Virginina vacation pt 1

John and I just got back yesterday from a great vacation to Virginia.
We started off on the coast in Norfolk visiting John's friend, Aaron, who
lives there now working with the Navy. It is so beautiful all around that
area. We ventured to Yorktown from there the next morning. Aaron had to be
up early for work, so John and I were in Yorktown by 7am, so we got to
tour around without any other people around. It was so beautiful and peaceful.These are two pictures of the battlefield in Yorktown.
These are two of the only two pictures that John was able to take
before our camera's battery died.

We headed to Williamsburg after that. We checked into our hotel
(thanks to the great coupons we got at the VA border) and then
headed to Colonial WB for the rest of the afternoon. Here are a
few pics of our afternoon there.



We thought this little guy was pretty humorous. Just some kid
walking around in some colonial gettup. Pretty funny.

We went to Water Country USA the next day, but we didn't bring our
camera along for that. We had a blast there! We got there as soon as it
opened, so we beat the lines for each ride until about 11:30. I think we
made a record of going to all the major rides within the 1st hour. It was
great! Oh, and a little tip, if you are planning to go there or Busch Gardens,
go to any Williamsburg McDonald's and they have some sweet coupons for
$$ off the really expensive rates.

That's all for now. I'll post more pics later.

Vacation time!

So...good news to report: John got a job with UNC in Chapel Hill. Praise the Lord! He'll start on August 24th, so before that, we are going to enjoy a week crusin' the road! Right now, our destination is Williamsburg, VA, however we'll see where the road takes us!

This weekend my little sister, Meredith, becomes a new freshman at NC State. Mom and Dad are coming to move her in on Saturday, and John and I are both really excited that she'll be here.
I wanted to post a few pictures of the precious kids that I take care of every week, Jack and Louisa Weinard. I love this family dearly, however I'll be leaving that job in a few weeks since Ashley(their mother) is now working from home(which I'm so glad for them). But, these two kiddos are so precious, and I've loved every minute that I've ever spent with them. So, here are a few glimpses of the cute/funny things that I have had the joy of experiencing for the past year.


Jack playing with his sister's dress up doll


little Lou changing Baby Bo's diaper

they finished swimming in their little pool, and wanted to dry off. so they laid out!

cute little Lousia putting a little Swimmer over her clothes, and only using one leg hole



Well..that's it for now.

The Past 2 months...

It's hard to believe that it's already been two months since John and I got married. These months have been filled with some tough adjustments to marriage, but overall we have seen how good the Lord is to us, and we've seen how much He's grown us and has been changing our new marriage even just within this last month. Praise the Lord!
Our family has been so encouraging and such a blessing to us in so many ways, too. As I write this, John's sweet and lovely mother, Ms. Patrice McNeill, is experimenting in our kitchen making some delicious strawberry/watermelon smoothies. But before that, she made us a delicious dinner and dessert, and we are stuffed to the max! She has been so sweet and loving towards us, and we have been so blessed by her.
Here are a few pictures to summarize a little of what we've been up to lately:

john and aya at the Durham Bulls game July 3rd

The Providence Softball team won the Championship!



The McNeill and Cox families at the Bulls game

Putt putt in raleigh with my sisters!



















Family beach weekend in Nags Head, NC, July 25th. This picture is of us jumping off the slope of the dunes at Jockey's Ridge.


Well, I guess that's about it for right now.
Thanks for reading!
~Aya McNeill

Hello all,If you are getting this email, it is because I have assumed that you are interested in receiving emails about my journey in Uganda. If I was wrong and you could careless, email me and I will take you off thelist. As of right now it is noon here and 5am NC time. It is my second dayin Uganda and I am so grateful to be here. I miss all of you,especially Aya, but I am very thankful that I get the opportunity toserve Uganda. Everywhere the staff goes we get called "Mazungu" whichmeans white person. It is really cute to see the little children stopand yell out "hello Mazungu." We are in the outskirts of town nearKampala so we get to experience village life which is much better thancity life (mainly because of traffic and crowds of people).The food is incredible here. Some things are different in taste anddo not look appealing but they are extremely good. I haven't hadanything out of the ordinary. As far as expenses go, one Americandollar equals 1600 shillings so we make it out pretty cheap for foodand clothing but gas or petrol is much more expensive here. It isabout 6 dollars a gallon and unskilled workers make about 20 Americandollars a week. So keep in mind that we, despite our complaints, haveit very well in the US. There are several gestures that we useeveryday in America but are taken wrongly here.Hopefully these will make you smile:A yawn in Uganda means you are hungry and people will give you food.An eyebrow shrug with the sound "hmm" means yes in Ugandan culture.Pregnant women will not say they are pregnant even when noticeablebecause they don't want their baby to be cursed.If you make eye contact with a woman while talking with them it meansyou are very interested in her.public displays of affection are very vulgar. the only affection youwill see is man to man or woman to woman (like holding hands).Argentines would hate Uganda.opening and closing your hand in a "hello gesture to a kid" means tocome here in Ugandan culture so if you do that in the village, kidswill flock to you.someone who says they had to take a "short call" or a "long call" arereferences to the bathroom. I will send more culture differences when I think of them but that isall for now. Other than that not much has been happening because weare still going through orientation. Carbs and starch are the bigthings you will always eat here which can be rough on the stomach butI like it alright.The bugs are not bad. Compared to Alaska, this place has very fewinsects. I continue to take malaria medicine but bug spray isn'tnecessary.They have warned us that we will get a stomach virus or sickness whilewe are here but that you will get through it. I don't look forward tothat but I still love it here. If yall have any questions email me and I will include it in my next email. I love yall, take care. Nick you are going to love Uganda. I wish I could commit to a semester. John

Oliotia ba sebo (how are you people?)!gendy (fine) or belunge (a more formal fine) or so so (not so good but I keep on living)It has not been too long since you last heard from me but a lot has happened here in Uganda. First of all I wanted to let everyone know that today is our first official day of work! We get to help complete a project in Tanzania until next Monday when we go to Rwanda to do our specific project. The power likes to go out a lot here; it normally is not for the whole day but typically it can last 12 hours. It makes getting work done hard but I am able to navigate well because I always keep my headlamp with me. Saturday I attended my first Ugandan concert. Ugandans call a concert any performance. This one was at the church I will be attending, Amazing Grace Assembly. The church has no glass windows or a solid door. It is rectangular hut that can comfortably house about 20 people; however, Ugandans like to pack people in so on Saturday there were about 50 plus adults and children. The children sit against the wall and the adults sit in the plastic chairs. This concert was said to start at 2pm but Ugandans are not time conscious so the actual concert started at close to 3pm. Here we got to experience cultural dances and songs. The Ugandans do not have much sound equipment - all they have is a keyboard and some speakers so they like to play the different beats that come with the keyboard even if they do not quite fit the song. Ugandans are all about rhythm so they like beats and drums. During traditional dances they have two drums that resemble a jimba (however you spell it) and beat on that thing harder and faster than you would think human hands can take. While the drums cause the fast beat the men dance all over the stage in aggressive motions resembling masculinity while the women put on these waist bands that have got hair on them and shake their hips. It is very impressive and very emotional. The Ugandans who perform really get into it. This concert lasted longer than we could so we left after four hours. No telling when it stopped.Church was kind of the same story. Church lasted over 2 hours which consisted of worship songs in Lugandan and Swahili and English as well as a Lugandan message that is translated into English. After the service (which was very solid Biblically) everyone comes to greet you. The church is small and in the middle of nowhere but a good deal of the members are very Biblically grounded.We went to the mall in town Sunday evening to look for ear plugs. The walls here are very thin and you can hear everything that goes on at night. Sometimes it is unsettling because you will here people crying or dogs fighting but most of the time I do not sleep sound because I have a roommate who can blow the roof off with snoring (it is by far the loudest I have ever heard).Anyway, we got lost last night on our way back because it was very dark and we met a young man around my age who walked an hour out of the way to show us the right direction. We talked about American culture, God, and education. It was a huge joy to meet thing young man and I am thankful for him. If you have made it this far thank you because next are some prayer requests that I would love to have you apart of:- pray that we would continue to be initiating in conversation despite tremendous culture shock- a good nights rest so I can get up early and have quiet time with God- people here who are hurting economically, physically, and emotionally because their government only cares about money for themselves (it will make you more thankful for our government I guarantee)- wisdom in doing my assigned tasks and problems and designsThat is all for now. Thank you for reading.

Much love,

John

Hello everyone.I hope you look forward to reading these emails. Again, if they are tooburdensome for you let me know and I can easily remove your name. I willnot think of you as any less of a person.I started my first official day at work on Monday. I normally get upat around 6:30am to have some quiet time with God and then work startsat around 8am but we always have office prayer at 8:30am. It is soincredible working with a Christian ministry. Having God as yourfocus everyday makes work enjoyable because you know it is for Hissake and nothing else.Our first assignment was to go to a city and retrieve bus tickets forour trip to Rwanda next Monday (at that time I will be unable to sendemails) and also get a color cartridge for the printer. Well we havenever been to this city before but we had a map so we figured we couldmake it. Also, nobody told us where the bus station was. We justknew what it was close to. There is no mapquest here so you have tofigure it out. We ended up getting lost in this city and wonderingaround for hours. Ugandans are not very good with directions andhaven't learned how to read maps either. If you approach a Ugandanand ask him or her for directions to a place they will give youdirections even if they have no clue how to get there (they do notlike disappointing bazungus or white people). So we would ask oneperson who did not know English very well and he would tell us the busstation is south, the next person we asked after walking south for .25of a mile told us the station was north. Then we asked some morepeople and nobody ever pointed in the right direction. It wasfrustrating at the time but looking back at it, it was funny. Thestaff at eMi told us that next time you are lost ask people in thesame area and then take the average direction of what they told you.If you have money you can go to a boda driver (scooter driver) becausethey know their way around but they will not tell you unless you paythem. We call these guys "boda-quest" because they are our mapsaround Kampala.Another interesting event was that we had to hand wash our ownboxers/underwear because it is an insult if we ask the cleaning ladyto do it. So my roommate washed his and left it out to dry but whenhe came back he knew that one of his boxers was missing. He lookedall around and could not find it until some blue caught his eye in aherd of goats in our courtyard. It turns out that one of the goatssnatched his boxers from the line. My roommate did not want to fighta goat for what was left of his boxers so he let him have it. Thegoat seemed to like the strong detergent taste.I got my first taste of Ugandan basketball last night. I played withsome missionaries from the village. We played on a court that was aslevel and smooth as my Aunt and Uncles gravel road but the game turnedout alright. You had to compensate for the wind gusts and theslightly bent rim.We have dinner with a man today named Peter. We were warned that he"falls in love with buzungus" so we will have to be careful. He textmessaged me at least 8 times EARLY this morning (I wish I wasexaggerating) to make sure that we will be there.There are numerous species of plant and bird life here in Uganda. Iwill try to take pictures or sketches of as many as I can but thereare close to 30 species, if not more, of birds that I have yet toidentify. The plants thus far are sugar cane, banana trees, corn, andseveral wildflowers. I shall try to capture them all for yourenjoyment. Much love.

John

P.S. - please pray that the relationships here will be authentic. weare having trouble with selfish reasons to befriend us.

Hello everyone,It has been a long time since everyone has received an email from mebut no worries I will keep the past two weeks concise but hopefullyentertaining.First off. I got to attend the Uganda vs. Niger futbol game. It wasintense!!! I got some pictures but Ugandans go crazy during thegames. The Cranes (Uganda) dominated Niger but the final score was 1to 0. The foot work and ball handling skills were extremelyimpressive. I got to take a few pictures but I was warned that youget mugged while you watch the game so I was very careful. It alsohelped that I went to the game with some local friends of mine. Youcould say we were quite the oreo during the match. They watched outfor me and demonstrated the Ugandan cheers (one sounds like a highpitched ya ya ya that I definitely could not imitate). It was a greatgame and I did not get mugged. I will show the pictures when I getback in the states.I took my first African bus ride last week. It was great. It was atouring bus that had been handed down to Uganda over the years. Sadlyenough, people kept their goats at home and only brought themselves (Iwas told I was fortunate because I could have had to share my seatwith a goat).The bus would make random stops for us to get out and make "long orshort calls" (use the bathroom). The bus however did not communicatewhen it would leave. We learned after running the bus down andjumping on that the rev of the engine means you have 20 seconds to geton or you will be left. No sympathy. A younger man who was a streetvender hopped on the bus to sell some of his food products. The bustook off before he had the chance to get off and they refused to stopand let him out. They finally stopped after 45 minutes of driving.The poor guy had eyes of terror because he probably could not affordto make it back to town.Another great feature of the bus ride was the Nigerian movies. I keptthinking of my cousins Kevin and David during these videos becausethey were more than cheesy. They consisted of "who's the daddy to thebaby" to "evil spirits with knitted kittens on their scary (notreally) togas. These videos made me think of my cousins because theyare gifted imitators of cheesy films and shows. I could only imaginetheir clever dubbed in voices that would send the whole bus intolaughter. I know my imagination couldn't have done justice the theactual duo but regardless, these videos were less than B rated. Itseemed like they recorded each one in the shower (loud echoes) andused a standard hand held camera.Before I make this email too long I wanted to tell of my experiencesin Kigali, Rwanda. Rwanda is a country still in repair from the 94genocide between the Hutu and Tutsi people. This is horrifying ordealthat all the people of Rwanda experienced. We went to the genocidememorial to be educated on the causes and aftermath of the genocide.In just 3 months over a million people were killed. There are manychildren who have lost all their parents and relatives and women whohave lost their children and husbands. It is sad to know that allthis occurred with no outside help from any countries. Anyway, to notleave this email in complete despair - it is very encouraging to seethe response of the Rwandan people and the well used aid money to helprebuild and establish a clean unified country.It is so good to be back in Uganda. I missed this place very much andI am so excited to continue relationships with some of the people.

Prayer Requests:- I miss Andrea a lot and I find myself battling wanting to stay hereand wanting to be home with her. So please pray that I will bepatient and content with where we are in life right now.- I would work hard and finish correctly my engineering work for theTheological school- I would be intentional to continue relationships and really emptymyself in serving the people of Uganda.

Much love from Africa friends and family.

John