The One With The Mountains.

Another Installment from the bush.

On my second day, I had another interesting visitor to my bed. This time it was a little bigger and a little more startling than the previous ones. It was a chicken! The chickens go where ever they want and the door to my room didn't close all the way and one early morning one jumped up onto my bed. It was hilarious but not my kind of alarm clock.

On the subject of interesting animal stories, after a week in our home stays all 38 students went to Sipi Falls and stayed there for a couple days. One day we went hiking in the mountains and I hadn't eaten for a couple days so that wasn't the smartest idea. The trails here don't zig zag up like in America, but the trail goes pretty much straight up/down. It was hard. I only fell going down twice. I found this quite remarkable. The ankle didn't appreciate this but whatev. It was gorgeous but a strenuous hike, in fact there was a section of it that had a ladder made becasue it wsa so steep. First, we hiked down to the bottom of the falls and then went up the other side. Well, being weak from no food for 2 days and going up so fast caused a major drop in blood sugar. I was about to pass out, so I stopped. I was shaking really bad so a friend gave me a juice box and it helped get sugar into me. As we continued climbing, the Lord taught me humility. I have a hard time accepting help for some reason. But I couldn't do it alone. One of the local Ugandans took my hand to help me steady myself. At first, I fought off his hand because I was determined to do it alone, however, God was like "girl, you are gonna learn humility and accept help becasue otherwise you ain't gonna make it." So after a struggle with myself, I allowed him to help me. At first, I was not ok but as time went on, I learned how to accept the help. It was such a silly way to learn such an important lesson. But now I am glad for it. As we were crossing the main road to continue on with the hike, some others had decided to go back and I knew I needed to too so I wouldn't pass out on anyone. We walked the main road back. It was much easier then the side of the mountain. We got back and I drank more juice. I felt a million times better so I decided to take a shower. There are 2 showers and my friend was in one, so I took the other and the door didn't latch all the way. In the middle of my shower the door opened and a cow walked in! I couldn't believe my eyes! A cow was in my shower with me! It just wanted a drink of water. Ha! That was definietly a memorable shower.

After some of us cleaned up we went to a coffee plantation. We learned all the steps, well in Africa, it takes just to make a cup of coffee. It was really interesting. We made our own cup of coffee right off the plant! It was delicious! The freshest cup I've ever had.

The next morning was Sunday so we took a little jaunt up to the tippy top of the mountain. It was gorgeous!! We could see all the land for kilometers! We had an awesome worship service up there!

Back to my time with my family in Kapchorwa [sorry, I am jumping all over the place]. My mom there is only 32-- her eldest is 15. You do the math. She is young and I think we clicked so well becasue we were more of friends, I dunno. She is an amazing woman! I really look up to her! Her faith is so strong! Every morning she came into my room at 6:30 to wake me up and pray with me but then she wouldn't let me get up yet. She made me go back to sleep until 8. Which feels like I am sleeping in when I wake up at 8! I get excited to sleep till then! How weird is that?! I remember when I was in America and slept until 1 in the afternoon... Anyways, our morning prayers blessed me so much! I was talking with her about how grateful I am for having the opportunity to join their family and she goes "You know, God is amazing! It's so good to see how he plans these things out. He knew before either of us were born that we would have this experience with one another. He has blessed my family with your presence."

I wish I could continue writing, but I have to read a book for class in 40 minutes...

More later.
Peace.