Life in limbo

Well folks, most of THIS chapter of my life in Uganda is through (don’t worry, I’ll be back)….. heading to Rwanda tomorrow for about 10 days, then a few days back in Uganda to de-brief on 4 months (is that even possible?) and then home, sweet, home by May 3^rd. (then there’s graduation, and summer, and the rest of my life, but we’ll get to that later!)

I don’t think it’s possible for me to sum up the past 3.5 months in one blog post or even start to express the emotions I’ve gone through, the things I’ve see, the adventures I’ve gone on, or what things will be like when I get home. The past few weeks have been full of endings, some temporary and some permanent, and I’m really just at a loss for expressing to you how crazy it is to feel like so much is finishing in my life while so much is also beginning. I know some or all of you can relate to these feelings of endings and beginnings, those times where our lives feel like they’re in limbo. I am super excited about going to Rwanda and spending these last two weeks with some close and awesome friends AND about going home to catch up with my family, my roommates and bffs at Messiah and STOKED to GRADUATE from COLLEGE… but I’m sad about the endings in all of these same areas… with my friends here, with friends and faculty at Messiah…. So, I pray that you join me in cherishing the moments and living them out to their fullest.

Here’s a little prayer, because I’m not sure how else to express myself just now:

Dear Jesus, I lift my hands and eyes to you, in awe of what you’ve brought me through.  How can I express to you the joy I have regarding how faithful you have been to me throughout my life? I have learned to trust in your unfailing love, and to love you and your creation in the moment. I pray that lesson stays with me, reminding me of what you’ve brought me through and how I’ve seen your power in my life. Thank you for showing me my weaknesses, and for reminding me of your strength which overcomes and redeems them.  Thank you for showing me the hard things, for pushing me to my limits, for surrounding me with your love as manifested through people who love me and shine your light.  I thank you for those who have supported me directly and indirectly through their words, thought s and prayers, and I pray that you continually reveal yourself to me and teach me your power.

Thank you for all you are, Father, AMEN


… on that note, I’ll end with a few theme verses from the semester:

Romans 5:3-5 (NRSV)

“And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

II Corinthians 12:9-10 (NRSV)

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

Psalm 13 (NIV)

“How long, O Lord?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and everyday have sorrow in my heart?  How long will my enemy triumph over me?  Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.   Give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, ‘I have overcome her,’ and my foes will rejoice when I fall.  But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me.”

I hope this post finds you well, finds you cherishing your moments, cherishing those around you and trusting in God’s unfailing love. That’s all for now, I’ll be out of internet communication until May 3^rd!!

O, and I can't leave you without a pic.... it's officially rainy season!

Be blessed,

Ruth

BANANGE!

Banange is an exclamation of surprise, similar to our use of “Oh my goodness!” or “Really?!” in Luganda.   So… Really? I haven’t blogged since when?! BANANGE!!

Well, I hope this post finds you well.  Since I’ve last chatted, I’ve been up to a lot here in sunny Uganda, including visiting quite a few NGOs (non-governmental organizations), such as: Noah’s Ark—an orphanage, Invisible Children (yes, the famous/ infamous creators of the Kony 2012 videos for those of you who are facebook savvy), and Amaziman Ministries (founded by the author of the book, Kisses from Katie).

Here’s a little run-down of my impressions/ experiences at these places.  I visited Noah’s Ark on International Women’s Day (March 8^th) because as a national holiday, hospice was running on ‘on-call’ capacity and only the most critical patients were seen so I wasn’t needed.  So, I went with some other students to Noah’s Ark since orphanages run full-time regardless of holidays!  It was so much fun for me because I spent most of my time there with the infants, and if you know me well, you know I’m a sucker for babies!  Seriously, I think my dream job would be holding and caring for babies!  So, I had a blessed and refreshing time there with some gorgeous and loving babies.

Later on, about a week later, I visited Invisible Children with some fellow social work majors.  We were able to speak with one of the mentors as well as a staff member from the finance office. At the office in Kampala where we were, they deal with coordination and logistics for the other sites in Uganda as well as overseeing the mentorship of the 255 university students sponsored by the organization. Those students are mostly from the north (areas most affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army-LRA) who had been living with financial difficulties and would be unable to afford tuition for university. We asked Robert, the mentor we were speaking with, about his interaction with the new Kony video that has had a lot of recent media attention. He gave his personal opinion, mostly, emphasizing that it is important to remember that Kony is still terrorizing places in Africa even though he has left Uganda and it is important to be reminded of this. There had been some controversy throughout the country here because the film traumatized people in the northern parts of Uganda. He agreed that it may have that affect but it is still important for those people to be able to talk about the trauma they experienced to initiate and improve healing. Furthermore, we talked about advocacy in Uganda and how we, as American college students, know more about the organization than most college students in Uganda. He agreed with that and said more could be done to advocate in Uganda but that there were more barriers to advocacy, especially technology. It was really helpful to talk to him to be able to process the complexity of the issue that had been so prevalent in the media around that time. For the sake of controversy, even though all the fuss has mostly died down by now, I’m not going to express any opinions about the video or this agency specifically. If you are interested in either supporting the organization and their work, I only ask that you ensure you are informed about the situation. Healing is still needed in Uganda for the terror enacted by the LRA.

The other NGO we visited was Amaziman Ministries, a ministry in near Jinja, about an hour away from us in Mukono. At the Saturday outreach that we visited, we interacted with a lot of the children who are sponsored by the ministry. They come for a worship service, lunch and fellowship with each other and the staff. The team of staff also visits schools and works to provide lunches and sponsorship for the children. I am always encouraged by the NGOs wherein most of the staff is Ugandan even when the founder/ director is not. In the case of this ministry, the community is obviously healthier and more productive than it had been before the ministry started, and the children were very lively and loving! Here are a few pics of their bright, shining faces =)

Other than visiting NGOs, we’ve been up to other fun things, too, such as seeing an Ndere Troupe Dance.  This is also kind of an NGO because it’s a group that works to preserve the arts of Uganda by training young people in traditional dance and then performing a few nights a week.  The fees they charge for the shows go to support lots of kiddos and pay their school fees. Below are a few pics! It was a fun night and a good bonding time for those of us that went =)

Another fun weekend was spent at Sesee Island!  About 10 of us left campus midmorning on a Friday night and travelled to Entebbe where we caught the once daily ferry to the island (about a 3 hour ferry trip!). We stayed at a rustic little camp run by a German couple and their great dane.  The island was beautiful and it was a very relaxing weekend (despite the not-so-restful 2 nights of ‘sleep’ in our little ‘dorm’ due to a few critters!).  The island was beautiful though and it was nice to get away from typical quiet weekends on campus.

I hope all is well, and I will be posting again soon as I search for ways to procrastinate on my end of semester assignments (senioritis is at its best right now!).

Be blessed,

Ruth