errr...i know it's been foreverrrrr. sorry. but i'm back, safe and sound in the good ole U.S.A.  i'm doing my best to get my pictures and videos on here, i just don't have the right chords 'n such. so it's coming....wait for it :)  

just wanted to thank everyone again for helping me get to africa. It's truly and experience i'll never forget. the small contributions we made on a local level were so well recieved! the people of lugazi were so receptive to things we came to teach and implement. I say, thank you, for them.   

ok....stay tuned for pictures.

I forgot to tell you in my last blog about the women's group i worked with this week! such a good story....so I work with a local women's group here in nakazede. it's a group of about 12 women who all live in close proximity of each other. they get together and help each other cook, clean and take care of kids...kind of like a glorified sewing group? anyway, they're all really close and they all want to learn english. so we meet with them once a week and have activities, tell stories etc...that will help them learn english words. this week we prepared a story (complete with posters)....about irene, a girl who wanted to make banana pancakes.

and i have to interupt this story for 2 seconds to tell you what just happened outside. i'm in an internet cafe just about 2 blocks from a bank...that just had robbers try and break in. yikes! we heard serveral gun shots and loud voices so trent and jeff (two friends that are with me) went to find out what happened. they told us and said it was better for us to stay inside for a little while. now there are plenty of police around and we are ok but just had to tell you, haha!

ok so irene....we taught them the words for all the ingredients and cooking utensils. and then we made them banana pancakes! they loved 'em. it was a special treat for someone else to cook for them and such a delicious treat. they all wrote down the recipe and told us they would make them for their families. cool huh? alright that's it....love ya'll. talk to you later

hello again....i know it has been a while so i will try and update you as much as i can with the time i have left on my computer. lets see...where did i leave off. i've now taught 3 times at cranes school and the kids continue to impress me. i've been teaching them basic theory and piano skills and they've been recieving it really well. they are eager to learn and are excited to have a muzungu (whilte person) in the class room. :) i bought a small keyboard to use for the lessons and they are fascinated by it...it's the first time a lot of them have seen or heard a piano, including the teacher, sarah. i'll be leaving it with them when i leave, can't wait to see their faces when that happens.

i've also been preparing for our business trip to the refugee camps in Gulu. there is a group of 10 of us, each teaching an hour lesson on different business topics. it's a two day seminar so i'm hoping they will get enought out of it as we are hoping. my topic is product pricing and selection, i also volunteered to take on the alternative lesson in case we have time which is on business ethics, management and employees. i'm super excited about my lesson plans, i think they will really be valuable to these people. we have been told that the people we are teaching have been dispaced from their homes due to war, and dangerous situations. they do not have any business skills and we'll be lucky if they can understand our english. we will have translators. we leave on friday, so keep us in your prayers!

we have so much fun at our home in lugazi....we are all exhausted at the end of the day from running around to different projects so as you can imagine....we get pretty goofy. the other volunteers are amzing people. hearts of gold. we all laugh about the hard things we have to deal with here... having to go to the bathroom in what they call a latrine (litterally a hole in the ground that you have to squat down to use), sleeping in a mosquito net that wakes you up every time you move, sweating cus we're on the equator, and the smells!! aaawwww a combination of african B.O. and rotting trash ha!it's hard. but honestly the people we are working with make it all worth it.

My favorite it Dan. He comes to the business trainings and i have a heart for him. he is a woodworking carpenter and runs a skill center here in lugazi. he teaches young men the skills of woodwork and sells things like school benches, doors, cabniets, chests and beds. i've seen his work and it's truly amazing. he has a lot of problems with success though. as soon as his employees learn enough skills they open their own business and become his competitors. there are no written contracts here, the government does not uphold them. they also use his tools when he isn't around for their own projects. so employee trust is a big issue. it's also hard to make a profit because the people here just don't have the money to buy his products...the wood and materials are too expensive to lower his prices. he has big dreams though! he wants to aquire electricity in his shop...there is none now. and eventually buy power tools that he would keep locked up so no one else could use them. with power tools he would be able to work twice as fast and produce twice as much in half the time. he's a smart, humble man that has something that reminds me of my dad, which i'm sure is why i have such a heart for him :) i visit him twice a week to see if there's anything I can help him with and make sure all the business traning we go over is helping. pray for him if you can.

i've also established a relationship with our cook at the house. her name is irene. she's a beautiful lady, sweet and funny. she's been having man troubles the past couple weeks! they are just as difficult here as they are in the states...go figure! i help her prepare dinner when i can and it gives us an opportunity to have girl talk, which i think she really appreciates. pray for her if you can.

so i forgot the cord that hooks my camera up to the computer :( no pictures or videos until I get home. sorry! but trust me it'll be worth the wait...tons of great stuff.

better get going. need to work on lessons plans...love and miss you all!

p.s. i went bungee jumping over the nile river this past weekend...it's ok you can be jealous!

I only have 7 mins left on my computer so I'm gonna make this one quick. Just wanted to keep you updated... I taught my first music lesson to a class of about 40 kids. I kept it simple and made it about music appreciation and the benefits it can have on us and society, played them a bunch of differnt samples and asked them how it made them feel. They responded really well, can't wait to work with them again this week. I've been invited to go to northern uganda, Gulu to be exact as a small team to teach basic business courses to refugee camps....we will be leaving in 2 weeks, so wish me luck, i'm super excited about it! (thanks to fruition for giving me those basic business skills!) I am in tanzania right now...just got home from a 4 day safari, can't wait to show you pictures. will get back to work on monday. will keep you posted when I can. miss you all. love
steph

welcome to africa

yesterday I found a sack of bot fly larva in my foot....welcome to africa.

mount elgon

Blog 2 in country 6/17

This past weekend we took a trip to mount elgon…or in other words… heaven on earth. It was truly one of the most beautiful places. The villages surrounding the area were small and mostly made of clay and wood huts with grass roofs. The people there get their food, products to sell and supplies from the land. Our tour guide, on the first day, would point out several different plants…one, the people used as toilet paper and Kleenex because it was soft and smelled nice. Several plants were natural medicines that would treat cough, upset stomach and headaches. How cool huh? Think of all the synthetic medicines we could cut out of our system if we just knew more about natural medicines…how much better off our bodies would be. The hike was pretty vertical…not long but with a 15-pound backpack it was pretty challenging. We climbed up an Indiana Jones latter made up of sticks…pretty rad. We had lunch at the top of the waterfall and were quickly instructed to start our way down the mountain since rain clouds were now overhead. It wasn’t long before the clouds opened up and a torrential downpour began…which made getting down the steep mountain nothing short of a semi-dangerous adventure. Fully soaked and quite cold we were invited to women’s group home for lemongrass tea and bananas. The women were humble and sweet…. very grateful to have us.

That night we were set up in a resort in sipi falls…where we would hike the next day. The resort was only a few bandas….small log huts with grass roofs, and a main lodge. Ya know how I said earlier that mount elgon was heaven on earth…scratch that. This resort was heaven on earth. They had hot showers and a four-course meal waiting for us, not to mention a view of the falls that could take your breath away. We ended the night with a campfire.

The second day of hiking was less strenuous. We were taken to 2 waterfalls that day and at one we were able to swim in the lagoon at the bottom. I was one of only two girls who got in the water…and I must say we did not only get in the water…we jumped…about ten feet off the cliff….into freezing water! We didn’t stay too long cus it was too cold.

Food for thought: Can the beauty of this earth be coincidence? Can all the intricate delicacies of the life that grows around us be left to science? Or was it divinely created? I think if you were here with me you would lean towards the latter…but I will let you decide.

k....I've got one and 1/2 days to go and I'm starting to feel it! I've been nicely distracted by the fact that I had to opportunity to sing the national anthem at a washington nationals baseball game this past saturday (thank you papa c.!) but now that that's over, Africa is heavy in crunch mode. It's gonna take me almost 2 days to get to Uganda from D.C. and then it might take me a lil while to get situated before I can post again. thank you again to all who helped me in getting there...you're donations were extremly generous and I promise no penny will go wasted.....

muchlove

ok! I figured it out... here is the first post of hopefully many. Status: still in Nashville, TN. Packing :)