"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." – Dr. Seuss

I prayed about it and while it may have been foolish I said forget about the Ebola thing, and I hugged everyone goodbye! I am sincerely going to miss everyone here, even the people I didn’t work with. This place is another home. I can walk down the main road and see at least 4 people I know personally by name. It’s such a great feeling. People kept on thanking me for everything I did in Kaihura and for a wonderful summer. I just can’t imagine that I’ve touched their lives half as much as they’ve touched mine.

My silly kids

I went and visited the children’s home for the last time. I held up pretty well until I got to one of my students that asked me every day if I would come back to Kaihura. He was hesitant to even give me a hug, my heart throbbed and I quickly moved on to hug the rest of my students so I could leave. As I was leaving he came for another goodbye and I couldn’t do or say anything but wrap my arms around him. That’s when I lost it. What touched me the most was that he said “Madam, it’s okay. Don’t cry!” Our roles had totally switched! I was supposed to be telling him that. I figure that the emotions are so real and I believe it shows strength to allow them to flow freely. I was in no mood to act tough, so I was true to my feelings. Tears streamed down my face and as I looked down at him and he said those words to me I could tell that he knew. He knew that I genuinely loved him.

Kings of Kaihura Volleyball Team

Our last night of volleyball was fun and we actually played pretty well too. Once again, we had another round of goodbyes to say. Afterward we went on a final hike as a group up a big hill on the side of town. We didn’t take a trail, but instead treaded through tall grass to create our own path. I can’t help but think of the symbolism between the hike and our entire trip to Uganda; an unconventional, life changing summer.  We may have faced challenges along the way, but in the end it was a beautiful sight and well worth it. The view on top of the hill was great and we got to watch the sun set. It started raining on our way back down. Kenneth pointed out that it rained on our first and last night in Kaihura. We had come full circle. The rain was like a total cleansing. We are now starting afresh, life continues to move on and so must we. The rain washes away, but you still see the remnants of it and never forget that it rained. As much as I hated to leave, at this point my heart was ready to go.

On top of the hill

We had quite the meal for our last super. It was one of our favorites, fried food night! We had fried Irish potatoes, fried eggplant, beans, pork, and my personal favorite chapatti.

As expected, our Wednesday morning departure was pretty emotional. A bunch of people in the village came to say goodbye. Before getting in the van we made a big prayer circle and Faith prayed for our safe travels. Talking to our friends for the last time made me feel really good because I know that by just being myself I touched other people’s lives. I don’t think I did anything extraordinary, yet I was sincerely loved. I feel like Kaihura was way better to me than I was to them. If I had a dollar for every time I told someone in Kaihura I loved them and sincerely meant it, I would have hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Our Ugandan friends that lived with us and
helped us out so much!

We spent 3 days in the capital city of Kampala. It was a culture shock for most of us because we drove 4 hours and went to an entirely different world. Kampala is just another big modernized city. Big buildings, hundreds of people, malls, restaurants, and pretty much everything we have.

The busy city of Kampala

Our last dinner/ cultural dance show

Rafting in "The Bad Place"

Thursday all of us went rafting in the Nile. Most of us had never rafted before, but that didn’t matter. We were convinced that we wanted to do the most adventurous thrilling rapids there were. 15 beginners went class 5 rafting. Class 5 is the highest you can do in a raft! I am a thriller seeker, but no way was I prepared for this. A full day of rafting is a big workout and I woke up pretty sore the next day. Our last rapid before we got out to eat lunch was called “The Bad Place.” Little did I know that it certainly earned that title. It was the toughest of them all; we were all thrown out of the boat. It seemed like I was underwater for an incredibly long time. I can’t help but to remember that while I was underwater I told myself “this was it” and said a little prayer. For those few moments I actually thought I could die. Water is incredibly powerful and fighting it is a lost cause. My body was literally beat up by the waves, just thrown every which way. I ended up very far from the raft and had to be rescued by one of the safety kayaks. It was an experience and it’ll be some time before I attempt rafting again and an even longer time if I ever do class 5 again.

Sunday8/5 (excerpt from my journal):

“Touch down in D.C. in 20minutes, yet I already feel like Uganda is so far and so long ago. That’s exactly what I was afraid of. I know I’ll never forget, but I desperately want everything to stay fresh and relevant in my mind. I want to remember all the scary, good, funny, and absurd times we had. It’s time to go home, I want to go home, but I’ll forever miss everyone in Kaihura. Relationships like that don’t just disappear.”

There are just so many people I love here. Other than school, this was the longest I’ve ever spent anywhere away from home. Life goes on, but I’ll never forget Kaihura, Uganda as long as I live. It will forever me a part of me. Kaihura helped make me who I am today.

And because it happened, I smile.

This is the End,
*Nicole

Even the Best Dancer Must Leave the Floor

Hope Academy!

Friday 7/27 (excerpt from my journal):

“I am so incredibly nervous! It’s 6:45am and today is our last day at school with the students and it’s only a half day too. L It’s going to be so hard to say goodbye. My stomach is in knots right now. I printed individual pictures and class pictures for each student and wrote them each a long letter. It was hard to even end Ronald’s letter because I had so much to say. I have biscuits, silly bands, and soda for the students today. Ahhh I’m lying in bed freaking out right now!”

Hellos are so easy to say, but goodbyes are the hardest thing ever, especially with children. We sat with these kids Monday- Friday for 2 months, we’ve created amazing relationships. This morning was such an emotional roller coaster. My students loved their gifts and soda. All of the student teachers preformed a song and dance for the school since the kids are constantly singing to us, it was horrible but they got a kick out of it! We also passed out report grades.

It's so easy to fall in love
with these students

Some of my students cried a lot. I told myself to stay strong for them, but I knew from the beginning I would be an emotional wreck. It’s so different from saying goodbye to people back home, because I know unfortunately there is a good chance that I may never see my students again and that is a harsh reality. I just love them so much; they are incredibly precious and loving.

Cooking

Saturday we had our big party in our front yard. We all woke up early that morning knowing that we had a lot of preparation to do before our 4pm party. We invited people from the community that we worked with during our time here. It was our way of saying thank you by serving them. We had a guest list of about 80 people! Malena and I were on cake patrol, and by cake I mean banana nut bread. We had to go to Faith’s house early to bake it that morning. We thought there would be a recipe for us, but instead it turned out to just be an ingredient list so we just had to go for it. We had much needed help from some of our friends at Faith’s and the bread turned out extremely delicious! At the party we had chapatti, mashed potatoes, spaghetti with tomato sauce, minced meat, chicken, pork, and watermelon.

Serving our guest

Dancing all night long

The party was phenomenal! The food was delicious, the company was great, and we danced for what seemed like all night long. We had a couple random visitors, but for the most part it was all of our friends. Did I mention that we danced and danced and danced? The party went from 4pm to about 8:30-9pm, 4 ½ hours of partying! We were all pretty exhausted afterwards and by the way we were acting you would have thought it was 4am haha. We had about a million dishes and decided to wake up at 7am to wash them. Everyone really enjoyed themselves. Africans love to party and dance, that’s for sure!

Sunday all of us teachers went to the nearby city Kyenjojo for a farewell lunch.  We went around the table and each made little speeches. It’s hard to keep saying bye; I never know when it will officially be the last goodbye. We have all become a Hope Academy family. When I see my students around the village it’s exciting and confusing because I never know if it’s the last time. I keep trying to deny it, like if I don’t talk about leaving then it won’t happen. Goodbye is so hard and I can’t in good conscious say “see you later” because I don’t know if that’s even true.

At the end of the night

On Monday we went to our last staff meeting and back to the farm for the last time to paint their new dormitories and say our final goodbyes. Staff meeting was a bit weird because they had all of these new visitors and it almost felt like we were being replaced. It is completely selfish, but I hate the thought of our roles being replaced. I also can’t help but think about the people before us and how they may have felt that way about us.

Teacher's lunch

We got alarming news that night about the Ebola outbreak in Uganda. What was even more alarming was that it was in the district directly above us. About 15 people died from it. Ebola is a very dangerous virus disease that is extremely fatal. Duke Engage called our professor immediately and wanted to know exactly what we would be doing up until we left Uganda. It’s recommended not the shake hands or hug people! Now that is just horrible timing, because this was a time when all I wanted to do was hug people bye. I stayed on my knees to keep us all safe with God’s help!

Though I would love to dance a couple more songs, it’s almost time for this dancer to leave to floor.

Until Next Time,
*Nicole

No More Pretending, It’s Coming to an End

Us Americans like to eat our food, but not see it. I saw 2 chickens being slaughtered in the morning for dinner that night. Let’s just say, I would be okay if I never experienced that again in my lifetime. What made it even worse was that the knives aren’t very sharp so it wasn’t one big chop, but instead required a brief sawing motion. Some boys in the group wanted to stay and successfully did it, but I just couldn’t handle it. I love chicken; however a chopped, cleaned, and air sealed package is the best way for me to deal with it. That goes for virtually all my food.

Saturday afternoon I got a chance to go back to the farm. As always it was a pleasure to spend time with the boys there. We played volleyball, talked about some of the contrasts between Uganda and America, and ate a ton of fresh maize and pineapple. Some of their questions were a bit off the wall and made our eyes get big. Marriage is always such an interesting conversation! But, we also understood that these were innocent questions that they are genuinely curious about and we are their peers so who better to ask than us?

At the farm

After church

Sunday we went to church in the village. Compared to the churches we visited in Fort Portal, I would say that this church was probably the most culturally preserved. The others seemed like they had some western influence, but Kaihura Full Gospel Church was definitely a cultural experience. Similar to my church at home, the praise and worship was a big part of the service, but it lasted much longer here. In total the service was about 3 hours 15 minutes and that’s just until we left, there were still people at church continuing the service. We may not have wanted to admit it, but I think it was a bit of a struggle for some of us to stay alert. Not because the service wasn’t good, but just because it is not what we are used to.

At this point in the trip I had about a week left in Kaihura and many mixed emotions. 2 months just seemed to fly by and I couldn’t believe it. I got a chance to go to the children’s home and help them paint one of the bedrooms. The children were so excited to have their space revamped. We used bright fun colors that are perfect for children. I’m not much of an artist, but painting a big wall wasn’t too bad!

Our neighboors

Hong tutoring after school

My students had also started taking their final exams. The scores seemed to be better than their midterms, so I was happy about that. It was slightly more nerve wrecking though because these scores help determine if the students continue on to the next grade. Grading is not my favorite thing in the world and is very time consuming, but it’s a great feeling to be grading your final test. I noticed that a few of my students have a lot of trouble reading. If I verbally read the questions for them, they understand and can answer it, but if they have to read it they just give up and either leave it blank or write nonsense. There’s just not enough time in the day, I would have loved to have some one-on-one time with these students. It’s so hard to give special attention to one student during class when you have 18 other students waiting to be taught as well. It’s also unfortunate that copying is such a frequently used method. In their defense though, it takes a lot of self-discipline not to cheat because some of my students literally sit on top of one another. Test papers sometimes overlap one another.

I really love my students! And even though they have started driving me crazy (literallyJ), I couldn’t imagine saying goodbye to them. It’s funny to think back to my first day in the classroom when I was so timid and nervous that the teacher or students wouldn’t like me. Now I couldn’t be more comfortable with them. I know them each by name and have no problem calling them out when they are acting up. I even know majority of my students by their Ugandan and English names, safe to say the Ugandan names took me longer to learn and even longer to correctly pronounce! Ronald (my teacher) is such a great teacher. He is a strong male role model for the students. He is both caring and stern with the students. Even though I sometimes disagree, he assures me that I am a good teacher. I can’t lie, sometimes it’s quite nice to hear that.

My P.3 Class

Until Next Time,
*Nicole

Welcome to His Majesty's Palace

Me gretting the King

King Oyo, now 19, became king at 3 years old! He is the world’s youngest king and I got a chance to meet him! Uganda has several kingdoms and each kingdom has a king. The kings don’t have much political power, but they are more of cultural figure heads. We woke up and went to work like any other normal day. Stephen ran to my classroom around 8:45am and said the Embrace Uganda group was headed to meet the king and we could join but had to leave immediately. This was a once in a lifetime chance that I had to take advantage of. King Oyo’s palace is in Fort Portal (the city we go to on weekends), it isn’t too big of a palace, but it was still very pretty. We sat in the front living room; there were 2 thrones, one for the king and one for his Queen mother.  Unfortunately, everyone but our group knew in advance so we were extremely underdressed. I had on a T-shirt and dirty formally white tennis shoes. Nevertheless, it was an amazing experience. We even had to be briefed on how to greet the king. The girls kneeled and tilted our heads to the left and he tapped our right shoulder. The boys had more of a task. They basically did 2 push-ups and touched each cheek to the ground. We were all pretty nervous; I actually think I held my breath while I went up there. The only thing I could think to say was “Hi, nice to meet you” and shook his hand. He simply responded the same, but it somehow sounded personal.

In front of the palace

The King and the Queen Mother

Last weekend was spectacular. I ended up going on a total of 4 Safaris. 3 driving Safaris and 1 boat Safari. It was definitely worth it. Finding the Lions on Sunday morning topped of the whole weekend. All I could think about was Simba!! The food at Queen Elizabeth was amazing; I ate way too much food all weekend. I love the drive back to Kaihura on Sunday afternoons. I just love the feeling of coming home. Kaihura has become home. The smells, sounds, and sights are all familiar and it’s comforting to come back.

My friend Simba

My class is doing well. I have been teaching a lot of English and Reading and Writing classes. Recently, I have been trying hard to have them understand the difference between: does, doesn’t, do, and don’t. It’s been a little rough but some are starting to catch on. They start final exams Wednesday this week, so it will be back to rapid grading all day long for me. Grading is not my favorite thing to do! My appreciation for teachers continues to rise. I’m still astonished that the students have to take exams for each subject and each test is supposed to take 2 ½ hours! I mean seriously! 9 year olds sitting down taking a 2 ½ hour Math test is absurd. It’s easy to understand why they give up and leave whole pages blank.

Surgar Cane during break time

I had a long talk with Emmanuel (the school headmaster) about my Health Survey for Global Health. The survey is pretty general and is meant to gage the students’ knowledge on health risks that could potential affect them, such as malaria, HIV, and other STIs. After looking at their curriculum the oldest class, P.5 seems to be the best fit for the survey. They are also the only ones that may understand the survey. I would also like to talk with someone at the nearby secondary school to see if I could distribute the survey to one of their classes as well. I think the benefit of the survey would be so teachers could be aware of which diseases and health risk they need to focus on during their lessons.

Sadly, so many of the children that we work with at the orphanage and school have ring worm on their bodies and heads. Because of that reason it is going around our group. I would say about 5 or 6 of us have it right now. I just recently found out I have it as well. We have anti-fungal cream from the doctor at the clinic and I also got pills for mine because mine are on my face. They look like dry patches of sun spots so it’s nothing too bad. At first I freaked out and was pretty upset about it, but I realized some people here are suffering with life threatening illnesses and are still positive about life. I just have a common fungus and even with the small chance that the medicine doesn’t work; as soon as I get to America I would get a powerful medicine to knock it out in a matter of days. So I’m thankful ringworm is the worst of my problems.

On Monday and Tuesday the clinic hosted 2 free clinic days for the community. Hundreds of people came out for the chance to see the doctors and get tested for free. They saw 130 people Monday and 370 people Tuesday. Kenneth, Carl, Emily, and Natalie work at the clinic and these were two of the busiest days of their life. Those 4 worked incredibly hard, I’m really proud of the work ethic they exhibited. People came for all different types of medical reasons, some just for checkups and others for life threatening diseases. Everyone also got free HIV testing. I came to just check it out Tuesday and saw how big the need was. I did one HIV and one Syphilis test. Emotionally, this work takes such a big tool on a person. I sat there closely watching the test and desperately hoping it came out negative. Thank God both of mine were negative, but I can’t imagine having to do that all day for multiple days. I believe on Tuesday they had a total of 7 positive tests for HIV, which is good considering the number of people they say….if a positive test could ever be considered good. I saw one of my students in line to get tested and my heart dropped. It just made it all real for me. This disease is no longer something I just read about, but I am actually among/ working with people and children who live in fear of having it. That is a scary, sad thought.  

I decided it had been way too long since I did any type of cardio work out, so Thursday I decided to run. Trust me; I was definitely a spectacle to the village people. Sprints, high knees, lunges, karaoke, and more. They probably thought I was the biggest weirdo ever. So many people would stop and stare for a while then continue on down the road. A couple kids stopped and were imitating me. It was pretty cute.

Today all 15 of us went to see some caves and do a little bit of hiking. I feel like I say this a lot, but it’s true…the natural beauty was incredible! It was just so beautiful. The hiking was intense; we were all pretty worn out afterwards. It made me regret working out earlier in the week because my legs were so sore they were like jelly. Once on top of the big mountain, all the pain was well worth it. The sense of accomplishment and witnessing God’s amazing beauty made me glad I endured the pain.

I can't help it :)

This might be our last weekend in Fort Portal because we want to experience Kaihura on the weekend. We only have 2 more weekends here because the last weekend we start travelling! Where did the time go? I can’t even stomach the idea of having to say my goodbyes. It’s safe to say some tears will be shed among everyone. That being said, this could potentially be my last blog due to internet access until the last few days when we go to the capital city, Kampala. The days are going by fast, but the impact will last forever.

Until Next Time,
*Nicole

Sometimes I sneak away from my class to hang out with my 2nd favorite kiddies!

Fancy Dinner

It’s a 400m Race and I Have About 150m to Go!

The real Lion King

Pull up to the gate of Queen Elizabeth National Park and we are instantly greeted by a mother elephant and her 2 babies. Simply breathtaking, just breathtaking! I am literally sitting on the hotel balcony overlooking the national park. I can see animals out by the water taking their morning bath. Millions and millions of snow white butterflies surround me just fluttering so effortlessly. My goodness, the only thing I can say it look at God’s beautiful creations. This place is amazing I could go on and on forever. The lodge is all inclusive, so we could just sit here and eat all day if we wanted to. (The food is so good we tried, but it’s physically impossible!)
Some of us however have being dealing with similar feelings to when we first arrived at our hotel in Fort Portal. This place is just so gorgeous and we literally have everything at our fingertips, but we just came from a small village where we have students who live in make-shift houses with one room for an entire family. It is definitely a confusing situation to go back and forth between. The only way we know how to handle it is by simply talking and figuring out how we can better serve our village and each other.
On a lighter note however, some of us went out for our first Safari yesterday. Elephants, cobs, antelope, water buffalo, various birds, and more animals I can’t even name. Our driver wasn't exactly skilled at driving on safari terrain however, 4 of us were standing out the sun roof and he hit a huge bush! We were covered in leaves and I even got a couple scratches. It wasn't funny then, but it made for a great journal entry. This is seriously “The Lion King” real life edition! (And I love “The Lion King” so I’m in heaven!) I am going for the boat safari this afternoon and then back to the driving safari because I’m determined to see Simba.

Safari

Baby Elephant!

Of course I had to do a handstand on the equator!

Rewinding a bit, last weekend most of the group went to Lake Kinynga <Definitely misspelled but it sounded like this. It was beautiful as well. They had a dock that we swam off of and just relaxed. On Sunday we went to a new church. It was a nice reminder of home, the pastor is an American Missionary who has been here for a couple years and started this church. It felt like home and that was really nice. After church a couple of us went to visit a guy, Joseph, who we met the week before at the Catholic Church. He invited us all over to his Aunt’s house. The hospitality here is amazing, it greatly rivals Southern hospitality. They love having visitors and would do anything to make sure their guests are comfortable. They are such a loving people that would give their last for a friend.

The most amazing part of that day was when we met Joseph’s grandmother (Mukaka in Rutooro). She was 102 years old! Such a beautiful woman, she looked so good and I felt honored just to be in her presence. I had to touch her hand before leaving and instantly tears started streaming down my face. Not many people live to be 102 years old, especially in Uganda where the life expectancy is around the late 50’s I believe.

Joseph's 102 year old Grandmother

Tuesday this week was one of my student’s first times wearing shoes to school. Can you imagine seeing a student come to school every day for 4 weeks with no shoes? Once again I got a little teary eyed. Just being around him and feeling his positive spirit, you would never ever know how much he doesn’t have. These kids are amazing; they give me strength to keep going.

Lately, a couple of the girls have been doing spontaneous abs and legs workouts. Please imagine us all using our rooms and the den of our house as a workout and dance studio. It’s a pretty funny sight to see.

Another group from North Carolina arrived this weekend. They have a good number of high school students. They are affiliated with Embrace Uganda; it seems like a pretty cool organization that has really been making a difference in our community. On the one hand it’s nice to see people from home around the village so we are no longer the odd looking people around here haha, but it’s also weird having other Americans around. Now that we are half-way through the trip we feel like the big dogs around Kaihura :D.

Malena, Emily and I got a chance to make Chapati for dinner this week. It is very similar to a flat tortilla, but tastes a little different. It is my favorite food here, I’m obsessed with it. Stephen promised to give me the recipe so I can make it when I get home. School is going smoothly; and we are getting much better at volleyball (won 4 out of 5 games the other day!), everything is just great.

Making Chapati

I know we are a little over half-way through with the trip, but that’s not even something I want to think about. Cold showers and all, I’m just having such a good time I can’t imagine leaving my students, village mates, and new Duke friends. This trip has been such a blessing for all of us.

Me teaching in my class

Until Next Time,
*Nicole

When it rains…Ugandans stay in!

Rain boots…check!
Rain jackets…check!
Umbrellas….check!
Prepared for the Ugandan rain…..Not a chance!

My student Gilbert

Those of us that volunteer at the school were invited to a dinner party at another one of our few volunteer’s house. Rona is from Sweden and lives with 3 other European girls who are here with Project Trust. They graduated from high school and spent their gap year here in Uganda. They have been here for 9 months and have about 2 more months. I thought what we were doing took a lot of guts, but it takes an extremely special 18 year old to travel to Uganda for a year immediately after high school to volunteer.



It was such a good night, but it started out pretty soggy. We definitely entered a bit of a storm. It was lightning and thundering, yet we were determined to join Rona and the other teachers from Hope Academy. We were all soaking wet and it seemed to rain harder as we were walking. Eventually, it was raining so hard we decided to run. Everyone we passed was standing in their doorway staring at us as if saying, “Look at those crazy foolish Americans!” I have never seen Kaihura so quiet; we were literally the only people in sight that were outside. Nonetheless, we made it almost on time, but the rest of the guest waited until the rain subsided and came on the ever present “African Time”. Apparently, rain is enough to stop everything in Kaihura, even school! The food was delicious; we had good conversation, and topped off the night with a little dance party.

Dinner Party

Zach teaching my class

Monday- Wednesday of this week our students were taking district wide midterm tests. I was barely in the classroom at all this week. Most of my time was spent in the office grading tests. Grading the test was kind of stressful and upsetting. The tests from the district seem to be poorly made and with confusing directions. I was told that a score of 40% or higher is considered passing. Sadly, I graded many many test with a score of 20% and lower. It was frustrating because I know that my students are smart and I know their potential. I also know that some of the exercises on the test were things we practiced in class, but they clearly did not understand the directions. In addition, each of these tests is supposed to last 2 ½ hours. How can you expect a 9 year old to still for 2 ½ hours and take a test? It never took that long though because the students would give up and leave whole pages blank. It greatly saddened me, but beginning Thursday we started reviewing the test so the students can better understand what the directions were asking of them.

Tracy and Gloria

I felt bad for not being with the students all week, so to make it up I tried to teach all morning on Friday since we only work a half day. I was so incredibly worn out from teaching from 8am-11am. 3 hours straight of standing in front of the class, having to raise your voice to keep their attention, and write on a chalkboard is hard work. This trip has given me a whole new appreciation for teachers at any level. Teaching is not easy, yet the profession is almost always taken for granted.

I am really getting to know some of the other students in my group and it’s exciting and fun to just learn about everyone’s lives. We are all so different and I love how we were sort of thrown together and placed half-way across the world. I have come to love some of the random talks the girls in my room and I end up having. We seem to talk about everything under the sun and our conversations usually end in an explosion of laughter. I really couldn’t have asked for a better group.

Monkeys on the side of the road

We still play volleyball nearly every day in the village. It has become something that most of us look forward to. Some of the teachers from our school join us as well, so it’s cool to have additional time to hang out with them. We have made legitimate friends with some people here in the community. Stephen and Prossy are two Ugandans that live with us and are both in their 20’s. We have all gotten really attached to them. They are some of the sweetest and strongest people ever. I really don’t know what we would do without them.

Minju and I

Some of us started having bible study almost every night. It is really nice to be able to share my faith with others who are on the same journey to become better Christians. Although we are of various denominations, the love for Christ is the same. We have been reading the book of Joshua and discussing 2 chapters at a time. We are all just young people, trying to live our life the right way. We have been trying out different churches in Fort Portal on Sunday. The first Sunday we attended an Anglican church and the second weekend a Catholic church. It is sometimes hard to understand the service even though it’s in English, but it’s nice to be in the presence of other worshipers.

Deciding what to include in each blog is becoming quite a task because so much goes on during the week, but I think this is a sufficient overview of what happened this past week.

Until Next Time,
*Nicole