Our trip to Jinja, Uganda and Easter :)

We got the chance to travel to Jinja, Uganda for a week at the end of March and beginning of April, for a baby shower, for one of Arielle and now my friends. We stayed with her and her husband and had a great time. Arielle enjoyed showing us around jinja. She was glad to share a part of her life with us. In 2009 she volunteered at a baby house in Jinja and lived there for three months, so she really knows her way around that town. Here are some pictures from our trip :)

Amani Baby Cottage :)

Waiting to feed the Monkey's.

Thanks Mom :)

Don't Open Untill April 8th :)

Sad she cant open it until April 8th :(

Smells like My house they said!

Happy Easter in Africa

Our Easter clothes for Church!

Traditional African Wear :)

Last night dinner with Rochelle and Charles 

Itanda Falls :)

Source of the Nile 

Rochelle's Baby shower.....Diaper Cake

Who says you cant make a good cake while in Africa.....

Baby Shower games

Baby Shower Games :)

GREEN HOUSE PROJECT

Today I am writing to you on behalf of my community here in Uganda.  We are currently dealing with food security in our village, there is not always enough food to go around. This problem is due to the rising cost of food in Uganda, as well as a drop in monetary funding from various supporters. Although this may seem to be sad news, these circumstances are pushing us to look into alternative solutions that empower the community in a sustainable way. I believe in a “hand-up” not a “hand-out”.

“Well let’s just plant a garden then!”  It’s not quite that simple….the seasons here are getting worse; extreme droughts followed by too much water when the rains come. These factors make farming very difficult and crop production unreliable.  Therefore we are turning to a widely used, age-old strategy used in countries around the world, such as Kuwait, Israel, and Philippines: greenhouse technology.

Balton Greenhouses is a local company whose goal is “improving food security and livelihoods for small scale farmers in Uganda”. The effects of constructing a greenhouse on our property would enhance numerous aspects of the welfare of our village and the surrounding community.

We will be able to grow continually throughout the year, making the crop yield up to 10-12 times larger (depending on the crop). We will be able to incorporate farming education into our schools curriculum, providing knowledge not only to our community but to the surrounding communities via the students that attend our school from outside. The most important benefit is the food security that it will provide. We will be able to sell off the excess vegetables and fruits to provide income for the staple foods, rice, posho and beans.

The total cost for this project is $3,710.42 USD. This includes EVERYTHING; Construction materials, seeds, irrigation tanks and drip lines, gardening tools and four people to be trained properly in this gardening technique. If you ask me, that’s a bargain for not only what we will be getting, but for what we will be able to give this vulnerable community.

I ask you to consider donating to this project today. Donating is easy, you can send a check to my parents at 1738 Sims Place Lakeland, Florida 33803 or cash or you can drop it off with them. And they will make sure I get it. If you would like an alternative method to give, please contact me. The greenhouse can be constructed as soon as we can pay the company, hopefully before I leave in May.  

I have more information about this greenhouse than you want to read about on here, including a PowerPoint and project proposal.  If you would like any more explanation about any aspect of this project please ask! Either via comment on this blog or email: caylynbrooke.10@gmail.com

We really are making a big push for this because we would like to have the money raised before we leave so we can see the progress on the green house or the final product so please keep that in mind.

Thank you all so much for being a part of my amazing adventure in Africa!

Love,

Caylyn Brooke

“Now these three remain faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is LOVE.” -1 Corinthians 13:13

“Let love and faithfulness never leave you…. write them on the tablet of your heart.” –Proverbs 3:3

FAITH HOPE LOVE

Us at Immy's Daughter Gorett's Visitation Day 

Shabon and I walking home :)

This past weekend has been pretty busy for us. On Sunday we went to visitation day at Immy’s daughters school. She boards there, which means she lives there through the school term and when there are breaks in between terms she can come back home for a few days. Anyway we cooked on Saturday night and Sunday morning to bring food with us, because each family that comes to see their kids, bring food and they have like a picnic on the lawn. So after we were done cooking on Sunday we left for the school. So 8 of us hopped on bota-bota’s and went. We when got there she was so excited to see her family and all of us. Timbo and me had not met her yet because she has not been back to the village since we have been there. She welcomed us with open arms, even though she did not know we are coming, but I think she was pretty happy to know all these people cared enough for her to come and see her at school. It was a fun experience, to see higher-level education here. Because in the village all we have is a primary school, which is like elementary school. We hung out there all afternoon. The students at the school sang and danced for all the visitors.

Gorett and I

 When we got back to the village we decided we wanted to chill and watch a movie because it had been a long day and we got back late. But as I said before we like to plan but I think that is just God’s way of stretching our patience, because not many things go as we plan here. Arielle was called by Immy to come and see this mom and her son, because they were not feeling well. Arielle thought she could be quick and that she should be back in like 20 mins. Well she came back like 30 mins later. And she was scared and freaking out, because both of them were really in bad shape. She was looking for a number to the nurse in the village so she could come and check the two out to see if it was bad enough that we need to come to the hospital. We got all our things together just incase we had to go. And we went back to the clinic and we decided that is was bad enough we needed to go somewhere. Joshua came and picked up, Arielle and I and the mom and son. It was about 10:30 pm on Sunday night. We got to the clinic and they took them both in to assess them. The boy has sickle cell anemia and he was having a crisis that is what they call it when his systems of sickle cell flare up. So we thought they would give him fluid because he was dehydrated and pain medicine because sickle cell gives you a lot of pain in your bones and joints. They next day they found out that he had malaria and bacteria in his blood. So now he is being treated for all of these things, but he is not getting better as fast as he usually does, so please be praying for him he is only five. The mother got assessed also and they put her on fluid and pain medicine and she is doing ok, she will be able to go home today (Tuesday March 27). Please also be praying for her, she found out some not so good news today (Tuesday March 27) nothing life threatening for her but prayers are greatly needed for this family. Also her daughter has a herniated belly button and will be having surgery with in the next week, which is good for the daughter but a lot of stress for the mom and the family.

Him on his last day in the hospital :)

The mom and son went home on Thursday (march 30) and are doing better. They both still have some healing to do. The boy will fight his sickle cell for the rest of his life. This situation has been a growing and learning process for me. God keeps showing me that he is in control and that I need to have faith in him, no matter what the situation is.

"Now Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." -Hebrews 11:1

We will be that city on the hill burning brightly.

Learning to be the light in Africa looks different to me each day. Learning that you are called for missions is a hard thing to except. Being back home you get caught up in the American way and just the comforts of home. I absolutely love mission’s work and right now I feel like that’s my calling. My heart is torn between Haiti and Africa and one day I hope many more places. I am coming to realize I would love to start an organization that works in many places bring the love of Jesus Christ and bring hope. Right now we are working on a few different projects in the village that will improve their living and help make the village self-sustainable. And I’m excited to be a part of the planning and hopefully the out come. Because this is the part of missions I’m most excited about, being able to plan something and raise the money for it and be there when it is built and put in place.

Each day in the village usually looks a little different. We are getting into a routine but each day does not always go as we planned. The other day we had to go into town and buy malaria medication because the clinic at the village ran out and we had a few kids with malaria, who needed the medicine that day. Or giving money, to get the bathhouse fixed, or leaving the village at 11pm because you need to take a mom and son to the hospital. Africa is turning out to be way different then I thought. You always go into something thinking you will get one thing out of it but usually you get many things you never thought possible. Africa is challenging me in more ways then I thought possible but I am learning to love those moments because they seem to happen a lot and all I can do is except then and learn from them. Learning to be the light to me also means loving on the kids and poring into them as much as possible. Some kids in the village are orphans and some are boarding students and some live in the village with their mothers. Its hard to see life through their eyes, but the more I spend time with some of them my heart breaks for what they have to go through. But I'm loving every minute of being here. :)

Loving this verse right now. "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." -1 Corinthians 13:13

me and molly :)

There is more to come about some of the projects we want to accomplish be for we leave. We need lots of prayers and also we are going to need sponsors for some of the stuff.

TIA (This is Africa)

After over 24 hours of traveling we made it to the village safely. The trip getting to Uganda was a little bumpy for timbo and I but we made it will all our bags which was amazing and I thank God for that. We arrived in the village at 1:00am on Friday morning (our time in Uganda.) We were 8 hours in front of Florida but now that the time has changed we are 7 hours before ya’ll. The first day in the village Friday was hard for me because I arrived sick and the first night got only about 2 and ½ hours of sleep all I felt like doing was staying in bed and resting but all the kids and ladies were asking about me and worried for me. Talk about feeling loved, people you don’t know worried about you because you don’t feel good. So Friday I met some of the people but I mostly rested hoping I could get better in the shortest time possible. So I did little by little on Friday. Arielle and I rearranged our room; we put our beds together and organized all our things. We also had to re-hang our mosquito net and that was a site to see.

So Friday was an organizing and resting day for me. Until Arielle comes in our room freaking out, she had just gotten off the phone with a director of an organization that has volunteers in the village too. He wanted us to pay or move out of where we were staying, but Arielle had an agreement with the man who started the village Jonathon that is her contact. But Jonathan is out of the country right now so she could not call him. So she talked to Jonathan’s brother and he told her what to say to this man. But we all were a little nervous because this guy was on this way to the village to get an answer from us were we going to pay or move out. Two ladies in the village were really comforting they just have a peace about them that made us calm before this guy got to the village. They are like our Ugandan mothers because the really care about us and love us. They have our back no matter what happens. This guy came to the village and talked to Arielle and told her that we would solve the problem when Jonathon comes back from his trip. So for now this is to be continued.

On Friday night after this guy left Immy cooked dinner for us in her house and we got to eat dinner with her and her family. It was really comforting to know that she cares about us and has a big heart to let us into her home after only knowing me and timbo for one day.

Saturday was as eventful as Friday. We got up in the morning to go into the town next to us to exchange our money and get some grocery’s at the market. But the bank in Wikso would not exchange our smaller bills so we decided to go all the way into Kampala. We thought we were only going to be gone 2 hours but it turned into an all day trip. We had to take a bota- bota from our village into Wikso then take 2 Mutatoo’s (taxi) to get into Kampala to the shopping center we were going to. It took us about 2 hours of traveling to get there. In Kampala we exchanged our money and we to the grocery store. We also ate lunch at a place called the New York Pizza Kitchen. On the way home from Kampala was a little shorter but one of our taxi’s said they were going were we needed to go but they lied to us and drop us of the 15 mins away from were we need to be to catch our other taxi back to Wikso. So we asked this girl on the street how to get there and she walked us all the way there. And she was not even going where we were going, she was just nice enough to take us there. And we made it back to the village safely. On Saturday night we had a birthday party for Immy. We went over to her house and decorated and brought cupcakes we bought in town. We had a blast celebrating with her and her family and Favor. They usually don’t celebrate birthdays here but she was really thankful that we came over to celebrate with her. 

First Bota Bota Ride 

the beginning

Hi. Everyone. This is my first blog post ever. This blog is meant to show God’s work through me on my journey to Uganda, Africa. I’m every excited to have the opportunity to go and serve the people in Africa. And it is all thanks to family and friends who have helped to provide the funds. I have bought my plane ticket and I leave on March 7th, which was number one on my long list of things to do. As my trip is getting closer, I’m learning that trusting God and his plan for my life is what is most important right now. 

My reason for the title of my blog is I heard a song on the Joy FM and it really stuck out to me. It was in the beginning stages of my trip; I was still figuring out if going to Africa was the right move for me. Then the song “Learning to be the light” came on and I thought this was a good sign and I made up my mind for sure after hearing that song that going to Africa was my next step in life. One of my favorite parts in the song is when it says, “A brand new life is calling and I owe to all to grace…I’m learning to be the light.” I also attended the passion conference in January and the speakers talked a lot about doing something now, not waiting for a better opportunity or waiting until everything is perfect because it never will be but getting involved with something you feel passionate about and doing something now.

This trip will be different then any other mission trip I have been on. The first way it is different is I am going for two months, I have only ever been on trips out of the country for a week or two weeks at the most, and so two months is a big change. I feel blessed to have the opportunity and I’m not taking it lightly. I ready to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the people of Africa.