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.