1/16/10 6:50 PM

Uganda; day 18

The past two days have been the hottest since our arrival here. The temperature is about 90, throw in the humidity and I’m about ready to go jump in the Nile. If it was culturally acceptable for me to don my swimwear I would have already done it. As it is the heat has done a number on me, I’m tired and I look like a radish.

It’s hard to believe we’ve already been here 18 days, I don’t keep track of dates anymore, or time for that matter. Everything runs so differently here than in the States. Everyone moves slower, it really seems like time doesn’t matter. All the kids are on holiday from school right now. Most of them are gone visiting family until school begins again in February. The handful of kids that are here spend most of the day playing various games, or doing chores. They have a devotion every night at the home. Right now because there aren’t many kids here almost everyone is involved in it each night. They all sing and dance, and then someone will share a word from the bible. It’s refreshing to see how open all of them are to discussing, and praising God. It took me a while to get used to one of the most common greetings here, instead of saying hello they say praise God. Amen was the first word I learned in Luganda, it’s the usual response to that greeting and a very commonly used word here.

I had my first coffee since leaving the states yesterday, it was like a little piece of heaven. The Source Cafe has become one of our favorite hang out spots, Eydie introduced it to us while they were here. It’s where we go to get online, it’s also where we’ve been eating our one meal a day since the transfer of our funds from the states hasn’t gone through yet. Once it does we’ll be able to get the supplies to cook at the home. The people at the Cafe are very nice, I think it might be owned by Americans, it’s the closest thing to home we’ve seen since being here. Anyway, I got pretty excited when I saw they have lattes and cappuccinos. I miss the food from home dearly.

Kurt and I did our laundry today, hand washing isn’t to bad, although I did make a mental note not to wait a week anymore. For some reason the idea of us washing our clothes the way the locals do was very funny to everyone here at the home. Even Shadrack started laughing when he saw us come out with them. All of the older kids kept offering to do it for us but we insisted that we could manage just fine. It was pretty funny, they all lined up outside and just watched.

1/19/10 3:15 PM

Uganda; day 21

It’s another hot day in Jinja, 100 degrees outside, I think I’m melting. Things are going pretty slow this week, not much activity to write about. Kurt and I got word that our funds will be transfered to our account here tomorrow, we should have them on Friday. That is a relief, I look forward to learning how to cook all the different food they have here, and especially look forward to eating it.

I expect things to pick up next week when the children get back from their holiday from school. Hopefully we will be able to work with them after school.

I’m also going to look into how difficult it would be for me to go to Kenya to visit little Paul, I sponsored him through Compassion International a little over a year ago. It would be great to go meet him and his family sometime while we’re here.