Hi everyone!! so we are nearing the halfway point in our exciting African journey and I can hardly believe how quickly the time is flying by!! During this week, it has become very apparent to me how truly attached to these kids I have become. One little boy named Bobby has really stolen my heart. (He is about 4). One morning, he came running across the grass to me the moment he saw me, yelling "Auntie Natalie." I didn't even know that he actually knew my name before this, and in that moment he melted my heart!! We have also made up a little dance to the George of the Jungle theme song. Now all of the kids are running around saying "Auntie can we do George." Its precious!! Every single one of these kids makes us all feel so special and loved!! They are all so sweet and adorable!! Basically, its safe to say that these kids have completely and fully captured my heart!!

They have also taught me more then I can ever fully understand. The kids (and even most of the grown ups) have a sincere joy for life. The people here live simpler and more conservatively than in the U.S. The kids are content to play in the yard with a ball, the tire swing, or even the little mangos from the trees. They don't know what video games are. They don't have ipods. They don't have cell phones, yet they are happy. They don't eat many sweets (or "sweeties" as they call them). They don't watch much tv, yet they are happy. Their clothes hang dry outside on wire lines. They don't have their own rooms. They don't live in nice suburban homes or play with other kids in a culdesac. They don't have a lot of the things that we consider "essential" or "important" for kids in our world back home, yet they are sweeter, better behaved, and happier than a lot of the kids I have come in contact with in the U.S. These people simply have a joy for life, not just the stuff in it. Their days don't revolve around the most recent Twitter, or a new scandal Brittany Spears has stirred up. They don't have the most recent season of the Bachelor, and they don't yet know what happens in Gossip Girl, yet they still find things to talk about. They still find ways to entertain themselves. And they are still happy. And the crazy thing is we consider them to be less fortunate. When Americans think of Africa, I think we generally think of poverty, disease, and misfortune. But ironically, their culture is in many ways so much richer than ours. This is particularly the case when it comes to spirituality. Jesus is apart of their daily lives; in fact, for many Ugandans He is the center of their lives, exactly where He should be. They walk around singing songs that glorify Him and they try and raise families with Christian morals. Its interesting to me that in the U.S., we constantly ask the question "why?"... "Why do bad things happen?" "Fires?" "Hurricanes?" "War?" "Terrorism?" "Where is God?" In our hard times, many of us frequently doubt or question God's sovereignty, and some even use life's problems to argue that God doesn't exist. However, here, there is more poverty, more disease, more child abandonment, and many other hardships that are uncommon in the U.S., yet these things draw the people here closer to God. They rely on Him to help them through each day and they thank Him for all of their blessings, in the good times and the bad. And its ironic, that we, "the fortunate ones," are quick to lose our faith when our "ideal" lifestyle starts to crumble. We are more blessed in so many ways, yet we are so quick to lose faith. I think to some extent this is because we are perhaps too fortunate; so fortunate, that we take many of our blessings for granted, not realizing that they are blessings at all. I think sometimes we allow all the "stuff" we have, skew our priorities. We assume that an iphone is a human necessity and that the freedom of speech is just a given right. We allow our "blessings" turn into distractions from what is really important, glorifying God with our lives. When we ask the question "Where is God?", I am learning that we need to realize that He is the one thing in this world that hasn't changed, and that, instead, maybe it is our perception of His importance and presence in our daily lives that has changed. Maybe, we are just too busy, or too self sufficient to rely on God. But when we look around at this imperfect world, is that really the case?

This is just some food for thought. My time here has made me tremendously appreciative for all that I have in the U.S. and it has also made me reevaluate a lot of my own blessings (some of which I had never before considered blessings). I just wanted to share with all of you some of the life lessons I have been learning here in Africa. Thanks for reading!!

Lots of Love,

Natalie