It's been a long time since I've posted anything here as I usually keep this blog for when I am in Uganda so that my friends and family can know what I am up to (and that I'm safe too.) I'm not in Uganda at the moment but I am only 44 days away from getting on an airplane and making Uganda my home for 13 months!
If you were to come over and didn't know Corey and I were leaving, the place would look normal. A few more piles of papers here and there but if you didn't know we were going, you wouldn't know us well and you would just think we were a disorganized couple! However, move upstairs to the living room, and chaos reigns!
Three sewing machines sit ready to finish the thousand sanitary pads we are are committed to sewing. Fabric and PUL wait to be cut for the shields that will be sewn at the sewing bee next Sunday.
Four Olympic sized duffle bags, one rolling suitcase and four smaller duffle bags sit in a pile waiting to be packed with the thousands of pads, liners, facecloths and drawstring bags a group of amazing volunteers have sewn for ISEE. These items are sealed in XL Ziploc bags so that they can just be placed in the various duffle bags when it's time to pack. Soon soccer jerseys will be added to the list. It's great that BA gives us the right to carry two extra 50lb bags but they have to be stored and packed and those items have to sit somewhere until they go!
The ottoman is being used as a book sorter for all the educational texts and documents I want to take for my job at Kabojja. The staff want to be trained in current best practice in Kelowna so I am travelling with Daily 5, 6+1, UBD, TC2, PBL, Mind Up, and other programs that I use in my classroom. That will be a small 50lb bag.
The couch has various piles: what I'm taking that I don't need until we're there, Corey's pile, bags with gifts for friends in Uganda (including one who has just told us that he is getting married when we are there), and basic comforts from home that will be welcome items to have. Having been in China for a year, we have an idea of what we missed (like Christmas lights and Tylenol Cold medicine) so we can plan accordingly. Yes, I am taking Christmas lights. I found these terrific little battery operated LED strings of lights at London Drugs last year. They weigh nothing and they look great. When it's 28 degrees on Dec 24, we'll be happy to have them to remind us of home.
Almost every day I go upstairs and reorganize the piles. Then when I go back upstairs, I wonder how it is possible that I have tried to reorganize because it looks just as chaotic as it did before. Kind of like my brain at the moment... a chaotic swirl of things to do that keeps getting reorganize but no nearer to being clear!
It'll all get done! Just seems a lot to do with not a lot of time to do it!
Please keep in touch while we are away. Your days may seem unexciting to you but to us, they are little bits of home that make our day. I remember days in China where we raged against everything Chinese and slices of home brought us solace. It happens when you are away from home a long time. It doesn't mean you don't like where you are or regret what you are doing; it's just something that happens and then you feel better and carry on as you were. I know it will happen to me despite loving Uganda and the people there. Anyway, all that to say please keep in touch. And if you want to explore the other side of the globe, let me know. We'd love to have you!
Weraba!
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