Sorry I haven’t been keeping up on the blogging lately. Been busy and trying to spend as much time with the kids as possible. We will be leaving Agape Children’s Village on Monday and heading off to Kaihura, the village I stayed in last summer. I am very excited and very eager to see the kids there again!!

Quick run down of what we’ve been up to the past few days …

Today (Friday) we walked to the Centre at 8:15, missed the taxi, waited an hour for the next one, packed like sardines in the taxi … literally at one point there was a man sitting in Josh’s lap, long legged Cooper was shoved in the back between sneezing/coughing children, I had one butt cheek on one seat and one on another seat which weren’t the same height, sideways hugging the man next to me. It was awkward! We kept stopping and would all pile out to let someone get off at their stop then pile back in and add a few more people. Picture this: 14 passenger UGANDAN van … key word here UGANDAN … not as spacious as an American van … 18 people and 5 chickens in a box.

Regardless, we arrived safely and began craft shopping. On Friday’s in Kampala they have a craft market … similar to the flea market at home I guess. All the vendors come out and set up tents and lay their stuff out. It’s really sort of neat because a lot of them are usually sitting at their tent actually making the crafts right there for you to see. It started raining so we took a break, waited out the rain at Lillian’s fiancé’s photography studio. Went out to another craft market, bought some more things then we met up with the Kinton’s for lunch. They are an American couple who have been to Uganda several times. Donnas runs an adoption agency called Amazing Grace, and has helped several couples in the US adopt children from Uganda. It was nice to meet with them … they have been on a trip with Embrace Uganda previously and are familiar with the villages where we work.

Traffic in Kampala is no joke! It is simply dead stopped at certain times of the day and as we were leaving to come back … it was that time of day! It’s fun to watch the street vendors walk up and down between the cars and the boda boda’s weaving in and out trying to sell all kinds of stuff. Usually they try and sell sunglasses, movies, maps of Uganda, little toy bicycles made out of wire, etc. We watched one lady negotiate over a bag of green peas for like 5 minutes while the man tried to convince her they were the best ones … she finally gave in and bought them. Another man tried to sell Cooper some sunglasses … he pretended to be blind and the man tried to convince him he needed the sunglasses anyway. Meanwhile, the 5 chickens mentioned previously are in their now breaking box in the back of the car. They start flying around, I start freaking out … it was fun!!! As I type this I swear I can still smell those chickens, the stench is stuck in my nose!

As soon as we got back to Agape, several kids came running out of the house next door telling us dinner is ready for us in House 1 and we need to go there immediately. We didn’t even know they were preparing dinner for us … we went as quickly as we could and had an amazing dinner. This past week we’ve been eating in each of the houses. The house Mama’s have been so good to us and have been feeding us the best food. We’ve had fried chicken, fried potatoes, rice, matooke, beans, chicken, posho, pork, chapatti, rolex (chapatti with eggs inside J) I’m sure I’m missing tons of stuff but I swear every time we finish eating they are already trying to feed us again.

Let’s see what else … we’ve been painting the inside of the church, Josh and Jason have been climbing trees picking “Jambula” ... I’ve no idea how to spell it but that’s what it sounds like. They look like a cross between olives and grapes and taste disgusting. But, everyone here LOVES them. I’ve tried them a couple times … must be an acquired taste!! We’ve also been picking mangos (or mongoes if your Ugandan) There is a boy here in House 4 named Julius who gives me a mango he picked every single night after dinner. I’m gonna miss that!! We’re going to have to find the mango trees in Kaihura!! I’ve been painting nails with all the kids … although I was just informed last night that they aren’t allowed to have their fingernails painted at school. I’m just hoping they plead that the muzungu made them do it so they don’t get caned!!! And we had a movie night the other night. Mark and Vicki have a projector so we hooked up the computer and showed the kids Happy Feet. We made popcorn and kids were sitting all over on the floor watching … it was a lot of fun and they seemed like they enjoyed it! Been playing lots of Uno, and helping one of the older girls Joyce string beads at night for some purses she is making.

We’ve just been busy loving the kids here and having fun with them, playing around, laughing, talking, teaching each other, and getting to know each other better. I am so blessed to have been given the opportunity to come to Agape and can’t believe we’ve already been in Uganda for a month. It’s like we’ve become part of these kids’ families and I don’t know how to say goodbye. I don’t want to leave!!

I hope you will all be praying for us and for the village as we leave. I think leaving is always hard for everyone, I know we don’t want to go, we’re going to miss these kids and Mama’s so much. And I know the kids aren’t ready for us to leave. We’ve had so much fun together and I know it makes them so happy and gives them hope when we’re here.

 It’s also malaria season … several of the kids have been sick with malaria. Bless their little hearts, they look so miserable. In fact, one little girl, Rita has had it twice since we’ve been here. She came and sat with me at church last Sunday just sweating and shivering with a fever, she slept through the whole service. Please pray for health and protection for all these children!

Sorry this was so long … again!

LOVE YOUUUUUU!

Painting the church ... with branches!

Playing Uno

Joyce preparing matooke

Julius

Josh chopping firewood

Picking mangos