Full Circle - 365

Today marks a full year since I came (in) to America and my! has it been an interesting year.
I have done things I never imagined I would do, been places I never imagined I would go, met people I never imagined I would meet. I have laughed till my ribs ached, cried like a baby, been so afraid I trembled, felt so confident I could take on the world, been so excited I've made a fool of my self, embarrassed ...name it I have been through it all.
When I was leaving UG for some weird reason I thought I would come back and find things the way I left them. I thought my friends would still be as close, I would get back to work and continue from where I left off, you know, kind of thinking that everything would stand still till I got back. But no, life happens, people move on.
Heck, so much has happened in my life I'm not exactly the same person as when I left UG, don't know why I would think other things wouldn't change.
Yeah, I have tried to keep my relationships going but it's not the same, it can not be the same. So what have I decided to do?, enjoy each moment as it comes, with whomever I am with and in what ever situation, life is too short to put on the pause button.

I've experienced all the seasons of the year, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, they kind of remind me of the different phases of life, the happy, sad, excited, low, expectant periods we all go through. You can't be sad all the time, or excited all the time, sometimes things are not all that so you experience other emotions and that's what makes life.
I wish I could break down my time here for you but that would take a book, it's been like a whole life time of it's own.
Leaving UG I thought, there is just no way I'm going to sit home, I've got to work I've got to earn my own money, nah!! God had something else coming, I have been home since.
I thought, there is just no way I can spend all my days, every single hour of every single day looking after Mich, some one will get hurt, nah!!God had something else coming, we have had the richest of relationships. I wouldn't trade this for anything, it's wonderful to be there every step of Mich's growing years.
You would think I was getting the point right?, then I thought, OK, that is enough, there is just no way I'm going to live in this strange land without Sam, nah!! God had ... . Sam got an internship offer in consulting and he is away literally all week, gets back on Thursday night and is out again on Monday. Fancy that in a new city where I hardly know any one, but it's worked out just fine.
Bottom line, I have learned not to put limits on my self because it's amazing what one can do when faced with challenge.
I have learned so much in this one year I can't begin to explain, the exposure, the situations, the beauty of this land and it's people, it's simply amazing. I would not change anything especially because God has been in the center of it all.

I like the availability of material, one can go to the lib, read and borrow books, tapes and CD's and not pay a single coin. My concern now though is that what is rated PG would pass for an "R" rated movie in my day.
Toys and play things for children are in plenty, children get off to a good start. Even then I'm grateful I came here later in life, something about growing up in UG helps me keep my head on my shoulders. Thank God for UTV, opened at 6pm and we had one or two kids programs after which there was news and people had to do home work, take a bath and have supper (which ever the order). Then I hoped the TV announcer would not come on just before the one other nice program for the week because in most cases he/she was telling the "dear viewers" that due to unavoidable circumstances the program would not air. Now the options are endless, DVDs', video games, computer whatevers, how did we manage?
Then there is the food, it's amazing that you can get almost anything here you just need to know where to look. Two problems though, there is the word "calories" that hangs over peoples heads like a real burden. Secondly I don't appreciate foods that are said to be "organic or light" like "organic bananas", "light butter", what is that?! can't I just have a plain old banana without thinking about its ingredients?
I hope I will not have the same experience when I go to Nakasero market (if it's still there), and get asked if I want organic Matooke or light blue-band, people!

What I'm really trying to say is, we are in Dallas and Sam ends his internship in about 3 weeks, after that we head back to Philadelphia for his second year of study and God willing he graduates in May.
Oh yes and Mich gets to start preschool this September, now that is exciting, don't ask me any other questions I know what some of you are thinking.

The Dallas TV Series

Anyone remember "Dallas", the TV series that was a hit back in the day?
I don't quite remember what it was about because I was still very young back then but since every one watched it I wasn't going to miss out. All I remember about "Dallas" was the theme song, horses, and a guy called J.R who was always wearing a cowboy hat.

This past weekend Sam took me to Southfork Ranch where the series was shot, that was quite exciting. The part I liked the most was walking into the house that it was filmed in and having the theme song playing in the background.

On TV everything about the ranch looked huge but man!, all camera tricks, the place was ordinary to say the least. The swimming pool that looked like it stretched as far as the eye could see, hmm! like I said ordinary. We just have to give it up for camera tricks.




It was a special moment for me, obviously I took pictures like crazy but you have got to understand. All I ever knew about Dallas before coming here was the TV series and I'm sure some of you would testify to the same.

Mich and I chilling out in "the sitting room".

The team, then
and more recently, J.R is the 2nd guy from the left.

The car on display, polished and all.

A typical day

So, it's been about six weeks since we came to Dallas and we are halfway through Sam's summer internship, amazing how time flies.
I was a little concerned about what life would be like in this city especially when I hardly know anybody and Sam is away 3/4's of the week. It's not been too bad, actually it's been good so far, I think I like the way things have turned out, kinda like a retreat.
Still haven't made any friends (what did I expect? find a bosom buddy in a week?) , but there are people to talk to as one goes a long, a "hi" over here and "how are you doing" over there and "is that your son" kind of thing.

My day starts between 7 am and 7:30 am depending on when Mich comes bumping into my room to ask me "why are you sleeping mummy?", well other times he just lies next to me and waits for me to open my eyes.
Then we have breakfast, for some reason he will not take his morning bath before drinking his milk, but again who is to blame for that?.

By 9:30 we are set to start the day, I try to think up things for him to do but when I don't have anything planned out I ask Mich. Then he says let's go check mail (that's what we do every morning), well at least that gets us out of the house to begin with. Then depending on a number of factors we will go to the lake side and check out the ducks and squirrels or go to the library to borrow some books, or just take a walk and play games as we go a long.
Today we went by the book store and I found a really nice book for teaching preschoolers so I think we will include some learning into our schedule. It has the alphabet, numbers, colors and other stuff should be quite interesting.

Before you know it it's 11:30 am time to head home for lunch. Now I never imagined myself getting into sandwiches and stuff for lunch but there you go. It's so much easier to prepare, takes less time (time that is real precious to Mich so he can go out and play) and one less battle for me trying to feed a toddler who doesn't like the word "food" very much.
We are usually done with lunch by 12:30pm then it's time for a nap, the bargaining starts at 12:30 by 1pm he is in his room looking at pictures in his book or playing some games.
Then I have my prayer/quiet time and nap too, by 3pm we are up and Mich is asking if he can watch something on TV. I scan through to see which of his favourite cartoons he would like to watch and then while he watches I do some exercise.
Dinner is usually ready by about 6pm so we eat for about 2 hours, it's not that the food is that laborious but Mich loves to tell stories at dinner time. All over a sudden he can't stop talking and I have to keep reminding him to eat, then before you know it I have to feed him because he says he is tired of eating, my life!

Anyway thank God for the people who discovered that 8pm is the time for bed, I just love it. After dinner I get Mich ready for bed, read him 3 or four stories (the demand for more stories is getting a bit much) then we pray and it's goodnight.
Then I have some peace and quiet to watch TV, or a movie, clear the mess for the day, blog, check and reply to mail and so on and so forth.
Once in a while I'll hear "mummy please can I have a little water" but other than that I see him the next morning asking me "why are you still sleeping mummy?" or just lying next to me waiting for my eyes to open.

Dallas World Aquarium

On Saturday, Sam, Mich and I visited the DWA - Dallas World Aquarium, dwazoo.
The place was buzzing with children and adults of all ages, you hardly had space to freely turn around.
Our first stop was the water fall, there were lots of people gathered there, there was lots of trees, a nice recreation of the jungle but really not that fascinating. So I ask Sam, what exactly is everybody looking at? because really this I could have seen back home in Makerere Kivulu or even Namaanve. He laughed and shrugged his shoulders, then he said, ' look the ducks', and I'm thinking yeah right! all the money we had spent just to see ...

Then as we walked on we saw one of Mich's favourite animals the Sloth, I thought, now that is cool. The animal has amazing eyes, you would think it had thick eye pencil, what some ladies would give to have that..., anyway.

Uh! no, those are not skirts that were dropped in the water, they are called fresh-water stingrays. Is God awesome or what?!



"Hey, guys stop pushing, I got here first, if you are behind just wait for your turn".

What do you know?, we finally caught up with Nemo and his dad, and it was Mich who sighted them first.



This is so orange, the flamingos I mean.



I put in the rest as jaribu, some sea creatures and the Antillean manate, enjoy.

The Potter's House

Today we decided to visit the church pastored by tdjakes It was a wonderful service not to mention the fact that we spend a total of 5 hours getting there, attending the service and getting back home.

We looked up the directions on the net last night and realised we could actually get there without too much hustle. The train would take us all the way to Westmoreland and then there would be a bus that picked people up from the station and took them straight to church.
Getting to Westmoreland was pretty easy, we rode the train to the very last stop, when the bus came we jumped on. Then we realised that the driver seemed to be moving in circles and taking all sort of routes, at one point he even passed the turn off to church but everybody seemed at ease so I figured there was something to it. I later realised that the bus driver had to go a round these areas just in case he found some people who were going to church too, that took us like 40 minutes.
When we got to the church, it was flooded with people, cars, security the whole works, I thought wow! and this is a typical Sunday?!
Turned out to be their 10th anniversary so there was lots of celebration.

Bishop TDJakes wasn't there but we were blessed to hear Bishop noeljones preach a very powerful sermon about the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:24 - 34 ). One thing that he mentioned that struck me was that, Faith is like a finger print, it's unique to everyone. So the question is, are you building your faith?, not depending on what God has done for others but what you believe He can do for you. How do we build our faith again? by reading the Word, when we read the word and internalise it then we begin to understand who we really are in Christ.

The song that was sang at the alter call was "oh it is Jesus, yes it is Jesus, it is Jesus in my soul, for I have touched the hem of His garment and His blood has made me whole", now those of you who have heard me talk about this song might have a clue on just how much I was ministered to in this service, it was absolutely awesome.

That's about all the preaching I will do today, thank you very much.