Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Making God Smile.
I was reading this article in "The Pentecostal Herald" and it said to treat God like your Daddy. You don't just not want him to yell at you, but you do things that'll make him smile at you and laugh. There are times I know for a fact that I'll do things and as long as they're barely sin then it's OK. Like do enough not to sin but then again, is that what God wants from us? So I determined in my life that I'd make God smile in all I do. It's not as easy as it seems. I'm still carnal, I'm still party animal Carlo who just won't sit around for an hour "communing with God" when there's a major party going on. So it'll take sacrifices. I remember everytime I'd sit down to study my Bible my brother would yell "Simpsons" and for the next half hour my Bible's totally forgotten. Not just the half hour but the next three or so hours cuz after Simpsons is King of Queens, then Seinfeld, and Friends and some other show I just can't miss. But is that what pleases God? Is he happy seeing me put him last, when I'm so exhausted I can only pray for 30 seconds and put off my Bible reading for another time? No. And I'm not saying I'm giving up Simpsons, I'm far from there. But I'll set a time that is not just convenient but my best time for my Bible study and prayer time. I have issues with what is holy in terms of my outward appearance and all. I mean, there are lots of acceptable things but what would make God smile? I'm determined to spend more time in self examination to see if there is anyway I'm wearing an outfit cuz it's "sexy" or am I really keeping God's temple absolutely holy. That means that I don't say "well, they're looking so it's not my problem" but to think of not tempting even the unbelievers in the way I dress. I could go on and on about how I've determined to make God smile but I'm still working on it and it'll take a much much closer walk with God than the one I have right now.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Pictures
I really have like loads of pictures I want to post on here but it takes a million years just to load one picture I figured I'd wait till I get to South Africa and then I'll be able to put all the pictures up. Yeah, that's about it. I'm so bored I can't think of anything interesting to write. My brother says he's hallucinating from boredom and I'm following suit real soon. Wait, did I just see Will Smith walk in? I'll be back . . .
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Being a 90's kid.
YOU KNOW YOU ARE A 90'S KID IF............................
1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"
2. You can sing the rap to "The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air"
3. You've worn shorts and felt stylish
4. You yearned to be part of the Baby-Sitters club
5. You use to love playing with your MY Little Pet Shop
6. You know that "WOAH" comes from Joey from "Blossom" and that "How Rude!" comes from Stephanie from "Full House"
7. You remember when it was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
8. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head and had fluffed bangs
9. You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.
10. You wanted to change your name to "JEM" in kindergarten
11. You remember reading "Goosebumps"
12. You know the profound meaning of "Wax on, wax off"
13. You have pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
14. You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.
15. You remember the craze then the banning of slap bracelets and slam books.
16. You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence...Not...
17. You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green Ranger were meant to be together.
18. You remember "I've fallen and I can't get up"
19. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates
20. You ever got injured on a Slip 'n' Slide
21. You wore socks over leggings scrunched down"
22. Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack, all dressed in black, black, black, with silver buttons, buttons, buttons, all down her back, back, back" SHE ASKED HER MOTHER MOTHER MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS CENTS CENTS TO SEE THE ELEPHANTS ELEPHANTS ELEPHANTS JUMP OVER THE FENCE THE FENCE THE FENCE"he jumped so high high high he touched the sky sky sky and he didnt come back back back til the forth of july ly ly he jumped so low ow ow he stumbed he's toe oe oe and thats the end end end of the elephants show ow ow
23. You remember boom boxes vs. cd players
24. You knew what it meant to say "Care Bear Stare"
25. You remember Alf, the little brown alien from Melmac and Vicki the Robot from "MY Little Wonder"
26. You remember New Kids on The Block when they were cool
27. You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The Bell"
28. You played and or collected "Pogs"You used to pretend to be a MIGHTY MORPHIN Power Ranger and you owned a Skip It
29. You had at least one GigaPet or Nano and brought it everywhere
30. You watched the original Care Bears, My Little Pony, and Ninja Turtles
31. All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.(pencils.notebooks.binders.etc.)
32. You used to wear those stick on earings, not only on your ears, but at the corners of your eyes.
33. You remember a time before the WB.
34. You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"
35. You thought it would be so cool to be Alex Mack.
36. You know the Macarena by heart.. LOL"
37. Talk to the hand" ... enough said
38. You thought Brain woud finally take over the world
1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"
2. You can sing the rap to "The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air"
3. You've worn shorts and felt stylish
4. You yearned to be part of the Baby-Sitters club
5. You use to love playing with your MY Little Pet Shop
6. You know that "WOAH" comes from Joey from "Blossom" and that "How Rude!" comes from Stephanie from "Full House"
7. You remember when it was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
8. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head and had fluffed bangs
9. You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.
10. You wanted to change your name to "JEM" in kindergarten
11. You remember reading "Goosebumps"
12. You know the profound meaning of "Wax on, wax off"
13. You have pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
14. You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.
15. You remember the craze then the banning of slap bracelets and slam books.
16. You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence...Not...
17. You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green Ranger were meant to be together.
18. You remember "I've fallen and I can't get up"
19. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates
20. You ever got injured on a Slip 'n' Slide
21. You wore socks over leggings scrunched down"
22. Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack, all dressed in black, black, black, with silver buttons, buttons, buttons, all down her back, back, back" SHE ASKED HER MOTHER MOTHER MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS CENTS CENTS TO SEE THE ELEPHANTS ELEPHANTS ELEPHANTS JUMP OVER THE FENCE THE FENCE THE FENCE"he jumped so high high high he touched the sky sky sky and he didnt come back back back til the forth of july ly ly he jumped so low ow ow he stumbed he's toe oe oe and thats the end end end of the elephants show ow ow
23. You remember boom boxes vs. cd players
24. You knew what it meant to say "Care Bear Stare"
25. You remember Alf, the little brown alien from Melmac and Vicki the Robot from "MY Little Wonder"
26. You remember New Kids on The Block when they were cool
27. You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The Bell"
28. You played and or collected "Pogs"You used to pretend to be a MIGHTY MORPHIN Power Ranger and you owned a Skip It
29. You had at least one GigaPet or Nano and brought it everywhere
30. You watched the original Care Bears, My Little Pony, and Ninja Turtles
31. All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.(pencils.notebooks.binders.etc.)
32. You used to wear those stick on earings, not only on your ears, but at the corners of your eyes.
33. You remember a time before the WB.
34. You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"
35. You thought it would be so cool to be Alex Mack.
36. You know the Macarena by heart.. LOL"
37. Talk to the hand" ... enough said
38. You thought Brain woud finally take over the world
Thursday, January 12, 2006
My Mother's Son-In-Law.
There's this ad here that's for the Compaq Widescreen laptop. This girl sends a picture of her and her boyfriend to her parents and the dad calls the mom saying, "come see our future son-in-law". But because they don't have a "Compaq Widescreen powered by Intel technology", they get only her and some hairy old dude in the background and the mom goes all haywire telling the dad to stop their daughter from getting married to an ugly guy like that. In actual fact, the son-in-law to be was on the corner of the screen and they didn't get the full picture. My mom saw it a couple of times and eventually said to me, "Are you going to bring us a guy that looks like that? I mean South Africans aren't much to look at after all." And then it hit me, not only do I have to marry a man that I'm madly in love with and want to spend the rest of my life with, he also has to end up being my mother's son-in-law. Here's my mother's criteria: tall, dark (preferably), extremely handsome (after all, she wants good looking grandkids), and a Muhima. Here's my criteria: God loving, filled with the Holy Ghost, got lots of passion (for God first, then me) and makes me laugh. I could care less if he looks like Idi Amin! Ok, that's an exaggeration, I do care. He just has to be attractive to me, not Denzel Washington. Maybe Thiery Henry. Oh, and the Muhima thing is nonsense to me but the most important criteria for my mother. What does a girl have to do to be happy? Please her mother? I don't think so.
In the meantime, I'm still praying for Uganda to get a sensible president. I give all honour to H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni but please, I need to count off a couple of presidents at least in my lifetime. I'm only &% years old and I only know one Ugandan president. I remember when we were kids and would ask, "Mommy, who is the Museveni of Tanzania?" or "The Museveni of Kenya is Moi". I miss those good old days. The innocence that comes with it. Gotta sign out now so peace.
In the meantime, I'm still praying for Uganda to get a sensible president. I give all honour to H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni but please, I need to count off a couple of presidents at least in my lifetime. I'm only &% years old and I only know one Ugandan president. I remember when we were kids and would ask, "Mommy, who is the Museveni of Tanzania?" or "The Museveni of Kenya is Moi". I miss those good old days. The innocence that comes with it. Gotta sign out now so peace.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
India
Ok, so Besigye is being (or is already depending on what day it is where y'all are) released from jail, who cares? I innocently asked my dad a question cuz he's such a devout Museveni supporter I'm sure he'd take a bullet for our honoured president. I asked him if there was not at least ONE other person in the entire nation of Uganda who could stand for presidency and be as good as Museveni was or better and he almost blew a fuse. He accused me of being "new age" and how that's such a horrendous thing and blah blah blah, until he finally said there probably could be one but he (or she - that's me, not my dad) hasn't come up yet. My 16-year-old brother once made an interesting comment while we were watching news one night. He said, "the day Besigye becomes president of Uganda I'm denouncing my citizenship." He's got options too, he was busy giving me the low-down on how easy Australian citizenship is easy to get. Fine, point taken. No one in my family wants Besigye to be president. But we've all got different reasons. For my father, it's utter treason to denounce the army and thus Besigye's a defector. I think it's the same for my mother too but she's got more sound reasons than that one too. For my brother, he's been to jail. Who wants a convict president? But then I think mine's the most sound reason. The man's an accused rapist!! For crying out loud how can even his own wife (let alone her beautiful sisters) support such a man! If there's one thing that scares me in life it's rape. You'd rather cut my tongue out and eat it while I'm watching and then burn my toes one by one and finally peel off my finger nails before killing me than rape me. I'm being serious here. So, as a self pronounced anti-rape agent, that makes me anti-Besigye too. Wait, did I say this post was going to be about India? I'm sorry, got a little carried away there. So, back on track - which I wasn't on in the first place but who's paying attention?
India. Hmmmm . . . what can I say? I've got only one word for it. Dilapidated. I'm not even sure what it means but I'm sure it describes India perfectly. This place is so damn dirty I refuse to use the straws at McDonald's . . . then I have trouble drinking from the cup itself. Seriously, Kampalans will complain that the town is so filthy but trust me, you can eat off the streets compared to New Delhi! See, Kampala's dirt is dust. New Delhi's dirt is cow dung, elephant poo, dog poo, more dog poo, baby poo, and I'm sure even adult poo. That is adult HUMAN poo. Then there's the spit. I've been here almost three weeks and I'm still wondering how people can spit so much. I mean you're walking down the street and you have to duck cuz this car just drove by and the driver decides to spit on the pavement. And they draw it out from deeeeeeeep down somewhere it's a huge blob of spit. I'm so scared to walk on my own now and have to use autos (the taxis) all the time but even the drivers spit too and I'm living in constant disgust.
Other than that, the chilli grows on you. Honestly. At first I was so frustrated cuz all the food you ate had chilli in it and everything was spicy hot that I almost went on hunger strike. But then eventually, when I eat food with no chilli it's tasteless for me. It's quite common to have a little (or not so little) bowl of green chillis on the table during meals in India and people just chew on them. Well, I've not reached that level yet but trust me, I'm getting there. I was inspired by a friend I made at church. She's American so we complained about the hot curry together until she decided to just keep trying hotter and hotter foods. Her phrase was "I can do it". So I'm adopting the same attitude. I can do it. By February I'll be writing testimonies of how my chilli eating attempts went. But then there's the disadvantage of stomach flu afterward. We'll deal with that later. Right now I've set my sights on one hot green chilli at a time.
What amused me so much though was that at the back of most cars are the words "HORN PLEASE". Or sometimes it's "KEEP DISTANCE". For bigger trucks it's both. It was funny. But then again if you're Indian it's not so funny. I reckon if you can drive in India you can drive anywhere in the world. I used to say that about Kampala but Kampala taxi drivers are playing with marbles when it comes to Indian drivers! Even Kenyan matatu drivers are nothing. It's not uncommon for a bus to stop right in the middle of the road and let off a passenger or for someone to get on. You're driving right behind this huge bus that's got "Keep Distance" and "Horn Please" on it's butt and all of a sudden it stops. But being Indian, no one stops but tries to pass by into the next lane and lean on their horn until they've gone past the bus. Ironically, there are signs on every traffic light you pass that say "No Horn". But these are decidedly the noisiest places in the city. Of course you have to deal with traffic with little motorcycles, big ones, bicycles, boda-boda like wheelbarrows (I'm sure they were originally wheelbarrows cuz I can't think of whether they were scooters or bikes), people that just stop you to cross the street anywhere, cows, elephants and God knows what or who else.
There's a lot more where that came from so keep posted . . .
India. Hmmmm . . . what can I say? I've got only one word for it. Dilapidated. I'm not even sure what it means but I'm sure it describes India perfectly. This place is so damn dirty I refuse to use the straws at McDonald's . . . then I have trouble drinking from the cup itself. Seriously, Kampalans will complain that the town is so filthy but trust me, you can eat off the streets compared to New Delhi! See, Kampala's dirt is dust. New Delhi's dirt is cow dung, elephant poo, dog poo, more dog poo, baby poo, and I'm sure even adult poo. That is adult HUMAN poo. Then there's the spit. I've been here almost three weeks and I'm still wondering how people can spit so much. I mean you're walking down the street and you have to duck cuz this car just drove by and the driver decides to spit on the pavement. And they draw it out from deeeeeeeep down somewhere it's a huge blob of spit. I'm so scared to walk on my own now and have to use autos (the taxis) all the time but even the drivers spit too and I'm living in constant disgust.
Other than that, the chilli grows on you. Honestly. At first I was so frustrated cuz all the food you ate had chilli in it and everything was spicy hot that I almost went on hunger strike. But then eventually, when I eat food with no chilli it's tasteless for me. It's quite common to have a little (or not so little) bowl of green chillis on the table during meals in India and people just chew on them. Well, I've not reached that level yet but trust me, I'm getting there. I was inspired by a friend I made at church. She's American so we complained about the hot curry together until she decided to just keep trying hotter and hotter foods. Her phrase was "I can do it". So I'm adopting the same attitude. I can do it. By February I'll be writing testimonies of how my chilli eating attempts went. But then there's the disadvantage of stomach flu afterward. We'll deal with that later. Right now I've set my sights on one hot green chilli at a time.
What amused me so much though was that at the back of most cars are the words "HORN PLEASE". Or sometimes it's "KEEP DISTANCE". For bigger trucks it's both. It was funny. But then again if you're Indian it's not so funny. I reckon if you can drive in India you can drive anywhere in the world. I used to say that about Kampala but Kampala taxi drivers are playing with marbles when it comes to Indian drivers! Even Kenyan matatu drivers are nothing. It's not uncommon for a bus to stop right in the middle of the road and let off a passenger or for someone to get on. You're driving right behind this huge bus that's got "Keep Distance" and "Horn Please" on it's butt and all of a sudden it stops. But being Indian, no one stops but tries to pass by into the next lane and lean on their horn until they've gone past the bus. Ironically, there are signs on every traffic light you pass that say "No Horn". But these are decidedly the noisiest places in the city. Of course you have to deal with traffic with little motorcycles, big ones, bicycles, boda-boda like wheelbarrows (I'm sure they were originally wheelbarrows cuz I can't think of whether they were scooters or bikes), people that just stop you to cross the street anywhere, cows, elephants and God knows what or who else.
There's a lot more where that came from so keep posted . . .
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