And so the journey begins

Saying goodbye to all you’ve ever known is not the easiest thing to do. Fortunately God has blessed Taylor and I with each other which has already been extremely beneficial in this entire thing.

I have so much to tell, because just in a few short days, so much has already happened.  I shall start with a funny story and then move on to some other things that have happened.

Let’s being with the time Taylor and I heard screaming on the plane. And not just any screaming, screaming of complete fear. Of course no one else on the plane was doing anything. So mine and Taylor’s teacher instincts kicked in and Taylor got up to figure out what was going on. Well, a little girl was stuck in the bathroom. I think what we found so funny is that the mom had just left her daughter in the bathroom alone and also the fact that no one else was doing anything. We were a good eight rows away from the bathroom too. We laughed about that for a while.

Taylor and I found ourselves a bit nervous on our last flight, but luckily neither of us had anyone sitting next to us, so we slept majority of the ten hour flight. We didn’t know who would be picking us up from the airport, or what we were even supposed to do upon arrival, which also made us nervous. By the grace of God, there was another missionary on the plane who had lived in Uganda for six years who helped us to the max. We are hoping to visit her someone during our stay here.

We had about an hour and a half drive from the airport to the family home and when we arrived we chatted for a bit and then fall asleep laughing about the journey, and falling asleep with tears in our eyes when everything started to sink in.

We were soon awoken by a rooster, dogs barking, and a singing man. So we decided it was time to get up, get dressed and head out to meet everyone. The kids were getting ready for school, but they all greeted us with warm hugs and, “hello aunties.” They kids call us Auntie Kelsey and Auntie Taylor. It’s quite sweet to be honest. I’m enjoying being an auntie. We observed what everyone was doing and made our way to the garage I think it is. The garage door was open and a little boy, two years old came running towards us. I thought he was going to run right passed me, but he ran straight to me and clung onto my legs for a good three minutes. That’s the moment I knew this is where I was supposed to be.

We were given some of the best tea we have ever tasted and then one of the girls showed us around outside. After, we talked to Mama Sara about what the plan was. We decided to take a boda-boda ride to the school to learn about the curriculum. After talking to the head-mistress, we went to the P-3 class and taught a math/art project which posed to be much more difficult than we thought it would be. Drawing ten petals on a flower was quite a chore apparently. The classrooms are less structured than those in America and they also move at a much slower pace. I can’t tell you how many times our students ran out of the classroom and would come back a bit later.

Once our boda-boda was back, at least eight students came running in to tell us our ride was there for us. We rode back to the family home, played hide-and-seek, and then found our way to our room where we took a good long, four hour nap. Much needed! We woke up to the kids singing in the living room and made our way out there. They were doing a bible study type thing. After we sat down for dinner which was rice, beans, pumpkin, and avocado. It was surprisingly good! A lot better than the porridge we tasted at the school earlier in the day. After dinner we helped some of the girls draw pictures for their sponsors while they secretly wrote us letters.

Here’s what one says: “Dear Auntie Kelsey, I love you. I hope you have good days here. I hope you like the colours on top. God loves and cares for you. You are so beautiful. How are you? My best colours are dandelion, scarlet, ruby and violet. My best animal is an elephant because it’s the biggest animal.”

Taylor and I were then given an “internet stick” if you will and we made our way back into the social media world for a short while and are trying to keep an eye on the lizard on our wall. I thought spiders were bad…I am absolutely terrified I am going to wake up with this lizard on me. The kids told us the white lizards are good lizards because they eat the mosquitoes. I still prefer it not to be in our room.

I have been challenged to a guitar battle on Saturday, and Taylor and I both have been challenge to a “football” match. We will see how that goes.

Anyhow, I am missing everyone back home…my family, friends, WOLFPACK, the RA staff, and all my residents. Although, I am definitely enjoying myself and am looking forward to the rest of the journey.

Speak to you soon!