The Crazy Adventures of an American Mzungu

One of my favorite foods in Uganda is chapati. Basically it is the Ugandan form of a tortilla, and tortillas were my staple food back in Boise. Today I woke up with a serious need for some chapati, and apparently so did Trevor because he begged for some at the beginning of our day's lesson. We made a pact that if we both worked very hard, then we would go get some, but we had to work EXTRA hard! He never worked so hard in one of our lessons as he did today.... we got chapati. Trevor's shoe broke along the way, so I had to fix it about a hundred times along the way. By the time we reached our chapati man (he is beginning to recognize me... and I am not sure how I should feel about this ;]), my hands were covered in dirt. Not ideal conditions to eat finger food. There was a bunch of people waiting in line, so I reached into my purse to pull out my precious hand sanitizer. As I did, I heard someone shout, “Eh! Mzungu! Mzungu!” I have become accustom to this, and ignored it. How...

Okay. I will confess. Lately I have really been homesick, especially for my Boise family!... of course for my family just as crazily, but I cannot deny that I miss my crazy friends and the stupid stunts we would pull! Chocolate milk and real pants runs at 11 o'clock at night. Spontaneous trips to the most inconvenient Dutch Bros in town, accompanied by loud obnoxious (most the time) music that most would cringe to listen to, through downtown, windows down, sunroof back, and nothing but strange looks from those surrounding us. Singing songs about cowboys as loud as humanly possible while galloping across campus, and changing the lyrics to be about professors (“Stealin' the young girls hearts, just like Mr. McCoy”.... ahhhh. A classic). Frolicking into classes I was not enrolled in, and confusing every freshman into thinking I actually attended BBC still. But even more, I miss us pouring out our hearts with each other. I miss the late night Jes...

When I came to Uganda the first time, God opened up my heart and mind in more ways than I can explain. The biggest lesson I learned was that God expects us to serve Him with all of our selves. No middle ground will do. It was this lesson that caused me to give myself completely to the will of God. I remember one afternoon sometime after I returned home, when I was struggling to find what I was suppose to do with my life. I laid my future down at His Throne, and I felt an overwhelming burden to go to the nations.... and well, there went my life! When you meet missionaries here in Jinja, one of the first questions asked is, “how long are you here for?” When they hear that I have committed a year, most respond with, “Oh that is a long time!” This then transitions us into the conversation about me wanting to do long term missions. I am surprised at the amount of people who say, “Yeah. Sounds like it! A year is pretty long term.” When that happens, I just shake my head, and change the su...

Call me a nerd if you would like, but I am one of the biggest fans of the television show Monk! It is rather pathetic actually, but in almost any conversation, I can quote a Monk line. There is one episode where Monk joins a cult. The cult leader states, “The more you know, the less you don't know.” In the end, Monk uses the same line to show all his lies.... I promise there is a point to all this!.... except for giving away the ending of the episode. I just felt like doing that one... Education has been on my mind a lot lately. That could be because my kids are going back to school, and we have been doing learning projects everyday with the kids. Education is such an important part of life! It doesn't matter where you come from – whether in America, or Uganda. In a city, or in some small remote village somewhere that has no school for miles and miles and miles – education is key to survive. Sure, in those villages way out in the boonies that have no school, education will l...