It has been decided

Have you ever felt that whatever opportunities God laid down in front of you has been decided? And that all you needed to do is yield to the prompting of the holy spirit?  That's exactly how I felt with my Fulbright Journey.  Everything happened so fast and before I knew it, I became a Fulbright scholar and now on my third trip here at Uganda Christian University Mukono campus.  Before I traveled back to UCU this year, I had the privileged to be invited by the Fulbright headquarters staff with Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) in Washington, DC (1400 K Street) on May 27, 2016 during their brown bag lunch session.





Maria de los Angeles Crumpet, Executive Director, CIES and Deputy VP, Scholar Exchanges (pink); Carmel Geraghty, Program Officer, Fulbright Specialist Program (on my right); Danielle Fultz, Program Coordinator, Fulbright Global Program (in neutral/ black skirt). — with Marife Aczon-Armstrongat Institute of International Education.




Paula and Luke at the Institute of International Education (IIE) front desk.

As I've posted earlier about coming back to Motherland, Africa, I have not posted on this blog since 2014.  Actually I'm embarrassed to write that I forgot about this blog.  Now that I discovered it again, here I am. I'm back!

Today is my 7th day since I arrived at Entebbe airport almost midnight on May 29, 2016.  Actually I'm counting today as my 6th day as I travelled over 17 hours from Washington, DC to Amsterdam Tripoli Netherlands connecting to Kigali, Rwanda and finally at Entebbe.  Sunday midnight was a blurr so I'm counting only 6 days of being here.

Yes, it has been decided by our Master Planner that I will be back here to UCU Mukono campus to teach at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing. Masters of Nursing Science.

Back Home to Motherland 2016

Here I am back to Motherland.  A lot had happened since my last blog entry.  After my mission trip with our church (Kailua Community Church) in Hawaii, God orchestrated my return to Uganda, Africa.  It took my obedience to yield to the holy spirit in joining Bless Africa Team 2012-2013.  As I recall, it was during our last day of our mission trip in 2013, Saturday, January 12th that I discover about Uganda Christian University (Mukono) and their nursing program.  Moses Wandera, my good friend Gloria Chapman's Hanai son was near completion of his Law degree at UCU.  He offered to take some of the Bless Africa Team to tour the UCU Mukono campus.  Some of the reasons behind the visit tour was the feedback from the other sponsor adults at Siita Nest.  Apparently some of the UCU students were not happy with their boarding school.  During this tour at UCU I did not expect to find out about the nursing program.  It was my love for the color purple that brought me at UCU.  As the Bless Africa team members tour the campus, I saw in the corner of my eye a dark purple bus parked along our path.  I was so delighted that I asked Dawn Uithol to take a photo with me showcasing the purple bus with the big sign "Nursing Program" in front of it. Little did I know God has a big plan for me from there on.

Our team returned back to Hawaii the following day.  We gave our testimonies on Sunday, January 13, 2013.  When I went home that day, I immediately emailed the UCU Vice Chancellor Dr. John Senyoyi to inquire about their nursing program and the possibility of teaching. At that time I was teaching full-time as an Assistant Professor for University of Hawaii at Manoa Veterans Administration Nursing Academy (VANA).  To my surprise I received an email message within two days from Dr. Karen Drake at Bethel University in Minneapolis, MN.  Bethel U and UCU has this existing partnership. Dr. Drake is the founder and Director of the Masters of Nursing Science at UCU. The school has been soliciting to recruit doctorally prepared nurses to teach in this only functioning MNS programme in all of Uganda.  There is only two doctorally prepared nursing faculty in Uganda.  Little did I know that this opportunity is also an opportunity for a Fulbright Scholarship.  Karen directed me to cies.org website to apply for the Fulbright Program.  I have not heard about Fulbright and when I explored the website I felt that I was not qualified.  Nevertheless, I yielded to the prompting of the holy spirit and began completing my application for the Fulbright Specialist Program which was a rigorous process.  I pondered on every detail of the application process for about three months. Finally I submitted my complete application by July 30, 2013 close to the deadline.  I was not expecting to be chosen since the application process was intense and Fulbright is extremely specific about the requirements for the program.  During the application process the first requirement that struck me was the terminal degree.  At that very moment I realized what God has been preparing me all through the years of my study.  Bible scriptures pertaining to when God call us He has already prepared the path ahead of us.  He will not give you more than you can handle; He will equip you with tools needed to be successful.