Their Here!

They have arrived! I am so excited to have some visitors in my house. It feels like forever since we had a touch of home. Right now I am sitting on a bed EATING WHEAT THINS! I love the salt and the graininess of them. It has been so long since I had tasty.. ANYTHING.

I just started working on some orientation information and again I had to look at the culture shock symptoms with recognition. I had no idea that culture shock can cause insomnia, aches and pains, lack of appetite. It so reminds me of my own situation. Apparently I have lost a noticeable amount of weight here and all the women made comments about it. I usually do loose weight in Africa because of the organic foods and lack of high fat foods. But this time I am finding that I am suffering from lack of desire to eat. I am longing for what I know and I am struggling to embrace the different tastes. It was a part of culture shock that I was not aware of.

Everyone was relieved to get here. But no one could have been happier than Hope who screamed out loud when Angi Abbott, a friend from our church, pulled out the bags of cheetos she brought her! She screamed and hugged them to her chest. She was truly delighted.

The first thing I did with Lisa Nyugen and Kathy Birsa-Smith was visit our next door neighbors. It never ceases to amaze me how a slum can sit right next to a large home like ours. We have electricity, water and toilets… they have none of that. Lisa and Kathy handed out suckers which Ugandans call “sweets” and they were so happy.

It is a pleasure to be here with these friends. Even Mark, Ben’s heart doctor, came along with his son Kevin Goodwin. We are so excited to have Ben’s cousin JJ too. Dan Clark who came with us last year to Rwanda came along. Sylvia Alvarez who is the biggest proponent of our work joined. Billy Nyugen who is engaged to Lisa is also here with their pastor and our dear friend for many years, Elton Lin. All together there are ten new people in our home. Thank you to everyone who loaned us their family members! I want you to know that the first thing every one did was taking a shower and then off to the mall (with the exception of Dan and Kathy). They had some things to buy for families!

Tomorrow we start working helping with building a new house (perhaps demolition??) for Cissy (Cece). I can’t wait!