Day 19 - July 24

I love the days we see the Woolies! They are so fun to be around, but they have a way of wearing you out! We left home at around 8:30 with Jozeph 2. Angella’s sister Kate, was able to come with this time. We were going to also pick up Ssali to go and visit them, but he never showed up. We had called him numerous times and he kept saying he was on his way, but could never describe where he was. He had plenty of warning time about it since we told him about it over a week ago. We waited on the side of the road for over a half hour and by 9:00 we decided it was too long. It’s hard to have to say no, but there comes a time when you just have to show him that he needs to follow through and not have excuses. I think Angella gets more frustrated because she’s had a long relationship with him and he continues to do things to disappoint her expectations. I’ve only been around him a few times over the past 3 years, but in that time he’s been the source of frustration more than once because he doesn’t follow through on what he says. Hopefully some day he will figure it out before he runs out of people who try to help him.

We stopped for some Chapatti on the way so Pamela and Nick could try my mom’s favorite treat and we could get Angella some breakfast! When we got to Watoto, they recognized Angella and let us in without a problem, even though Nick and Pamela were not on the pass to get in. As we pulled up to the house, we saw there was a delivery of charcoal and the kids were all coming out to carry the big bags to their house. There are usually two children that carry one bag that probably could fit at least 8 kids in it! That’s usually how it goes at Watoto. A truck comes with Matooke, Charcoal, rice, or whatever supplies they are given, and the kids just have the task of going to get it. Some of the kids were still cleaning up their beds and washing the floors. We must have come just as the morning chores were finishing up.

We spent the whole morning playing with balloons, whoopee cushions, and handing out candy. I don’t know how the two moms handle a total of 16 children every day. It’s hard enough for me to keep track of them for a few hours! They mother’s loved all of the clothes that we had brought for them. Kenneth was sad for a while because he had fallen down at school and scraped his face. I finally found him hiding after he did his chores and I showed him the video from Joshua. He really liked it and seemed to perk up a bit afterwards. He got even more excited later on when my mom gave him a Minnesota Gophers basketball jersey from Ross. After he got the jersey, he was nothing but smiles. I showed him how to play Barrel O’ Monkeys that I had randomly picked up at Target on the way home one day. He was pretty awesome once he got the hang of it. I think he got up to ten monkeys. I got 4…..I think I need more practice.

Ruth was her usual self, looking for more sweeties all the time. Irene was hanging around me more, even though I wasn’t taking pictures with the camera. I really can’t believe how outgoing she has become! She used to stand off to the side and just watch everyone else, now she will jump in and be the center of attention. Peter was pouting every time he didn’t get what he wanted. It didn’t matter if he wanted a balloon, he wanted to be picked up, or he wanted a piece of candy. I think he has learned the system quite well. If he wants something, he can cry and look cute and he’ll get it. It’s probably not a good thing, but I don’t know if anybody tried to stop it. Simon really liked hanging close to Nick. He always seemed to be running towards him or hanging on to his hand. Diana loved the dresses we had found for her. I think she tried on all 4 of them during the time we were there. Joy and Abby are so cute and little! They just love to sit on people’s laps and cuddle. It’s fun to have all age groups here. The youngest of the original Woolies is probably Irene and she is 5 or 6. The oldest is a teenager named Martin. It seems to be a pretty good family since the older kids take care of the younger ones and the mother’s take care of all of them. I can’t believe how all of the kids’ personalities are starting to really show up. The only problem is most of them don’t speak English and the ones that do don’t speak it well. At home, the mother’s speak Luganda, so the kids only have a few hours of English each day. I think it would probably help if the kids started to speak English at home. I can’t wait to some day be able to communicate with them for real! I will either have to learn Luganda or they will have to get better at English! Hopefully they will learn English because Luganda is hard and nobody knows how to teach it back home! The best Rosetta Stone has to offer is Swahili and none of it has actually helped me yet!

The kids kept asking if they could come with us to the zoo again because they had so much fun. We knew it wasn’t possible to go that far, but Bridget said that she can take the kids out if she asks the house manager. Apparently it’s much easier to take care of the kids and get in to see them if you know the mother’s rather than going through the Watoto office. The manager was really nice when Angella and I went to talk with him. However, he has his concerns. He said that it is hard for the kids when they get a lot of visitors that come often and take them out a lot. They start to get confused as to where they belong, especially as they get older. I can understand where it gets confusing. These kids were in one home for the majority of their childhood and then they got moved here. They have two other mothers that took care of them that they called mom and many visitors that they knew and recognized. Now they have to get used to a whole new environment and they have to forget what they used to know. I am praying that they are able to finally get adjusted and eventually end up as well-adjusted teens and adults.

After the Woolies, we got home and took a nap! I was only able to sleep for 20 minutes because we had to get ready for Gloria and Frank’s wedding. Pamela and Nick stayed back and got to sleep and relax for the rest of the night. We managed to get ourselves together on time, but Jozeph 2 was more than a half our late! On top of that, it started raining as soon as we made it up the hill. Angella and Kate had to use an umbrella to get into the car. Angella and Kate both said the venue for the reception was near. Clearly our definitions of near and far are not the same because it took almost 45 minutes to get there! I would totally call that FAR. Even Angella and Kate agreed by the time we arrived that it was farther than they thought. The rain combined with totally uneven roads made travel interesting. There were huge puddles of reddish-brown water with literal piles of garbage floating in them. I don’t’ know if it’s a good thing that the garbage is getting washed away or bad because it’s just being moved from one place to another.

Apparently it’s okay to be late. We were told to be there by 5, but we didn’t get there until nearly 6. There was only an address on the reception map and invitation, so we had a hard time finding it. I was pretty sure we weren’t looking for a place called “venue”, but the cab driver kept asking people where “venue” was. As we drove by a gate, we caught a glimpse of a pink sign with “Frank and Gloria” written on it. Thank goodness because none of the plot numbers were in order, so I don’t know if we would have found it simply by looking for the numbers. There were lots of people there already, but there were at least 15 completely empty tables. It was decorated much like it would have been at home. There were beautiful bouquets of pink roses on the tables and purple clothes draping on all of the tents. Gloria was wearing a dress made by Alfred Angelo which a sister in law had brought from the states.

As we walked in there were guys with stacks of pictures, holding them out to us as we walked. I’ve been here long enough to know that people don’t give you things for free. My mom has not learned that yet. She grabbed a picture and kept walking. She showed it to us and said how great it was that they give you pictures of the wedding. All three of us laughed and we turned around to find the picture guy chasing her down the pathway. My mom gave the picture back. It’s that way pretty much everywhere you go. Everything has a price. People will even try to give you advice or directions and then after the fact they will expect some sort of payment. It’s quite ridiculous when you think about it. I didn’t ask for advice, I refused directions and kept walking, but since a guy followed me the whole way, he claims that he needs payment for his work. I have gotten the hang of saying no and refusing to pay so it’s not so overwhelming anymore. It’s just an entertaining distraction when you walk!

We got to eat lots of traditional foods at the buffet. There were a couple of kinds of meat that I didn’t eat. I’m pretty sure in addition to chicken there was goat and some sort of beef. Chapatti, rice, matooke, and beans were my main dish. In addition there were some vegetable sauces and this clump of stuff called millet. It’s a flour mixture that ends up as a sticky clump of brown slime. It reminded me of that stuff, Gak, that we could play with as kids, only it was probably a little thicker. I probably could have thrown it at the wall and it would have stuck. It just didn’t have any taste. Kate said that it usually isn’t that tasteless, but it wasn’t bad when I mixed it with some vegetable greens.

Gloria and Frank came around to serve the cake to every table. There were two live singers providing the background music and they were actually really good! Gloria was so happy to be married and to celebrate with all of her family. She finally could prove to us that Frank was real, since we kept telling her she might be making him up because every time we were supposed to meet him, he wasn’t able to come. They were having a ton of fun dancing around and celebrating their wedding. The cake looked really similar to what you would normally expect at a wedding…..5 tiers with flowers cascading from top to bottom. It didn’t taste the same! For some reason, ginger is way too popular here! The flavor was so overpowering, that I just wanted to eat something else to get the taste out of my mouth. The only option I had left was a fermented porridge that was still on the table. It was good for a few sips when we initially got it, but by then, it was separated with an oily mixture on top and the specks of ground spices and whatever else in a brown liquid in the rest of the glass. I decided the cake taste was better than drinking more of that.
The way Gloria had talked about the dance, I expected a ton of people on a dance floor. I was mistaken. There was one dance that the bridal party had a choreographed dance to a song called “Step in the name of Love”. It looked a lot like the electric slide. It was good, but then it went on for 20 minutes! At least they were having lots of fun with it. After that, things went downhill. It turns out that everybody gets to talk at weddings! It probably wouldn’t have been as hard to handle if there was more English or Luganda! At least with Luganda, Angella could have interpreted. Many people were speaking the local language from Gloria’s home. People would switch from English to the local language in the middle of a sentence! Everybody got a chance to speak….parents, aunts, uncles, sisters, cousins….. It was kind of a good idea to include so many people, but they ended up saying the same things over and over again. At one point I think Gloria even was bored. I watched as Frank started his speech and she was really happy, and slowly her smile got less enthusiastic, she stopped holding his arm tightly, and she started looking around instead of paying attention.

We decided that around 9:30 that we should leave. We called Jozeph 2 and he said he would be there soon. Soon must be similar in meaning to near. We waiting for 20 minutes inside and then decided it would be a good time to be outside. We ended up standing outside the garden for another half hour or so. At least he showed up! He got us home in one piece and he avoided any place that might have had a jam. It was another long day and we’re going to have a big day tomorrow, too! I think we will finally get a bit of a break on Tuesday, but who knows what will come up between now and then!