My Life Through the Eyes of Me: Just another big kid

I love the Wooly Kids! After knowing them since 2007, I feel like I have watched them grow up before my eyes and become vibrant young men and women who have such strong personalities. It's so much fun to spend time with them now that they are a little older and we can talk with them and tell stories. Kenneth, Trevor, Arthur, Kirabu, Martin, and John are now all ages 11 and up and they have started to take on bigger responsibilities at home. Arthur helps a lot with cooking. Kirabu has been helping with the media at church services. Martin is in senior high school and wants to be an engineer. I almost always lose sight of Kenneth and Trevor when we visit Watoto and usually find out that they were going to help with hauling food from trucks or cleaning the house. It's always really fun to see the older boys watching out for the younger kids, too. They make sure that all the little ones aren't left behind and they gently correct them when they are fighting or not following the rules. It's been very rare that I have seen them bullying the younger kids but occasionally I see them snatch a toy or a piece of candy from the little ones either to tease them or just plain be mean. I don't think it's much more than what Ross probably did to me as a kid and I would never say that he was a bully to his little sister.

Every year since the second year we were here, we have managed to take the kids to a fun place outside of the village. We have gone to the zoo, to the mall to eat chicken, and even to a big kids event at the rugby field. This year we went to a new kids park at a mall called Freedom City. When Joseph dropped us off and said there is a nice pool, I had a hard time envisioning where a pool would be in a mall. It turns out the entire top floor is a kids area complete with 3 pools, carnival style rides, trampolines, swings, and a big outdoor concert stage. Since Easter Monday was a holiday and Tuesday was not, the place had been packed full the previous day, but today was deserted, especially in the morning on Tuesday. We got the whole place basically to ourselves for the first couple of hours which meant we had the freedom to run around and not worry about losing any of them.

To make it a short post, I am just putting some of the pictures we posted to capture the day. The kids just make me happy and some of these totally capture their personality. We are off on a 3 day safari until Saturday! I'm hoping for not too much rain and safe driving all the way to Queen Elizabeth!

Trevor jumping on one of the seven trampolines

This and the next are my two favorites. Kenneth had just climbed all the way to the top and you can't see it, but one of the other boys is trying to pull him down.

Joy - she's mischievous and full of energy and will do whatever she wants if you don't watch her carefully. This face is pretty much how I can sum her up.

Irene - I picture her as the most calm of the kids. She is always even tempered and has a smile that lights up the room

Hanging out with Arthur, my sponsored kid. I looked at old photos of him from the first time I met him and he is SO grown up!

Their favorite past-time - eating chicken and chips.

I think my mom was in her glory, getting to have Irene sit on her lap the whole mtatu ride home. There were 2 moms, 3 other adults, the driver, and 16 kids crammed into one.

The whole crew waiting to go inside. It is not easy to get them to stand still when they know we are about to start an adventurous day!

Arthur, Trevor, and Joshua - three of the boys with the biggest smiles

Swimming - Patricia was on tour with the choir and we met her in Canada. She had recognized us from visiting Bbira in the past and we were able to find her when we visited last week.