First i’d like to appologize for the long period without a post.

What an unbelievable night! We made it to Uganda yesterday afternoon around 2:30 Uganda time.  We stepped off the plane and immediately felt the middle of Africa heat.  And it’s winter right now.  Actually, we’re only 20 miles above the equator so they don’t really get winter.  \i had a little scare with getting a visa.  I thought i was supposed to have my yellow fever card with me when I got here and realized that I didn’t even bring it with  me. Fortunately our worrying turned into nothing at all.  \i went to the desk to get my passport stamped and to apply for a visa, they didn’t even ask for it.  They just stamped it a nd let me on in.  Thank you God!  We took a 45 minute drive from the airport in Entebbe to our hotel in Kampala.  The drive was very interesting.  It is so bad here.  Poverty to the extreme!  Way worse than where i’m at in South Africa.  The driving here is awful.  Multiple times I thought other vehicles were going to drive straight into us and our driver was the same way.  Bikes, scooters, mopeds, motorcycles, cars, vans, and taxis ALL over the place.  There is no way i would survive driving here. Jennifer hated my driving in South Africa but she probably would have fainted from gasping so many times on this car ride.  We got to our hotel which turned out to be a stunningly beautiful place.  Very nice place.  My dad and i are in the same room together and Schaun and Joel are sharing one. 
After we got all situated we met all the other Americans on this trip in the lobby to head towards the evening event.  They call it a crusade here.  As we were pulling up there was a choir type group on a large wooden stage that were singing and dancing.  There was probably close to 1000 people there last night.  I forgot to mention that on the drive to the crusade we saw some soldiers, two to be exact, walking around with rifles in their hands.  And as we were getting out of the vehicles at the crusade with a handful of kids coming to meet us and shake our hands, there was another guy standing right next to me with a shotgun in his hands.  Didn’t stop the kids or seem to bother them one bit.  There was such a good vibe when we got there.  Music blaring and everyone singing and dancing.  It was just amazing.  For 30 minutes or so we just sang and danced with the kids.  They kept coming up to us, wanting us to take their picture, dance with them, shake hands, and just have a good time.  It turned out to be a great time.  As soon as the music was over and the two pastors that were about to speak started making their way to the stage,  a little boy came and sat on my lap.  He eventually left and the two little girls in the woman’s lap next to me startyed playing with me, trying to talk to me, and holding my hands.  On sat on my lap and we giggled and laughed about things the entire message.  These two girls were just addorable.  There were also 30 people that came up to the front saying that they wanted to give their lives away to Christ.  What a great night!  Jen, i kept thinking about you and how much you would have loved it here.  You would have loved the kids, been able to go crazy with your camera, and be even more thankful for what God’s given us.  For example, I’ve never been to a country where people walked around with riofles and shotguns.  We had probably 3 guys with shotguns just standing guard around our “crusade.”  Plus, on the drive from the airport to the hotel, we passed an area filled with a bunch of the UN’s equipment.  Planes, cars and trucks, large containers probably filled with food, and a warehouse.  i’ve never seen anything like that before.  This is just the beginning of the trip too.  I can’t imagine what else we’re going to see! 

please be praying for our safety…kind of a little scary too!

love you guys

daniel

two in one day? WOW!

Good evening.  What a day.  We made it into Motherwell this morning with Mama, Jennifer, and the boys.  We had a long list of things that needed to be done.

1.      I needed to get some info for the child sponsorship program.

2.      Jimmy and Amy had bought some clothes for twin boys they had met at a school last week.

3.      Visit Portia and see some of the parents and kids i was wanting to meet

4.      Go to two different schools to see some more of the parents and kids. 

5.      We visited a friend of Mama’s.  Her name is Happiness.  She got some more people that I needed to see to get some info from.

 

All of that was accomplished.  It was a good day.  At one of the schools, the one we went to to drop off the clothes for the  twins, the principal is ALWAYS extremely appreciative and after we showed them what Jimmy and Amy bought for the boys they started singing for us and praying for us.  It was wonderful.  They had a child go to all the classrooms and get all the teachers to come and witness what was happening.  They do that every time we come.  They stop everything they’re doing, even teaching the kids, and come to greet us.  The principal wanted us to get out our camera’s to take pictures because she thought it wasn’t “right” for what was being done to not be, quote “videoized.”  It was very cool!  On the way out of the school Joseph, Jennifer’s son, was telling us that the 9^th grade class could sing really well so we asked if they would sing for us.  Again, they stopped everything they were doing and the entire 9^th grade class sang us a song in their classroom.  It was amazing!  Such good voices!  The teacher is this huge guy with a shaved head.  Looks like he could be boxer guy or something.  He was dancing around the room while they were singing, every once in a while saying something to them to get them to sing louder or telling them they messed up, and even throwing in a little booty shakin’.  I pointed it out to Jennifer telling her that he looked like a little penguin shaking his butt after it’d gotten out of the water!  We had just a good time! Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures of the day up here.

Dad gets here tomorrow.  I’m going to pick him up at 4pm tomorrow afternoon.  I CAN’T WAIT! I’ve been talking about it none-stop the past couple days to everyone around here. 

Jimmy and Amy have decided to go home Wednesday because Jimmy feels as if it’s getting worse.  He’s been having some major stomach pains and Jennifer felt as though it might be a good idea to get home and get to the doctor because the last thing you want is to get seriously sick over here.  You’d get no help from the doctors or hospitals here so it’s probably best to head on home.  All four of the teachers here are leaving Wednesday as well.  Dad, Schaun, Joel Houser, and i all leave Saturday to head up to Uganda for a week, and Jennifer and her boys leave Sunday to head back to the states, then Courtney is leaving on the 7^th to go back to the states.  It’s going to be very sad when i get back from
Uganda.  There isn’t going to be any of those people that i have spent up to the last couple of months with here.  There’s a girl named Brooke Muckenthaller (spelling? Sorry) that is coming tomorrow with my dad, Schaun, and Joel and she will be here till just before Christmas.  I’m just not looking forward to saying goodbye again to my dad let alone Jennifer and her boys, Jimmy, Amy, and Courtney.  Please be praying for me guys.  Not that things get better but that i am growing spiritually to make the loneliness not an issue. 

Well, i definitely did not intend for this to be this long.  It was supposed to be something short and sweet but i just kept rambling! Oops!

 

Good night guys!

 

Daniel

hello all!  good morning good morning!  yesterday we had the opportunity to go to an “african church.”  it was so much fun.  Ronnie has been working with a neighbor of ours.  his name is Blycus (not sure how to spell that).  he’s an extremely funny guy.  he’s always flirting with the women here.  he is always bringing a boque of roses to Sybil and this past week told Jennifer that she needed to buy a dress or a skirt to wear to church Sunday so he could take a picture with her to send to his family in england.  Jennifer said that the other day she saw him walking down the street with more flowers, probably heading to his other women!
anyways, Blycus is an older man who wants to help start a church here at the farm school some of us have been visiting and working with.  last week they had their first service there.  i was in cape town so obviously unbable to go but this sunday we had every one there.  as we were just about to start i looked around and noticed that 20 of the 25 people there came with us and from the orphanage.  and before i even got in the building, Blycus came up to me and told me that i needed to tuck my shirt in.  i had a pair of jeans and a long sleeve button up shirt on with a zipper jacket over the shirt.  i had my shirt untucked underneath the jacket and he said that i needed to clean up before i go inside. so i pulled my jacket up, and stuffed my shirt down my pants.  all better! 
once we got inside, there were some chairs that he had set up for everyone and at the front of the classroom was a small table with three chairs facing the rest of the group.  Ronnie, Blycus, and i all sat at the front of the room, infront of everyone.  I think that all the men sit at the front of the room and the women and children sit in the back because there weren’t anyother men there.  Jimmy was back at the house and that’s about it.  Blycus asked me to pray before the service was to start along with another woman.  i liked hers better than mine.  she had no teeth and her prayer to God was in song.  she couldn’t really sing according to the standards of pretty much anyone.  it was so funny because i think she knew that also.  she was just singing along and i would look at her face and could tell she was asking herself what note she just sang because it sounded like a dying cow.  our girls were standing behind them and i kept noticing Xolelwa snickering. 
after the prayers, Mama came up and spoke to all of us.  i loved it.  she would start singing songs in the middle of the message and when she did we all stood up and sang and danced with her, then she would just continue on with what she was saying.  after she spoke, Ronnie got up and talked for a few minutes, saying what he had prepared earlier that morning.  overall, we had a great time.  afterwards we went outside and because it was Jennifer and the boys’ last sunday here, as well as jimmy and amy, and teagan and deserie (teachers that have been here the past couple weeks) we took a bunch of group pictures and Blycus got his picture with Jennifer to send to his family.  it’s going to be fun going to that church every week now. 
well…my dad is on his way here.  i suppose he’s in Washington D.C. right now sleeping.  they jump on a flight in the morning their time to head straight to South Africa to be here by Tuesday, 4pm our time.  i can’t wait.  i know that Courtney is really looking forward to seeing Schaun as well.  it’s going to be a very busy week so i will do my best to write one here.  keep checking cause if i do you will want to make sure you don’t miss it! and keep the comments coming!

Cheers!

daniel

my baby girl!

i know i already posted this morning…but we had such an interesting morning already that i wanted to write about it while i had the chance. 
after i had gotten back from taking Phila and Norandi to the clinic i got a call saying that Phila was told that she needed to go to the hospital and that an ambulance was going to come and get her to take her there.  so i drove as fast as i could to the clinic to figure out what was going on.  i ended up taking them to the hospital.  they said that Phila was just in an early stage of dehydration.  she was collapsing and sweating A LOT!  really scary.  they told me where the hospital was, never had been there before that though so i was a little nervous about getting lost.  i told Jennifer to come and meet me there because i would have no idea what was going on. 
at the hospital, as soon as i went into the doctors room with Phila in my arms and Norandi by my side, Jennifer showed up.  perfect time God!!! 
the doctors said that she was fine.  she may have been a little dehydrated but not bad.  Phila is 2 1/2 years old and just one of the sweetest girls ever.  while we were waiting to get to see the doctor, i had her in my lap resting her head on my chest.  all the women around, all black women, were looking at me hold this black little baby girl in my arms.  they couldn’t believe that a guy was sitting, waiting to see the doctor with the baby in his arms.  Norandi explained who i was and what i was doing here in South Africa.  the women told me, in english because Norandi can’t speak it, they said “we just told her that we will pray for you that God gives you strength to be there for all those kids.  Cause we can tell that you love them very much!”  that made my day!!! 
anyways, scary day with her, lots of screaming and crying cause she was scared a couple times but overall, Jennifer thinks that she just has a virus and is a little sick.  will be ok soon!  please pray for her though!

daniel

Howdy ho neighbors.  How’s everyone doing today?  Things are great here! We had a wonderful day! Very eventful.  Just lots of things going on. 

First, i took the kids to school this morning.  After i got back i got cleaned up and Jennifer and i took Mama and Sister to do all the grocery shopping.  That’s always a big ordeal.  Always lots of places that we have to go to!  We only go grocery shopping once a week and when you buy enough food for twenty-some people, for an entire week, that’s a lot of food!  So we go to the grocery store, get all the normal things like bread, eggs, milk, cleaning supplies, and all the good stuff.  Then we went to Fruit and Veg, obviously to get the fruits and vegetables.  Afterwards we went to the butchery and picked up a bunch of meat for our growing bodies.  It was quite fun doing all the shopping.  We had a good time. 

It’s been so nice having someone here to share this experience with.  Jimmy, Amy, and Courtney have been great!  We have all been working together really well lately.  Jennifer and i have been talking a lot lately.  It’s been great.  I can see our communication and friendship growing a lot lately.  It’s truly like a brother-sister relationship.  And it’s sooo wonderful.  There have been times where i have wondered what it would be like to have an older sibling, especially a sister.  And that’s exactly what it feels like with her.  I truly appreciate and am so thankful that they’re here!

 

(next day.  i got interrupted, didn’t get back to typing.) 

This morning, equally as cool as yesterday.  I got to rest a little bit longer than normal.  I don’t know if i mentioned this or not, probably not because i haven’t been on in a few days, but i got sick the day before we came home from
Cape Town.  Started off with a really scratchy throat that was just very uncomfortable.  The next day it turned into a lot of congestion and a really bad headache.  By Tuesday i had started a deep chest cough and my nose had no room for breathing so i wasn’t able to sleep at night.  Needless to say, i’m still a little sick and not really up to normal health yet so i haven’t been sleeping normal either.  So this morning i woke up at 8 or so and got out of bed around 9.  it was really nice to be able to do that today. 

After i had gotten fully awake and dressed, i took Norandi to the clinic.  She was taking Phila there because she wasn’t feeling well.  Sister asked me to take Aphelele, the new, wild, boy with us.  So, on the ride up there, pretty much complete silence except for when Aphelele would say some strange word in Xhosa, because he can’t speak any English.  After i dropped Norandi and Phila off, Aphelele and i went for a drive.  I had a couple places i wanted to stop before i had to get back to the house.  While we were driving i started singing and making beats with my mouth which caused him to start dancing.  He loves to dance.  It’s sooo funny.  We were just driving right along and dancing to our own music.  When we stopped at the store, i took him inside with me but not before he stopped to look at every “scootersome” (not sure if that’s how you spell it but it means motorcycle/scooter).  He’s such a wild kid.  Trying to run all over the parking lot, into stores, grabbing things off shelves, he’s hilarious.  But the sweetest thing was when i was standing in line at the store, he was over looking at something and then all of a sudden sprinted towards me with his arms wide open.  I picked him up and held him.  He immediately rested his head on my shoulder.  He probably could have fallen asleep right there.  On the way back to the house, i let him sit in my lap while i was driving and he would hold onto the steering wheel as if he was driving the car.  He made car noises as if we were a race car shifting through the gears up into the hundreds of miles per hour.

Some other cool news, i had mentioned to Mama that i wanted to find a class where i could learn Xhosa.  I asked her to keep an eye out for one or if she knew of one to check on it for me.  Last night, the same night, i came into the house and she said she found a Xhosa class for me.  It’s a place downtown and a lady that Mama knows works there and teaches some of the classes.  She said that there’s a white South African guy that speaks it fluently and would probably be the best one to teach me.  I’m really excited.  I think as soon as i get back from
Uganda at the beginning of August i will start that class. 

Less than a week and my dad is going to be here.  He’s in
California with my family right now and he gets back from there the 22^nd i think which is just in time to jump on a plane the 23^rd to head here.  He will be here on Wednesday the 25^th and i absolutely can’t wait.  It’s going to be great to have some family here!  I have been looking forward to it for a long time now and so glad that it’s finally here.  He’s the one i’m going to
Uganda with.  Dad, Schaun, Joel Houser, and I will all be heading up there on the 29^th for a week to “survey” another mission’s organization.  We’ll be there for a week.  I can’t even imagine what kind of impression or burden it will leave on our hearts.  Please pray for that trip and our safety. 

Anyways, this is quite long so i’d better get going. Talk to you all more soon!

daniel

arrival at cape town

It is me again bringing you pictures from Daniel. Click on an image to view it larger. Enjoy!!

 

 

 

hello!  well i was trying to write a post wednesday night, had pretty much finished it and was just typing a closing sentence, and then i got shut off.  i’m currently in Cape Town, South Africa having a GREAT time!  Jennifer and her boys and i all jumped in a car wednesday morning and drove the 10 hour drive all the way here from Port Elizabeth.  we were able to stop at a few places, one to have breakfast in Plettenburg Bay up high on somewhat of a cliff able to see everything, two, at a place just outside of Cape Town called Hermanus, it was beautiful there, it would have been much prettier if it wasn’t all gloomy and sprinkling but even then it was wonderful. 
I’m currently sitting in a internet shop.  i have been coming up here the past couple days to check emails and things like that.  it’s so cheap that i couldn’t resist.  only R8 ($1.15) for 40 minutes.  pretty cool deal eh? 
well, yesterday we went down to the waterfront to do a little site-seeing by the bay and see some shopping and things like that.  today we are going to jump on a wine route that leads you through a ton of wine vineyards and able to go taste some of the best wines ever bottled! i’m looking forward to that.  anyways, i’m sure i’ll be back on tomorrow so keep the comments coming and i will talk to you all soon!

daniel

what’s up

hey all! got some good news.  we’ve rented two more vehicles to be used over the next month or so to make things easier around here.  we actually got them sunday and you wouldn’t believe how much they’ve helped. i know that’s not very exciting to you guys, but it is for me so i thought i’d throw that it there.
Sister told us this morning that the new boy, Aphelele, was up late last night and he couldn’t stop talking.  She said that he kept asking questions, over and over, and every time he would start talking or asking a question Phila would just start laughing.  So try and picture yourself lying on a mattress on the floor between two baby cribs.  One of the cribs has a 4 year old boy just rambling and asking the funniest questions like who’s the dad of the house (he now thinks that i am) and so on, and on the other side of you is a 2 year old girl just laughing away at the things he was saying.  i’m sure she wanted to go to sleep but i probably would have been laughing hysterically.  Aphelele was asking if Sister would teach him English. apparently he really wants to so she told him “of course.” 
tonight, joe and james made a fire ring out on some poured concrete and made a nice fire.  they had a great view of the sky.  there’s a fool moon here right now which was shining bright through a thin layer of clouds.  GORGEOUS! Jimmy has been doing a bible study every once in a while with the boys while Amy has been doing one with the girls almost every night.  the boys had one out around the fire ring tonight before it go too late. 
just to let you all know about the girl who died last week…Jennifer and i went to visit her grandma (her mom died and the dad is gone).  she was very sad.  she said that the 2 days before her death she started seeing some symptoms that were scarring her.  she said she had drastically started weighing more, and the night before she died the girl asked her grandma to light some candles for her, which she did.  it’s just sad, cause there’s nothing she could do for the poor girl.  she cried and told us how sad she was but at the same time was glad that her grand-daughter didn’t have to suffer and go through all that pain anymore.  please be praying for this family. she had to take a loan out from the bank just so she could pay for the funeral.  she doesn’t have anyone to take care of her or support her.  it’s tough for women here when they get too old to work and they don’t have a husband or kids who care enough to support them.
tomorrow, Jennifer, the boys, and i are leaving for Cape Town.  we were told by ronnie and sybil that we shouldn’t miss a chance to go there so we saw some time available and we’re taking advantage of it.  we will be leaving tomorrow morning at 5:30am our time (and it’s 1:30am now) and will be returning Monday night.  please pray for safe travel and for a great time! oh and that i won’t lock the keys in the car.  i already almost did that once tonight.  i was putting stuff in the boot (trunk) and sat the keys along the trunk frame and closed the door, smashing the keys in there. i had to crawl into the back, take off a panel of the interior, and somehow manually open the door.  still don’t know how that all worked out. anyways, pray that i’m not clumsy and that we are kept protected
thanks family!
daniel

yay!

Good morning friends!  It’s been a GREAT weekend and already a great start to the week.  This morning i woke up and sat outside with Jennifer.  She always gets up early and has her shower and gets a cup of coffee.  This morning she came in the room and woke me up saying that i had to come out and watch the sunrise with her.  ABSOLUTELY beautiful this morning!  So many different colors! It was the brightest red sky. 

After the sunrise, Jennifer, Amy, Jimmy, Courtney, Phumlani, and all the teachers went to a close by township and were going to be doing English lessons.  Jen was going to be taking some medicine to a few kids that she has been checking on.  As soon as they get back i’m going to be going to Motherwell to take some food parcels to some families.

The coolest part about today, so far, is that WE HAVE A NEW CHILD HERE AT THE VILLAGE NOW!  He’s sooo cool!  He’s 4 years old and his name is Aphelele.  Very fun kid!  He doesn’t speak ANY English which is a big bummer just because it makes things so much more difficult!  I’ve been thinking and talking to a few people about taking a Xhosa class.  Someone told me that a girl that worked here in
South Africa for a year from the states took a class to learn the language and by the time she was speaking it fluently.  I think that if i were to take a class that i would be able to learn it easily!

Anyways, it’s pretty cool to have another child here with us now.  Very exciting!  It’s funny though cause he thinks he’s at school!

Thank God!

 

Daniel

one more thing…

I know i already posted a blog today but i figured that you wouldn’t be upset if i added some new news. Tonight, during dinner, Jennifer sat down next to meat at the dinner table to eat a delicious supper made by the wonderful Sister. When i looked at her she had a “down” face on. A face where something was not right and was wrong. She said “my girl died.” Not quite sure if i heard what she said i asked her what she said. She told me again, “the sick girl i’ve been seeing died.” A couple posts in the past week or two i’ve talked about a girl who was really sick, and i told you guys about how money was provided to buy her a food parcel only because God is that good. Last week, on Monday, i think, we delivered her the food parcel. Friday, the lady that had provided the money for that food happened to be here so we took her to see her and to drop off some more medicine. Well, she died sometime in the last couple days. Either Tuesday or Wednesday, i’m not sure. It was very sad but at the same time we’re kind of happy for her because she doesn’t have to go through all that pain that she was enduring. She was a sweet girl who is sitting in heaven with our God, breathing better all the perfect air through her lungs, she’s eating and not hungry, she’s not sick, she’s with our God! Her funeral is tomorrow morning. We aren’t going to be able to go but we are going to be praying for her family and i ask that you do the same thing. She was only 10 years old and her family loved her very much. Thanks guys! daniel

A slice of bread is better than nothing!

Hey friends. I want to come to you in the presence and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s how Mama Gladys always greets people when she talks to them. She once prepared some “words of wisdom” for the Vineyard church that we go to here and she started off with that greeting. I thought it was quite spectacular.
Today we woke up kind of early to get a head start on some things that we wanted to get done today. We wanted to take two of the children in to get tested. I think we only have 4, maybe 5 to get tested still. (I forgot to mention that in one of my last posts i wrote that all the kids we had tested so far were positive results. I meant to say they all turned out negative meaning they don’t have AIDs.) We were also going to go to Motherell to distribute some more diapers to some families. When we got to the clinic to do the testing we found out that 10 of the workers there didn’t show up for work today so they were way understaffed and recommended we come another day so we left to go towards Motherwell. Mama has a friend named Patience that helps her out when she has things she wants to distribute. We just went to her house and gave her all the diapers and a list of all the people that were to receive them. We didn’t know who all the people were and where they lived so she offered to help us with that.
After that we went to Mama’s mama’s house (hope that makes sense). She had a few items that she wanted to drop off and while we were there we all got out and said hi, hung out for a few minutes, and busted a few dance moves. Jimmy, Amy, Jennifer, and the boys had never met any of the people at that house so we took a few minutes to greet everyone. Good times!
On the way out of Motherwell we passed a guy that i, a couple weeks ago, took a picture of because i thought he looked absolutely amazing. He was dressed in a grey suit with a thick, curly grey beard, and he had a colorful blanket draped over his shoulder that he carried everywhere with him. He had the same outfit on and the same blanket draped over his shoulder the last time that i saw him. When i took a picture of him he was standing on a tin wash bucket. He was just standing there looking at people drive by, trying to stay warm with his blanket wrapped around him. As we were driving out of Motherwell, Jennifer noticed him and we stopped to talk to him. He recognized us and came running up to the car to say hi again. He even let us take another picture of him. He asked us “can you please give me a prize to get some food.” Obviously he didn’t know his English too well but we of course pulled out some pocket change so he could go get something to eat. After we gave it to him, he said one of the most amazing things to me. “A slice of bread is better than nothing.” I think it’s amazing because NONE of us know what it’s like to be that hungry. To be able to say that “a slice of bread is better than nothing,” that takes something that none of us have. And he said it with such a beautiful smile on his face. I hope you all learn something from this man today. We need to be on our faces, thanking God for everything he has given us!

Love you guys!
daniel