Wonderful Weekend! (by: Alyssa)

Hey Everyone!

So, Em and I got the chance this weekend to go on a Safari! I'm just going to give a brief summary of what we did. We went with a group of volunteers from the orphanage and it was from Thursday afternoon - Sunday night. Really, the only "safari" day was Saturday, but there was A LOT of travelling involved throughout the rest of the weekend. We went to Murchison Falls National Park, which is about 7-8 hours away from where we are staying in Uganda. Plus, we had to go to Kampala first, which is the capital of Uganda, because that is where we stayed on Thursday night. Getting to Kampala wasn't too hard, but getting to the Red Chilli Hostel (Red Chilli was our safari company) was QUITE the adventure, as I had forgotten to write down the directions! My bad! So, we got a little lost and it was a littttle stressful, but eventually we arrived! :) We left early on Friday morning to drive to Murchison Falls, and arrived at about 4 pm. We then hung out that night and went to bed early because we were exhausted! We slept in two-person tents that had BEDS in them, which was definitely a nice surprise, and there were warthogs(Pumba!) just chilling all around the campsite. Saturday, we left very early for our 4 hour game drive, which was definitely a huge highlight. We saw lots of different animals and it was so sweet to experience them in their natural environment. My favorite was probably the giraffes - such beautiful and graceful creatures. We also went on a boat trip saturday afternoon and on that trip we saw lots of hippos, elephants and a few crocodiles. :)
Sunday was our last day, and on our way home, we stopped to see the actual Murchison falls and that was INCREDIBLE and breath-taking. Then we departed for the trip home, which felt like it took forever, but we got to see a lot of Ugandan people in their villages, as well as many different types of landscape. All in all, the weekend was definitely worth it, and now it's good to be back with the kids! It was so precious seeing them run up to us when we got back, saying "Auntie, Auntie!" :)
I'm not feeling 100% today, so I'm taking a bit of time off, but hopefully I'll be back to normal tomorrow!
Much love!
Alyssa

Time for a Song! (by: Emily)

SO, a guy who works as the guard here for Amani was nice enough to loan me his extra guitar! I didn't realize he wanted me to use it for awhile, so yesterday I brought it down to give it back to him but all the kids saw me with it first. There eyes went SO wide and they got SOOOOOOOO excited! I don't know if anyone from the orphanage has played guitar for them before, or not very often at least! They all wanted to hear Alyssa and I play, so we took turns playing some songs we know. We didn't know any kids songs on guitar off the top of our head, but the kids loved anything we played! Even though they weren't exactly dancing and clapping songs that we knew, the kids were dancing like crazy and it was hard to sing and not burst into laughter. It was honestly one of the sweetest pictures so far. It melted my heart to see how much they loved hearing us play...even though we're both not experts or anything! Even when I made a mistake, they didn't notice or care one bit... they just loved the music! I'm noticing that the Africans are all about the music...and I LOVE the music too! I'm hoping to bring out the guitar again sometime soon! Maybe I'll stop by the internet cafe later and look up chords for some fun children songs! I haven't seen those kids get that excited yet! Well, except when they're being brought to town for their chocolate cake outing! Music, music, music.... I'm loving the music!!!!!

It's a new day! (by: Emily)

It's my lunch break on Monday and I decided to go to town to quickly check my e-mail. On the way here, I was once again amazed by Africa and the people here. I always feel like I'm being watched....it's almost like I'm a celebrity or something...well, maybe not quite that crazy, but people are definitely looking at me! I am becoming friends with some of the children here in the town, and I saw one of the boys today. That put a huge smile on my face! You are definitely treated much differently here for being a mzungu. For one thing, there is an African price and a Mzungu price. There are actually signs up for things that will say the African price and the Mzungu price. If you go to a store or take a boda boda or anything they will always try to charge you more for being a mzungu. I'm happy that I finally know how much I should pay and when I'm being ripped off big time. I'm not really a fan of this extra attention...I'm really not used to it! But I mean, who is used to people wanting to come up to you and touch your skin or your hair? It's definitely weird for me at times!

I'm getting used to all of the things that used to make me pull my camera out and get me squealing with excitement! I've stopped taking pictures of goats, cows, and chickens on the roads. I've also come to enjoy the geicos that crawl on the walls of the guest house I sleep in. I'm just really enjoying everything about Africa.

Every afternoon when the children wake up from their nap they either have activity time or one on one outing time with an auntie or uncle (that's what they call us..cute, eh??) Alyssa wants to do slip and slide with the kids today, so we'll have to see how that goes! I'm sure they'll love it! I love just playing with the kids...it's so much fun! All you have to down is sit down and almost instantly you will be covered in babies...they will circle you and jump on you and all want to sit on your lap. The girls (and even a couple of the boys) LOVE doing my hair! It is usually a very painful process as they attempt to braid and twist my hair...I actually saw one of the boys run off with a fistful of my hair on Sunday. But, I know they love it so I let them play with it for a bit! I may end up with dreads one of these days though...they sure make lots of tangles and knots..haha! I love these kids!

Oh, and mom and dad. Just thought I'd throw this out there. I've met a couple who is your age and has kids who are grown up and going off to university...and, they're adopting a little boy from Amani! SO...if you happen to want me to bring a little baby home...let me know;) (don't worry, I'm just joking!)...it's actually a very long process to adopt...way more complicated than I ever imagined before! Especially if you're from Canada...it's a much quicker process for Americans!

Speaking of Americans... I LOVE them! They're so much fun! They all say the craziest things here...and it's started to rub off on me!

I'm loving this place and never wanting to leave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Em

Church and the Source of the Nile (by: Alyssa)

Heyyy!

Today, we decided to check out a different church called "Acacia Community Church" with a bunch of the other volunteers. This church was a little further away, so we took bodas to get there, and it was kind of scary because I had no idea if my driver was taking me to the right place, and we lost the rest of the group for awhile. We brought kids with us too, and I brought little N who was very well behaved throughout the service :) I really enjoyed this church - It's outdoor, on the Pastor's lawn, and they don't have any instruments for worship but they have big speakers that they play music from and we sing along. We sat under an avocado tree and the Pastor warned us jokingly at the beginning of the sermon to try and not get hit by one!

Weird coincidence/story - I was talking to a lady that was at church this morning and later she came by to Amani. She told me she is trying to adopt two girls from Uganda but because she is Canadian, she has to live in Uganda for three years. I asked her where in Canada she's from and she said Ottawa, Ontario! And I said "No way! Me too!" It turns out, she is from ORLEANS (lives in Chapel Hill), went to GLOUCESTER HIGH (same as me!) and graduated the year before I started grade 9!! What a small world!

Then, this afternoon, we took a boat tour to the "Source of the Nile". It cost 70,000 shillings to rent the boat (after we bartered) but it was only 5,000 each because there were 14 of us, so that's only 2.50 each! :) It was raining a bit when we started the tour so the "Captain" got us a "tented boat" :P It was covered with something more like a tarp with holes in it, but after all, this is Africa! The guide pointed out each different type of bird that we saw on our way and always made sure to get the Captain to turn the boat around if we missed seeing something. Although usually by the time we turned around, the bird was gone. :P The Source of the Nile itself isn't tooooo impressive, but it was fun to take the boat out there! One of the girls said "This is the same Nile that Moses drifted down in a basket!" Prettty cool! :D

Much love!
Alyssa

Dress-up! (by: Alyssa)

Hey!

Preschool was pretty crazy today! There are lots of volunteers gone to visit a village today so we didn't have many workers, which seemed to create a bitttttt of chaos! Oh well, we got through it :) Eventually, we rounded the kids up in a circle and the mamas sang some songs with them. There's a really cute song in english that they like to sing. It's kind of a song/game, and involves the kids running around the circle and then coming into the middle and wiggling their hips! It's SUPER adorable!

Yesterday, during activity time, we decided to pull out the dress-up clothes (Amani has a huge storage bin of them!), which the kids LOVED. There weren't a whole lot of male costumes - mostly just dresses and such, so the boys were running up to us with dresses asking us if they could wear them, haha! We just couldn't say no :P .... The most hilarious thing was a little 4 year old boy wearing a ballerina costume and a huge sun hat! And by the end of the afternoon, some of the kids had taken off some of the costumes and were running around in their underwear or diapers, as well as a few accessories. Little D had on his underwear, some fairy wings and a necklace, haha!!

That's it for now :)
Much love!

Alyssa

The Pearl of Africa (by: Emily)

Indescrible....

that's what today felt like! During our lunch break when the kids were napping, a few of us headed off to a placed called Bugagali falls. My friend Megan and I shared a bodda there and back. The bodda ride was my favourite part I think. First of all, I just love riding boddas!!! Secondly, I got to see a lot more than I usually get to at the orphanage and around town. We went way out of the central city with the town and passed villages. I saw people living in huts made of sticks and mud and I saw children playing and laughing at little things they could find to amuse themselves. I saw so much lush vegetation and rolling hills and a lake...the view was breathtaking. Even when we got to the falls and saw the rapids and the rolling hills behind I was left standing in awe! Uganda is known as the "pearl of Africa" as it has such lush vegetation...a lot of people think of sand and desert areas when they think of Africa...Uganda is nothing like that. It's full of trees and rivers and long grass and beautiful flowers....it is absolutely amazing!!!!

Nkwagala Nyo,
Em

JOY (by: Emily)

It's been a very interesting week so far! We finally got sick, but everything here is still wonderful!

I don't have time to say very much. The thing that touched my heart was the Ugandan family we visited yesterday. We were just walking down the street on our day off and we ended up visiting a wonderful family. They taught us a couple African songs and we taught them one as well. It really touched my heart and I was so encouraged by the family and their faith. Just hearing the mother's story about how she was abandoned as a child and lived as a street child was super heart breaking and also a reflection of the situation so many other children I've met are in. Despite everything she's been through, she never once complained or asked for anything. They were all sitting on the ground but wanted Alyssa and I to have chairs. OH, and a funny story! I told Alyssa my foot was falling asleep at one point and the mom thought I was saying I was tired and wanted to clear a spot for me to have a nap! It was a challenge trying to explain that expression..haha...I'll have to be more careful with my choice of words next time! They were a very sweet family and we promised we'd come back and visit again. I'm very excited for that!

We find a boy on the sidewalk just lying there and Alyssa was afraid he was dead. We discovered after a lot of asking around that he had been sniffing something. I was so shocked! He was lying on the sidewalk of the main street and there was nothing we could really do except leave him a juice box and cookie.

We also met a whole bunch of beautiful sisters! They were all lying in a ditch...and one by one they all came out! Alyssa and I were amazed by how many could fit down there! We had a lot of fun with those girls!

We've been meeting a lot of great people, and their joy is so encouraging and so contagious! I love Africa!!! I love the JOY!

Much love,

Em