Monday February 25th

I knew that this weekend was too good to be true. On Sunday, I was able to go to Kampala for the day and finish up the shopping that didn’t get done on Wednesday. While shopping, I was on a personal mission to hunt down the ice cream shops. I was brutally rebuffed when I found that the ice cream shops had no power that day, so they didn’t have their ice cream out. It was a very sad morning.

After all the shopping was completed, Ann and I went The American Club. Oh my, it was amazing. We got to go swimming and I don’t how they do it, but the sun there actually felt good, rather that it’s usual sweltering hotness. I tried getting my radiantly white legs a little tan, but alas. Since I wear skirts all the time, I shouldn’t be so vain about how blinding my legs really are. After a hot shower in the pool changing room, I thought the day could not get any better. Well, let me tell you, it did. I was going to be very disappointed if this club that calls itself The “American” Club did not have ice cream, but good old America did itself proud. I have had ice cream two weeks in a row now but I think that it will be quite a while before I have any again.

This morning came and snapped me back from the la la land of sun bathing, hot showers and cold ice cream. A lot of emails needed replies and questions needed to be answered. I was assigned to develop an office cleaning schedule and train the staff at the administration building. I think I set my expectations a little too high. First of all, the training was to start right after the lunch break. Well, the training didn’t start until 3:00 and this only gave me 45 minutes to go through the cleaning schedule, explain the expectations, and answer any questions they had because I had to fill in as a small group leader at the secondary school bible study. The language barrier has proven to be a definite obstacle. I had to speak to the ladies through a translator, so everything takes twice as long. So, tomorrow I will hopefully spend the first 3 hours of work thoroughly going through the cleaning schedule again and doing more demonstrations of what is expected. I came home very frustrated and distraught, but Nancy told me something very encouraging. She told me not to get so wrapped up in the job of training them to do a perfect job, instead this is a great opportunity to invest in them and develop relationship with them. It is instances like this when I am truly humbled and get to once again realize why I am here.

Tonight while I was helping prepare supper, Ann came running into the house and said that the neighbor’s animals were out in the field right by our house. The reason for her excitement was that one of the animals was a sheep (it kind of looks like a sheep/goat cross, but I think one of the reasons they look so different is because the tails of these “sheep” haven’t been docked) and it had just given birth to twin lambs that morning. So the two lambs and the mom were just prancing (well the lambs were doing more wobbling than prancing) around right by our house and Ann wanted a picture. So I went with her and we ran after this poor little goat-looking sheep and its two babies, while the long-horned cattle and donkeys looked on. Ann was the real “cowgirl” and picked up one of the lambs and got her picture. Ann then gave the lamb to me and I got my picture with the brand new lamb.

Before I left for Africa, I received a little day-by-day calendar with a daily verse and an encouraging comment. Today’s verse was Exodus 24:12 “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there.” Below the verse was this statement, “Perhaps one of the first recorded requests from God to live in the moment.” And that is what I did. And I even have a picture to prove it.