Day 18 - July 23

Today was the day for Pamela and Nick to arrive! We had a lot of random preparations to do before they got here, but I think we got it under control pretty well. It was our last night sleeping in our own beds so I’m glad I got a good night’s sleep! After Susan woke up, we brought the single bed that I was sleeping in to her room for Nick to sleep in and we moved the full size mattress onto the floor in our room. I will probably sleep in the same bed as mom and Pamela will have the mattress on the floor. It should be a good set-up, but it is much smaller than sleeping with somebody on a queen bed like mine at home. Some days I really miss my pillow top! What we have here is better than a lot of places we could be sleeping in this country, so I will be thankful for whatever we end up with!

We also had to sort through all of the clothes, books, and games we had for donating to the orphanages. I really don’t like the fact that I am the one that decides the fate of who gets what. I don’t feel worthy to determine that some kids will get more books and others won’t get any. When you can see first hand what each of these kids live with on a daily basis, it’s hard to deny them anything because they have so little to begin with. The problem is there are always limited resources. There is limited money, limited clothes, limited books. We just personally don’t have a billion dollars so we can’t buy everything for everybody. Even if I did have a lot of money, spending it at these places would not fix any problem. It would just temporarily stave off hunger and improve their ability to learn at home for a short time. Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime. The problem is, I don’t know how to teach anything useful yet and we don’t have the time or money to set up something to big. What we can do is look for ways to get these orphanages connected to the big organizations that can help them get housing, food, and school support for the children. It was interesting to see the most recent orphanage and how they had gotten funding for their basic needs. I hope that we can look for ways to connect places without these basic provisions to the organizations that can help them. For now, we need to focus on the medicine because that is the purpose of the trip!

We had to go back to the flea market because we had promised Little Angel that we would buy them shoes. The mothers told us so many sad stories about how the money had run out and Max is having a hard time paying them. I know we don’t have the money and it would set up for a really sticky situation if we started to pay them anything. I think a lot of places see us coming in and want us to provide more than the medicine we are offering. This trip we have some extra money from people at home who wanted to give to our projects, so we’ve been able to get food and dishes and shoes. It’s hard to provide these things without setting some sort of precedent for future trips. Troy does a really good job of focusing on the mission all the time. I need to take more tips from him! He’s been working with people in this country for many years and he’s seen so many projects come and go. He’s learned what works and what doesn’t. I’m still learning, and I’m sure I’ll get burned along the way, but at least I can say that I’ve tried all sorts of things!

At the market, it was much less busy, and since the weather was not as hot, it was much more bearable to be standing around looking at things. We decided shoes were our main goal and we should really focus on getting them taken care of before anything else. We found a good pile of them about halfway down the market. The woman originally said 25,000 per pair ($12.50 or so). We weren’t going to pay any more than 10 so we decided to pick out the quantity we would need and then negotiate later. All we had to go on was a piece of paper with lines drawn for each of the 14 kids feet. We dug through at least a hundred shoes and finally found one shoe from each set. I’m pretty sure that all of the shoes had been painted and it’s likely that some of them weren’t black to start with. There were some Nike shoes and other athletic shoes that were definitely not meant to be black! I assumed that there would be another pile with the partners to our shoes, but unfortunately I was wrong. The matches were somewhere in the pile! You had to use any landmark you possible could on each shoe. It might be the laces or a pattern on the toe. Sometimes you just had to check out the bottom and look for a pattern. It was like playing a giant game of matching only you don’t have cards neatly arranged and you have no idea what part of the pile you’ve looked at. We were able to find all of them after about ten minutes of searching! Yay us! It turns out it takes 4 people to do the job, but we got it done! The woman was pleased that we were buying so many so she decided to give us a fair price of 10,000 per shoe! Now we just have to hope that all of them will fit somebody when we return to Little Angel. Even if they don’t, we will be providing something that they didn’t have.

I needed a pair of dressy shoes for the wedding. It was one time I decided that my Chacos just wouldn’t cut it. There were some women’s shoes on a tarp a few steps away so I decided to check them out. Thank goodness I’m in Uganda and not some place where people have little feet! Even Angella, who is much shorter than I am, has nearly the same size feet as me. Since more people have bigger feet, that means that there are generally bigger shoes! I was able to find a pair of gold heels within a few minutes. The man insisted on helping me put them on. In addition to always uncomfortable with people touching my feet, I realized they were covered in mud from walking around and they are dried out from all the sun and sand! He didn’t seem to mind, so he tied the strap and made them look cute. He wanted 25,000 for them, so I just pulled out a 20,000 and he said okay. I probably should have tried for less, but I didn’t want a hassle and he seemed to understand my need so he took the 20 and gave me my new shoes!

We still had a random list of underwear, buckets, trays, oil, cups, toilet paper, and a few other random things. We had to stop at a few other places on the way out. In the meantime, our cab driver, Jozeph arrived and had to wait in the parking lot of a gas station. I ran over and dropped off the shoes. A security guard claimed I needed to buy him a soda in order for him to allow Jozeph to park. I told him I would return and get it. I ran off to help Angella and my mom carry more things and buy the rest. When I came back again, I offered to get the soda and he said he would take the money instead. I laughed and said no way. I know that it really doesn’t cost anything to park there and he knew I knew that, but he still tried!

We got our stuff home just in time for our new cab driver, Jozeph 2, to come and pick us up. Since Jozeph’s car isn’t big enough, he gave us the number for his friend to come and help us get Pamela and Nick from the airport. I just don’t know how we always end up knowing two people with identical names. It’s kind of like finding the shoes in the stack. It seems impossible, but you always find another one! His car sits 7, but the back still doesn’t have a trunk. I didn’t think we’d be able to make it work, but I decided to let it play out once we got to the airport.

On the way out of town, we quickly decided that the jam was worse than usual. We were stopped more than we were moving and there were times we would not move for more than 5 minutes. My mom was able to buy some alphabet and number charts from a guy on the side of the road. It’s a whole new way to window shop. We finally figured out that the African Union Summit was the cause of our problems. We kept seeing convoys of 6 or seven motorcycles, 5 big cars with huge stickers on the windows with different nation’s flags, and always an ambulance near the end. Everybody would have to stop to let them pass. I’m pretty sure that between Kampala and Entebbe we saw al least a dozen, some going to the airport and others to the city.

Once we got to Entebbe, we found a boda driver that gave us an idea of where to get some fish and chips. We were coming early so we could meet Joshua, a boy that used to live at Need for All Orphanage but now lives with his father and stepmother in Entebbe. Last year, we went with him to his last chemotherapy appointment at Mulago. We are hoping he is now cancer-free, but we were hopeful just knowing he was still alive! Since the ride took over two hours instead of just one, he had been waiting with his family’s maid for over 2 hours! We got to town and as we walked down the sidewalk, we saw Joshua peek around the corner and as soon as he recognized us, he came running as fast as he could. He was grinning ear to ear and grabbed my hand immediately as we starting walking back down the road. We ordered some food at a local bar and just talked with the maid and with Joshua. We had bought him school books, reading books, two drawing pads, pencils, colored pencils, and crayons. We also had a beanie baby that is a snake that I made sure to set aside for him. I remembered that when we went to the zoo, he was more excited to see the snakes than any other animal! He loved the gifts. He is a great artist and he said the kids at school always ask him to draw things for him. We recorded a video to show Kenneth back at Watoto. It broke my heart when he said that he wanted to see Kenneth, but his mom said that he couldn’t come! I wish there was a way to make it work. I have a hope that some day they’ll be able to at least hang out again together. We went back to sit down and Joshua decided to color a picture for Wooly Bully. He sat down and drew an amazing picture of Spiderman, complete with all the details! I’m sure Ross can add it to his collection of great pictures from special kids that he gets. It was sad to have to leave Joshua again. His dad wasn’t able to come and join us like he planned, so we still don’t know is medical status. He looks good and told us he just takes daily medicine, which are possibly supplements, but it didn’t sound like he still goes to the hospital. Joshua is in a good school because his dad is a sergeant in the army and he is seeming to like where he lives. I know he misses the other children, but I think he’s very fortunate to be able to have at least one parent to grow up with.

I got worried we wouldn’t make it to the airport in time for the plane that arrived with Pamela and Nick at 8:19. We got to security at 8:25 and we had to get out of the car to go through a check which Jozeph 2 drove the car and got searched. He picked us up and we droved the rest of the way to the parking lot. It looked the people were just coming through customs, so we made it just in time! As I walked up to the doors, I saw Pamela and Nick walking through the main doors. It was perfect timing! After exchanging money and introducing everybody, we headed to the car. We managed to get all the luggage in the furthest seat, which meant we had to squeeze 4 people in the middle seat. Fortunately it is one of the better roads in the country and it’s a cooler time of day. For an hour and half, my mom, Angella, Pamela and I got really cozy as we drove home. It was great to finally have them here and the trip will take on a different tone as we work on showing them what Uganda has to offer and finish up the work for Medicine for Sick Children. Hopefully all of the work that Angella and my mom and I have done will make it a worthwhile experience. Once we got home and situated everything, it was nearly 11. We got to bed as soon as we could since we have an early morning tomorrow to go and see the Woolies at Watoto!