Joy. What defines joy?

I have an entirely new perspective on what joy is and means now. The people here are beyond joyful all the time, and yet it makes me wonder.. if we lived their lives, would we be that joyful?

After getting lost in the village of Walukaba and roaming around for an hour and a half, I found the little home of a suubi women. She told me parts of her story, and the whole time I was in disbelief that she had gone through so much. And the most amazing part of it all, was at the end she said, “it’s okay that this all happened, because God is in control and He is my hope.”

Wow.

Would I say that?

"you thrill me, Lord, with all you have done to me! I sing for JOY because of what you have done. O Lord what great works you do. And how deep are your thoughts"

-psalm 92:4-5

>>dancing.

Im finding myself lost for words. I don’t know how to process all that I am experiencing….maybe im not even processing at all. I don’t know.

I do know that I love seeing God’s face in all of the beautiful people here.

So instead of trying to muster up some profound thoughts, I am going to describe some of my everyday experiences. Here we go.

Transportation- to get anywhere really there are two, maybe three, options. 1. Walking, or here “footing”. 2. Bodas, which are motorcycles. So you wave them down, usually argue about how much money you are going to pay, jump on the back, and then after a breezy (and dirty) ride you arrive at the destination. 3. Matatu. This is their taxi cab-ish. It’s a large white bus that crams as many people into it as possible. These are usually just for going to Kampala or remote locations. I had my first matatu ride the other day…lets just say I was a little scared for my life haha.

Talking- most people speak English, however in town they also usually speak lugandan, and then the women of suubi mostly speak luo. I’m sloooowly catching on to some of the common phrases and words, however most of the time I find myself very very confused. They also switch up some of the English words. For example, “smart” means fashionable, or looking nice. So you would say to someone dressed pretty, “you are looking very smart”. “wise” means smart. Also, “stubborn” means both stubborn and funny.

Lines, restaurants, etc.- everything here is on slow-mo. It takes forever and ever to do anything. There is no such thing as fast food, only an hour wait. Being late, slow, etc is excused by saying “its African time”. I am definitely learning the beauty of patience, and slowing down.

Greetings- while you are slowly walking down the street, everyone greets eachother. Everyone.

Scenery- is beautiful. One of our friends recently took sarah and I up to his families land about 15 min away from town. The plot of land is nestled down a long red dirt road, and right down a hill snakes the Nile river. Everything is green, red, and blue.

Littering- I don’t think there is such a thing. It is totally acceptable to throw trash on the ground anywhere. Piles of trash are found on the corners of streets or piles in villages, and then just burned.

Someone once told me that jinja is like a black hole….one you come, you will always get sucked back in. I am beginning to see the truth in that.

learning and growing.

This has all been a whirlwind. Every day I experience something new, something unexpected, something wonderful.

On the downside.. Bombings, broken computers, and sickness. Oh my.

Last week, during the world cup soccer (or shall I say, “football”) game, there was three bombs that went off in Kampala. The group that sent the bombs claimed responsibility and are saying that they are going to continue to attack Uganda. So prayer for safety and Uganda.

Last week as well, my computer broke. Ok well not completely broken, but broken while in Uganda. However, after a few complaints, I have realized God’s provision through even this dumb situation with my computer. I met a family that just moved into Jinja and opened a restaurant and a computer technology center. The husband, Johnny is a trained computer technician, so he helped me get all my files off my computer, gave me CS4, and basically offered every skill he had. He and his family completely revealed Christ to me with all of their open arms.

Sickness..ew. but I guess I can mark “get a stomach bug” off my list of things to do in Uganda. Lets just say Tuesday was a very boring day in bed.

Ok, enough with the downers. On the upside, God is GOOD! All the time.

On wed, I taught my first English class. And of course the art major taught colors! After learning the english/luo words for all the colors, we played a game with the women. They divided into two groups and one from each group was given a bag with a colored marker in it. At the count of three, the lady had to grab the maker from their bag and shout out the color in english as fast as they could. It was SO fun! Gosh, who knew a simple game like that would bring about so much laughter! = )

Later in the week we went and visited Lillian, the translator at suubi, yesterday. She has two beautiful and FUNNY kids. We ate a delicious African meal and then we took a trek down to the Nile River. The walk was so so so beautiful.

Today, I experienced my FIRST suubi /acholi traditional dance! I got so many pictures and videos…don’t worry. However, I don’t think anything will be able to do the dance justice. It was amazing. The women are beyond joyful and completely in their element! Drums. Singing. Dancing. Laughing. Perfect.

God is revealing himself to me in a completely different way than I expected. He is showing himself to me through the quiet, the stillness, and the smiles. I don’t want a moment to go by too fast. I want to hold onto every second and learn all that God has for me here.

And here are three random facts:

1. I am constantly a shade of red…due to the red dirt.

2. It is extremely hard for Ugandans to pronounce the name “liz”

3. Ugandans can eat dinner in complete and utter darkness.

beauty.

pictures finally! = )

}} denida village!, and where suubi building is!

}} we went boating down the nile river..here is the spot of the "source"!

}} at breakfast club!

anywho, i love it here. I'm learning, growing and being stretched!

gosh, its just such a blessing to be here!

joy.

everyday my eyes are opened a little wider,

and my heart is tugged at a little harder.

It is all so overwhelming, yet I am so overjoyed.

We visited the suubi women in denida village yesterday for our Monday beading class. The womens smiles, laughter, joy…and the personalities! oh, they are so fun!

Today we went to the village for quite a few hours and visited some of the women. Sarah and I helped them make their food, which consisted of posho, greens, and grinded nuts. To sum up the food..interesting. haha it will def. take a little getting used to, but really, not too bad. After eating, the women taught me to string and varnish the beads.. learning from the pros! = )

Talking to the women and hearing their stories, helping them cook, sitting with them, and just experiencing life with them is truly amazing. Life is simple. and beautiful.

I heard this quote the other day that said, “we live in a world drenched in God. His fingerprints are all over.”

this is becoming so real to me. I am seeing and experiencing God’s people, creation, and fingerprints in a completely new way.

IM HERE! day 3 in progress.

everything is going great! its just so much to process. my mind keeps spinning and spinning. haha.

the first day we drove to jinja, which was about two hours away. We went through kampala, (which was madness!!), some rain forests, tea fields, and then drove over the supposed source of the nile river into Jinja.

It's really beautiful here. we live about a 10 min. walk away from the downtown. The house is great! and its right across from a school, so we always hear kids, bells, even drums and dancing (which we went and watched!). As you walk into town, you kinda go down a hill(ish), and lake victoria is the view (which is right behind the town/market)!

I went into the market once, but we are going later today again (so more details of that later), went into the village where suubi is, went to the gym haha, walked all around town, went to epoh, walked across a water pipe, and kinda just other little random things.

At suubi one of the ladies taught me how to roll the paper into the bead. I picked it up pretty quickly and she just kept saying "OH, OH, such a fast learner! so good! such a fast learner."

that day at suubi was the english class day as well, and i'm pretty sure i was their entertainment for the day! haha. they wrote the luo word, and then the english word next to it. well, they kept pointing at the luo word and asking me to try to say it. needless to say, i butchered every word.

God is already teaching me and showing me so much. it's beautiful.

I was reading a book the other night, and it said "he did not look at Christ through his circumstances; rather, he looked at his circumstances through Christ." This is my prayer. That my eyes would be completely fixed on Christ to see and experience everything through Him.

anywho, more to tell later.

there are supposed to be some videos posted, but the internet doesn't like me here! = ) so if they dont work i will def. try again later!

peace.