgeous. We could see all of Soroti and then some. Words simply cannot describe.

There's a big pipe running over a chasm on the rock. And we saw a man walking across it. CRAZY - if you fall, you die. AH!!

So we climbed all the way down, which of course was more scary than going up. We all get to the bottom and I realize something unbelieveable... I left my camera at the very, very, very top of the rock. It was pretty much as high as you could go. Oh no... The good thing is is that Carolyn, Mike, and David all had the time of their lives, so they really wanted to go back up. Hmmm, so I did them a favor? LoL - maybe not. They we pretty exhausted when they got back down again. Oops. But thank the Lord for those three : ).

As part of FACE (Facing AIDS with Compassion and Education), YWAM Soroti does a mobile clinic to bring meds and health care out to the villages. Only a couple of us can do help with this at a time, so on Tuesday, Jillana, Melbourne (both from the Trinidad DTS team), Carolyn and I went along.

The way there was GREAT. We often ride in the bed of a truck wherever we need to go, so the four of us did that. Jillana had her IPOD, so Carolyn and I listened to the Lion King soundtrack on our way there. Oh my goodness, I can't even describe riding through African bush listening to that music. So amazing. Cute and funny. But moreso incredible. The music fit perfectly with what I was seeing and feeling and smelling... Mmmm!! If you're ever in Africa, make sure to listen to the beginning of The Circle of Life as you ride. You'll never regret it.

We picked up people on the way. One of the women was lame, but she got herself into the back of the truck just fine. She really impacted me. She had two children with her, and was still completely capable despite not being able to walk. As we were getting out in the village, she kind of slipped out of the truck and fell. And then laughed!! I was amazed at how she didn't let her situation get her down. Now that is resilience. What a lady.

We basically just counted pills to hand out to patients in the village that they've already seen. Check-up stuff. It was so simple, but so beneficial. : )

This week we also started to get my hair braided!! It has been a long process. There are three of us getting it done, so we've devoted lots of free time to it!! And I'll admit, the guy who's doing it is the first Ugandan to try my patience many times over. Let's just say we believe different things about customer service.

So far, I've put in 12 hours getting them done. Approximately 4 more hours today. Yup. Sixteen hours over 6 days and 4 sessions. Bleh!! Hey - at least I love them : ) And it's nice to have long hair again.

A lot of this week was also devoted to working at Amacet, the home for orphaned, abandoned, and/or HIV positive children. They have about 9 babies, 6 toddlers, and 3 older kids. It's very regulated - they're all on very organized feeding and changing schedules. They're well taken care of and I love it.

One of the older kids, Siliver, calls me "Auntie 'Merica." LOL!!

Learning to change diapers was... interesting. They use cloth diapers (they're like flour towels) with plastic coverings. It was easy to get the hang of, but cleaning them is the weirdest thing!! Before you put them into the hamper, you have to sort of pre-wash them. You stick the diaper into the toilet holding one corner and flush!! This must be the spin cycle, LoL. If there's any poop residue, you scrub it off with the toilet brush. Then off to the actual laundering... Weird!!

A few of us each worked a night shift - 6 pm to 8 am. Loooooooong. But hey, a blessing to the Amacet staff for sure. And it was good to see some things - heartbreaking. Just sick kids in general. Hard to see. Hard to stomach. Hard to accept.

Helen. She's ten months old, but was malnourished (basically there was no one to take care of her, I guess). So she's 3.5 kilos - the size of a healthy three month old. She was so skinny. So skinny. But so pretty. I thought she was so gorgeous. Big, dark brown eyes. She has a feeding tube and mittens so she doesn't pull it out of her nose, so I think she's pretty uncomfortable. But she's got a lot of love in Amacet. Amazing. I can't get her out of my mind now. There are some kids that no matter how sick they seem, they're still so beautiful to you, and you can't get over it. There's something beyond their illness, their circumstances, their families. There's more.

Mood swing. Sorry, I don't know how else to do it.

In Soroti, there are bicycle taxis called "Boda Bodas." Ok, I love them. The bicycles have a cushioned platform just behind the seat (above the rear wheel) for you to sit on. Girls have to ride side-saddle, as we have to wear modest skirts everywhere but the YWAM base. I've taken 4 boda bodas in the last 3 days. LoL!! See how excited I am? The first time was scary (the roads are pretty bumpy, but they're pretty good at making the ride smooth). I was holding onto the spring underneath the seat and, uhm, accidentally violated my boda boda - I touched his butt!! AHHHHHHH. Oops. Why am I so awkward??

AND..

Crystal, Mike and I were walking on the main road and a guy we know from church, Japheth, pulled over on his motorbike. "Want a ride?" Uhm. YES!! So I got to do that, too!! I don't think I've ever taken a motorcycle ride before, which is CRAZY!!

On Sunday, we went to Deliverence Church, where we had done two weeks prior. So it was familiar to us. Jas and I both gave our testimonies. At first it was a bit difficult speaking with a translator. Imagine trying to keep a good flow of your talk while having to stop and pause after every sentence. It gets a little chopping and a lot depends on your translator. I guess my sentence structure was a little nuts because my translator gave me a few confused looks. Thank God for Japheth (motorbike man!) - he came up to translate for me and the rest went fine. I was actually glad for him - he reminds me of my friend, Dan Gabel (hey Dan!), so he made me feel at home. Yup. I found an African Dan Gabel.

The pastor did something SO funny. At the end of the service, they all prayed for us. We won't see them again because we leave for Jinja on Wednesday. Then Pastor started talking about how since we're leaving, he's realizing that the men in his church aren't good fishermen. At first we were like, "What?" And we thought he was talking about bringing people to Jesus. Nope. He was talking about marriage. He was ashamed that none of the men snatched us ladies up. LoL. Wow.

That afternoon, we went to the Soroti Hospital to hand out soap, milk biscuits, and sweets to the kids there. It was a lot different from hospitals here. All the beds (besides newborns and Tetanus patients) are in the same room. Same room. So there's no privacy, even being sick. And they're very crowded, as a lot of the parents stay with their kids. I handed out the sweets and people were very grateful. I tried as much as I could to say "Asi reren e deke" (sorry to all the Attesso speakers out there, I don't know how to spell!!) - meaning "God bless you." People lit up when they heard that. : )

We also went to a ward with malnourished kids. Wow. Skin and bones.

I wish you could all be here to see what I'm seeing. I'm struggling with words. They just don't do it for me. They can't.

By the way - Happy Australian Day!! Today we had a celebration. With face paint. And Australian chocolate. Yay!! Jas had a good time : D

Love you all. Miss you bunches. I can't wait 'til I can actually tell you about Uganda face to face!!