Oh Malaria, why do you poison me so!!!

The week started out pretty normal. I was still pretty tired and emotionally worn out from the trip to Kitgum. I was really hoping, as I said last week, that I would feel God wanted me in a certain place. Well that still hasn't happened. I still feel like the Lord wants me to go North but I don't think it is supposed to be now. So I have been at a loss of what to do next. On Thursday Judy and Malia had their court date. So we got up early and headed to Kampala to appear before the judge. I was aloud to sit in the court room with them and I was very nervous because the Judge was a hard looking woman. I thought for sure she was going to ask me why I was there. But she didn't she just talked to the lawyer and never even looked at us. Then on Friday at 1:45 am I woke up shivering even though I had all my covers on. It was a long night to say the least. At 7:45 or so that morning I was so tired and my head was hurting so bad, I was still cold and my back was so achy. When I told Judy she right away said that it was malaria and told me to go get tested. Off I went, not really having the energy to walk and was thankful when a boda came by and I had him take me. We went to one of the clinics in town and it was still closed so I had him take me to another one on the other side of town. They pricked my figure and I ended up waiting for about 20 minutes before the test came back positive. I was hoping that it was malaria because then I could get treatment and be done with it sooner. :)

Friday Judy got legal custody of Malia. So now she is working on getting her passport and other things to travel.

Now I am trying to get better. My appetite is returning a little by little. I am drinking a lot of water and sleeping a lot as well. I will hopefully be fully recovered in a day or so.

Man I really hate being sick.

Please keep praying for a full recovery! Thank you! :)

Philippians 1:6

Warning: this blog may be longer than I intended!!! :)

My story begins on Saturday the first of may in the year 2010.

5:00am is not a time I usually like to see. Normally I am studying the insides of my eyelids very intently at that time. I was told that this was the time I was to get out of bed and get ready for the two hour trip to Kampala, where we would then board a bus to Kitgum (Northern Uganda). We arrived in Kampala at 7:30am and after stopping for a potty break, headed to the bus park. Surprisingly we had no trouble finding the bus park thanks to Abdullah our driver. At 7:45 we boarded the bus and at about 9:20 we pulled out of the park and headed into the Kampala traffic.

Everything was going really well for the first hour or so. I think Malia and I were sleeping and Judy was reading her book, when all of a sudden we heard a very loud BANG!!! my eyes popped open and both Judy and I reached for Malia so she didn't go flying out of her seat. We soon realized that the tire had been shredded and the driver pulled over to the side of the road, which only left five inches for cars to pass us. After about five minutes we started moving again! thud thud thud went the tire and this went on for about 20 minutes until we reached the town of Luwero and he found a safe place to pull over. We all climbed out of the bus and sat on the side of the road for a good 20 more minutes before we heard the driver start the engine. Everyone climbed back on and off we went. We reached Kitgum at around 5:30pm and waited for Summer (the mom of the missionary family we stayed with) to come and pick us, as they say here in Uganda. We were shown the place where we were staying and after we ate a little food and fell into bed exhausted.

On Sunday we attended the Church Zain and Summer are pastoring, Calvary Chapel Kitgum. It is a very small church of about 20 people, including the children. The teaching was on Matthew 23 and even though I've read this passage many times, the Lord was able to reveal even more to me. :)

Monday we hung out with the family and then took one of there church members to the hospital because she broke her ankle that morning. On the way to the hospital we passed by the church where i had stayed with my DTS team four years ago. It was really weird to be back there but this time with different people.

Tuesday we went to a place called the Infant Care Center. They house about 14 children and their care givers in two rooms. The children are so cute and we brought them mango's and bread. It was fun to just hang out with them and play the hokie pokie, color and take pictures. Also on Tuesday we went to a near by village and had bible stories for the kids. It was really exciting!!!

We decided to head home, back to Jinja, on Wednesday. The bus ride both there and back were about eight hours! Not so much fun when you have a four year old sitting next to you, kicking you and wiggling in her seat. She needed to run around and it was impossible because well we were on a bus with 40 other people. :) Oh well we all made it to Kampala safe and sound. In Kampala we had to take boda's to get coaster's to go back to Jinja. I was on one boda and Judy and Malia were on another. I told the boda's to go to the old taxi park and off we went. Unfortunately Judy was in front and she had no idea where to go because it was her first time taking public transportation and my boda decided not to listen to me and took me to another part of town where they also have coasters that go to Jinja. I was really upset when we got there however because I knew this was not where i had told him to go. I lost it! I was so upset and every time I would talk to him it was like he wasn't listening to a word I was saying and he'd just turn and look at my lips. It was like he was trying to listen to what I was saying but he wasn't getting it. I called Judy and our boda drivers talked to each other then they came to where we were and we climbed aboard the coaster and started the two hour ride back home.

By the time we got home we were all so tired of sitting and hungry from only eating cassava and chapati. We went down to the main house after showering and ate dinner with the "family."

So I guess all in all I'm really glad that I went to Kitgum. I still have a lot to pray about in the coming weeks and months but at least now I know what's up there.

Please keep me in your prayers i have a lot of decisions ahead of me and i want to make sure that know matter where I am, I will be where God wants me. :) Thank you all for your love and support!!!

In Christ,
Rochelle