I'm going to Amani Baby Cottage!

I AM GOING TO AMANI BABY COTTAGE!

I just found out that I am going to be able to spend 1 week at Amani Baby Cottage before I meet up with the Team Africa group for the camps we will be running. I visited there last summer and even though we spent less than an hour there...I know I left a part of my heart there! I am very excited to have the chance to spend some more time at this wonderful place. Check out http://www.amanibabycottage.org

This is my friend Andrea from Quebec. We met last year on Team Africa and share a similar love for the Ugandan people. She is actually going to Amani at the beginning of May and will be there when I visit in July. It will be wonderful to see a familiar face after traveling so far on my own. We can't wait to play with the babies together!

With or without an E

WITH OR WITHOUT AN E......?

Being a bad speller I often rely on my spell check. Well, I have to tell you it has really let me down. I REALLY knew that chaperone was spelled chaperone....BUT my spell check kept saying chaperon. So, I finally decided to break down and actually look it up...on a online dictonary of course. Well, come to find out, it says you can spell it chaperon OR chaperone!!! So my next thought was well maybe I'll just leave it chaperon because of the spell check. Then I had 2 different people proof read a support letter for me....one recognized the missing e as wrong and the other didn't. So, then I decided to pull out the big guns and get out a real dictionary. GUESS WHAT? It also says that it is spelled chaperon or chaperone. All this to tell you, if you really care, I have decided on the e. I guess you never really know what you are going to learn when you decide to become a missionary.

FAQ's

FAQ's

I thought I should address some of the frequently asked questions about my future chaperone adventure:

DO THEY PAY YOU PRETTY GOOD TO DO THIS?
My position is actually a volunteer/missionary position. I will be raising support for my personal and travel expenses.

SO WILL YOU BE TRAVELING AROUND STAYING AT HOTELS?
The Choir tries, as much as possible, to keep costs at a minimum so that the majority of the funds can go directly to where it is needed most. Therefore, the children and chaperones stay with "host" families the majority of the time. These are families (from the church that is hosting the concert) that have invited a few children and a chaperone to stay at their home.

WHEN AND WHERE WILL YOU BE TRAVELING?
My tour will begin in mid September when the choir arrives from Uganda in Chicago. Next ,we will travel up to Minnesota. Rumor has it that we will be doing concerts in North and South Dakota and Kansas after that and the rest of the tour is TBA. I will keep you updated!

HOW DO YOU TRAVEL?
Most of the time we will be traveling in The ACC bus. It sounds like it will become my home away from home soon. This is a picture of Choir 28 infront of their bus.




HOW LONG WILL YOU BE GONE?
I have committed to at least 1 year of travel with the choir. Sometime during the year I will take a 2 week vacation to come home.


WHAT WILL YOU AND THE CHILDREN DO ALL THE TIME?
The children give 4 concerts a week (Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday nights and also Sunday mornings). We will spend some days traveling of course but other days will include time spent doing school work, dancing and singing practice, rest, and play. Every few months we will have what they call "camp" where we stay at a retreat or camp-like place and the kids don't have class or choir practice all week. Here is a picture of a Choir kids (and a chaperone) having some fun at camp.

"Aunt will you come back next year?"

"AUNT WILL YOU COME BACK NEXT YEAR?"

This is the question many of the African school children had for me as I left camp last summer. It warms my heart to remember them saying, "Aunt, I wil miss you." and "Thank you for teaching me Aunt." And now... I am happy to answer "YES, I WILL COME BACK"! I will be joining the Team Africa Trip in Uganda July 12- Aug. 2 before I go on to have my chaperone training. Yippee!


I hope some of you will start leaving comments so I know someone out there is reading! :) (they can be short!)

In case you missed the email I sent out at the end of March...Here it is:

Hi Friends and Family,
I am going to try to start sending out some mass emails to keep everyone informed about my African Children Choir Chaperone plans. I am so excited about the way things are shaping up and I can't wait to share with you what God has been doing. I have already learned that things can change in a moment so keep that in mind as you read of my "plans"! As of now I will be going to Uganda for at least 2 weeks in Aug. for chaperon training. This is the first time the Choir has done this but it seems very beneficial in my view. All 6 of us Western Chaperons and the 2 African Chaperones will be able to train together and begin to get to know one another. We will get to meet Choir 30 and maybe even see some of their schools and homes. I imagine this will be very helpful to all of us and especially to the chaperones who have never been to Uganda. Last summer I got to see the schools that the Choir supports and spend time with the students that get to attend school because of the funds from the Choir. It will be wonderful for all of us to have the same understanding of where these kids come from and also see where the money that the choir raises goes. After the training in Uganda all of us will go to our homes and have about a month to get ready to travel on tour. I will meet up with the choir when they fly into Chicago from Uganda in September. From that point it on we will be traveling in a bus and having 4 concerts a week at different churches and community events. That is the news for now. Here are some additional praises and prayer requests

1. I have a roommate moving in in June. She will be taking care of Max(the best dog in the world) when I am away. Please pray that she can find someone to live with her when I am gone
2. I would really like to spend more than the 2 training weeks in Uganda. I am praying about going earlier. Please pray that this would come together and that God would give me wisdom and guidance.
3. I will officially begin fund raising May 1st. I am going to need somewhere around $1,000-1,500 of support a month. The majority of the support will be for my airfare and health insurance.
4. Please pray that God would give me many opportunities to share what God is doing in my life and in Uganda.

Thanks so much for your love and support! It is hard to believe I will really be traveling and being Auntie Jenny to 25 young kids in just a few months! Love, Jenny

Team Africa "06 in pictures

I had high hopes of journaling all about the trip that has inspired me to move on to become a chaperone....BUT it seems too big of a task for now. So...I will post some of my favorite photos for you and hope that they tell a story....

These are some of the girls at one of the schools we had a camp at. Most young girls had their hair this short.

Morning devotion time at African Outreach Acdemy

This little girl's name was Happy...I think she is happy in the Lord!

I did craft activities with the kids at both camps. At African Outreach Academy I had 50 students in a class!

This girl lived out in a village that I traveled to with another group member. Our vehicle was the only one in sight, the roads were dirt, and there was no electricity or running water. I brought this doll and some other small toys for the children.

This is some of our group hanging out at The Music For Life primary school where the choir kids go after tour. Baby Violet is a orphan at the Amani Baby Cottage. She is going to live with her forever family in California soon.

Amani Baby Cottage

Jenny on a Boda Boda!!!