Musana Song

The Musana song that the women wrote.  

Mzungu Jewelry and Seya

We started off the morning with a beautiful run down to the local cathedral.  I can't get over how green and lush it is here. Today at Musana Christine taught me how to make the basket weave earrings to see if they could make it a tourist attraction to come make jewelry with the women.  It was super fun.  I asked Tina if she'd hire me as the first Mzungu artist and she said of course.

We also taught about square-foot gardening.  We are hoping to plant a small garden at Musana on Monday so we can get more vegetables into the women's diets.  Some of them don't have any land where they live and those that do are worried about animals and thieves taking their vegetables.  Hopefully the Musana one works out.
This evening we traveled out to Seya to see Pastor Josiah and his wife Annette.  What a sweet, sweet family.  It was about a 20 minute bodaboda ride out to Seya through beautiful green sugar cane and rolling hills.  You could see for miles.  We had a great gospel discussion with Pastor and his wife.  They are so open to learning truth.  We basically taught the first lesson and also read the family proclamation with them.  Their 3 beautiful children were there as well. I just wanted to eat them up.  Here's a little taste of cute Jeremiah. He just started doing this and we asked his mom what he was doing.  She said he was dancing like Lane.

And his adorable sister Deborah teaching him English

It was pretty dark when we were leaving so Pastor took us back on his bodaboda.  It was such a beautiful night with frogs croaking and a cool breeze.  We ended the night by visiting a couple of the Musana women at their homes just down the street.  Many of them live in one room homes with up to 7 or 8 people crammed in.

Pizza Wednesday

We woke up to torrential rain today. So fun. And so muddy.  We didn't head over to Musana until about 10:00 because of it. I've officially become the display girl with organizing all the new jewelry in the store :).

Everyone holds hands here

We also went and printed off food logs so the women could start tracking what types of foods they are eating.  They are getting really excited about trying to incorporate all three categories into their meals.  For the health class yesterday we had them get into groups and talk about what makes it hard to eat growth and protection foods and to share ideas of how to do it better.  These women are so great.

Christine and baby Fatima

We then went to Mama Susan's to teach her how to make homemade pizza.  We are pretty sure it was Lugazi's first pizza ever.  At Musana, they are encouraging each woman to come up with a business idea and the goal is to help each one start this business. Musana will just be a stepping stone for them and then when they are on their feet with their own business, the can bring someone new on.  So Susan has a dream of starting a bakery.  They built a brick oven and have a good space on the side of the house where they really could open a bakery.

Nutrition Day

Today reminded me so much of my mission.  To be honest, most days feel like that.  The dirt is the beautiful, rich red dirt just like Misiones, Argentina.  There is lush greenness everywhere.  It rains most days.  The people are so loving.  They yell "Mzungu"(white-person) at us (in a loving way).  Melissa lives in a cute little neighborhood with dirt roads. The kids yell "Melissa" all the way up and down the street as we walk by.  It is so sweet.

We started the day by making crepes for the boys because Yoseph was leaving for a month to go work on the island on the lake.  Love those boys.  They are my new Uganda brothers.  

At Musana today we started the first nutrition lesson.  Tina began and then interpreted what I said so that nothing would be misunderstood.  Most of the women speak English pretty well.  These women are so bright.  They had wonderful questions.  We broke all food into 3 categories-energy, growth, and protection.  Most people here eat lots of starches to be full (energy group), but growth (protein) is more expensive, and protection (vitamins and minerals) aren't commonly eating.  But we are going to change all of that :).

After Musana we went to the market to get seeds for the garden we are going to make behind to shop.  We also got a ton of vegetables to make some soup.  This may not look appetizing, but it was DELICIOUS!

I Love Lugazi

Today was so great!  (I feel like I say that everyday).  But it really was.  We spent most of the day at Musana.  It was so wonderful to meet the women and see what they do.  I few of them couldn't come today because either they were sick or they had a child very sick.  A lot of people are having malaria (at least that is what they are being told they have) and other fevers.  It's making us even more committed to getting this health curriculum going so we can help them prevent illness and have stronger immune systems to help fight disease when they do get sick.  They women welcomed me with a welcome song and by the end of day had given me a Ugandan name- Kirikumwino (pronounced Cheerycumweeno).  The ki in Lugana is pronounced like chi so they thought that was great that I spell my name with a ki (they didn't know that until after they gave me my new name).  One of the ladies babies, Nicole, turned 1 yesterday so we celebrated with mini bananas and fried dough.  So delicious. After the women went home we talked with Pastor Francis (Melissa's Ugandan dad) about health and nutrition in Lugazi.  He is such a wonderful man with such a refreshing understanding of helping people.  He has a wonderful heart.  I'm excited to get to know him better.  On Sunday he and his wife are going to have lunch with us along with the new missionaries that will be coming to Lugazi. We went up to the hospital after Musana to see one of the women who was there with her little boy Elvis who was not feeling well at all.  Hopefully he doesn't have Malaria.  We finished off the day getting some fruit at the market and eating some local food.  It was pretty good-beans, rice, sweet potato, posho, and matooke.  Lots of starch :) -we're hoping to fix that in our nutrition curriculum.  Tonight Davis and Yoseph are coming back over to perform a song for us.  I can't wait!

P.S.- did you know that Kobe Bryant plays for the Rakers?

Wonderful Sunday

Church was so fun today.  We went to Jinja to attend the branch there.  We caught a taxi-van and rode up along with a man named Charles and two of his kids.  He was baptized back in 1993, just a year after the church had come to Uganda so he is a pioneer here.  He is so faithful.  Some weeks they can't afford the taxi ride to church, but most weeks he can get there.  The great, exciting news is that next Sunday they will be organizing a branch here in Lugazi.  What a blessing for Charles and the town.  

Melissa is in the primary and today was the primary program.  It was so great.  I love that no matter where you are in the world, the church is the same.  The kids were so cute and were typical primary kids.   During the last hour I went to young women's so I could deliver some letters from the beehives in my ward.  It was so fun for the girls to receive the letters, see their pictures, and try some candy. They wrote letters back and sang a song for them.  I can't wait to show the girls.   

Tonight Melissa's Ugandan brothers Davis and Useph ate dinner with us (they are 16 and the sweetest boys ever), along with her Pakistani neighbor Yasir.  It was hilarious.  We were all joking around and having a great time.  I've met such wonderful people here.  I can see why Melissa came for a month and ended up staying 8.  

People

Well, the 28-hour journey to Uganda was long, but I met some great people along the way.  Kathry sat next to me from Amsterdam to Uganda.  What a sweet woman.  She lives in LA studying theology and hopes to be a chaplain in a hospital.  She was headed home to Kampala to spend a month with her husband.  They were married last July and had only spent a month together before she had to go back to LA.  And what makes the story even crazier is that she had only met him by phone before they got married.  Her pastor knew him and had suggested she meet him via phone.  They got to know each other and he went to meet her family here.  They really liked him so they decided to get married.  So she was engaged to him before they had ever met in person.  They are a beautiful couple and hopefully he can get a visa to go to California. 

I also met a man from Guatemala-Julio.  He and his team were on their way to Congo.  It’s his second time.  The first time he came was 2 years ago but could only stay for a couple weeks because his wife was having twins.  But now he’s back again and planning to stay for the whole mission-9 months.  I asked how his wife felt about him being gone for so long and he said it’s hard but that she understands how important what they do it. 

Waiting in line to get a visa at the airport I met a girl from Ireland.  She was just flying in to run the marathon here and then going back in a couple days.  She is an actress and spent some time touring through the US.  So random but so awesome.

I've gone to Uganda

I'm sitting in LAX waiting to go to Uganda via Amsterdam.  2 long flights ahead of me? Yes.  Worth it? Most definitely.  A couple weeks ago I decided to visit my old roommate Melissa who has been in Uganda for the last 8 months.  in 2009, she and a couple other girls started Musana Jewelry (click HERE to see). Not only has Musana been a great way to provide an income for these amazing women, but Melissa is committed to helping them change their lives.  Part of their employment includes classes on things from budgeting to health.  Melissa has a masters in public health and is in the process of writing a health curriculum that can be continued when she is gone. I'm going to do some nutritional assessments and help write that part. Of course we have some adventures planned as well.  I'll try to keep this blog updated while I'm gone.