We're here

We made it! After an almost 7-hour layover in the Kenya Airport, we made it through the 1 hour flight into Uganda. We were picked up by 2 men-Jonathan and Jeff- that work with the ministry we were going to in Gulu. They drove us into the capital city of Kampala. The drive from the airport to Kampala was almost a sensory overload. Sights, sounds, smells, people, animals, music, everywhere! We would drive past huge crowds of people and then come upon a cow or goat tied up eating grass. It took us about an hour to get into Kampala, then Jonathan bought our bus tickets for the 6-hour ride to Gulu. 

Even though I have been to Africa twice before, I did not use public transportation, except for a few boda-boda (motorbike) rides  and maybe 1 taxi. We took a public bus to Gulu and that was a first for me. There was no A/C and for some reason, the windows were mostly all closed too. I think the Africans thought it was cold outside, but Taylor and I were both sweating inside that bus. We were all packed in tight. Nobody was going anywhere. We stopped way too many times- for gas, for food, to talk to people etc. The bus ride ended up taking 6 ½ hours. 

The most interesting thing from the bus ride was the pineapples we bought.  Uganda has the most delicious, sweetest, freshest pineapple. We bought 3 whole pineapples for 2,000 USh- about 75 cents!! 

Oh yeah...my feet are majorly swollen. If anybody has any advice on that, I'd love to hear it!

Bangkok Layover

 1:30 AM Korea time, 11:30 PM Bangkok time, 11:30 AM US CST

Well, our journey has been interesting so far.  We’re currently sitting in the Bangkok Airport waiting to board our flight to Africa. We’ve been travelling for about 13  hours now. Some of that time was our 2 buses to get to the Incheon Airport in Korea. That’s when the weirdness started.

In Korean, the bus drivers are anything but safe. They rule the roads. They weave in and out of traffic, drive fast, cut people off, drive way too close, etc. They ALWAYS drive fast- even in the pouring rain or snow. Today, both buses we took were driven by drivers were extremely cautious and extremely slow. Not a bad thing, but we were surprised. They were the slowest/most careful buses we have ridden in Korea so far. Luckily, we left in plenty of time to get to the airport, because both buses took longer than usual.

We made it from Korea to Thailand no problem. We had another interesting moment as we got off the plane to transfer. One of the airport employees was waiting at the gate’s exit with a handwritten sign that had our flight number- KQ0861. We slowly approached her with inquisitive looks. She said “Wait for 2 more people, then follow me.” Taylor seemed a little apprehensive so I jokingly said, “Look, if she starts leading us down a dark hallway, we run.” Neither of us had ever had such an experience. She led us through the airport where we had to go through airport security once again, even though we had just gotten off a plane. It seemed a bit redundant if you ask me. And I lost my almost-full bottle of water! After security we went to the “Transit Counter” and got new boarding passes, along with “Kenya Airways” stickers that we were told to put on our shirts. Then they sent us off to our gate where we are now waiting to board.

From slow buses, to weird layovers in Bangkok, it has already been interesting! Next stop: Nairobi, Kenya.

Goodbye Korea, Hello Uganda

Today we drove a completely packed car full of our stuff up to Seoul. 

Tomorrow we leave for Uganda.

Here is about 1/2 of the stuff we are taking to Uganda- shoes, clothes, toys, etc.

A little excited?

Our flight leaves at 6:40 PM Korean time on Thursday, July 14, which will be 4:40 AM for those of you in Central Standard Time. We should arrive in Uganda at 2:10 PM on Friday, July 15, which will be 6 AM CST. Pray for us!

We will start in the Northern part of Uganda- Gulu. If you are familiar with Invisible Children, it was started because of Gulu and the violence/war/child soldiers in that area. Unfortunately the rebel group called the LRA that had been abducting children did not come to an end, but rather moved its territory into Sudan. Gulu is safe now, but the aftermath of the war still remain in that area. We hope to bring the love of God into the hearts of the people there. From Gulu we will go to several different orphanages- several of just babies, one of handicapped children. We will also spend some time down in the southern and western parts of Uganda where I spent most of my trip in 2005. We'll be all over that country and are really excited! We hope to get on here and update when possible, but even if we're not on the blog, you can probably reach us by email!

Korean Rest Stops

One of the best things about Korea is the rest stops. They are so different from America. A typical American rest stop might look something like this: 

Very rarely, you might get one a little better. More often you might get one a lot worse. Or, there may not even be a rest stop at all. Just a gas station. Like this: 

Along the major highways of Korea, there are rest stops at what seems like every 25-50 miles. They are called 휴게소 Hyu-gae-so. All of them have restrooms with both the traditional (squatty potty) and modern toilets, convenience stores, gas, restaurants, food kiosks and vending machines. They are nothing like America. The restrooms are clean and don't smell, and are often decorated with art, flashy signs, or greenery. For example, here is a restroom at the rest stop we were at today: 

This isn't a special rest stop. They are almost all like this!

Here is the inside of the rest stop. It looks more like the food court of a mall. The food is really good too!

Graduation/Beach Weekend

This past weekend was graduation of the senior class. The seniors were my favorite class at GVCS. Taylor would probably say the same thing. My first semester teaching was all juniors and seniors, and I got pretty close to them. Especially in my psychology class. In fact, all of the pictures below are me with my psychology students. I love those kids. I can't say that I have the same affection toward the 9th graders, but I did enjoy having a few of those kids. 

Erin- a super sweet girl. She's going to SUNY Buffalo to study nursing.

This is one of Taylor's students- Hazel.

Taylor also had Erin in one of his Government classes.

Rachel Highland on the left- a fellow ORU alumni. She's great! The student is Grace Kim one of the teacher's daughters.

Min Hye- she's going to Liberty University.

 This is Sharon. One of my top Psychology students. She's going to study Psychology at the University of Minnesota.

This is Steve. One of the best kids of the school. He is excellent in all areas- academics, relationships, school life, spiritually....a great kid. He's really smart and studious- he got 5's on 5 AP Exams! He's going to UCLA Berkley, but was accepted into many other schools, including Notre Dame.

Julia- one of my all-time favorite students.

Ji Yeon- the school librarian.

Chris Lee- one of the school administrators. He's the one who helped us with the car situation.

Sungmi Lee!! My favorite Korean teacher of all time. This girl acts and thinks like an American, even though the most she's spent in America is only 2 months. She's hilarious and full of life!

After graduation, a group of 8 of us hopped on a train and headed to the southernmost coast of Korea- Busan. We stayed in a hostel for 2 night and spent a whole day on the beach. Everyone left extremely sunburned- except for Akila and Mark who stayed under the umbrella the entire time and did not swim at all. God really blessed us with amazing weather. There was an 80% chance of rain all weeekend. No sun was in the forecast. The day started out cloudy and rainy but turned beautiful. Thank you, God! I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are the few I have.

We found this guy the 1st morning of our stay at the hostel in Busan. He was snoring away.

A morning view of the Gwangan Bridge. At night it lights up with different colors.

This was a church parking lot in front of our hostel. Cars double and triple park each other here. They leave their cars in Neutral and you push them out of the way when you are leaving.

This is how our day started. The water was FREEZING and the weather was bad.

This is how our day ended- gorgeous!!

This isn't what it looks like I swear! As a result of my sunburn I sought natural ways to relieve the pain. The two that I tried (that worked), were vinegar- applied directly to the sunburn; and, a bath of tea. The tannins in black tea are supposed to relieve the pain of a sunburn. It worked!

Hello family!

Dear Cousins Meredith, Stacy, Nicole, and Macie
Aunts Therese, Cathy, Cristy, Diane, and Georgia
Uncles Skip, Dave, Tim, and Gerry
Great Grandpa Didde
Grandma Cosby
Grandpa and Grandma Heyse
Sam, Mom, and Dad:


It was SO great to talk to all of you and see your beautiful faces on Skype. Being able to connect with family halfway around the world makes being away bearable. We miss you all.


Happy Fourth of July!

Eumseong- the watermelon city

Many of the lightpoles in our city have these pictures on them. Eumseong is known as the pepper city (hence the strange pepper girls) and the watermelon city. I don't know if it's really a city...trust me..there's nothing here but ricefields and apartment buildings! 

 Last night we went into town and stopped by an outdoor market. Watermelons are grown all over this area, so I don't understand why they are so expensive. The average price of a watermelon here is 20,000 Won- about $19. Last night at the market we found one for 10,000 Won.

 It was huge! As we were walking down the main street in town, people would stop to look at us, which isn't unusual. But what is unusual is that they would smile! We don't usually get smiles- just stares, or sometimes scowls. One woman even tried to have a conversation with us. It was like a magical key to being liked by the locals. It was as if we had a baby with us. We were getting the sort of reactions that people get when they're walking around with a baby. So strange! But it was a nice change to have people smile at us!

 Isn't he handsome without his glasses? :)  I'm trying to talk him into getting contacts.



Here's a picture I took the other night of the fields outside of our apartment. This is one thing we will surely miss about the country life.

Detention

Taylor and another teacher, Cody, were recently assigned the task of handling the weekly detentions for the students. Actually, they requested to be in charge of detention. Their request was granted and they've been doing it for the past two weeks. I've gone and watched a few of their detentions and they are I N T E N S E. We're talking military bootcamp style. That's what these kids need.

This past Wednesday it rained. Hard. Downpour. And guess what? They served detention in the rain. Those kids were out there doing planks, squats, situps, running, you name it. Is it bad to say I enjoy watching that? I wanted to take pictures but my camera battery died. Today I got some pictures.

I like this one because this displays our life/school perfectly. We share the school property with farmers. They live across the street, next door, they farm on a portion of the campus....we're surrounded!

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Cody and Taylor working side by side.

Planks