Snot Rockets and Dance Parties

I’m back in the routine and holy moly this week has gone by fast!  I have felt completely overwhelmed with joy and simplicity this week.  Some of the highlights of the past 7 days:

-monkey in the middle aka tackle Auntie Pauline and Auntie Lindsay time

- I made brownies.  Good ones. Without sunflower oil (a mistake that makes delectable treats taste like chapstick, we did it last year).

- Primed buildings to paint as well as (attempted) to paint Dora the Explorer as a mural.

- Visited the Musana farm, a really quiet, beautiful piece of land Musana grows crops on.

- Visited Buango, a village outside of Iganga where Musana does craft projects with women.  While doing this I thought it would be a good idea to play around with the kids a bit.  Last year the kids in the village were slightly terrified of the Mzungus and it looks like not much has changed.  I was dancing with them while trying to make a bracelet while sitting on a bench.  Apparently, my dance skills I acquired over the past 22 years did not work for me on this day.  I toppled backwards off the bench while simultaneously kicking the basket that little tiny seed beads are in. HA. OOPS

- The volunteer house was named Kappa Kappa Volunteer because we live like frat guys. Its awesome, the volunteers rock and provide constant entertain and laughs.  Some really great volunteers from Texas are headed out Tuesday, sad to see them leave!

- A mouse just ran across my foot. Sweet.

- A little girl named Joyce shot a snot rocket at me today. I love her too much to care.

-I fell in love this week.  It happens often here, this time it is different.  He is really an amazing guy. He blows kisses, holds my hand, escorts me everywhere and doesn’t mind that I don’t get clean when I take a shower and I may smell bad.  He doesn’t speak a word of English, or Lusoga for that matter.  He’s about 3 feet tall.  He is 3 years old and his name is Joshua.  He came to Musana last week.  About a year ago a mudslide happened in Mbale, a village about 3 hours away.  Most of the children were away at Boarding School and returned home to find their ENTIRE community gone.  Families and friends were gone.  Musana took in 6 kids in December and took in 6 more last week.  Joshua is one of them.  These kids have nothing yet they have the brightest smiles and most incredible personalities of any kid in Iganga.  My heart breaks for these little warriors but seeing them flourish at Musana is absolutely amazing. 

- I went to Jinja Friday, it’s a nice town about 30 kilometers away from Iganga and they have American food. Count me in.   Our house girl that cooks our food was away this week so I helped cook breakfast burritos, took everyone out for Rolexes (a Ugandan staple) and made our brownies a dinner one night.

- Dance parties seem to happen everywhere.  The church recently got a new sound system and these kids can dance for hours.  Today, while watching the kids play football (soccer), I found one of the younger kids on the field breaking it down as a defender.  He was dancing all over the place, flipping and shaking his hips but amazingly, as the ball came toward him, he would kick it the right direction. SO funny. 

- I’m getting better at Lusoga (the local language).  Among the typical greetings I have mastered “I will beat you,” “where are you going?” “thank you for cooking,” and some other hilarious sayings. 

 
These are just SOME of the happenings this week.  Again, it feels so great to be back here with these kids and people.  On a side note... my daily cards that my amazing community sent me off with have brightened my day, every day. You guys are amazing. God has been teaching me a lot already, it is pretty awesome to be still and listen for a while away from the crazyness of life.  I can’t wait to see what God uncovers on this trip.