Ode to Euti

When we met Euticauls he greeted us with hugs.

We bombarded him with questions to which he just shrugged.

We met his sweet family: Joe, Jeff, Melissa, and Jane

Their meals are better than American food, so we cannot complain.

They feed us beans, rice, ugali, spinach, chippaties, and cat...

OK, maybe not cat - but gives me a good laugh when I tell Steph that!

They won't let us walk and are making us plump,

so when we get back to the States the saying will be true...

that white girls can't jump!

He's made our stay here warm, welcoming, and then some-

Buying us beds, mosquito nets, a persian rug, and water by ton!

He's 10% water, and 90% Fanta

He loves coke too, so we'll take him to the museum in Atlanta!

That's only if he'll come to the States with us sometime-

He's been before and his passports too full but there's no harm in tryin'!

He looks out for us just like he's our dad,

That's one reason why we think he's totally rad!

He has a brother Phillip, and they're BFF's

When we ask a dumb question he tries not to laugh.

We decided to do laundry and then set the date,

When we asked him to join, he said sarcastically,

"Sure it will be a party... and then we'll have some cake."

We've been laughing and laughing till our stomachs ache,

He has become affectionatly known as Euti the Great!

We love you Euti!

Love,

Stephanie and Chrissy

Road Trip to Uganda

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.

a week in africa.

alright guys, i know you are all just dying to hear from me this time--chrissy has finally given up the keyboard.

today marks one week that we have been in kenya now and we want to bring you up-to-date on the things that have taken place since the last post.

chrissy told you about our first full day at the youth center on friday, and so by now we have had two more full days there. i absolutely LOVE. THESE. CHILDREN. you're going to have to take my word for it when i say that they adore us. it's true, they do. and they would love you too because they are simply not used to seeing white people, or muzungu's as we are commonly called. i thought the newness of our being there would fade but no, during our breaks when we play in the yard they ALL want to touch us: our hair, our skin, our face. they get our attention by saying "how are YOU" (especially the younger ones who don't know much more english than that) or "teacha!" and then just smile shyly and truly we are many times surrounded and almost knocked over or dragged down by these kids. my class is class 2 (2nd grade) and i am so excited to finally know all of their names. today i taught a lesson on the difference between to, too, and two...and a lesson on trusting god...and really whatever ann tells me to teach on the spot. it's crazy. i've had the chance to plan one lesson because i knew it ahead of time (on germs and properly preparing foods). tomorrow i'm going to bring a book to read and usually at the end of the day i teach them a game. hangman today was a HIT. chrissy is doing well and teaching all sorts of things like good leadership or science lessons. they are responding very well, but we both agree that there are times when we struggle to explain it as clearly as possible simply because of the language barrier--they do know english but there are times when we are glad to have a kenyan teacher in the room with us to clarify something they are not completely understanding. the staff at the youth center is wonderful. these teachers are getting paid not even a salary--it is so small you could only call it an allowance, euticauls told us. the youth center pays the teachers what they can, but they are running basically on donations and what someone might give for that month. most of these kids have lost one or both parents to hiv/aids, and their families would not be able to afford to send them to school if it were not for this ministry.

right now euticauls is still driving us to the school in the mornings, but soon we will walk because it is not far from our apartment. we look forward to being able to walk there soon. we walked home from church on sunday and i loved it because i felt like i was a member of the neighborhood for the first time. we saw a HUGE pig in the middle of the road walking and chrissy and i thought it was so funny, we took videos of it with our cameras. jane, euticauls' wife, must have thought we were crazy to be so entertained by a pig.

saturday morning we moved from the bed and breakfast we had been staying at, to our brand new home! an apartment right downstairs from the one that euticauls and his family live in. we were blown away by all that they had done for us with this: jane had put up curtains on the windows, there was a big persian rug in the living room...they really are doing so much for us to make us feel right at home here. we love them. the apartment is big for just two people so we spend most of our evenings upstairs with the family and eat our meals with them. saturday we spent the day moving in, getting set up, and getting to know euticauls' three kids and their neighborhood friends. these kids...oh my goodness...wonderful. joe, jeff, and melissa are 9, 7, and 6, and there are several other kids who we have gotten to know. we taught them every game we could think of outside in the little courtyard of our apartment. i've played a lot of jackpot lately. joe can't get enough of my ipod and his favorite song is none other than...yes...justin timberlake.

okay, so the weekend for us looked like a lot of hanging out and fellowshipping with the family. getting settled in. meeting the church body on sunday morning. whew, that is a story in itself! we went to sunday school and church--and so were at the church from 8:30a to 2:00p. i don't want to make this post too long, so i won't go into great depths about that but i was so eager to see the church and was blessed by the warmth with which each person greeted me.

sometimes i stop and think that this must be a dream. not only because i can't believe i'm here...that's not really what i mean...but i can't believe what an entirely different world this is. the slum is like nothing i've ever seen. i still can't wrap my mind around the extent of the poverty i see and the new things i am seeing, hearing, smelling, touching. suddenly the $100 worth of school supplies that chrissy packed make a world of difference. we are thrilled to know how far these pencils, paper, crayons, pencil sharpeners will go at the youth center. i am kicking myself now for not bringing more books with me. children's books or adult books, because the teachers have been passing around a few of the books for pleasure reading that chrissy and i brought along. the children get behind in copying the work from the blackboard because they have to stop and sharpen their pencils with a small razor blade. yesterday i noticed quenter, one of my students, writing with almost JUST the lead of the pencil between her little fingernails. everyone knows how much need there is in africa--and i have a million thoughts running through my head constantly as the problem-solving side of me comes out and i think about solving this on a broad scale...the root causes of why things are this way here. sometimes i just don't understand. but on a very real note, i am here now and i can help, and that is exciting. please keep praying for us.

tonight euticauls, chrissy, and i are taking a bus through the night to jinja, uganda. while euticauls goes to a meetings/conferences and handles his business there, chrissy and i will spend 4 or 5 nights at an orphanage there called amani baby cottage. at this point we don't know too much of what to expect but we can't wait to be there. you can pray that we would have safe travel and that all the plans would work out smoothly for this week. we'll be back in nairobi next tuesday night and from then on out will continue with our work at the youth center. we will be back in touch soon! we love you all tremendously and want to reiterate once again how encouraging you are with your comments, emails, facebook messages! keep them coming! we are continually blessed by your prayers.

so much love.

stephanie