Day 7 Child of Hope School

Day 7 in Uganda
1 week in!!!! I think a week went by semi fast. And maybe this week even faster.
This morning we will go child of hope, which is a school in Namatala and then to St. Stevens, Salaye who owns casa (our fav hostel to eat at) owns it and we will paint the latrines. I think it'll be a good day hopefully!
A good friend of mine gave me some great advice yesterday and I'd like to share it with ya.
"When We serve others We feel the love of Christ. When We forget ourselves and learn to care about others is when We can truly begin to understand the love that Christ has for every single one of us. That's what changes the heart's of people; when they see that We act out of love and no other motive just purely to help and serve."
I loved that a lot. And I do hope that I can accomplish this here in Uganda.
I woke up this morning to the wretched rooster. When they sing here it literally sounds like they are having some type of seizure. I wake up every morning and picture my self kicking it so hard it flies all the way across Africa. Ohhhh wait.... Love of christ come on Char!!!!
Today I feel alright. Not as good as I did yesterday, I kinda feel the whole nausea thing comin back haha. But I will be good! The essentials here, Heavenly Father of course, and Coldplay. Haha. Those two are really all I need these days in Africa to be happy
Today my thoughts and prayers are with my friend Kinks (Katie) haha. She had to say goodbye to her best friend for two years today! Geez that's probably so rough. I only have to be away from my boyfriend for three months. Oh ya it's 5 months for us today! Happy anniversary Scotty!
Whenever I feel sorry for myself I just have to remember someone always has it worse than I do....
Today I feared going on bodas and I didn't know why until I got on one haha. Taylor (kid from the group) and I got on a boda to go to child of hope school it is in Namatala. Our boda collided with another boda in the town and my leg got wedged in between the back tire and the other bodas front tire. It killlllleeeeddd! Taylor freaked out (may have said a few cuss words) but I was okay haha.
Namatala is the biggest/poorest slum in Uganda. The school is actually very nice it is ran by Becks, an English woman and her Ugandan husband Moses. They got married in 2008 and during the night on their honeymoon Moses woke her up and said "God told me to build a school in Namatala."
Two weeks later they opened a school here. Since then it has been 6 years and so the oldest kids here are in primary 6.
We met all the kids it was so neat; you walk in the classrooms and they sing a welcome song to you.
I played futbol with the children. They were surprised that a woman mzungus could play/beat them all at soccer; they were very confused haha. But quickly I realized that now I had an "in" with them. They call us girls here at the school "Auntie" and the men "Uncles" so they run to me and say "Auntie Auntie Auntie!" They love to touch you so they will always touch you no matter what. They beg for you to hold them so I had to pick up like 40 children all One At A Time. Haha I loved it!
 The kids in this school are very very well behaved so they do not call us musungu. All funding for "child of hope primary school" comes from Becks family/friends/churches in the UK.
After our tour we were introduced to a man named Pius. He is the schools social worker he took us around the entire slum Namatala. It was very cool and humbling. I had a little shadow the entire time. This probably 10 month old boy stayed right by/almost under my skirt the entire walk. And when his mother found him he cried and cried and cried to be away from me. It was sad and I wanted to bring him home haha.
They love my hair here also. A woman was braiding hair and she really wanted me to get mine braided but I'm afraid they are gonna cut it off so heck no one is touching my hair haha.
We ate at "friends restaurant" and I had rice and beans. Hmmmmm like always. Also. I had my first cold water since 7 days ago. It was amazing. It literally cooled my soul hahahaha I miss ice a lot.
 After lunch We walked to the Cure Hospital. It's way nice. Probably the nicest in all of East Uganda. It's for hydrocephalus patients mostly babies and it's the only one on the continent. These babies have huge heads, it is so sad. They also treat spina bifida. (No clue how to spell that)But ya it was cool we learned what procedures they do and stuff and they want us to shadow there so I might.
All we do right now is tours, tours, talk, talk, talk, blah, blah, blah, I know it's necessary because we are deciding what is the most important need at this time and also where we will want to spend our time. But I'm really ready to get in and work! I want to do stuff and actually see it happening.
I'm in the stage of frustration in my culture shock. I hate the smell and everything including me and my clothing and my bed and my blanket all smells like Africa. NOOOOOO not my blanket!  It is awful. But I guess there's no stoppin it. I'm sure when I get home my family will be like "holyyyy, did you not shower the entire time?"
Yuck that's how we smell here haha. Why is it so dirty here? Like honestly can't you people just pave sidewalks and pave the freakin road so there will be no more dust? Why can't they make a landfill instead of making the whole of Mbale a darn landfill?
Why why why why, hahahaha culture shock is real my friends. I'm not usually this bad. But everyone is in that stage so it's normal I'm not a brat. I'm just used to clean America and going through major shock haha.
It's so hot today. It Rained for a second but other than that everyone got so sunburned and we were sweating all day long. No such thing as air conditioning here in good ol' Africa haha.
I am planning a soccer tournament for girls with a man that is in charge of a sports club in Mbale so that's exciting.
We didn't go paint latrines today cause Salaye didn't answer the phones. That is the way things go a lot of the time. I know I need to be more patient.
Tomorrow we will take the long boda journey into a very rural part of Uganda. We are going to the health center that Help International built and set up there. It'll be good!
Thank you for reading my daily post btw.