Ssenge

I feel so miserable today that I feel kind of useless. The doxycycline is really starting to affect me and I have about 95% of the side effects it warns you may get. I'm really bummed out because I feel like I'm missing out on enjoying this experience. I am forcing myself to stay involved, though. Raquel has helped with that. Knowing another person is relying on me to go places and do things helps because otherwise i might be tempted to just stay in bed all the time. Honestly, I don't think I would really do that but the temptation is still there.

Today and yesterday we spent at the Ssenge home, with the boys there. We colored with them and gave them sidewalk chalk to play with.
Here's a funny tidbit: Obama is a hero here and everyone knows who he is. One of the team members gave out ties to all the boys at Ssenge. One of the boys put his on and said, "I look like Obama!" I thought that was pretty funny.


We also taught them Rummikub (or a more simple version of it). The kids love matching the numbers and putting them in order. My favorite boy is Abdul. He is so shy and holds back a lot. He doesn't know English and he has a hard time with numbers. But he loves Rummikub. I helped him the first few times. On the third game, he actually won and he was so PROUD you could see his face beaming. He made a little shout and gave me a big hug. He didn't say anything but you could see everything on his face. It was my favorite moment of this trip. He is such a sweet boy. I spent a lot of today with him, too. He colored with me and asked me to draw for him. haha. Yeah, so i traced something. Raquel is the artist, not me! These boys are amazing artists, too. Some of them are incredibly talented.

The boys love taking our cameras around with them and taking pictures and video. They LOVE being on camera, especially on video because they can watch it afterwards. They filled up my memory card so fast that I have to upload all my stuff to Raquel's thumb drive. When I get home I want to put all their video onto DVD and send it to them. Abby, the girl who lives with them, has a DVD player so they can watch it. They love to take tons of video of them singing and dancing and the watch it afterward. I remember loving that as a kid myself.

The pictures below are just a few of MANY they took. It's fun at the end of the day to look through and see what they did. This is the inside of their house by the way. The floors are concrete and they are in the middle of a large field.


Here's my sweet boy, Abdul, below (helping make our lunch- fish, matoke, and rice).







Here are some pictures of the field behind the house:Here's one of their "toilets". Yes, I have use it many a time.When the boys scrolled through my pictures the other day they laughed so hard when they saw this one. CLEARLY, I am not from around here. ;)

We had a really good couple of days with those kids. We only get to see them on weekends because they are in school during the day and too far away to go see at night. I am really happy with how much busier we've become lately. Our first few days were pretty slow. it was a good transition but I am eager to make use of our time here. I feel that it has been incredibly difficult to build many relationships here because we are rarely in the same place twice. I think that the kids in the slums will be the ones we get to know best because we'll see them three times a week. I am getting to know and love the babies, too, of course, but they're too young to ever remember me or for me to make much difference in their lives. I struggle with this concept in general. I am not sure how much good I am doing but maybe, as a part of the bigger picture, I am making an impact.

I do feel badly that I don't love it here. Abby asked me the other day, 'Don't you love Kampala?" I didn't know what to say. I don't even like it here. I keep focusing on the kids to get me through. That's what i came for. I just wish I loved the country but I don't. I miss my Zimbabwe girls more than you know.

Yesterday, we also visited an orphanage called, "Open Door". They have about 80 kids that they currently house and put through school. They work to put every kid back in their home with parents or relatives. Others, they adopt out. We only spent about an hour there but it was the sweetest hour. I adored those beautiful little girls.