Sixteenth Birthday "Bash"

While my birthday was in August, I didn't actually get around to having my party until this last weekend. It was one of my best parties ever! I didn't have a huge party or anything, but I invited my closest friends, and we all went and spent a night in a hotel at Whistler. (I think I've mentioned Whistler before.. its a major skiing village here in BC.. so cute! :D)

We hung out, and did each other's hair with my friends amazing curling iron (it curls anyone's hair beautiful! I'm getting one now!), did manicures (actually just my one friend Megan did them for everyone, because she's so good at them.. I love mine!) watched movies (The Invisible- I really liked it!- and The Bratz Movie- sooo cheesy, but cute :P), and went window shopping.

My mom was soo awesome, and drove us all up to Whistler, stayed with us the whole time (not hung around, but stayed at the hotel with us :P), and drove us back down.. a big Thank-You to my awesome mom!!

When we got tired of shopping, we decided to take pictures, and with my friend's camera, we actually got some gorgeous pictures. It was really good, because we haven't had any recent pictures of us all together, so it was pretty fun. I'll show you a few, because they're just so nice! Oh, and because she's so proud of them, I'll point out all the ones that my mom took! :P

This is just to show how nicely the curling iron works.. and this is someone who can never curl their hair! :)

Yes, the Olympic games 2010 will be held in Whistler (some of them), and we already won some pre-games medals :P.. I got Gold!!

My mom took this one... (These are my best friends: [left to right] Kristie, me, Carissa, Kirsten, and Megan.. aren't we a gorgeous group? :P)

And this one...


And this one...

And this one! And more, I just didn't put them all on.

Me and Carissa


Gorgeous picture of Kirsten!


I love these two of me! They're so cool :D

Soo pretty of Carissa :)



This one's so cute :) It actually wasn't posed at all!

And this is what we were trying to do in that last one.

These were insane.. they are actually real!

Me and Kirsten

These are about a quarter of the amount of pictures we actually took! I just didn't think I'd inflict you to hundreds of pictures of me and and my friends..I just showed you some of the ones that really turned out nicely.

Random Pictures

Ok, so I think I mentioned a while ago that we recently got a scanner; a fact which made me very happy, and scanner-crazy. When you get a new scanner, you have to use it... else there's no point. Because of this, I now have a huge collection of pictures which were previously only available in photograph form.

First of all, we just got our school pictures back last week, and I decided to scan mine into the computer. I think it turned out pretty good (the random blothes/spots etc. when you zoom in are from the scanner, not the actual picture! I do not have a green blob on my forehead in real life! I promise!!)

Anyway, here is my Grade 11 School Picture:

Some other pictures I've scanned are from when I was little. I won't go into detail about them, but I'll show you a few. Get ready to meet mini-me! (These are in no particular order by the way.)

And now, just for fun, here's a picture of my mom when she was around my age, or a little older (I'm pretty sure she was a bridesmaid here- that, or just at a wedding)

I hope I didn't bore you with so many pictures of me.. I understand that not everyone will find pictures of me quite as interesting as I do; I just felt like sharing a few. :)

Good News!

I want to say a huge thank-you to everyone who was so generous and gave money towards Jackie and her family. We have raised enough for a plot of land, a house, a kitchen, a latrine, and then some! I haven't dropped of all of the money yet, but I'm going to tell the school to use the extra in whatever way will most benefit Jackie.

The school was so excited, and thankful, and even sent a special thank-you letter to us! We're expecting to hear more news about the family soon, so that will be good.. they might be sending us a picture of the family with their house once its built, so I'll keep you updated.

Another exciting note was that I recieved a letter from Jackie the other day, along with (first time ever!) a letter from her parents! I was very excited.

Jackie is so sweet, as always. I won't put both the letters on, but I will put a portion of each.

Jackie wrote:

"Hi, my aunt, Erin,
I sent you greeting in the name of the lord Jesus- I am your daughter Namulindwa Jackie whom you love very much. Let me frist thank you for the money you are paying for me in Kibaale Community Primary School.
I also thank you very much for a hand ring and letter that you sent to me. I gladly recieved the gift, and it was just so nice and marvelous!
...
It really feels too hot in summer here in Uganda. I have consulted and I have been told that the temperatures are about 42degrees C right now. In winter temperatures can fall to 5degrees C.
...
I appreciated the photo of you and the nice birthday card that you gave me. You are nice!
God be with your life,
Jackie"

By hand ring, she means bracelet- I'm assuming that was part of the translation, not her literal words. :) I love how she went and researched the weather for me.. I think I made a passing comment in the last letter, something like, "Here in Canada it is starting to get cold. Is it still hot in Kibaale?" She's so cute! :D

This is the picture she sent with the letter:

Her parents wrote: (I am writing exactly what they wrote, spelling and all...their English is actually extremely good, as they wrote this themselves, without the translator!)

"Dear Erin Wiebe,
It is high time now to appliciate for what you are doing for Jackie and the family. In fact you have written many letters without repply as a family. You have now written six letters since you started sponsoring Jackie.
We appliciate so much for the gifts you are sending Jackie...
We as a family, we were very excited to hear that jackie got a good sponsor like you!
...
We hope you family is doing well and we are praying for you.
May God give you what you like most and help you in all you are trying too achive.
It is now time to pen off may God keep you for ever and ever, hopping to heare from you as a family stay well
C. K.- father
N. H.- mother"

I love getting letters, and I hope to get more soon!

I have just sent a letter in reply, and a letter to Jackie, and Reagan. I also sent each of them an outfit (Jackie a dress, and Reagan a shirt and shorts) with a teacher from my school who is going out there.

Hopefully he will bring letters back with him!

Urgent Prayer Request for my Sponsor Child

Last night I was checking my email, and decided to check my "junk email". The one that I put for different websites, or online orders; the one that all my facebook emails go to. I only check it occasionally, although after last night, I realised I should probably check it more often!

I was going through it, deleting all the junk emails, when I came across one entitled "More about Namulindwa Jackie's living situation."

I was so excited, as I love to get news about my sponsor children, so I opened it immediately.

What I read horrified me. The following is the email I was sent by administrative assistant for Kibaale:

Hi Erin,

I wanted to give you an update on Namulindwa Jackies living situation.

A division of the Ugandan govenrnent called NEMA (National Environmental Management Authority)protects the wetlands, lakes and forests. They are are known to be very difficutlt to deal with.For the past two years, they have been issuing warnings to all residents of land near to swamps and Kibaale River. Many plantations have been destroyed by NEMA as they try to reclaim the swamps of Uganda.It has affected many of our KCF families.

Namulindwa Jackie's mother came in to KCF to tell them that NEMA came to their home yesterday and gave them notice that they have two weeks to get off the land and move somewhere else. If they don't move, then NEMA will knock down their home and put the parents in jail.

Because of this situation the family is now in need of a plot of land, a house, kitchen and latrine. The first priority would be a plot of land ($700). We are in no way expecting you to meet this need, but perhaps your family could keep her in prayer for this specific need.

Thanks,
H.S.

PAOS - Adminstrative Assistant

I'm so worried about Jackie and her whole family now, and I really want to be able to do something. I emailed her back, asking exactly how much time they have left, and how much money it would be to provide all the things she mentioned in the email (land, house, kitchen and latrine). Through my experiences with them in the past, I estimated that it would be about $1750 in total, which compared to here in Canada, is nothing.

I'm going to try to raise the money, through my church, and my parent's home group, and friends (and myself of course!). I really want to be able to help, and I know they need all the prayer they can get. If you could please, please pray for them, that they will be able to find land in time, and that I (and others) would be able to help provide for them, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks.