The children's birthday party!! It was amazing...the kids in Uganda may know a little bit about when they were born, but they most certainly do not get a chance to celebrate it at the orphanage. Friday morning we arrived and half of our group took the kids to the prayer garden for some abbreviated worship time. While they were down there, we decorated the assembly area! See below (I know the picture doesn't do it justice..but it looked great...happy birthday signs...lots of streamers, etc!)
The kids came back from worship and begin to sit in the assembly area and were just in amazement! They couldn't believe all the streamers. Jen then explained about why we were doing the birthday party...and how important it is to celebrate sometimes. She explained that they would each get a heart shaped pillow (made by some children at a church in Mississippi) and a birthday bag (put together by us). The bags had a hand held mirror (the kids so rarely get to see themselves), a toothbrush, toothpaste, a beanie baby (so graciously donated by 2 of our teammates), some hard candy, and a "birthday blower". Passing those bags out to the kids and watching their faces was better than Christmas! They couldn't believe all the stuff they got!
At the end of the party, the staff called us to the front and said a few things. They asked to pray over us. All the children lifted their right hands and while the leader was praying, the children were also praying quietly aloud over each once of us. Talk about speechless....even six year olds had their hands out stretched quietly praying. It was amazing. After the party, we had lunch with the staff once more where they presented us with prayer mats they had made from banana leaves. They are beautiful!! Many of the children I had grown close to had spend the nights after we left writing us letters, drawing us pictures, and making us necklaces and bracelets. It still brings tears to my eyes thinking about how little they have but how much they want to give. A few of my boys in particular wrote me beautiful letters letting me know they would never forget what we had done for them and they would always be praying for me. So awesome!!
After tearfully leaving the orphanage, the group headed on the the market in Kampala where we got to buy a lot of really cool Ugandan items...and then on from there to dinner at an Italian restaurant (yes...smack dab in the middle of Kampala is an Italian restaurant) We were able to have pizza and pasta and my second coca cola light!!! (aka diet coke) We had dinner with Jospehine and her family (she is a wonderful woman that lives here and works full time for Sweet Sleep) When I asked her if she liked pizza (her and her family ordered chicken), she said "oh no we are not used to that" aka Ugandans don't eat cheese....I think they are totally missing out!
Saturday was the big excursion day! 8 of our team (me included) decided to go white water rafting down the Nile river! Once in a life time chance...no cameras on the river so here are two shots pre-trip and one shot post-trip.
So that brings me to today...Sunday (shout out to my dad on Father's day! Wish I could be there) but today Jen, Gary and I are headed to Gulu. It is in Northern Uganda. This is the part of Uganda where the warfare was great and many children are left in IDP camps (Internally Displaced Person). We will be delivering 150 beds on Monday to these placement camp huts in the deep of Gulu. If I could ask for prayers from travel safety. The journey is 5-6 hours by bus...and if you could picture going over a speed bump at about 40 mph and attempting to dodge deep potholes at that speed as well...while dust is flying everywhere...yes these are the roads of Uganda. They have an exorbitant amount of speed bumps on the road which my body has been paying for this week haha. But in honestly, prayers for Monday as we deliver the beds to all of the camps and the travel back on Tuesday.
After those three days, I will rest on Wednesday (the day Jenn and Gary fly home) and then will go out to the Blessed Hope Academy Thursday and Friday. Auntie Irene informed me I could help teach math next week! Haha..I am excited about seeing the children again and really getting to see their normal day. After Friday, my days are not completely determined here. I will get to work with Sweet Sleep and Josephine, but it will be more of a day by day determination. Please pray that I will be patient and not scared of the days alone to come :)
I'll leave on a humorous note though...this little girl below is three and had never seen a Mzungu (white person) before...our first couple of days there she was terrified of us and if you even tried to pull out a camera she began to scream and cry. It was sad but quite funny as well...obviously from the picture she now loves us :)
And just some more of my fave photos...
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