Honey... I'm Home!!!

LOL. Well my family was excited for me to come home. Apparently there was no honey waiting for me at the airport. Maybe next time. We will see if the mail order comes through. ;^)


To my joy I got to hold Annika when I got home. After telling Alisha all the shots and pills I had to get to go to Africa she said that I was not holding Annika until I had been home for months and been checked out by the doctor's. BUT on our way home from the airport we stopped by Alisha's and I got to hold Annika! YAY! (I guess she got the "OK" from Annika's doctor... thank you!) The next day she came to the house and I got to play with her! I put one of my head wrap's on her and oh she looked so cute. In the pictures she nearly had pulled it off but it still looks so cute right!? Me & her always have so much fun together. I don't even question why I am her favorite aunt! ha ha. I had to leave her to go to the doctor and the big news is that he wanted to do surgery... tomorrow. Ugh. I think we are going to get a second opinion! I guess that there are more problems with my leg/foot than they saw in Uganda so this is just the beginning!

Giraffe Kisses

Last year I went on a work trip to Florida where I went on a safari and got to kiss a giraffe. Really I fed the giraffe out of my mouth. We kept missing the picture so when we saw giraffe's in Kenya, I decided I needed to video-tape the occasion so not to miss it again. This time was much cleaner. I didn't get any giraffe drool in my mouth! (SCORE!) I only kissed it twice whereas in Florida I had to kiss it like 20 times. Ugh. I am done with giraffe's now and don't think that I will be kissing another one anytime soon. Okay, okay. I guess until another opportunity comes along!

Some lady walked in front of the first video. So I had to do it again...

Awe... the little ones!

Ever since I was young I always wanted to adopt kids from Africa. So imagine me being in my dream country with all of these BEAUTIFUL kids. It was hard not to bring them home with me. Really there were probably 10 I would have in an instant. But if one would have been offered to me. I would have accepted no questions in a heartbeat. What kept me not was my dad reminded me before I left that I couldn't he said I didn't have papers. So I had to keep reminding myself of that! Ugh! Above: SO CUTE!!! I was tickling their arms with my nails and all the sudden all the kids that were sitting around me stuck their arms on my laps. The cutest is after this I would be sitting with them and all the sudden one of them was tickling my arm. This continued for the rest of the trip. I loved it!
Above: Me and cute Joseph after reading multiple books. I think he was willing to skip lunch to read with me in the staff room. Two privledges they don't often get.

Above: Sitting and singing and talking... ALL AFTERNOON!

Above: Just hanging out under the shade trees. Being together.

Above: Isn't this the best picture ever!? It's after they signed my cast. They stood back for a picture and I just think it is one of my favorite. Oh! So many of my favorites!


Above: LOL. He was always doing what we were doing so here I winked at him and this is his wink back! SO CUTE huh!?
Above: They were sitting with me under the tree as I elevated my leg. Can you tell me - which are boys & which are girls?

Above: See my foot?! I told them all to back up so I could get a picture of them! These were my friends who liked to just be around me!
Above: OH! ANDREW!!!!! I would bring him home with a snap of my fingers if I could. He is the one that my second day back at the orphanage I had my cast and he had fallen on a rock and split his cheek/eye so I fixed him up. After that we were nearly inseperable. He loved to read and by golly, I loved to read to him. Perfect pair. I loved that he was in his coat in the middle of summer. He is so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so CUTE!

Above: More of the precious kids at the school whom I love SO MUCH!

African Dancing

How many times do you see a white person in the middle of 30 blacks dancin with crutches!? Hahaha. Well friday night after getting my new cast that's just what I did. (NOT what the doctor ordered!) I had talked about my love of dancing with some of our African friends and they all wanted me to go to a club. Luckily the hotel we were staying at was having a party anyways so I crashed it and went a dancin. I talked two other white people into going with me (thank you Lorna and Roger) and imagine - even with my crutches, people still wanted to dance with me! I even got proposed to! Haha

My new cast!

The ER doctor wanted me to come in to get a new cast once the swelling had gone down. But since we were so far away I had to wait until there was a taxi going to Kampalla before I headed out. So a little over a week after the accident I headed back up to Kampalla and got a new cast. The doctor cut off the old cast with what looked like sharp wrenches - it was not the most smooth cut in the world and it shook my leg a lot which pained me - but I got my new cast! Yee-ha! It is so tight and the leg is still swollen that it pains me now more than it used to. I figure maybe the pain is a good sign because maybe the doctor is forcing it to heal. It's all I can hope. The kids were thrilled that I got a new cast and excited to again sign their names. People stare at me no matter where I go. #1 because I am a Buzungu (a white person) #2 because I have crutches #3 because I have a cast and #4 because there is writings on my cast. I have to explain to everyone that in America we have people sign our casts to say, "get well soon." It is so funny how random adults will come up to me and say, "Sorry... Can I sign your foot!?" So really, the fun of signing casts isn't just for kids - adults everywhere are getting the same joy out of writing their name on someone's leg/foot.

*Oh and the doctor made my day! I don't know how most people are when they see the doctor but this guy loved me! Ha ha. He kept on commenting about how fun I was. He said, "You are very happy for being in so much pain." It probably would have helped to take pain killers after the first night, but I didn't want to load up on the medicine so I just tried to focus on other things. Although it hurt, I was fine. The doctor just made me laugh because he was so thrilled that I was a happy patient!

Awe... Cute!

We had a pretty long drive from the village to the city. 3 1/2 to 4 hours one way. So we left around 6 am and spent the day in the city and then arrived home around 8:30 pm. On our way home I was trying to catch the beautiful Africa horizon. We decided to snap some photo's of us and the teachers who rode with us. We decided to make "funny faces." They are happy enough to have a picture of them and then look at it so making faces in a picture was a new thing. They laughed and laughed each time they looked at the photo's right after we would take it. But the cutest comment came as we were arriving in Masaka. I turned around to talk to Joseph and he looked at me very confused. I said, "What!?" He said, "Can you see me?" I laughed and said, "Yes Joseph, why wouldn't I be able to see you?" He said, "Because it is dark outside and I am black."

Cute Joseph. That was the comment of the day! He was so serious and so innocent. I loved it. I told him that I could see him. This was the question for him... can you see a white person in the day? ;^)

My favorite little children

The girls always asked me to sing and dance for them but I kept saying, "No! You dance for me!" For a few days they wanted me to come down to a pond so they could dance for me. Well finally they led Lorna & I to a fish pond type thing. Boy it was a trek there for me who can't walk. Ugh! But it was so worth it. It started out as us with Swabulah and Barbra and ended up us with about 10 other girls and they kept on coming. As soon as we got to the pond Lillian and Barbra were ready to sing and dance for me. Then the little boys started coming. They said, "No! Girls only!" But within seconds the boys were dancing too. I loved it. They could have gone all night long. But we had to get back and teach the Sister Nuns how to knit. But we were down there for a good portion of the afternoon just being entertained and loving it. I LOVE THESE KIDS!!!!!!!!!!

I tried to upload my favorite video of 5 little boys singing and dancing. It was ADORABLE!!! They were like a little boy band. However, I love this one too. It is of my little mini-me Kezimbira. He is 9 years old and how many 9 year olds have you seen that can dance like this!?

I can be a mom!

There is this little boy named Kezimbira that I would gladly adopt in a second. He waits for me every day and always wants to be right by me doing things with me. He is 9 and completely adorable. The other day we were writing notes to each other because he wanted to study English with me so I would have him write me things like 4 sentences on why he is a good friend. Soon it turned into notes back and forth. This is what he wrote to me:

Jen is a good mom she has his friend is Kezimbira is a good boy and Kezimbira likes jen ever I am happy to see you jen and like you jen is a good mom i like her very very has you know.

that is the story of jey like you.

Isn't that adorable!? I absolutely loved it! It is so hard for me to not play with the kids as I wish that I could but I guess that what I am doing is making a difference too. The other day a few of us stayed back at the hotel - my leg was killing and a couple others missed the taxi and when the rest of the team returned they all mentioned at separate times how the kids all asked, "Where's Jen?! Where's Jen!?" I was so happy! The next day we drove up and I was sitting by the window (in the same seat I always sit in so my foot can be elevated on the drive) and the kids saw me and all started yelling, "Jen! Jen!" Oh I don't think that anything else could have been so wonderful!