6:30 am
I just smashed a mosquito. Inside my mosquito net. And it had blood in it…lots of blood.
But other than that, I’m super happy right now. I just woke up at 6:30 without an alarm clock, to another stunningly marvellous morning in Africa. I can hear voices, and chickens, and every so often a rooster crows nice and loud. Maybe that’s what woke me up.
I don’t know what we’re going to do today. The plan is to visit two churches, and Dad and Jake will preach, and Sue and Leenie and I will do eyes, but since when does anything ever go according to plan? This is Africa!
Ugh, I’m this close to puking right now. I took my malaria pill without any food…never again. Breakfast can’t come soon enough.
9:00 pm
With every precious moment I spend here in Uganda, I become more and more certain that this is the life I want. I can’t imagine anything more glorious than being here every single day of my life.
Today we did eye glasses in two churches. You know, sometimes doing the eye clinics makes me simply want to gouge my eyeballs out. It gets so frustrating at times. So many of the patients want glasses just for the sake of having them, and when I tell them the good news that they don’t need glasses, they insist that they do. So perfectly good glasses are wasted on people who don’t need them. Today was especially bad.
But it was all worth it because we were able to help a woman who has needed glasses for seven years and has never been able to afford them. So we gave her a pair, and she fell to her knees praising God. This is why we are here. This is the whole point.
Oh, I’ve got my mud hut picked out. It’s pretty far down a dirt road, past Paul’s orphanage. It’s under a lovely green tree, and it’s small and circular with a lovely grass roof. I will live there one day.
And I made a new friend named Juliet. We walked and talked and she showed me all of the fruit trees. Those children are so precious.
Juliet and me
And we had church in a mud hut. Coolest thing of my life.
And I finally got to drink Stoney Tangawizi again! It’s my absolute favourite drink, but I have yet to find any in America. But here they have so much of it, and I love it.
This is a beautiful night. The moon is big and nearly full, the air is still and cool, and as I sit here under the big palm tree, I think I must be the happiest person alive.
You know, this trip is going by reeeeeally slowly. Really really slowly. Which is odd because that has never happened before. Usually they go by so fast.
Here I am, in Africa, loving every minute of it, and the time is passing so slowly so there are even more minutes to love.
These people know how to do church.
Love Letters 