Hey everyone! Thanks for all your prayers for our safe travel and for our time spent in Uganda - it was quite an experience and we're excited to tell you all about it!
We were there from Thursday till Tuesday and in that short time, we fell in love with Uganda, the children, the people, other volunteers, and it made for one teary goodbye!!
The orphange is run by Ugandan women, called "Mama's", as well as volunteers that are referred to as "Aunties." The Mama's are there full time, and the Aunties are scheduled from 8am-5...sometimes 7pm. There are 60 children, ages newborn-5. There were 4 HIV positive children and 2 with full blown AIDS. These children have been either neglected, have parents that are in jail, parents that have been murdered, or have parents too poor to take care of them. Most of the days we were there all day, however, we had the opportunity to have "dates" with our children which consisted of spending half the day having one on one quality time with a child taking them into town or out to breakfast. In the evenings we would hang out with other volunteers, go into the market where we bartered for some pretty cool things, or talked to the native Ugandans.
Here is a typical run down of what a day consisted of:
Aunties assisted in helping the children with breakfast, changing diapers, bathing them, getting them dressed, play time, changing diapers, cleaning up spills, throw-up, taking them on walks, changing diapers, calming a crying baby, putting them down for naps, feeding dinner, and did we mention changing diapers? We had our work cut out for us - we came back with spit-up, throw-up, grass stains, and poop - baby poop and bird poop...we'll get into details later on that last one! :)
We got quite attached to several of the children....
It was heartbreaking to hear some of the older children talk with such excitement about their familes in America, but know that it would still be quite some time until they would see their familes. The court system is very manipulative in that it waits to make a ruling until enough time has passed that a family is willing to pay them money as a bribe to speed things along. There is a current case in which the family has been waiting 2 years for their child.
Stephanie fell in love with a boy named Victor who told her he loved her. She and Victor went on a double date with Chrissy and Junior and shared some juice and a pancake. At first he was very shy and timid, but after he got some food in him he was giggling and hugging Stephanie -obviously so happy to be with her. On the way home--and this is the kicker--he saw a dog and got scared and started crying a little bit. Stephanie picked him up and they kept walking. After a minute or so he said "auntie?" She answered him to which he responded with three words that sealed the deal that she was in love: "I love you." Victor is pretty quiet, he is about 3 or 4 years old (she still didn't quite figure this out from questioning him), and he is gentle and kind. After the one-on-one, whenever Victor saw Stephanie around the orphanage, he ran to her- never wanting to leave her! They were surely BFF's (best friends forever).
Chrissy fell in love with the 3 J's: Junior, Jimmy, and Jeremiah. Junior and Jimmy were both toddlers and Jr had the privilege of going on a date with Chrissy. They went to a restaurant by the name of Aussies that's run by an Austrailian woman where Jr. gorged on a big waffle with lots of syrup, and a bottle of Fanta. Jimmy was the flirt of the 3 J's and always greeted Chrissy with big hugs and flowers to place in her hair. Jeremiah was a 3 year old baby who is placed with the 1 year olds. Jeremiah has a disability that has not been labeled due to lack of medical resources. He was literally dropped 15 feet in a latrine pit (an outhouse) and no one knows for how long he had been there until he was found. The orphanage has had him ever since. He can't speak, walk, let alone stand alone. He hums and offers the biggest smile that just makes you melt and be thankful that you've even had the chance to know such a beautiful sweet boy.
Please look at the website for Amani Baby Cottage if you have time. We were encouraged to be a part, even if it was for just a few days, of such a neat ministry as this one. One night while we were there, the entire group of volunteers went out to dinner and we got the chance to hear Sue Ann (the orphanage's nurse) talk about how she came to Amani which is an inspiring story in and of itself--she basically sold everything she owned and left her home in the states after a mission trip brought her to Jinja and opened her eyes to the need for medical care that Amani had at the time. The founder of Amani is a lady in her young 30's, with 2 adopted Ugandan girls, and she came to dinner that night as well. The heart behind this place is huge and we know that the staff is closely following the Lord.
Some Highlights of Uganda:
(In no particular order)
1. Boda Boda: When we arrived to our bus stop Thursday morning, we needed to take a taxi to the orphanage. Or so we thought.... We had one thrill of a ride traveling by a Boda Boda which is equivalent to a mo-ped and/or dirt bike to get to our final destination. Euticauls had his own bike with driver, Stephanie and I had our own bike with driver, and then another boda boda carried our luggage. We have the whole thing on video - crazy fun!!
2. Who says we can't go to Africa and do all work but no play? Well, we played. We played all day on the NILE FREAKIN RIVER!!! Yes that's right, we went white water rafting, survived grade 5 rapids...well almost did so gracefully--because we flipped a lot! We quickly became known as the swim team of the group. We even got up enough courage at the end to raft the grade 6 rapid called the Bad Place. The scenery of the Nile was breath-taking--there were long breaks in between some of the rapids to work on our tans and eat fresh pineapple. Chrissy, however, failed to apply the necessary amount of chapstick required in this kind of African heat and ended up with a 3rd degree lip sunburn. Okay, I don't know if it was 3rd degree or not, but it was bad enough to make the kids ask what was wrong with her the next day at the orphanage.
3. On the last day, the director gathered everyone together in the yard for a staff meeting. Most of us had kids in our arms at the time...it was a big group of people sitting around the director in the grass...when all of a sudden, we heard some oohs and ahhs. It was at that moment that I (Chrissy) realized, as people pointed and looked around, that a bird had flown over and pooped on Ruthie's (one of the volunteer coordinators) head and on Stephanie's leg. I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face as I struggled to laugh due to my cracked, sunburned lips. Both pictures of our horrifiying incidents are posted for your viewing pleasure/laughter.
4. We got to do some American things such as watch Friends and play a couple rounds of Spades at night with the volunteers. Yes, Chrissy the Expert, taught me how to play Spades and I've become addicted! Think I may have to start my own Fest Group!!!
5. Nutella. (If you don't know what it is, go to the grocery store and get some because you're missing out on the greatest goodness we have ever tasted. We put it away in 2 or 3 days.
6. On the way back as we were going through the border of Uganda and Kenya, Euticauls wanted to purchase some pineapples before getting back on the bus. While standing there, we were approached by a skinny, Shaquille O'Neal Ugandan man. He began trying to sell us some things. Not really understanding what he was trying to say (we did manage to pick up a couple of words such as fanta, coke, and gold) and this one sentence, "If you are trying to run away from somebody, all you need is this..." At this moment he whips out some sort of knife, bigger than a pocket knife and big enough to make Stephanie jump 10 feet in the air. We both stared at each other and then back at the creepy man as he continued to ramble. As soon as he left we laughed hysterically over what had just happened and quickly found our father, Euti.
We were there from Thursday till Tuesday and in that short time, we fell in love with Uganda, the children, the people, other volunteers, and it made for one teary goodbye!!
The orphange is run by Ugandan women, called "Mama's", as well as volunteers that are referred to as "Aunties." The Mama's are there full time, and the Aunties are scheduled from 8am-5...sometimes 7pm. There are 60 children, ages newborn-5. There were 4 HIV positive children and 2 with full blown AIDS. These children have been either neglected, have parents that are in jail, parents that have been murdered, or have parents too poor to take care of them. Most of the days we were there all day, however, we had the opportunity to have "dates" with our children which consisted of spending half the day having one on one quality time with a child taking them into town or out to breakfast. In the evenings we would hang out with other volunteers, go into the market where we bartered for some pretty cool things, or talked to the native Ugandans.
Here is a typical run down of what a day consisted of:
Aunties assisted in helping the children with breakfast, changing diapers, bathing them, getting them dressed, play time, changing diapers, cleaning up spills, throw-up, taking them on walks, changing diapers, calming a crying baby, putting them down for naps, feeding dinner, and did we mention changing diapers? We had our work cut out for us - we came back with spit-up, throw-up, grass stains, and poop - baby poop and bird poop...we'll get into details later on that last one! :)
We got quite attached to several of the children....
It was heartbreaking to hear some of the older children talk with such excitement about their familes in America, but know that it would still be quite some time until they would see their familes. The court system is very manipulative in that it waits to make a ruling until enough time has passed that a family is willing to pay them money as a bribe to speed things along. There is a current case in which the family has been waiting 2 years for their child.
Stephanie fell in love with a boy named Victor who told her he loved her. She and Victor went on a double date with Chrissy and Junior and shared some juice and a pancake. At first he was very shy and timid, but after he got some food in him he was giggling and hugging Stephanie -obviously so happy to be with her. On the way home--and this is the kicker--he saw a dog and got scared and started crying a little bit. Stephanie picked him up and they kept walking. After a minute or so he said "auntie?" She answered him to which he responded with three words that sealed the deal that she was in love: "I love you." Victor is pretty quiet, he is about 3 or 4 years old (she still didn't quite figure this out from questioning him), and he is gentle and kind. After the one-on-one, whenever Victor saw Stephanie around the orphanage, he ran to her- never wanting to leave her! They were surely BFF's (best friends forever).
Chrissy fell in love with the 3 J's: Junior, Jimmy, and Jeremiah. Junior and Jimmy were both toddlers and Jr had the privilege of going on a date with Chrissy. They went to a restaurant by the name of Aussies that's run by an Austrailian woman where Jr. gorged on a big waffle with lots of syrup, and a bottle of Fanta. Jimmy was the flirt of the 3 J's and always greeted Chrissy with big hugs and flowers to place in her hair. Jeremiah was a 3 year old baby who is placed with the 1 year olds. Jeremiah has a disability that has not been labeled due to lack of medical resources. He was literally dropped 15 feet in a latrine pit (an outhouse) and no one knows for how long he had been there until he was found. The orphanage has had him ever since. He can't speak, walk, let alone stand alone. He hums and offers the biggest smile that just makes you melt and be thankful that you've even had the chance to know such a beautiful sweet boy.
Please look at the website for Amani Baby Cottage if you have time. We were encouraged to be a part, even if it was for just a few days, of such a neat ministry as this one. One night while we were there, the entire group of volunteers went out to dinner and we got the chance to hear Sue Ann (the orphanage's nurse) talk about how she came to Amani which is an inspiring story in and of itself--she basically sold everything she owned and left her home in the states after a mission trip brought her to Jinja and opened her eyes to the need for medical care that Amani had at the time. The founder of Amani is a lady in her young 30's, with 2 adopted Ugandan girls, and she came to dinner that night as well. The heart behind this place is huge and we know that the staff is closely following the Lord.
Some Highlights of Uganda:
(In no particular order)
1. Boda Boda: When we arrived to our bus stop Thursday morning, we needed to take a taxi to the orphanage. Or so we thought.... We had one thrill of a ride traveling by a Boda Boda which is equivalent to a mo-ped and/or dirt bike to get to our final destination. Euticauls had his own bike with driver, Stephanie and I had our own bike with driver, and then another boda boda carried our luggage. We have the whole thing on video - crazy fun!!
2. Who says we can't go to Africa and do all work but no play? Well, we played. We played all day on the NILE FREAKIN RIVER!!! Yes that's right, we went white water rafting, survived grade 5 rapids...well almost did so gracefully--because we flipped a lot! We quickly became known as the swim team of the group. We even got up enough courage at the end to raft the grade 6 rapid called the Bad Place. The scenery of the Nile was breath-taking--there were long breaks in between some of the rapids to work on our tans and eat fresh pineapple. Chrissy, however, failed to apply the necessary amount of chapstick required in this kind of African heat and ended up with a 3rd degree lip sunburn. Okay, I don't know if it was 3rd degree or not, but it was bad enough to make the kids ask what was wrong with her the next day at the orphanage.
3. On the last day, the director gathered everyone together in the yard for a staff meeting. Most of us had kids in our arms at the time...it was a big group of people sitting around the director in the grass...when all of a sudden, we heard some oohs and ahhs. It was at that moment that I (Chrissy) realized, as people pointed and looked around, that a bird had flown over and pooped on Ruthie's (one of the volunteer coordinators) head and on Stephanie's leg. I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face as I struggled to laugh due to my cracked, sunburned lips. Both pictures of our horrifiying incidents are posted for your viewing pleasure/laughter.
4. We got to do some American things such as watch Friends and play a couple rounds of Spades at night with the volunteers. Yes, Chrissy the Expert, taught me how to play Spades and I've become addicted! Think I may have to start my own Fest Group!!!
5. Nutella. (If you don't know what it is, go to the grocery store and get some because you're missing out on the greatest goodness we have ever tasted. We put it away in 2 or 3 days.
6. On the way back as we were going through the border of Uganda and Kenya, Euticauls wanted to purchase some pineapples before getting back on the bus. While standing there, we were approached by a skinny, Shaquille O'Neal Ugandan man. He began trying to sell us some things. Not really understanding what he was trying to say (we did manage to pick up a couple of words such as fanta, coke, and gold) and this one sentence, "If you are trying to run away from somebody, all you need is this..." At this moment he whips out some sort of knife, bigger than a pocket knife and big enough to make Stephanie jump 10 feet in the air. We both stared at each other and then back at the creepy man as he continued to ramble. As soon as he left we laughed hysterically over what had just happened and quickly found our father, Euti.
2 comments:
Sooooooo happy that you two are back safely, and that Uganda was such a great experience! You guys are livin the dream over there, I tell ya...
Haha, have an awesome weekend, and a great week next week. Thanks for updating the blog - so cool to hear about everything!
Hey friends!
Thanks for keeping us in the loop! I miss Kenya so much :( But I'm glad that you are all having the time of your lives! Chrissy, that picture of you at the orphanage is priceless, and Brita with your students? Adorable! Keep the pictures coming! Now that the Kings don't update Cooper's blog so often I need a new addiction :) Love you guys!
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