ah family and friends!
where do i even begin? i apologize in advance for how scattered this post is going to be. there is a lot to say. i am currently sitting in an internet cafe, just checked my facebook for the first time in a while. posts from friends from home brought tears to my eyes. i feel so loved and so showered in prayer. 
God is so good. He is moving in mighty ways here.
i guess i should just start from the top. we arrived in uganda around 9 on tuesday the 15th. we stayed in a hotel in entebbe our first night, and we were all anxious to start the drive up to lira, which happened the next day. on the way, our team met up with john, who is a consultant for cotn and he is doing trauma counseling with the kids. it’s really cool cause it is doubling as hours for an internship or something like that for his masters that he is pursuing in counseling. so, on wednesday morning we took the long drive from kampala to the north. we got to the guest house just before dinner and we were greeted with shouts and hugs from the kids who attend the school just down the street from the home. i immediately burst into tears of joy. so good to be back. they sang a few songs then we went to the village! aaah the village! when i left, there was one house that was almost complete and we were moving bricks for the second house. now there are seven homes and they are currently building a gazebo that will be in the middle that will serve as a common area. it is pretty phenomenal. so we went there and it got really dark really fast, cause there is no electricity there. the kids sang us songs, and i saw her. my rose. i embraced her and told her that she is my sponsor kid. it was a beautiful moment.
the next day, as we were waiting for the taussig family to arrive, which is mama sylv (our other intern leader, aside from elena) papa t (whose name is andrew, but people call him andy and i just call him papa) and alex who is their oldest daughter and another member of our intern team, we went and walked around town, saw the market and we went to a baby home. this is a place where catholic nuns take in babies who have been abandoned or something of the like and care for them until someone adopts them. i fell in love with a beautiful baby boy named paul. ah, that child has my heart. we were there today and he peed on me. i am a true mother.
this is where it is going to get really scattered, cause i didn’t bring my journal to the internet cafe. i am now just going to tell you about what comes to mind. these events occur in no particular order.
we were living in the guest house for a while, and we thought that we would be staying there, but it turns out that there are not enough beds for all of the interns and the short term teams that come through, so they had prepared a house for us in the village. we were all really reluctant at first, cause living in the village means no electricity or plumbing. that’s right. we’re peeing and pooping in a whole in the same room that we bucket bathe in. it is very interesting, but it is not as bad as i thought it would be. as we were sitting by lantern light after dinner last night, i think it was tyler who said it feels like we are camping every day. i love it. and we are so close to the kids. the guest house is about a 20 min drive from the village, so this way, we can create better bonds with the kids. we have divided ourselves among the houses and next week we will start a bible study that will happen a couple of nights a week. ashley and i are paired to lead a bible study in the house where rose lives. there are also a lot of girls that i really connect with in that house, so i am really excited to be able to invest in their lives that much more. it is also awesome to live there because we help the mamas with chores when we can, and we are all together as a team. mama sylv moved over there with us, which papa t isn’t very happy about. he needs to stay at the guest house because he is in charge of the short term teams. so right now it’s only papa and john in the guest house. john jokes about how they are like the odd couple, which is apparently a sitcom from way before our time.
we have also been blessed enough to travel to different schools. the first one we went to was mantel, which was a school that i went to last year with my short term team. it was cool to be back and to see those kids again. i think we plan to go back again. when we went, we did physical education with them on what seemed like the hottest day of our trip thus far. we were all sweating bullets, but it was awesome. it is so fun to sing songs with the girls. <3 another school we went to was alpha. that school was very different than mantel. it was more of a production. they sang for us and then allowed us to break into groups and talk to the kids. maci, ashley and i along with a translator by the name of hadrine, got to talk to the little girls. i told them the story of the wise builder and foolish builder which was a parable that Jesus told after the sermon on the mount. i told them how important it is to build their lives on the foundation of Christ. i hope it translated well. hadrine is an amazing translator, and she is becoming a good friend, so i am sure that it was fine. a highlight from that night was the fact that we were served chicken and chipate along with sodas as a thank you for coming. it is tradition in uganda to cook the entire chicken and serve it. and when i say entire, i mean entire. feet and head included. chris and tyler both took two big bites out of the chicken heads. more power to them. ugh. haha lucio, which is the venture team coordinator said that no one will ever forget that. i know i won’t. we also got to go to an elementary school that is just getting started. the little kids were so cute in their little orange uniforms. i fell in love with a spunky little girl in purple rain boots. we all thought she was hilarious, and we called her boots, but her real name is mercy. last night we went to a high school and we divided into boys and girls. the spirit was definitely moving through our talk to the girls. we were talking about staying focused and staying in school and putting our trust in God to fulfill the desires of our hearts. the spirit definitely spoke through us and ten girls gave their lives to Christ. we were so excited. 
we are going to go back and i can’t wait to see those girls again.
we are trying to learn the language as much as we can. chris and i are kind of in a battle over how much luo we can learn. so far he is winning, but that won’t be for long. we know phrases like how are you which is kopango. and praise God which is apaka rot. it’s really funny cause we say things but then they continue to speak in luo and we have no idea how to respond. ber (which means good) is always a good go to word to say when you don’t know what is being said to you. ber is the equivalent to the nod and smile. i am sitting by maci and elena as i write this and they both agree with me on the whole ber equating to the nod and smile idea. we have all been given ugandan names. elena was given hers last year and hers is akello (ah-kel-oh) which means to bring something. chris was given the male form of ‘to bring something’ which is okello (oh-kel-oh). maci’s name is aber (ah-bear) which means good. and ashley is akullo (ah-cool-oh) which means well or fountain. mine and tyler’s go together. tyler’s is opio (oh-pee-oh) which is the first born in a set of twins. and mine is acen (ah-chen) which is the last of a set of twins, or the last in the family. so tyler and i are twins. jimmey mao is our chief driver and has a family with three kids. his middle daughter, annette is named acen, so i am jimmey’s american daughter, and he has been calling me annette. the funny thing about my name meaning the last or second of a set is that i am the baby of the team. my name really suits me. and it is rose’s name as well. she is acen rose. we have the same name. needless to say, we have been having a lot of fun with the language, but i don’t expect to be fluent by any means by the time i get back. it is rather difficult sometimes, especially with the different sounds that are not in our language.
ah, what else is there to say? we are all really immersing ourselves int he culture. we help do daily chores like hand washing clothes (not an easy task) and washing casava (which is a kind of root that they boil and eat…also not the easiest task) and we are spending time with the cotn staff and learning their stories. it is such a blessing to be here, and i am so glad that i am here for more than just two weeks. i can’t wait to see what else God has in store!
i think that i have rambled enough for one post. i think that we are going to make the internet cafe a weekly visit cause we dont have access to the internet at the home. i like that. i only need to be on once a week anyway. it’s enough time to experience wild stories and update all of you with them. i hope you’ve enjoyed reading what i’ve got so far.
until next time,
acen hanna
