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Hi Everyone,

Today was another exciting day at the home. We arrived at about 10:00, it happened to be during one of the breaks and the kids must have told all their friends that we were in town. Many, about 400 of the kids live in the community and come to the school during the week on the bus and go home in the evenings. Well when we got there today, they were waiting. They came chasing the van and waving. When we got out of the van the started grabbing our hands, just to touch us. I said hello to so many of them and gave them hugs and held their hands. It’s hard to give them all attention when there are so many. Angel came to the van to see me, however I was surrounded my so many kids all I could do is smile and wave. She seemed to understand.

I went to the room where we were going to interview/get the kids stories. I asked Grace, one of the ladies that works here, if I could meet my sponsored child, Sara. She brought her in the room a little later while we were still setting stuff up. I was so happy to meet her. She is so sweet. She said that she loves me and thanked me for sponsoring her to go to school. I gave her some things that I brought for her. I felt like a bad sponsor mom because everyone else here brought huge amounts of stuff for their sponsor children, pens, notebooks, etc. I brought her a pink jump rope and that was pretty much it. I ended up getting her a shirt during my shirt shopping yesterday, some cookies, gave her a berry/nut bar from REI and a washcloth. I did give her a great pair of shoes and some socks. She really liked those. I put the shoes on her to make sure they fit but she didn’t want to wear them. She didn’t want to get them dirty and she will save them for church and special occasions for now. She took them home to show her family. So sweet.

During the day we interviewed about 80 kids between all of us. Not bad. These were the kids that the women at the home, i.e. Silvia, Pastor Steven’s daughter who is a social worker, have decided to be the ones most in need of help. I was amazed with the answers to some of my questions. Such as, “What makes you happy?”. Answer: Going to school. “What are you thankful for?” Answer: being alive or another example school fees. So many of the kids are so hurt and sad that they can’t even look up while I am speaking with them or the translator is speaking with them. And I don’t think it’s just because they are shy. I try and warm them up with some stickers or taking their picture on my camera and showing them.

That makes them laugh and smile however, that only lasts a few seconds. I started giving them candy when they sat down to make friends. Then, one started playing with the jolly rancher like it was a toy after she had been sucking on it and chewing on the wrapper. Big, no no. So I took the wrapper away, cleaned her hands with a wet wipe and she did it all over again. I gave up. ha, ha…Some of the other responses I’ve had. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Answer: a doctor so I can inject people. “What do you like to do at home?” Mopping and wash dishes. another boy said, play with toy cars. They say they pray for the church and the home. Many want to be nurses to take care of their sick parents. I can learn a lot from these kids…

We worked all day. I didn’t drink hardly anything all day as I didn’t want to use the bathrooms on site. I haven’t checked them out yet, but I have heard they could use some updating.

We finished at about 4:30. The last interview I did was Babra Namakula. I spoke with her for a while. Then my sponsor child, Sara came to my side in the room. I thought she was just hanging out. I asked the translator to ask her if the bus was waiting and if I needed to give her the stuff I brought to take home. She said, no that she was waiting for Babra. They are best friends. How strange out of 500 children that the 15th and last child that I interviewed was her best friend. Does anyone want to sponsor Babra? She said her favorite food is rice and meat. She loves to jump rope, they call it skipping. Her dad died of AIDS. So many of the kids left from the school to go home.

At that time we were able to bring out some of the toys. I brought out about half of the jump ropes and the others brought out the soccer balls. I have never seen a place come so alive. Kids were mobbing me to get the jump ropes. We started playing, yes, I was jumping rope for the next couple of hours. I didn’t get this tired as a kid. hmmmm… We tried double dutch. It was too hard. Boys were passing soccer balls through the jump ropes, just too excited and engrossed in what they were doing to notice. Later they had an evening/afternoon prayer. All the kids responded to a bell (maybe a cow bell) and all ran to one area. They brought out drums and everyone started singing songs. It was quite amazing. These kids were praying like nothing I have ever seen. They were all praying out loud about 180 of them. See the picture I attached. We left shortly after. I gave Angel a shirt and cookies I bought for her. I will have to find her a pair of shoes; maybe the ones that you, Tera, gave me will fit her, the grey ones with pink stripes.

Sorry for the long emails. This is my journal entry as well.

Lots of love,

Nicole

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