Here are some of my pictures from the past two weeks

Desire (6 months old) and Edmond (11 months old). With Edmond with us now, he should gain some weight very quickly.

Freddy!

Edwin and Henry playing dress up together.

Edwin! I'm so glad he's reunited with his family again.

The biggest avocado I've ever seen (next to an egg for comparison). Dad, imagine the amount of guacamole from this one avocado!

Sisterly love. I think this was before they ate haha

Henry and I at an outing to the pool

Tina!

 

Tina again! So so so cute!

Feeding time with the babies

Band practice in a field on my way home from town

Settling in

This week was much easier for me than the last. I got a little sick (from 52 drooling, coughing, and sneezing kids) last Thursday so I rested up over the past weekend and I had so much more energy this week. Things are starting to sink in for me here. These aren’t just ordinary kids that I’m nannying… these are orphans. Over the past week, I’ve seen three new kids come and one leave to go back to his family. One that really stood out to me was a dad dropping off a little baby because he couldn’t take care of her and he was leaving Jinja. He seemed so detached from the situation and it shocked me. At that moment, I realized where I was exactly and where all these kids had come from. Some situations were definitely worse than others but the fact is, I have a great responsibility caring for and loving these kids. This is not a place where each one gets the proper attention they need after going home from daycare or school. This is their home. A place for nurturing, for kissing boo boo’s, for teaching them how to share and love one another, and a place for understanding each child’s needs and acting on those needs. This is not just a job, it’s a family. It’s quite a large family but there’s three different cottages and I help out with just one. So, in my family, there’s four mama’s who take turns in shifts, then Matthew, Elijah, Godfrey, Simon, Brian, Charlie, Henry, Fred, Wycliff, Phillip, David, and Jeremiah. I feel so blessed to have them in my life and they bring lots of joy everywhere they go. 

It is obviously a drastic difference living in Uganda than Fairfax... Here are the major differences I've seen so far: 

1.      Chickens or the service men running and yelling chants always wake me up in the morning instead of an alarm clock on my phone.

2.      I haven’t seen one fly swatter… that’s why we keep geckos in the house.

3.      I’ve never been on a motorcycle but I’ve been on tons of bodas with no helmet on and holding onto a kid for dear life.

4.      The food kept disappearing in the pantry so we had a stake-out for our good ol’ friend Bruce, the rat. Turns out one of my roommates is a really good rat killer.

5.      Every day for lunch is some combination of beans, rice or posho, and greens and it hasn’t gotten old yet!

6.      It’s really fun to go out at night in Fairfax but in Jinja, we have to be back in our home by dark... so we have lots of fun before then.

7.      Instead of price tags on bags and paintings, I bring my haggling buddy so she can help me with the best prices for a muzungo.

8.      The mass is still the same, but I got a lot stares for being the only muzungo in the congregation. 

 

Muzungo! Muzungo!

         I've been in Jinja for five days now and I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of things like riding a boda, remembering the names of the preschoolers and babies at Amani, and figuring out what each food item is called. I've learned some very important words in Lugandan like suesue (pretty obvious when a little boy runs up to you in panic looking for the nearest bathroom), posho (a cornmeal and water mixture that looks exactly like mashed potatoes but definitely isn't) or muzungo (a white person-- there's quite a lot of stares and waving when three muzongos go into town). It's been fun getting to know this language but it adds a whole other element to understanding kids at the baby cottage. Sometimes kids are a little tough to understand but adding another language to the mix is quite difficult. Some of the kids help us out and say to the other child, the Auntie's want to understand you! Speak English! No matter what language they're speaking, they're still absolutely adorable.
         
           I had a very interesting experience on Sunday when I tried to go to a Catholic mass in town. First of all, I had never been there so I wasn't sure where it was and second of all, I had no idea what time mass was. Masstimes.org doesn't work here and I spent over an hour on Saturday night trying to figure out what time it was. Since all the church services for the rest of the Christian services were at either 9 or 10, I decided to be all ready by 8:45. Well, it turns out the only English mass was at 8. I was so disappointed but knew I had to at least go to some kind of service. So, I hopped in the van with everyone else to go to a Christian service. Half way there, Charlie, the head coordinator at Amani, stopped the car and said, hey look! There's a St. Andrew's! So I hopped out of the car, and was there in perfect timing... or so I thought. The mass was supposed to start at 10. I didn't take into account African time though. Around 10:30, the actual service started and I was thrilled to sit next to someone I had been talking to for the last half an hour (apparently his church in Kampala starts on time too). There was lots of dancing, lots of singing, a Baptism, and praying and at the end of the mass (two and a half hours later) I was really confused. Although pretty much everything was covered (minus the Eucharist), nothing seemed to be in order of a regular mass AND there was a woman priest! Say whaaat? I've been trying to keep an open mind about everything I've been experiencing so I again tried to keep an open mind... but something was just off about this mass, or what I thought was a mass. It turns out I went to an Anglican church! Whew! I'll definitely wake up early and go to the Catholic church next week.

         Finally, today I got to go on an outing with Moses, one of the five year old boys at Amani. Each child gets a turn going on an outing with an Auntie and they rotate on the list so everyone gets a turn with one on one attention. This is so all of the kids know life outside the gates of Amani and receive more attention than they usually do. We decided to go into town on a boda (joy) and get some sodas and cake at a local restaurant called Ozzie's. We had such a good time on this little adventure!

                                   Moses and Auntie Colleen with our giant piece of chocolate cake!

                                                                    He loved his soda!

                                                        And his chocolate cake. Cheeeeese!

So many blessings

I’m here in Jinja, Uganda, safe and sound! My trip from the United States to Entebbe, Uganda was a pretty big emotional roller coaster with extreme highs and lows but overall, it was a very good experience. I saw God’s blessings and graces pouring on me from the very beginning, starting with a student traveling to Mumbai. We met while trying to navigate the London airport, which is a lot tougher than Dulles and I asked him for directions. It turns out that he went to Mason and lives near Wegman’s in Fairfax! By that time in my trip, I just wanted some familiarity and God heard my prayers.

 Next came three girls that I also met in London. I didn’t know it but I was actually sitting across the aisle from one of the girls on the way to London. Two of them went to JMU plus they were going to Uganda! Two of them had already been to Uganda so I asked some questions and listened to their stories. It was so awesome to see some girls my own age doing similar work in the same country! I stayed with them all the way until I got my luggage in Uganda… and then came an almost sleepless night in Entebbe. In the first two minutes after we parted ways, I really hoped I’d had a travel partner. Being in a different country, all by myself, with English being the national language yet everyone having a thick accent and just relying on strangers for transportation was probably the scariest part to this trip. So, I prayed. I don’t think I stopped praying from the time I left the United States to when I finally made it to Jinja. I prayed for sleep, for someone to talk to, for the kids I was going to see, for my flight being on time to connect to London, for the three girls going to counsel women who were involved with domestic violence, for my visa to work, for my luggage to be all there, for the driver for the hotel to be kind and Christian, for a safe night all alone in the hotel, for there to be someone at the hotel to drive me to Jinja, and for a safe drive to Jinja… and that’s only to mention a few prayers. Everything turned out fine, even though it sounded like there was someone in my bathroom all night at the hotel (turns out the air conditioning drains about every twenty minutes into these giant tubes which makes a huge splashing sound).  The three hour drive was also pretty eventful which consisted of dodging huge pot holes while also just missing pedestrians, boda’s (motorcycles), and other cars. It’s just slightly different from American driving. 

And then, my whole journey completely changed when I got to the baby cottage. When traveling to a different country, I’ve been aware of a few things already. I think the biggest thing is that a country isn’t made up of its landscapes—the mountains and rivers and cities. Those definitely define a part of a country but without knowing the people within a country, you have no idea what the country consists of. My surroundings in Uganda are COMPLETELY different from the States but I instantly felt at home as soon as I entered the cottage because of the kids inside. Kids are kids, no matter their ethnicity or their background. They all need attention, love, food, sleep, and shelter. I love them all already… all fifty two of them. My jobs will include helping out with preschool in the morning and then playing with/ feeding the little boys in the afternoon. I’m Auntie Colleen and there’s four “momma’s” for each house (three houses in all). Today we played outside for a while and at one point, I had 4 babies in my lap! This is the life:)  It’ll be exhausting but so much fun!

And my journey begins...

I will be starting my journey to Jinja, Uganda today! I am so excited (and a little nervous) for this trip but God has helped me prepare for this for a while now. I will be in Uganda for three months and volunteering at Amani Baby Cottage during my stay. I know I will learn a lot and enjoy many adventures while there while also holding babies every day of my life:)  Hopefully I will be able to blog at least once a week (depending on how often I have electricity). Feel free to email me! cmcglade@masonlive.gmu.edu