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 9th, and “today” is November 10th- Ayana’s 5th 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!
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