These are some of the kids we played with on Sunday at the internet cafe.
view out our balacony
sunrise at 630am before going to Jinja on Friday
the school behind the hotel
Besides some exhaustion and some congested noses we have been pretty healthy. It has rained every day here and most of the time it is in the late afternoon or night which allows us to have lots of times to play with the kids. However, we pray the storms come between 9pm-1am because there are people across the road playing very loud music and talking between these times. If the power is out or it is raining then it is quiet :) Also there is a 4am and 5am call to prayer that has woken me up at times or prevented me from falling back to sleep so pray for our rest while we are here.
Living arrangements…We are staying in a hotel which does have western style toilets (only had to squat to pee once while here!) and depending on whether the power is on or off we also have warm water. Two things I am very grateful for. There is a restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel which we eat at majority of the time because it is cheaper than most of the other places in town and it is convenient. We did eat at another restaurant on Sunday and eat some street food (mostly fruit) one night too. I am staying with Diana right now who is from Uganda and is here until Monday to help us get adjusted with the culture. It has been great to get to know her and to learn more about testimony. I will be without a roommate for about a week and then Megahn will be moving in. I do not know much about her yet other than she just graduated from nursing school and will be working at Smile for 6 months. Another fun thing about our room is that we have a paper Christmas tree on our wall and “Happy New Year” sign that previous girls who have worked at Smile have left.
Smile…There are about 400 kids at Smile each day with only about 40 (I think) that stay there all the time. The rest of the kids come just from 9:30am-4pm Monday thru Friday. Many of these kids are not given food at home or very little and their parents do not take them to get medical care. The parents come from all different backgrounds. Some choose not to take care of their kids and have them come to Smile during the day so that they can drink or just be lazy but there are also parents who work but do not have enough money to provide for the children’s needs. The parents have to give up their rights to the kids or the government has to take the kids away from the parents in order for the children to stay at Smile. Everyday we serve the kids two meals and they also get some kind of schooling even if it is not much. Michelle and Stacy are really driven to help these kids learn how to read. A lot of kids can recite the ABC’s but do not recognize what an “A” is. Discipline is also an issue with the kids especially the younger kids. Many of the kids are abused at home so Pastor Ruth does not allow us to spank the kids and the kids know this sometimes it can be frustrating because they are extra naughty because there is not a whole lot we can do to stop their behaviors so pray for wisdom on how to discipline the children in Godly manner. Grace, who is the nurse in the clinic at Smile, has been on maternity leave since I have arrived so I have met her but not worked with her. There are two other nurses at the clinic to replace her besides Bri and I. Therefore, it can be a little crowded at times so I have tried to help out in other areas while it is slow in the clinic. I helped serve the lunch one day and boy do they get those beans hot! I felt bad but Ezra, who is charge of the meals, had to carry some stacks of food out for me because the beans were spilling onto my hands and burning them. Please pray for Smile’s food supply!!! They were receiving Feed My Starving Children Food packs until Feed My Starving Chidren found out a lot of the food had been thrown out because the government had been holding the food and not dispersing it to Smile and the food was rotting. FMSC has stopped partnering with Smile since April but are considering coming back. It is very expensive to feed 400 children each day so please pray God will work in miraculous ways. I also have played football aka soccer with the kids during their free time. They are pretty competitive but it has been so much fun to play with them. I have really fallen in love with two little babies named Junior and Mary who are about 7-9 months old. They love to cuddle and occasionally we can crack a smile or two out of them. And then there is baby Sam. Baby Sam is almost 3 months old and usually is in the clinic with us to be loved on. He is such a good baby and usually only cries when he wants to be fed. However , Wednesday Bri took him to be circumcised. He did not like that very much! The care that is done on the little guy is different than in America. We are not suppose to put diapers on Sam so the other day a little fountain was shooting out and when I was playing with him and I got some pee on my shirt and a little in my mouth. Sam just smiled. In the clinic I have seen a LOT of puss…from ears, noses, wounds. Many kids fear the clinic because they think they will get a shot so they wait to come into the clinic for their wound until it is rotting and very infected which then they do need to be prescribed medication and sometimes a shot if it is not getting better or they spit out the medicine. Their wounds are usually full of puss at this point. I do not enjoy puss very much but I have become better with handling the smell..I think. My next goal is to master squeezing maggots out of the kids. It is kind of liking trying to pop a pimple so shouldn’t be too hard. Another thing I have learned this week is that if you sit outside for very long( or sometimes just step out of the clinic) at Smile you will sound have a swarm of kids around you pullng on your arms because they want to touch the white skin. They also are fascinated with my hair and nails. On some of the shirts at Smile which the children wear is Ephesians 3:20 which reads “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and I Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever!” I know God is going to do some amazing things in the kids lives at Smile and this verse is very fitting for them.
In the last week I have heard a lot of the natives talk about sizes of body. Some want to be fatter, some want to be skinnier, and I have even been given comments about my size. It makes me feel very insecure about the way I look especially since I know and accept that my body type does not look the best in the long skirts that we are suppose to wear. It had not bothered me at all until they started talking about weight and size. I was reading “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan (great book so far!!) and it talked about Psalm 115:3 which says “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.” So then why do I wish I had a different body type when my inner beauty pleases God? Please pray that I can find my beauty and satisfaction in God and not in other’s opinions. The book also reference Colossians 1:16 which says “ All things were created BY Him and FOR Him.” Many times I along with everyone else in this world treat God as if he were created for us, to bless us. Pray that I can be reminded daily that I was created by Him, for Him and that I can live a life for Him. I have seen God’s faithfulness and love in so many ways in the last week. He has provided safety with travels, provided beautiful views of his nature, shown His love through the children, and many other ways. Thanks for everyone’s support and prayers!
