Yesterday, after walking with the kids to school we went out in the village later that morning. A few of us went to Consey's house and when we walked up she was hand washing her clothes so I asked her if I could wash with her. We washed once and then she put the clothes back in the bucket, poured more water in and told me to wash them again. She said that after three times of washing, then they are clean. If you only do them once or twice they are not clean. Sara came over and helped me wash. While we were washing Laurel and Anna left with some women to go cook. After we were done with the wash Consey wanted to go watch Anna and Laurel learn how to cook so we walked over to another woman's house. They were shelling g-nuts which are pretty much like our p-nuts. They also had some branches with leaves that were their vegetables and we pulled all the leaves off and put them in a basket so they could be boiled and cooked. Matt and Jamie gave us some phones to keep between our groups while we are out in the villages and while I was washing clothes with Consey the phone fell out of my shirt and went swimming in the water. I got it out as fast as I could but it definitely had water all in it. After I helped pull the leaves off the branches, Sara and I walked back to the house to put the phone in rice so it would hopefully soak up the water and still work. On the way back to see how the cooking was coming along we met some guys who were digging out in a field where they are building some type of wall or fence. One's name was Jackson and I can't remember the name of the other one (his name was a little bit difficult). They were both 22 years old and lived somewhere closer to town but were here working. They were curious about what we were doing here and so we explained to them what all we had been doing. Jackson told us a little bit about himself and told us that he works hard because he is fortunate to have a job and that he believes that God rewards those who do hard work. Jackson, Sara, and I had a very good conversation and talked about how God provides us with everything we need! The other boy that was there started talking about Obama and asked if we had ever seen him. After we told him we had not seen him in person he was confused because he explained to us that Uganda's president has been to Gulu several times and he has seen him. He said that someone in that position should take the time and make the effort to know the people better. Ugandans truly care about taking the time to get to know someone and develop relationships. They make an effort to spend time with people. Even if they have something scheduled like a doctor's appointment, they will skip it if a relationship is there to be formed. I told him that people in America are always in a hurry. That people do not usually take time to get to know someone else if it is not convenient for them. He told us that it is sad if we are living somewhere and we do not ever meet our neighbor. He said we need to go over and meet them and get to know them. How often do we live somewhere and never meet the person that lives beside us just because we do not take the time or make the effort? I would say that happens all the time. He said when we go back to America we need to be the ones that start the change because it starts with one person. I would say we can definitely learn from these guys!
After we left the village yesterday afternoon, a few of us went back to Baby Watoto. We want to make it something we do once every week. Three of us went with the tiny babies, two with the infants, and two with the toddlers. I chose to go with the toddlers because thats where Kevin (my sweet special needs little friend) is. As soon as I walked up I saw Kevin. They were about to have snack so I sat down beside him so he could drink his juice. I do not know if he remember me or not but it definitely seemed like he did! I sat down and got a huge hug and started laughing so hard. He loves playing with my hands and likes comparing the colors of our skin. We spent about 2 hours there and Rebecca and I played with lots of toddlers. When it was time to go I walked inside to see if I could find Kevin to say goodbye to him. He was in a corner having a spell. He was kicking and screaming and crying. I walked up to him to see if I could talk to him and he immediately stopped crying, jumped on me, wrapped his legs around me, and gave me the biggest hug I have ever gotten. It was the sweetest thing ever and I love spending time with sweet Kevin!
Yesterday was Tristan's (Matt and Jamie's son) 4th birthday and he made sure we knew that all day! haha when he woke up yesterday morning and screamed "IM READY!" We had a Cars themed party for him and Matt cooked a good southern meal of fried okra, fried chicken, and vegetables. It was so good!
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11
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