Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Aunties (& uncle!)


Two years ago when I visited Ddembe, our house mom had left and I was able to step in to help Moses. It was a crazy amount of work for Robert and me, and a crazy amount of lessons learned!  

This week, Esther, the house mom, needed to go be with her mother, who is sick. Esther's sister was recently sick, and Esther gave her all of the money from her salary. We were able to give Esther some money to pay the hospital for her mom, and to give Esther the ability to go be with her mom because we were here. 

Let me just say that if Esther had a hidden camera she could watch, she would see that six Americans cannot do the job she does alone!  We have been without power yesterday and part of today, and it has literally taken all of us to make sure kids are ready for school (Katie stayed with Ainsley and Moses to help with mornings), that the youngest kids are picked up from school at 12:30, brought home and fed, and napped and entertained, clothes are washed, water is boiled, dinner is cooked, dishes are washed, kids are bathed, homework is done, prayers are said, and kids are ready for the next day and put to bed. It doesn't sound like that much for six people, but for six people used to vehicles and appliances and electricity, it's a workout!  Monday I went with Moses to the market and got all the produce for the week. The market ground was about 2" deep red mud, so what is usually challenging to navigate was even trickier!  I loved it, though, and we are set!  All this for about $30! (Seriously-- I bought 15 large avocados for $1.25!!)



The first night we made spaghetti, and it was a big hit!   

Last night, we made chicken and rice and veggies (like chicken soup without the broth) because everyone at Ddembe has a cold!  With the exception of the fact that we had to rely on juice we bought at the market to drink with dinner because our fresh squeezed concoction didn't turn out according to plan, it was also a winner... and cooked in the DARK!! 


I'm bragging about this so that you will realize we have not completely let the kids down when I tell you that tonight we attempted homemade chapati with guacamole and chicken and rice (a Ugandan version of a burrito!), and it was a fail!!  Several of us have made chapati before, but we have always had help from a Ugandan. Today we decided that surely between us, we could come up with the right way to do it.  I left to run an errand and got a call from Ainsley saying, "it's not going to work!"  😂

We had something that was closer to grilled thick pie crust than chapati, and LOTS of help from Vicky even getting it to that point, but the kids all ate it!  Quote of the day:  while frying the "chapati", Vicky said, "even when I am old, every time I eat chapati, I will surely remember this day, and I will laugh!"  

Thanks for all your prayers and help getting here so that we could make memories with our kids! 💚






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