Thoughts of Tuesday by Gaige :)

Today has been a long and exciting day for everyone. My day however was just a little more exciting =) Last night I made plans to go to Betty's school (Rock of Ages) with Betty. At her school, the kids are from the ages of 3 to 6 years old. If anyone of you reading this know me personally, you would know how much I love kids. They are my passion! Especially this age group. So I was WAY excited to be able to go and spend extra time with the kids.

Anyways Betty leaves everyday around 8 in the morning to head to the school. So this morning I got up around 7:15 to get ready. Around 8:05 Betty and I were on our way to get a boda bodas. We took the bodas to the nearest taxi depo. Once we caught a taxi, I also got to experience the Ugandan way of public transportation without the rest of the group. And surprise surprise, I was the only mzungu on the whole taxi. Ha ha ;) The taxi already had too many people in it but they squeezed the two of us into the taxi anyways. Betty was sat at the very back and I was sat at almost the very front of the taxi. I was squeezed in with four other people on three seats. I also had the conductor of the taxi standing over me because he had no where to sit. After a couple of minutes we stopped and let people off and it wasn't nearly as crowded then. I was moved to the very front of the taxi after a couple of more stops. From the time I moved up to the front seat of the taxi to the time we got off the taxi, I kept turning around to check and make sure Betty hadn't left me behind. She never did =)

After we got off the taxi, we walked to the school which is roughly a quarter of mile from where we got dropped off. Once we got to the school, I was introduced to the P1 class, which is first grade. They were very polite and loved to just watch me. A few of them were brave enough to come touch me or smile at me and say hi then run away. It was very adorable :) After I met the P1 class, I went to meet the preschool kids*. The preschool kids had no reserve however. They showed how excited they were to see me and they told me that they loved me. They came and gave me hugs and smiled constantly. They made me so happy. The top class is where I spend most of my time. They sang to me and it was just absolutely awesome! The rest of the team came around eleven. When the team got there, the kids sang to us and we played games with them. It was such an awesome experience.

After we left the school we went to a small village called Nmimya. When we got to the village, we ate lunch with the widows that live there. The widows make necklaces and mats to sell to make a living for themselves and the kids that live with them. They were all very sweet ladies. They made us some of the best banana bread I have ever tasted. From the widows house, we went to Abdu's two farms. His chicken farm and his dairy farm. His cows were in great looking shape and he has around 1500 chickens. It was insane how many chickens were there! I have never seen so many of them in my life! It was very neat to see his farms and know how farms work in Uganda.

The last thing we did on our very full day was SHOP!=) Dani, KayDee, Carissa, Deena, and I went straight to a store to get our paintings that we had ordered. The paintings are soo beautiful! They are full of colors and the culture of Africa. We didn't get to stay long at the shops because we had to make it back for supper. Supper was very yummy! It was curry chicken and rice. Grace is such an amazing cook. After supper we had the privilege to listen to Malcolm and Lillian. They had such amazing stories about the way God has worked in their lives. They have stayed close to God both individually and as a couple. It was very inspiring. If you want to know more details about their stories all you have to do is ask and I would love to share their stories the best I can. It was the topping on the cake so to speak. The perfecting ending to a great day! =)

*Just a little background for those of you who don't know. The preschool has three different levels here. There is baby class, middle class, and top class. The three year-old are in the baby class, the four year-old are in the middle class, and the five year-old are in the top class. The top class then moves onto P1 in the next school year.*