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Wow, I can’t believe that I only have 10 more days left here! If I told you that I wasn’t sad to be leaving, I would be lying. I’ve come to love this place. In fact last night I had George my favorite little toddler, over to the volunteer house to sleep. He was so cute all cuddled up to me snoring soundly. It’s those little precious moments that I will miss. I will miss the fact that I’ve met so many new people and we can just hang out, talk, and share stories with. But, even though I’m sad to be leaving, I want to tell you all about the wonderful memories I’ve made.
This past week I took care of 10 babies and did a lot of other odd jobs, but the lord was so good in providing me the strength and energy to do it all. A lot of the other volunteers got sick this past week and so mama mercy went running from the toddler room to the baby 1 room, to the outside kitchen, the wash line, and the volunteer house, trying to keep everything under some type of sanity. I’ve hung more children’s clothes this past week than in my entire 22 years of life. I’ve washed kakka (poopy) diapers in a stone sink outside and laughed while doing it. I’ve also watched my favorite toddler George, poop in a little potty and then pick up the poopy potty beside him and pour it on my friend’s foot. (hahahahaha) I’ve seen a college boy pick up bobby (toddler here) not knowing that bobby was sick and get a spray of diarrhea all over his clothes. But I’ve also experience how hard these Ugandan women work. The mama’s here truly deserve their name. If you can imagine 25 little toddler boys running and jumping on their beds at naptime while 10 white girls are yelling at them to be quiet and beating wooden sticks on walls threatening to jaku ku ba (beat you) hahahahaha
However, when night time came I went and painted. I’ve been learning so much about painting and feel so blessed to have met these two painters. Their names are Angelo and Jeff. Since I’ve spent so much time with them, and they live right behind their painting place, I’ve gotten to know their whole family. The mama tells me stories about how she raised her kids to be Christians and how God has provided for their family so many times. She is so proud that all of her kids have went to school and graduated with degrees. But, the family itself reminds me a lot of home, eating, laughing, and playing card games. There are the eldest 2 girls who one is a teacher here and the other is a social worker. There are also 3 more brothers who one is an automotive, one is a store keeper, and one is a marketing guy. But this family has taken me under their wing and they all look after me, walk me home, feed me lots of food and laugh at how much I eat but they say they can’t see me gain weight hahaha. It’s been nice. Angelo, the painter is my age and has become one of my best friends here. I’ve been loving the Calvary Chapel church that I’ve been going to and have found out that some of the mamas from the baby home go to church there as well. In fact, I’m going to be going to a mamas home on Friday and meeting her four children. When we were walking back from church the other day she told me her life story of how she was married and had 4 children to raise by herself. When I asked about her husband she started crying and told me the story about how her husband got shot when they lived up in Northern Uganda. Now, her baby is sick with Malaria and she is just trying to keep him alive. So, I’m going to go and visit her family and see if there is anyway I can help.
Also, this past week, all the mamas put on their official African looking dresses and danced for us. Then they asked if anyone wanted to learn and of course no-one stepped up, so I thought well I would like to learn how to shake my hips like that so I was like keep those drums going, I’m going to learn this… hahahhaahaha so there I am a white girl dancing with these beautiful Ugandan mamas as they are hooting and hollering and soon everyone like 30 white people were dancing and the drums were blaring and we had such a good time!
So to close this email, I want you all to know that I really feel that God is telling me to come back and keep working here. As of now, I’m looking into working for different schools that will pay me. So if you all could keep me in your prayers with this I would greatly appreciate it! Also, I know the transition back home will not be easy and so if you could pray for me about that too, that would be wonderful! Hopefully, I will get to meet George’s family this week and introduce him to his new home. Please keep him in your prayers as well since he will be going from a really safe environment to a completely different world when he moves to the village.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and thoughts. Really this trip has been amazing and I’m learning so much about God and who he really is. I love you all and can’t wait to see you in person in just a few days!
XOXO