Amani Baby Cottage

So, as of today I am officially finished working at children's homes ;) I've been in Jinja, Uganda for the past week at Amani Baby Cottage....and I have been able to add (woopee!!) a couple of photos of my favorite children from this home ;) I was able to take the boy in yellow to town today. We walked there with a couple other children and volunteers and he officially ate an entire strawberry milkshake, a piece of chocolate cake with whipping cream....and then proceeded to finish off half of my slice of cake, half of another boy's milkshake and a couple swigs of my iced coffee.....needless to say, he was pretty hyper afterward....it was great ;)

And then....probably my favorite moment of the week, we hopped onto a boda boda and drove back to the children's home. And if you're thinking 'a boda boda?'....that would mean that we hopped onto the back of a motorcycle, me on the back and my little yellow shirted friend in the middle of me and the driver. He (NOT the driver) was giggling the entire way home, and then would stop and say, 'my tummy hurts'....maybe because I fed him a TON of sugar......I'm not quite sure though ;) And probably the cutest thing of all: He calls me Auntie Cheryl (AKA 'Auntie Cherwuw)....at least that's how he says it. I have it on video because it's just too cute :)

And the second picture of the little girl....words cannot describe.....I just LOVE her....stories when I'm home.......

And in other news, tomorrow I'm rafting the nile ;) Let's pray I don't drown. I've been told they're class 5 rapids ;) And the day after that, I'm visiting a family outside of jinja and then the day after that....MPIGI! Maybe one more post from mpigi....we'll see ;)

In the meantime, enjoy the, uh, TWO photos ;)

Sanyu Babies Home

13 minutes for one story.....

That means that I have 13 minutes left of internet time, and because I haven't posted anything in a while, I should at least share one story ;)

I've been at Sanyu Babies Home for about 2 weeks and I've cuddled with a mass amount of children. And I could describe in lots of words what I see, but it just wouldn't do it justice. There have been 5 babies 'abandoned' in the past couple weeks and they are beautiful and adorable and 'well fed' it seems....which makes me wonder why they were left in the first place. It's one thing if you can't take care of your child and you abandon them because you can't nourish them, but when you leave a baby on the side of the road that is well fed with ears pierced....it's then that I wonder.....I just don't get it sometimes. Why some of these kids are left. And then again, I'll never know the full story either.....argh!

Anyhow, the actual story: One of my favorite children in the home is this boy named Raymond, and here's why! After we get all 50+ of the children fed and changed (aka their 'nappies' ;) we pop them in their cribs and draw the mosquito netting around the crib. WELL, I put this one boy Raymond in his crib and drew the net and then noticed about 5 minutes later that he'd climbed out.....so I put him back in there and drew the net.....and heard him laughing.....and then realized 5 minutes later that he climbed out again! Well, this time he slowly walked over to me and I picked him up and he rested his head on my shoulder....and I'm thinking, 'alright, he's tuckered himself out now'....he started to doze on my shoulder! So I ever so gently placed him back in the crib and his head flopped to the side....and then he quickly looked up at me and this adorable little grin spread across his cheeks and he started laughing!

The kid was faking it! He pretended he was tired....and at that point he climbed back out of the crib and started running around with some of the other children (who also weren't sleeping).

And there's the story....I'm off to another babies home as of saturday and then will be in MPIGI as of June 2nd.....I'm excited ;)

Hope everyone is well :)

Kibaale

Well, I've taken lots of pictures, but I've only added one to this post ;)  Internet here is terrible (and very slow).  Needless to say, in the past two weeks I've been to one Ugandan wedding, two clinics, two 'immunization' clinics, one banquet and a few homes in the community.  I've climbed one hill (apparently it used to be a volcano if that makes it any more interesting) and otherwise have walked everywhere.  I've read four books, taken about 600 pictures (I think), eaten two Ugandan feasts with my fingers (I felt authentically 'ugandan' at this point even though I'm pasty white), and I've gotten (minimum) 25-30 mosquito bites.  Likely far more than that...because somehow I just got bit on the chin!  What the heck?  I don't know how that happened.....

Anyhow, my time in Kibaale has been good.  I feel like there's a lot to say but I'm at a loss for words now that I'm writing.  I really love the weather.  It doesn't rain for days on end (even though it's the 'rainy season' here right now) and the people are really friendly.  I'll be honest.  I was checking out one of the clinics here and this child was just crying away across the hallway from me, but then he looked over and peered at my "dazzling" white skin (that likely looked  much whiter given that I was in the direct sunlight)....and stopped crying.  Amazing!  Needless to say a bunch of mothers started laughing at the situation.  I'll admit:  I laughed too.  I mean, I can make children stop crying just by looking at them!  Granted, I also made another child START crying when she saw my whiteness.  You win some....and you lose some ;)

Oh! And this is random, but to further the record, I've also counted one 'dead' snake...thank goodness only one....and already dead ;)

I'm heading to Kampala tomorrow and then on to Sanyu Babies Cottage as of Saturday (I'm there for two weeks for those who are following along).  Looking forward to cuddling with some babies.....and I've also heard that there's a resort in Kampala that has an olympic sized outdoor swimming pool.  So if I find some other travellers willing to sit in the sun with me, I will most definitely be doing that on weekends ;)

Otherwise, enjoy the one picture that I've added.  I sat there for 7 minutes for it to upload, so I hope it's a good one!  It was the second picture that I took of a child in Kibaale and I looked at the LCD screen on the back of my SLR and a little smile made it's way across my face.  I then proceeded to show the girl.  I think she liked it ;)

Anyhow, that's it.  I apparently wasn't at a loss for words in the end ;)  Hopefully I can find some way to get more pictures on here.  We'll see about that.  Hope everyone is well back home!

Surreal :)

So, I'm in Uganda! I have been anticipating being here for a LONG TIME now....and now I'm here and it's totally surreal. There are a lot of things that I've forgotten since the last time I was here. The children are much cuter and more beautiful that I remembered.....and I keep looking around and just stand in wonder that I'm actually here......and I will be taking pictures but I know that the second I get the camera in my hand, it'll be attached for good :) So I took the last couple of days off.....

Anyhow, just a quick update. I'm really enjoying it so far (it's been two days ;).....but given that it's been a good start, I'm looking forward to the rest as well :) Pictures to come with the next post I suppose.....

And there you go: my first greeting from Uganda :)

Busan

This weekend was excellent! I think the best of my time in Korea so far. We went to Busan, which is a city on the south coast of Korea. When we got there, we went and walked around this fish market for a while (snapped some pictures) and then we headed to the beach. I love the beach. I love the sun, the water, watersports (but then, not necessarily the man in the thong riding around on his 'sea-doo').... so maybe I didn't like "everything" ;)

Needless to say, the reason for Busan: Shark Diving! My sister had talked about doing this, and given that it's something I've never done, I thought it might be fun. And it WAS :) We got to the aquarium on sunday morning and then went with an instructor who taught us the basics of scuba diving, and then we suited up in wet suits and headed into the tank.....which was funny, because it was actually a tank at the Busan aquarium....Korean's watching us in there from all directions...in with the sharks! Mwahaha! I was a total ham and was waving back etc. etc....it was funny :)

Anyhow, I'm now sitting here, back in Cheong Ju, washing my clothes and gearing up my bag for my flights again tomorrow.....Africa! I had this moment yesterday where I was trying to remember the details when I last was in Uganda, and I remember that lots of moms handed their babies to me....mostly at church functions. I'm looking forward to that again :) A couple named Sean and Jamie Davis are picking me up at the airport and I'm going to be in Kibaale for the first couple weeks.......for interest sake.....

And lastly, photos from this weekend. The last one was taken with the instructor's underwater camera......from the left: Adam, Heather and Me. And no, I do not have a picture of me WITH a shark, but I can assure you: Those things swam within a couple feet of my face ;)

Just some Kiddos!

So, I've had a few days to visit my sister's classes. She's teaching here in Korea and I've visited her kindergarten class twice. She gave me the 'go-ahead' to take some pictures yesterday, so I took advantage :)

Little did she know I'd also post the pictures the next day ;)

Confessions....

from Cheryl: The shopaholic ;)

So my first week in Korea has gone by quickly. I've gone with my sister and brother in law to a lot of different restaurants and yesterday we went to a place called Songnisan - It is a big park that is home to a buddha that is 5 stories tall and worth about 4 millions dollars. Needless to say, it's buddha's birthday on May 1st, so there were colorful lanterns everywhere. It was really pretty ;)

In the meantime though, I must comment on the shopping here. I didn't think that I'd end up buying much (given that I believed 'hello kitty' might make an appearance on each and every shirt or skirt that I saw), but MY GOODNESS....the shopping is quite fun! There are a lot of vintage-y floral dresses and hats and scarves and other little gems that are quite CHEAP. But then again, maybe not so cheap when you load up on the stuff (as I have). I also like this store called 'skin food' that sells natural soaps and lotions etc. etc. I've yet to buy anything there, but I still have another week and a bit ;) And today, Heather, Adam and I were walking downtown and it was really hot so we planned on getting these waffles with whip cream and strawberries (which I realize is far from Korean), but we submitted to getting these soft serve cones (also not korean). Notice the shopping bag on my right arm. Truth of my shopping disability... And I'm also apparently VERY excited about the ice cream. Heather and Adam: Excited about the ice cream but NOT so excited that I wanted a picture of them with their cones ;)

I think that's about it for now. I've tried some different foods, and I'll post pictures of other random things, but I think that's about it for now. Hope you're having a great easter weekend ;)