Day 1 at Sonrise: The Day We Almost Quit...

We made it!!! Sorry for the delay in posting to the blog, but it has been a very busy, exhausting, and rewarding first few days here in Uganda. I will go ahead and warn you that this will be a pretty long post because there is a lot to cover…
We arrived in Uganda late Tuesday night (about 10:30pm here/2:30pm there). As a side note – this 8 hour time difference is really weird to me! Anyway, we arrived in Uganda after two 8+ hour plane rides of which we got very little sleep. The plane rides were interesting…this was Mark’s first time flying and I think he enjoyed it. We did have a pretty rough spot of turbulence that woke him up (he was the only one who actually got some quality sleep) and he said that “Whoever is driving this plane needs to keep his eyes on the road!” After we boarded our flight from London, I had to use the bathroom – which is always quite an experience on a plane – well the bathroom for our section was in the very back of the plane while we were on the second row. I had to wait a few minutes in line and then when I was finished the beverage cart was just starting up the aisle. Well, I had to slowly make my way back to my seat and what should have been a 5 minute thing turned into about a 30 minute thing…definitely a practice in patience. Amy said that she was about to send out a search party for me!!
ANSWER TO PRAYER: All 12 pieces of luggage made it to Uganda!! We were worried because we only ended up having about 45 minutes in London to catch our next flight. But we were praying so hard and lo and behold all of our luggage made it. We put florescent duct tape on the luggage so it would be easy to spot and we quickly pulled off 11 pieces. Then we couldn’t find the last one. Amy walked all the way around the carousel while Mark and I kept watching to see if it would come out…nothing. We were almost ready to give up and go report to the Lost Luggage people when we looked across the way and saw it plain as day. We have no idea how it got there because we looked everywhere for it…we can only say that the Lord brought it to us – and boy were we excited!! We loaded the van with 12 suitcases, 2 carry-on suitcases, 3 spare tires, and 6 people which made it quite squished. We stopped to eat in Kampala at midnight and ate our first meal…chicken and chips (fries) with Coke!! It was quite delicious. Our accommodations for the night were in Kampala, so we didn’t have far to drive before getting to bed. Unfortunately the gate to the house was locked, so we couldn’t drive the van up into it as planned. This meant that our driver, David, parked the van near a hostel where a security guard was on duty all night with…a bow and arrows and a dog!! We had to leave by 4:30 which meant we got less than 3 hours of sleep (still couldn’t sleep even though I was exhausted). Damali stayed in Kampala to work with another organization to give tours of local orphanages to potential donors. The drive to Jinja was a little over 2 hours and when we got to Sonrise we could hear all of the babies awake. This made us all quite happy! It was a wonderful reunion between some of the babies and Auntie Amy. They all started coming out to see what all of the commotion was about – how precious they all are!! Fred became attached to Mark immediately which was quite funny and cute. If Mark moved anywhere on the porch to even greet someone, there was Fred right beside him. Deanna, you are right – he is totally cute!! After we got everything unloaded, Amy and I went with Betty and Richard to take Steven to the clinic for a malaria shot. He had been feeling poorly and felt like he was running a fever. We were going to get him tested for typhoid, but the nurse couldn’t find his vein on his arm – she said because he was so fat – but then I felt around and found it pretty quickly. NURSE RAE, WE NEED YOU OVER HERE!! We ended up skipping the test altogether and he felt better later that day, so we are glad we didn’t go to all of the trouble anyway. We didn’t eat breakfast until about 10:00am – African tea and mandazi (fried sweet bread) and fresh pineapple from the market. It was delicious! Next, Amy went over the huge monthly grocery list with Richard while Mark took a nap. Early afternoon, Richard and Mark went to the market for everything. About 3 hours later they returned…with only half of the items because the car couldn’t hold everything. So they had to go back and get the rest. When they returned and had unloaded everything and put it away, Mark went and took another nap because he was so tired. Amy and I did get to sleep for about an hour during the baby nap time and that was really nice. During the afternoon, we played with all of the babies. Catherine wanted to do Amy’s hair so she used the comb and a clip – you can imagine the beauty that was abounding there! Amy and I were able to assemble one of the cradle swings that we brought with us. We have decided that these are one of the best inventions ever! Baby Mark loved it!! We haven’t had a big chance to try it, but he was fascinated by everything new and fell asleep in it. About 5:30pm we took a walk with all of the babies. This is one of their favorite parts of the day. They all scramble to find shoes that fit them…some of them are not successful so we have to help them…and then we set out down the road. At one point there was a cow in the road about 30 yards ahead…a few of the babies were freaking out! We ended up having to turn around and head back a little bit early. I was walking with Junior and Fred and we were lagging behind…slowpokes. They kept getting distracted by everything ; ) On our way back to Sonrise, the car pulls up beside us and it’s some of the boys who work here with a puppy – a puppy for Sonrise. Apparently, someone just gave it to them and they couldn’t say no. I am not sure what Damali will say about it so we’ll see. Dinner was next and then potty time and bedtime. I have not had a chance to experience true potty time, so I’ll go into more detail when I get more info (it’s supposedly pretty entertaining). After the baby’s go to bed we realize that Mark has been MIA since he returned from the market. He is still sleeping!! We do staff devotions after dinner and it isn’t until after showers and dinner of delicious fish and rice that he finally makes his appearance looking more normal. He said that he had been totally exhausted…he looked a lot more ready to face the day…only it was nighttime. Thanks for all of your help, Mark! Amy put all of the babies to bed by herself since the rest of us were busy with the smaller ones. She said it was a complete zoo! They were bouncing off the walls and being completely crazy. We were going to do the blog last night, but we were too tired…hence it’s a day late. Since Damali is gone right now, Amy is the “director”…or so Betty calls her. After a crazy day like today I think Amy was looking for a way to either resign or get fired. It was completely exhausting. I think we both have a new-found appreciation for our Mom’s! Thank you for all of your prayers. Please continue to pray for our health and safety. Also, we will be traveling on Thursday to get another baby in Mbale…adventure here we come!
Signing off here in Uganda…Leah