Amani Preschool

We've been teaching preschool here at Amani for the past few months. Our class has about 12 kids, ages 2.5-5 years. Class begins at 9am and finishes at 11, with a small snack at 10. We usually do a learning activity, story time, and a craft each day. The children enjoy learning, like hearing stories, but they live for arts and crafts!!! We often have to remind the children that school is not a time for hugs and kisses and telling the aunties that they love us. We have to save all of that for after school or we would never get anything done.
A friend from home, Tiffany Hanson, was very generous and donated tons of new books to the children! They have loved the stories and the favorite so far was a really cool book about all the different kinds of hair that children have around the world. While reading the book we told them to shout, "that's my hair," when they saw hair that was like theirs. They loved seeing children who looked like them. The craft that day was to decorate their own crazy hair onto a head! They thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. We love our preschoolers and will miss hearing them tell us their ABC's, counting and singing songs while we are gone in Sudan. The children say "Thanks Auntie TIff!"

A few new babies

This is the newest Amani baby, Philip. He came in about a week ago and has moved into Baby Room 2. Although he's about the size of a one-year-old, he's 2.5-years. He is very malnourished and weak, but is on a strict diet to see that he gains weight and strength. Just a few days ago, we already saw some improvement when he surprised everyone and showed us he could walk...only a few steps but we were so excited! He is pretty tired and serious most of the time, but does like to be held and has a super sweet smile, when he shows it!
Two other babies have come in recently as well. A new pair of twins, Simon and Mebra. They came as newborns from Jinja main hospital, because sadly their mother died. They are tiny little babies but so beautiful. Mebra came in with a broken femur that causes her leg to look deformed. She had been laying in her crib for a week with her leg up in the air, in a sort of contraption to try to set her bones correctly, but it turned out to not heal properly so we're all praying for the next step to set her leg right.

Other than that things continue to go well here in Jinja and we've been busy with preschool, feedings, baths, changings, and loving the kids. My parents leave tomorrow and have had a woderful time here in Africa. It's been so nice to have them here!
We're preparing now to leave for Sudan in about 5 days and will spend a month there working with more babies. We're bringing tons of cloth diapers, liners and baby clothes and hope to be a big help! Keep us in your prayers, but also know that the area of Sudan we will be traveling to is very safe and near the Ugandan border. There is tons of conflict in Sudan, but we will be very far from danger. We'll write again before we go and hoe to be able to update while we're there too! Love you all!

Massive Shoe Dump!!!!

Yesterday we went to a village called Kikondo and passed out over 300 pairs of shoes to children who didn't have them. For those of you who are newer readers we spent some time before we left for Uganda collecting shoes to bring for children in need. It was a great experience, but also very stressful! We had to take a boat across Lake Victoria to get to Kikondo and when we pulled up, children came running immediately yelling, "mzungu, mzungu!" Since they don't speak English we told them in Lugandan to come and sit on a patch of grass to wait while we organized all of the shoes we brought.

We lost control right away...the kids saw the shoes and went crazy! Tons more came running from all directions when they heard that white people were there with gifts. All of the adults came to watch too. Children and their mothers swarmed us and their hands shot toward us, all of them desperate for a pair of shoes. We were yelling and literally pushing people away, trying to convey to them that they needed to make a line. We knew this would be chaos, but it was beyond crazy!!! They wouldn't listen, so we started passing out shoes in the correct size the best that we could. After each child received shoes they got marked with permanent marker. This was to prevent kids from getting 2 pairs. In desparate situations people will do anything to get something... anything. Mothers were shoving their screaming children at our faces telling us their kids were sick and desparately needed shoes. Kids scrubbed their sharpie marks off their hands trying to pretend they hadn't gotten a pair yet. We were so lucky that we had our volunteer friends, Renee, Shana and Daniella with us, along with my parents. We needed everyone to help keep the people back and to watch for stealing.

Despite the chaos there were some great moments! The smiles that children got when they were handed a brand new pair of shoes were priceless. Kids were scared of us because we were white but they decided we were okay when they saw they got to keep their very own pair of shoes. Over 300 kids got new shoes thanks to all our donations from home. This was an incredible experience! Thank you so much to everyone who has helped us with this! We have hundreds more and are already planning to go to another poor village to give them out.

After passing out shoes we wanted to give each child some food. We oredered 200 chapati (flat bread) and "oranges" which were actually lemons. Kids here love chapati and when they saw what we were doing they went crazy again! They grabbed and ripped and pushed others down so they could get one. We couldn't move in the mob they were forming around each of us. When a child would recieve their chapati he would have to crunch down into a ball, keeing the chapati close to his chest so that others wouldn't rip it from his hands! It was crazy, and sad. These people are so desparate for anything...even a small piece of bread. We left feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. But this was a great experience and one that we will truly never forget.

Just Checking in...

A few weeks ago we took our preschool class on a field trip to Bujagali Falls. They had a blast watching the white water rafters go down, and were very thankful that we didnt take them there for a boat ride!

My parents (rachel) are here right now and they are loving their time in Africa. We have done lots of fun things and have more planned. It's so nice to have them finally be able to understand why I love Africa so much! More about that later.

This is Mama Susan...she is the biggest character in all of Uganda. She is the resident grandma here at Amani and makes us laugh everyday. She is usually seen in her "I love Jesus" baseball cap, 1982 winter sweaters or her MC Hammer pants. She walks around the compound shaking her head in disgust and says some pretty hilarious things. Here she is enjoying her lunch one Sunday afternoon. When I asked her to smile for this picture, she replied, "retired's don't smile" and then cracked up!

Masaka

Baby James, a boy in a dress

Twins, Waswa and Kato

Josephine, founder of Nazareth Children's Home


Arielle carrying Baby Joseline village style

Gifty in her fancy everyday dress


Rachel with Nazareth kids

James and Joseph playing in the wheelbarrow

The whole group after our trip to the market to buy food for them. You can't really tell, but everyone is in their brand new shoes!

Little girls proud in their shoes


We had the opportuity to spend a few days at a small orphanage in a town called Masaka. We had heard of this orphanage through a friend here, and decided to go check it out and deliver new shoes to all of the children. Once again, we were blessed with an awesome cultural experience! The director, Jospehine, is Ugandan, about 70-years-old and is a Catholic nun. She welcomed us with open arms and was eager to tell us the stories of her life as an orphanage mom. The orphanage, Nazareth Children's Home, is home to 18 children, ages 1 to 19. It is very poor, and the children have nothing. The children have no toys, and spent most of the time playing with an old wheelbarrow that they pushed each other around in. They pretended it was a motorcar and never grew tired of it! The kids were amazing, and were so happy we were there! The compound was small and was just one house that all of the children shared. We were given the nicest matresses and slept in the same building with our "brothers and sisters," which is what Josephine told us. The children wear the same clothes each day and when we were unsure of how to tell the 8-year old identical twin boys apart, they told us Waswa wears a shirt with a W on it. We thought, "that won't help tomorrow when he is wearing something else," but he was always in his W shirt, so I guess it really was the best method. We distributed shoes to each child and it was such a thrill for them. After everyone received their pair, the group clapped and danced! One little girl, Fina, who is about 2-years-old danced and smiled so proudly in her new black mary-janes. Everyone wore their new shoes proudly and were so excited to examine the soles and details of their very own pair.
We ate all of our meals with the children and while we like Ugandan food, this was sometimes hard. We had a mix of barely cooked beans and corn in a salt water sauce for lunch, dinner and breakfast. It was a struggle the first time we ate it, but by the next morning of having it again it was almost unbearable. Becasue we were guests we were served fish one night along with sweet potatoes and cabbage that were doused in fish juice. We appreciated everything we were given, especially since Nazareth has nothing.
The morning before we left we took a few of the oldest children to the local market. We bought them giant bags of corn flour (for posho) and rice. We also bought 3 giant bunches of matooke (plantains), 15 kilos of sugar, cooking oil, pinapples, watermelons, and 40 mangoes, which were a big treat! We also came home with mandazi (Ugandan fried bread) for all of the children, which was exciting for them. We had to hire a car to get all of our food home from the market and when we were unloading the car Josephine came over with tears in her eyes telling us she didn't know what to say. She was so thankful and kept saying "thanks be to God." Their orphanage will now have enough food to feed them all for a long time! It was a gift we were more than happy to give.
After playing with the children, riding their old boda (bike) with them and coloring with supplies we brought them, we grew to love each child. They were smart and sweet and adorable and they had so much love for us. When we left, 12-year-old Grace wiped away tears and couldn't even look us in the eyes. We promised we would be back soon and we will. We are in the process of thinking of other ways we can help this poor orphanage, and are excited about this great opportunity to help.

The Littles

Our friend Renee was explaining to a mother the other day that we could help her care for her babies saying, "these ladies, they are knowing how to care for littles." That is the way we would have to say it so a Ugandan would understand.
We have had the opportunity to be with and care for several preemies since we have been here. Here in Jinja quintuplets were born! We have been to see them twice and have even been able to hold and feed them. The main hospital here has a preemie ward that would make the average American go into a panic. The babies live in wire baskets covered in tons of blankets to keep them warm. Doctors and nurses don't check on them and medicine, food, and oxygen are not provided. The quints mother, Dorothy, is living in the hospital with the babies and is slowly trying to breastbeed her them. They are tiny, about 2-3 pounds each, but absolutly gorgeous! There is one boy and 4 girls, but unfortunately after a few weeks of life, the 5th baby died. It was very disappointing knowing that with ohter care, this sweet baby could have lived. It's been such a neat experience for us to be able to see them and help a bit.
While in Kampala with Watoto, we were able to go to the main hospital, Mulago, to the preemie ward and pick up a new baby. The director named him Phin and he is now about 3 pounds. We got to tube feed him in his incubator and care for him while his paperwork was being finished for him to move to his new home. His mother was 14-years-old and too sick and poor to care for him. The preemie ward in Kampala is better than Jinja, but still not very nice. Unfortunately many of the preemies didn't look like they were going to make it. There was a baby boy who weighed 0.4 kg, or 1-pound. He was born that day and was the smallest baby I've ever seen. He was literally a fetus. The doctor who happened to be in the room went to look at him a few times, and had him wrapped in a blanket on a table, finally announced that "his breathing had finished." We went to go and see him (the baby) and told him, sorry, and that we loved him. We also decided he deserved a name. Here, people who have preemies don't always attach or care or love them as they should, assuming they will just die. Some even deliever premature because they are trying to have an abortion. We named him Josiah. Poor little baby boy.

WATOTO BABIES

Here are some pictures of the Watoto babies. They were all so cute and we are excited to be able to go back and see them again soon. One of the babies pictured is named Joseph, but he is so big and chubby that all of the mama's call him "big fatty." We LOVED him and had a great time playing with him and cuddling him on our last afternoon there. Bethany is another little girl pictured. She is beautiful, happy and has Cerebral Palsy. When Arielle discovered this sweet little girl had CP she had to take one kid off her lap, and call Bethany over to her saying, "these are the children I LOVE!"

Anyone for a walk?

Hi not from Sudan...a slight change in planskis

Hey Everyone,
We have a had a slight change in our plans...this is not unexpected considering the usual way of life here in Africa. As we boarded our matatu (Ugandan taxi) yesterday at 5am, we expected to arrive in Kampala, zip over to the Southern Sudanese Embassy and grab a visa for Sudan. However, after some really cool timing and some great connections we met up with a Sudanese man, Kumi Bai, and he brought us to the Sudanese Embassy only to find it closed! We were bummed! We also found out we had to take passport photos and that Sudanese visas are extremely hard to get. Kumi agreed to help us though, and we went to get our photos taken. This turned out to be quite a laugh! You are not allowed to smile for your passport photos here, but how are you supposed to control yourself when you are making a serious face at a ghetto 1964 camera while your friend is holding in laughs. The camera man had to scold me literally 2 times, "stop smiling, please," and was not amused by Arielle and I having a crack up after each failed attempt. After, we had to view our photos on a screen and we lost control! Most of Arielle's pictures were of her with pursed lips, obviously about to lose it! We were having a genuine good time laughing at ourselves and the man didn't even smile. Anyways, we ended up getting a Sudanese passport but for February. We will be living in Sudan for Feb 1-March 1, which works out just fine for us.