Greetings to all of Jennifer's followers, she is experiencing computer problems in Kyarusozi. Jennifer asked me to give all of you a brief update.
Whenever the telephone rings and your daughter who is over 7500 miles away without a phone is on the other end you kind of freeze. First and foremost, Jennifer is ok, praise God! The phone call I received was to call her back using our international calling card, because Sr. Edith was kind enough to allow Jen to call us with her cell phone. We had not had any response from Jen since late last week and noticed that she had not updated her blog which is what she had planned to do over the weekend and neither of the other two education majors blogs were updated, so as a Mom I was beginning to get a little concerned and decided to email Sr. Lillian in Fort Portal to see if the Kyarusozi location looses power very often. They are all doing well for the exception of the one computer that is connected to the Internet, the connection is fine it is a hardware problem with the computer. Jen said that it could be one week or their entire stay before it is fixed. She mentioned that she has used the other computer to write her daily blog on a word document and is sitting on ready to transfer it to the computer with the Internet service as soon as it is fixed.

Jen has shared a few things with us via telephone and email since she has been there and told me it was ok to share with all of you.

They had an exciting journey to reach Entebbe. Jen and Sarah flew out of O'Hare together with plans to meet Nora and the nursing majors in Toronto. The other 4 girls never made it for that flight, their flight from O'Hare was detained 3 hours which snowballed missed flights all the way through for them. Back to Jen and Sarah, realizing that the other girls were not going to make their flight to Toronto they boarded their flight to Brussels, which had a mini stop over in Montreal. Well, the Montreal stop over was delayed which in turn made them miss their connection to Entebbe. Canada Air placed them on a flight to Cairo with a connection to Entebbe. Fortunately, there was a very nice gentleman from Texas who had a layover in Brussells as well, who insisted that the girls use his cell phone to call both of their Mama's back home and let them know about their delay. He was definitely our angel on earth in Brussells. The girls made their flights ok to Entebbe, but unfortunately their luggage didn't. It took a couple of days for all 6 girls to finally meet up again in Entebbe and even a few more days for all of their luggage to join them for the exception of one piece of Jen's which is still working its way to Fort Portal, should arrive tomorrow. Fingers crossed....
Their professor from Saint Marys, who was in Kenya met all of them in Entebbe and held class there at the Inn, before sending them off on their journey to Kyarusozi to teach in the school and help in the clinic. Jennifer said that it was beautiful there in Entebbe and on their way to Kyarusozi. The road they traveled is a dirt road 180 miles long to the village, which meant they couldn't go very fast, it took them 5 hours which was quick because they didn't run into any rain. As the van drove up to the convent, the local children were waving and smiling at the girls, she said they were all so sweet. The convent is really cute, Jen has her own bedroom with her mosquito net covered bed. The sisters were all very happy to see them and anxious to take them to the school and clinic. The first day at school was for observing and introductions but last Thursday they got to get right into it. Jen took tambourines for the kids and Sarah, Nora and Jen had music class, she said they really liked them. Apparently, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday each girl is in their own classroom and on Tuesday and Thursday they have Art, Music and PE together with the kids. I believe there is 157 kids in the school.

There was a little girl that came up to Jen in her class on Thursday, her name is Irene and held out a mango for her to take. Jen didn't want to take it because she thought it might be her lunch but the girl insisted and one of the Sister's told Jen it was ok. Jen was very touched by her generosity, because they have so little to begin with.

The girls will get in shape during this time, they have a 4 mile walk back to the convent each day, with 3 enormous hills as she puts it. Jen has also mentioned that she is fast becoming a vegetarian, she can't eat the meat after seeing it the day before running around the grounds of the convent.

After their day of teaching at the school, the neighbor children come over to the convent shaking the gate for the girls to come out and play with them.
One of the first days, a little girl came up to Jen and took her hand and began leading her down the road, Jen realized quickly what was about to happen, the little girl wanted to show her where she lived, Jen said she was just smiling and brought her inside of the one room mud hut that held her family of 5 or 6. Jen said she was so proud of her home and was so moved. I am sure there will be many many more heartfelt moments like this in the next 4-1/2 weeks.

The girls have also met some Notre Dame students who are staying nearby with the brothers and they also met some other ND students during their brief stay in Entebbe.

While at a going away party celebrating a Sister's departure that had been there for 43 years this past Sunday, Jen and the girls experienced their first Ugandan beer, she said it was pretty good.

Currently, I have no idea if she will be able to blog like she was hoping to do. I will update for her when we are able to get through the lines, their land line isn't the best for connections.

Please keep all of those in Uganda in your prayers.

Until the next entry.....Peace