Our First Year

This has been an incredible year! I'll try to do a quick catch up. Brian and I were married in the Mesa, AZ temple April 25th, 2007. It's hard to believe we've already been married over a year. It seems like almost every moment has been filled with one adventure or another. Right after we got married, we went on our honeymoon to Florida, then went to Denver, CO for the summer where Brian worked selling security systems and I worked as the Office Assistant. That fall we were back in Cedar City working and living at Beehive Homes, an assisted living facility. That was an interesting few months. We made great friends, have lots of experiences to laugh at, and saved on housing. Brian graduated from GWC in October. He went to school that semester and we both worked over full time.

In January we flew to Africa. First we went to Tanzania, where we hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro. That was one of the most incredible, definently the most physically exhausting thing either of us have ever done. We were freezing, exhausted, and fighting altitude sickness but we made it to the very top, Uhuru Peak! Then we went to Kenya, where we visited my cousins the Gunderson's and went on a safari. Then we flew to Uganda, the real reason of our trip. We served as volunteers helping to jump start the project "LEU" Leadership Education Uganda working with George Wythe College and HELP International. We loved our time here. We lived with a wonderful Ugandan family, the Mayeku's, and made many good friends. We conducted teacher training classes at local schools, teaching concepts from A Thomas Jefferson Education by DeMille and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey in our classes. We introduced and practiced discussion with our teachers, the importance of asking questions, and encouraging their students to ask questions. We discussed why education is important, that it should continue beyond school, how students learn in different ways and how we can better help them learn. Teaching is very looked down on as a profession in Uganda, and as these teachers realized that they had an important and noble role, their whole outlook on life would change. They had new hope, new purpose, and the way they taught their classes improved so much. We also spent time in a bakery helping with their books, and with members of the branch we met there.

I don’t think we realized how much we would learn and grow from the teachers and other people we worked and spent time with in Uganda. Brian and I are better teachers, and will be better parents because of our time there. We were impressed with the parents we saw who work so hard and make sacrifices so they can pay the school fees for their children, and with the teachers who want to be better, and were willing to try new things in their classes, and in turn taught us. The cold showers and cockroaches I never learned to love, but we quickly came to enjoy and learn from our other experiences, and to love our new friends and adopted family. We loved Uganda!

In April we flew back to the United States. We spent a few days with our families in Phoenix, AZ and Richfield, UT before packing up our little car and driving out to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the summer. It's been so nice to have our very own home for the first time in eight months! Brian works long hours, but we love our mornings and Sunday's together. We've had fun having family and friends come out to visit us, and touring some of the church and historical sights around.

But our most exciting news comes in the next post . . .