Thank You!!

I want to thank all of you who have followed me on my missions trip in Uganda and for faithfully praying for me. The trip was a great blessing to me and I hope and pray that it was also a blessing to the Stensaas family and the Ugandan people I have met and become friends with.

Please continue to pray for the Stensaas Family as they continue to serve the Lord in Uganda and for the Ugandan people that many more would come to know Christ as their Savior and that they would become national pastors and missionaries ans that they would have a huge impact in their country.

Please pray for me as I know have the task of writing papers, summarizing my trip, the Ugandan culture, and the minisrty in Uganda, as well as studying to take (and prayerfully pass!) the Wisconsin State Board of Nursing Exam (also called NCLEX).

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Serving God and Loving It,

Cassidy

Safe Arrival

After 24 hours of travel, I have safley arrived back in Wisconsin. I am glad to be home, but I already miss Uganda!!

Homeward Bound!

My time in Uganda has come to an end -- at least for now!! Friday morning I will be going with Bro. Bryan, Mrs Cherri, and Alisha to Kampala. I will be there until I board my plane bound for Amsterdam Sunday at 9:50pm. I should arrive back in Wisconsin sometime Monday afternoon.

Gifts

As the time for me to go back to the States, two of the ladies in the church that I have become friends with have given my going away gifts -- I think to either entice me to stay or to come back quickly.

Annette and Hannah:

They gave me this:

Tao (she cooks the orphans meals; I have to say that the meals I had at the orphanage wre pretty good!!)

She gave me this:

Stitch Removal

Last week Hannah fell and hit her head (her right eye-brow)on a piece of metal. Annette took her to the hospital where the doctor put in a stitch. Annette, a first time mom, did not like the hospital experience and was afraid to take hannah back to have the stitch taken out. Mrs. Sally and Andrea were trying to tell Annette how to remove the stitch herself -- but I volunteered to do it for her -- and Annette was very thankful.

Here are some pictures:

Before:

During: Andrea is holding Hannah -- Hannah is more upset about having to be still than she is of me taking out the stitch:

After: She is smiling in spite of the tears:

Rita and Sophia

When I was in Uganda 2 years ago with the medical team I was introduced to two of the orphans Rita, then age 5, and Sopia, age 7. They did not speak or understand any English. I was given the task of doing nursing assessments - height, age, temperature, blood pressure, listening to heart, lungs, etc. I also took a picture with them. (Sophia is in the green dress, Rita is in the orange shirt)

Over the past 3 weeks I was re-introduced to Rita, now 7, and Sophia, 9. They speak English very well and they were even teaching me some Lugandan. (Rita is on my right, Sophia on the left)

Orphan's Birthday

Most Ugandan's do not know their birthday or even how old they are. This is even more so for orphans. However, Bro. Tony Applegate (a BIMI missionary who started and runs the orphanage) sets aside one day every year to celebrate all the orphans birthdays. Because the Applegates are on furlough this year Andrea (who is teaching the Bible and music classes at the orphanage) volunteered to help with the birthday celebration this year. I blew up ballooons and we hung them from the rafters in the dinning room at the orphanage. They orpahns enjoyed cupcakes, popcorn and juice and were give a package of bubble gum eggs. It was not much but it was so good to see how excited and thankful they were!!

Its a Small World

Bro. Keith and Sally have another girl, Andrea, staying with them for the next 6 months. When I arrived I thought that I recognized her from somewhere, but I was not really sure until we started talking. Andrea and I discovered that we went to Heartland Baptist Bible College together and lived right agross the hall from each other. Andrea's best friend was one of my roomates. We have had a lot of fun getting reaquainted and learning the Ugandan culture together.

Here we are in Ugandan free dresses:

June 28 through July 2

I am a week behind in posting so I am going to try to do one big post that summarizes the week:

Monday June 28: Today was a day of rest. I stayed at the Stensaas' house mostly coloring pictures for Mrs. Sally's flash card Bible stories and just hung out with all the kids:

Tuesday, June 29: I spent the day at the orphanage. I sat in on some of the classes and music lessons and I also worked in the library organizing the shelves and rotating in/out some of the Stensaas' books.

Wedesday June 30: Today, when I woke up there was a rat swimming in the toilet after getting Shane to remove it and watching one of their dogs kill it I scrubbed the bathroom straightened my room as well as coloring more pictures.

While we are on the subject of creepy critters check out this picture:




Thursday, July 1: Today ladies was soul-winning. We went to the outskirts of town and has some good conversations with some of the shop owners. Although my group did not have anyone that got saved during soul-winning, I heard later from one of the other groups that 2 people they talked to had gotten saved.

Friday, July 2: Today I colored more pictures and hung out with the Stensaas kids again. They took more pictures:

Since the World Cup began, Bro Keith has opened up his home for any of the church members to come over to watch the games. He provides popcorn and soda to anyone who comes. I was asked by one of the ladies in the church to watch a game with her so Friday evening I jouned the group of church people that came over:

Couch: Christine, Angela, and Jude; Floor: John

This is how Bro. Keith watches the games:

He sleeps until a team scores, then watches the replay.

Nurse!! -- Sunday, June 27, 2010

Today for church I was supposed to watch and help out in Jr. Church but just after it started Shae-lynn came in to tell her mom (who was leading songs and could not be interrupted at the time) that Shane (age 15) had a bloody nose that he sould not get to stop.

I went to the van where he was laying down to help him. I pinched his nose and made him sit up and lean forward and then explained to him why he should not lay down when his nose was bleeding -- blood in the stomach makes you vomit (to which his mom said that was the reason he gets an upset stomach after every nose bleed).

I had him pinch his nose for ten minutes but it was still gushing blood. We had to pinch his nose for the remainder of the church service (about an hour) before it finally stopped bleeding.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Today there was a wedding at the church. Bro. Keith performed the wedding and I was asked to video tape the wedding for the couple.

Weddings in Uganda last all day:

First there is an Introduction. This is where the couple goes to the Bride's home village and the couple are formally introduced as married. The groom also pays the dowry -- can be cows, chickens, goats, rabbits, clothing, money -- whatever the brides father/family asks for must be given to them by the groom. There is also a huge lunch.

After the introduction the couple is brought back to the church to be married. This can take some time depending on how far away the brides home village is. Also for this wedding they went through Masaka honking their car horns (something that they usually do after the wedding) so that people would know that they are married.

The wedding was scheduled to start at 3pm at the church, but it did not start until 6:30pm. (Mrs. Sally said that weddings never start on time; she also said that one has even started 4 hours late)

Here are some pictures (Because I was videotaping I gave my camera to one of the Stensaas' kids so some of the pictures are blurry):

The bride walked down the aisle by herself, but one of her family members went up the place her hand in the grooms hand (the groom is the one with the crutches) and in return the groom gave the family member a live chicken (this is done at every Ugandan wedding; the chicken then made clucking noises throughout the rest of the ceremony:

The Bridesmaids were four of the orphan girls:

Here they are about to light the unity candle and be pronounced as husband and wife. They also shocked every one because they kissed. Public displays of affection are rarely if ever done in Uganda -- Bro. Keith said that in all the weddings that he has done -- 14 since coming to Uganda, this was the first one in which the couple kissed.

After the wedding there was a reception. The couple cut their cake and then the groom was given a chair to sit in and the bride had to kneel at his feet to give him his bite of cake and drink of Mountain Dew. Then the rest of the cakes were cut and handed out to the people attending along with some kind of muffin and their choice of soda.

The wedding was pretty interesting and I am glad that I was able to attend!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Today I went to Annette's house -- She is one of the ladies in the church here in Masaka.

This is Annette, her 11 month old daughter, Hannah, and me:

This is her house -- actually it is just a room -- there is enough room for a bed, a couch, and a shelf to hold her dishes:

Annette taught me how she washes laundry:

And although it was raining she hung her laundry on the clothes line to dry:

She was going to have lunch -- matoke, rice, and silver fish (silver fish look like minnows) -- so she taught me how to make matoke -- Matoke grows and looks like bananas. They peel it with a knife and put it in a metal bowl:

Then they cover it with banana leaves:

Then they put the metal bowl on top of the charcoal stove and cook it. When it is done they smash it all up ( So it looks like yellow mashed potatoes but it doesn't taske like it).

Here Annette was having trouble getting her charcoal stove to light, so one of her neighbors is trying to help:

She also taught me some words in Luganda:

Kwoza = to wash

Kuwata = to peel

Muchere = rice

Mukene = silver fish

Mata = milk

Chai = tea

Amazzi = water

Manda = charcoal

Sigiri = Charcoal stove

Tuesday, June 29

Happy Birthday Nana!!! Hope you are having a great day! I love and miss you!!

Cassidy

Thursday, June 24

I was not feeling well again this morning, but around lunchtime I was feeling much better. In the afternoon I went shopping in the market with Mrs. Sally and Sara, one of their workers (she does the dishes, dusts, sweeps and mops all the floors; she also helps with the girls at the orphanage). They were looking for some scarves to make bridesmaids dresses modest.

After the market we went to the church for ladies soul-winning. Mrs. Sally exlained to the ladies that since I was there and I am a nurse, she thought I would like to see what the hospital looks like and how different it is from the states so the ladies decided to go soul-winning at the hospital. My partner was Harriett, she helps run the orphanage.

The hospital has an emergency department, a children's ward, a men's and women's medical ward, a maternity ward, an accidnet/injury ward, a TB ward, and a surgical ward as well as different dr. offices/clinics.

Harriett and I went to the TB ward:

This is the men's side -- There were not many patients, 5-6:

Patient's must bring their own sheets and blankets; there are no gowns, so they either wear their own clothes or no clothes; There are nurses, but the patient's family provides the majority of the care as seen here (in fact I did not see one nurse the entire two hours I was there):

Not all the patinet'sthat have TB are adults there were two young boys and a young girl in the women's ward. Harriett and I had the privelidge to lead this boy to Christ:

This boy is very sick and lonely (the red capped bottle next to him, is what they are given to cough and spit into):

This is the nurses station that separates the men's side from the women's:

Although the men's side only has about 6 patients the womens side is so full there are patient's on the floor:

Although it was crowded, the wards were cleans and free from any smells.

This patient was sitting outside, getting some fresh air. We witnessed to her and she accepted Christ:

This patient and is family were also sitting outside. He and the lady in the redand black shirt also accepted Christ:

In all there were six people (2 women, 4 men) in the TB ward who accepted Christ. Please pray for them!!