One never knows what to expect when they choose to walk a path of faith and surrender their own desires for the greater good of the whole.

The photo above is of the team from New Hampshire who spent 3 weeks with CVI. These are most of the women and some of the children who are currently living in the CVI rehabilitation program in Lukodi, Uganda.

My time here in Uganda since updating this blog last, has been full. Each day I am busy between spending time at the ChildVoice office in Gulu throughout the day, and visiting with friends that I met last year who live here in the community of Gulu. I have visited with many friends, boda boda drivers, my local, "Ugandan family" who catered to Brittany and I last year, as well as other very important and special people I maintained contact with throughout the year since leaving last June 2007.

Last Saturday Nulda, the mother to Lowna, a CVI staff member from South Africa in charge of the Income Generating Programs, led a workshop for the Senior Management Team of CVI in order that all crucial staff members could brainstorm to streamline the operations of CVI Uganda and have the chance to consider exactly what the primary goals of ChildVoice International Uganda are, and what role each staff member plays within the overall objective of CVI. This was a full day long meeting. The results of this meeting will be utilized to write up the Master Plan for ChildVoice International, assist CVI in moving forward, including implementing the CVI rehabilitation programs in various countries, and, most importantly for me, assist me in writing up and grant for USAID. This is what I will be spending the next month that I am in Uganda working on. I am refreshing my brain on how to write up grant proposals as I research and read a plethora of various materials, and will begin this morning creating the general outline for this grant.

Saturday night I visited a family who lives close by where I stay when living in Gulu. It was fun to surprise them, as I had not let them know that I was going to be arriving back in Uganda. Susan, the daughter is 27 years old and due to have a baby any day now, Mama, who's name is Lillian, once again insisted that I stay for a large dinner she would prepare. This ended up for a long evening. It was fun to re-connect with them again.

Sunday I spent the afternoon and on into the evening visiting with another Ugandan family that has welcomed and embraced me as a daughter - literally. I spent the early afternoon washing dishes and clothes, and then on into cooking dinner with Mama. One of the family members, Florence, had a birthday on Sunday, so we had an extra special evening of celebration. The father of the home arrived late as he was visiting his brother in the hospital, this caused the home to be a very family like atmosphere. It was nice to not be in the position of a 'guest', but rather have the chance to integrate and just, 'be'. I ended up spending 6 hours there as it began raining and they are insistent that it is not acceptable that I would walk in the rain... I very much enjoyed this visit, so good to catch up; to love and to be loved.

After I finished up with the family, I met up with D'Andrea and had a lovely time of connection as we talked for a couple of hours about various things on our minds.

On Monday morning I met D'Andrea at a small coffee/bakery shop called Cafe' Maq. Here we had a small breakfast and coffee before going to her hotel room where we shared various documents with one another and researched papers such as the Millennium Goals, Strategies for Sustainable Development etc. in order to assist me in the preparation of this grant. Last night I met up again with Alice and Dennis and there plethora of children, nephews, nieces, cousins etc. They all live close by and Alice's house seems to be the local hang-out spot for the many children in the area.

I was encouraged to eat dinner that Alice had just prepared, as Dennis had not yet arrived home from work to take me the village to visit grandma. It was agreed that as it was now almost dark and late I would not go the village that night. However, when Dennis arrived home, he was insistent that we jump on his motorcycle - one that had no padding to sit on, on the back of the seat, nor did it have shocks. After forced to finish eating posho, beans, meat and 'bo' - fried greens, I promptly made my way to the motorcycle and off we went on a very bumpy, cold, dark ride into the village to visit with grandma. Upon arriving I was greeted by many village members for a celebratory dinner of my return back to Uganda and specifically their village. Once again, I ate dinner and was treated to freshly squeezed passionfruit juice that was quite lovely. It was an intense reunion. Meeting up with Ugandan friends, especially after returning from America after over a year away ( and many of these friends wondering if I would uphold my promise to return) is a beautiful process, however, at times very overwhelming and at times exhausting. I went home last night, took a very cold shower, arranged my mesquito net over my bed and crashed - once I fell asleep, I was out hard!

This morning I am back at the ChildVoice office in Gulu, preparing to work on this proposal for USAID. Thank you all who are praying for me, the staff here, as well as ChildVoice as a whole. Your prayers are coveted.