My first days in Mbale

January 1, 2004

Mike and Judy dropped me off at Ian and Danetta Shelburne’s house. They have converted their garage into a guest room with a bathroom, so I have my own space out here. I have to tell you about this family. There are six children so far. Leila is 12. She is one of the 7th graders I’ll be teaching and is one of their natural born children. Then there is Jessiah. He is 10 and has cerebral palsy. He is African, but they adopted him before they ever moved here. Nathaniel is 8 or 9 and he is Hispanic and something else. He too looks African and he was adopted from Christian Homes of Abilene. There there’s Jonathan 7 and Luke 5. They are also the Shelburne’s natural born children. The newest addition to the family is Emily. She was born here in Mbale and just turned 1. When they got her, she was so thin because she never got fed. She has really fattened up since then. Now you can understand why it is important to have my own space!

January 8, 2004

Today is Thursday, January 8, and it’s my birthday. My mom always calls me on my birthday and wakes me up singing Happy Birthday. Last night I realized after everyone was already in bed, that I had left my phone in the dining room. Now in the states, this would not be a problem. You just get out of bed and go into the dining room and get your phone. It is just not that simple here. You see on all of the windows we have bars to keep people out. The exterior doors are two doors thick—one is usually wood and the second is metal. Then there are a series of doors leading into the bedroom halls. In this particular house, there is a wooden door from the dining room into the bedroom hallway that locks with a dead bolt. Then there is a metal door that uses large padlocks. Now this does make you feel extremely safe, however it is very inconvenient when someone else has the key! For this reason, I set my alarm for 6 a.m. so I could come out and get my phone. I figured my mom would call at 7 a.m. Unfortunately I woke up at 5:30 instead and just lay in bed listening for Ashley to get up. Finally at 6:30 she came out and I was able to get my phone. Mom did call at 7:00, of course, which made my day!

Mondays at the Mbale Resort Hotel

February 10, 2004

“Well, Monday was just another typical day at the resort. Oh…wait…maybe not. Well, I’ve been having water wars with Mike Shero since I got here. For some reason on my first Monday here, I found it necessary to go and give him a big hug after getting out of the pool. (He and Judy never get in the water.) Two weeks later, Mike was sitting at a table close to the water’s edge with his back facing us. I lined up all of the kids around the side of the pool very close to him. They all cannon-balled together and got him pretty wet. When he got to the Resort this week, I had already been trying to figure out what to do to top that. Well, he showed up in a suit and I just couldn’t decide whether or not I was going to pull him in. I decided not to, but he pushed me into the pool while I was still wearing the only t-shirt I had with me at the Resort. When I got out, I came up behind him and gave him a huge bear hug. Let me tell you, t-shirts hold a lot of water. I got the back of his suit soaked. When he came after me to throw me in, I jumped in before he could touch me. Much to my surprise, Mike took a running head start, and lunged into the pool after me, suit, tie and all. I was so shocked, all I could do was look at him and laugh in amazement. He had actually planned it that way. He wore the suit for no other reason other than to get me. When he got out of the pool, his oldest grandson, Malachi (2 years) asked him, “Papa, is that you swimming tie?’ We all just about fell into the pool again laughing.

“As if this weren’t wild enough, when Judy ordered her food, she asked for fish and chips. Unfortunately, she forgot to specify fish fingers. What she ended up with was A FISH, and chips. Yes, you read that correctly. A FISH!!! The whole thing. The head, eyes, bones and all. Judy covered his head with a napkin and proceeded to eat it. I was very impressed with her. When she had eaten all that she could stand, Mike began to pick at the bones. When he was done, he played with it. It was truly sick! Boy I’m glad that I don’t like fish!

“Let this be a lesson to all who travel in foreign countries. BE SPECIFIC!”

It's the past, but it was my life!

Ok, so I've been back from Africa for nearly 2 years. I miss it though, and thought that I'd share some of my experiences from while I was over there. I have journal letters I sent home every few days that covered a variety of topics, from my first jet lagged day there, to my first visit to a village, to rafting the Nile River, to repelling down a waterfall. I still remember many of these experiences vividly, and hope that you enjoy them too.