Final Destination: Mpumulanga

Well, we’re in South Africa! Its so weird to think that after the last 2 months of constant traveling and living out of a suitcase, this is “home” for the next few months. I don’t know the exact length of time we’ll be here…. I think anywhere from 6 months to a year.

Anyway, after spending a wonderful two days in Kampala, full of manicures, pedicures, craft markets, internet, malls and great food, we went back to Entebbe to spend the night at the Airport Guesthouse, like I mentioned before.

The next morning (the 19^th), at 3:45am, we got up to drive to the airport for our 7:00 flight. Carissa and I stayed up talking till around 1:15ish (we’re so smart) so we were exhausted!!

Anyway, the flight from Entebbe to Johannesburg is barely 4 hours (even though it felt like longer), and then we had a 3 hour wait in the airport before our shuttle- the City Bug- came to drive us to Nelsprite, which is the nearest city from where we’re living now. You can get pretty much anything there, and it even has a Cineplex…. Where New Moon will be showing on the 27^th! Megan, Carissa and I have been counting down the days, and are soo excited to see it!!! (I know it already came out in Canada so please nobody give anything away!!)
We’re staying just outside of a place called White River (about 10 minutes away), which is a little town, with a mini mall and a one screen movie theatre etc, and on the other side (also about 10 minutes away) is Masoyi. Masoyi is what is called a perisuburban “town”. It has about 250,000 people, and my dad described it as the layout of a slum town, with some random well-off houses. Most of the people living there are the poorest of the poor however, and this is where my parents will be doing a lot of their ministry.

Anyway, when we got to the Jo’burg airport, Carissa and I were hoping beyond anything that there would be a Starbucks there. Unfortunately there wasn’t, but there was a Woolworths, which made amazing frappes, so we weren’t too upset. If we have to survive for the next 1 ½ years without any Starbucks however.. well, that’ll be a different story. :S :S

The City Bug took just about 3 ½ hours, 2 of which I was asleep for, and when we arrived in Nelsprite, we were met by David and Jed&Brooke, who are some of Hands at Work volunteers here in SA. It was about a 45 minute drive (plus a quick stop for some groceries) to get to the Hands Village (where most of the Hands at Work staff live), and then another 15ish minute drive to get up to the farm, which is where Jed&Brooke, another couple called Liz&Weston and their family, and now us are living. We’re temporarily (how temporarily we don’t know) staying in a building that is used for retreats and camps and such… it has a bit of a dorm/camp feeling, but its big and has lots of beds, a kitchen, and a washer and drier, so it works well for our family for now.

Since arriving we haven’t done much except for settle in, do all of our laundry, and freeze. Yep, despite the fact that we have arrived in the middle of SA’s hottest season, it has been raining and freezing cold since we got here! So weird.

Anyway, we’re going into town soon for a more extensive shop, and maybe to get some coffee or something…. Then on Monday I’m really hoping we’ll be able to visit the pre-school/daycare here and meet some of the kids!! (more on this next time J )

A little bit of Grace

Internet isn't working very well at all here, and I've been trying to put pictures on for hours (for some reason Carissa is able to put pictures up :S), but it only lets me do one at a time, so I'll just put this one of little Grace from Eagle's Wings Childrens' Village up. She's one of the cutest little things ever, and super cuddly :) 

Goodbye Uganda... for now

Monday the 16th was a sad day, as we drove away from Kibaale I couldn't believe that it was a whole two weeks since we had first driven up that red dirt hill and through those gates. We had to get up super early, because Jeff (who very kindly drove us to Kampala) needed to leave early enough to have some time to do business in the city after a 4ish hour drive. We were worried about not being able to say goodbye to our kids, and unfortunately only Reagan and Jackie were there by the time we left. I was so glad I got to say goodbye to them (they took it very well this time- last time we were all bawling our eyes out :( ) but I was so sad that I didn't get to say goodbye to Clair. Carissa and Megan didn't get to say goodbye to their three kids either. So it wasn't the best goodbye from Kibaale. But Megan and I are hoping to be back there again soon, so its not goodbye for good!

We are now in Entebbe, after staying for two nights in Kampala. Our flight to South Africa leaves at 7am tomorrow morning, so we're staying at the Entebbe Airport Guesthouse. Since I haven't posted about anything since the 10th, I'll do a quick catch up now about our last week in Kibaale. 

On Wednesday the 11th, Carissa, Megan and I got to do quite a few different things. In the morning we went on two more Nursery homevisits with Shannon (sponsor children of her friends and family). The first one seemed to be doing pretty well, but the second one was so sad. Both parents and one of the children were HIV positive, and it was obvious that they were very weak. They had quite a nice house, but the parents weren't able to work, or even just keep it clean, so it was very dark and not entirely finished. Apparently they didn't have enough food, and one of the first things they said was "We are hungry". It was not a good situation :( 

When we got back from that, our whole family was taken on another homevisit, but of a quite different kind. This was a (nearly) child-headed household, with a heartbreaking story. Up until a few months ago, both parents were in the home with their 8 children. However, they fought terrible, sometimes getting so angry and violent that the children would sleep outside. Finally the mom had enough and left one morning, taking three of her children with her. And while the dad hasn't left completely, the social worker said that he was very rarely there, leaving the oldest (12) to take care of the other 4 remaining children. 

**Cassy, if you're reading this, the house was right behind the house where we found little baby Canone!! I tried to find him, but I couldn't see him anywhere :( **

In the evening, us three girls got the amazing opportunity of joining some of the nurses from the clinic on their outreach to a neighboring village, where they were doing baby imunizations! We were surrounded by dozens of tiny, gorgeous babies, and when the head nurse found out that we love babies, he sat us down, and supplied  us with a steady stream of them to cuddle.. Oh man it was hard to give them back!!! The air was full of crying and wailing, but it was so cool to see all those babies being given the necessary immunizations to remain healthy. 

The rest of our days were full of spending time with the kids during their recess and lunch, doing laundry, and hanging out.

Our "family" <3 

On Sunday we were getting ready to go to church (exhausted from a terrible night... see the full story on Carissa's blog! *link in sidebar*) when Reagan and his sister showed up at our door, all dressed up and ready to go. I think they were told to come with us to whichever church we went to, because when we left they just started following us, and then left the second we left haha :) 

On Sunday the 15th we visited a few homes of friends' sponsor children, and then headed up Kibaale Hill. It was only Carissa, Megan and I, joined by Joel Dyke (an excellent tour guide, and great at taking people up the hill!! :D) and Jackie. It was boiling hot, and we were all dying on the way up. However, once we reached the top, it began pouring with rain. Within one minute we were all absolutely drenched, and looking ridiculous as we struggled, slipped, and fell back down the hill in our flipflops. But as crazy as it was, we had a blast (Joel said it was "the best time on Kibaale Hill, EVER!") and its a great story to laugh about. 

Anyway, that's a very brief look at our last week.. now we're heading off to South Africa! I'm not really sure what to expect, and I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't rather stay here in Uganda, but I'm interested to see what South Africa will be like, and to meet all the people there and everything. 

So, deep breath, and away we go on our next and last (for now) leg of the journey!

I am Fine Sank-you Sir!

Sorry about the posts that are soo far behind from what we're doing.. I'm trying my best to keep caught up! From now on I should hopefully be able to post my entries as soon as I'm finished writing them! And, since I’m in Uganda, there’s always something to write about, another story to tell. I promise this one won’t be anywhere close to as long as the last one (did anyone actually read the whole thing?? Haha I looked at it after I posted it, and realized how loooong it was.. sorry!!) but I do have a couple of things to update everyone on. By the way, since I’m not sure when I’ll get to post this, “yesterday” is the 9^th, and “today” is November 10^th- Ayana’s 5^th birthday!! <3

Anyway, first of all, the applicants for Nursery students for the new school year are here, in their first round of interviews, and Carissa, Megan and I love just going up there (they line up outside of the main offices by the Primary School) and sitting with them. They’re all so cute! Yesterday there was a little girl sitting with us called Millie, super cute. Suddenly she ran off and was gone for a while, and when she came back she was carrying her little baby brother. She came over to show him to me, and when I asked if I could hold him she just dumped him right on my lap. What a precious little bundle he was!! A lot of babies are scared of us mzungus (apparently they’re sometimes told that mzungus eat African children :S :S), but he was not at all afraid! He was smiley and wide awake, and very interactive, I could have cuddled him for hours!

Then today there was the funniest little boy. He would come over, say something in English, then run back to his mom, who would tell him something else to say in English. We got the standard (“Hello”/”How are you?” etc) but we also got some great ones… “How’s life?” “Where is you born?” “Good good?” “What is your email?” haha he was hilarious!! He was not afraid in the slightest! Another little boy came over to my mom, and she reached for his hand, which was fine. But then she lifted it to her mouth to kiss his hand… oh man did he freak out! He screamed, jumped back about 3 feet, and just stared at her, cradling his arm on his chest. I guess he thought she was going to bite him or something, but it was so funny. His mom and her friends were killing themselves laughing, such a funny little guy J I so wish I could put pictures up!! They tell stories so much better than I’m able to by just writing……. I’m waiting for Kampala and South Africa, and then there’ll be more than you’ll care to see!

However, as fun as it is to go and hang out with the applicants, its also kind of sad. Rachel (she’s the accountant here from Canada) said that last year they had 500 applicants, and this year would probably be about the same, but they can only accept 60 kids into Nursery. 440 kids have to be turned away, many of whom are desperately poor, but just happen to be slightly better off  (as in they might have food just for today, while the others don’t) than the ones who are accepted. So hard.

Anyway, if you know me, or have read my blog lately, you’ll know that I have three sponsor children (Jackie, Reagan, and Clair), and that I just love them all to bits. Jackie was the first girl I started sponsoring (when we got back in 2005, the first time I came here to Kibaale/Uganda), and so I’ve come to have a bit of a relationship not only with her, but with her family as well. They’ve written letters, and I’ve visited them both in March, and this time. So when they invited us to come over again, to meet Jackie’s grandmother and older sister (who, for some reason, lives with the grandmother instead of her family), I was excited, but didn’t think a whole lot of it. 

So oh my goodness, when we got there and they had prepared a feast for us, as well as amazing gifts, I was completely blown away. The amount of food there (delicious actually, I really enjoyed it!) compared to the amount of food we actually ate.. it made me feel bad when they carried away bowls full of leftovers :S Hopefully they’ll still be able to use it again. Anyway, after we finished eating, Jackie’s dad (he’s so funny) said “Yes, now we have finished phase one and we will move onto phase two.” We weren’t quite sure what he meant, but then Jackie’s mom and grandmother came out and fastened a paper beaded necklace around all us girls’ necks, and then just continued to bring more gifts out. They had woven baskets for me, Carissa, Megan, and my mom, and some wall hangings for our family in general, and then they brought out a mat that the grandmother had made for me. When they unrolled it I almost started crying. She had made me a purple and white striped woven mat, and on every other stripe were the words “Aunt Erine”. It must have taken her days and days, or even weeks to make, and she hadn’t even known that she would ever meet me. It was probably one of the best gifts I’ve ever been given, I was so so touched.

It was actually a really fun time. After we had eaten, and they had given us our gifts, the girls took us outside and showed us their own gardens (they were very proud J) and then I just hung outside with Jackie and her friends for a while.

When we left we gave them all these little heart shaped lolipops, and even the adults wanted them and were excited to get them, it was so sweet J (haha they called them “sweetie hearts”)

Well, this is getting to be pretty long, and even though I could write about Africa for hours, I don’t want to bore anyone! I’ll try to do it in shorts bursts from now on instead of pages and pages and pages J

Byeee Mzungu!

Kibaale at Last!!

This was written quite a few days ago, so "yesterday" was the 3rd, and "today" was the 4th :)

Part One

Oh man, I can’t even describe how amazing it is to be back in Kibaale! I’ve been waiting for this since the second we drive out the front gates back in March (which, as pointed out to me yesterday, was already 7 months ago!!! It seems like only days since we were here).  Today’s going to be a super loooong entry (feel free to skim, I just had so much to write about, I couldn’t edit it down!!)…. I wish I could put pictures up, but hopefully I’ll be able to in the South African airport in a couple of weeks, which apparently has free internet J

It was sad to leave the kids at Eagle’s Wings, but for some reason I just have the feeling that I’ll be back there someday. I don’t know why, and maybe I’m wrong, but I just felt like that wasn’t the only visit to EWCV that I’ll be making in my life. Hopefully I’m right, because I loved those kids so much. Bill and Anne told us they really really want to start a baby home as well, they just need someone to run it…. If university wasn’t already in my definite plans, I would so be there!! But then again, I don’t know if I could handle running a baby home all by myself! But we’ll see what God has in store once I graduate J

Anyway, after Eagle’s Wing we went up and looked around the Timothy Centre for a bit.. when we come back to Uganda after South Africa, its very likely that we’ll be staying there, so my parents wanted to see what it was like. Its so beautiful there, and once the accommodations and school and everything is finished its going to be a great place! Carissa and I also got to see Lizabee Wickett (one of our teachers from High School) who has moved out here for 2 years to work at the Timothy Centre once it’s up and running, so that was sweet to chat with her for a while… so weird to see an old teacher here in Uganda!!

The drive from Masaka (which is where both Eagle’s Wings and the Timothy Centre are located) was pretty short, only about 1 ½ hours. When we saw Kibaale Hill, and the buildings on our left, and turned onto that red dirt hill leading up to the front gates, Carissa and I were literally screaming in the back seat haha :P And seeing the Dykes (http://jeffshan.blogspot.com) , and Sean and Jamie (http://seanandjamie.blogspot.com), and Rachel again was so great, and Ayana and Moses were very excited to see Avin and Finn (the middle two Dyke children) … even though they had only met once, months ago, they were children around their age, who could also speak English! Very exciting J And, of course, they’re all the best of friends now, within one day of spending time together.

There are government exams going on at the moment, and since Kibaale is a certified Testing Centre, all the schools in the area come here to take their exams. They’re super strict about exams here, so the Primary school was all sent home for Monday and Tuesday, because they were being too loud :P

Because we didn’t really have much planned yesterday, Jamie took Megan, Carissa and I down to Kibaale town to buy and fill up gift baskets for each of our kids. While we were there, we noticed kids going by with Cornerstone uniforms, which is Jessica (Jackie’s little sister) and Prossy’s (a little girl we met in March) school. Then, while we were loading the now full gift baskets into the back of the truck, we noticed two little girls walking over to us, and realized that not only was it Jessica (who is easy to spot- she’s the only one of the school who’s hair isn’t shaved.. no clue why!) but it was also Prossy, who we weren’t sure if we would be able to find again!! They both remembered us, and as shy and giggly as they were, had come over to say hi; they were so sweet, and were very excited when we took a picture together, so that was cool.

At 2:30 we all headed over to Jamie’s, and loaded up two gift baskets in the truck, and set off for Jackie and Reagan’s houses!!

When we drove down the road and parked by Reagan’s house it seemed like the whole town of Kibaale was down there; he has 7 siblings, most of whom were there, plus some other relatives. He wasn’t there at first, but a few minutes later he slipped in through the door.. I think he had gone and washed himself and changed into nice clothes; all the other kids were super dirty, and he was squeaky clean :P

He was a little shy at first, but he warmed up pretty quickly, and came over and held my hands. His sisters were laughing at him, I’m assuming because he was holding my hands, but he just giggled and stayed with me, he’s so precious J We all talked a little bit (through Mugabi, the social worker here at Kibaale, who also acts as a translator) and then I got some pictures with the whole family outside the house. Reagan was beside me the whole time, and even though he was pretty quiet, you could tell he was so excited, he never stopped smiling.

Its so so sad though, because Reagan’s father died a couple of months ago, and apparently since then the family hasn’t had enough food; they take turns eating every day so that the youngest kids can usually have some. Ugh that just makes me sooo upset, I don’t even know what to do about it. The gift basket will hopefully help, but that won’t last forever. It breaks my heart :(

What’s cool is that Carissa’s new little sponsor boy from March, Ssenyondwa Ivan, is related to Reagan;  Reagan is actually Ivan’s uncle! Haha so funny :P While we were all standing in the backyard, all the kids suddenly pointed out to some bushes and shouted “Ivan”.. and there came Ivan, walking over to say hello! Carissa was so excited to see him, and Ivan was a little shy, but seemed happy to see her.

While we were still in the backyard Reagan suddenly noticed my camera (he was obsessed with it back in March) and came alive. He grabbed it from me, and started taking pictures and video of all his family, so excited to show them. I only kept about 2 of them, but he had a blast doing that, and I don’t really mind, he’s really careful with it.

After Reagan’s house we went back towards Kibaale to Jackie’s house. Her family is so sweet, I just love them. She has two younger and one older sister (again, Jessica is one of her sisters), but for some reason her older sister lives with her Grandmother, so I’ve never met her, but I know Jessica and Justine pretty well. Her dad speaks extremely good English, so we almost didn’t need Mugabi there to translate, and they’re all super friendly and outgoing, so it was almost just like a social visit more than anything. After we sat inside for a while we went outside to get family pictures again, and then Jackie and Jessica sang us a song they had written for us, haha it was the cutest thing!! And then Carissa, Megan, and I sang a song for them haha :P We’ve been practicing it though (The Call, by Regina Spektor… SUCH a great song J) so we sounded pretty amazing :P Both of Jackie’s parents said that they want us to come back, and that they’re going to come up to the school to see us again, so that’ll be nice.. and of course I’ll see all of my kids at school every day!

 Part Two

Anyway, both of those visits were great yesterday, and then today I got to visit Clair’s house (we also went to Ivan’s house this afternoon). When we were here in March, and I told her that I would be her sponsor, she was happy, but really super shy. This time however, oh my goodness did she ever warm up quickly! Within seconds she was tickling me, babbling away in Luganda, and making silly faces at us. Carissa, Megan, Josh, Clair, Ivan and I all rode in the back of the truck (one of the best parts of Kibaale!! Haha soo much fun!) and Clair and Ivan were both so excited and happy. They were chattering away to us and each other; both completely different than the shy little kids we remembered from March!!

Although I never visited Clair’s house last time we were here, I did get to meet her mother; I took Jackie and Reagan to the market, and both Clair and Reagan’s moms came along to help. So she said she remembered me, and that she would never ever forget both days when she met me. She’s such a sweet lady.. Clair’s little brother, Kennedy, and her older sister (who is sponsored by someone in Joshua’s grade… Jasia if for some reason you happen to ever read this, we met your sponsor girl Brenda! J) were there as well. When I took the gift basket out of the truck to give it to them though, Clair came over and took it from me to give to her mom, Mugabi said she was too excited to let me carry it :P

She has a bit of a sad situation too.. they have a house, but it’s apparently very weak, and will collapse within 6 months. The kitchen isn’t good either, and their food is often ruined.  I so wish I could help somehow, but houses are so expensive if you want good quality… please keep both Clair and Reagan in your prayers! Thankfully Jackie’s family is doing very well, and have said they aren’t in need of anything J

Anyway, I know this is super long, so I’ll end it now, but I’m sure you can tell that we’re having an amazing time being back in Kibaale, seeing our kids and old friends…. we saw Justus, Ham, and Samuel again a couple times as well if anyone from Team Kibaale is reading this! J Oh and I’ve also seen some friends’ sponsor children:
- Ssanyu, Tracy, and Teddy (Cathy, they totally remembered us.. we visited Teddy’s house today!! Tons of pictures to come when we have better internet! J)
- Mike (Cassy)
- Leticia  and Gloria (Alyssa)
- Dick (Savages.. we got to see him get all his gifts!)
- Robert and Wilson (Kirsten/Kotts.. we saw them recieve their gifts too!)

- Moses, Sylivia, Sengooba (Hattons.. we also saw them recieve their gifts from you! :))

And I’m sure there’ve been more, but those are just off the top of my head. We’re going to try to go into one of the Nursery classes tomorrow, so I’m sure there will be many more to come! J

Bye for now! Welaba J (congrats if you made it this far :P)

Uganda!!

We're back in Uganda!!! 

We don't have great access to internet here in Kibaale, so I wrote this a few days ago. We're now in Kibaale.. I just got to visit Jackie and Reagan's houses!! Soo great <3 

Anyway, here's a post from Eagle's Wings....

......

Our internet here at Eagle’s Wing Children’s Village isn’t very fast, so we don’t want to slow it down even more by posting pictures (and even at Kibaale we’re not sure if we can do that.. we’re hoping!!), but I still want to give you all an update on what’s happening with us here in beautiful Uganda.

We arrived here in Uganda early Wednesday morning, and got a couple hours of sleep before driving down to the equator for lunch, and then on to EWCV, where we are now. Eagle’s Wing was founded and is run by a retired couple from Canada called Jaajaas (grandfather/mother) Bill and Anne; at the moment they have three families of 24 children and 2 house parents, and their goal is to make it up to 10 families, each with the same amount of children. They have property here, and a much larger property (over 70 acres!) somewhere else, which is where families 1 and 2 live. Family three is staying here with them, until housing is built for them at their other property, so we’re spend

ing most of our time with the third family. When we arrived and drove in through the front gate, they were all lined up along the path, singing for us. It was so cool, such a sweet welcome J

We’re staying at the hospitality centre, which is down the road from the Eagle’s Wing centre, and is run by a lovely couple called Christopher and Harriet. They live here with Nicolas, who was one of the first boys to be brought into Eagle’s Wing (now around 16), and Stella, who is the mother of their absolutely adorable little granddaughter, Deborah Grace. She’s 6 weeks old and seriously the cutest little thing ever!! Carissa, Megan, my mom and I are always fighting over who gets to hold her J

When we’re not cuddling with Deborah Grace, or journaling (when we got here, Carissa and I spent about 3 hours just catching up in our journals from Egypt haha), or walking around the village, we’re up at the house, spending time with the kids. They’re so eager for love and attention, and we are all more than happy to give it to them; they’re all such little cutie pies!! They’re much littler than I expected too. The oldest is 12, and the youngest is about 3 (excluding Teacher Florence’s baby, Trust J), and the rest average about 5-9 years, but they’re all really small.

One little boy, Peter (5 years old), is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. He’s got the best laugh ever! He copies everything we say, in a high squeaky voice, and giggles about everything. He’s super cuddly too, so we have lots of fun with him. And he’s only one of them! All the rest of the children are so friendly and ready for cuddles and holding hands and playing too. And they love our cameras. We have to hide them else we’ll never get them back haha :P

We’ve spent a good part of both days with them, from the minute they finish school, right up until around their bedtime. Carissa, Megan, and I got to take the smallest ones on a walk yesterday, and they were so excited to walk with us and hold our hands. They all love Ayana and Moses too.. I don’t think they really understand why we Mzungus have a couple of African children in our family (we’ve tried to explain it, but I don’t know how much of it made it across the translation) but they’ve completely accepted them, and Ayana and Moses are both having a blast here. Moses is very excited (he’s made a very good friend in a little boy called Fred, but he thinks his name is Frog :P) and keeps saying “they’re all brown children, just like me!" J

After dinner on Thursday evening we went and joined them in their worship time, and just sang and danced with them for ages. When they started their slower worship songs and prayers though, it was amazing to see and be a part of. These kids, most of them with heart-breaking pasts, put their whole hearts into worshiping God. One little boy even had tears streaming down his face, with his eyes closed and hands in the air. I saw the same type of thing during worship time in India and Kibaale, but I will never get tired of seeing something like that. If I could take all the people who don’t understand, or agree with us coming here and doing what we’re doing, and put them in the room with those kids, and let them see how they’re all so little and used to be so broken, but are now full of joy and life, then they would understand.

Anyway, sufficient to say, I’m loving being back here in Uganda again! And although we’re only about a 45 minute drive away from Kibaale (ahhh can’t wait!!!) I’m so so glad that we came here to EWCV as well, and get to spend time with Bill and Anne,  Christoper and Harriet, Stella and Deborah Grace, and all of the beautiful children at the centre J