Monday, June 24, 2013

Persistence

We are having a testing day on Friday, so excited its happening. We tried to have it a few weeks ago but the organization that we partnered with who was in charge of bringing the strips called 12 hours before we were going to have the testing to inform us that they didn't have the strips. Yeah, we were a little bit upset, BUT, despite the challenges we are planning to have it on Friday, lets hope that it goes off. ill try and get you an update on Saturday or Sunday.

Charles got in a bad car accident but he was determined to make it to the HASNN  meeting, He is one dedicated man!
He kept telling me that God needed him to stay here, and the he was a mircale. Such FAITH!

Also, we are going to be launching a health clinic fundraiser because the health clinic is in desperate need of some emergency funding. Samantha, my amazing other half here in Uganda wrote a GREAT post about the health clinic, i cant even attempt to describe it as accurately as she does so i am going to post a link so you can all read it if you would like. http://samanthamcrane.blogspot.com/

At one of our project sights PDI



Monday, June 17, 2013

lovin it here!

WATER FILTERS!!!!!!
                 
        Busy day at the health clinic
        

So i have come to my blog about 10 times in the last few weeks to try to write a blog and then i think that i don't have any idea where to start. i feel like my days have turned in to weeks and my weeks into days. We just brought in our second wave of volunteers and so that is both exciting and stressful. But they are great and eager to work. I was talking to Sam the other day talking about how nice it is to have people with the eager energy that comes from the new volunteers. I love seeing them process the life that happens here. We fed the street kids on sunday again and i loved watching the people that came for the first time to take in their surroundings, and the lives that many of the people live here. i forget that not everyone does this every week because it has become something that is a part of me now. 
The pic on the left is mine... i love the word HOPE, it says so much!

Jospeh took this picture.... he is getting better at aiming...
As I look back on the past weeks i just think about how much this place has become a home. I cant describe it. And i dont know why it is constantly hitting me that this place feels like home. but it is. I have had a few experiences that have made me think about why i really came out here. Why have i spent almost a year of my life living in a place where its always dirty, i ride on the back of motorcycles and sometimes get splashed by the car going by. I am constantly feeling overwhelmed with the poverty and hard lives that these incredible people have to live.

Some would say it was because i am getting too old and since i can't
These boys are always making fun pictures...
find a man i have decided to hide in Africa to play with African Children, (the kids are really cute...), some would say its because its a fun adventure to go on ( which i definately agree with), And some would say its a cool job. There are so many reasons as to why i could be out here. And recently i have felt like i needed to defend myself in why i came out here, and i don't' do it very eloquently. i stumble over my words and tell people it just feels right, like i am suppose to be here.  But as i have reflected on it more, i realize its because a part of my life has been leading up to these moments. The moments where i have a conversation with a child in the slums just by smiling at him. Or when i sit in a HASNN meeting and am overwhelmed with how much i admire and love the people i am working with. Or when the sunsets just right, and i am in a village and the kids are playing on the drums and dancing and that just feels normal. These experiences are showing me who my family is. not just my earthly family, but my eternal family. There are so many people in the world to learn from. And people i know we have known eachother before we came to this earth. And i needed to come out here to Uganda to find these people. They are a part of me, and i need them in my life to be able to do what i need to do while i am here. A lot of that is being a wife and mother, and part of that is bringing people that are not biologically mine under my care. And that is what helps to shape me. It is the incredible people that i have found here that help me to understand me.

This is Sister Barton, i absolutely adore her!!!!!
I have been in the Slum a lot the last few weeks and without fail whenever i go there is always a few kids, or adults that shout CAM as i am going by on a boda, or as i am walking to my next destination. I love it! i am a mzungu to a lot of the people here, but to a group of people, i am Cam, their friend. and i LOVE that!
I love being able to feel at home in place where my parents, and siblings are not and still be happy.

So the reason i am here is because it is a part of my life, its suppose to be a path that i walk in preparation for what lies ahead in my life, and to meet the people who will shape me to be the person that God needs me to be. I don't know how long i will be here, but it will be for as long as God needs me to be here. I think that is going to be my answer for now, in case you asked...

i really love this pic for some reason. Enoch is the one holding josephs legs. He lives in a home where his dad is a drunk and often doesn't come home, or feed the family. Living has gotten so bad that enoch deicded to go and live in a cave on the side of the mountain.... it made so much sense to him... we finally got him to go back home... he is only 12...