Day 5 - Wooly Bully!! July 10

WOOLY BULLY! I’m writing on a computer screen full of fingerprints and it makes me so happy! The Woolies were all over the computer watching videos of Ross and Rachel and from their trip to the zoo last year! We’re so glad we got to see them today! For anybody who doesn’t know why I use the term “Woolies” all the time, let me give you a summary so you don’t have to read two years of past blogs to find out. There was an orphanage called Need for All, that our friend Angella has taken Ross and I to see. The first trip, Ross taught them the song “Wooly Bully” and that’s now what they call him. We returned the nickname by calling them all the Woolies. There are nine of them total but after this year we may have to add some members! We have helped them out with things they need every year and we go to visit them numerous times. Last year we took them on a field trip to the zoo and we went with one of them to get treatment for Burkitt Lymphoma of the abdomen at Mulago hospital (Joshua is this boy, but it turns out he has a father so he went back to live with him in Entebbe). On our last trip we discovered that the woman left in charge, Ruth, was stealing money and basically making life for the Woolies miserable. It’s bad enough to be abandoned by your family but then they were put in an orphanage that started out great but clearly got much worse! The director, who what Ruth’s boss, decided to move the kids to Watoto orphanage, which is run by a HUGE church in Uganda in order to give the kids a better chance at life. It was a great plan, but executed very poorly. One day the Watoto van just showed up to take the kids. They all got in but didn’t realize what was happening. The two house mothers explained on the way. By the time they arrived, the house mothers told us all of the kids were crying. They had to leave them with new mothers at Watoto and the kids would not stop crying so neither could the mothers. Luckily, Angella knew somebody who was a social worker at Watoto so we were able to walk in and see them a week later. By that time they were more adjusted and saw the good things about their new home. For example, they got food every day – clearly better than at Need for All. Now they are basically adopted by Watoto and will get to go to school, university, and basically have a family within Watoto for the rest of their lives.

Okay, now that you know the background, you can understand that we have a history with them and really wanted to see them. My mom has loved these kids from home in Minnesota since the first pictures she saw back in 2007 on Ross’ first trip. We pray for them, we try to send them things, and I pretty much think of them every day of my life. Their pictures are all over my walls. It’s as if I have 9 children, but they happen to live thousands of miles away. Kenneth, Trevor, Joshua, Arthur, Henry, Simon, Peter, Irene and Ruth will always be our little Woolies, even though they are getting very big!

We found a man to drive Susan’s car so it wasn’t as expensive as getting a special taxi. We thought about taking Bodas from where a Mtatu could have brought us, but I’m pretty sure that would have been a bad idea and mom wouldn’t have like it! It took us nearly an hour to get there, but we took some “highways” which were actually really nice paved roads. I’m pretty sure they are better than all of the roads in Duluth! (in town is a different story – potholes the size of lakes fill most of them!) At the gate, three guards checked our car and took down information before letting us pass. When we pulled up to the house, we saw Ruth and Irene peeking around the corner. Once they saw Angella, they smiled and ran around the house. We got out and started walking to them and they just kept creeping around the house. My mom went up to them right away and showed the girls and a few of the neighbors the pictures on her ipod. Angella and I continued into the house and found Arthur, Henry, Peter, and Simon sitting all in a row on the couch. They have gotten so much taller! Henry has lost his chubby cheeks and a few teeth. Peter is still really skinny, but the doctors say he has no health problems. Simon’s ears still stick out but not as much as they seemed to last time. Arthur is still a handsome young boy with a huge smile that I love to see! The other kids came to join us as well. Kenneth and Trevor both look about the same but I’m sure they’ve gained a few inches. Ruth and Irene are so much different. They are both about the same height now, but they are probably twice as tall as they were the first time I met them over 2 years ago.

I set up the message that Ross and Rachel had recorded on video for them to watch. The kids laughed when they heard their names. Kenneth has a special bond with Ross. He couldn’t take his eyes off the screen and when Ross said things he would repeat them to the group. He got really excited when he saw dad and yelled, “that’s Wooly’s dad” and when Rocky showed up he said “Wooly has a dog!”. Later, Kenneth came up to my mom and grabbed her hand and said “I miss him”. It breaks my heart to hear him say things like that. It’s hard for these kids to have connections with people and then have them leave. They have two wonderful new mothers, Bridget and Hope who do an amazing job with the kids, but they really have only known them for 1 year and they have a whole life together with other mothers that raised them for over 4 years. We don’t even know if those mothers have gotten to see them since the got to Watoto.

We did the usual running around and playing with cameras which seems to be a favorite past time with the kids. Peter still LOVES to be picked up, so he was in one of our arms almost all the time, except when he was chasing bubbles. He’s hysterical to watch every time there is picture. If you count to three, he yells “wooly bully” and then counts again, “1, 2, 3” and expects everybody else to say it too! It’s amazing that was Ross taught them has stuck so much with them! Irene loves the camera and she is very talkative, which is like a whole other person from the one we first met that was scared of almost everybody and just likes to hide in a corner. She grabbed my hand and walked me over to her house to show me her stuffed animals. Irene is such a sweet little girl and it’s good to see her changing so much!

When we left to get in the car, Peter led the crew in opening the door and putting the seat back. The older boys helped us with our bags and got us situated. My mom started to cry as she left simply because she was so happy to meet them but so sad to have to leave them. Any day that starts with seeing the Woolies is a good one!

On the way home, Godfrey stopped a few times to buy food at the markets and drop them off at his sister’s house and where his wife works. People here really try to look out for their families. Angella and Susan explained to us that if there are people who need things, they go to their family members who are always there for support with money, food, or homes. It’s really a completely different attitude than what we have at home. It seems like most people are out for whatever they need for themselves. However, from what I’ve seen, the poorer the people are, the more they are willing to give. In the South side of Chicago, for example, we met with families who were taking in nieces and nephews and neighborhood children while they barely had anything for themselves. Here it is the same thing, only the majority of people have practically nothing yet they still give all that they have. I don’t know if I could do that. Sure, I give some but I am really giving enough? There is so much MORE I could be doing with my time and my money. I still get caught up in doing my own thing and buying the things that I want. I clearly need to re-think a lot of what I do. Every year this is a sobering trip for me and it forces me to re-evaluate life when I return.

The rest of the night was fairly relaxing. We were able to go home and take a nap (Woolies tend to wear you out). Then we went for dinner at Garden City at Nawab, which is a beautiful Indian restaurant overlooking the entire city. They also provided free internet, so we were able to update some of our blog information and reply to emails. It’s nice not having the internet, but it also is difficult to keep up on what is going on in the world when you are not around it.