You know you're in Africa when you can't carry clubs onto the airplane.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore
You know you're in Africa when you can't carry clubs onto the airplane.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
some good kid material
I used to lead the music in Church. You can imagine Miranda didn't like her mom having to sit somewhere other than with her, and so Fernando explained to her about "callings." This was quite some time ago, and I recently was released from being the music chairperson. Miranda was pretty excited about this and kept talking about how the new girl has that calling and I don't have that calling anymore.
Yesterday we were going in the car somewhere and we were in a hurry. She likes to buckle herself in her carseat and she was wanting to do it when I said, "No, Miranda, we don't have time, I'm going to do it just this time."
"Okay Mommy." I was surprised at this calm, peaceful reaction to my stealing of her independence. "This isn't my calling anymore, now it's your calling."
Yes, my daughter is issuing me a "calling" to buckle her seatbelt. Don't worry, later on she told me it was her calling again. PHEW.
Sammy likes to wake up in the middle of the night. Thanks, Sammy. We really appreciate the chance to live on even less sleep than we were used to. However, he is pretty funny sometimes in the night. SO often he sings songs, just lays there singing his own made up songs in his own non-comprehendable language. He says lots of things we do understand, but he sings in Samese.
The other night, he said a new word in the middle of the dark nighttime. "WHY." He said it loudly. So I said, very softly, "Why?" He answered with another new word..."Cause." Sam. I wanted to laugh for an hour. That kid really tickles my funny bone.
In other funny kid things, Miranda insists that Heavenly Father is her "Father-in-Law." Don't try to figure that one out. When she says it she emphasizes the last part, "He's my Father IN LAW." I am glad He understands her, which brings me to a very nice moment with my little children.
We went to Temple Square, I know I blog about going to Temple Square often, but we like going there and my dad works there. Anyway, we went to see the Christus, which Miranda calls "The Big Jesus." Were were sitting on the bench listening to the recording, and of course it's so reverent in there, as it should be. When the recording was over I let the kids go up closer to the statue. Unfortunately Sammy figured out that there is an AMAZING echo/reverberation of sound right close to the statue. I know you'll want to test this out now but please refrain unless you are a one-and-a-half year old boy.
So, of course, Sammy loved hearing the sound of his voice echoing and started to let his yells fly into the space above. I kept shushing him and telling him and Miranda, who by the looks of the delighted and scheming grin on her face was about to join in the vocalizing, to be reverent. I was pulling them away and getting a bit intense: in other words losing the Spirit so that the rest of the people in there could keep it.
I finally drug everyone back to the seat and was about to put them in their stroller when Sam broke free and ran back towards the Christus. I said something like "Oh no," or something like that with a frustrated mom tone, I'm sure.
Miranda looked at me and said, "Mom...Jesus understands Sammy."
So for all the crazy things they do and say, I recognize that ultimately, I will learn so much more from them than I can ever help them learn. I should have known.
Yesterday we were going in the car somewhere and we were in a hurry. She likes to buckle herself in her carseat and she was wanting to do it when I said, "No, Miranda, we don't have time, I'm going to do it just this time."
"Okay Mommy." I was surprised at this calm, peaceful reaction to my stealing of her independence. "This isn't my calling anymore, now it's your calling."
Yes, my daughter is issuing me a "calling" to buckle her seatbelt. Don't worry, later on she told me it was her calling again. PHEW.
Sammy likes to wake up in the middle of the night. Thanks, Sammy. We really appreciate the chance to live on even less sleep than we were used to. However, he is pretty funny sometimes in the night. SO often he sings songs, just lays there singing his own made up songs in his own non-comprehendable language. He says lots of things we do understand, but he sings in Samese.
The other night, he said a new word in the middle of the dark nighttime. "WHY." He said it loudly. So I said, very softly, "Why?" He answered with another new word..."Cause." Sam. I wanted to laugh for an hour. That kid really tickles my funny bone.
In other funny kid things, Miranda insists that Heavenly Father is her "Father-in-Law." Don't try to figure that one out. When she says it she emphasizes the last part, "He's my Father IN LAW." I am glad He understands her, which brings me to a very nice moment with my little children.
We went to Temple Square, I know I blog about going to Temple Square often, but we like going there and my dad works there. Anyway, we went to see the Christus, which Miranda calls "The Big Jesus." Were were sitting on the bench listening to the recording, and of course it's so reverent in there, as it should be. When the recording was over I let the kids go up closer to the statue. Unfortunately Sammy figured out that there is an AMAZING echo/reverberation of sound right close to the statue. I know you'll want to test this out now but please refrain unless you are a one-and-a-half year old boy.
So, of course, Sammy loved hearing the sound of his voice echoing and started to let his yells fly into the space above. I kept shushing him and telling him and Miranda, who by the looks of the delighted and scheming grin on her face was about to join in the vocalizing, to be reverent. I was pulling them away and getting a bit intense: in other words losing the Spirit so that the rest of the people in there could keep it.
I finally drug everyone back to the seat and was about to put them in their stroller when Sam broke free and ran back towards the Christus. I said something like "Oh no," or something like that with a frustrated mom tone, I'm sure.
Miranda looked at me and said, "Mom...Jesus understands Sammy."
So for all the crazy things they do and say, I recognize that ultimately, I will learn so much more from them than I can ever help them learn. I should have known.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Out of Africa
I'm back. I'll post a SHORT something on the trip with some pictures soon.
It was so nice to come home and so fun to see the kids! Yesterday we spent the morning doing our usual ABBA Greatest Hits dancing. Our favorites right now are "Mamma Mia," "Money, money, money," the one "Somewhere in the crowd is you," and of course, "Fernando."
I heard ABBA in a little off-the-path restaurant run by a Norweigian, close to the NILE. The world is so small. Thanks ABBA.
It was so nice to come home and so fun to see the kids! Yesterday we spent the morning doing our usual ABBA Greatest Hits dancing. Our favorites right now are "Mamma Mia," "Money, money, money," the one "Somewhere in the crowd is you," and of course, "Fernando."
I heard ABBA in a little off-the-path restaurant run by a Norweigian, close to the NILE. The world is so small. Thanks ABBA.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
UGANDA
Well we're here in Uganda and I don't know how the internet will be in Kenya where we are going tomorrow. This has been an amazing experience so far. I've been recording (writing) some information on some of the LDS Humanitarian projects in the country and I have been competely inspired, sad, joyful, and just overwhelmed by all I have seen.
The last few days have all been unbelievable. We spend all day every day in places where the conditions are very poor and the need is so great. But in some of these places where the projects have been going for even a few months, there is a change, a feeling of hope growing like the tiny rice seedlings sprouting up in rows on the peoples' farms. When my pictures will download I'll give more of a quick trip log, but I will just give a bit of information on what we experienced just TODAY.
First we witnessed water projects in several villages and one in a very run down school yard. All the kids were there and we got to look in their classrooms. Such dilapidated conditions. Then the little kids who can't afford school started coming out of the bush to watch everything. And the kids who are at school are already SO poor, and then these non-school kids are poorer than that which you don't think is possible sometimes. Saying I feel so bad does not capture my feelings. It is so nice to hear the children laugh and see them smile while we are there. When we drive past them in the huts or the fields or on the street they aren't smiling very often.
We went to what's called a "handover" where the Church basically has completed a project and they hand it over to the care of the community. The community puts on quite a ceremony. It was unreal, they had kids bring these old looking sofas in on their bicycles and they lined them up under these tents and had all of us foreigners(they call us Mzungu) sitting on these sofas with all of the village adults sitting behind us and all of the children sitting out in the hot sun...I mean these kids, even tiny kids and babies, sat in the hot sun for like 2 and 1/2 hours without a peep. They're the same way at Church. It is unbelievable. Anyway, we were treated like royalty, literally, and it was SO hard for us to eat the food and drinks they had prepared for us in front of all of these kids who you know won't get the food. They presented us all with gifts. It was really unreal.
I had a couple of very poignant personal AFRICA moments today. A really fun one was when we arrived at the completed borehole project, all of these ladies had lined up in their best clothes and there were some village drummers there, and they started dancing and chanting, so happy when we got there, they love music and dancing. Dad told me to dance with them and they LOVED that. They put a scarf around my waist and they started trilling (this yelling out thing they do) and it was such a moment of joy and unity for us. I was swirling and bouncing around to the rythm of the drums in the middle of old and young women who were smiling with bright eyes and all their teeth showing. The ladies were hugging me afterwards, I felt a sisterhood with them that surpassed all of the million differences between us. The memory, the colors and sound but even the feeling, I can go back to perfectly in my mind as I sit here typing quietly in the hotel room in Kampala. I hope I will always be able to go back to that dance in my mind.
The other AFRICA moment was hard. There was this cattle project in this little village far from everything, and the beautiful village children had gathered to watch us like they always do. On a sidenote, two babies cried because they saw me today. How would you like to say your face makes babies cry? Some of them are so scared of these ghostly white people!
There was a woman teacher there named Irene. I told her I was a teacher too and she and I had this instant bond. She looked like she had found a kindred person, like it validated her work somehow to meet me. I thought of my own work as a teacher differently too just by meeting her, it felt nobler, somehow, to teach, to impart knowlege. But anyway, there were these beautiful kids that followed us over to look at this cattle project, and you know, the little kids carry each other on their backs. So a little kid Miranda's age is usually carrying a kid Sammy's age or younger. It is so cute and so sad at the same time. There was this little group of 5-6 beautiful, poor, dirty kids. There was a little baby with reddish fuzzy hair sticking up on her head on one of the kid's backs. I was smiling at them and trying to interact and they were being cute and playing a little like all the kids do with us. Then Irene told us that their mom takes care of them plus a bunch of orphans from that village. There are so many kids without parents.
Irene said these kids' (who still had a mom who also takes care of the orphans) dad died last March of AIDS. Then she said that all of these kids have HIV, and the baby is sick. They speak Luganda and not English, so while she was telling us this these dark, sweet staring eyes were looking up at us not understanding any of it. And the baby was starting to fuss a little. I could barely make it to the car, I kept trying to tease with the kids and play peek a boo and not let them see my tears. I had to cry for a while when we drove away in the van, leaving them there to their fate.
I felt so helpless and so heartbroken for these pure, beautiful children whose lives were basically over before they were even born, by absolutely no fault of their own. These kids out here...I can't believe their everyday lives. I am so glad the Church, and anyone who does humanitarian work here, brings a little bit of help to make their lives even a little easier or more prosperous, even though there are still so many problems.
After only three days, even after one moment, I've thought about myself differently, and about life and about God's love for all men. One of the people in their speeches today said that we (the Americans) were there because God loved them. I feel that having this experience has also shown me His love for me, and also the responsibility I bear as one so blessed. I am so happy there is a life after this one where these children can be with a loving Heavenly Father and feel joy and peace, and can play and laugh and not worry and suffer. I will hope to see these children again someday, in those conditions.
The last few days have all been unbelievable. We spend all day every day in places where the conditions are very poor and the need is so great. But in some of these places where the projects have been going for even a few months, there is a change, a feeling of hope growing like the tiny rice seedlings sprouting up in rows on the peoples' farms. When my pictures will download I'll give more of a quick trip log, but I will just give a bit of information on what we experienced just TODAY.
First we witnessed water projects in several villages and one in a very run down school yard. All the kids were there and we got to look in their classrooms. Such dilapidated conditions. Then the little kids who can't afford school started coming out of the bush to watch everything. And the kids who are at school are already SO poor, and then these non-school kids are poorer than that which you don't think is possible sometimes. Saying I feel so bad does not capture my feelings. It is so nice to hear the children laugh and see them smile while we are there. When we drive past them in the huts or the fields or on the street they aren't smiling very often.
We went to what's called a "handover" where the Church basically has completed a project and they hand it over to the care of the community. The community puts on quite a ceremony. It was unreal, they had kids bring these old looking sofas in on their bicycles and they lined them up under these tents and had all of us foreigners(they call us Mzungu) sitting on these sofas with all of the village adults sitting behind us and all of the children sitting out in the hot sun...I mean these kids, even tiny kids and babies, sat in the hot sun for like 2 and 1/2 hours without a peep. They're the same way at Church. It is unbelievable. Anyway, we were treated like royalty, literally, and it was SO hard for us to eat the food and drinks they had prepared for us in front of all of these kids who you know won't get the food. They presented us all with gifts. It was really unreal.
I had a couple of very poignant personal AFRICA moments today. A really fun one was when we arrived at the completed borehole project, all of these ladies had lined up in their best clothes and there were some village drummers there, and they started dancing and chanting, so happy when we got there, they love music and dancing. Dad told me to dance with them and they LOVED that. They put a scarf around my waist and they started trilling (this yelling out thing they do) and it was such a moment of joy and unity for us. I was swirling and bouncing around to the rythm of the drums in the middle of old and young women who were smiling with bright eyes and all their teeth showing. The ladies were hugging me afterwards, I felt a sisterhood with them that surpassed all of the million differences between us. The memory, the colors and sound but even the feeling, I can go back to perfectly in my mind as I sit here typing quietly in the hotel room in Kampala. I hope I will always be able to go back to that dance in my mind.
The other AFRICA moment was hard. There was this cattle project in this little village far from everything, and the beautiful village children had gathered to watch us like they always do. On a sidenote, two babies cried because they saw me today. How would you like to say your face makes babies cry? Some of them are so scared of these ghostly white people!
There was a woman teacher there named Irene. I told her I was a teacher too and she and I had this instant bond. She looked like she had found a kindred person, like it validated her work somehow to meet me. I thought of my own work as a teacher differently too just by meeting her, it felt nobler, somehow, to teach, to impart knowlege. But anyway, there were these beautiful kids that followed us over to look at this cattle project, and you know, the little kids carry each other on their backs. So a little kid Miranda's age is usually carrying a kid Sammy's age or younger. It is so cute and so sad at the same time. There was this little group of 5-6 beautiful, poor, dirty kids. There was a little baby with reddish fuzzy hair sticking up on her head on one of the kid's backs. I was smiling at them and trying to interact and they were being cute and playing a little like all the kids do with us. Then Irene told us that their mom takes care of them plus a bunch of orphans from that village. There are so many kids without parents.
Irene said these kids' (who still had a mom who also takes care of the orphans) dad died last March of AIDS. Then she said that all of these kids have HIV, and the baby is sick. They speak Luganda and not English, so while she was telling us this these dark, sweet staring eyes were looking up at us not understanding any of it. And the baby was starting to fuss a little. I could barely make it to the car, I kept trying to tease with the kids and play peek a boo and not let them see my tears. I had to cry for a while when we drove away in the van, leaving them there to their fate.
I felt so helpless and so heartbroken for these pure, beautiful children whose lives were basically over before they were even born, by absolutely no fault of their own. These kids out here...I can't believe their everyday lives. I am so glad the Church, and anyone who does humanitarian work here, brings a little bit of help to make their lives even a little easier or more prosperous, even though there are still so many problems.
After only three days, even after one moment, I've thought about myself differently, and about life and about God's love for all men. One of the people in their speeches today said that we (the Americans) were there because God loved them. I feel that having this experience has also shown me His love for me, and also the responsibility I bear as one so blessed. I am so happy there is a life after this one where these children can be with a loving Heavenly Father and feel joy and peace, and can play and laugh and not worry and suffer. I will hope to see these children again someday, in those conditions.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Recycling
I know, I know, I haven't posted for A WHILE to put it mildly. We've been having such great adventures here even though it has been busy.
We had Silvia our friend from Italy stay here for a week before she went to BYU-I to study. We LOVE her and every moment was a pleasure. She helped Fernando create and paint a mural for the room we've recently designated "the play room" in our basement. I'll take some pictures sometime and post them because they did SUCH a cute job. I love going into that room now. Fernando also got me some IKEA kids storage thingies for my birthday so it really is a fun room for the kids.
Anyway, before Silvia came Fernando had his last week of life...I say that because he started work-school, school-school three nights a week after work, fun guests to host and a needy wife and kids. Heh. Anyway, during that week he had so many projects he wanted to do before the "year" started up. I think he got 8 hours of sleep the entire week, and that might be an optimistic figure. When he sets his mind to something he can just keep working and working until the goal is met. It was impressive. I might not have been as helpful as I could have been..."Oh, I need to go put the kids to sleep"...30 minutes later I'm snoozing with my day's clothes on until 4 am. Sorry.
After Silvia came Nancy and Mami Betty, Fernando's sister and Grandma, came to stay. It was also delightful, and we miss them! We went to a family baptism on Saturday, I taught Relief Society on Sunday (I only mention this to say that my mind was not on the blog but on other things which you should not be mad at me about), and then on Monday LDSBC started up again. The week before SLCC started up. So I had to get syllabi and etc. going, answer 10,000 emails (slight exaggeration) for work, and so, again, mind not on Blog. I did think of you, dear blog readers, but alas.
On Tuesday night our visitors left (sniff) and I had my first enrichment night in my new calling. I was running around in my mind and in reality all day for that. I had lots of help though and it went really well, I thought. I was edified, at least. That's what's important, right? Me.
Yesterday was the eye in all of it, and today I leave for Africa! I know, I know, it's crazy that a mother of two (three? heh Just kidding honey) is going to Africa. I will be sure to post about it when I get back, or while I'm there. I have a goal to post a blog from Africa. We'll see.
Anyway, I thought I should mention something that Miranda taught me the other day:
"Mommy, Satan does NOT recycle."
Don't forget that people.
We had Silvia our friend from Italy stay here for a week before she went to BYU-I to study. We LOVE her and every moment was a pleasure. She helped Fernando create and paint a mural for the room we've recently designated "the play room" in our basement. I'll take some pictures sometime and post them because they did SUCH a cute job. I love going into that room now. Fernando also got me some IKEA kids storage thingies for my birthday so it really is a fun room for the kids.
Anyway, before Silvia came Fernando had his last week of life...I say that because he started work-school, school-school three nights a week after work, fun guests to host and a needy wife and kids. Heh. Anyway, during that week he had so many projects he wanted to do before the "year" started up. I think he got 8 hours of sleep the entire week, and that might be an optimistic figure. When he sets his mind to something he can just keep working and working until the goal is met. It was impressive. I might not have been as helpful as I could have been..."Oh, I need to go put the kids to sleep"...30 minutes later I'm snoozing with my day's clothes on until 4 am. Sorry.
After Silvia came Nancy and Mami Betty, Fernando's sister and Grandma, came to stay. It was also delightful, and we miss them! We went to a family baptism on Saturday, I taught Relief Society on Sunday (I only mention this to say that my mind was not on the blog but on other things which you should not be mad at me about), and then on Monday LDSBC started up again. The week before SLCC started up. So I had to get syllabi and etc. going, answer 10,000 emails (slight exaggeration) for work, and so, again, mind not on Blog. I did think of you, dear blog readers, but alas.
On Tuesday night our visitors left (sniff) and I had my first enrichment night in my new calling. I was running around in my mind and in reality all day for that. I had lots of help though and it went really well, I thought. I was edified, at least. That's what's important, right? Me.
Yesterday was the eye in all of it, and today I leave for Africa! I know, I know, it's crazy that a mother of two (three? heh Just kidding honey) is going to Africa. I will be sure to post about it when I get back, or while I'm there. I have a goal to post a blog from Africa. We'll see.
Anyway, I thought I should mention something that Miranda taught me the other day:
"Mommy, Satan does NOT recycle."
Don't forget that people.
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