We awoke ready for church.  Emmy stayed home again to rest and take his medicine. It was the right decision.  As we arrived of course…….the church was in full swing of worship as usual. We passed out the streamers the Jeske family had made and voila………a beautiful display of worship with all the children smiling.

I had to join in the action and sit among the children.  They were packed like sardines and I experienced some unusual odors, but I was right next to Abais, 2 over from Esther and right in front of Milly and her contagious smile.

They were fascinated with the pictures and video and loved to see themselves digitally.  Edward and Beatrice’s daughter claimed the middle aisle with her red hat and stole the attention every once and a while.

We thought it was appropriate to present Bonny with the umbrella hat.  It so matches his lovely personality…………

We made our way back to the hotel and made a quick change, and grabbed some food.  Emmy’s daughter Julie was with us for lunch.  She sang “Open the eyes of my heart Lord” for the table as she devoured the chips (fries) by the handful.  She has really matured in the last 6 months.  She is always a treat to hang out with us at our hotel when we get dropped off.

Next stop was the fruit guy.  In ever our quest to meet the need of fruit for the children,  we pulled up the Miracle Van to the melon stand.   It would be his “big day” as Supermom said.   We bought about 20 watermelons as Driver Emmy demanded that he taste them to ensure freshness.

Soon they were all in the bottom of the Miracle Van rolling all around as we took the not so smooth path to school.  It didn’t matter……we had arrived at school.

The girls went right to work with making snowflakes.

The children all sat quietly and then began to fold their paper after being taught.  Each then took scissors with precision and began to create little masterpieces.

Finally the glue was applied and they were brought to the glitter box where they loved putting silver and blue glitter all over these snowflakes.

As you could tell ……….this was a big hit.  But then as some began to finish, another blessing was shared with them.  You see Mrs Annette had made each orphan child a special Happy Birthday Jesus coloring book.

They moved to the back of the classroom and soon you could hear a pin drop.  They divided the crayons and followed the lead of some of the older girls.   They just love coloring………It is such a joy just to watch them do it.  THANK YOU MIKE AND ANNETTE.

Then we made it outside for some pictures as I told the children to go to their dorms and get their Christmas present.  They of course all ran and were back in no time to show the camera.

Wow,  $5 ………such joy………what a great Christmas present this was for all of them.

It was time for a special snack of watermelon. Many of the girls showed us their talent of balancing these delicious treats on their head like many of the Ugandan women in the village.  Nobody dropped one either.

Then it was time to eat this treat.  Oh my goodness,  what a treat it was to watch and listen to the many “mmmms” as they ate this melon.  No portion was spared either……..it was all the way to the rind.

The night was getting darker……..we played some games with balloons and then I took several of the older orphans to interview in the single light bulbed classroom.  You shall have to hear what they said too………

We all packed back in the Miracle Van and as we approached Driver Emmy’s house he pulled over.  It was time for him to pay up on our deal from last trip.  You see PCM Team #3 all pitched in $50 each and bought the store a refrigerator for having cold drinks.   Emmy took our order and then opened each bottle carefully and gave us all straws.  He said this treat was from him as I let him bless us.   Then I told him here is your tip ssebo (sir) .  He graciously took it……..It is very difficult to outgive these Ugandan people.  They really know how to bless us and have done so every day all trip long.

We arrived at the hotel………thoroughly exhausted.  Driver Emmy and Supermom said “dis was a very special day………the children will remember it for a long time.”

So will we………..

Sula Bulungi

The Barrets

Thank you for praying for Emmy.  He is improving.  Pray for us as we travel to London tomorrow.  It will be Supermom in the air for the first time!!!!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 8:31 pm and is filed under Orphans --Mbarara Uganda, Parental Care School --Mbarara Uganda, Trips to Uganda. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.