Last week of full team :(

Big changes came this past and will be coming in the upcoming week. Last full week with the team because on Tuesday we are leaving to go to Kampala to bring Tom to the airport. We are going to miss him very badly. We were going to go to Kenya for a week to renew our Visas because it is very hard to get it renewed unless you leave the country. But eventually we decided to shorten that trip so that we could be on the land more. Now we will be gone Tuesday to Saturday morning. I am very excited about seeing Kenya though. The last big change is that Susie is going to leave early. She will be leaving the 29th of November. She has a few things that she needs to figure out at home before she moves from Hawaii to Colorado. So decided that it would be best to be home and tie up all the loose ends. But that’s all next week. Here’s how it went down last week…

11-6-10
This morning one of the kids, Apiyo Stella, finds me and tells me “I wash your shoes.” Notice the statement, not the question. After about an hour, shoes that look like they came out of the box again and also some clothes washed; she finishes. The kids here are amazing. After she finishes she says, (again notice the statement) “I wash your clothes next Saturday.” I head up to the houses and do some reading with some of the kids until cards and boxing distract us. Boxing is the Acholi English for boys fighting. Its fun to box 12-year-old boys ☺ Eventually we watch Jungle Book at night. “Now don’t start that again!” that’s for Mallory and Kaitlynn. That night I sleep in Grace in Fred’s room.

11-7-10
Go to church in the morning. They are using the keyboard that the Hawaii team brought them. Unfortunately, they are using this “great” organ setting. Other than that it is fine. After church I grab the camera with the zoom lens and do some photographing. End up chasing after a kid named Okello Morris for about an hour because he will not let me take a picture of him. After pictures we go and play soccer. Mike and Janelle get back from being down at Masaka at the bee school and we are all super excited to see them. Go to the kids prep time before bed.

11-8-10
Have pancakes that the girls make (which are super great) for breakfast. Do some reading in the morning and thinking about the Kenya trip. Load some pictures on the computer until lunch. Teach English to P5 today as well. Eventually go and hang out at Love once the kids are done with school. I also play some soccer before grabbing food and eating at Love with the kids. Off to prep time then I watch “War Dance” before bed. Good documentary about Uganda that is very weird to watch and be living in that culture.

11-9-10
After breakfast Mike and I talk about some bible history stuff because he studied at a school in Israel on bible history. Mike gets more interesting everyday and I am so blessed to know him. Teach English to P6 in the morning and it goes super well. After English we make a final decision about Kenya and decide to shorten the trip so that we can be back for the weekend with the kids. I’m very excited about that. It will be cheaper and we will get more time with the kids. Brynn and I do some filming after lunch. I take a nap before the kids get out of school and then go up and hang at Mercy. Eventually two of the kids, Solomon and Clinton, start “boxing” me. Eventually we finish with me sitting on both of them ☺ The best part about “boxing” is just saying, “I am going to cane you very seriously” Caning is the Acholi English word for beat. Julie has come to the land. I stay down at the fire and eat with Julie and everyone else. Prep time then bed.

11-10-10
Do some filming with Brynn of the kids in school in the morning as well as recording them ringing the school bell, which I think is going to be very cool. Go and talk to Julie in the afternoon and talk to her about recording the kids dancing this weekend. Recording the kids dancing is going to be a big production, 3 cameras, all my mics and all of the kids dancing; I’m really excited about it. The logistics alone are really fun. After the kids get out I go to Hope and tell them stories about Paul Bunyan and about building snowmen. I ask them to tell me a story but they get all-sheepish and don’t do it. Go to prep after dinner and then watch a movie with the staff called “The Expendables.” Tom and I spend the first 30 minutes trying to figure out why it looks poor and sounds bad, then on the screen we see a person stand up; got to love bootleggin.

11-11-10
Learn how to make Chapatti in the morning with Julie before typing up a form for the teachers. After lunch; Tom, Erin Brynn and I talk about how we will be filming the dancing on Saturday and what we will need from each of them. Logistics of recording, I love it. In the afternoon we go up and visit the Local counsel member, Orache Vincent. Super great guy, Mike actually lived in his house for the first 7 months of VOH. He did that because people will see a white person and come and try to take their money but in Vincent’s words “first they had to get through me.” He has 3 boys and 9 daughters. His life is what you would think of when you think of a staple family patriarch, that the whole family respects and listens to no matter what. Very nice guy that Mike and Janelle both speak very highly of. Has always worked to benefit us and always gone the extra mile for us. God is good. Get back in time for the kids to get out of school so I start playing some cards. After a game of cards at Love, I go to Hope and one of the Stella’s proceeds to tell me here life story about being abducted. I did not ask she just wanted to tell me. It is hard for me to believe the things that she says and see her standing her now. I thank her and then eat before prep and bed.

Thought for the last few weeks is this; how can this be life. How is life this good? Why I am so blessed. I have had thoughts about trying to sponsor a child here but the problem, it is $100 a month. For me that is huge, I can’t do that. But slowly God is challenging me not to choose one kid, but a couple. I think he is asking me to sponsor a couple of the kids here. I don’t know what that is going to look like at all. All I know is that is what I am hearing. I am also realizing that at the end of it all, I don’t know anyone who has said, “I wish I gave away less of my money.” I hope I am up to the challenge. Thanks for reading as always and only about a month left, big prayer for the emotions as they are running high even with Tom leaving this week. One of the kids, Joyce, was already crying in prep time on Tuesday, 11-9, because Tom was leaving. I cant even think of what it is going to be like when the whole crew leaves.
-Collin