Corinne In Uganda: No Shortage of Bugs in Uganda

It's hard to believe that it's been a week since I last updated - time has flown by! It's weird though - it seems like the week has gone by so quickly, but I also feel like I've been here for a month. I think it's probably due to learning so much and experiencing so many new things in such a short amount of time.

One of the more "intense" learning experiences of the week actually just happened today. I went to the local hospital along with a social worker and a couple other people from GSF because GSF had been notified about a severely malnourished child. The hospital was calling to see if GSF would be willing to take the child in. Of course my natural reaction is to be like "AH severely malnourished child?! Let's go pick him up!! We can feed him and care for him!" but I've come to realize that that is not exactly how things work around here. GSF has been around long enough to realize that not every needy child needs to be cared for by the orphanage itself. When they hear of cases or are called by families asking to give their children, GSF first heavily investigates the situation using their Ugandan social worker, Keren. Keren finds out as much as she can about the children by talking to family, neighbors, other ministries, etc. Do the children have loving parents that are just trying to get them into GSF because they think GSF would provide the kids with more opportunity? Do the kids have aunts or uncles that are capable of caring for the kids? Do the children just need temporary care or long term care, and if long term, are they able to be put up for adoption? It gets pretty tedious and difficult to find information, especially because Ugandans are careful of disclosing information and are difficult to get ahold of. Anyway, so that's what the visit to the hospital was about. We didnt pick up the little boy, but we did meet him and his older sister to ask questions about the situation. It was very sad seeing the boy... He was 3 years old but very small. He had no hair except some white wispy strands. His neck was so frail, his spine bulging out of his back, and his arms were like...nothing. He also had this horrible sounding cough, but I'm not sure exactly what the hospital diagnosed him with. Keren talked with the older sister, a 15 year old who is the oldest of 7 children whose mother died. Next she is going to visit the home of the children to scout out the situation a bit more. This has not been the first case like this since being here - Keren is also in the midst of investigating another case dealing with two children who are looking for placement. It does take a lot of patience, but I am understanding more and more the importance of waiting out situations such as this. GSF stresses that we need to find what is best for the child. It's very neat to see the time that they put into each case, taking time to pray for wisdom and discernment before making decisions regarding the future care of the children.

This past weekend I got to spend a day in Jinja with the other two interns and the GSF nurse, Sarah. Jinja is about 30 minutes away. On the way there, we took a taxi. The taxis here are like minivan size without the hood in front, maybe a little bit bigger than that. They're definitely smaller than conversion vans though.. We hit up the taxi outside of GSF and rode it right into Jinja. By the time we had gotten to Jinja there were twenty people and a goat in the taxi. It was hilarious. I would've thought there was no way we could've fit that many people in, but they made it work by rearranging everyone and really squeezing in tight! The goat would go "beehhh" every so often, and it would just get my funny bone. While in Jinja we went to the market. The market is just..crazy. I don't even know how to describe it except to say that there are tiny little stations selling anything you can imagine all scrunched together in a square. I think I should just take a picture sometime.. We also went to some other shops along the main road that sold things like souvenirs. They really are neat little places, and I was tempted to just buy everything. But, I practiced some self-control and only bought a few things. I got to use some of my bartering skills! We met up with another missionary that Sarah is friends with for lunch. The lunch was great and I even got to have Mango Sorbet for dessert - yum! On the way home we stopped at Ruthie's house, a girl who grew up at GSF and still comes back to visit. She currently lives in a tiny apartment outside of Jinja with four other girls. Ruthie is just the sweetest, happiest, and cheerful young girl, so it was really special that we got to visit her! From there we road bodas (botas?) back to GSF. Bodas are little motorcycle taxis. But they're not like American motorcycles... try picturing a mix between a motorcycle and a dirt bike. Although they're not very big, we went true Ugandan style and had three people on each bike (2 of us + the driver). Actually, sometimes I see the Ugandans put four on a bike, but I do not know how they fit!! The bodas were quite fun, except that we all had a thick layer of brown dust over us by the time we got to GSF. We all looked like examples of "Spray tan gone bad" or something.

Sunday evening for dinner I ate at one of the houses here at GSF (the way the orphanage works here is that they have the children divided into homes so each home is like a family unit). So, it was like the ugandan house mom and all her "kids" - i think there were 8 of them. It was one of the boy houses, so it was pretty loud. Sarah, Suzanna, and Lianna also ate there, and it was very interesting because we got to see how the family does devotions before dinner (lots of singing and then testimonies of good things God has done for them). When it was time for dinner they had us visitors serve them. Like, they gave us each a spoon and had us dish out everybody's food...so weird!! I asked sarah afterwards what the deal was and i guess that's how they make guests feel as though they are part of the family. I guess that sort of makes sense! Interesting cultural education..

I had a traumatizing event with a critter here the other day. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth before bed when I took a step towards the sink and slipped. I looked down to see what I had slipped on when I realized that I had crushed a gecko! It was soo disgusting; I stepped right on its head. Bleeckkk it was so nasty, I screamed and ran to the room! I went back the next morning and it was still there and covered with a gazillion little ants. I couldnt even stand to look at it, so I gave Lianna some shillings to clean it up for me. I really don't mind geckos and lizards, but the ones here are really ugly - they're pale and big, probably about 5 inches long.

That said, the bugs here have really started to gross me out. They're super intrusive. They're always EVERYWHERE. In my food, on my clothes, in my bed. It's as though there's absolutely no clean place. I even find bugs sitting on my bar of soap! The kitchen is just full of bugs, they crawl all through the ingredients. When I pull a clean plate off of the shelf, it always has ants on it. Before I dry off with my towel after the shower, I have to check it for bugs. Before I went to sleep last night I had to flick a dead bug off of my pillow. Last night Lianna and I were making dinner in the kitchen and we made the mistake of leaving the door to our room open (our door leads to the outdoors). By the time we had eaten it was dark outside. So, because the bedroom door was open and the light was on in our room, TONS of bugs were attracted to our bedroom! I walked in and there were bugs just swarming the lights! They were ALL over, probably like a thousand of them. So, we turned the light in our room off, turned the porch light on, and prayed that they would all fly back outside. It worked for a couple bugs, but most of them just enjoyed lounging on our mosquito nets. So, Lianna went in with the broom and cleaned up well. She did a great job, but there are still quite a few stranded wings in here (there's a kind of termite/bug here that flies and then loses its wings. It's really weird). G-R-O-S-S. Oh! Another gross story.. I was eating a mango the other day, and as I pealed it further I realized that the opposite half of it was completely brown, rotten, and full of WORMS! Lots and lots of worms. Bleegghhk.

The days here are all pretty different. I have no strict schedule so it's kind of just about getting stuff done on my own time. I usually wake up around 7:30, shower, eat breakfast, help at the baby house/work on sponsorship stuff, eat lunch at 1:00, work with the sponsorship stuff/work with some of the special needs kids, play with the kids when they're out of school, make dinner, eat dinner around 7, relax/read/email, go to bed. Tuesday mornings there is devotions with all of the house moms that I go to, and it's really awesome. I love hearing them sing!! Wednesday night is "missionary devotions" which is when all of the people who are missionaries meet. Thursday evenings is youth group with the teens. Friday night is movie night with the teens. Sunday afternoon is movie time with all of the other kids. Also, every day I am to spend time with 3 special needs children, Tom, Moses, and Mark. I actually haven't started working with Tom and Moses yet, but I started working with Mark yesterday. Mark is thought to have ADHD, Moses is down syndrome, and Tom is severely autistic. I think I'll be working with all three of them from now on.

Last night me and Lianna made spaghetti and brownies. It was so delicious and wonderful. We've decided that being in Uganda is like taking woman lessons; we cook, hand wash our clothes, put them on the clothes line to dry, iron, care for children, and clean. Actually, we have a Ugandan woman, Justine, who helps us with a lot of it. She's like super woman - she does everything! She even made fresh passion fruit juice for me the other day and it was so glorious. Oh the luxuries of living in Africa!! Haha.

Things to pray for:

1. Continue praying for health/safety. There was one day that I had an upset stomach (the day after we ate dinner at one of the houses with the kids...haha), but besides that I've felt great! So praise God for protection thus far, but please keep praying!

2. Please pray that the bugs will leave me alone! I know that may sound silly but for real...they're intense.

3. Pray for the young boy who I got to see at the hospital. Pray that, even if it isnt through GSF, that God would provide for him and the rest of the children.

4. Praise God that my memory of the children's names is increasing greatly! There are still some children who I have difficulty recalling, but for the most part, I know who the children are.

Thank you for your prayer and support!!

I've included some pictures so that you have an idea of the scene here! Hopefully they'll load this time!

Joseph, one of the oh so very sweet kiddos in the Baby/Toddler House!

Eddy, a real cutie from the Baby/Toddler House

The kids welcoming the Renzlo (sp?) family - they're visiting for a few weeks!

Monkey watching!! They were climbing the mango tree that's right off of my back porch. Can you see them?? 3 of them are sitting on the ground eating mangoes.

Solomon wearing his "Ed Hardy" t-shirt. Cracks me up - he has no idea! Haha.

Haha I love this picture. The woman in the pic is Auntie Rose, who is a house mom in an all-boys house. She has all the boys out slashing, which is their version of mowing. They swing an iron blade back and forth (machete-like) to cut the grass. I dont know if they were in trouble or something, but she had them all put to work!

Some kids washing their clothes after school. They come home from school and have to wash their uniform by hand every day! They also have other chores that they have to do before they're allowed to come play.