Day 20 – 07.16.14

Day 20 – 16 July 2014

Today has been such a great day. We headed back to St. John Bosco, the boarding school where one of my sponsored children Gloria goes. When we went to visit her the first time our bags had not arrived yet, so I wasn’t able to give here the present I brought her, so I was really glad we were getting to go again.

We got there right about lunchtime so Iw as able to spend a couple of hours with Gloria. I gave her the present I brought and then we took a walk around the school. I think she just likes for all her friends to see that I come to visit her, and I love that it makes her feel special.

After St. John we headed back to the Acholi Quarter, I was super excited because I was taking one of my other girls, Lydia, out for and outing. Lydia has never left the Acholi Qaurter so I knew this was going to be an amazing adventure for her.

We waited for her to get finished with school and then she headed home to change clothes.I love that when she came back she was wearing the new dress that I brought for her, and her fancy shoes.  She was all decked out and ready for our outing.

We piled into the car and headed to town. Lydia’s smile was huge as she climbed in the car and sat on my lap, and I watched as her eyes grew bigger and bigger as we drove to town. We took her to a new open-air mall that had just opened up…yes, you read right, a mall, in Uganda…told you all that I’m not in the middle of the bush surrounded by wild animals.

I have often said when we are doing things back in the States, I wonder how my kids would react if they saw that, or went here or there. Now I got to see first hand. All of Lydia’s life has been spent in the Acholi Quarter, so everything she was seeing and experiencing was new to her.

We walked in the mall and here eyes were huge as she looked all around, walking and running her hand along the walls, stopping to look in the windows. We went and had some frozen yogurt, I helped her pick her flavor and showed her how to put the toppings. She had never tasted ice cream or frozen yogurt before, but she found out really quickly that she liked it…a lot!! We also brought our friend Santina with us, Santina has been outside of the Quarter before but never to the mall and never to have frozen yogurt, so it was cool to see her excitement too.

The whole time we were sitting eating our fro-yo Lydia just kept looking around. Then she shopped the lift, a glass elevator, that took you up to the top floor. After we finished eating we veneered to the lift. It was priceless her squeal when she pressed the button to call the elevator and it lit up, and once she got inside the elevator she held on to the bar for dear life, giggling the whole ride to the top. We walked around for a while and then it was time for the trip down the elevator..that one kind of freaked her out, but she was a champ about it.

The last stop was to the bathroom…where Lydia was amazed by the sinks and running water.

I really loved getting to experience it all with her, her smile said it all, we had a great time!! I can only imagine the stories she told her friends when she got back to the Quarter.

After we dropped off Lyida we headed back to the Red Chili where we stay and met our program coordinator Sharon for dinner.

Sula Bulungi!