It's hard to believe my trip has come to an end. At the moment I'm at the London airport waiting to board my plane. I've been traveling for over 24 hours already and I'm pretty anxious to get home now. Saying goodbye to the Wiebes was sad and tearful - not to mention the 4 hour bus ride to the airport by myself wasn't much help! They are such a unique and special family and I am SO happy I was able to tag along on this adventure with them. We have had some great times and I'm very sad it had to come to an end. They have such big hearts and I know they will be such a blessing! My last day with them was perfect! We spent 10 hours in Kruger game park on a safari. We saw pretty much everything; lions, elpehants, a leopard, buffalo, giraffes, baboons, hippos, turtles, rhinos, zebras, etc. Then to finish off the day we went out for dinner. It was a great way to spend my last night - discussing some of the best memories over delicious food. Thank you Wiebe family for everything, I love you guys and will be praying for you. Loves xoxo
And to everyone else...well I'll see you very soon!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
DE-WORMING!
On Friday, Erin and I had the opportunity to go with a volunteer group from a church in Johannesburg to another one of the care centers to give hundreds of kids their de-worming pill and Christmas presents! We spent a few hours at the Hands base in assembly lines as we put together about 600 Christmas goody bags. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed to the care center called “Clau Clau Joy”. When we arrived we unpacked everything and started making peanut butter sandwiches – a lot of peanut butter sandwiches! Kids started showing up and while they waited they got their faces painted and played games.
So let me tell how things went:
The kids lined up at the door and once their name was recorded they came inside to get their de-worming pill, followed by a cup of juice, a peanut butter sandwich, a bag of chips, a water bottle and their Christmas present. I mean how great for these kids hey? It was a lot of fun and kids of all ages came, from toddlers to teenagers. At the end of the day we figured out that we had about 570 kids come, which is the most they’ve ever had! So great!
So let me tell how things went:
The kids lined up at the door and once their name was recorded they came inside to get their de-worming pill, followed by a cup of juice, a peanut butter sandwich, a bag of chips, a water bottle and their Christmas present. I mean how great for these kids hey? It was a lot of fun and kids of all ages came, from toddlers to teenagers. At the end of the day we figured out that we had about 570 kids come, which is the most they’ve ever had! So great!
Visiting LULA CARE CENTER
Tuesday was a great day because Erin, Megan and I visited a preschool that Hands is associated with called “Lula Care Center”. We were all pretty excited especially after hearing stories from when Mr. Wiebe visited it on his last trip. The preschool was of course so much fun, the kids were adorable and we didn’t want to leave – as per usual! We were there for four hours basically playing with the kids, checking out the baby home, preparing lunch, and cleaning dishes.
The hardest thing for me was seeing this little girl who was always with us but never wanted to play or do anything. She had no energy at all and she seemed really tired. We couldn’t tell if she was sick but she sure acted like it. She didn’t really smile and she seemed to have quite the fever, as well as bumps all over skin. All she wanted to do was sit and cuddle with us. Aw, I just felt so bad for her but there was nothing I could really do, other than pray that she feels better.
The hardest thing for me was seeing this little girl who was always with us but never wanted to play or do anything. She had no energy at all and she seemed really tired. We couldn’t tell if she was sick but she sure acted like it. She didn’t really smile and she seemed to have quite the fever, as well as bumps all over skin. All she wanted to do was sit and cuddle with us. Aw, I just felt so bad for her but there was nothing I could really do, other than pray that she feels better.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Spitting Cobra in our backyard?!
Every day is filled with new creatures I have never seen before! We’ve had a number of frogs roaming around the house, along with unique insects, bugs and spiders. But I think the spitting cobra right outside our house tops it all off. EWWWW!!!! I almost screamed! I hate snakes with a passion so when Megan called me over to see the scary snake I almost decided to run in the opposite direction, but then again how many times do you get to see a cobra on the loose in your backyard right? When I got there, our two guard dogs were going crazy and barking at the snake which made it rise up and its wings (the little flappy things on its neck) come out. The snake eventually slithered away but it spat in both the dog’s eyes so they were all red and watery. Poor girls! But they’re doing fine now so it’s all good – although I think I would sleep a bit better at night knowing that the snake was dead...oh well!
“I Want to Be Your Hands...I’ll Go Where You Send Me”
For those of you who are unaware of the Hands at Work organization, I will give you a little description from what I know. Basically, Hands at Work does a lot of training for people who want to go out into different parts of Africa and help orphans and those children who are living in child-headed households. This is a passion for the Wiebe family, so they’re hoping to receive training here that they can take with them to other parts of Africa (possibly back to Uganda!)
The last few days have been pretty low key, just settling and getting to know the other staff and volunteers who are working here. We were invited to have lunch with a handful of the staff on Sunday and Vivian, one of the staff, gave us a tour around the campuses. We’re staying on a campus which is located at the top of a hill. Most of the staff stays in the ASM (Africa School of Missions) housing down the road, but due to spacing we’re staying on the ‘farm’ as they refer to it as. I love it here though! We’re all enjoying the beautiful views as well as the huge backyard. There’s two other families staying up where we are and they’re all so great. There are a few teenagers that we have gotten to know and it’s nice to have people our own age to hang out with.
We’ve also been able to visit the nearest town a couple of times to pick up groceries and take a look around. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that it’s almost Christmas, it’s so hot and totally feels like summer. It will definitely be weird coming home to cold weather and major holiday spirit!
The last few days have been pretty low key, just settling and getting to know the other staff and volunteers who are working here. We were invited to have lunch with a handful of the staff on Sunday and Vivian, one of the staff, gave us a tour around the campuses. We’re staying on a campus which is located at the top of a hill. Most of the staff stays in the ASM (Africa School of Missions) housing down the road, but due to spacing we’re staying on the ‘farm’ as they refer to it as. I love it here though! We’re all enjoying the beautiful views as well as the huge backyard. There’s two other families staying up where we are and they’re all so great. There are a few teenagers that we have gotten to know and it’s nice to have people our own age to hang out with.
We’ve also been able to visit the nearest town a couple of times to pick up groceries and take a look around. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that it’s almost Christmas, it’s so hot and totally feels like summer. It will definitely be weird coming home to cold weather and major holiday spirit!
Hello South Africa!
Well, we have officially arrived in South Africa, our last destination spot. We had to wait in the airport for about 4 hours before our bus arrived. Then we drove another 4 hours to White River, where the organization “Hands at Work” (the one we’re working with) is located. We were greeted by the very nice staff from Hands; they picked us up and drove us to our house.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
All Good Things Come to an End
Well I’m sad to say that we left Kibaale on Monday, November 16. I haven’t really talked about what I did for the rest of the week so I’ll fill you in briefly.
Wednesday was a full day! We went with Shannon and Jamie on two more home visits. Dennis was one of the houses we visited and it broke my heart to hear that their family had no food and both the parents and one of the five children are HIV positive. The father is too weak to work and therefore cannot earn money to buy food. We also visited another home but this one was different from the other ones we have visited. It is a child headed household and in this specific situation the mother had 8 children and took off with 3 of them one morning. The parents always fought and some nights it was so bad that the children slept outside. It’s so sad but the good news is that Kibaale steps in and helps a portion of these households by providing them with food, education and medical access.
But I think the ultimate highlight of Wednesday was going on the clinic outreach! With my interest in paediatrics, I jumped at the opportunity to go with the Kibaale clinic to a rural village and see them give baby immunizations. I was so excited! We went with some of the nurses into little village where there was women everywhere arriving with their new babies. Each baby got weighed and then received two shots and one oral medication. It was the craziest thing just to see the nurses set up in the middle of nowhere outside giving all these babies their shots. Although we weren’t able to help much, we were able to hold some of the babies – and OH MY GOODNESS it was hard for me to give them back. We were there for a few hours and everyone left with immunized and healthy babies! It was so great!
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The next few days were pretty low key. We played with the kids at recess and lunch and also visited with some of the secondary students. I was so happy when Ivan and his mom showed up on Friday to visit me to say thank you for my sponsorship. They even brought a bag of bananas for me, which was so sweet.
Oh and I have a funny story about Saturday night. Well, it’s funny now but it wasn’t funny at the time. It was late Saturday night and we just finished watching a movie in our room (Erin, Megan and I have our own little building with our own room and bathroom). Megan was in the bathroom when she came like bolting out and jumped right into the bed. She said she heard noises and heard a tap on the bathroom window. The three of us freaked out and jumped into the big bed. To calm ourselves down we watched an episode of “The Office”, pausing it occasionally when we thought we heard a noise. We all ended up sleeping in one bed and it was the worst sleep of my life! It was so hot and uncomfortable but we were all too scared to sleep by ourselves. We barely slept because we kept hearing banging and strange noises and of course being the only ones in the building we didn’t want to fall asleep. The next morning we were all exhausted and when we went next door to the next room, we discovered that a bird had somehow got into that room and had been in there the entire night. Yes – that was the thing making all the noises that kept us up all night! Needless to say we were SOOO tired at church the next morning!
Sunday, we attended church and then visited a few more houses for our friends in Canada. They wanted us to visit and take pictures, so we were able to do that. We also made it our goal to climb Kibaale Hill once before we left, and we decided Sunday would be the day. It was so hot when we started to climb I thought we were going to die. But as soon as we got to the top it just started to pour and pour. There was a beautiful rainbow but we got completely drenched and we looked like complete idiots trying to make it down the slippery and muddy hill. But it was so much fun and something we can definitely laugh about!
Now, we are in Kampala (one of the main cities in Uganda) and we’re staying at a guest house for a few days. We’ll probably be relaxing most of the time, and visiting markets and seeing around town. Today we went to the mall and it was the weirdest thing to see other white people! And I was a happy camper because I finally was able to eat an apple! That’s something I’m looking forward to when I get home. Anyways, we leave early on Thursday morning for South Africa so I will talk to you then! Oh and one more thing - I tried to upload some pictures but it takes forever, hopefully I can upload some more soon.
Wednesday was a full day! We went with Shannon and Jamie on two more home visits. Dennis was one of the houses we visited and it broke my heart to hear that their family had no food and both the parents and one of the five children are HIV positive. The father is too weak to work and therefore cannot earn money to buy food. We also visited another home but this one was different from the other ones we have visited. It is a child headed household and in this specific situation the mother had 8 children and took off with 3 of them one morning. The parents always fought and some nights it was so bad that the children slept outside. It’s so sad but the good news is that Kibaale steps in and helps a portion of these households by providing them with food, education and medical access.
But I think the ultimate highlight of Wednesday was going on the clinic outreach! With my interest in paediatrics, I jumped at the opportunity to go with the Kibaale clinic to a rural village and see them give baby immunizations. I was so excited! We went with some of the nurses into little village where there was women everywhere arriving with their new babies. Each baby got weighed and then received two shots and one oral medication. It was the craziest thing just to see the nurses set up in the middle of nowhere outside giving all these babies their shots. Although we weren’t able to help much, we were able to hold some of the babies – and OH MY GOODNESS it was hard for me to give them back. We were there for a few hours and everyone left with immunized and healthy babies! It was so great!
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The next few days were pretty low key. We played with the kids at recess and lunch and also visited with some of the secondary students. I was so happy when Ivan and his mom showed up on Friday to visit me to say thank you for my sponsorship. They even brought a bag of bananas for me, which was so sweet.
Oh and I have a funny story about Saturday night. Well, it’s funny now but it wasn’t funny at the time. It was late Saturday night and we just finished watching a movie in our room (Erin, Megan and I have our own little building with our own room and bathroom). Megan was in the bathroom when she came like bolting out and jumped right into the bed. She said she heard noises and heard a tap on the bathroom window. The three of us freaked out and jumped into the big bed. To calm ourselves down we watched an episode of “The Office”, pausing it occasionally when we thought we heard a noise. We all ended up sleeping in one bed and it was the worst sleep of my life! It was so hot and uncomfortable but we were all too scared to sleep by ourselves. We barely slept because we kept hearing banging and strange noises and of course being the only ones in the building we didn’t want to fall asleep. The next morning we were all exhausted and when we went next door to the next room, we discovered that a bird had somehow got into that room and had been in there the entire night. Yes – that was the thing making all the noises that kept us up all night! Needless to say we were SOOO tired at church the next morning!
Sunday, we attended church and then visited a few more houses for our friends in Canada. They wanted us to visit and take pictures, so we were able to do that. We also made it our goal to climb Kibaale Hill once before we left, and we decided Sunday would be the day. It was so hot when we started to climb I thought we were going to die. But as soon as we got to the top it just started to pour and pour. There was a beautiful rainbow but we got completely drenched and we looked like complete idiots trying to make it down the slippery and muddy hill. But it was so much fun and something we can definitely laugh about!
Now, we are in Kampala (one of the main cities in Uganda) and we’re staying at a guest house for a few days. We’ll probably be relaxing most of the time, and visiting markets and seeing around town. Today we went to the mall and it was the weirdest thing to see other white people! And I was a happy camper because I finally was able to eat an apple! That’s something I’m looking forward to when I get home. Anyways, we leave early on Thursday morning for South Africa so I will talk to you then! Oh and one more thing - I tried to upload some pictures but it takes forever, hopefully I can upload some more soon.
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