Weekend Fun

This weekend was marvelous. Saturday we started the day at Larem Café, using free internet and sipping on some green tea. I got to read up on lot on OneMangoTree (check it out, seriously), KissesfromKatie (look at that one too), and get familiar with Twitter, all to get educated on my job before I start. I’m so excited that the first job I’ll have after college is a social media job in Gulu, Uganda. How cool is that. Anyway, at 11 o’clock we went with Lexi, a friend we ran into at Larem, to yoga at Ben and Holly’s house. Ben and Holly are super cool. They live in a beautiful house here in Gulu with 2 other families. They have lived here for 5 years and just adopted a precious little girl named A’Leah from St. Judes! Another couple in the house has 3 kids, all very young. The husband of the last couple in the house is an architect and designed the house that they live in. It is beautiful and simple and filled with African pillows and curtains and furniture – so cool! Anyway, Holly is an awesome yoga instructor and led about 9 of us through the practice. We ended around 12:30 and went to get lunch at San Kofa. Lexi was there, again, surprisingly, which was fun. After lunch we spent some down time in the room, showering and catching up. Then off to Purse of Hope! Good to see and be with the girls for a while. They sang for us and talked to us and we got to spend a lot of time with the aunties. We left with Kelsey to go to the market and get vegetables and drinks for dinner. Then after a quick stop back to the hotel (all through boda-boda) we went to John and Sean’s for an awesome time of fellowship and dinner and games. We talked incessantly about Bob Goff, and tons of other enlightening and interesting topics: kids with special needs, good books, twitter, Cairo, and cocaine. I find I like to listen so much more than I like to talk. Kelsey made homemade ravioli and veggies and salad. She is so inventive with the limited resources and gives us a lot of hope for what you can do with a kitchen and recipes from the internet.  

Sunday morning we walked to church at Watoto and I was really happy because they played a song that I had been wanted to hear the day before. I love when the Lord remembers me like that. After church we went to Kelsey’s and had a sweet time of fellowship and lunch. We ate and then listened to a sermon on podcast and then all talked about the sermon and how we can be more of a community and more vulnerable and it was such an awesome talk. Then we fell very organically into a great time of worship and prayer and more worship and more prayer. We were there doing that for over 4 hours. So awesome. I left feeling revived and rejuvenated and excited about Christ and what he has been doing and how lucky I am to know these people and… yeah.

I am ALWAYS light headed here. I can barely ever stand up with blacking out for at least a couple seconds. I eat enough, I drink enough, I sleep enough, and I don’t feel so affected by the heat, so its super weird.

I am about to give Chris the OK to extend my flight and I’m super excited and super nervous about it all at the same time. I worry about getting more malaria medicine, and about what will happen if/when I get malaria and Girardeau (the long-timers here say its UNAVOIDABLE if you’re staying as long as I am). I worry because the house I’m moving into apparently just doesn’t have power.  That sounds kind of awful. But its okay, and I’m still excited. I’m excited about my job and being able to continue working at St. Judes and with Purse of Hope. I’m excited for the opportunities I know I’m going to encounter.

After Sunday naptime (and a special phone conversation to my mother) Lauren and Jordan and I went to get Indian food, trying to avoid the crowd of expats at San Kofa. There again we can into Lexi and her roommate Naomi. God obviously has plans for us with Lexi because that was the third time we ran into her at a different restaurant at perfect timing for sitting down together. She hugely encouraged us at dinner by saying that our presence among the expats at changed the vibe of the community and that a lot of people were feeling more open and ready for true community with us there. She also shared a lot of really awesome, personal things about herself and her life and her spiritually so it was a really great time together. After dinner the 5 of us went back to the hotel room to share 2 beer bottles and fellowship. Really special. Now bed : ) goodnight