Day Four
I woke up
with the roosters to prepare my heart to say goodbye to my three Ugandan
daughters. Tough. Stuff. It's always a very emotional goodbye! My
driver was already sitting in the car waiting on me and I just didn't want to
let them out of my arms. We just sat in
silence holding each other tightly, as we always do on departing day. The driver finally got a little inpatient,
and told me it was time. I looked down into Caroline's eyes, that were starting
to fill with tears, and I lost it! These
girls...have my heart! And I have
theirs! I quickly tore my self away and
waved my final goodbye and blew a "mom loves you" kiss and they were
out of sight.
How can
children that I get to see once a year have such a big piece of my heart? I can't put it into words. It is a true divine appointment! We have a deep connection, a deep love. I get to be "Mom" to them from afar,
even if just a few days a year. They
know that I will always come back, I am their one constant. It is an honor!
We arrived
at Return Ministries just hours after a Man Up team. I could tell that Pastor Samuel and Sarah
were tired. So we offered to treat them to lunch. It was just a simple mall food court type of
place, and they were so impressed. It
was an honor to give them the an opportunity to be pampered a little. Their kids attached to me and Hannah rather
quickly, and by the end of the day we had been upgraded to
"Aunties."
Our
driver arrived at 9pm to take us to the airport to pick up our team. Their flight was supposed to arrive at
midnight. Hannah and I were so excited,
we were having a difficult time containing ourselves. The time had already passed 1am, and we still
hadn't seen our team! Finally, around
1:00am , Brittany had came over to tell me that 13 bags had not arrived and two
team members would be arriving the next day.
The team waited in line for another hour and a half to fill out forms
for their missing luggage. When we were
all finally on the bus, we played two truths and a lie to get to know each
other. It was a great start to our next
two weeks!
Day five
After
just a few hours of sleep, it was time Tories and give God the glory. I was anxious to share the African church
experience with my team, and they were anxious to love on some kids! We walked up to the compound that houses the
children's home and they church and the kids went crazy! They pulled and
grabbed us from every limb and direction.
I had warned my team of this, but I'm not sure they thought it would be
that warm of a welcome. It's as if we're
were celebrities. With two kids on my
lap, and two under each arm, I sat down ready to worship. The music was lively,
and the word was given by Lan, one of my team members.
At Return
Ministries, the children are fed lunch after church. They cooks brought out giant pots of rice and
beads for us to feed them. We served
about 300 kids. They didn't have enough bowls or plates, so we waited for some
kids to be done, washed the plates and used them again. It seems like we did that about 4 or 5
times. After lunch was served, our team
was escorted my our new friends back to the guest house. When we closed the gate, many children laid
on the ground continuing to call for us through the 6 inch space between the
gate and the ground.
A few of
the team members joined me for a trip to market. I love taking Mzungus to
market inUganda! We negotiated for fresh produce and rice.
That
evening, when we returned, we went back to the church for the Coffee Time with
the youth and young adults. They preformed
some lively songs and then it was our teams turn. Dani, a young girl on our team, is a B-Girl!
The Ugandans went crazy watching her BreakDance! It was awesome!
I
finished my night with a little FaceTime with my family. Brandon got to meet Pastor Samuel and his
wife Sarah, and my kids got to chat with their kids. When Marley and Pearl were talking, Marley
said, " are you coming to my house?"
And Pearl responded with "tomorrow morning!" So freaking
adorable!
Day six
Waking up
with the roosters seems to becoming a pattern. I woke up at five am to take
another group to the market to buy meat. It was crowded! I think Chloe, our 10 year old team member,
was a little grossed out by the rural Ugandan meat markets! While walking thru
the market I heard a scream. I turned
around, and Hannah, our Missouri babysitter was catching her breath after an
attempted pick pocketing. Nothing was taken, but she was a little shaken up.
The men
on my team were amazing! They all had
such a servants heart and were ready to serve wherever and whenever I needed
them. They continually lifted the giant
pots filled with boiling soup to add coals, and fan the fires. Chloe became our master chipati roller! When it came time to serve, we realized that
we were going to run out of rice and chipati.
I quickly had the team start preparing more. We thinking that children from the community
heard that Mzungus were preparing a feast of meat, soup, rice, fruits and sodas
and they wanted in on the fun! There had to be closer to 500 plates served! I
expected that, but didn't expect to run out of food! The older children waited
patiently as we waited for the rice to be done. The team had skipped lunch, and
it was starting to show. I had one girl
almost faint, and passed out with a baby on a sofa, one with a bad burn from
cooking, and many many with exhaustion starting to set in. That's where the Mama in me set it and I
called it a day! We walked back up to
Return Guest House, ate dinner, had some worship and passed out!
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