Church

whatsup my peeps... sorry for the slow blog progress. today i went to church for the first time (last week we went to the prisons.)... it was very interesting. most of the adults get dressed up and some of the kids, but many of the kids and a few adults just wore their regular clothes. it started at 8 am, and lasted until 11 o'clock. it was very long lol. the pastor spoke in lugandan( the native language) and someone translated. there was one problem with this. the person speaking lugandan always cut off the translator before he finished speaking. therefore it was very difficult to follow what was being preached. they did many worship songs, but only about half were in english. the people got pretty "into it". they sang very loud and many danced, sort of. it was very cool. they actually had a pretty good sound system there. i hate to admit it, but the sound system there was much better than the stuff i had to work with at my school. they had a keyboard and drums for the instruments. for lunch we sort of had a surprise visit from some of the sponsors for some of the chidren at the school. they were 3 ladies from denmark. they joined us for lunch and then after lunch julius and cara showed them around the school. i mainly rested and worked on the school database the rest of the afternoon.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

hey y'all.... sorry i havent updated lately. i have been very busy and the internet has been having problems. the past couple days have been the last of the exams for the highschoolers before they go to their holiday break(instead of summer vacation).... so i have been very busy entering data into the school database... i was really supprised at the program that they were using... it was very good, but the way they were using it was horiffic. they wanted me to manually enter tons of info that would take hours if not days to do, but i came to the rescue with my macros, and got most of it done in a few minutes after i programed the macros... hopefully this will do (they arent very good at explaining things or communicating.) a music instructer that is somhow related to john wants to learn about computers, and in return he wants to teach me an instrument... i told him i would like to learn drums... he wants me to make a cd of the types of drumming i want to do.... lol lol lol... i explained that i like heavy rock and roll... i will probably just put on some day to remember, rise against, and an autopsy by the faceless for good measure. that will be interesting... the thing that is currently really funny is that everyone is worried about how much i eat........... the funny thing is that they dont think i am eating enough... lol lol... i am not kidding they are actually very serious that they think that there is somthing wrong with me... lol today i had tea for breakfast, a few peices of jack fruit and a hard boiled egg for lunch(and a mountain dew!!!!), and a pretty good meal for dinner, but i did miss having lefsa. for dinner i had rice, chipote (like a thick tortilla), chicken, irish (potatoes), and deep fried fish. mmmmmmm.... delish. during dinner, john asked cara about the history of our thanksgiving... she said that she didnt really know but she thought it had something to do with the indians giving the pilgrims a turkey... lol i thought that was hilarious and made fun of her the rest of the night about it. i told them the real story...i finally have settled in and feel semi at home here... way off topic, but i feel that this is important, the tag body spray, making moves, is not flammable... the canister lies!!! i tried to show the mini flamethrower trick to some of the boys who live at johns house, but to  our dissapointment it didnt work... it only burns if it is sprayed into an open fire, and even then it does not do much... so make a note to self about that. maybe i will need to find some axe and show them whats what.....  anyway... until next time

peace out

sean kesler

Do you play basketball???

believe it or not i get asked if i play basketball more often than any other question. it is really weird. they say i look like i play basketball.... especially with my shoes. the funniest thing about it is that most of the people that ask me could easily be asked if they play if they were in america. my friend moses said... "i could never play basketball... i am not big like you i might get pushed around"... this is coming from a guy who is my age, about 3 inches taller than me, black (of course), and in really good shape from what i can tell. lol these people crack me up.another thing that i get asked is if i use my pocket knife for self defense..... i simply reply... no not yet... i use it to cut open fruit, packages, soda bottles, and that sort of thing. i am suprised than no one here carries one around. anyway yesterday i went with john to the jail instead of going to church. i am not going to lie, of all the things that i thought might make me a bit uncomfortable, this didnt turn out to be one of them, at least until they asked me to go up and teach(not just introduce myself, but actually teach). first off the drive took forever cause there was a marathon in the city of kampala, but when we eventually got there, we just drove right into the area in which we did the service. the atmosphere was amazing. seconds after we got there they started to do a song. these men were ecstatic. it is very hard to describe in words, but the whole experience was amazing. the rest of the day was mainly just relaxing. this morning we went to the school. i saw the computers that the school uses. they arent terrible, but they have a ton of junk software that i will probably need to remove. eventually i somehow got roped into entering grades into a data base... with my a.d.d. this was brutal, but i eventually finished (but i think they want me to do more tomorrow :( ...). i met a man named mark... he is definatelly the funniest person over here. i hung out with him for quite a while. eventually one of the boys about my age took me to the lake. this would be simmilar to what we would call a boardwalk. there are shops everywhere, and people building boats... it was very interesting. finally me and cara had dinner with aunt rose and many of the children from the school. she gave us some of the best tea that i had ever had. it was amazing. right now i am really tired and about to crash for the night so until next time......
Peace out
Sean Kesler

MZUNGU!!!!!

(sorry i was supposed to post this yesterday, but i got really busy)...today was a much easier day. first i went with cara to the school in the morning. most of the kids are gone because it is "holiday". from what i understand, holiday is like our "summer break" and lasts from now till about february.we went and played with the kids till lunch. after lunch i went with johns wife, julius, and a couple from st louis to servaral houses to meet with people and pray with them. it was during this time that i saw some of the areas that are really in poverty. it was really cool to have all the little kids come up to us and shout "mzungu! mzungu!!!" which means white person in ugandan.... speaking of ugandan, everyone speaks it. it reminds me of my summer job at dirks. everyone that i worked with spoke spainish unless it was to me, and even then some needed to help translate. it is the same here. everyone speaks ugandan, and when they do speak english, they speak it very quietly.... very annoying. did i mention that i stick out like a sore thumb... i wish that i could blend in a bit more, but idk. it was really funny, today when we were playing with the kids, they kept running up to me and holding on to me. but when they saw the tattoo on my leg, they kept touching it and feeling it. you might be wondering to yourself... didnt he just mention a couple from st louis... yes i did. they are visiting here. they are specialists in agriculture, so they are giving john tips about the farm. btw i got a cell phone and i get free incoming calls and texts!!!!!! my number is 070-159-5979 (idk what the calling code is for international calls from the u.s.)

first day

ok.... so my mind has gone absolutely crazy... the ocd in me is really showing. first off the first thing i learned today is that i have to completely forget everything i know about j-walking, and everything about giving pedestrians the right of way..... have you ever had that terrible gut-wrenching feeling when you screw up in traffic like maybe you accidentally cut someone off or you almost ran that biker off the side of the road because you didnt see him...... well.... that is the feeling i got every 15 seconds during the 6+ hours i spent riding in the van. the driving here is ludicrous!!!! words cannot describe it.
anyway back towards the beginning. i arrived last night at about 11:45. john and 2 others picked me up from the airport. it was about a 30-40 minute drive to johns house, but i had finally made it. there is a lady named cara here from chi-town (chicago). it is really nice to have an american show me around. anyway i chatted with her and 3 of the student who are just about my age till about 1 or 2 in the morning. this morning we drove for what seemed like forever until we reached the farming land that they are trying to grow crops on. we stayed there for about an hour until we went back into the city for lunch. btw they have soda and it is cheap!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!! so i had a mountain dew with lunch. we made a few more stops until eventually we stopped in the city to change my money and to get me a cell phone. unfortunately they gave me a bogus sim card so i will need to go back to get a new one.
so i have been asking around what type of music people like hoping to find a fellow metalhead... but so far no luck... for that matter i havent even found anyone who likes rock and roll. crap... ill have to make some metalheads. the only answers i have received is rnb, country, and contemporary christian. hmmm toby mac might be in again?????? btw there are billboards and signs everywhere that say that R Kelley is coming here to uganda in january. lol. and the people ask how i spell my name and when i say sean... they are like "oh like sean de paul"... lol but everyone is really friendly. oh well there is alot more, but ill save it for an uneventful day or somthing..... until then

peace out
Sean Kesler

Hey Africa!!!!

hey sorry i can not write much but i am here in africa. the flights were really boring, but nothing went wrong. hopefully ill be able to write more tomorrow!!!!!

still in the air

so i was up all night last night packing my stuff and moving all the rest of my stuff into a closet in the garage... this was super stressful for me and my parents, but i somhow made it through and i am currently just crossing the border between ohio and new york about 35802 ft in the air and crusing at about 549 PH. it is crazy.... i cant believe that i am really doing this... it seems so surreal. i keep telling myself that it is only for a year, but i just cant convince myself to just relax. i have had, a redbull, monster coffee, 12 pack of mountain dew voltage, and 3 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours, but i am still wide awake. i guess i am a bit nervous, but mainly there is just about a billion thing going through my mind.(i hope it will cramp up so i can get some sleep) i watched a documentary about the history of metal music on the in flight tv.... it is like they knew i was going to be here at that time...i have to go from newyork to london and then to entebbe where i will be met by john mugabi and cara at approx 10:10 pm their time.it seems like forever.oh well... i guess we are almost at the airport, so i need to shut off my lappy, but hopefully ill be able to upload this in the airport.... until then....

Peaqe out,
Sean Kesler