Day 20 - July 25

Sundays are always good, but when you put the Woolies on a Sunday, they are even more amazing! We had to go to the earliest service at 8:00 in order to have enough time to walk to Garden City to meet with the Woolies. The woman who spoke at the service is a children’s pastor, which I really appreciated. When you talk to little kids a lot, you have to find ways to keep their short attention spans interested for a long time. She used stories and visual aids over and over again so there was always something to keep you alert and awake, which was good because I was tired from the late night and early morning. The sermon was about letting your light shine. Sometimes it’s hard to be the light and show love to people when you are worn out or when the things of the world start to wear on you. It’s so important to be aware of our light because so many people may never have somebody being that positive influence in their lives. If we aren’t, who will do the job?

She ended with a story about Luther the Lighthouse, who lights the way for all the ships coming in. After many days of never being thanked for leading the ships with soldiers coming home from war to the harbor, he decided to sleep one night instead of shining his light. Two ships came at the same time from opposite directions and he didn’t wake up until they had crashed into each other, killing on the soldiers. He had given up because he was frustrated and he didn’t realize how important his job was until something bad had happened. The pastor then explained that we are shining for people’s lives every day in a different way. It’s such an important responsibility. I think we really need to rely on God to help us shine our light. We are not the source of any light, but a vessel that He uses to spread the light. If we can focus on him as the source and not rely on our own strength, it becomes much easier to let your light shine. When people see that we live our lives differently and we are loving people in practical ways, they see a different way to live life. It’s hard to be here and not get bitter or worn out of all the poverty and sadness. People see Mzungu and expect us to give them everything they need. It is tiring to not be able to do everything and frustrating to be expected to do so much. I know that the only way that we are able to do as much as we have is through what God has allowed us to do.

After church, we walked through the craft market to just see what was around on our way to Garden City. Not too many of the shops were open, so we only spent a short time looking and buying a few random things. We were still a little early by the time we arrived, so we decided to get an early lunch at Javas. I have eaten there so much and I generally get the same two things – Tuna melt or Avocado and cheese sandwich, but I haven’t gotten sick of them yet! I decided I wanted to eat before we get to Garden City because I had a feeling it would be hard to keep track of the kids eating while if we were trying to eat ourselves.

When we arrived at Garden City, it wasn’t hard to find the kids! Rose and Bridget had dressed all of them in nice clothes and shoes and then were waiting inside the entrance. They were so excited to see us and came running up to greet us. We walked them all up to the second level where there is a little play area with a slide and some stuff for them to climb on. There weren’t too many other children around, so it was good for them to be able to run around and be crazy without disturbing other kids. I always worry because they don’t really have any boundaries at Watoto. They can’t get out of the gates, so they can basically run wherever they want and be safe. Garden City is a different story. At one point, Peter climbed on top of the flower bed and started walking towards the edge. I ran as fast I could to grab him off so he didn’t take too many steps and fall two stories down onto the pavement of the parking lot. My mom had taken the two moms shopping for shoes and some things they wanted at the grocery store, so it was up to Nick, Pamela, Angella, Kate and I to watch all 15 of them. The ratio was not in our favor, but we somehow managed. Pamela and Angella sat outside by the fountain to catch the ones that came out of the play area and Nick, Kate and I patrolled to make sure none of them got to close to the edges or started to walk back to the stores. At one point I pulled Kenneth and a few of the kids that remember Ross aside. It’s become tradition that we wake up somebody back home to the sound of the Woolies saying hello. It was only 4:30 in the morning, but I figured Ross wouldn’t mind. Kenneth was excited to hear him talking. I’m not sure what Ross was saying, but I don’t think Kenneth understood everything. Trevor, Peter, and Irene also said hello. I can’t wait to show Ross the video of them taking. They were so smiley and happy to be on the phone! After the phone calls, I could tell they were starting to get bored, so I walked over to the toy store and bought a couple of balls. They worked well until one fell over the edge and a security guard picked it up and took it. At least they had one more to play with.

The balls didn’t distract them for too long, so I decided to go and search for my mom and the two moms from Watoto to see about eating. I tried to sneak away, but Ruth and Trevor kept following me, so I let them come only if they promised to hold my hand and stay by me. I think Ruth had heard me say something about food so she wanted to stay close. As we started down the ramp, I noticed Kirabo and John coming behind me. I let them stay, but had to keep telling them to come closer and not run away. We were able to find the three moms in the grocery store and they said we could go ahead and order food and they would come upstairs later.

Once we got upstairs, we had the task of gathering all 15 kids to the food court and set them down on tables and chairs all in a row. Every restaurant sent menus over for us to choose from. Nick said he was confused because he assumed it was like food courts at home where you choose what you want. Here, all the restaurants try to make their place look the most appealing so they want to get their menus in your face the fastest. We knew chicken and fries would be the best. We ordered 14 plates, one for each kid except Joy and Abby, who were so little that they could just share. The place that sold the chicken didn’t have any soda so we had to get them from one of the other stores. At that point, we didn’t really know who we were ordering from, but I’m sure they kept track of the money we owed pretty carefully.

By the time the food started to come, Abby was completely asleep and Pamela’s lap. We tried to get her to wake up, but she just kept closing her eyes. When you’re tired, you just have to sleep. Lucky girl! I could have fallen asleep at that point too! Joy kept me busy. She needed help with her chicken and chips. She also has a great way of drinking Fanta with a straw. She hasn’t quite learned that you don’t have to tip the bottle, so every now and then if I wasn’t paying attention, I would end up with Fanta all over my skirt and covering Joy’s dress. She didn’t seem to mind, and my brown skirt could cover the wet spots. Ruth was the last one left eating. She savors every bite and always cleans her plate. All of the other kids had gone back to play but she wanted to stay and finish. It’s always good entertainment when Ruth is at the dinner table! Her face is completely focused on the food and she is aware of every place that the food goes. Once she was finished, we finally got all the kids back to the play area to run around for a bit. They had been out since 11 and it was nearly 3:30. We could tell they were starting to get a little crazy, and they were harder to contain.

As we were trying to get them down the stairs, Bridget stopped to talk to two women. My mom was with them and they kept talking for a while. Finally I told them we needed to go. My mom said that the woman was the doctor for the kids. As we were continuing to gather the troops I looked back. The American doctor did not look pleased as she surveyed the scene and talked to her friend. I don’t know if she didn’t approve of the kids being out or if she was just having a bad day. I really hope that it doesn’t cause a problem for the kids or the mothers. We had gotten approval to go out to Garden City, but I never really feel like I know the rules at Watoto. Every time we are told something, there always seems to be a way around it. I don’t want to go outside of the boundaries of the organization, but I also think it’s important to let the kids see life outside of where they live. They are basically in a compound that they never have to leave because their home, school, church, and doctor are all within the same fence. If they don’t get out, they won’t understand how the rest of the world works and it will be a much harder adjustment when they leave. I just don’t know what the right things to do in the situation are. It’s an all around crappy situation to have no parents, but Watoto does a good job of trying to give the kids a good experience. There are just so many children to take care of and none of them really gets the attention that they would if they were being brought up in a home with their mom and dad. It is quite heartbreaking when I think of how much love and attention I got growing up versus how much these kids get to be pampered one on one with their house mother.trying to look after all of them.

We decided to walk by one of the markets on our way to the mtatu stand. Angella and Kate went home to take a nap. The market wasn’t too busy, so it was good to be able to just walk around. Pamela found some bags and things for her sisters and my mom found some jewelry that she really liked. Nick found a piece of grass that he could lay down on. We only had a few minutes to shop once we were done, we walked down the street to the taxi stand. A nearly empty Mtatu pulled up and we got it. I should have known better! Empty mtatu’s usually mean that you will be waiting a long time for them to fill up. It was fine until we got to Wandegeya. It was raining so there weren’t that many people outside anymore. There were dozens of mtatu’s waiting to fill up. We had to inch our way into a parking spot. It was the first time in a long time that we had to wait a long time. It took almost a half hour for us to get filled up and start moving again. At least it was only kind of hot and there was a bit of a breeze. We were going to be late for the 6:00 culture show that is near Ntinda, but it didn’t matter too much. People will always let you pay the admission!

We met up with Angella around 6:15 on the street corner and then walked down to get on a different Mtatu. It was only a few minutes to get to the show. Even though we were 45 minutes late by the time we walked in, there were still many open tables and the introduction had not happened yet. The host is an energetic man in his 50’s who loves to dance and tell jokes. He kept us entertained, even though we were exhausted.

The dances are very different in every region of the country. Angella is great to sit next to because she explains the meaning of every dance and tells stories about the people that live in that area. My favorite things is to watch her reaction when they host tells jokes. I’m pretty sure that she laughs harder, longer, and louder than anybody else in the audience!

Halfway through, it started to sprinkle, so we decided to move the show inside. We all had to pick up our chairs and go to the small auditorium. Everybody managed to fit in the small space, with chairs crammed as close as possible to one another. When Pamela went to sit down, the feet of the chair must have been crooked, because the back leg just snapped! Fortunately she was able to keep her balance and not completely fall down, but she had to sit on the cement step for the remainder of the show. Just about the same time, Angella managed to spill coffee all over the front of her jacket. We clearly were having issues tonight! On top of that, we had tried to text Jozeph about picking us up, but he misread the text and showed up an hour early and then got upset with us. I don’t want our favorite cab driver to be upset with us! We convinced him to come back later, but he was not happy to have to leave and then return. My mom went out to talk to him and he realized that he had misread the text and the misunderstanding was his fault. He was much less upset and apologized to us.

Tomorrow is going to be another early morning because we are going to Jinja to ride horses and see the Nile. We arranged for Jozeph to bring us to the taxi park early in the morning. We’ll have to squeeze all of us into his car, but hopefully we’ll be able to sneak past any traffic cops along the way. It was another exhausting day, but totally entertaining and fun!