God is in the business of making miracles happen!

The last 48 hours have been CRAZY! Sunday night we leave for the airport about 8. Brendah, Jayan, and Felix came with us, so we laughed and laughed and laughed some more.... That is until our car broke down. All of the sudden is makes an awful shrill, and the car starts smoking.. Big time smoking. So, we all jump out and start joking about it until we realize what happened. The boys run down the street to grab a "mechanic," and the girls pile into an already full Ugandan taxi with all of our luggage. (Someone should have taken a picture. We got so many stares from our fellow cab riders).  We're almost to the airport, and the guys call us and tell us to jump off because the car is fixed. Once we finally get there, we sprint to the gate only for the lady to look at us and say, "It's closed." When Sarah asked her what she meant, the lady stared at her for a good 8 seconds and said, "The flight is closed. You have to go in that door and to the office." Jayan and I take off running, and all we find is a closed KLM office. So.. (Dont worry. We're just getting started). We come back and she says, "You were late. We can't check in anyone after 1030." We explain to her that we were there at 10:30, and she just ignores us. She grabs the KLM manager, and he completely blows us off and says he will talk to us at midnight in the office. All the while we have 5 Ugandans with us that have to be at work on Monday, and the airport is an hour and a half away. Finally, midnight rolls around and the manager comes in. One of his colleagues waves us to sit down in his office, right across from him. We never once greets us or says anything. After 10 minutes of him eating, watching soccer, and working on his computer, Sarah says, "Sebu, do you have time to talk to us or should we come back tomorrow?" Without looking up, he says that he will be with us in a minute. And then the fun begins... He's trying to book us a flight for Tuesday! That would mean that we had a day and a half in Rome, which we felt wasn't worth the money we spent. He said that he couldn't compensate us for our hotel in Rome or the Rome flight. So, we take it because he tells us it's our only option. We ask the lady for her name, and she won't give it to us, which is illegal. How am I supposed to know she even works at the airport if she won't show me her badge? And! why are you hiding it if you've done nothing wrong? She calls 2 "supervisors" that I know are not her supervisors. One says her name is Jacqueline but won't tell me her second name. I'm also like 98% sure that that's not her name because when I would say, "I know your name is Jacqueline, but I just want your last name, she would smirk. After a heated discussion, we just leave. One of the "supervisors" says he's going to take down my name, so he can handle the complaint. I say ummm.. Absolutely not. If you give me her name, I will give you mine. Of course he wouldn't do it that way because he's not the supervisor. I'm buying Skye credit when I get home and making a phone call. It got that bad. I recorded most of it on my phone too so that I could have proof. Anyways,  I get to sleep around 345 or so. We wake up at 630 to work on flight stuff, and we get nowhere after holding for about 6 hours. Everyone keeps saying that if we want to leave on Monday, we have to pay $600 each. You can imagine the frustration level. At this point we were fine with just going home, but not if we still had to pay for Rome but no one would tell us that we got any compensation. After getting nowhere on the phone, we go to the KLM office in Kampala. Benon walks up to the counter and says he needs a manager. This woman said, "Well, what do you think a manager looks like?" We knew we were in for a real treat. (Hopefully y'all can catch that sarcasm). She is sooooo sassy, raises her voice at us a few times, and even tries to tell us that we have to pay for the flight the guy put us on for Tuesday. She asks how we can prove we were there at 10:30. We then ask her how she can prove we weren't. - It was basically a cat and mouse game. She was super unhelpful and said that Delta needed to handle everything. Delta always says KLM has to handle it, so we just told her no that she needed to. Sarah is feeling really sick, so we walk out feeling a little defeated. Keep in mind we're running on about 2 hours of sleep. And to top it all off, Sonja can't meet us in Rome. :( -- Anyways, we go home and say that we're going to try one more time. I text my mom and tell her to rally her prayer warriors together, and I'm finally like, "Okay, God. Please take care of this." Not 3 minutes later, Sarah is on the phone with a lady that says, "Yeah, no problem we can put y'all on the flight tonight with no extra charge." (Ummm.. hello! Straight up miracle. After trying for almost 12 hours. I wonder what would have happened if we had just prayed about it first. :/ ) Anyways, She signs Sarah up, cancels my Tuesday flight and then doesn't schedule me. We call about 3 more times, and we finally get it solved at 630. We had decided earlier that day that we needed to leave at 6:30 to be safe, but none of the EAC drivers will answer their phones. So, they hire a driver that comes at 8:15!!! And there is a HUGE traffic jam.. Well multiple jams. They were so bad that our driver turned his car off a few times. I was getting pretty anxious, not going to lie. He ended up pulling those "I'm going to be really obnoxious and drive on the side of the road to pass all of these cars." That's a little more appropriate in Uganda, but still definitely frowned upon. Then, he just flies down Entebbe road, spending lots of time in the opposite lane driving past cars. We get there at like 10:10 only to find out that Sarah is on the flight but not me. Guess who is helping us? The same KLM manager that was so rude! However, this time he was actually pretty nice and helpful! (And yes, as much as my flesh didn't want to, I shook his hand and told him thank you). Our flight from Amsterdam to Rome was cancelled, so he says we can go to Paris first. Awesome, no big deal. We'll get there about the same time anyways. After our flight to Amsterdam, Sarah and I realize that they put us on 2 different flights! So, I'm sitting in the airport, and she's flying to Paris. So yeah.... It's such a good thing that God is in control. Praying for both of our safe travels! When things like this happen, I always have an uneasy feeling about it. 

Saying "see you later" to Jayan, Brendah, and Felix this morning was so hard. No tears, but I was close. Those 3 are just so special to us! Thank goodness for Skype and for Jesus, that binds our friendship together. 

Sweet Liz came over for a surprise visit, and what a great surprise it was!

Love. Love. Love these 2 girls. They love Jesus so much and are such a wonderful source of encouragement. 

We wanted Melissa and Lola there. :(

Praise The Lord! 

Angie Brooke

Never goodbye.. Always see you later.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently! It's been a WHIRLWIND! We've been spending the night at friends' houses, so I haven't had Internet. So, get ready for a long post.

I tried to come here with only having an expectation to at least see and hug my friends. So, most of my  time during the day has been spent doing some background work at the house/office, which has been great. I tried to spend that time literally working next to the Ugandans to see how they interact in that setting and spend more time with them. Being intentional... Sometimes it was much easier and more efficient to go elsewhere, but that's not the only reason I'm here.  It's opened my eyes to a lot of things here at EAC. There are some HARD working people here that LOVE these kids and truly do want to see them succeed in life. Seriously consider sponsoring one of these kids. It's only $35. http://www.empower-a-child.org/eachome/sponsor.html

We spent the night with our friend Brenda's family, which was so different from sleeping the night at Jayan's place. We were greeted with pure excitement and overwhelming joy that we were there. (Not that Jayans wasn't, but we're more friends to her and not guests). We had homemade juice (you juicers would love it here. There's ALWAyS fresh juice wherever you go) in our hands within minutes. Then came the chopped up carrots and cucumbers.. And then the milk tea. We offered to help cook dinner, which turned into us cooking dinner with Brenda. (Get ready BR people. I'm bringing home the Ugandan spice!). We had to serve it at like 10! We were so embarrassed, but the coals needed to be changed right at the end, which made things really slow down. I think it tasted really good too!-- Brenda's mom showered us with gifts.. Like way too many. She woke up around 4;30/5:00 to finish sewing our stuff. I'm talking about dresses, bags, gifts for our moms, loofahs, etc. She's great. She heard about a girl in her village that wasn't doing well in school, so she wanted to learn to sew. Mama Brenda took in this little girl and is teaching her how to be a seamstress.. No compensation, no questions asked. I mean...really? People in the south are really welcoming and great host, but Ugandans really do top all of that. 

You know what's also super encouraging.. These people wake up at like 5:00 to pray for an hour and read the Bible together. I'll wake up close to that time to work out, but rarely simply because I want to have some quiet time with The Lord, and never over an hour early. Reality check. Priority check. Slap in the face.. Whatever you want to call it totally happened. Also, we were running behind because Mama Brenda wanted to finish our gifts. Still, we prayed together, the prayed again, then sang a praise song. Again, reality check. My normal, American instinct would be to get frustrated because I had slept like 8 hours in 2 days, and I'm impatient. I couldn't though.. They were so passionate about it. I want to be more like that. 

I got to do some OT evals and treatments! I saw 2 kids with autism and one girl that probably has a genetic condition. I spent a lot of my time just trying to educate the parents and the teachers and staff there. One boy instantly responded really well to deep compression, and I explained that to his teachers and his dad. Not 10 minutes later, I see a teacher yanking him to the bathroom, and he's screaming at the top of his lungs. I gently walk over there and ask if I can help. She gives me this, "sure, but it's not going to help" look. So, I go over there and start doing some deep compression and repeating, "you're okay. You're okay." He calms down, and I tell him it's bathroom time and then snack time. He gets up and walks to the that room without a peep. Hopefully my actions are going to speak louder than my words did. I even got to show his teacher aide the best way to get him from point A to point B when he was being a little stubborn. He wandered into our play room and wouldn't leave for her. 

Saying goodbyes are never, ever easy, so it's just "see you later" for now.  When I left last time, I promised I would be back. I honestly wasn't so sure I could uphold that promise anytime soon. I can confidently say "see you later" to my friends here. One of my best friends lives here. I have to come back. I also can't see all of these little kids in the orphanages and see their living situation and not come back. I can't change the world, as much as I would like to, but I can change the life of at least one kid that doesn't know what family is like and has never experienced love like that

. You can't even pick the babies up at one orphanage because they won't stop crying when you put them down. They all crave love so much. It's so hard.

Here's some of the last pictures from my Uganda pictures... At least for this visit. :)

Us with Brenda! 

And Mama Brenda! 

Is this boy not the cutest? We stayed at his awesome house last night, and we watched him for the day. His mom is from the UK, and his dad is Ugandan. They met at the deaf school when Genni was here in 2009. It's so cute to see Dom signing with his daddy.. I mean melt your heart to pieces cute. He LOVES his daddy. 

He would jump in, swim to the ladder and climb out and do it all over again. 

We brought a neighborhood boy too. Sarah was teaching Owen how to swim. PRECIOUS, precious little boy and family. It was sweet seeing him with Dominic. They bonded instantly. Owen, who only had posho (flour and water) for lunch willingly cut up his sausage for Dominic and gave him as many fries as he wanted. He held his hand as we walked down the street, etc. 

Little nugget was all tuckered out after a very busy and exciting day. 

I'm leaving with a very full heart and a renewed spirit, and I'm so thankful for that. 

Praise The Lord!

Auntie Brooke aka "auntie B" because Brooke is hard for Dom to say. :)

Faith. Trust.

Sarah and I got to go to the village on Tuesday, which is always a blessing. It's no coincidence that I posted about trust before I left. Those village people get it, y'all. They not only trust us to teach and love on their children, but trust that The Lord will provide. They live off their land and somehow make enough to feed their children and keep them healthy and alive.  When we show up in the village, they gladly let us just take their children and love on them and fill them with the Word. We were, and some of us are, complete strangers from a whole different culture, yet they trust us and trust The Lord enough to let us invest in their children. IAnd above all else, they are soooo joyful!! It's so encouraging to be there and interact with them. I wish all of y'all could experience it. -- God has definitely been working on my trust with Him, but trusting people.. Sheeeeesh. I really need Jesus in that area. I got a good slap in the face this trip. 

And the kids.. They wear clothes that have holes in them that are usually too small and have been hand me downs from multiple siblings. They could care less, and it may not be what their parents want, but they are healthy and happy and love Jesus. It's such an eye opener. They are all so joyful too! I know that worldly things don't matter. We all do, but it's so hard to live that out. It's possible though. Sure, we need clothes and shoes because we can't go around naked, but it's possible. All we need is Jesus and his agape love. 

This is not even specific to Africa, but I want to give my parents a big shout out. Growing up, especially when I was away at college, they always told me to not walk through campus by myself at night, not go grocery shopping late, etc. etc. I'm not going to lie, it was a weeee bit frustrating at times. I get it now! Last night we went out to this restaurant, and the girls (the average age here is about 20) wanted to ride boda bodas home. The thought that those drivers could bring us wherever we wanted never crossed their mind. I'm so thankful that my parents made me realize that I can't live my life in constant fear, but I'm also not invincible. They may be reading this and thinking I probably still feel that way, which I'm sure I still have some growing in that area, but hey.. At least I kind of get it, so thanks, Mom and Dad! :) not everything you have said has gone in one ear and out the other. 

The last few days have been so busy and hectic, but in a good way. We spent the last few nights with Jayan, so I haven't had Internet to post. Tuesday there were some bloody riots downtown. We went downtown Wednesday to run some errands. They always say when they're going to protest, and they didn't mention Wednesday. Well, we're sitting in the taxi waiting to go home (taxis are kind of like our buses, but their 14 passenger vans), and all of the Africans' jaws drop, and they start pointing. Sarah and I look behind us, and there are soooo many boda bodas and cops .. Pure chaos. We instantly panic thinking it's a riot. Nah.. It's only a parade for the old mayor of Kampala. :)

I've really been enjoying working behind the scenes in the sponsorship office. Those people work SO hard for these kids and love them SO much! There's still plenty of kids that need sponsors!:)

Praise The Lord! 

Auntie Brooke 

This is Sarah with some of the kids from the deaf school.

Village kids! And yes, they yanked my arms like that the whole time we were there. 

This precious girl stood like this the whole time I was there, even when I tried to walk. Sooo much love coming from these little ones.

  Needed cuddle time! The kids usually don't get this from their parents, and it's not always because they don't want to but because their day is so jam packed. They have to wash every day, and keep in mind that it's all done by hand. They have to work in the fields all day, cook dinner, wash dishes, care for the animals and the kids, etc. etc.

More smiling faces!

Neighborhood kids enjoying our hammocks. :)

Village life.. The good life.

Empower a child bought land in a village called Zirobwe. They wanted a village that was devastated from the war in Uganda and one that had a lot of orphans and widows from AIDS. They have built a church since I've been here last, and the next plan is to build a school and a medical clinic.  It was so, so great to see all the changes God has brought to that village - both physically and spiritually. The people are filled with so much more joy and life. It's so great to see how Christ and His love can change a whole village. I even got to do some OT after the service. "Uncle" introduced me as a therapist, and during the offertory, a woman randomly came and dropped a child in my lap. It was so strange, but it hit me that she probably wanted me to look at the little girl. (Pictures below). I gave her a few pointers, but it's so hard when I don't know the history or anything like that. The mama said that the baby used to go to Katalemwa, but they can't afford it anymore. I wish I could have done more. :/ maybe on Tuesday I can look at her again. 

As always, it's good to see the little kids we knew all grown up. -- Some of you may remember Bogare from the village. He was the precious little boy that didn't talk. When we first saw him, he was dirty and dressed in rags. By the end of our week there, the boy could not smiling. It was awesome. I got to see his mama this morning! I called out "Mama Bogare!!" She had the biggest smile because I recognized her! There's a picture of us below. I can't wait to go back on Tuesday. :) 

Being out there is soooo peaceful. It's so green, and the air feels so clean. I could definitely be a village girl. I'd be willing to haul water every day if it meant I could wake up to that every morning. 

This afternoon was spent playing at the deaf school and then playing with the kids at the compound. They looooove playing games and playing with the photobooth on my ipad. :) sooo cute! I tried opening Google Earth, but the Internet was too slow. Maybe tomorrow I can let it load and then show them. Love those kiddos so much. I wish I could take them all home with me!

These guys were blocking our road. That's our driver's hand shooing the cows away.

Mama Bogare!!

The new church! 

Leaving church. :)

This munchkin climbed in my lap for the service. 

This is the mama and her little girl. The girl is 4-5 years old. :)

Joseph! One of my favorites from last time!

Sunday school!

Look how beautiful! 

Praise The Lord!

Auntie Brooke 

SPONSOR DAY! Woohoo!

Today was one of the best days I think I've ever had.. Seriously. This morning started with a bunch of kids flooding into our compound for a fun, fool of love day.  It was all kids that are waiting to be sponsored. Goodness gracious, I wish I could sponsor ALL of them. They all come in their nicest clothes, which meant some of them had their school uniforms on and their school shoes and socks. It was so sad. Most of their "nicest clothes" had holes, etc. in them too. The first set of pictures are all kids that need sponsors... Nudge, nudge. :)

This afternoon a group of us took some of the kids we sponsor to the zoo. (I was supposed to bring Melissa's sponsor girl, but her sisters ended up coming and not her.... TIA).  Their eyes were the size of quarters the whole day! When we saw Lake Victoria, you would think that we were at a theme park for the first time ever. Seriously.. Indescribable.  They jumped on a trampoline for the first time, rode a donkey and a camel, pet a baby elephant, held a cobra. (Mom, there is a snake picture below. Haha). They were sooooo excited. I just can't explain it.. Sooooo appreciative too. I wish we could have taken all of them. It was awesome. Then, on the ride home Felix was telling us some of the sponsor kid stories.. So sad, yet so exciting that they are sponsored. For example, one girl being sponsored meant that at 14, she didn't have to be forced into marriage. Yes, 14. (There are over 300 sponsor kids. Felix knows their names, their sponsor, their sponsor number, and where they live. A human phone book). 

Sarah and I went into the city to eat dinner Jayan and her friend to eat some delicious Indian food. We both agreed that we feel so at home here and could totally see ourselves living here. Maybe some day..

They absolutely loooooooooved the bubbles. 

All of these beautiful kids are waiting for a sponsor to change their life. :)

All of these are zoo pictures!

Here's your warning: snake picture below! 

Going to sleep feeling so, so blessed.... 

Praise The Lord!

Auntie Brooke 

Sponsor a child! :)

So.. I sure hope some of you have considered sponsoring a child. :) It's awesome! Tomorrow we're taking sponsor kids to the zoo! They are sooo excited! Honestly, I sponsor a child through World Vision because I have been doing before I knew about Empower a Child. So, I get to take Melissa (Mama Lola)'s sponsor child and her two sisters. I'm so excited. :)

Today was mainly spent helping with sponsor child stuff. Y'all, it takes SOOO much work and sacrifice for just ONE child! My goodness... I had NO idea. I appreciate every letter, picture, and drawing from my sponsor child soooo much more. We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but we still have a decent amount of work to finish. 

We did get to play with some of the neighborhood kids though. Enjoy the smiling faces below. I hope you can feel the endless amount of love the kids give us. :) 

My dear friend gave me a new Bible in January, so I've been kind of doing the one year Bible. I'm a little ADD, so some days I'll just do a random devotional from somewhere instead. My prayer has been that I would read the Bible like a new Christian would.. With excitement about what's to come and soaking up every word. I just read the story in John where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. The last verse says, "Jesus said to them, 'Take off the grave clothes and let him go.'" Y'all, Lazarus was set FREE in more ways than one. Jesus wants us to take off the grave clothes and the things that are keeping us tied down and in the tomb. He wants us to go.. Go live for Him. Go live a life free from doubt, insecurities, fear, jealousy.. The second I read that verse I started singing that song, "There is power in the blood of Jesus... So break every chain.. Break every chain." 

Praise The Lord

Auntie Brooke 

Peace amongst the chaos

My mornings always start with me climbing in my hammock with my Bible. It's my happy place. I could not think of a better place to relax and find peace. There is chaos in the city: dogs barking, boda bodas, horns honking, roosters crowing, kids laughing and screaming, and people chatting outside the compound. However, our compound is so quiet, and the hammock around me makes me feel so safe and almost invincible. I need to do a better job of finding peace amongst the chaos back home. It's so much harder because there's always something I could be doing or someone I could be hanging out with. You guys hold me accountable! 

This morning I went to Katalemwa, the children's home/hospital. I got to observe some OT! I have to get the director's approval before I can do hands on. Hopefully I can do that on Monday. The therapists there remember Lola! They were so excited to hear that she was doing so well! :)  I was actually really impressed by the therapy provided. Lots has changed! Soooo, so great! Their definition of OT is the exact same. It's so great! I thought maybe it wouldn't be.

This afternoon Sarah and I taught P2 (primary 2 - second grade). We did the body parts and played the hokey pokey and sang "head and shoulders, knees and toes." Hysterical! The kids loved it. It's the best feeling being bombarded when you get out of the car. So much love to give! Here's some pics of the kids today. 

Time is flying by, and we're having a blast. The Ugandans LOVE pralines! I should have brought more. :) 

Fun fact: When they go to universities, they don't choose what they study. They are placed based on their scores, 

Praise The Lord! 

Auntie Brooke