Monday.

Well its Monday.

I set my alarm this morning to give myself an hour to get ready, plenty of time. Hoping I could take a quick shower turns out to be a 30 min one. The water for some reason was turning off and on and off and on. At one point it actually turned on for a while and then of course shut off for a few minuets while I had shampoo in my hair. TIA.

Vickie tried to make tea for us this morning and that didn't work out. Her stove wont turn on and mine ended up running out of kerosene so no tea for us haha! TIA.

Today was exam day so it was pretty quiet at school. After exams however, it got pretty loud. Some of the kids and I played around with the soccer ball. It is such a small space in there but we had so much fun!!! I have been mostly gone from the school for two weeks (sick) so it was really great being able to be back and play with all of the kids!

One of the girls went home for the weekend and didn't come back today. We kind of expected this to happen. So after school Vickie and I went to talk to her parents and kindly tell them that she must be at school tomorrow to take an exam.

Vickie can talk but she is deaf, I am hearing but don't speak Luganda, our driver Kiwa can speak Luganda but can't speak English, and the parents only speak Luganda. Haha just imagine that. Vickie memorized what she had to say to them in Luganda but as for there reply we would have no idea. Luckily there was an English and Luganda speaking man there so Vickie spoke and I interpreted back to her what they were saying. TIA.

TIA (this is Africa), just an understanding of all of the silly things that can happen in a day. Confusion in communication and different culture is the big one. Also there is a lovely and oh so convenient thing called "African Time". Which means you really don't know when a person is or is not going to show up. You don't really know when something is going to get taken care of or finished. Its the funniest thing.

Another funny thing is people here don't understand sarcasm at all. Vickie and I are masters at sarcasm and jokes. Joel speaks sarcasm like he breathes. So at least we have each other.

I am in so much pain I don't even know what to do anymore. For those of you who don't know...I have many problems. My mom says I am "special" haha. My shoulders and upper back are always hurting and have very little muscle. Its a bunch of big words that I don't know, I've already had surgery on one shoulder. Its just a mess. I have intense therapy that I am doing so its pretty awesome willingly putting your self in so much pain. TIR (this is Rannah).

This morning I knew it was going to be a rough day when I brushed my teeth, yes that's right, my teeth. The pain always starts from that first act in the morning and depending on how hard brushing my teeth is can just give me a glimpse of the pain I will have the rest of the day. Crazy, right? I'm not complaining I'm just stating facts here.

Luckily I have plenty of drugs to cope with the pain. Which, by the way, I hate taking. They make you drowsy and a little funny in the head.

I miss being able to come home everyday and cry to my mom and have her massage the giant knots out of my shoulders and back. But I think maybe its time I toughen up, right?

Right now its 9 pm and I'm oh so patiently awaiting dinner! Tonight is pretty much going to be awesome. I'm waking up at 2am to Skype with my St. Kateri group. I am pretty excited.

The power just went off. TIA.

I have mad ninja skills when it comes to catching mosquitoes in my hand and other bugs that fly. TIA.

On a more serious note.

Mother Teresa is amazing. Her simplistic words of wisdom and love are awe inspiring and speak directly to my soul. I learn so much from reading and meditating on her words and the words of Jesus. Just reading a few pages in a day is like a giant piece of meat that you could chew on for a week.

"The Creator chose to become a creature, one with us, like us, to be dependent on others, to need food to eat, clothes to wear, drink to quench His thirst, to need rest, to be tired like us.....One with us in all things: WHY? For love of us, with unconditional trust in the Father."

"Why did Jesus make Himself so poor? To be able to understand my poverty, my smallness, my weakness, my littleness."

"Realize that God, who made everything and made you and me, became so small. How He lived that total surrender to the full."

In all His wonder and greatness, He became so so small. 

Think about that. Now think about your life. Think about the world and what it teaches us to accomplish. Now think again about Him becoming so so small for us. Are you, am I, on the right track?

 I am so in love with this boy.