Day 3 – Canaan’s Children’s Home

We started today with a wonderful breakfast of eggs, toast and fruit. The pineapple here is amazing!!
Today was to be a bit more relaxing. Most of the team went to the different ages at school to just hang out and teach a little lesson. We did have the option to nap – and I took advantage of that!! I felt completely exhausted and with several of the team members feeling ill, I knew I needed to take some time to relax. I took a 3 hour nap with the sounds of Ugandan children chanting their abc’s and other lessons in the background. It was wonderful and I felt SO much better afterwards!!
After lunch, we handed out some of our silly band bracelets. It was absolute chaos! We learned our lesson to be more organized next time. We tried to give one to each child – but they were sneaky!! Each team member was surrounded by at least 20 kids with their hands in our faces. They were saying Muzungu, Muzungu!!! Or when they really wanted me to think they loved me “Auntie, Auntie!” – Ha!!! Once they had one bracelet, they would hide that hand behind their backs and hold out the other one. Some kids had like 10 bracelets, when others had none!! What a mess!
Next we piled into our van (like sardines) and headed to the mouth of the Nile for a boat ride. It was only a one hour tour and much too short, but a great adventure!! No hippos or alligators, but we did see a molten iguana and according to our tour guide, if a man was stung by it’s tail, he would become impotent and “wouldn’t like girls anymore”. We also saw several monkeys leaping around. One with a baby attached to it’s tummy! After the boat ride we had a great prayer time in small groups.
We headed back to Canaan’s and just spent a couple of hours with the kids. We learned about one 3 year old boy at the school who had been raped and infected with HIV. Kari held him for a while and he looked at her and said “I am sad” and one tear slid down his cheek. She prayed over him with tears of her own. Such horrible stories – and each of these kids has one.
There are another group from America here and it was so fun to see all the Muzungus playing with the children. Pastor Isaac said when he saw us playing soccer and Little Sally Walker and jump rope and Duck, Duck Goose with the kids – black and white together, he said he felt like he was looking at heaven!!
Well, I need to get ready for the day. Can’t wait to meet Katie at Amazima today!!!