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.