To Catch You Up...

This post will serve to catch you up on the happenings from Wednesday-Friday. Sorry we are behind, but the internet has been down and we have been so busy that sometimes the only time to write has been in the evening when we are too tired and opt to go to bed. SORRY!!

WEDNESDAY: We had a "chill day" at Sonrise. It was kind of nice to be here all day and spend time with the babies. One of the things that has been desperately needed in our room is a fan. We close the windows at night to keep out mosquitos so there is NO AIR FLOW. Needless to say I have been sweating to death...not fun!! Anyway, Amy sent Richard into town to get two fans. He returned with the blessed item and Joseph and an electrician set about installing it. When they finished they turned it on and...nothing. Apparantly some wiring was missing so they had to take it apart and head back to town for another one. This one was missing some wiring as well, so they had to make another stop at the "hardware store" to get the missing pieces. WE HAVE A FAN!!!! We turned it on for the first night and it felt glorious! About two hours later, Brenda was up feeding baby Mark and turned it off because she was cold. I almost died inside. I was on the top bunk where the air flow was great...as soon as it went off I could almost feel the beads of sweat forming again. Thankfully Amy opened the window shortly after, but we both determined to have a little talk with the cold Ugandans and set them straight about the fan being essential to us being happy during the night : )
Wednesday afternoon there was a trip to town to pick up Trust from the clinic. He is fine by the way...thank you for all of your prayers. Next stop...the supermarket. Since we have been ill our Mom's have been on us to not eat the food here and to get bland foods (crackers, Sprite, apples, bananas, etc.). Amy came back loaded down with several kinds of crackers, a crate of Sprite and other goodies...the "Bland Diet" began. One of the crackers is called "Digestive Crackers" and if you think really hard tastes exactly like Graham Crackers. Oh for simple tastes from home! The painters came again today to put another coat on the garage. It was all I could do not to rush out there and give them a piece of my mind about leaving out the water bottle with the chemicals in it. I knew that wouldn't solve anything though. Later that night, we ate our supper of crackers, Sprite, and apples. It was so good! Oh, and another plus to the day...Baby Brenda smiled! I had been trying to get her to do it all day and knew she was close and she did it!! I don't think she realized what she was doing, but it was still a smile : ) It did my heart good.

THURSDAY: Mark and I began the morning unpacking the donation bags. Our room is an absolute disaster zone with all of the suitcases stacked up. We organized all of the items and put them in ziploc bags and then had to quit because we have no idea where to put them all. It seems every cabinet we open has something in it. I think we are going to put some shelves in the closets to make more space. While unpacking one of the suitcases we found something that might as well have been a priceless jewel...KRAFT MAC&CHEESE!! Amy brought about 12 boxes for the kids, but we have decided that a few of them will be for us. Just the sight of this familiar food put renewed strength in mine and Mark's heart and body : ) We made a pact that if Amy said we couldn't have any that we were going to steal two boxes apiece and eat them together in the dark of night. Thankfully, such drastic measures didn't have to be taken. Brenda left this morning to get her hair done and as she was leaving said, "I'll see you on Sunday night. " WHAT?? We had no idea she was leaving for the weekend. And when she gets back she will head back to University. That's Ugandan communication for you. We had some more visitors today. It seems hardly a day goes by without someone stopping in. I guess there's an "open gate" policy. A neighbor from up the road decided to stop in and see what we are all about as well as a man named Mr. Kiganga who is a member of a Trust who helps support Sonrise. He can be kind of intimidating and sometimes is all talk and no action. He is apparently going to help support a chicken project for Sonrise for eggs and extra income. We'll see...
Amy finally got a real nap during nap time...she needed the rest. OH YEAH - the puppy is gone. Can I get a little snippet of the Hallelujah Chorus please?? We are so excited! That evening, we all went for a walk (this was Mark's first time), but we left a little bit later than usual. It always takes longer than we think to get shoes on everyone. By the time we left we could tell darkness was approaching fast, so we decided to make it quick. The road that Sonrise is on can be kind of busy and we have taught most of the children to get to the side of the road if a "motorcar" or "boda" comes by. On our way back we must have run into 10 of these vehicles which slows our progress as everyone comes to a halt. By the time we got back it was past dark...we will NOT be doing that again. I started off baby duty with Moses. He was not being very good for me and kept me up for about three hours. I'm not sure what time we finally fell asleep, but he woke up crying again about 2:45am. I could barely open my eyes. Thankfully, Amy was ready so we switched so I could get some sleep. Thank goodness!!

FRIDAY:
The day started off great...we received a text message about 5:00am with the news that our hometown Lady Bulldogs basketball team had beaten our nemesis Tennessee Volunteers coached by the infamous Pat Summit. It was all I could do not to shout for joy!! Way to go ladies!!!!!!!!! The painters came today and finished with the last coat of paint. Now we are waiting for everything to dry before we move beds and supplies in there. It will be nice for the babies to have their own room so that other volunteers not on baby duty can get some rest. We took a morning walk today and had the ambitious idea to go to the old house. That didn't last long. They started whining early on and so we decided to stop on the side of the road and play a little bit. One of the boys dropped his pants to use the bathroom in the bushes which started a chain reaction of about eight of them (girls included ) deciding that they needed to go to the bathroom too. It was quite funny. Mark had the opportunity to go with the group from Canada that has been here. Damali, Betty, and Richard have been working with them all week, so he was invited to go along. Hopefully he will tell you more about it, but they spent the day in the villages delivering family packs with mattresses and at a village school feeding breakfast to the many children who don't normally eat breakfast. I could tell he enjoyed it. During nap time Amy and I headed into town. We decided we needed a break for the afternoon. There was no one to drive us except us...so we drove! Amy drove and I "helped". It's different being on the opposite side of the car on the opposite side of the road. And we were praying that we wouldn't get stopped especially after we crossed the Nile as there are usually people watching. We prayed the entire time! She did quite well though. First stop - a restaurant for chicken and chips. We had both been feeling a lot better so decided to go off of our "Bland Diet" for the afternoon. It was delicious. I only ate about half of mine with an orange Fanta...delish! We then headed to another restaurant with wireless internet to chill and update the blog and photos. It was so relaxing. Amy then took me to the Source Cafe where we enjoyed a brownie sundae. It was not as delish as in America, but it was so good to have something familiar. Last stop...the supermarket for more water. Amy pulled up to the curb and I ran in. I was probably only inside for two minutes and by the time I came back out there were about 6 street kids surrounding the car asking for money as well as the parking guy wanting us to pay for our brief park on the street. Good grief!!! By the time we arrived back home we felt like true Ugandans : ) It was great! Damali dropped by this evening and wanted to go through clothes. We pulled out all of the kids baskets of clothes and went through matching and throwing out old stuff and replacing it with new. It was so hectic because she wanted all of them in there so we could try the clothes on if necessary. They were trying to crawl on the suitcases, rip off the neon duct tape, unzip the suitcases...definitely trying to my patience. Dad, you would have been going crazy!!!!

That's all...sorry for the length. We could try to shorten the posts, but then we would leave out important things. Thanks so much for all of your support and prayers. It really means a lot!
Signing off...Leah