Day 2 at Sonrise: Will That Be Carryout or Delivery?...

After going to bed at 10:30pm, Amy and I woke up often throughout the night with Steven and Mark. We weren’t on official “baby duty” so we didn’t have to get up and feed them, but we still woke up which wasn’t fun or restful. We missed the 5:00am devotions because we were sleeping and Brenda and Betty decided to let us rest…we felt bad about it though. We got up about 5:30am because the plan was to leave at 6:00 to head to Mbale to get a new baby. Now, I was pretty excited about doing this. To be apart of bringing in a new baby seemed so exciting. We didn’t end up leaving until after 7:00am because the lady who was supposed to meet us and show us the way never showed, so we went to her house to pick her up. That’s Ugandan time for you! It took about 4 hours to get to Mbale, and Mark, Amy, and I were all squished in the backseat…no fun. There were lots of speed bumps on the roads, so it was hard to maintain a consistent speed. We stopped in Mbale to eat…the Shine On Hotel! We had chicken and chips again and were introduced to a new drink called Merimba Fruitty. It was very good! It had a little bit of grape flavor to it and kind of reminded me of one of those frozen ice pops that has melted so you are only drinking the juice. I know some of you think that sounds disgusting, but it was quite delicious. This brunch turned into a 2 hour event…the kitchen was so slow! Every time Richard would hit a speed bump, he would yell out, “Sorry, Amy! Did you hit your head?” The answer was always the same, “That’s alright, Richard. No, I didn’t hit my head.” Even though we were in Mbale, we still had a 2 hour drive ahead of us because we had to go off the beaten path to the village of this baby to get her. The roads were even more bumpy and when we reached one market, the roads were so crowded that we almost couldn’t get through. We were waving at all of the kids on the side of the road and they kept yelling “Mzungu!” which means “White person.” We parked the car and then backtracked a little to make our way up the “hill” as Richard called it. This “hill” was actually a mountain…a large mountain! We didn’t bring any water with us, so we were huffing and puffing during the hike! Mark was the official “camcorder man” so he was filming a lot and whispering about what he was seeing. Amy said it was quite a sight! The lady we brought with us was leading the way and we finally stopped to rest at the house of her mother (we think it was her mother). Boy was I glad to finally get a chance to catch my breath. We were told that the relatives of our new baby were going to bring her to us. Great…more time to rest! The lady took Mark and Amy further up the mountain to see the house where Baby Mark was from. It was apparently very steep and exhausting, so I’m glad that I didn’t go with them. Amy said she felt really sick by the time they reached the top of the “hill” – I mean mountain, the camcorder was dying, and Mark had to use the bathroom. Again I say…I am glad that I didn’t go up that far. When they finally returned, the baby still hadn’t come so we sat down and started playing with the kids who had followed us – always fascinated with the “mzungus”. They kept repeating words we were saying and Mark was hilarious! When he said “hill”, it came out “heeuwl” which made us laugh harder. They would start laughing hysterically whenever we did something: I did a fish face, Mark put rocks on Amy’s head, and then someone discovered Mark’s hairy legs. Several of the kids started feeling them and laughing hysterically. It was SO FUNNY!!! We were still waiting on the baby…one of the ladies brought out cokes and Glucose Biscuits (sounds healthy huh?). They were kind of like sweet shortbread cookies. It was nice to have something to eat since we hadn’t eaten since our brunch at 11:30am. By now it was about 3:00pm. We finally found out that the relatives of our new baby sent her with a child to come and find us. So, we took off in the general direction of her house hoping to meet up with them. Thankfully, it wasn’t very far. And then, before we knew it…THERE SHE WAS!!! Her name is Brenda. We think she is about 6-7 months old. She is pretty tiny, but was actually pretty alert. Her Mom died when she was about 1 month old (not sure how) and she was put into the care of her Grandmother. Well, her Grandmother died recently, so she had no one else to take her in. She was very quiet during this exchange except for this tiny whimper. We aren’t sure if that’s as loud as she is going to be, but that would be a huge change compared to Steven and Mark who can be quite loud and demanding. We made it back to the car where we changed her diaper and clothes while a crowd of curious children and adults looked on. It had been threatening rain all day, and started sprinkling so we wanted to get off the dirt roads so we wouldn’t get stuck. Thankfully, the rain didn’t last long. Brenda was so quiet the whole ride…she even slept through all of the bumpiness. Did I mention she is ADORABLE??!! We tried to give her some water from a bottle, but she doesn’t really know what to do, so we gave it to her from the cap. I ended up spilling a lot on her so it was pretty messy – does this sound like the normal for me though? The lady who rode with us up to Mbale decided to stay until Sunday. We were excited about having room in the car. Then we found out that her husband, who we had paid transportation to get to Mbale, wanted to ride back with us. Scratch the thought of roominess…back to squished into the back seat. But we survived. It was a long and tiring 4 hour drive back to Jinja. We didn’t leave Mbale until 5:15pm. We stopped to eat dinner in Jinja…pizza and more Marinda Fruitty drink. This restaurant was some-what American so it tasted pretty good. We weren’t very good company though because we were all so exhausted! Brenda ate about 2 capfuls of milk and then decided that was enough. We judged that to be about ½ of an ounce…that’s not gonna cut it. She does have teeth coming in though, so we hope to start her on food pretty soon with a bottle at night to fatten her up. That’s the plan now…could change though. We finally made it back to Sonrise about 10:30pm. I was sad because we didn’t see the babies all day today. Betty bathed Brenda and Amy and I took showers which was quite refreshing. I don’t mind the cold water too much because it’s so hot. Amy, on the other hand, thinks it’s a torture device. It’s almost 1:00am here so I am way past ready to head to bed. But, I did want to update you on the past few days here in Uganda. I will hopefully post pictures tomorrow of some of the happenings. Oh, you might remember me mentioning the Cure International Hospital in Mbale that I wanted to visit. Well, as you may be able to notice, we didn’t have time to stop in. We did pass it though so that counts a little, right? Tomorrow will be another busy day. We still haven’t unpacked the donation bags and so when we need stuff we are guessing as to which suitcase it is in. Oh, and we will be leaving late morning to go get another baby. He is supposedly one week old and in a village outside of Iganga. Two new babies right off the bat…this will be interesting! Thank you so much for journeying with us and praying for us. When I get some more specific prayer requests I will let you know, but please continue to pray for our health and also for strength to make it through these busy days as we are all very exhausted. Love to you all!!
Signing off from Uganda…Leah
P.S. The "Carryout or Delivery" slogan came from the fact that baby Brenda was supposed to be delivered for us as was the original plan, but we ended up having to go in search of her (hence the 'carryout'). I thought it was kind of funny and cute. I hope it brought a little chuckle to you.