Jenny, Wasswa and Kato

Jenny is 8 years old, Wasswa and Kato are twin boys who are 4 years old, although all their birthdays are unknown, and we are told that Wasswa and Kato might even be 5, which is just hard to believe because they are so little!! Wasswa means first one and Kato means last one; that is what all twin boys are named here. These siblings are also in the first children's home and are just the happiest three kids in the world! Their parents died of Aids a couple years ago, they were living with a Grandma and some older siblings as well. When these three were brought to the children's home last July it was thought that Wasswa and Kato might not survive as they were quite malnourished and sick. Now they are thriving! These boys will run from anywhere they see us to leap into our arms or tackle Avin. Every Sunday in church Jeff and I hold either Kato or Wasswa for the entire church service (...much longer than at home!!) Jenny is an energetic little girl, and has made a good friend to Joel, they chase eachother around everyday. You can't walk by any of these three kids without getting a huge smile!

Construction Begins

We were often warned to not expect things to happen quickly here in Uganda, and there certainly has been our share of waiting on things..but that can’t be said for the construction!! When given the go ahead to start the play field, a tractor showed up 3 hours later and began working! This also happened to be at 6pm, here in Uganda it is already pitch black by 7pm, so Jeff was out with a flashlight and the tractor had its headlights on working well into the night.

The next morning we were very excited to see the children looking at this field where there would be a soccer field and a playground, and we saw how happy they were!! We spent yesterday raking the field, collecting rocks and leveling it out before we plant grass, which here takes approximately one month to grow.


Here’s the tractor hard at work.


Jeff and Joel working away


Jeff’s feet after working in the field all day!

Children's Homes

Here are the first 13 children, clockwise starting with Avin (the little blonde girl), Sylvia, Harriet, Segawa, Betty, Kristin, Finny, Joyce, Job, Frank, Jenny, Matrid, Kato, Joel, Wasswa and Cissy, this is of course what we call them, they have much more complex names!

Most of you know that there is one Children’s Home on the property where we are staying, there are 13 children in it right now. We get to be a part of adding 16 new children to finish filling the first home and completely fill the second home. This week we have been hard at work preparing the second home, cleaning the windows, sweeping floors, setting up beds, hanging mosquito nets…….Our kids have been very helpful while we’ve been working, at times helping us, but at other times playing nicely with each other nearby, allowing us to get a lot do

Christine

Kristen is one of the girls in the first children’s home, she is 10 years old. Our kids have grown to love all the children here, but especially Kristen, she comes and says hi to us in the mornings before school, and also comes here first afterschool, Finny runs to her from anywhere on the property. She is like a big sister to all the kids in her home, always helping with a big smile on her face. Her parents died when she was 6 years old, she has a half brother somewhere unknown. She is at Primary 5 level in her education, the Kiddie Care school that all of the other children attend (beside Pastor Michael’s home) only goes up to Primary 4. This school will increase a level each year though, so these kids will continue here thru Primary 7. So Kristen, being a level ahead, had to attend a public school in the area. Public schools here are not like at home, they can have up to 70 kids in a class designed for 30, there is no merit put into a public school education. Kristen would leave for school at 7am while we were getting out of bed and she would return from school around 530 pm while we were preparing dinner, she would have only had one small meal at her school during that time, as well it was a long walk for her to the public school. Most private schools supply two meals per day. We asked Mulumba (Property manager) if there was a better solution for her, and asked why she doesn’t go to the private school that is directly across the road from the church. He said they don’t have the money to send her there. The cost for private school here is $37 a term; there are 3 terms per year. They were quite shocked when we told them what private schools cost at home! We asked Kristen about switching schools, the new year for them began in February, but she said that she would like to attend the school nearby, so we have paid for her tuition, uniform and new supplies, which came to about $80……. Although she was a bit upset at first when after testing she was told she would be in the Primary 4 class because of the higher standards of education, she has adjusted really well into her new class.

African Bugs

Where do we start......

the bugs here are pretty intense. Some are beautiful and some are quite scary. The bees here sound like a weed whacker and we usually run for cover. The ants.......OH the ants.....there are millions of them. We're pretty sure our particular house was carefully placed right on top of their home. The kids have enjoyed chasing what they call stick bugs, these are big bugs that look like sticks as well they play with millipedes.

This is a gecko, the often come right inside the house but usually stay outside in the sun, this is a small one, the big ones usually are called lizards and they like to come out in the middle of the night and look at us when we're in the bathroom.

We think this is a moth, it was big and very white, with a red belly, something about it looked like a moth, but big.

The next one is a huge snail we saw on the sidewalk downtown Kampala.

And the last one, our favorite, is the Spider. The picture is actually taken in a big red bin, not a bowl (although still in our kitchen) just to give you a sense of how big it is. It was probably 3 plus inches accross, black and yellow, it was so heavy it couldn't crawl out of the bin. We carried the bin outside to ask Amos, our security guard, what kind of spider it was, he told us "oh, that's a huge spider" when asked if it bites we were told that they don't bite but they spit some sort of poison that bruises you. We were happy to know they don't see these that often.

Hotel Africana

After the dental team left we spent two days cleaning our place, inside and out!! Some organization with our unpacking was defnitely needed. We then had a couple days off so we decided to spend them together in Kampala, the kids have been excited since arriving in Uganda to go swimming!!

Laundry

So here's answering one of your questions Sher- laundry is a family affair!! A bucket, a bar of soap, cold water, and a lot of hands!! The kids Love doing dishes and laundry here actually, since its camping style, so we'll enjoy their help until the novelty wears off.

Rain

The kids were so excited to run outside and play in the rain! It doesn't really cool down with the rain, but once in a while there's a bit more wind which is nice. We've had one storm at night, it seemed bad to us, but the next day we were told it wasn't actually.

First Sunday

We were very excited to experience church in Africa! Jeff wasn't sure until the day of what exactly his role would be that Sunday, he was just hoping it wouldn't be the morning of when he was told he was preaching!! Luckily it was just a verse and small talk about what our family is doing here that he was asked for, the morning of:)


Kids sunday school before the service, our kids loved the cute songs they sang.


A word from Carlos on behalf of the Dental Team

Inside our Mpigi home

Dental Team

Dr Carlos and Dr Chris were very busy during the week, working most days from 7 - 7 with just a short break for lunch, you can see why in the third picture, this is the overflow of people waiting!!

Children's Home

The kids play a lot on their front steps and right outside the home, we are often hanging out with them just like this.

Our kids hanging out with 4 year old twin boys Kato and Waswa. Kato means last one, he was the second born and Waswa means first one. Our kids play the most with these boys, Kato is very cuddly and loves to be read to and Waswa is energetic loving to chase our kids! Waswa has Malaria right now, but is quickly recovering.


Here is Kristen, the oldest child in the home, she is 10 years old, and a huge help to her house mom Rose, as well wonderful with our children. I am holding Hope, she lives with her family nearby.

On the property

there is a jackfuit tree right in front of the guest house, here we are first discovering it!

The kids

Here they are, happy and healthy!!