Bogere Limon

Last month, Holly and I worked on creating this video for a sponsored boy named Bogere Limon (ugandans go by their last name, btw). After Holly's awesome video editing skillz were put into place, we came out with this short story. This was one of our first few videos we created and we're so excited to share it with ya'll!

Also, I've been working for the past week to get a Children of Grace blog up and running and I'm excited to announce it's arrival. Today we're spotlighting Limon's story over on the COG blog as well. Update your google readers and rss feeds!

canon school

the ancient chinese art of kar-aoke

Have you ever noticed how inappropriate the words to "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" by Celine Dion are? An unfortunate time to notice is while singing it during Friday night karaoke in a room full of missionaries.

But you know what they say. Once you commit to singing a karaoke song, there's no turning back. So, Meagan and I sang the words "there were nights of endless pleasure" four times.

But then we moved on to a more family-friendly Life is a Highway, which is when this picture was taken. Notice Cassidy's jazz hand on the right.

Of all the exotic cities across the world we've sang karaoke in together--Auburn, Dothan, Beaufort--Jinja, Uganda is new on the list! I think maybe I'll make it my life goal to sing karaoke on all five continents.

Two down; three to go. NO, three down; two to go! I sang karaoke in Spain three years ago.

I'm looking at you Eurasia and Oceania.

the african way

Our cook Bonnie is always showing us better ways of doing all sorts of things like slicing avocados and mangos, kneading bread, hanging mosquito nets... the like. The African way, we call it. 

Today she brought her little Michelle to work and Meagan, being the African woman she's always wanted to be, strapped her to her back and went about her daily business—the African way!

Michelle clearly felt at home.

my little cwassant

To become an amateur champion keep in mind first and foremost that this most delicate and challenging of pastries must be made the way porcupines make love -- that is, very very carefully. --The Joy of Cooking on making croissants 

from our kitchen

 

Last October when we visited Annie, she introduced us to Larabars. Hello best snack evvvvveeerrrr. A processed food with only 2 ingredients that tastes like cookie dough!? YES PLEASE. 

Annie is greatest fan of all time, literally. But we come close. Even though we came prepared with five boxes, supplies are running low. So we decided to follow all the cool food bloggers out there and make our own. There are lots of different varieties to make, but we take what ingredients we can get here in Africa.

Recipe: 

1 part dates

1 part cashews

Blend each separately. Mix together in a bowl. Roll between 2 sheet of wax paper. Cut. Consume. In moderation...almost impossible. 

And make sure you have some pretty flowers to look at--all the way from the america-ish!!--while you're making them. : ) 

potting and things

Yesterday I went to visit Sylvia in her home after school. Sylvia is one of our sponsored girls and most excitingly, a member of our newest programs here at Children of Grace called Girls Can. Through this new program, 15 of the brightest, most promising COG girls are getting the opportunity to attend Riverside Academy--a very prestigious private school in Jinja. 

Within the past week a couple COG staff members caught wind of Sylvia's present situation. Her father is gone (normal for Uganda) and her mother is the fish business on an island on Lake Victoria--the only job she can find. This leaves Sylvia and her five younger siblings at home alone four to five days out of the week. Here's what that means. The younger ones stay at home alone all day and then at 5:00 Sylvia comes home and switches gears from the role of student to mother. Keep in mind, she's only 12. During the evening she must cook, clean, put everyone to bed and then try to stay on top of her homework. 

This isn't to mention her living conditions. It's hard to tell from a picture, but she and her siblings all live in this one bedroom home--the size of my bathroom.There is one bed and then a small palate on the floor. Because of all the fish her mom brings in/out of the house, the stench is...rank. 

Why was I born with a different life than this? Why is my life not that hard? I could have easily been the daughter of a HIV positive fisher(wo)man or of a prostitute living on the streets of Atlanta. It's not like I've done anything to deserve the life that I've been given, where comfort abounds. I've been struggling with this question for a long time, but especially over the past 24 hours. 

This morning, I was crying out to God to give me some kind of peace or understanding. Then I found Romans 9 where Paul talks about God as a potter.

Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn't that all right? 

What good is it for the pot to ask why it was created to hold flowers verses ashes--or vice versa. Maybe it would serve me better to stop trying to figure out why I'm not another kind of pot. What good does it do to wish I was born into a harder life?

It's probably a better use of my time to reflect upon who I am--what kind of pot I am--and work with humble dignity to hold my ashes (or flowers or water or crayons or something) as beautifully as I can. Then to heed to the one command I've been given which is to love--in Uganda or America or wherever I find myself.