The day itself went fairly smoothly. We started a little earlier - around 8 to go to Catherine's house to pick up paper necklaces and some beach dresses. She is the woman who runs Agape, if you didn't remember - or I forgot to say. Her house is actually extremely close to Angella's so it was an easy stop. She really is a sweet lady and it was great to see her outside of Agape. She does everything she can to keep the place running and care for the boys there and the girls that they keep in Gulu. I was also able to talk with her more about some of the boys and the way that they have come to the home. It was great to have time to sit down and talk to her about their stories. We also got to meet two of her three children. It's always nice to see people's homes and meet their families. You get a much better picture of who they are and what they are really like - not just how the act when they are working! We were supposed to make it a quick stop and then go home for breakfast. Instead, Catherine insisted on giving us tea - which then turned into breakfast! Two hours later, we were full of fried cassava (the best I have had in this place), eggs, and toast.
Next we had to stop at Mulago. It turns out that we accidentally had left a spreadsheet with all of the measurements of the kids from Mubende at the house where the boys were staying. We were supposed to get it from somebody but they were unable to find it. I just couldn't stand the thought that it was possibly lost for good and we would have to either be missing all that data or we would have to give Angella the horrible task of returning on the long journey and doing it all herself! I was not hopeful, but I thought I would give it a try. I had to talk to the house manager who was super nice and let me in to the house. I didn't find any papers where I expected them to be so I started frantically searching the entire bookshelf that had a ton of loose papers. After about 10 minutes I had a glorious moment of success when I spotted an excel printout! I am so thankful that we were able to find it!
Next, we decided to go shopping for chests to bring to Watoto. We had promised to help them out with them since they didn't have any shelves at the house and organizing things was always difficult. We ended up shopping at a craft store - hopefully our last time because I am sure Angella couldn't handle any more! Then we walked up to where they make a bunch of the chests. We split up from Angella to see if we could get a good price. We were hoping for 35,000 per case. The initial price that every seller offered was 75,000. Both Angella and I were able to get separate sellers down to 35,000 and since neither had enough cases, they both got to sell us some. It's amazing how quickly you get pounced on when they know you are buying. At one point we had at least 5 different people running up to us trying to get us to buy their cases. People work really hard to make a living and they know that have to be persistent to make a sale!
Getting the cases to Watoto was our next challenge. We thought for sure we would have to rent a truck or something. We walked back to get the car - and picked up some delicious fresh mangoes along the way. The car we were driving is a CR-V and it fit exactly 10 cases! We were so glad we didn't have to rent a car or deal with following a delivery guy all the way to the Watoto village!
Visiting the kids was great as usual, but a lot of the kids were at a camp so the older ones really weren't around much. We got to spend some quality time with the moms and the kids that weren't at camp. We were only there for a couple of hours but it was nice to at least get to see them one last time. We eventually got to see all the kids for just a little bit as they came back while they were on a break. I was sad to leave them, but I am excited that I will be able to write to Arthur, the one that I sponsor, and keep in touch with all of them!
The rest of the day was pretty low-key. We stopped by a DJ's place to get some local and African cd's made. For 24,000 ($12) I got three MP3 cd's with over 100 songs each. I don't understand the words in most of them, but they are fun to listen to! I hope they are good. I haven't had time to listen to them all yet.
My mom made dinner for us. It started out as tacos, but ended up with taco-seasoned meat over rice with some cheese. We didn't find tortillas, the lettuce that she bought didn't look great, and we totally gave up on trying to describe sour cream at the grocery store! It was still a great meal, though! Patt, Flavia, and Patricia joined us and we got worked up talking about Little Angels, but other than that the mood was light and relaxed! I am going to miss all these people so much! They are just wonderful! This morning I am going on one last run and its going to be with Patt! It will be fun to just go for a relaxing jog. We are almost packed because we wanted to have mostly everything done before we go to church so we aren't stressed about making it home to pack before leaving for the airport. I am still a little bit in denial that we are leaving. There were so many times yesterday that I started thinking about leaving while we were driving or just sitting around. Every time I think about it, I start to tear up so instead Angella and I start making jokes and pretend it's not happening! Tonight we will face reality and be sad but for now, we are enjoying our last hours!!
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