Day 2!

It has been another wonderful day! Today we went to the village to plant another garden. There were plenty of people already working on the garden when I got there and soon it became too many people so I decided to focus on the children instead. I played with the kids and talked tried to talk to the mamas for a while then decided to go walking through the village with Kristyn and Kady. We walked for a while and we were about to turn a corner when I saw her. Chade was walking with a rather large group of children behind Sott, David and Mark when she saw me. She turned, started running toward me, and then put her hands up and grabbed me. I picked her up and held her for a very long time :-) we walked through Namatala some more then went back to where everyone else was. When we got there I saw Chade's sister Maria holding the smallest beautiful baby girl. I had Paul ask her if it was her sister and she said yes it was and her name is Ana. I took her from Maria, and held Ana and Chade at the same time! I was in Heaven!!! I got some pictures with Chade and Ana that I will post soon. I also tried to get pictures with Chade, Ana and Maria but I couldn’t get a good one because all the other kids tried to get in. We finally finished the garden and it was time for lunch so I had to send her home. This was a tiny bit of a problem because Chade cried and cried and tried to follow me to the van but Maria was holding Ana. Finally one of the mama’s in the area picked her up and helped Maria get her home. It was heart wrenching! Oh I love this girl!!!!! So we went to Mama Aidah’s house for lunch and had chapati(!!!!!) rice beans and bananas. It was SO good J not very healthy, but good. After lunch we headed back to the village in hopes to plant another garden. Becky told me we weren’t far from where Chade lives so I asked her to go with me to show me how to get there so I could get my baby. We went and from about 100 feet away she saw me (before I saw her) and started running toward me. Then someone realized she was running toward me and picked her up and carried her to me. I figured out that that was her mom! Her mom’s name is Agnes and she is VERY Karamojong. (As if you can be more or less Karamojong lol. She just really looked Karamojong.) Then her dad walked up and introduced himself again. I asked if I could take her with me to where we were planting the garden and he was hesitant but then he said I could if the neighbor went with us. Her name is Kristyn and she is 12 years old. So we walked back to the place we wanted to garden at but the team had decided we couldn’t plant today because we were unsure of the exact location for the garden, so it was time to go. Chade’s dad walked up right when we were deciding to leave so Becky and Mark talked to him a little. Kristyn had told me that Chade is 6 years old. (Oh how I pray this is NOT true.) I asked her dad and, go figure, he didn’t know. I hugged her, kissed her, and told her I love her then had to put her down. She immediately started crying again and Mark ushered me into the van saying it would only get harder if I didn’t go now. Her dad picked her up and walked toward the van looking confused. Becky walked over and said “She wants the Mzungu” and her dad said “yes, she does!” She cried and cried and her dad finally just had to walk away with her reaching for me and crying. I looked out the back window of the van and she made eye contact with me and reached and cried and it broke my heart! I wish she understood me so she could understand that I’m coming back! I WILL be back every day J haha. Hopefully soon she will begin to understand that I will be back. Becky told me that I need to get to know her parents so that they will trust me to come get her and carry her away whenever I want. I agree! I can’t even begin to describe to you how much I love this baby girl. I wish her mom spoke more English so that I could talk to her and find out how old Chade is and get to know her better. If she really is 6 years old then we have a majorly malnourished baby. This week has been about getting to know the village and planting gardens. Next week we will have our medical clinic and really get down to business. Oh Uganda J I’m so happy!