Merging Blogs

Wow, its been a while since I've posted.. not sure if anyone is even checking this anymore! But I thought I'd post this anyway, just in case. 

Since I've been really busy this Summer, and will be even busier this Fall (Grade 12 year!) I've decided its too hard to have 2 blogs, and will now be discontinuing this blog. From now on, the blog I post on about all aspects of my life (and I promise I will actually post from now on!) will be at http://erins-ethiopia-trip.blogspot.com 

However, that blog is also going to be stopped pretty soon, as I will be starting a new blog, which will be more relevant to some exciting news and a big change that's coming up for my family.. more about that on my other blog as soon as I know more! :)

So, goodbye Live Laugh and Love, you are no more. 

~Erin~

Last Day!!!

Today was the last official day of classes!! Now I just have 3 exams, and then I am officially..... GRADE 12!!! Oh man, I'm so happy, and so excited for the summer!

I don't really have anything else to post about, but here's a picture of my friend and I (friends for 14 years this summer! :D) about 2 hours before school ended :)

My Beautiful Babies!!

Steven (my friend who went to Kibaale, Uganda) just gave me the video of my two GORGEOUS sponsor kids!!!!!

It is the cutest thing I've ever seen!! I just had to share... The translator is a little hard to hear, but basically the "message" is that the goat I sent to Jackie's family has had two babies (which you can see in the picture from the previous post). =)

I just took in the money for Reagan's house today, so that should be getting started soon!! :)

Jackie!!

I deserve a slap or something for neglecting my blogs so badly!

Anyway, today I recieved some AWESOME pictures of my darling sponsor girl in Uganda. I had raised money a few months ago to buy her new land, and build a house, kitchen, and latrine, and today I got pictures of them!!

I love them soo much!!

Jackie and her mom with the goat that I sent them and its 2 babies

Jackie by the new house I had built for them!!

The inside of their house (the main room).. the two little girls on the left are 2 of her sisters, Jesca (closest to the edge of the picture- we met her when we were in Kibaale, and she's SUCH a sweetheart!) and Justine (closest to Jackie). The man is her father.

Jackie in front of their new kitchen!

Jackie in front of their new latrine.

One of my friends also just got back from Kibaale about a month ago (SOO JEALOUS!!) and he soooo kindly took presents along for me, and brought a couple pictures and an ADORABLE video back of both Jackie and Reagan. I'm getting the video tomorrow, so I'll try to put that on, but I have the pictures now.. so cute!! THANKS STEVEN!!! =) =)

Jackie and her class.. can you spot which one is Jackie?? :P

Jackie and Reagan.. Aren't they absolutely adorable??? I love how tiny Reagan is next to her :)

Another shot of them together (I think he said he had more, but the email didn't work.. they maybe coming soon)

On another note, I just got an email saying that Reagan's house is in a very bad state. It is only half completed, and they only have 3 walls, and no doors or windows, so the bug/rodent situation is terrible. Its so bad that they can't even live in it anymore.. I'm not quite sure where they're living at the moment, but they went to the Kibaale Centre, and requested money for the repair of their house. Unfortunately, Kibaale doesn't have the funds to do that right away, and even if they did, their first priority would have to be a child who doesnt' have any type of shelter at all, so they only way they would be able to get a new house is if I, as their son's sponsor, sent the money.

I talked to my AMAZING parents, and they said that they would donate a certain amount, if I would contribute the last small part of the money needed. So I am happy to say, that soon Reagan and his family will have a new house, kitchen, and latrine also!! I'm so excited for them!!

Please Pray..

Today we had an emergency school assembly, and were told some shocking, tragic news. I'm still kind of in shock, and don't really know how to feel, or respond.

Nathan K, a guy in my grade, passed away in his sleep on Saturday night. We don't know any other details, other than he wasn't sick, and was perfectly healthy, and hanging out with his friends late Friday night. No one at school- and especially our grade, and his close friends- knows what to do right now, and school was all but shut down all day. The Auditorium was open all day for anyone to go in and just pray, or cry with friends; classes didn't really happen. Me and my friends were in the auditorium all morning, and then me and Carissa, one of my close friends just came home after lunch.

Please, please pray for his poor family.. I can't imagine what they're going through right now. And also for his closest friends, and those who really knew him well, and for our whole school; that we would all make it through this grieving time together, and that we'll be stronger, and closer after this horrible time. I didn't know him too well, but he seemed like a good guy. He could be a little annoying at times, but what high school guy isn't? He loved photography, and was amazing at it, and he always seemed so happy. I wish I had taken the time to know him better; the only good thing is that we know that he's happier than we could ever imagine right now, in Heaven with God.

We'll miss you Nathan, and won't ever, ever forget you.

I'm not going to post any pictures of him up, but here is a little sample of some of his photography.. as you can see, he was sooo talented:

Seena

One of my friends from the team finally emailed me a couple of pictures from India.. so here is one of me and my sweetheart Seena (see post below). I had forgotten taking this picture, so I was sooo excited when I got the email!! :D THANKS Courtney!!!

India Part 4

For some reason, this took a long time to post, so I had to re-post it today (May 2nd) .. I think its now showing that I posted it about a week ago though. Oh I don't know, I'm confused!! Anyway, here's Part 3 of my India Trip (I'll go faster after this, I promise!!)

The Conference (and more of my girls!)

So on Monday, after we visited all the classes, and met with the principal (called "Madam" :D) we went into the Auditorium, where the "International Stop Sex Selection Conference" was getting ready to start.

In India, since girls are generally thought of as not important, many pregant girls will find out the sex of their child, and then make the decision to abort if the baby is a female. This is a very sad, yet very real problem facing India right now, and the conference was dedicated to stopping that problem. It was actually quite a big deal, with video cameras casting it onto live TV! As it was an "International" conference, we were the international guests (along with the guests at the orphanage from Holland), and sat at the front while the conference went underway. We even made it into three local newspapers! (the picture was terrible too :S) There were some speakers, and then we went and sat down again to watch presenations by the girls. First some of the college girls came out a did a dance, and I took a short video of it:

And then here are the littlest girls doing a dance, and then the older, grade 9-grade11ish girls doing a dance.. the one in the older girls' dance that I focus on for most of the video, with shortish hair, who is supposed to be a "boy" is Yankila, and she's SUCH a good dancer!! Aw she was so sweet, I loved her :) Oh, and listen carefully to the music playing for the older girls' dance.. its our team's favourite song ever!! :D

Here are a few of the girls at the assembly, and a cute video of Nitu and Salu being silly.

And here are the rest of my precious little girls...

--> Seena: She is the sweetest thing. She was always with me, just holding my hand, or smiling at me. She was pretty quiet, but you could tell she loved to just be noticed, and to be with someone. She wrote letters for me (3 of them) my dad, mom, and sister, and a New Years Card for our whole family so that none of us would ever forget her. Aw, it was adorable. She's the one on the left of me in this picture (the other one is Devika, who I talked about in the last post)






--> Amy: Amy's full name is Amy Carmichael, and she is very special to everyone at the Michael Job Centre. I'm not saying that they favour her, but she was one of the very first little girls to be taken to the Centre. She was found when she was a tiny baby, buried up to her head in rocks, simply because she is a girl. Thanks to the Michael Job Centre, she is now one of the happiest kids I've ever met. She was always hyper, smiley, and full of joy. I swear it seemed like she was permanently on Cloud 9. The only time I ever, ever saw her not happy was 5 minutes before we left, when she began to cry.. but I'll write about that when it comes to it. Unfortunately, I don't think I ever got a picture with just her (but if I did, I'll get it from my friend later), but this is a picture of her with my friend Danielle.

--> Katherine: Katherine was such a sweetie.. I have a picture of her and me with a couple of other little girls, but its on (yet again!) my friend's camera, so I'll put that up later. She was actually a staff kid, but she was so sweet, and so involved with the rest of the kids at the Centre. She's the one on the left in the pink in this picture.

--> Susmitta: One of Salu's best friends, they were always together. Her, Salu, and I had this game where they would come up and pinch me, and I would have to go around chasing them everywhere until I could catch and tickle them. It was actually quite tiring, but they absolutely loved it, and Susmitta's grin was huge.

--> Srijana: Susmitta's older sister. She is so pretty! She was adorable too... I met her once the day before we left for our Easter Weekend away (which I'll talk about soon..) and when we came back, the kids were all so excited, crowding around us and asking us what their names were- one of their favourite games; "Auntie.. my name?" I would hate it when I knew all of them except for say one or two.. then I would just be like, "I remember you, but I forget how to spell your name- they're big into spelling everything- what's the spelling again?" And then they would be happy that I remembered them. Usually I did remember them, I just couldn't remember their names.. its not easy learning 306 names in a couple of days! Anyway, Srijana came to me, and asked me if I remembered her, and somehow I did. She had the hugest smile on her face, and said to me, "You are the first one to remember my name right!" and she hugged me. After that, she would always come and talk to me and teach me Nepali (her first language). In fact, she gave me this sheet full of Nepali phrases, and told me it was my "homework" and she was going to test me on it later! :) Sorry the picture's so little! The formatting didn't work on my computer.. she's the one of the right.

And of course there were many more beautiful and special girls.. Esther, Lia, Nitu, Neha, Honey, Dolly... but these are just a few (including Devika, Salu, and Rhoda from the last post) that especially touched my heart. And I miss them all so much.