Home, Sweet Home

Last Monday, I returned home safe and sound. I apologize to my faithful readers (all 5 of you, haha) that it has been so long since I last updated.

On the Saturday before I left, 35 of the babies were dedicated at the evening Watoto Church service. I was so thrilled that I got to be a part of it before I left. I got to hold and pray over David. Patience was held by another volunteer, Bjorg, but they were right next to us. All the babies were dressed in really sharp outfits, they all looked so good!

My flights...could have been worse. And I made it home, so that's all that matters. Haha. After my early arrival, my family and I went out to lunch at none other but WENDY'S!! I had been craving a Wendy's taco salad. Mmm, mmm!

This past week has been tough for me. A lot of adjusting. It's a strange and not fun feeling when home feels like a foreign place. But I am making slow progress back to a form of my normal life. Thank you all for your support and prayers!!

If anyone wants to get together for coffee or something to hear about my trip I am MORE THAN HAPPY to share my pictures and stories. But beware, I do LOVE to talk about this place :)

Lunch with the Woosters...AHHH!!

Today I was EXTREMELY BLESSED to spend an hour or so with some friends from back home. Aaron and Kacie Wooster, who have been traveling the world all summer, are in Uganda this week! I didn't think there would be a way for us to get together, but I figured that I would give them my cell phone number just in case. Turns out they had today off! They gave me a call and were able to come have a short tour of Baby Watoto and then we headed out for lunch at Garden City. It was so great to see familiar faces and we had some good conversation over lunch (that I was treated to, THANK YOU AARON AND KACIE!) After lunch it was like, "Oh yeah...I'm still in Uganda." Haha. It was a great day!
Photo Credit to Aaron and Kacie, I didn't have my camera on me so I stole the picture they posted on their blog :)

I only have 2 days left at the baby home...CRAZY!! It hit me on Wednesday that I was actually leaving. I had to choose some new people to look after DAVID and Patience (turns out there was a mis-communication and my boy's name is David, not Daniel), we got the new schedule and my name wasn't on there AND I got my volunteer exit evaluation form! It hit me hard and I just burst into tears during lunch. Oh goodness. I am excited to be coming home though. It is bittersweet for sure.

Prayer Requests: That I would have a peace about leaving and wouldn't get too upset these next 2 days and that I will adjust well into my life back home.

Update on Abdul

About three weeks ago, Abdul (the 4 year old boy I wrote about earlier, with the eating problems), was taken to Kenya to try and fix his eating problems once and for all. He had a scope go through his esophagus trying to reach his stomach. However the problem was found before reaching his stomach. Abdul's esophagus, mainly the part that connects to the stomach, was almost completely scar tissue. So essentially, nothing he was eating was making it to his stomach. He underwent a major operation, in which the end of his esophagus was taken out and a new "section" was reconstructed and put in its place. He had about 2 weeks of initial recovery, before heading back home to Kampala.

He came back home late Friday night (last Friday.) He is doing extremely well!! What a blessing it is to have been here to witness the transformation first hand!

The picture is of Abdul EATING his EGGS AND BISCUITS!!! Praise the Lord!

America, America, THIS IS YOU!

I, along with 6 other American volunteers, spent the 4th of July...wait for it...wait for it...
WHITE WATER RAFTING THE NILE!!!

It was absolutely incredible! We had such a great time! There's not much to blog about it. But I thought you would all want to know what I did to celebrate America's independence. I wore our colors proudly and we told everyone we were celebrating America's independence the best way we knew how here in Uganda.

I also had the theme song to "America's Funniest Home Videos" stuck in my head all day. So I kept singing, "You're the red, white and blue! Oh the funny things you do! America, America, this is you!!"

Prayer Requests: That I would make the most of my LAST WEEK, not wish it away. That I would learn to cope with doing everything in a group and not be grumpy with everyone...or that God would bless me with a little bit of "me time" everyday. And lastly, for Patience, who has gotten extremely sick.

Picture Update

Daniel, wearing a girl's sunglasses

I had a bad day a few days ago and decided it was time to bust out the Ghiradelli 60% cocoa caramel filled dark chocolate that my mom hide in my bag. Oh...it was heavenly. Thanks Mom!!

Patience. Is she not the most adorable thing?!

Krista, a volunteer from Kentucky, left a few days ago. We had a goodbye pj party with/for her. From left to right is Evie (my Aussie roommate), Krista, Ruth (who is from England) and myself.

This is Laura, a volunteer from Australia, and me in the rocking chairs outside Baby Watoto. There are now 34 volunteers here (yes, THIRTY FOUR) so they have PLENTY of time to just cuddle babies through out the day (I'm with Daniel and Patience, so it has made not much of a difference to my daily schedule). Anyways, Patience is sick so I have been just holding and rocking her lately, and Laura and some others have been able to join me in the cuddle time.

Fried Green Tomatoes...er, Grasshoppers

I had quite the eventful afternoon yesterday...it's not a very exciting story, but it ends with arriving "home" at 6:30. SIX THIRTY!!! My shift was done at 3:30. Ugh! But, to make the trip home somewhat exciting, I decided to finally buy some fried grasshoppers from someone selling on the side of the road. We paid 200 schillings per spoonful and got 5 spoonfuls. Which was more than enough for all of us (20 or so) to eat many.

Now, earlier in my blog, I had mentioned how the grasshoppers here were about 4 inches long. Which they are. However, the fried ones are much smaller. Before the grasshoppers are fried, their wings and legs are plucked off and their wings make up most of their body length. So the ones I ate were only about an inch long.

We (my roommates and I) brought them up for dinner to share with everyone as an after-dinner treat. After finishing our meal, we began to pass the bag around for everyone to take a look/whiff of our dessert. Just as we were about to dig-in, a live grasshopper flies through the window!! At the guesthouse that Jenna and I were staying at initially, there were bugs EVERYWHERE (mainly grasshoppers.) But here, I have only seen 2 cockroaches. A couple
of nights ago, I was telling one of my roommates, Evie, how thrilled I was to not have to see grasshoppers anymore. Sure enough, the moment we are about to crunch into a grasshopper, one comes to haunt me.

Goodness. Needless to say, I freaked out. We had to move our little adventure to the balcony off of my (well, our) room. Anyways, the grasshoppers were pretty good. They tasted kind of like
shrimp...or grease. Hahaha. They weren't nasty though. I actually ate quite a few.

Pictures of My Room

Here are the pictures of my "new" room. It's all girls living there and we don't have a wardrobe of any kind so that's why there are clothes everywhere!!


1. This is the view walking in the door. That's Evie in the pink on her bed and Lauren in the back corner, on her bed.
2. We pushed Marianne and mine's beds together to make more room. So we basically share a really huge bed, but still have our individual nets. It's funny.
3. My bed is the one closer to the wall, behind Marianne.
4. Our balcony, which is very useful after hand washing clothes :)

New Roomies!!

Another change that I can now blog about is that 2 weeks ago, Jenna left to return home. She had to take a summer class in order to receive her scholarship from Grand Valley. I thought I would be lonely without her, but I've been just fine. Like I said before, I moved down to a room down the hall with 2 other volunteers, Marianne and Evie. Things have been GREAT with them; I'm loving getting to know them! Last night (Saturday night), we had a new volunteer arrive. Her name is Lauren. She is from British Columbia, but has spent the last 6 months studying in Norway. She is going to move into the open bed in our 4-bed room. I'm thrilled!!

I'm also getting closer to the other volunteers, which is great! I think now that I don't have a friend here to lean on, I'm more open to getting to know other people. I know my last two weeks here are going to be fantastic as I continue to get to know my roommates and the other volunteers!!!

It took too long for the pictures to load...I'll try and get them up next time. Arrugh, so frustrating!

Recent Adventures

On the weekends, shifts either end early or start late. Since we were on the morning shift this week, we got done a few hours early on Saturday. All of us who either had the day off or were on morning shift headed out to Speke Resort. This is an absolutely beautiful 5 star resort on Lake Victoria. We paid $10 to lay by the pool and swim for the day. It was sooo nice. At sunset, we walked along Lake Victoria (the sun wasn't setting over the lake, that's just the time we went). It was a great day!

Sunday was my day off (along with Marianne, Evie, Harrison and Krista). All of us, along with Laura and Ruth, who are working the later shift, and a new volunteer, Laura headed to....THE EQUATOR!!! It was a rough start; took us a while to find a ride there and such, and it was kind of expensive but it was SO FUN!! We took many pictures, bought some cheesy touristy tee-shirts. Hahaha, we had a blast!!

Pictures:
1. This is part of the Speke Resort gang...from left to right: Becky, Me, Rachel, Harrison (Jesus?) and John. Becky, Rachel and John are siblings. John is really goofy...that hat fits him. Hahaha.
2. The roommates at the equator...from left to right: Lauren, Me, Marianne and Evie.

And They're Off

One of the changes that I wasn't allowed to talk about was the move to village. This past Friday, 26 of the "babies" moved to the Watoto Bbira village. There was a lot of preparation involved. First, all the children that were moving all took a day trip to the village. This was to make the adjustment to their new home once they moved a little easier, to make positive memories of the village. We also put together bags for each of the children, which included clothes, eating utensils, toiletries, toys, books, blanket, etc. We shaved some of their heads, depending on how much hair they had (apparently it's easy for the newcomers to get ringworm when they first get to the village, so they shave their heads so they can discover and treat it as soon as possible.) And we had all of the girls' ears pierced. This is a safety precaution because once their ears are pierced they are considered "scarred" and they wouldn't be a target for abduction for sacrifice (crazy, I know!) Lastly, we took a lot of toddlers on a final "day out" to play in the yard at Serena's. I took
Miles, and he was extremely difficult. Haha. It was still enjoyable though.

The actual move was very exciting and sad. Many of the nannies and volunteers were crying. It is exciting to see these children "moving up" though, knowing they are continuing on the path to a fantastic future! Now that they are gone, the place seems EMPTY!! There are only 19 children left in the upper 3 rooms so playtime out on the playground is incredibly quiet. It's....very strange. They are going to "even it out" soon (move some of the kids from the younger rooms up), which will also be very strange.

Pictures:
1. This is from our last "day out"; Matthew is on the left in the red and Miles is on the right.
2. Vicki's newly pierced ear.
3. This is Grace, post head-shaving.
4. This is Krista, a volunteer from Kentucky, who helped put together the bags.
5. This after one of the groups returned from a village visit...eating lunch before nap time.

Even more changes...

This week, John and Becky's family joined all of us at Adonai 6; Dewey and Debbie, their parents, (Dewey is a GV grad :) ) and Rachel, their 17 year old sister. It's nice to have them around, and they have temporarily adopted me into their family. Dewey has continued his fatherly role and pays for practically everything...ice cream outings, transportation and such. It's nice :)

We also had another volunteer join us, Harrison, who is from Atlanta. He is pretty chill and is a great addition to our little guest house team. He is really outdoorsy, has a massive ball of curly hair on his head, and rarely showers. Haha. He will be here for 4 weeks, and then is going to Jinja for 2 weeks to work with "Pennies for Pasha", an organization that provides pasha for orphans. Pasha is tastes and feels like play-doh, with less salt. It is not appetizing, but is filling
(apparently, I wouldn't know because I never eat enough of it.)

We also got 2 new babies, in addition to Daniel and Patience. One of them is a preemie, from the nearby hospital, who was found in a toilet. Her name is Nellie. Another was found abandoned in a building and is malnourished. His name, unfortunately, is Alfie. They say he is nine months old, but he appears to be much older than that. Once he is healthy, the baby home is planning to re-evaluate him and see if they can better identify his true age. Alfie is absolutely adorable. He is
extremely smiley and loves to giggle.
The picture above is of him.

Lucky, the baby I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, also left us this week. I don't know all the details, but I believe his mother is now allowed to have him in her custody. Watoto is going to stay in contact with her to be sure he is being properly taken care of. It was sad to see him go, but it's obviously good for a child to be with his mother.

All of these changes puts the count of babies at 101. We were discussing this over dinner last night...The Bulrushes was built to hold 60 babies with a maximum capacity at 75. Haha. I can't even imagine this place with only 60 babies!! It's not that they can't take as good of care of the babies when there is more than 75, it's just that their budget is meant for only 60 babies. So with 101, the money is definitely wearing thin and fast! But God will provide, and He has.

I also have two new roommates, Mary Ann and Evie. They have been here for 3 weeks and were living in a 4 bed room room down the hall. Adonai 6 has a group of 38 coming in this week, so they needed to do as much condensing as possible. Needless to say having 2 people in a 4 bed room is silly.

Prayer Requests: That I will have the strength and energy to give my all at work, that I wouldn't be missing the giraffe room while working with Daniel and Patience

My New "Assignments"

We got two new kids this week, Daniel and Patience. Daniel is 2 and Patience is 6 months. Because of their age difference, if they were put into their proper rooms (Elephant and Giraffe) they would rarely see each other. At the baby home, the three younger rooms (Monkey, Giraffe and Nursery) will see each other and the three older rooms (Zebra, Hippo and Elephant) will see each other. But they are all very rarely in the same area. So, because the administrators didn't want to have to split Daniel and Patience up, they needed someone to watch over them. I was the one asked to be the "nanny" of Daniel and Patience!!

My days now consist of these two. I have to be sure that Patience is fed, bathed and naps according to the Giraffe schedule and that Daniel follows the Elephant schedule, while keeping the two together. It's a big difference, going from having 20 babies at a time to only 2. And having them be so far apart in age (well, it's really not that far apart, but compared to what I'm used to, it is). It will definitely take time to adjust. But I am already loving spending my days with these two cuties. Seriously...how cute are they?!

Morning at Serena's

Today was Jenna and I's day off. We, along with 2 other volunteers, Mary-Ann and Evie, headed out to Serena's breakfast buffet. Serena's is a really nice hotel in downtown Kampala. The breakfast buffet is pretty expensive, and I wasn't initially planning on going. But one of the volunteers heard this, and paid for me to go! She said she felt she needed to bless someone who wasn't expecting it and God gave her this opportunity. I am so grateful!

We had such a great time! Each of us brought a baby. Evie brought Joy, who is 4 months old (on the far left in the picture.) Mary-Ann brought Ava, who is a 3 months old (the redhead next to me.) Jenna brought Mark and I brought Phoebe (of course!) We sat there from around 10:00 to 12:30. We had numerous people coming up to us asking if we had just adopted. It was tempting to say, "Yes!" but we decided it would be good to spread awareness about Watoto :)

Phoebe was wiped out by the time I brought her back; she had missed her morning nap and it was nap time when we got back. I fed her, swaddled her and laid her in her crib. I went and grabbed my bag (which is in the locker right next to Phoebe's crib) and by the time I turned around, she was fast asleep.

Phoebe LOVES to laugh and smile. It's absolutely adorable; I hope she keeps this trait through out her life. She is pretty crazy too. So full of energy! The little girl has stolen my heart. Even after just 5 weeks, I'm realizing how hard it is going to be to leave her!

Thank you all for praying! I have been doing MUCH better with not missing home. I do occasionally think about home, but more in the sense of HOW WEIRD it is going to be to be back there. And how I will have less than a month before I have to go back to school for R.A. training. It's going to be a huge adjustment to go from this life style, to the "R.A. lifestyle" in a month. Oh goodness. Please all bear with me when I'm not myself for that month. I MAY be an emotional
basket case.

I just read through this blog and realized how it's kind of all-over-the-place. Haha. Sorry!! I tend to do that.

Prayer Requests: Next week is going to be a week of BIG CHANGES. I'm not allowed to talk about them just yet (we were specifically asked to not blog about the upcoming events), but pray that the changes would be handled well and I would be able to adjust quickly. THANKS!

Safari!

Jenna and I got back from our Safari Wednesday evening. It was SO MUCH FUN!! And it was incredible. I don't want to "ruin" any stories for when I return, so you'll just have to wait to hear all about our safari experiences. I can tell you a little bit about it though...We joined a team from Canada, who had just finished a building in the Watoto Suubi village. It seemed like it was mostly a "middle-aged" group, but I guess there were just as many under 40 or so as there was above. Whatever. They were fun, for the most part. VERY touristy, but Jenna and I were welcomed with open arms. We enjoyed 2 days in Murchison National Park, located in Northern Uganda. And we spent 2 nights at Paraa safari Lodge. It was a wonderful, relaxing and VERY COOL trip. It was weird to come back to this guest house, Adonai 6, after a trip rather than going home.
Like my stories, I want to have some cool pictures to show when I come home, but I am willing to post a few from our safari. Enjoy!

Wednesday also marked the half-way point of my trip, 4 and 1/2 weeks. It's crazy how fast time is going. But at the same time, it seems to be going slow. I was telling Jenna today, I'm really ready to go home but I'm also already dreading the day I have to leave. I'm 50-50. Which I guess is perfect, since I'm at my half-way point!

Pictures
1. For dessert at Paraa Safari Lodge, we had this chocolate sauce that we could drizzle over fresh fruit and cakes and such. HEAVENLY!! Jenna and I LOVED mealtime, just for that chocolate sauce!
2. On our 2nd day of the safari, we got to ride on top of our van. What an experience!
3. Me on our safari, with giraffes in the background (look closely, they're there)
4. Giraffes. Self-explanatory.
5. This was where we had our bathroom break. Jenna thought Sam (our Watoto leader) was kidding. We pulled off the side of the road and he said, "Alright! Ladies to the right, men to the left!" Good thing I thought to bring a little bit of toilet paper with me!

Another Outing with Phoebe

Yesterday, Jenna and I took our "favorites" to the evening service at Watoto Church. We got to pick out cute church-ey outfits and everything. I took Phoebe, and she wore a brightly colored flowery dress. It was absolutely adorable.
Phoebe has only been taken out twice, both times by me. She gets very nervous being outside of what she knows. She isn't like herself at all (which is typically giggly and squirmy.) This was actually a blessing in disguise, since I was taking her to church. She did pretty well, up until the last 15 minutes. And then the real Phoebe came out. She was fidgety and "talking" up a storm. The two ladies who run Baby Watoto were sitting in front of us, and they just turned around and laughed. Thankfully she wasn't being too loud and like I said, it was towards the very end.


We leave for our safari bright and early tomorrow morning!! I probably won't update again until Saturday.

Prayer Requests: I've been missing home a lot lately. Please pray that this won't get in the way of my work. I came here to love these children and I don't want my mind to be anywhere else while I am with them. Pray for safety for Jenna and I and the other volunteers. And lastly, Jenna has been feeling very scared of everything lately, pray that that won't hinder her in any way. Thank you!!

A "Hot and Cold" Kind Of Day

Sigh....Thursday started out as such a great day. Jenna and I headed into town, laptops in tow, to Cafe Pap. I mentioned we were there in my last post, that was where the picture was taken. I enjoyed a chicken parmesan sandwich for lunch, a mocha and a fudge brownie. Mmmm! They have wireless internet there, 1 hour for 3000 schillings. It was wonderful. And that mocha was sooooo good!! A little taste of back home (I miss Ferris Coffee and Nut!!) After our cafe excursion, Jenna and I took a boda-boda to work. These are just taxi motorcycles, I guess that is the best way to describe them. They can be very dangerous, but Jenna and I were fairly close to the Baby Home and we knew the roads that we would be taking would not allow for fast or risky driving. It was fun! Such a great, relaxing afternoon.

Work, however, was a completely different story. We got to work a little before dinner time for the kiddos. I helped with the special needs. I was feeding Kevin. Now Kevin is either a very happy child or very angry. I had yet to witness angry Kevin. So I was feeding him, one bite at a time, nothing out of the ordinary. When all of a sudden, he freaked out. He grabbed my leg, bit it and then turned around and bit the nanny sitting behind him. Needless to say, the nanny was like, "Um. Let's leave Kevin alone for a minute. You can feed Nicole."
After all the babies were asleep, it was time for Jenna and I to start our final and most dreaded project for our night shift week....cleaning the kitchen. Now, Baby Watoto is the best baby home in Kampala, probably in all of Uganda. It is very clean, the children are well-dressed and have great toys to play with, the employees work hard and put their heart into everything they do for the babies. I am, in no way, trying to "bash" Baby Watoto. But the kitchen is not pretty. I'm sure it is just because we are in Uganda, bugs are everywhere and just a normal part of life. I went into the task with a serving heart and I just kept telling myself, "This is for God. This kitchen needs to be cleaned, and I am the hands to do it." I don't really know how to go into detail about how awful this job was, but I will say that THANKFULLY the only BIG cockroach we found was already dead. So...that's a plus! I got through it, alive and with a new perspective on what it means to be a servant :)
After cleaning the kitchen, Jenna and I decided that as a reward, we would cuddle some babies. I went to get my favorite little one, Phoebe. One whiff near her crib and I knew something had happened. I laid sleeping Phoebe on the changing table, unbuttoned her sleeper to find it and her completely covered in diarrhea.
Oh, Phoebe! It's a good thing I love her so much (just kidding, I would have done this for any of those babies!) Anyways, so I cleaned Phoebe all up, changed her and her sheets. During this, the supervisor comes in and tells me that Jenna and I's taxi driver, Robert, was taken by the police!! The police are really corrupt here. They aren't paid enough so they abuse their power and demand money from people. In "our" case, they told Robert that he could either give them money or they could frame him by saying he was waiting for a prostitute. Poor Robert!! He gave them some money and came back to pick us up.
So I had to give clean Phoebe over to a nanny and they got to cuddle her until she fell asleep (so jealous!) Once getting into the taxi, I realized that I had baby diarrhea all over me; we got to smell that all the way home. Mmmmm! Thanks Pheebs!
We got home around 12:20 and found that we were locked out of our guest house, even after we told them NOT to lock the door, we would be home late. So Jenna and I called two of the Adonai employees, but neither of them were in charge of the key. The one who was, didn't have his phone on. Of course. So we had to call John (a volunteer in the room next to us, who is working the morning shift and has to wake up at 5am) to come let us in.

What a day!

Matatu Video

I took a video on one of our Matatu rides. I tried to get it to upload with my last post, but it was taking too long.
Enjoy!!

Matatus: A Blog-Worthy Subject

(This picture is completely unrelated to my post, but this is where I am at right now. Cafe Pap in downtown Kampala. It's a great little coffee shop, and I have a feeling Jenna and I will be here often)

So in an effort to save money, the volunteers at the guest house have begun to take Matatus, rather than "hiring" a taxi driver. A taxi to and from Baby Watoto is approximately $12 and Matatus are about 20 cents a ride, it takes two to get there so a round trip is roughly 80 cents.
I don't even know how to begin to describe how hilarious I find riding Matatus. I, honestly, just laugh through out the ride. I will do my best to describe the Matatus, and hopefully you will get a glimpse into their hilarity.

Matatus are Kampala's form of public transportation (and I think in other large cities around Africa, not just Uganda). They are taxi-vans that travel along certain routes. They are licensed to carry 14 passengers, however, I'm pretty sure it is common practice to have at least 17. These white vans with a blue checkered stripe in the middle are always PACKED. And just when you think you can't fit anymore people in, they pick up two more.

Each van has a "conductor". This person sits in the first row (behind the driver's row) on the opposite side of the van than the driver, halfway hanging out the window. As the Matatu drives along, the driver just beeps the horn at any and every pedestrian. Because anyone who is walking is looking for a ride on a Matatu, right? The conductor watches for any signal from pedestrians that they would like to be picked up; typically a wave of the hand. Then the conductor waves you on, as if saying, "Okay, we're stopping eventually, just keep running behind us until we do." So we run behind them...until they stop at their next designated stop. However, these stops are not marked. So you never really know where their "designated" stops are, you just hope it's sooner than later.

Almost all the matatus have one large speaker attached to the roof of the vehicle, which blasts ridiculous Ugandan music. Which just makes the experience that much more amusing to me.

As I said before, it takes two Matatus to get within walking distance of the Baby home. So after our first ride, we get dropped off near the "Taxi Park". Each day that we have ridden these, we have gotten dropped off at a different place (like I said, "designated" stops). But we make our way to the "Taxi Park". This is kind of like a Central station for a typical form of public transportation. This is where all the Matatus "start their route" I guess. It's overwhelming.
Matatus as far as the eye can see...none of them marked except for two. How other people find where to go, I have no idea. Thankfully, one of the two that are marked is the one we need to take. By marked, I mean that there is a wooden sign on top of it that has a list of road names, including Jinja Road (our final destination.) There seems to be no organization at "Taxi Park", the drivers just park wherever they can fit. When one leaves, two more take it's place. I have no idea how all of the Matatus get out of this mess, especially the ones in the very center in this cicle of confusion. But ours has been somewhat towards the outskirts of the commotion, so I have yet to witness the exodus of all of the vehicles.

The Week of New Arrivals

On Sunday night, two new volunteers arrived. John and Becky are from Wisconsin...just across the lake!!! Up until now, Jenna and I have been staying in the guest house alone (all the other volunteers are in the Watoto apartments but they are too full for anymore volunteers). The guesthouse that Jenna and I were staying at was also full, so Jenna and I moved to the one that John and Becky are at. We've only been here for one night, but it's already so nice to have people to talk to and such.

The Bulrushes also got four new babies this week!! 3 newborns (Emily, and twins whose names are "Twin 1" and "Twin 2" in Lugandan (they will be given names)) and a zebra (9 month old- about a year and a half), Lucky. Lucky isn't staying with us for long because there isn't space for him, there are no more beds! He will either be sent to another baby home in Jinja or put in a foster home. The picture is of Lucky. It seems you either think he is adorable or weird looking. I, personally, find him adorable!! He's got the most ridiculous hair and his ears stick way out, but only at the tops. He looks like a little elf.
He is half Indian, half Ugandan so he is lighter than the other children. And that picture doesn't do his hair justice...it is so crazy!!

Abdul

There is a four-year old boy, Abdul, who is at the baby home. He obviously isn't a baby. He was brought here several months ago as a completely abused and destroyed skeleton of himself. He has scars ALL over him and he has eating problems because of the severe abuse he was victim to. He can't eat anything with out vomiting it back up, he can keep a glass of milk down sometimes (Which is obviously more than milk, the kids needs his nutrients!!) He is scheduled to
go to Kenya and hopefully get surgery to solve his eating problems once and for all.

I have fallen completely in love with Abdul. I love to just sit with him in my lap and talk or walk around with him, hand in hand. He is so precious, to me and to God. He goes to school, and comes home during our lunch break. He likes to sit amongst all the volunteers, in his adorable school uniform, sipping his milk and chatting with us. Conversations with Abdul are anything but dull. But our last conversation broke my heart...
Abdul came running up to me during playtime, "Ancy! Ancy! I ate soup and didn't vomit!!!" He was so excited!! (Oh, and he can't say 'Nancy', he calls me 'Ancy')
"Really Abdul?! That's great!!! What kind? How much did you eat?"
"Tomato!! I ate two spoonfuls!!!"
Once I heard that my heart just broke for him and how much he has to suffer because of the abuse he was a victim of.

Those who are praying for my trip, please add this precious boy to your list :)

The picture above is a little blurry, sorry. But that's Abdul and me in the center play area.

Tuesday

Today we got a tour of the Watoto Villages; Bbria and Suubi. It was...so great. We learned even more about Watoto and everything they work towards. It truly is an incredible organization with a vision and know-how to change many things that are wrong with Africa (I say Africa and not Uganda because they are working towards spreading all over the continent.) They not only work to raise leaders out of orphaned children/babies, but they help train/support HIV-positive mothers who are still able to take care of their children, they work in many different ministries, they employ people with practical skills to build all the furniture and stuff for the villages, they support their children through out college, they teach the generation of now how to care for themselves/future generations, they encourage community involvement and they do this all by employing as many nationals as possible to keep the village self-sustainable.
It was great to learn so much more about Watoto. I was already a huge fan of Watoto and their vision to raise future leaders, but after today I am that much more excited to be volunteering with such an great organization.

The picture above is of the homes in Suubi.

Sunday

I worked with the special needs children today. I won't call them babies...even though they are at the babies homes, they are older. They are just not developed enough to be "promoted" to the village. I'm not sure what the "cutoff" is or how all of that works, but I'm sure these kids won't be living at a babies home their entire lives. Anyways, I wasn't planning on working with this group because everyone who does is trained in that area. But they needed help today and they asked me. So I willingly went. It was not nearly as difficult as I would have imagined, it was actually much easier. I was surprised I enjoyed it so much, I never thought I would have had enough patience for that job. The picture above is of Bethany and Colin, two of the special needs children.

It was also "Kids Week" at Watoto church this Sunday. The children (of members of the church, not "Watoto Children" or the "Watoto Children's Choir") led worship. It was wonderful!! And I loved hearing all of their accents!

Picture Update

Since I don't have much to update on (Jenna and I went to a market, out to eat with some volunteers for one of their birthdays, met a cute young family from California who is staying at our guest house, and got a "shout out" from a man from Michigan driving by in a van taxi) this update will just be some pictures.

Enjoy :)

1. Me and Liam, who I had a picture of a few posts ago. He's making a funny face, but it's still cute.

2. Abigail; she has a little fro and the nannies love to do her hair in different styles. This was taken while one style was being taken out and she looked so silly!

3. Esther (Mom, I think you would like Esther, she is a chubby 9-monther) She has the biggest eyes and she loves to dance.

4. Our guest house.

5. What I look like after a day of working; nasty with baby food/drool/snot/who knows stains on my clothes, dirty feet and frizzy hair. This is also where I type my updates and then bring them to the internet cafe on a flash drive.

6. Me and Phoebe on our day out.

7. Phoebe with my water bottle :)

What I Do Exactly

First of all, thank you to everyone who is reading and leaving comments. I love to sign on and see that I have so much support back home :) I'm sorry that my blog with the picture of Liam was so...all over the place. My mind was just not with it.

I realized that I never simply told everyone what I am doing here. I mean, obviously, I'm volunteering at the baby home. But I never went into detail on what my days look like and the baby home and such....

The Bulrushes: Baby Watoto is located in the heart of Kampala Uganda. It houses abandoned/orphaned/vulnerable babies (ages 0-2ish). They divide the children into 6 groups: Newborns/Premies, Monkeys, Giraffes, Zebras, Hippos and Elephants (starting with youngest to the oldest). Nicola, one of the ladies who runs the place has me traveling from each room until I have spent time (about 2 days) in each room. Once I'm finished with those "rounds" I will be permenantly placed with the group that I enjoyed the most (or second most). So far I have done the Monkeys, Giraffes and Zebras.

While at "work" my days are filled with waking, feeding, playing, changing dirty (and I mean DIRTY) diapers, bathing, wiping snotty noses and drool covered chins, and of course cuddling the babies. Basically I am here to assist the nannies. The nannies are the full-time workers here. When a child is brought into the home they are assigned a nanny; each nanny is responsible for four children. But the nannies just tell me what they need done, and I do it. It's that simple.


This is a picture of Phoebe and me. She is a giraffe; about 6 months. She is precious :)
With permission, volunteers are allowed to take a baby out for an outing. Yesterday, Jenna and I and three other volunteers took 5 babies (one for each of us) to a local park. I took Phoebe. We just sat in the grass and played for a couple of hours. It was nice to give her some one-on-one attention. (I know, my hair is atrocious but come on...it's Africa, give me a break)

Our First Day Off

Yesterday was Jenna and I's day off. Each week every volunteer gets a day off. Our days off will be Saturdays, but for our first week, we got Sunday. So we went to the 10 am service at Watoto Church. It was packed, more packed than I even realized because they have an overflow section that I didn't even see until the service was over. It was nuts. We were shoulder to shoulder and soooo hot. Watoto Church was awesome though! The worship was great, and it was so good to
worship. The sermon was about character; that was good as well but both Jenna and I had a hard time following. It's an English speaking church, but when the pastor got talking really fast it was just too hard for us to understand. But during those times I found myself looking around and wondering how many of these people are Christians due to Watoto church. And how incredible God's plan is. I mean, He called these two Canadians to start a church in Kampala, Uganda and
it has grown immensely and saved so many lives, and then it started the children's villages and the baby home, and then Watoto Gulu (a children's village in Northern Uganda that caters to children who were abducted to be child soilders) and now they are in the begining stages in planting Watoto Churches in all of Africa. And I know the two founders, Bill and Marilyn Skinner, had NO IDEA what God had in store, all they had to do was listen and obey.
Listen and obey.

Anyways, after church, Jenna and I planned to walk to Garden City (a very westernized mall-ish place) to get lunch. On our walk there, we saw a cute little pizza place and decided to get lunch there instead. It was kind of confusing and frustrating, but we made it :) And it was good to have food that WASN'T rice or potatoes and meat. That is literally all we eat here. I've only been here a week and am so sick of the food. Our taxi driver, Robert, was asking us our favorite food, and we said "chocolate" jokingly, and then both decided either pizza or pasta. I asked him his favorite meal and he responded, "Rice, potatoes and meat" and I wanted to be like, "Surprise, surprise!!" Jenna and I think that that must be all he knows, he did say he had that every day. Another big
surprise. Jenna and I are the only ones at the guest house now, so Livingston (the cook) has been asking us what we want to eat for dinner. Tonight we are having spaghetti. I'm sure it's going to be great :)

But back to our day off, after lunch Jenna and I continued walking to Garden City, where Robert was meeting us. We came back to the guest house, and then walked to the Internet Cafe. Then we went to Ciao Ciao's, a gelatto place in an Italian supermarket. we got some gelatto, which was only 50 cents a scoop!! What a treat! Then we walked back home. And had fish and potatoes for dinner. It had some colorful veggies on top which was sooo good to see, and I ate them
all up! Not even thinking that I'm not supposed to be eating veggies that don't have a thick skin...

Needless to say, I was sick all night. Tossing and turning, I think I may have slept only an hour. I didn't go to "work" today. I just stayed here and slept. Jenna took my phone with her, so I had no idea what time it was nor did I have an alarm clock, so I literally just slept all day. I'm still feeling pretty lousy, but I'm going to go to the Baby Home tomorrow.

I've been moved to the Giraffe room. This is ages 6-9 months. I've only been there one day but I didn't like it as much as the Monkeys. But the same thing happened when I moved from the Zebras to the Monkeys. So I gotta give it at least another day.

We are having a hard time getting along with the volunteers our age here. They just seem really stuck up and self absorbed to us. I know that that sounds awful, and I'm really trying to approach them with a positive attitude. Other than that, things at the Baby Home are going WONDERFUL for me. I can't even really put into words how much I'm loving it, I wish I could. I just smile and sigh. Hahaha.

This was SUPPOSED to be "From My Eyes"

I had a nice long blog typed out in a Word document, and then brought that to this internet cafe to find out that these computers don't have Microsoft word!!! So frustrating!!!
I have been working with the Monkey room for the past few days. This is ages 3-6 months. At first, I didn't like it there because I was used to the activeness of the Zebras. But after a day, I loved it!!! One of my days, I just took some pictures from "my view" so you all could see some of things I see on a daily basis. But, this computer is taking waaaaay too long to upload pictures!! Which is a bummer, hopefully some days it'll be faster so that I can show you some pictures.

Here are some stories that went along with my pictures though:

I got one picture to load...that is Liam. He is in the Monkey room and obviously is absolutely adorable!!! He's one of my "faves" I'm trying not to have faves, but it kind of just happens. How cute is he?!

I thought I was afraid of crickets and grasshoppers in America. OH BOY! The grasshoppers here (what I saw in the dining room, which I mentioned in my last post) are about four inches long. They are massive!! And they are everywhere! I see at least 20 a day, if not more! I had a funny conversation with a man who works at the guest house about them, in which I learn that they also fly and most Ugandans eat them. Our taxi driver, Robert, told us that they are 5000 shillings for one bug (about $2!!! That's expensive for a bug!) but that they are very good. I might try one. We'll see.

I had some adorable pictures of the babies in the monkey room. So far...I am just wanting to take a few home with me :) But I'm sure that will change as I move rooms every few days for these first two weeks. I really wish I could show you their adorable faces!! Sigh...

Jenna and I had a hilarious experience with a lizard in our room. Oh boy!! I won't elaborate on the whole story but basically we had to sleep with knowing that there was a lizard somewhere in our room because after it ran away from us we couldn't find it. We got a guy to get it out of our room in the morning, but I just saw "it" again this morning. So we shoved toilet paper in the crack we thought it was coming from. And then we realized it was more than just one. We named the initial one Lizzy (we figure once you name something it becomes a pet, and no longer frightening). We'll see if we end up with more in our room or not. Haha.

Sorry there are no pictures. I know text isn't very interesting.

Prayer Requests: Jenna and I would continue to get along great, we would have the chance to bond with the other volunteers, and (again) we would continue to have the strength and energy to show God's love to these babies each and everyday

Three Days Down, Sixty to Go

So...I forgot to mention how I was so lucky to get a business class seat to Uganda. I don't want people who donated money to my trip to think that I used that money to buy a buisness class seat. My parents' contribution to my trip was to pay for my flights to and from Uganda. There was only one seat available on all the flights to Uganda during the week I was to leave, and that seat happened to be in business class. LUCKY ME!!!

Today was my third day at Baby Watoto (or The Bulrushes, or the Baby Home, I'll probably call it all three). So far, it has been absolutely wonderful!! Currently, they have 90 babies there, but there is a "move" scheduled for the next month, when the older kids will go to the village. After that, there will probably be 70 babies left. I've been working in the Zebra room, which is made up of babies who are ages 9 months - about a year and a half. They have 17 babies in that room, I think. I'm getting to know most of their names, but I'm not even close to knowing the names of all the babies! There are 10 other volunteers here, 6 of them are girls my age.

Jenna arrived safely, ish, this morning. She was fine, but just had a rough trip. It's good to have a friend and familar face here :) We have orientation tomorrow.

So far, I have killed three bugs. All on my own. And last night, I shared the dining room with a bug about the size of my palm...with huge legs. Jenna and I saw it again outside our window, and we decided that it is in fact, not a bug but a small animal. It's digusting. But I feel safe within my mosquito net. Haha.

That's all for now.
Prayer requests: that I will be able to understand the Ugandans, their accent is strong and often it is hard to comprehend what they are trying to say...that Jenna and I will feel well rested each morning and have strength to make it through the day

Halfway There

I made it to Amsterdam!! Obviously.
My flight was great! I sat next to a funny businessman from Grand Rapids-ish area, and we talked for quite a while. For dinner (wow, listen to this!)...our appetizer was salmon confit canape with citrus marmalade, beef tenderloin crostini with blue cheese, ginger-hoisen shrimp skewer and mixed nuts. The main dish was a salad of mixed greens with candied walnuts, piquillo peppers, and herbed goat cheese medallion, and beef short rib with garlic-hoisen sauce, wasabi mashed potatoes, and vegetables. I stole the menu; I didn't memorize all those fancy-schmancy things. It's funny how completely different buisness class and coach are. And I was so out of place with all the businessmen up there. I didn't know how to work anything. Luckily, I made "friends" with that man next to me, because he helped me with all of it.
I watched a little bit of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" but decided my time would be better spent sleeping. I slept all the way until the announcement to put your seats in the upright position for landing was made!!
And here I am in the business class lounge in Schipol airport. Sorry the picture is kind of lousy, but it's a.) hard to take a good picture after traveling and b.) embarassing taking a picture of yourself holding a plate of mediocre free food when everyone around you is wealthy buisnessmen.
...the fruit tasted like a sweaty old lady. But the roll and donut were good. Still looking for your lemon tea, Mom!

That's all for now. My blogs will get a bit more interesting once I'm in Uganda, don't worry. I know this one was dullsville.