Retirement home

Brent and Diane the navigators invited Mich and I to attend a get together at a retirement home yesterday. I was excited to go but had mixed feelings by the end of the evening, not about being there but the events that took place as I will let you know.
I met quite a few grandma's, some were still very fun and stylish while others were a little grampy.
It was organised so that the international students could spend sometime with the old ladies and share a little bit about their country.
We had internationals from Taiwan, Japan, Ukraine,China and Liberia. I was given a slot to talk about Uganda and I thought that was tough, I have taken for granted the things that happen at home, somehow I got so used to seeing things a certain way that it became normal. Maybe that sounds a little silly considering that I have been away from home for a while and noticed the differences in culture and style. Never the less I planned out a few of the things I thought I would mention and waited for my turn. This is when Mich gets restless, he starts running up and down the corridor while some one was giving a speech and that was very disruptive, I tried to talk him out of it but he just wasn't listening. Then he run up to the Piano and the blood rushed out of my head, I almost broke out in sweat praying that he wouldn't play any keys. Well he pressed a few keys but God certainly heard my prayer because it didn't sound. I pick him up and carried him out of the room for a one on one session and he is shaking and screaming. Not long before that I saw one of the old ladies give me this look of "get a hold of your little boy and do something with him because quite frankly he is really making me mad". Oh my! that look sent chills down my spine then she seemed to say something under her breath. Granma's are the last people you want to upset, I have so much respect for them, I also know that they are special people in God's eyes and their prayers are powerful, so really there was a lot to deal with. Not forgetting the fact that I'm still feeling "new" in the place and not quite sure how they would react to me.
Mich and I had a good talk outside, a few tears where shade but by the time we were heading back to the room we had set the record straight. It was now my turn to talk and I still wasn't over Mich's behaviour, I was embarrased and flushed, thankfully being as dark skinned as I am it didn't show. My speech was very sketchy, I had a lot of random thoughts. I started by introducing myself, what I was doing in Philly and apologized for Mich's crazy behaviour. Then I talked about how green Uganda is (the pearl of Africa), how we are very community oriented (it takes a village to raise a child mentality), I don't know how that came up but I guess it had something to do with Mich. I talked about our means of transport, my family and that was it, my mind was blank, terrible situation to be I tell you. At question time I was asked what holidays we celebrated and I could only remember five. Later on, talking to Brent and Diane they said I did a great job, I thought they were just being nice but I guess if they said so it wasn't so bad, I was just overwhelmed at how thrown off I felt.
After the session we had a time to give out some goodies to the granmas' and take a few pictures.

Poison Ivy??

Yesterday Mich got up from his afternoon nap with a swollen eye and was scratching himself very intently. That was a bit of a surprise, it wasn't swollen before he went to bed and he didn't seem to notice the difference. I checked his bed to see if there could have been an insect that bit him but there was nothing. Immediately my mind went back to the play ground he had been at just before, apparently there is a poison ivy plant there and Mich had been by it but only briefly, I panicked.
Poison Ivy is a very dangerous plant that has some kind of sap that is poisonous and if you get in contact with it you are basically in big trouble. It causes a very itchy rash, swellings on the body, sometimes a fever and it takes a week or so to cure. He had some of the symptoms, the itching and a little bit of swelling over the areas he scratched but there were no cuts or open sores. Before I knew it he had taken off all his clothes and was scratching himself all over. I told Sam about it and he suggested I buy hydro-cortisone from the pharmacy, it helps cool down the itching. I got it and smeared it all over Mich's body, it would be very itchy and then after a while he would forget about it and play. At some point during the itching he said "mummy, I'm not well", I agreed and explained to him what I thought had happened and what the cream was for, then he asked "how about crying?". In the midst of this I couldn't help but laugh, I told him that this time crying might not help much. I prayed over him very fervently, I prayed that it wasn't poison ivy and asked God to heal him knowing that God is the doctor of all doctors.
I thought if this was poison ivy it would be important to take all that he was putting on and wash it in order to prevent further contamination only I couldn't find his pants.
We spent the night together, I tried to console him, help him scratch and put some more cream on him in the middle of the night. Things got better and he slept. In the morning I asked him how he was feeling and he said he was fine and that he had scratched the sickness away. I didn't want to take chances thought, I mean I still wasn't sure if it was poison ivy or not so I called up one of my friends and she gave me some very useful insights, what cream is best recommended, the number of the university hospital and also the number of her paediatrician. While Mich seems fine now I certainly have to sort out my medical coverage and get him to see a doctor not just for this time but whenever something else comes up. Would you call that a mixture of faith and works?
By the way I found his pants today in the most weird place, in his toilet bowl. I think he wanted to get rid of them, hmmm!

I'm so unfit

Sam has been home all day for the past two days and that has been really nice, he is preparing for exams which start today (he is actually in the marketing exam right now). I thought since he was home it would be a good opportunity for me to go jogging, Mich didn't have a problem with that. I set out and in no time I was panting, I felt so heavy, my whole body was shaking, it kind of felt like with each step I took the earth shook, it probably didn't but I sure felt like I was making a dent every where I stepped. I realised that taking shorter steps and moving a little slower would keep me going for a longer distance.
I was glad that people on the streets were minding their own business and no one was staring or whistling at me. Back home it was very easy to get intimidated, the areas that one could jog through with ease were limited, there were always idlers standing by the road amazed at the fact that a woman was jogging. At times guys would whistle, call you names or in more hillarious circumstances jog along for a few metres. If you are like me, you chill the jogging and try dieting or just resign and let the love handles pile on.
Anyway by the time I got back I was really feeling energised, I had only run for 30 minutes and yet it felt like I had been on a marathon. After taking a bath, I felt refreshed and rejunivated, it was worth it all, even my brain was more alert. I guess thats why it's recommended to jog early in the morning. You have amazing energy after a work out, if you are working and have a presentation, you would leave your colleagues awed with your ideas. If you are a stay home mom like me then your little ones would be exhausted by the end of the morning seeing as they wouldn't be able to out do you. I hope I can do this on a regular basis.

Linvilla Orchards

It was quite a busy day today, the kids club organised a trip to the Linvilla Orchards.
It's a 300-acre farm dedicated to agriculture,
entertainment and education, it's a farm market, bakery and pumpkinland.

Certainly lots of fun for kids, it has lots of interesting sceneries, scare crows, legends about the harvest season and many stories about pumpkins and apples.
The people at the farm tell the children how the different crops are grown and processed. It's got apples, berries, pumpkins,peaches, maize, tomatoes, figs to name but a few. For the first time I got to know that apples had names. I had only known them by their colours green, red and gold.
We also took a hayride through the fields and orchards.





I was so excited by all the things I was seeing, at some point I put down my bag and forgot it there. I remembered a while later that I had actually come with a bag, I certainly panicked. I run round the pumpkins hoping to find my bag where I had left it but it was gone. Then my friend suggested that we check with the shop near by and for sure it was there. Some one had picked it and taken it to them hoping the owner would go and claim it. Is that cool or what?! I certainly know in UG the bag and all it's contents would be history.

Mich at the Zoo

We visited the Philadelphia Zoo, it was so much fun and learning for both of us. I'm glad I took Mich, now he knows the names of animals just by looking at them and by the sounds that they make.
My personal favourite was the Lion, talk about being in charge, having self confidence and knowing that he looks good.




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It was all good

I was so glad that I made it to church yesterday and was part of the worship team. I had a great time in God's presence, I loved the songs, all of which are on my list of favourites. There was no sermon as such but one of the church members shared her testimony and that was awesome. I got asked once or twice if I was fine now, 'no more headaches?', "I'm cool" that was just a one off. I actually discovered that my headache was a result of fatigue, I took Mich to the zoo that saturday and we spent a lot of time moving around. I got Mich something to eat and forgot I needed some energy too, so by the end of the day my body couldn't take it anymore.

Cell group was great too, it was certainly larger this time, from about 8 to 13 that meant the number of children increased too. The first meeting had Mich and Ian, this time round it was Mich, Ian, Elizabeth,Andrew and 2 babies. There was absolute chaos at the beginning, I think they were shocked to see all the other little faces on what they considered their turf. There was lots of pulling of toys, pushing, and crying to say the least. What made it worse was the fact that they were all meant to play together in a small room. So while the adults settled down to study we could hear wails on the other side, I felt for the baby sitter. Everytime one of the parents went in to console their little one the crying increased. I thought this wasn't going to work but what do you know?, after a while they calmed down and played together so by the time cell was through none of them wanted to leave.

Pictures from some school activities

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Asterix in Marketing??

The other day Sam came home with an Asterix and Obelix comic streak, he said their marketing professor had recommended that they read it. Is that cool or what?, I'm thinking I should enroll at Wharton I mean this must be a lot of fun reading comic streaks and all. I was just thinking that whatever is being taught would stick in my mind for a long time, and even in the exam room I would probably be able to remember the points just from the comic book. Its interesting the things that sper us on, or trigger off our thinking.

I haven't told you about our wierd neighbour, well lets just say we never see him during day time. The front part of his house looks desolate, a passerby would probably conclude that no one lives there except for his very hairy cat that is always sitting and sleeping on the front porch. At 1am in the morning, we hear him watering his plants, his garden is outside our bedroom window. You can imagine the startle I used to get hearing noises outside and when I looked I would see his white hair, that was scary until I got used.

Recruiting on campus

It's been a busy week for Sam with all these companies coming to the campus to make presentations about themselves. In previous weeks I walked on campus and people were dressed the casual campus style, jeans, t-shirts and snickers. This week there was an amazing transformation, dark blue suits with serious labels and shoes to match. Its a time for students to interview and interact with potential employers, find out if its the industry they would be interested in and what it takes to get there.
It's kinda two way, on the one hand the companies are beckoning them to come work for them and on the other hand the students are not only checking them out but also making their interests known. Those who know what industry and company they want have the task of leaving a lasting impression on the recruiters so that when the summer internships draw near you don't have to be introducing yourself. There were over sixty companies that came to the campus and it was a hard enough task scheduling the sessions into their already busy time tables. One certainly couldn't go for all sixty sessions but still had the pressure of chosing which ones to attend.

Worship team meeting

I don't know if you recall me mentioning how Pastor Bradd gave me a call inquiring if I was ready to join the worship team?! Well he did and I attended my first meeting on Saturday.
Evan, the worship leader was dealing with a new group, we had not worked together before so it was a nice time of getting to know each other.
I appreciated his style, we had an ice breaker and then did an exercise, he played a song we were all familiar with and asked us to listen out for the different instruments and how they were being played at various points. We listened for the drums and on my chat I was indicating "loud", "soft" and "roll" well at least that's how they sounded to me. At the time of discussion guys were talking about "the snare", "High hat", "kick", "crash" and "cow bells" eeh! I was thinking wow!
A little bit of background, as we had dinner I found out that Evans older brother played for one of the top professional bands in Hong Kong. Evan plays the guitar, Melissa plays the piano and violin, Greta tried the piano at some point but eventually settled for vocals. What about you Mary? hehehe uuh nothing.
So you can imagine how my little head was spinning when guys where pulling out all these heavy words. But that's all beside the point, what I was saying is I learned how to appreciate music as a whole, its richness is not only in the lead vocals but with the bass, the violin, the background vocals, acoustic guitar and others all combined. If one or more of these musical instruments is missing, a good musician will feel it.
The rehearsal went on for about two hours, at some point I begun to feel really fatigued and needed to rest. I got a real bad headache as I waited for the bus, by the time I got home it was more intense than ever.
By the way as I waited for the bus, a guy walked up to me and asked me whether I knew where he could buy a beer or wine, I just shook my head and he got the point. I mean we are in the middle of a busy part of the city, right across from where I stood was a bar. The guy was standing right next to the bar, there was lots of music, deem lights, people laughing loud the whole works. He crosses the street to ask me where he can buy a beer or wine?? Anyway I had problems of my own, as soon as I reached home I went straight to bed. Sadly the pain kept on a steady all through the night, I could barely lift my head off the pillow. At 6am Sunday morning, it felt like I had been hit with a heavy brick, I was not going to church however much I wanted to. I had to send a message to say that I couldn't make it.

Cell group

This evening I attended my very first cell group meeting at the church office. I was very excited when I got to know that my church was cell based, it reminded me of church back home and the cell that Sam and I hosted in our house.
The meeting was scheduled for 6:30pm and I got there about 6:50pm, apparently I was early because I found the leaders having dinner. That is one thing I need to adjust in my schedule, having dinner early. Back home Sam and I had dinner at 9pm and it was good time for us, here we get invited to dinners at 5pm, by 8:30 - 9pm I'm twidling my fingers and thinking of another snack.
Mich and I had just had evening tea so we were not particularly hungry at this point. People begun to show up and we later found out they had all had dinner before coming.
The cell agenda was pretty much the same as in KPC, here it was referred to as "wwww" welcome, worship, word and work (prayer and involvement in the community.
As we fellowshiped the intimacy of sharing the same faith became so real. Putting aside all the adjustments of moving to a new place, the joy of singing the same songs and worshiping one God made me see life in a whole new perspective. I realised more that in the big puzzle of life, we must always recognise Jesus as the master piece, once you find Him and put Him in His rightful place, then the rest of the puzzle will come together. Even though I was meeting some of these people for the very first time, it felt like one big family.
As we introduced ourselves we were asked to mention our favourite icecream flavour and why. When it was Mike's turn he said "my name is Mike and I get beaten up once every year". We were all silent waiting for him to continue and in my mind I thought either he was cracking a joke or that was the way he described his profession. It turned out that he had been beaten by an unknown gang the previous night on his way home. That was sad and scary that people would just beat someone up for no reason, they didn't want anything from him.
The emptiness in the lives of the youth growing up in west philly seems to cause bitterness, anger and rage in their lives that they want to let it out on innocent people. That was certainly another eye opener to one of the major prayer needs here. At the end of the fellowship we prayed for him and his wife and other needs represented in the fellowship. We were also able to get a nice young lady to babysit while we had the meeting and that worked out wonderfully.

Dance auditions

I can't believe that I have made two month's here already, they seem to have flown by real fast. I'm not complaining, I hope the rest can go as fast, especially now that winter is round the corner.

On Tuesday I auditioned for the Wharton Dance Studio, that stages a dance show for the school every year. I found three moms who got there before me, their babies strapped in strollers and I gladly added Mich to the bunch, they looked cute. Obviously Mich is not the kind to sit there while music is playing so he jumped out and was running all over the place, doing his own moves and making people laugh.
Everybody was assigned a number and we registered our names and email addresses. We stood in four rows, there was over 30 of us. The lady in charge taught us some moves and asked us to follow along with the music, I enjoyed that alot. The song we danced to was done by Fox, something like "she gives me money...." it was obviously not christian but I certainly smiled when I saw David pulling sophisticated moves in one corner. David can be compared to "the papa" of the Wharton fellowship.
There were two other ladies who seemed to watch and take notes, I believe they were noting who had potential and who didn't.
I had signed up for hiphop, salsa and lyrical, I dropped off the lyrical when I discovered it was pretty much like ballet and that is certainly not my thing. The salsa was fantastic, I really enjoyed it even though my bones were not making the smooth moves. I sincerely hope I got on to the list because I was dancing next to pros which definately made me look amatuer to say the least.

Nigeria's Independence - Party

Yesterday Sam and I were invited to celebrate Nigeria’s Independence with a party held by the Nigerians'at Wharton and hosted by Tolu.
Yeee! Another excuse for a party.
We got there an hour late because Mich had to take his nap but we were pretty much in good time, people had just begun to arrive, you know us and time keeping.
The lobby to Tolu’s apartment was pretty raw, it looked like construction was still going on, the cement had not been smoothed out and no final touches had been made. You could actually smell the cement as you walked in.
I concluded that he was in a hurry to move in and couldn’t quite find another apartment so he settled for this. We took the elevator to his apartment, yet again something really strange, the lifts were open until people stepped in. That was weird because it has always been the reverse, the lifts are closed until you press the button to use it.
We went three floors up but man! That was one of the most scary lifts, one side was made of just glass, so you could see everything outside, the cars, the roads, the buildings, got my stomach tied in notes.
We finally get to Tolu’s apartment, the sitting room was so bright, the sun was shining right in, and it hurt the eyes. Again, one side of the room was almost entirely glass, you could literally see into the middle of the city. Some one commented that if he was timing the bus he would know just when to leave his apartment because he would be able to see the it coming down the road.
Tolu’s apartment was like one big space which had been subdivided, the walls of each of the rooms didn’t reach the ceiling. I was just thinking, incase he got locked in or out of his room that wouldn’t be a problem he would just climb over. This was one of the most interesting buildings I had ever seen. The pipes for all the different house facilities where hanging from the ceiling. It reminded me of the houses I had visited back home where people decide to move in and do the finishing’s while living there. The only difference was that Tolu’s apartment was pretty much done; everything was as it should be. This kind of housing I’m told is called a loft, quite interesting I must say.
It was nice to hang with the Nigerians for a bit, brought back memories of home. The music being played was familiar, the food was not too far off, and it was a nice way to spend the Sunday afternoon.
I noted that the guys were focused, as soon as they arrived, they did their round of greeting and immediately headed for the food, then sat down to eat. Which is a little different from the other functions I have attended, where people stand around and talk endlessly, sitting is not necessary, if you need something to eat, get it and continue to chat.
I got to taste pounded yam for the first time, it looked like posho (maize flour) but certainly tasted different, it’s a taste you probably get used to over time. I was happy to see Emolokony (cow hooves) tasty as ever, the chicken tasted just like the one in my village and then there was some mixture of greens.
Just before we left Mich decided he wanted some more of the greens, then one lady commented “he likes pepe” , I thought I had finally got the name of the dish so I said, “oh, so that’s what its called?”, she didn’t seem to get me, she repeated “ it’s got pepe, he likes it that way?” and I said yes “is that what you call it?” she didn’t seem to quite understand my responses so we let it pass. As I headed to the elevator it finally hit me just what the lady was trying to say, her accent was a little strong so I didn’t get it but she was noting that the food was “hot” and wondering how Mich liked the “Pepper” duh!