Here and Gone

The team from Peace Portal Alliance Church left today. It has been a whirlwind week and this is the first time I have been able to sit down and type. It was a week of firsts as I drove for the first time on the left side of the road, visited the equator for the first time, did a first day of care and compassion, visited the Dycks place for the first time in Rakai and met the baby they just adopted, Mazi.

Having the team here (5 people + the Dycks) was great. Everyone jumped right in with the church and the kids and it made for a brilliant time. I got to know Nigel much better and it was good to see the Dickies. Having three mothers around also helped with preparing good food and having a clean place. It was also funny because they had read about my ant dilemma on my blog before they came. They made sure we had all sorts of insect killing chemicals around at all times!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for your emails. They have been a glimpse of home.
As promised, I have added some pics of the kids with descriptions. It is hard to put my experience with them into words and, as usual, simply thought I would comment on the photos and mention a couple of stories at the end.


The picture from the top of the post from left to right is Cc (Cee-Say), Sam, and Martin. Cc is a beautiful girl and granddaughter of one of the elder men in the church (more on him in another post). Here smile makes everyone melt. Sam is also a smiler and is missing a bunch of teeth. He is a bit shy but has warmed up to me. Martin is the cook’s son and a terror. That blanket he has I try to avoid at all costs as he wipes his constant runny nose all over it.



I have begun to pull out all the funny tricks, gimmicks, and games that I learned as a child. Here the kids are trying to move the proper finder that I point to. It is hard as they have their arms twisted around. It’s a left brain/right brain trick but to the younger ones it is simply amazing.




Here are the kids playing tick-tack-toe after I taught it to them. Job is on the left and is simply a really kind kid whose English is pretty good.


Tobogganing in Africa


Wasawa Brian. He is a quiet kid but I have found him to be very pure hearted. He is wasawa because he is a twin but his brother died a few years ago. Last week, when one of the kids hurt themselves playing soccer I glanced over and saw him praying for his friend.




Laurence. What can I say? He is a leader here and I use him to communicate with many of the other kids. He looks out for the younger ones and, on top of everything, he is a good soccer player.


Lavonne, this one is for you.

Here I am with Wycleff and Immaculate (CC’s older sister). All the kids sure love the camera and these two are no exception.

A couple of stories.

The third night the group was here we went by the three homes and said goodnight to the kids. Well, when we went by the girls house they proceeded to put on a 20 song show for us, dancing included! The sound of their powerful voices and their smiles is something I will never forget. (A funny side note: We went by to do the same thing a couple of nights later and they performed a skit that had something to do with not eating food that has flies on it to avoid cholera?! Too Funny.)

Going from living in the guest house by myself to having a dozen people here is a big change. I snuck away a few times to read, write, and pray. One of these times, one of the orphan girls came and sat beside me. She didn’t say anything for 20 minutes but was just content to sit there and watch me. I eventually drew a couple of sketches of things that were sitting around us but what amazed me was her contentment in simply sitting and watching. I am beginning to understand Jeff and Shannon’s comment that if the only thing I do is live here, it is enough.

More to come…