The 'rents

Only 3 minutes left of internet time this morning, but just wanted all of you who were concerned to know that my parents have arrived in Uganda safely and are currently drinking their morning coffee, IN MY LIVING ROOM!!!! Only one cancelled flight, and they were able to get on another one just a few hours later. Nathan's parents and brother also arrived safely and we had a great time picking them up in Kampala, busy but a happy reunion. more later.

Seeing

“It is still the first week in January, and I’ve got great plans. I’ve been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But – and this is the point – who gets excited by a mere penny? If you follow one arrow, if you crouch motionless on a bank to watch a tremulous ripple thrill on the water and are rewarded by the sight of a muskrat kit paddling from it’s den, will you count that sight a chip of copper only, and go your rueful way? It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won’t stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a health poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.” - Annie Dillard (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)

quiet

- the morning is quiet thus far (save the beautiful songs of the birds that are singing, and the low creak/moan of the door of the boys' house around 7 that made me jump out of bed assuming it was 8am already (usually when I hear the door because Nathan is leaving to teach in the morning). My alarm clock is broken, but usually life here takes care of that problem for me :)
- quiet on the blog front usually means the opposite about life here - steady stream of visitors here to Bundi and a jam packed (like about 50 patients in a ward built for 25) Pediatric ward have meant little time/energy for writing. Thus the facade of quiet.
- yesterday morning I sought quiet in reading/listening/praying. The quiet found me and I surrendered.

My prayer today

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
That the mountains might quake at your presence-
As when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil-
To make your name known to your adversaries,
And that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
You came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear,
No eye has seen a God besides you,
Who acts for those who wait for him.
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
Those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
In our sins we have been a long time,
And shall we be saved?

- Isaiah 64:1-5

7:38am

I'm sitting here at my computer at the desk in my main room in my pajamas (HUP scrub pants I swiped when doing my surgical experience in nursing school, and a U-City Memorial Day Run tshirt from a few years ago), I haven't brushed my teeth and my short curly hair is no doubt quite unruly as it always is first thing in the morning. I'm checking email and scanning blogs, not much active internet usage goes on first thing in the morning for me, just passive in-take.

I'm wondering what the day will hold. I never can be quite sure. We left little miss polka dots on the ward still on Friday, still trying to fight the system of lack of activity on just about everyone's parts. The cute white dress with red polka dots that was actually white when she came in, is no longer, it's browned with dirt and wear over the course of what must be at least 3 weeks now she has spent on the ward. You know what made my day last Tuesday? The Pierce kids had mobilized kids from the states to send stuffed animals for the kids at the Health Center and somehow I got the privilege of distributing them. I handed the super soft, cream colored ribbed velveteen-ish, floppy teddy bear to little miss polka dots and she immediately lit up with a gorgeous smile as she ran over to gingerly grab it from my hand. Soooooo precious. Later in the morning she was walking around the Health Center grounds with the bear tied to her back with a towel like babies are carried here. The next morning I asked her what the bear's name is, and she said definitively, "Lina lieh Moreen." :) (So thanks to all those kids who sent animals, they were mostly a big hit - a few of the kids were terrified of them but I would be too if i'd never seen one before).

So, it's Monday morning, huh? I had better get moving. The clock on my computer has almost reach 8:00 by now, so I should sign off before I get cut off. Hope your Monday is a good one. Over and out.