My little living area. My bed, with the mosquito net, my Krankies laundry bag, my water bottle and travel medication collection, my little grocery stash of bread, peanut butter, salt, tea, and cinnamon, and my suitcase.  It feels even smaller than it looks...

Praise the Lord, I've received so many messages in the past few days from people who want  to give to the Karpinsk Project. It is so beautiful to see so many people willing to give everything that they can to help people in need, and the little bits have already started to add up. Thank you all for the wonderful support, I can't wait to see what God has in store for those children.

Lucy, Kelli, and me in Jinja for dinner and some high-speed internet earlier today. We got off of work duty today, since we had to wake up at six to plant maize yesterday morning, so we took the free time to go into town. It was such a wonderful start to the weekend.

One of the little open-air shops in Jinja.

"Sometimes I look above me when stars are shining
And I feel so small;
How could the God of heaven and all creation
Know I’m here at all.
But then in silence He whispers,
"'My child, I created you too
And you’re my most precious creation;
I even gave my Son for you.'"

- Steven Curtis Chapman - His Eyes

Obviously, we have internet once again at the base. As excited as I am, I'm also slightly disappointed. It was a lot easier to not be tempted to waste my time on the computer when there was nothing to do on here but play solitaire. But I've just finished a delicious meal, we ordered chicken, chips, and chapati for dinner, and that plus the internet has made me feel almost like I'm at home. Now, if only we could have running water, everything would be pretty close to perfect.

Not a particularly wonderful picture, but these were some of the guys we met last weekend when we spent the most wonderful day down at Lake Victoria. Almost as soon as we got there, a group of kids gathered around us, that happens almost everywhere here in Uganda. It's the most bizarre thing, we can't even walk down the road without little children coming up to hold our hands. Apparently, it's good luck to walk down the street with a "mazungu" so we generally attract a bit of a crowd wherever we go. Anyways, these boys live in a little village right on the lake, and we got to watch them do their washing and get water from the lake, then they spent the afternoon with us. The little one in the red, he's my boyfriend. He avoided me like the plague at first, I think my camera scared him, but after I started teaching them to make funny faces (as is demonstrated in the picture) it was love. I can't wait to go back this weekend, it's so much fun to just sit and enjoy the culture, the people, and nature.

Cliche, beans, what can you do.

 I'll try to take more exciting pictures this weekend when we're in town, I promise.

This is what I get to see every morning.

Er, well, every morning that I actually wake up for quiet time.

So, this is what I get to see once a week.

It's Friday night, and the end of my third week here in Africa, which I thought was incredibly significant until I realized that I still have a good seventeen weeks left. It's so weird, just to look at the outward changes that have taken place over the last few weeks. Lucy and I often complain that there is nothing about us now that in any way resembles who we were back home, and it's really true. I feel like I've been completely stripped of all the little habits and routines that have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. For instance, where I used to shower obsessively, sometimes twice a day, I now get by two or three days without a shower, just excessive deodorant and loads of bobby pins. It's not that we don't have time to shower, it's just that, when faced with a freezing, filthy shower room, being dirty seems like a far better alternative. Another thing, I used to take pride in my love for healthy eating, and general living. This summer, I developed such positive habits, frequent working out, lots of vegetables and just little things like that. Now, I eat my feelings, and spend most of my free time sitting around. I guess I'm just a slow adjuster, maybe in a month or so I'll be running to Lake Victoria and back every morning, as I had planned on doing before I came here and realized just how early six o'clock actually was. But, changes and discomforts aside, I love my life here. I realize it more and more every day. Now that the culture shock is (mostly) over, I can appreciate the little things that annoyed me before, and I'm getting to learn a whole new way of life. For instance, last night, I was introduced to sugar cane when I looked over and saw Becky, the Ugandan girl in the bed next to me, eating what looked like a bit of a tree. It was hysterical and slightly alarming, but she let me try some, and after I choked it down (you're apparently NOT supposed to swallow that stuff), I actually really enjoyed it. So, there. I'm one step closer to being a true African, I guess.

The little baby goats that live on the base. 

The African sky, on a "cloudy" night. It looks like I'm just really bad at holding my camera still - false. I'm actually just really bad at being patient. I was sitting outside, meaning to do a star trail picture (where you hold the camera and capture the motion of the earth by the trails of light the stars make) but I got bored, and also distracted when about ten men gathered around me because they were worried that I was sick or sad or something since I was crouching over the ground clutching my camera to try to keep it still. 

But, even though I'm a bit of a failure at photographs that require patience, I had to post this one up here, because the time I got to spend looking at the sky last night was a real turning point for me, I absolutely fell in love with this country. There's a peace here that I've never known before, I know that a large part of that is from God and all that I am learning about His nature and His love, but part of it is just this land and its beauty. I am now convinced that there is not an inch of this country that is not completely and totally filled with life. Animals, plants, bugs, people, even the water is so full of life. I have never felt so at peace with the world around me, and subsequently with myself. This morning, for the first time in the two weeks that I've been here, I woke up (at six am, to African chants of praise) and thought about how hard it would be to leave, once it came time to do so.

man, we are so lucky to have the blessing of serving such an amazing God.

Lucy, in our room as we dry our washing. We have to hang it up inside so that the Mango Flies don't lay eggs in our clothes, otherwise they will hatch and burrow into our skin.

Uganda, right before sunrise.

DTS group ^_^

It's our free time now, and even though I should be reading my daily bible chapters, we've finally gotten the internet back and, as I was starting to experience withdrawal symptoms after nearly twenty four hours without it, I guess it takes priority. Whoops. I'm a bad... missionary in training.  The days here have started going by so much more quickly, I remember the first few days seemed like they would never end and I was so terribly homesick and every little thing bothered me so much, but now, it's just an cycle of lectures, work duty, and posho. Lots and lots of posho. The posho was actually one of the most unpleasant surprises here. The cold showers and lack of toilets I had expected, the work and being always dirty as well, but I guess I never really gave much thought to what the food would be. The first time that they served us posho, which is basically just a slightly mushy lump of flour, I thought they were mashed potatos, and was so excited for proper American food in Africa. But no. I can't explain, what it's like to eat posho, but I would put it high on my list of reasons to not come back to Africa. Lucy and I did buy some soy sauce at the American Supermarket (which is in no way American, or a supermarket), and that has greatly improved the twice-daily posho challenge, but only slightly. It is almost the weekend, though, which means a full two days of being in town and eating omelets and cheeseburgers. So much for becoming more cultural. Posho aside, though, I do love this place so much. Everything around me is alive, and I've honestly never been more in-touch with my humanity as I am here. There are so few buildings where we're staying, and so much wildlife. In the morning, when I wake up for quiet time, on one side I can see beautiful mountains, and on the other side, a perfect view of the Nile. It's so peaceful, I am starting to get a nagging feeling that, discomforts aside, when it comes time to leave, I won't be ready.