Have you ever thought to appreciate that you know when your birthday is? - Oct 13

What to say about today…today was one of my most busy days thus far. It started out with going back to Welcome Home…and not to be lame, but let me just say that they completely did welcome me back home. It almost felt as if I had never left. At a lot of jobs back in Canada, if you leave for a couple of months, let alone a couple of years, faces change, things change….at Welcome Home, they do not. (ok, they do, but I was happy to see many familiar faces). Rose, the momma in charge was still there, as well as Christine (she was a younger one of the Momma’s close to my age, now she is the teacher). The 3 men from the travelling team that Ann and I went out with to Villages where still there as well. When I first walked in through the gate I met Perez. He was so happy and surprised to see me that he kept hugging me and shaking my hand and exclaiming over and over that he was so happy that I came back. It was a great welcoming, and I was very happy to be there. I also got the chance to meet Mandy (director from the States) and to see William again.

I thought that most of the children would have grown up and moved on to different places, but I still knew about 10 of them. It was exciting to see them, and for them to remember “momma Meleesa” :) I spent the morning with Christine and watching as she taught the kid. Then I got to spend some time playing with many of the children outside, bathe, find their clothes (from a pile of clothes that they ALL thrown on the ground together), dress and have lunch. It was great to be back, and after talking to Mandy it looks like I will be starting out there helping some of the children who are behind physically and mentally as well as helping them to learn some basic dutch words…oh dear. (Petra, and advice?)

I should mention that being the only mzungu at an orphanage is a bit overwhelming. Because these children are used to white people, there is no holding back in their desire to be loved, held and played with. By the end of the day, it got to the point that if I was sitting down, I could barely stand up due to the fact that there were so many children pulling and tugging on my hear, legs, arms, clothes, etc. I think that I am going to have to come up with a better strategy for such times! Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with the children, but by the end of the day I’m not sure whether I’m helping any more, or causing more confusion. Lol.

Wow, all of that was just about Welcome Home, and I still haven’t told you about the best part of my day. The boys (obviously). :)

Henry took me to the boy’s school so that I could meet the Head Master (?). Unfortunately she was not there, but I did get to meet some other teachers, and it is my plan to go there for a full day on Friday so that I can see what school is actually like for the boys, and what is expected of them, etc.

We eventually ended up at the Sanctuary. Jacob was already home, and we had met Johnston on the side of the road so we gave him a ride (3 on a bike is always fun times). I decided that I really need to start learning the boys last name because they often call each other by that AND their teachers refer to them by this (leaving me looking like I have no idea what or who I am talking about). I get a piece of paper, and we start by first name, last name, and then to me the next obvious question is : When is your birthday? Maybe this is not such a common question here? Of all the boys I asked, only about 2 of them knew their full birthday, month, day, and year. All of them knew the year, most of the knew the month, but not the day. Now I don’t know if you can actually do this, but I asked them to pick a day that they wanted to use as their birthday. I’m going to talk more about this with Henry, and compare their answers to some of the things that we have already. But celebrating their birthdays is something that I would love to do with/for them. Everyone deserves a day of their own to feel special on (Michelle, this is all of your good influence on me;)). It’s sad really that I never really thought anything about knowing when my birthday was. But it means that someone actually cared enough to take the time to make note of it. I know, this is also a cultural thing, and birthday are definitely more valued in North America then here, but I still think that it should hold some importance. Ok, done about that, just trying to help us all count our blessings, even when we don’t realize they are blessings.

We spent the next couple of hours with the boys, which included a lovely meal of posho, beans and passion fruit juice as well as Lugandan lessons for me given by some of the boys. Let’s just say that it’s a work in progress. Maybe sometime soon I will be able to say more than a greeting or goodbye. But for now, Sula Bulungi! (Goodnight)