First Glimpse

Putting our heads on a pillow just yards from the Nile, finally happened last night about 4am.  Our team planned to meet at 10am downstairs after a least a few hours of sleep. Imagine our surprise when two showered, dressed, darling 20-somethings knocked at our door at 8:30.  “We were too excited to sleep!” came the apologetic wake-up greeters.  To be honest, so were the two senior members of this first team, once we woke up and got thinking about it, anyway. 

So we waited for the sweet reunion with Janet, our house mom.  We paced and took a short walk waiting for her arrival and then got right down to business.  She presented us with each handwritten or transcribed note from guardians stating the reason for relinquishing care.  It was heart breaking to read a mother or grandmother, sign a statement like “I have nothing to give this child.  I have no money for food, I cannot take him for medical care or school….  the father has died and the mother has left this child… I give you this child because I have no money and nothing to give her.  I hope you can take care of her.”  In some cases there was no statement, just a description of how the child was found. 

Janet presented us with books full of notes, every bit of spending she has ever done with money sent from the US and her list of things that will be needed in the new home.  From the patio table at the hotel, we jumped in a van with Chris, a wonderful man and driver extraordinair of mission teams.   We shot straight to the bank to exchange money, hit the Jinja market for cleaning supplies, picked up a few familiar teenagers from Kakira and headed out to see the new home.  A warm and wonderful reunion took place on the side of the road as Nicole got her arms around her Ugandan daughter and Olivia’s smile beamed as wide as her arms opened. 

The kids in the van, ready to see their new house for the first time, clenched their eyes tight waiting for the surprise. Watching their reactions when the iron gate opened was worth every hour of the journey.  To watch a 17 year old girl, lie down face first on the concrete floor of a bedroom larger than her current home, in gratitude, was overwhelming.  To kneel down on the floor, close enough to hear her repeating “thank you God, I thank you God, who are we that you would do such a thing?  Who are we that you would love us so much? I thank you my father, my provider” made me stop to check my own response.  Excitement was humbly exchanged for gratitude as we walked through each room.  When I asked Janet “Did you ever imagine yourself living in such a place?” she had no words to respond. Before we had a chance to assign cleaning duties, the girls picked up brooms, mops, rags and buckets and set to scrubbing every window, floor and surface. 

Janet and I sat out front on the steps discussing plans from menus and meals to the shortcut to the schools, clipping fingernails and toe nails and how to keep the young ones from abusing the toilet flushing.  She asked if the budget could allow them to eat meat once a week and fish once a week.  We showed her how a shower works, turning on the water, adjusting the temperature, switching from the faucet to the shower head.  She is a smart woman, wise and discerning…but when you have carried your own water from the well in plastic jugs your whole life, bathing in a small tub, the idea of raining water indoors, is completely new. 

Dann and Chris went to the carpenter and arranged delivery of the bunkbeds, grateful that the carpenter will come on Friday to assemble them.   Dann staked out and discussed the building project for the back yard, a covering for the outside cooking area, and arranged for the timber required.  We measured for curtains, using our arms as yard sticks and brainstormed about outdoor play areas. 

We finished today by walking through and window shopping (scouting) prices on mattresses, sheets, blankets and mosquito nets.  We were a spectacle of course, 4 littlish ducks following their brown mama through the crowded streets.  Tomorrow we begin some of the gathering and ferrying of all things domestic while Dann and Solomon head to Kampala, the capitol, to see about a van for our little tribe of promise. 

Team 2 loaded with 15 pieces of donation-loaded luggage, will arrive at 11pm and head the longest stretch of the trip to join us at the hotel.  We cannot wait for our guests to arrive, the rest of this inaugural team.  We have been blessed to begin walking out the calling today, here in country and as we lay our heads down tonight and you go about your responsibilities, spend a few minutes with us remembering the spirit filled words of Chayah’s oldest …“thank you God, I thank you God, who are we that you would do such a thing?  Who are we that you would love us so much? I thank you my father, my provider.”  In the eyes of these children, it is a castle…makes perfect sense when we know that it will house a very special group of children…. The ones whose daddy is King of Kings.