The Taxi Ate Our Day

Yesterday in Kampala, upon realizing that it was already almost 4PM (we had left our house at 10AM) we wondered where our day had gone. . .

"The taxi ate it," our dear friend Kelsie explained.

Apparently leaving Entebbe any later than around 8AM is not a good idea. It happened to be the hottest day in Uganda we had experienced to date, and we spent half of it in an over-crowded (about 17 people in a vehicle the size of a mini-van), non-airconditioned taxi-van. At least 20 minutes of the travel time was spent at a dead stop, engine off, bumper-to-bumper, only a few miles from our destination--but in all reality about 30 more minutes of travel time.

We spent our day at the Naguru Children's Remand Home, which is basically a children's prison. It is a sort of holding place for kids who have committed crimes, such as beating up someone for no reason or setting arson to a building to murder or something as worse as that, and are awaiting their court date. While some of them are actually guilty, others have been sent there by parents or relatives who no longer had a place for them or wanted them. One sad aspect about the Ugandan culture is that they have little to no respect for the children. Especially when a widowed man or a divorced man remarries a woman, the woman will have no compassion for her husbands kids. Most of the time the step-children will get beaten until bloody without reason, starved and often times thrown out on the streets. What we have seen and heard about the cases at the Remand Home is that many of the children are in there as a result of being a step-child. The step-mother would despise her husbands kids so much that she would make up a false accusation about the children so that they can be sent away and not have the guilt of throwing them out on the streets.

There are 118 kids currently residing in the Remand Home, only 11 of which are girls. We were able to purchase 4 board games (Ludo--a treasured African game that is very similar to our game of 'Sorry'), 4 decks of cards, and 2 bright red soccer balls to bring to the kids. We spent all afternoon hanging out with the kids, forming relationships and getting to know them. It was quite a wonderful experience, and we were sure by the time we left that we would be back perhaps twice a month, but maybe more, to continue to minister to these broken children.

We were also able to visit 3 babies' homes this week, one of which we learned facilitates international adoptions...get excited Bethany!!! This is the Ssanyo Babies' Home, in Kampala. We were able to meet several of the workers and the head administrator at the home, as well as a few Mzungus from Southern California! We met a wonderful young Christian woman named Jenny, who came to Uganda on her own and has said she has had no real 'comradery' since she's been here, as she knows no fellow-American believing friends. We became quite attached to the children there--Stacie befriended the ornery child, as usual :) Sharon was her name. She screamed loudly and violently while leaning over the short wall separating us from the napping room, and did so until Stacie finally pulled her over the wall and into her arms. Emmanuel was the next child to try this routine--which worked, on AmyRose. And now she is permanently attached to the most beautiful little boy she has ever seen, who, by the way, she would like to see adopted into the States some day (hint, hint). We also arrived there just in time for "poty time" where all the kids who were being poty trained, a total of about 14 kids, lined up in a row and sat on their poty chairs...probably one of the most precious things we had seen all day!! We also were able to hold all the newly born babies and feed them warm-bottled milk. This was very touching and difficult because the babies only get touched four times a day-the times for feeding. Many of the babies eyes were crusted shut, probably just from crying and not being attended to.

We were able to visit Abba Home and New Life School this week as well, and got to love on our sponsor kids, Kato, Wasswa, and Zion, as well as give our American friend Devin a tour of the facility. He has mentioned possibly wanting to raise funds for another home on the campus. (Praise God!)

This morning we are sitting in possibly one of our favorite places EVER--Kelsie and Travis' :) Nak is writing a special someone a letter, and we are sipping on coffee w/ the best 'aero-frothed' creamer you've ever had in your life, topped with ground cinnamon. This is accompanied with baked oatmeal, and Jars of Clay's hidden track on their self-titled album playing in the background. We are getting ready to go to House Church where we will have fellowship and a pot-luck lunch afterwards, and are pretty sure that life does not get much better than this. . . :)