Memoirs

I sit here, at starbucks, relatively early in the morning, night shift tonight.....with Uganda on my mind. I just can't believe it's already been a month since I've come back! Time is flying.....

Anyhow, thought I'd share three thoughts: three thoughts, three pictures.....and honestly, if you're thinking, 'Oh my! I can't believe she's writing more about UGANDA!'.....I assure you that these people are absolutely amazing and the few little posts I've written don't do them justice (literally and figuratively) in ANY way.....

So here goes! :)

Story #1: Mary Kevin

I've talked about this young lady before (here). It was quite possibly the most amazing moment to see her again. The last time I'd seen her in '06, there was not a smile to be seen on her face, but the first day I arrived back this year, she came through the throng of children, shook my hand and with this HUGE smile said 'Hello! I'm Mary Kevin'......and it was from this moment that I think I'd found my match :) And to top it off, we'd sing wierd songs to each other....Simple little greetings in a 'sing song' way ;) Maybe a little odd, but like I said: I think I found my match!

Story #2: Water
This photo doesn't do the 'water' story justice. While I can just turn on a tap in my home and drink straight from it, these kids have daily chores, one of which is to go and collect water from a tap that is (what seems) a "short" walk down a hill. I tried on a few occasions to help, and after one trip up with two of these yellow containers filled with water, it hit home to see how hard these kids work everyday to satisfy the most basic of needs. The boys and girls rotate with who collects the water.....and they fill this GIGANTIC blue basin (I think it holds about 24 yellow jugs of water). While helping one day, I asked, 'I think it's full, yah?'.....and was quickly corrected as one of the children said, 'no, not yet' and pointed to the small amount of blue basin that had yet to be filled (the water was, in all honesty, an inch from the top :) Needless to say, that blue basin was filled to the BRIM and was spilling over. Maybe a literal analogy to how hard these kids work :)

Story #3: The Mama's
What do I say about these ladies! These three women have devoted their lives to caring for the 53 children who live on the 10 acres I visited. Three children's homes, three wonderful mama's! And although they're all amazing, I wanted to speak a bit for Mama Rose (in the middle, picking peanuts :).....Rose was on the 10 acres the last time I'd visited in '06. I have never met a woman who is more open about her faith in the sense that she would be up early every morning (aka 5am-ish) shouting 'HALLELUJAH!' at the top of her lungs for all to hear. I was behind one of the children's homes taking some quiet time for myself on another occasion, and she came around the home with her bible in hand (I think I might have taken her 'spot'). She sat a few paces from me, laid down a blanket and just starting worshipping like there was no-one else around (aka "I" was no longer there). She was humming to herself and raising her hands and then she opened the word and started reading, and then she started singing again....it was just her and God and that was all that mattered right then and there. It was lovely! So nice to see a heart laid open in front of me, and more importantly in front of the "big guy"......just encouraging :)

Anyhow, I think that's it. If you've made it to here, thanks for sticking around. Uganda will likely makes it way again onto this blog......Just far too many stories (and photos) to share :) But I've also recently taken pictures of a friend who was on the trip! So maybe I'll post those next time :)

Have an awesome day! And HALLELUJAH!! ;)