7/5 - Tuesday

This morning I woke up at almost 8a! =O Breakfast, and then Ruth did my hair. On the way to the Redeemer House we stopped to pick up chickens and kerosene. Some of the kids were in school, but most of them were there. After socializing a bit, we started playing some games. Duck, duck, goose, a ball game, and Red Rover (a couple kids got hurt with that one!). The kids were SUPER exhausted today, and I had a couple fall asleep on me. It was so sweet. Apparently the anti-worm medicine they take every 3mo. makes them drowsy. Lunch was around 3ish and was delish as always. We always have fruit, rice, beans, potatoes, etc.

After lunch it was time to start dinner. As in, the chickens previously purchased, Charlie & Gertrude, were going to be slaughtered. By Dave and Ashley. While the water was boiling, they were being tortured by Noah and the kids. Then the neck feathers were plucked. =O I couldn't watch so I gave Hannah my camera. I peeked a couple times, though. Even though it was so gross, it was SO cool, in a weird, sick sort of way. Dave killed Charlie and then Ashley killed Gertrude. And both of the roosters ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. Literally. The did it for like a minute before they eventually died. There was much blood, especially since Ashley kinda jumped back so she got blood on herself a lot when Gertrude dropped. So yeah, that was pretty much super gross. And the kids were running around with the heads and breaking toes and peeling skin off the feet. Slightly disrespectful towards the deceased.

Another really cool thing that happened was that, well, Nicholas and Akyram are getting adopted by a family in Valparaiso! They knew Deb Steiner, so they sent over a couple books and pictures for the boys with Jeb. The books were actually read by the family! Jeb gave his book to Akyram first, before Nicholas was home from school. His face just LIT up and he had this HUGE smile plastered on his face. It was so AMAZING. When Nicholas got home from school Akyram ran to him and was jabbering excitedly in Lugandan and pulling him over to his book. Then Jeb gave him his book! He wasn't quite as ecstatic as Akyram, but he was happy! And all the kids were clustered around and listening to the book. It was awesome!

Before dinner we learned to make the chapatis. (Flour, salt, water, veggies, oil for cooking. So delicious. Dinner was amazing. I love Ugandan food. But, BEFORE dinner Greg did the fire poi for the kids. (Side note: it gets dark really early here. ) They LOVED it! Seriously, seeing the boys faces looking eagerly at the show and their eyes light up was great. There's no words to describe it and no pictures either because it was too dark to make photos. After dinner we helped with dishes and then left. Another side note: When it gets dark, it gets DARK. There were some lights in the house, but not many and they only used a couple of candles and flashlights. It was a so different atmosphere than what I'm used to, but so cool.

Personally, I'm starting to care less and less about the level of filth and different bathroom arrangements and all that. I don't know why, just getting used to it, I guess. I LOVE it here. I'm missing everything already and I don't want to leave the country or the people. I just am finding something really beautiful here, the simpleness of their life. The simpleness of their faith. I love the relational community so much more than America's fast-paced, task oriented community. I'm not looking forward to returning to the US because it will be so easy to fall back into the "normal". And I don't want that.

Ooooo, and not speaking of sickness, Joanne is doing better, it seems! And Michael was pretty feverish yesterday and this morning, but when we gave him medicine his fever lightened. Yay! When Natasha woke up from sleeping she was all sweaty and not looking good, either, but she ended up being okay.
Couple of differences I've noticed is that Ugandans aren't big on hand towels, napkins, or tissue.